Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J. since 2006, will be the keynote speaker at the University's 58th commencement ceremony May 17, according to an April 27 University press release.Booker was elected mayor of Newark in 2006. He inherited a city that had nearly one-third of its residents living below the poverty line, according to Booker's Web site. Since the beginning of his term, Newark's murder rate dropped 40 percent in 2008, according to the University press release.

"[Booker] is an excellent role model for students, both in terms of civic activism [and] social justice," said John Hose, executive assistant to University President Jehuda Reinharz. "Particulary, his commitment to public service and social justice are values Brandeis prizes."

Booker is a Rhodes Scholar and graduate of Yale University Law School who elected to return to Newark, a city that has struggled since the 1967's riots, a five-day uprising that killed 26 people. He became the youngest-ever member of the Newark municipal council when he was elected in 1998 at age 29, according to the press release.

Upon moving back to Newark and being elected a member of the Newark municipal council, Booker decided to live in the Brick Towers public housing projects in an attempt to bring attention to the lack of services available to tenants. He lived there until 2006, when the Newark Housing Authority bulldozed the worn-down facility as part of a move by the NHA to rebuild the city's high-rise projects as town house-style developments, according to a 2006 article in The New York Times.

Booker then moved into a new $1,200-a-month development in a stretch of Newark's South Ward that features boarded-up homes and prevalent drug trade, according to the article.

In 1999, as a member of the municipal council, Booker spent 10 days undergoing a hunger strike in a tent outside the Garden Spires projects, in an attempt to pressure city authorities to address the drug trade that was occurring near the projects. His actions led to the mayor deciding to add more police patrols and build a park in the area.

Booker's unsuccessful 2002 campaign for mayor against longtime Newark mayor Sharp James, who was convicted on five counts of fraud in 2008 and sentenced to 27 months in prison, was the subject of the documentary Street Fight. The film details Booker's attempt to gain votes in a minority community while combating James' corrupt campaign tactics, such as demoting city workers who supported Booker and closing local businesses that held Booker's fundraisers. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005.

While studying at Queens College in Oxford, Booker became the president of the l'Chaim Society, a Jewish student organization, despite not being Jewish. He said he became "more Christian" by learning about other religions, according to the release.

"It's clear that he's a rising prominent urban leader who has been a community activist, and he certainly can bring that message to Brandeis," Executive Director of Media Affairs Dennis Nealon said.

Booker is one of seven individuals who will be given an honorary Doctorate of Human Letters at commencement, according to the release. The other honorary degree recipients are award-winning composer James Conlon, opera singer Marilyn Horne, Indian environmentalist and co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Rajendra K. Pachauri, dance choreographer Bill T. Jones, Holocaust scholar Israel Gutman and Israeli entrepreneur Stef Wertheimer, who has founded a number of parks in Israel and neighboring countries.

Hose said a Board of Trustees committee presents recommendations for honorary degree recipients to the board, which then approves candidates for a list from which University President Jehuda Reinharz selects the final recipients.


"[The] president attempts to identify individuals who, in one way or another, reflect values that the University values, whether they have to do with academic excellence, philanthropy, social justice [or] civic activism," Hose said.


President of Brandeis Democrats Jason Paul '09 said that he was "a big fan" of the selection of Booker as commencement speaker. "[Booker] has been through the wars challenging the entrenched establishment," he said. He added, "While [Booker] was challenging the political machine in Newark, for graduating seniors, [his message to Brandeis seniors] could be challenging the established path of straight to graduate school and then to a career. He can say that, in the end, it's better to do the hard thing than the easier, more conventional thing."

Ian Guss '09, a graduating senior, said he wished the University had chosen a speaker with more "name recognition."

"It is disappointing and a little surprising that they weren't able to get someone with national or international recognition," Guss said. "After reading a little more about [Booker], it seems that he's a bit of an up-and-comer, and maybe he will eventually have that name recognition, but overall, I wish they could have gotten someone a little more famous."

Paul said, "It's a bad societal thing for one to instantly judge someone on their name recognition, because that doesn't mean anything. [Booker] has accomplished a major feat in a dying city and is now a leading figure in the leading political party in America that is on the rise."

The commencement ceremony will take place May 17 at 10:30 a.m. in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center.