Rutgers University has announced Little Steven Van Zandt will be the Commencement Speaker for the 2017 ceremony.

Van Zandt will receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts at the ceremony at High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway on May 14th.

Steven Van Zandt is being honored as a musician, actor, and humanitarian. In 1985, he established Artists United Against Apartheid and joined with other musicians, including Bob Dylan, Bono, Run-DMC, Hall & Oates, Miles Davis, and Bruce Springsteen, to record the album Sun City, which protested South Africa’s policy of racial segregation. That same year, he established the Solidarity Foundation to promote the sovereignty of indigenous peoples. Van Zandt also created the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation to provide no-cost lesson plans and educational materials to middle-and-high-school teachers through its curriculum initiative, TeachRock.org.

Little Steven will be following in the footsteps of President Barack Obama, who spoke at last year's commencement. A grass-roots campaign to get Ellen DeGeneres to be the 2017 speaker didn't succeed, after students failed to submit her name to the official nomination list.

 

You can listen to Little Steven's Underground Garage every Sunday night at 9pm on 105.7 the Hawk!

Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band Performs At The Los Angeles Sports Arena
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