Acorn

Issue date: 2/1/08 Section: News

Media Credit: google.com Cory A. Booker

Mayor of Newark Cory A. Booker, who has received nationwide recognition as a hands-on community reformer in one of the nation's most dangerous cities, has accepted President Bob Weisbuch's invitation to receive an honorary degree as commencement speaker. He will address the graduating class of 2008 on May 17, pending final approval by the Board of Trustees in a Feb. 8 meeting.

In his letter to Booker, Weisbuch wrote, "You are the enthusiastic and indeed unanimous choice of a committee of trustees, students, staff and faculty, who wish to honor you for your remarkable career and ongoing body of work. We award degrees only to those we believe who most fully exemplify the University's ideals and goals."

This will not be Booker's first visit to the Forest. As a mayoral candidate, Booker addressed the class of 2009 during its Orientation Week.

Booker, 38, was elected as Newark's mayor in May 2006, receiving 72 percent of the vote and defeating opponent State Sen. Ronald L. Rice. Booker previously lost the 2002 mayoral contest against 20-year incumbent Sharpe James.

Before beginning his public service career in Newark as a staff attorney for the Urban Justice Center and a program coordinator of the Newark Youth Project in 1998, Booker attended Stanford University and Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He earned a law degree from Yale University in 1997.

Since his inauguration, Booker has striven to transform the community of Newark, where one third of children live in poverty and fewer than 9 percent of adults have a college education. Booker has focused his efforts in areas such as curbing violent crime, increasing public safety, promoting economic and residential development, expanding summer jobs and youth programs for teenagers and providing assistance to released felons seeking employment.

Booker's mayoral style is exemplified by his involved approach to community reformation. He holds monthly open-office hours in neighborhood schools and Churches, where residents speak with him candidly. Booker makes unannounced, early morning rounds throughout neighborhoods, checking up on police patrols and conversing with residents. He is informed of fatal shootings on his Blackberry, often surveys crime scenes in-person, and has attended and delivered eulogies at funerals of young victims of street crime.

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