Snooki worth more than Toni Morrison, apparently

A student organization at Rutgers University recently paid Jersey Shore's Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi $32,000 to speak about her new book, hair, tan and general Snookiness.

The dollar amount may have raised a few eyebrows, but after it was revealed that the same university would be paying Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning Toni Morrison $2,000 less to speak at its commencement ceremonies, an unsurprising wave of criticism swept the media. Snooki is, after all, widely regarded as a celebrity with below-average intelligence and depth at her very best.

When a Rutgers student asked what her life ambition was, for example, Snooki replied, "Being tan. When you're tan, you feel better about yourself."

So would it be acceptable to have someone like this come to Duke? In all seriousness, probably. Most of Duke would probably scorn the event, but then eventually get tickets to see her. Whether you want to go to mock her celebrity status as perhaps one of the dimmest human beings ever put on TV is irrelevant, because at the end of the day, she is a massive draw. If the circus makes money, nobody shuts it down, right?

Also keep in mind that the student organization at Rutgers was free to spend its money on any speaker—enough people must have supported the decision to bring this girl to Rutgers despite all the protest afterwards. So even though Snooki would be rubbing elbows with the likes of Richard Dawkins and Jane Goodall, she is just as deserving—if not more—of being paid to speak.