Rutgers University president announces plans to step down next summer

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The president of Rutgers University has announced he will resign next summer.

Jonathan Holloway would have completed five years in that role on June 30, 2025. He is the university’s 21st president.

“This decision is my own and reflects my own rumination about how best to be of service,” Holloway said Tuesday in a message posted on the Rutgers University website.

The Governing Boards of the University will now launch a nationwide search to find his replacement.

Holloway became president in the summer of 2020, when all classes became remote because of the COVID pandemic. Rutgers became the first university in the country to require students to get a COVID vaccine before returning to the classroom.

A lawsuit seeking to overturn the mandate failed, and many colleges and universities nationwide followed the lead, instituting the same vaccine requirement.

Earlier this spring, when Palestinian solidarity groups erected a tent camp on campus to protest the war in Gaza, Holloway met with the protesters and worked out a peaceful resolution within a few days.

Under Holloway’s leadership, the national reputation of all three Rutgers campuses has grown significantly.

Rutgers-New Brunswick is 15th among all public institutions in the U.S. News and World Report rankings. For the first time ever, Rutgers-New Brunswick, Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-Camden are each ranked among the top 50 public universities and the top 100 national universities.

“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,” Amy Towers, the Rutgers Board of Governors Chair said in a statement.