Rutgers President Holloway Announces He Will Resign At End Of Year

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway has announced he will resign as Rutgers president.

Once Holloway finishes his fifth year at the helm of Rutgers on June 30, 2025, he will resign, he said Tuesday. Holloway's contract with Rutgers did not have an end date, but its terms called for serving at least five years, which he will do.

Holloway, who is trained as a U.S. historian and taught at Yale before coming to Rutgers, said he plans to take a paid sabbatical in the 2025-2026 academic year. He plans to return to longstanding research projects and then join the Rutgers faculty full time.

“This decision is my own and reflects my own rumination about how best to be of service,” Holloway said.

Holloway told the Newark Star Ledger in this exclusive interview his decision to quit was partly due to the criticism he received on the job, even coming from Gov. Phil Murphy, and the security risks to his wife and children during last year's professors' strike and the Palestinian solidarity camps last April.

"These jobs are difficult in good times but when you’re facing absolutely no-win situations constantly, in this era of hyperbole about failing to do X, Y, and Z … none of us signed up for that," Holloway told the Star Ledger's Tom Moran. "Just like I didn’t sign up to have a police detail with me everywhere I go."

The Rutgers Board of Governors will now launch a nationwide search to find the best person to lead Rutgers.

Holloway concludes a tenure at Rutgers marked by turmoil, which he met with overall success: He arrived at Rutgers in July 2020, in the midst of the pandemic and when classes were all remote. Under Holloway's leadership, Rutgers was the first university in the nation to require students get coronavirus vaccines in order to return to in-person classes.

While the decision was controversial, with some students suing Rutgers for violating their medical freedom (their lawsuit failed on an appeal, and declined to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court), the vast majority of America's top colleges and universities ended up following Rutgers' lead.

Then in 2023, the Rutgers campus was brought to a standstill by its first-ever faculty strike, where nearly every professor went on strike and refused to teach classes. At Murphy's urging, Holloway met with faculty union leaders and brought the strike to an end within five days. Holloway agreed to "substantial" salary increases for full-time professors, grad assistants and teaching assistants, and campus life quickly returned to normal.

Then this past spring, Palestinian solidarity groups set up tent camps in the heart of Rutgers main campus. While there were some clashes with police and counter-protesters, Holloway reached a peaceful resolution with the protesters. Students peacefully took the tents down after just four days — unlike at Princeton and Columbia universities where the tent camps stayed up for weeks, and protesters took over buildings.

Holloway was also called to testify before Congress about his handling of the protests, which he did last spring. But he emerged from the hearing unscathed, unlike the presidents of Harvard and University of Pennsylvania, both of whom lost their jobs.

"During a time of intense political and social divisions on college campuses and in the nation, Holloway made the call for civil discourse and civic engagement the touchstone of his presidency," said university administration in a statement.

Holloway also saw Rutgers athletic director Pat Hobbs mysteriously resign last month. NJ.com reports that, before he quit, Hobbs was under investigation by Rutgers for an “inappropriate, consensual relationship," reportedly with Rutgers head women's gymnastics coach Umme Salim-Beasley. (Hobbs is married with three children.) Salim-Beasley is also currently under investigation for bullying young women on the Rutgers gymnastics team.

Under Holloway’s leadership, the national reputation of all three Rutgers campuses also grew: Rutgers-New Brunswick is now ranked 15th best out of all public universities in America, according to U.S. News and World Report. Also, for the first time ever, Rutgers-Newark was named among the top 50 public universities and Rutgers-Camden was named among the top 100.

Rutgers Board of Governors Chair Amy Towers said:

“Jonathan Holloway has led Rutgers with integrity, strong values and a commitment to service and civility, while helping to steer the university through challenges facing higher education – including a global pandemic, shifting labor demands and a Supreme Court decision on Affirmative Action in admissions. Dr. Holloway's decision was his and his alone; we respect it and thank Dr. Holloway for his passion and service."

What's ahead for Rutgers:

• Forming the Rutgers School of Medicine out of Rutgers’ two medical schools.
• Finishing the expansion of the Medical Sciences Building in Newark
• Opening the Health + Life Sciences Exchange (HELIX) (it used to be called "the Hub") in downtown New Brunswick, across from the train station, where the Rutgers School of Medicine and research laboratories will be housed.