EAST RUTHERFORD — Gov. Chris Christie delivered the commencement address at Seton Hall University today amid a hearty chorus of "boos" from part of the graduating class at the Izod Center in East Rutherford.



The governor took the stage as a fraction of the 2,281 graduates gave him a standing ovation and others, mostly graduates from Seton Hall's education college, remained seated and booed.



Christie urged the students to celebrate their accomplishments and take their graduation seriously.



"From your cheers — and your other expressions — I can tell that you are not taking it lightly," Christie said, acknowledging the jeers.

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The governor used his 16-minute speech to talk about a recent New York Times Magazine cover that labeled him "The Disrupter" for his combative attempts to challenge the status quo in New Jersey. He urged the students to be "disrupters," like him, in their own lives.

"Be a disrupter in the way that your heart and your mind tells you to be a disrupter," Christie said.

Some students, especially graduates of the College of Education and Human Services and those looking for teaching jobs, questioned the choice of Christie as graduation speaker at the 155-year-old Catholic university considering his feud with the state's teachers union and his proposals to reform the state's education system."

Someone who is making it difficult for (the graduates) to get a job is speaking as they get their diplomas," Joseph DePierro, dean of Seton Hall's education college, told the Setonian, the school paper.

Seton Hall President Gabriel Esteban made no apologies for inviting Christie, a 1987 graduate of Seton Hall Law School.

"It is vital that, at least on occasion, we invite distinguished and accomplished university alumni to address us and to present the general public a message about the value of a Seton Hall education," Esteban said in a statement before the ceremony.

Last year, faculty and students at Seton Hall Law School warned of a similar protest at their graduation after Christie was selected as a speaker amid controversy over his decision not to reappoint Associate Justice John Wallace Jr. to the state Supreme Court. But a faculty movement to "uninvite" the governor stalled and the students ended up giving the governor a standing ovation at the ceremony.

However, several students turned their back on Christie in protest during his speech at last year's Monmouth University graduation. The governor also received a smattering of boos during his address at last year's Rutgers University commencement.

In addition to Christie, Seton Hall honored Rev. Robert O'Toole during the ceremony with an honorary degree. O'Toole is the president of the Gregorian University Foundation in New York and professor emeritus of the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome.