(The Center Square) – Like other now-resigned Ivy League presidents, Rutgers’ President Jonathan Holloway’s tenure has been marked by criticism over the 2023-24 school year pro-Hamas protests.
Rutgers University’s president announced his resignation at the end of the 2024-25 school year, following a number of other Ivy League presidents who resigned within the past year, some of them facing criticism over the pro-Hamas protests.
“In August, I informed Amy Towers, Chair of the Board of Governors, that the 2024-2025 academic year will be my final year as university president,” Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway said on Sept. 17.
“I will take a sabbatical the following year during which I will return to long-standing research projects before joining the faculty on a full-time basis,” Holloway stated. “This decision is my own and reflects my ruminations about how best to be of service.”
Holloway began serving as Rutgers’ 21st president in July 2020, according to the university’s news release. Holloway is also Rutgers’ first Black president.
Holloway’s resignation comes after a number of other Ivy League presidents announced their resignations. Minouche Shafik of Columbia University, Claudine Gay of Harvard University, Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, and Martha Pollack of Cornell University all stepped down from their positions as president within a year’s time for various reasons. Although not an Ivy League, Brandeis University has also recently announced that its president, Ron Liebowitz, will be stepping down.
During his presidency at Rutgers, Holloway faced a faculty strike, where 9,000 educators went on strike “over pay and workplace issues,” The Center Square reported.
Additionally, Holloway encountered criticism from his handling of the on-campus pro-Hamas protests.
“Holloway faced criticism for his handling of the Gaza protests,” the New Jersey Monitor reported. “After first threatening to shut down the encampment and sending the police, Holloway agreed to some of the student protestors’ demands, including creating an Arab cultural center on campus and welcoming displaced Palestinian students to finish their education at Rutgers.”
“Jonathan Holloway must resign in disgrace immediately for allowing antisemitic mobs to repeatedly target and threaten the safety of Jewish students, surrendering to the pro-Hamas encampment on campus, and continuing to employ antisemitic and terror-supporting faculty and staff,” Congresswoman Elise Stefanik said after Holloway’s resignation announcement.
Similar to Holloway, Magil of Penn, Shafik of Columbia, and Gay of Harvard were criticized for the way they handled the Hamas protests on their campuses, The Center Square previously reported.
Shafik was the first female president of Columbia, while Gay was the first Black president of Harvard, according to Columbia’s website and The Harvard Crimson respectively.
The Center Square reached out for comment to Rutgers’ office of the president, director of communications Kevin Lorincz and senior vice president for strategy and chief of staff Brian Ballentine, and media relations assistant vice president Dory Devlin. None responded but Devlin, who directed The Center Square to Holloway’s announcement as well as the university’s news release.
