I rarely use the old "I'm a taxpayer and I'm appalled that you're spending my money on ______" argument. I'm basically resigned to the fact that my money's going to fund bullshit for the most part. Foolish wars, frat boys and other losers molesting Iraqi inmates to get their rocks off, corn subsidies, state dinners for medieval relic European royals - all of it funded by you and me in some way, shape or form.
But sometimes you just have to draw the line, and I'm drawing it right now in my wonderful state of New Jersey, after it's come to light that Rutgers University - THE State University of New Jersey - paid the Jersey Shore's "Snooki" $32,000 to "speak" to "students" recently.
In the most prosperous of times, there would be no place for this talentless, pathetic devolved fluorescent penguin to be collecting speaking fees from an institution of higher learning. In 2011 when education is under a direct, targeted assault by the governor, every single penny is being squeezed out of the middle class, and it's been harder than ever for them since the end of WWII to send their children to college, the fact that this is how Rutgers University would chose to spend $32,000 falls somewhere between insulting and criminally negligent.
Nobel and Pulitzer Prize Winner Toni Morrison is scheduled to earn $30,000 for her upcoming commencement address. Who's coming up with this scale of compensation? The board at JP Morgan Chase?
Higher Education in New Jersey has been taking a beating from Trenton for two decades now. A global recession just makes it easier for the Republicans to sell the cuts. But this is the world we live in, where teachers and firefighters caused a worldwide financial meltdown and the Wall Street execs are partying so hard Gordon Gecko's blushing. To paraphrase Don Rumsfeld - You get the budget you have, not the budget you want. Fact of the matter is, Rutger's state aid was slashed roughly 15% for fiscal year 2010-11 and it's proposed to remain at that level this year. Tuition up 5%. Housing more than that. Meal plans more than that.
Within these fiscal confines, there is absolutely no possible justification for that trampy Oompa-Loompa to be commanding that much money from a State University. The actual money itself came from some "event fund" that draws some loot off of every tuition bill paid by every student. Discretionary or not, it's still a check being signed by the State University of New Jersey.
The school fought back against the criticism by saying something to the effect of "It's who the students want to see". Well frankly, that's the students' problem and it's your job as a university to possibly enlighten them to aspects of culture beyond such filth.
I'm sure a similar plurality of students "want to see" nickel beer night at the cafeteria and maybe a medical marijuana dispensary at the infirmary. And frankly, a night of both would easily cost less than $32,000.
The 2nd and 3rd highest paid adjunct professors at RU combined don't make $32,000 per year. If say, an adjunct professor is teaching 2 classes per semester, and there's 2 semesters in a year, that's 8 college courses that could have been taught instead of paying Snooki to teach students that "When you're tan, you feel better about yourself".
On a larger scale, sure, we're all to blame here for making celebrities out of these douchebags, dingleberries and dickheads. I get that. I take no responsibility for myself but do for my state. It's eerily reminiscent when I traveled abroad in 2003 and felt compelled to apologize for George Bush, even though I never once entertained the idea of voting for him, nor did I support any of his endeavors beyond the "No Call List". So yeah, by extension, it's got to be pretty hard for a lot of people to tune in every Whateverday Night to MTV and watch the trainwreck, then get upset that young people want to see society's afterbirth speak live at their school.
No comments:
Post a Comment