Jonathan Holloway will become president of Rutgers University

• Link to: Northwestern Now Story

This morning Rutgers University announced that it has selected Northwestern University’s provost, Jonathan Holloway, to be its president, effective July 1, 2020.

Holloway, who has served as Northwestern’s provost and chief academic officer since Aug. 1, 2017, will be Rutgers’ 21st president.

“I am so grateful for my time at Northwestern, which is unparalleled among its peers as an institution of groundbreaking research and rigorous liberal arts study,” Holloway said. “While it is difficult to leave the Northwestern family, I am excited to have the opportunity to lead a world-class university in Rutgers.”

At Northwestern, Holloway has developed and overseen the University’s educational policies and academic priorities. During his tenure, he has hired several deans to the University’s academic leadership team and spearheaded several important initiatives, including the Faculty Pathways Initiative and the Undergraduate Student Lifecycle program, with a goal of making sure all students can thrive at Northwestern, including first-generation, low-income and underrepresented minority students.

“It’s been a joy working with Jonathan, and I’m thrilled that we can still work together as Big Ten Conference colleagues,” said Northwestern President Morton Schapiro. “I fully expect him to enjoy being a president as much as I do, because he has so much to offer in this role.”

Schapiro said Holloway has “led with vision, empathy and integrity,” while ensuring Northwestern’s core values remained intact.

“Jonathan has been an indispensable member of my senior leadership team,” the President said. “Rutgers has found an outstanding new president. While I will miss his steady leadership and impeccable guidance, I am delighted for his new opportunity and wish him and his family all the best in this next chapter in their lives.”

Throughout his tenure at Northwestern, Holloway worked diligently to enhance the administration’s relationship with the Faculty Senate. He played a vital role in creating a rigorous University budget review process and was one of the leaders that aided in Northwestern’s financial turnaround. He also redoubled the University’s emphasis on global issues and impact and has been a strong voice on a variety of key institutional issues, including diversity and inclusion. 

An accomplished author and scholar, Jonathan has served as a professor of history and African American studies, specializing in post-emancipation U.S. history with a focus on social and intellectual history. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of American Historians. 

Before joining Northwestern, Holloway was the dean of Yale College and Edmund S. Morgan Professor of African American Studies, History, and American Studies at Yale University.

He received a bachelor’s degree with honors in American Studies from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in History from Yale University. He began his academic career at the University of California, San Diego, before joining the faculty at Yale in 1999.

Holloway serves on boards of the Chicago Botanic Garden, Illinois Humanities, the National Humanities Alliance, the Society for United States Intellectual History and the Organization of American Historians.

At Rutgers, Holloway also will serve as a university professor and a distinguished professor.

Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, is a leading national research university and the state of New Jersey’s preeminent, comprehensive public institution of higher education. Established in 1766, it is the eighth-oldest higher education institution in the U.S. and has more than 70,000 students.