Rutgers president to step down following backlash over handling of anti-Semitism
Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway announced he will step down at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year, following recent pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus.
Holloway has faced criticism for his handling of anti-Semitism, with some accusing him of empowering anti-Israel sentiment during his tenure.
The president of Rutgers University recently announced that he will step down from his position at the end of the 2024–2025 school year. His decision comes in the wake of significant pro-Palestine demonstrations at the school’s campuses.
Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway made the announcement in a Sept. 17 statement.
“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,” Holloway wrote.
“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 explained. “This decision is my own and reflects my ruminations about how best to be of service.”
Not everyone was satisfied with Holloway’s decisions during his tenure at the university.
One Jewish student at Rutgers told Fox News that the school’s administration left “behind the Jewish/pro-Israel students to deal with an unruly and obviously antisemitic crowd, whose attention turned to the Jews after the administration left.”
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx also critiqued Holloway’s response to anti-Semitism in a statement after he announced his resignation.
“If he resigned today, President Holloway’s legacy would be one of empowering antisemites and terrorist sympathizers,” Foxx wrote. “He must use his final year at Rutgers doing everything in his power to change that, starting by closing the antisemitic, pro-terror Center for Security, Race, and Rights; enforcing the rules; and enacting policies to protect Jewish students and faculty.”
Holloway has said that being a university president has become more difficult in the past few years due to “no-win situations” that people in the profession increasingly face, according to the New York Post.
“We’re all seeing people we looked up to who are saying, ‘I’m out.’ And I think we’re going to see a lot of that,” Holloway explained. “These jobs are difficult in good times, but when you’re facing absolutely no-win situations constantly, in this era of hyperbole about failing to do X, Y, and Z…none of us signed up for that.”
Campus Reform reported earlier this year that the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter of Rutgers’ New Brunswick, NJ campus urged students to tell their professors not to host final exams in support of the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at the school.
”We equipped students with the necessary tools to communicate with their professors that we will no longer continue ‘business as usual’ during our people’s genocide, explaining the urgency and moral obligation to support the Palestinian people amidst an ongoing ethnic cleansing,” the group stated.
Campus Reform has contacted Rutgers University and Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
