EAST RUTHERFORD — More than 100 graduates of William Paterson University turned their backs on Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno today as she delivered their commencement address at the Izod Center in East Rutherford. Guadagno pushed through her 13-minute speech despite heckles from graduates, parents and other guests in the crowd. "Come on," Guadagno said at one point, as the...
Graduates cheered at William Paterson University commencement last year, as seen in the photo above, but the mood was markedly different today for speaker Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.EAST RUTHERFORD — More than 100 graduates of William Paterson University turned their backs on Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno today as she delivered their commencement address at the Izod Center in East Rutherford.
Guadagno pushed through her 13-minute speech despite heckles from graduates, parents and other guests in the crowd.
"Come on," Guadagno said at one point, as the boos grew louder. "We've got all day."
She also deviated from her speech — which was about breaking barriers and becoming the first woman sheriff in Monmouth County — to praise the graduates who protested her presence by standing silently and turning their backs.
"It's their right to do so," Guadagno said. "I applaud them for doing it in a polite way."
The speech came two days after Seton Hall graduates booed Gov. Chris Christie before his commencement speech on the same stage. Several students, including those in the Catholic university's education college, objected to Christie speaking after he cut education funding and publicly feuded with the state's largest teachers union.
William Paterson students began organizing a protest of Guadagno's appearance more than a month ago, shortly after she was named their commencement speaker. The students used Facebook to rally graduates to voice their anger at the Christie administration's cuts to higher education funding.
Though most of the protesting students stood silently with their backs turned during her speech, others in the audience shouted "Go home," "Get out" and "Nobody cares" as Guadagno spoke. Some parents, friends and family members in the audience also stood and turned their backs.
Guadagno left shortly after her speech as the 2,296 graduates took turns picking up their degrees on stage.
Last year, some Monmouth University graduates turned their back on Christie during his commencement address. The governor also heard some boos during his speech at Rutgers University's commencement.
Last month, William Paterson students joined students from around the state in a Day of Action to protest state cuts to higher education and rising tuition.
William Paterson President Kathleen Waldron said most of the graduates and their families struggled financially to get their degrees.
"And 99.5 percent of you worked while you went to college, many of you with two jobs," Waldron said in her speech. "All of you struggled financially and many of you graduated with student debt that should give our society pause."
Student speaker David Lennox called on the graduates to defend the value of education.
"We must reinvest in education, just as William Paterson has invested in ours," said Lennox, a health and physical education major. "This is where graduates can take the lead, we are the examples that education can work."
