Rutgers University once again is proving that their leadership is completely incompetent and disorganized. The university had booked Condoleezza Rice to make a May 18 commencement speech, however there were political protests by students because of
former U.S. Secretary of State’s involvement in the Iraq war. Rice made the decision to back out amid the controversy over her selection. So Rutgers was in the immediate need to find a new replacement for the upcoming event. On Saturday afternoon, Eric LeGrand, the paralyzed football player who has unofficially been the face of Rutgers athletics over the last four years, received a phone call from Greg Jackson, chief of staff for school president Robert Barchi. LeGrand explains how he was offered the esteemed opportunity:
“Saturday I get a call from Greg Jackson and they offered me the job to give the commencement speech. I was like, ‘Wow, thanks for the opportunity. Let’s touch base Monday and talk about it.’ So I was telling my friends and my family, everybody was so excited.”
Before LeGrand flew home yesterday and even spoke with Jackson, who said everything was still a go. LeGrand had already been feverishly planning out his speech and spoke of the tedious, but exciting process:
“You have no idea how much I’ve been thinking about it. I was thinking all weekend long about what I could share with the students, my experiences. I was going to take them back before when I was getting recruited by Rutgers, what made me come here, and the things I learned here, and, of course, my injury and how great it’s been since then.”
However the university had already publicly announced their new commencement speaker, and it was not LeGrand. Instead it was former New Jersey governor Tom Kean. LeGrand received a phone call from Hermann who said she told him Barchi had “decided to go in another direction for political reasons.” Not sure how a paralyzed and beloved LeGrand would offend any political proponents. If anything, Kean would be a polarizing speaker because the Republican is replacing another Republican who was just protested by the student body.
LeGrand vents about his rightful aggravation:
“I wish somebody would have given me a call tonight and explained to me why. Then I can understand, but don’t just leave me hanging. I just feel like I was offered something and it was taken back and I don’t know the reasons why. I wasn’t told the reasons why. I thought I was a good fit for the position to do it. I thought I could do the job, but I guess they thought different.”
In an attempt to clean up the botched invitation, Barchi has invited LeGrand to the school-wide commencement, and has offered to personally present him with his degree. LeGrand, who plans to attend the School of Management and Labor Relations graduation ceremony, is unsure if he’ll take part in that offer.
This is just the latest P.R. debacle for Rutgers, who had their basketball coach physically and mentally abuse players, then brought in a new athletic director Julie Hermann to clean things up, but there were claims she was was verbally abusive to former players herself. Later Hermann wished that a local newspaper went out of business. Then new basketball head coach Eddie Jordan was proclaimed to be a Rutgers graduate, despite never receiving a degree. This all happened in the past year for the state school.
[NJ.com]
