I think the article was saying that Valerie has decided to give the commencement speech for free, instead of charging over $30K Dollars. Fine Valerie. You could have spared yourself the embarrassment by not being so damn greedy.
I’m not sure if even The Clintons would have charged a public university that much, just to grace their stage and shout into the microphone. If they were speaking at the UN, then yes, they would have gone even higher for a fee. Everybody knows that the UN has deeper pockets than schools.
What I read is that a “donor” stepped up and personally paid the $30k to her.