It was reported on Wednesday, April 30, 2014, more than 150 Rutgers students voiced opposition to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's selection as May's commencement speaker by staging a sit-in at the Old Queens administrative office of school President Robert Barchi.
Rice then withdrew, announcing her decision on her Facebook page on Saturday, May 3, 2014. Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean was then named keynote speaker.
Here's a look at events that happened in Central Jersey from five, 10, 25, 50 and 100 years ago this week.
Five years ago
April 29, 2019: By a 7-2 vote, the Hillsborough school board approved a $130 million budget for the next school year that called for the elimination of more than 50 positions and 37 staffers losing their jobs.
April 30: Somerset County Prosecutor Michael H. Robertson announced police seized more than $50,000 of heroin, as well as a half-pound of marijuana, a handgun and more than $9,000 in cash during a multi-county drug bust that resulted in five arrests.
May 1: It was reported New Jersey motorists were paying nearly $3 a gallon in gasoline. The jump ― amounting to nearly 25 cents a gallon in the previous month ― was forcing consumers to dig deeper and hope the spike was just temporary.
May 1: It was announced the Division III New Jersey City University in Jersey City added a women's wrestling program, becoming the first college in New Jersey to do so.
May 2: Nearly a quarter of the top 100 schools across New Jersey ― out of more than 400 schools ― were in Central Jersey in the annual ranking of secondary public schools in the state by U.S. News and World Report.
May 3: Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey announced Jerome Davis, 43, of Piscataway, was found guilty of the Sunday, May 14, 2017, fatal shooting of Patrick Olarerin, 57, of North Brunswick, who was dating Davis's former girlfriend.
May 4: Latin singing sensation Jon Secada performed at Kean University's Enlow Recital Hall in Hillside.
10 years ago
April 29, 2014: A 30-year-old woman ― whose name was not released ― was found dead in a Bloomingdale Drive townhouse in Hillsborough, where a small fire was burning.
April 30: The Perth Amboy school district had agreed to pay $199,999 to Kara Sakowski, a teacher who claimed that school officials failed to take action ― and tried to cover up ― a sexual assault by a substitute teacher in her classroom, it was reported.
May 1: It was reported Michael Reed, 26, of the Somerset section of Franklin Township, would be pictured on the front of the box of the Wheaties commemorative edition to honor the Special Olympics' 2014 USA Games, which would be held in Mercer County from Saturday, June 14, to Saturday, June 21, 2014.
May 2: It was reported a new Gallup poll said 41 percent of people would move out of New Jersey if they could.
May 2: Boz Scaggs would perform at the State Theatre in New Brunswick on Tuesday, May 6, 2014, it was reported.
1999
April 29, 1999: A 111-year-old bridge on Province Line Road in Montgomery collapsed under a truck weighing more than six times the span's limit.
April 30: An email message to middle school students that warned of an attack worse than the previous week's Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colo. prompted officials to close all schools that day in Hillsborough. The schools reopened on Monday, May 3, 1999.
April 30: Four boys playing with matches caused a fire that tore through an apartment building at Tov Manor off Route 18 south in New Brunswick, leaving 20 residents homeless.
May 1: It was reported New Jersey officials had released the last installment of statistics on New Jersey Turnpike arrests, showing that 80 percent of those charged with crimes were minorities.
May 2: Soprano Kathleen Battle performed at Prudential Hall at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.
May 3: At the Raritan Valley Country Club in Bridgewater, Immaculata High School captured its second straight Somerset County Golf Tournament, while Montgomery's Taylor Hockmeier took home the individual title.
May 4: Yusaf Hagans, 25, was sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison for killing Lauren Rose Relyea, 10, of Piscataway.
1974
April 29, 1974: A casino gambling referendum resolution cleared the Assembly, 57-21, but still faced a tougher fight in the Senate.
May 1: Seton Hall won its first New Jersey Collegiate Track and Field championship in the 12th annual meet at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway.
May 2: Fire ripped through the Industrial Foam Corp. plant, a plastics factory, in Passaic Township ― across the street from the fire company ― razing the factory and sending clouds of black smoke high over the Watchung Mountains.
May 3: The majority of the 175 North Brunswick 11th graders attending New Brunswick High School opposed the township's board of education's decision to send them to North Brunswick High School the following year and planned to attend a parents' meeting scheduled in North Brunswick on Monday, May 6, 1974, it was reported.
May 3: Muriel Resnick's comedy, "Any Wednesday," began a nine-performance run as a production by the Craig Theatre in Repertoire in Summit
1924
May 2: Benjamin Felter, who masqueraded as a minister of the gospel in Somerville, was sentenced from three to seven years in state prison on two indictments of forgery and one of embezzlement.
May 4: The Plainfield Catholic Club baseball team beat the Polish Giants, 9-7, in South River.
May 5: "The First Year," a John Golden production of Frank Craven's comic-tragedy of married life, opened at Reade's Plainfield Theatre.
Brad Wadlow is a staff writer for MyCentralJersey.com
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: RU students oppose Condoleezza Rice: This week in Central Jersey history, April 29 May 5
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