Obama’s commencement speech cost Rutgers the equivalent of 104 years of tuition

But was it worth it?

Last year, Barack Obama was our commencement speaker in honor of Rutgers’ 250th anniversary. He dropped a fire hour-long speech, shouted out Olde Queens and shared the stage with Robert ‘bae’ Barchi.

According to financial records from last year, Rutgers spent close to $1.5 million to get him here, making him the Rolex of commencement speakers.

The total figure of $1.43m was 58 percent more than we spent on having Bill Nye as our speaker the previous year according to an NJ.com report. They broke down the budget and show how much money was spent on each service (for some reason we spend a shit ton of money on golf carts).

We did the math, in terms you can visualize, and this roughly works out as the same as attending Rutgers for 104 years giving you time to get 26 Bachelor’s Degrees. But that’d give you plenty of time to find ratio!

Rutgers spokeswoman, Karen Smith, said we had approximately 52,000 people attend commencement in 2016, which was 50 percent more than the previous year. “The difference in costs reflects additional expenses to accommodate the crowd, ranging from extra buses to additional rental chairs and programs,” she said.

However, the cost of the Secret Service and helicopter ride was not included in the $1.43 million arrangement. According to Smith, the money came from Rutgers’ general fund which pools money from tuition and state funding.

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