NEW BRUNSWICK — Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison will headline Rutgers University’s commencement ceremony this spring as the school attempts to make its main graduation event bigger, shorter and more fun. Morrison, author of "Beloved" and "Song of Solomon," will speak at the May 15 ceremony in the 52,000-seat Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, campus officials said today. This ceremony...
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Rutgers University sign on the College Ave campus in New Brunswick.NEW BRUNSWICK — Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison will headline Rutgers University’s commencement ceremony this spring as the school attempts to make its main graduation event bigger, shorter and more fun.
Morrison, author of "Beloved" and "Song of Solomon," will speak at the May 15 ceremony in the 52,000-seat Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, campus officials said today. This ceremony will be the first university-wide commencement held in the campus football stadium since the 1960s.
"We are making a huge effort to have a briefer, more celebratory commencement," Rutgers President Richard McCormick said. "She’s the perfect speaker for that occasion."
In recent years, Rutgers has held its commencement beneath the trees on Voorhees Mall on the New Brunswick campus. The ceremony was limited to a few thousand graduate students, select undergraduates and their guests. Other students were presented their degrees in smaller ceremonies with their colleges and schools at locations around the state.
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Author Toni Morrison, in this 2007 file photo.This year, students will continue to pick up their degrees at smaller ceremonies with their schools. But more of Rutgers’ 13,000 graduates will be able to attend the main commencement ceremony at Rutgers Stadium. The multi-hour commencement will also be significantly shortened.
"Fewer long-winded speeches," McCormick promised.
The Rutgers Board of Governors approved Morrison’s selection as speaker and honorary degree recipient during a meeting today at Rutgers-Newark.
In other business:
• The board approved a $55 million project to build the first new student housing at Rutgers-Camden in more than two decades. The new 12-story building on Cooper Street will house 350 graduate students and provide 7,000-square-feet of retail space. Funding for the project will come from Rutgers and $4.8 million in state and federal grants. It will open in the summer of 2012.
• Peter McDonough, former spokesman for Gov. Christie Whitman, was appointed Rutgers’ new vice president for public affairs. McDonough, 57, will serve as the chief adviser to Rutgers’ president and governing board on issues involving state and local government and local businesses. The longtime Trenton insider will earn $230,000 a year in the job. He replaces Jeannine LaRue, who is retiring. LaRue earned $250,000 a year in the post.
• The board also approved a $7.5 million plan to build a permanent Rutgers building at Atlantic Cape Community College in Mays Landing. Rutgers has been offering classes in trailers on the campus for several years. The program allows county college students to complete the first two years of their degrees at the county college, then take the final two years of classes at Rutgers without leaving Atlantic County.
The new two-story, 20,000-square-foot building at Atlantic Cape will house classrooms, a computer lab and offices for Rutgers professors and staff. Rutgers will borrow money to pay for the building, but campus officials expect the facility will pay for itself by expanding the student body from 300 to 1,500 or more.
"It was clear we needed to invest in a permanent facility," said Raphael Caprio, Rutgers’ vice president for continuous studies.
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