Graduation tickets are a hot get all over the country. Parents are offered a limited supply and must distribute their slim allotment judiciously. “Does grandma really want to sit through this?” becomes less a question about the merciful treatment of one’s elders as code for does grandma qualify for this lottery? Yup, commencements are big business and graduates (and presumably parents) who’ve shelled out six figures to wear the cap and gown have grown accustomed to a sendoff with a big bang. That means a speaker like Steve Jobs or Hillary Clinton, Seth MacFarlane or Stephen Colbert, Meryl Streep or Warren Buffett.
Or if you’re really trying to shoot the moon, you get Barack Obama. The sitting president will address Rutgers University graduates (and a few select grandmas) on May 15, 2016. The graduation ceremony will take place at Rutgers’ 50,000 seat High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey. According to NJ.com 42,000 of the tickets were already given away before Obama confirmed. The stadium is expected to be full.
PS: The smart money has Mr. Obama’s address tying a link back to Rutgers being the alma mater of the great African American singer, actor, athlete and Civil Rights icon Paul Robeson, Rutgers class of 1919.
