News

Rutgers Business School crosses over 1,000 graduates for first time in 80-year history

May 28, 2009

Newark Mayor Cory Booker challenges graduates to take responsibility to change world at packed NJPAC commencement ceremony

Over 1,000 Rutgers Business School (RBS) students earned diplomas in New Brunswick May 19 and in Newark May 21, making the class of 2009 the largest graduating class in the school’s 80-year history. “It took 80 years to get over 1,000 graduating students,” said Michael R. Cooper PhD, Dean of Rutgers Business School. “The next thousand should come much quicker.” Overall it was the 243rd commencement of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, the eighth oldest institution of higher learning in the country.

At a packed NJPAC in Newark, Mayor Cory Booker delivered a stirring keynote address challenging graduates to “not accept how things are, but to take responsibility for changing things for the better.” Since taking office in 2006, Mayor Booker has been working with Rutgers Business School to help revitalize the areas around the Newark campus to create a 24-hour college community.

In his 15-minute speech laced with humor, “like my grandfather used to tell me, I tell you the tassel was worth the hassle,” and inspiration, “love is the only action word that can lead to true social justice,” Booker called on the graduates to, “integrate with the community and make the choice to engage with the world, not sit back and watch it go by.”

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President McCormick, Mayor Cory Booker,
and Chancellor Steve Diner on stage

In New Brunswick, Gerald Lipkin, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Valley National Bank, Rutgers class of ’63, urged graduates in his keynote address, “to always think about doing the right thing for the long term.” Lipkin steered Valley National Bank clear of sub-prime mortgages because the bank was focused on long-term, not short-term gain. “If anyone tells you to do something which you believe is wrong; or if the social forces push you to doing the wrong thing; stop …and don’t do it,” Lipkin advised graduates.

Dean Cooper speaking at both commencement ceremonies talked about RBS being at the forefront of a movement by business schools to create a more multidisciplinary curriculum. “With a focus on business with science and technology, our multidisciplinary approach made possible through collaboration with the excellence in arts and sciences throughout Rutgers University, is producing business leaders with a greater awareness of social, societal, scientific, personal and technological issues beyond the realm of traditional business school disciplines.”

Crossing the stage, the oldest baccalaureate graduate was 56 years-old, the youngest 20; while the oldest Masters graduate was 76 and the youngest 23.

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RBS graduates gather outside NJPAC after the commencement ceremony.

*Photography by Robert Swenson