Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway will step down at the end of the academic year, ending a tumultuous five years as the head of New Jersey’s state university, he announced Tuesday.
Holloway — who made history as the first Black president of Rutgers — said he will leave office on June 30, 2025. He will then take a year-long sabbatical and become a Rutgers professor.
He said he made the choice to step down.
“This decision is my own and reflects my own rumination about how best to be of service,” Holloway, 57, said in a statement to the university community.
Holloway, a historian, plans to spend his sabbatical during the 2025-26 academic year working on a book on African American history. He then will join the Rutgers faculty as a full-time professor.
His decision to step down comes after a difficult tenure. He took office in the summer of 2020, in the throes of the COVID pandemic, as students were returning to campus from lockdown. He presided over the university during its first faculty strike, and he leaves after a tense pro-Palestinian student encampment ended after negotiations that drew the ire of House Republicans.
In an interview the day before his announcement, Holloway cited concerns about the safety of his wife and children as one of the reasons he was stepping down.
“I’ve moved the needle as far as I can move it,” he said, noting protesters came to his home at 7:30 a.m. during last year’s faculty strike. “I don’t want to be in an environment where I need, where my family needs, protection. That’s the part I didn’t bargain for.”
In a letter to the Rutgers community, Holloway said he notified the chairwoman of the Rutgers Board of Governors of his plan to step down last month.
He joins a growing list of presidents who resigned after student protests, including Minouche Shafik at Columbia University, Martha Pollack at Cornell University, Liz Magill at the University of Pennsylvania, and Claudine Gay, the first Black president of Harvard.
He also announced his departure just weeks after the abrupt resignation of Rutgers athletic director Patrick Hobbs and NJ Advance Media’s investigative report on problems in the university’s gymnastics program.
Hobbs cited health reasons for his departure last month, but shortly after his resignation a source told NJ Advance Media that the university was looking into a possible “inappropriate, consensual relationship” involving Hobbs.
Holloway called for an external investigation of the school’s gymnastics program, and the university has hired an outside law firm to conduct the review.
Under Holloway’s five-year contract, he is currently receiving a base salary of $888,540, with bonus pay of $214,106, for a total of more than $1.1 million a year.
He will receive his full salary during his year-long sabbatical, Rutgers officials said. When he becomes a university professor the following year, he will be given a salary that puts him in the top 10% of fellow high-ranking professors, according to his contract.
Holloway’s relationship with the Rutgers faculty has been tense in the aftermath of last year’s faculty strike. The University Senate passed a no-confidence vote again Holloway last September, in the wake of the strike, the controversial merger of its medical schools in Newark and New Brunswick, the removal of Rutgers-Newark chancellor Nancy Cantor.
During Holloway’s presidency, Rutgers enrolled more than 67,000 students, broke records in undergraduate admissions, climbed significantly in national rankings, and exceeded its fundraising goals, the university said in a statement.
“Serving as the university president has been an enormous privilege and responsibility,” Holloway said in his announcement to the Rutgers community.
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision knocking down affirmative action in college admissions, he said the school’s incoming freshman class is “among the most diverse and most accomplished” in the school’s history.
Holloway said he intends to work in his remaining year as president on promoting “civic preparedness and civil discourse.”
”I remain steadfast in my belief that Rutgers is on the rise and is earning the respect it has long deserved,” he said in his letter to the campus community.
The university will lead a national search to find its next president, said Amy Towers, chairwoman of the Rutgers Board of Governors.
“Dr. Holloway’s decision was his and his alone; we respect it and thank Dr. Holloway for his passion and service,” Towers said in a statement.
The Rutgers AAUP-AFT — the union representing 6,000 full-time faculty, graduate workers and others at the school — welcomed Holloway when he arrived with a promise to build a more collaborative relationship with the university’s workers. But, they were disappointed, said union president Todd Wolfson.
“We hope the next president of Rutgers has the same intention to bring a new direction at our university — but follows through on that commitment with actions,” he said. “In the meantime, we will welcome Professor Holloway back into our ranks and hope we can find ways to work together for a better Rutgers for all.”
Gov. Phil Murphy hailed Holloway for leading the school “through trying and unprecedented times.”
“Under his leadership, the institution has thrived,” Murphy said in a statement. “It is because of President Holloway that this year Rutgers is celebrating their largest, most diverse, and most accomplished first-year class. I thank President Holloway for his years of dedicated service and wish him and his family all the best.”

Stories by Tina Kelley
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Tina Kelley may be reached at tkelley@njadvancemedia.com.