By MATT KATZ
Courier-Post Starff

CAMDEN — Graduates of the Rutgers-Camden School of Social Work may have received their formal bachelor degrees Thursday night, but their real graduation occurred two months earlier with an experience far more personal than anything they learned in the classroom.

Nineteen future social workers left a 20th seat empty at Thursday night's graduation as a tribute to Krystal Skinner, a popular, friendly and devoted student who was stabbed to death on March 26 at her home in Lindenwold.

Police found her 2-year-old son near the body, and her boyfriend, the boy's father, was charged with murder.

Authorities have said that Skinner, 22, who was to have started working for the state's Division of Youth and Family Services after graduation, was long a victim of domestic violence at the hands of the boyfriend, Troy Whye, 37.

For Skinner's classmates, that fact reinforced the importance of the field they are entering. They wore Skinner's picture close to their hearts Thursday on a pin that read "We got your back," Skinner's favorite saying.

And they donned purple domestic violence ribbons with an emblazoned "R," for Rutgers.

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