Bill Moyers to address Rutgers-New Brunswick graduates
Bill Moyers, an American journalist who served as press secretary for Lyndon B. Johnson, will be this year's Rutgers-New Brunswick commencement speaker.
Bill Moyers, an American journalist who served as press secretary for Lyndon B. Johnson, will be this year's Rutgers-New Brunswick commencement speaker.
Rutgers has had a long-standing invitation to have President Obama speak to graduates this year, but with no word from the White House, the university's board of governors approved Moyers as speaker at a meeting Wednesday.
Sister Mary Scullion, the head of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Project HOME, will speak at the Rutgers-Camden commencement along with Raymond Ackerman, a South African businessman whose supermarket chain, Pick n Pay, is now one of the largest in southern Africa.
After receiving his master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Moyers served as press secretary for President Johnson from 1965 to 1967. He was publisher of Newsday for three years and joined PBS in 1971 with his show, Bill Moyers Journal, and also worked in several capacities at CBS for several years.
Moyers and his wife, Judith Davidson Moyers, created several PBS series, including the popular Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, a series of hour-long interviews.
Moyers, 81, was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995. He has received three dozen Emmys - including the 2006 Lifetime Emmy Award - and three George Polk Awards.
Reaction from students was swift and harsh, with dozens of tweets sent soon after the announcement by students who said they had no idea who Moyers is. "This speaker is such a let-down," one wrote.
Another said he would "be at graduation listening to Bill Moyer tell personal stories about Colonel Henry Rutgers."
Rutgers-New Brunswick's 250th anniversary commencement ceremony begins 12:30 p.m. Sunday, May 15, at High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway. Gates open at 10:30 a.m. More than 40,000 people are expected to attend.
Rutgers-Camden holds multiple ceremonies for different schools, beginning with the nursing school commencement Wednesday, May 18. Ceremonies held the next day include the business school, law school, and arts and sciences.
Rutgers traces its roots to the Nov. 10, 1766, founding of Queens College; it has been celebrating its 250th anniversary all year. Rutgers administrators and New Jersey lawmakers had hoped Obama would accept an invitation to speak at graduation first extended more than two years ago.
The White House had not responded Wednesday to Rutgers' invitation, a university spokesman said.
"The University's invitation to President Obama is still pending a response from the White House," Rutgers said in a statement. "Of course we would be honored if the President of the United States chooses to come to Rutgers and we would certainly welcome his visit."
Rutgers president Robert L. Barchi first formally invited Obama to attend the 2016 ceremony in a letter dated Oct. 17, 2013.
"I cannot imagine a more inspirational commencement speaker on this important day in the history of Rutgers," Barchi wrote. "Your dedication to promoting education is reflected in the diverse faces of Rutgers students, many of whom are transforming the future as the first in their families to graduate from college."
In December 2013, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. and Sen. Robert Menendez - both Rutgers-Newark law school alumni - rallied the state's congressional delegation to urge the president to accept Rutgers' invitation.
In 2014, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pulled out of commencement after some students and faculty members protested having her as speaker.
Last year's speaker at Rutgers-New Brunswick was William Sanford Nye, the children's educator best known as Bill Nye the Science Guy. He was paid $35,000.
Rutgers began paying graduation speakers in 2011, when it paid Toni Morrison $30,000 for speaking at the New Brunswick ceremony.
The next year, Greg Brown, CEO of Motorola Solutions and current chair of the Rutgers board of governors, asked the university to convert his honorarium into scholarships. Virginia Long, who retired from the state Supreme Court in 2012, turned down the money when she spoke in 2013.
Former Gov. Tom Kean, who spoke in 2014 after Rice backed out, asked that his $35,000 fee be donated back to Rutgers to establish a scholarship fund.
Moyers will be given a $35,000 honorarium, a university spokesman said. Moyers has not indicated to the university whether he will accept it or have it used in some other way.
856-779-3220 @elaijuh