Skip to main content

Jonathan Holloway will become President of Rutgers University

Dear Northwestern University community,

This morning Rutgers University announced that it has selected our provost, Jonathan Holloway, to be its 21st president, effective July 1, 2020.

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

In the coming days, I will share with you our plans to find his successor.

Since he joined Northwestern University as provost and chief academic officer on August 1, 2017, he has led with vision, empathy and integrity while ensuring our core values remain intact. He has developed our educational policies and academic priorities and recruited several outstanding new deans to the University’s academic leadership team.

Jonathan has been an indispensable member of my senior leadership team, and has spearheaded several vitally important, ongoing 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.

Throughout his tenure, he has 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. Despite difficult financial headwinds, Jonathan supported the hiring of new faculty and facilitated faculty appointments and promotions. He 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. He is the kind of well-rounded academic leader Northwestern has been lucky to have.

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. Please join me in wishing Jonathan great success at Rutgers — and thank him for all he has done to make Northwestern University a stronger institution.