Rutgers to Name First Black President, a Northwestern Provost & Former Football Player

Jonathan Holloway to be named, with interesting credentials for tough job ahead:

From NJ.Com today:  "Rutgers University is set to name its first black president, Jonathan Holloway, provost of Northwestern University and a former Stanford football player, NJ Advance Media has learned.  Holloway will be named president on Tuesday, pending formal approval by the university’s Board of Governors, according to four sources who have knowledge of the selection but were not authorized to speak on the record.  Holloway will replace current president Robert Barchi, who announced in July that he would be stepping down at the end of the 2019-20 school year.  According to his official Northwestern University biography, Holloway received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University, where he played on the football team alongside Sen. Cory Booker. He received his Ph. D. in history from Yale University, whose faculty he joined in 1999. Before being named provost of Northwestern in August 2017, he served as the Dean of Yale College."


Here is an article from 2012 talking about the challenges that Barchi faced when he started.  I have no idea how Barchi did as Prez, except for the mess with the Athletics Department.

https://www.njtvonline.org/news/uncategorized/incoming-rutgers-president-inherits-mutliple-challenges/

Barchi comes to Rutgers most recently from Thomas Jefferson University, in Philadelphia, where he was president, and before that he was the Provost at the University of Pennsylvania. He will take over an institution that is facing a number of challenges, including strained relations with campus unions, some high-profile bias incidents and the proposed merger of some of the university’s campuses with UMDNJ and Rowan University. It’s an era of change at Rutgers which search committee chairman Greg Brown says makes Barchi the perfect choice.

“The things we were looking for were depth of experience, accomplishment, leadership, courage, content, coming into a complex situation and being able to manage complexity and sea change,” said Brown. “Yes, there’s a lot of things going on, but consistent with Dr. Barchi’s comments, I think we couldn’t have picked a better president.”


More on Holloway, from the NYT just now, including handling of a racial conflict while Dean at Yale.  https://nyti.ms/30B0AsP

"Jonathan Holloway, the provost of Northwestern University, is expected to take over leadership of Rutgers University next week, becoming its first black president, a school official said on Sunday. The decision will be announced on Tuesday, following approval by the university’s board of governors and board of trustees, the Rutgers official said, on the condition of anonymity because the hire was not yet official. Dory Devlin, a Rutgers spokeswoman, would not comment but said that a joint meeting would take place on Tuesday to elect “an executive-level position.” Dr. Holloway could not be reached for comment and officials at Northwestern did not immediately return a request for comment.

"Before being named provost at Northwestern University in 2017, Dr. Holloway, 52, a scholar of African-American history and a former football player at Stanford University, was previously the dean of Yale College, holding one of the most prestigious positions in academia. But during his tenure at Yale, the school faced student protests that attracted nationwide attention. Dr. Holloway was at the center of a storm of student protests that were set off by an email in 2015 from a faculty member who suggested that students should be allowed to wear whatever Halloween costumes they wanted, regardless of whether they offended someone. Many students considered the email to be culturally offensive, and the controversy sparked debate about the university’s history and the way it has dealt with race.

"Dr. Holloway, who became the first black dean of Yale in 2014, embraced some student demands, like calling for a more diverse faculty. But he was also criticized by some students who said he should have worked harder to address concerns about race on campus. When he left Yale for Northwestern, he said the protests played no part in the decision. If Dr. Holloway’s hire is approved, the number of minority presidents will nudge higher, although they still make up less than a fifth of all college and university presidents, according to the most recent data published by the American Council on Education. Also, just 8 percent of the 17 percent of minority presidents are black, Afro-Caribbean or African-American, according to the council......."



He seems very impressive and qualified, but am not sure why his credentials are "interesting." Moving from professor to dean to provost and then president is a very traditional path for the head of a university.


Yes, I don't mean to suggest he isn't qualified, and Dean at Yale followed by Provost at Northwestern is impressive. The part about being a co-football player at Stanford with Corey Booker is an interesting tidbit to me. 

apple44 said:

He seems very impressive and qualified, but am not sure why his credentials are "interesting." Moving from professor to dean to provost and then president is a very traditional path for the head of a university.

 


Jasmo said:

The part about being a co-football player at Stanford with Corey Booker is an interesting tidbit to me.

“Played on the football team alongside Sen. Cory Booker” may be misleading. By the time Booker arrived at Stanford as a freshman in 1987, Holloway was a junior scrub who wouldn’t be on the team at all his senior year. Also, Booker was a tight end (offense) and Holloway a linebacker (defense). So their interactions as teammates were probably minimal, if there were any at all.


Here's an article from the Ledger basically suggesting that people involved with sports at Rutgers are hopeful of finally having an advocate as President:

https://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/2020/01/will-the-new-rutgers-president-be-better-for-athletics-than-robert-barchi-politi.html?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true


Jasmo said:

Here's an article from the Ledger basically suggesting that people involved with sports at Rutgers are hopeful of finally having an advocate as President:

https://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/2020/01/will-the-new-rutgers-president-be-better-for-athletics-than-robert-barchi-politi.html?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true

It will be interesting to see how he handles the Athletics Department, especially how he interacts with the football program.

I was surprised the Rutgers decided to go after Schiano after the Penn State/Sandusky scandal.  It was enough to stop Schiano from getting the job at Tennessee.  


from Bob Roe:   When I was at RU, I had no black professors and very few black classmates.   Rutgers College was all men although the Ag school was coed and Livingston had just opened.   Like many families, I and my brother were first generation to go to college.  Mason Gross was President and you would often see him walking around campus.  I am very glad to see the large numbers of minority students RU now has and like me, I expect many if not most are first generation college.  I think I read somewhere that women students now outnumber men.  I wish the new President much success.  


yahooyahoo said:

Jasmo said:

Here's an article from the Ledger basically suggesting that people involved with sports at Rutgers are hopeful of finally having an advocate as President:

https://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/2020/01/will-the-new-rutgers-president-be-better-for-athletics-than-robert-barchi-politi.html?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true

It will be interesting to see how he handles the Athletics Department, especially how he interacts with the football program.

I was surprised the Rutgers decided to go after Schiano after the Penn State/Sandusky scandal.  It was enough to stop Schiano from getting the job at Tennessee.  

I’m not sure if the anti-Schiano outrage among hardcore Tennessee fans was due to any potential culpability associated with the Penn State scandal or if they used that as a convenient talking point to mask their concerns about his ability to recruit in the south and win in the SEC.


More on new Prez:

NJ.com: What you need to know about Rutgers’ new president, Jonathan Holloway.
https://www.nj.com/education/2020/01/what-you-need-to-know-about-rutgers-new-president-jonathan-holloway.html


I work at Rutgers and I am floored by the speed by which a President was selected.  That is all.


boomie said:

I work at Rutgers and I am floored by the speed by which a President was selected.  That is all.

Barchi announced in July he was stepping down.  Are you surprised by the speed in general or by Rutgers choosing that quickly?


Agree, that was a very quick hire. It's not unusual for colleges and universities to take four months or more to fill a mid-level position, to name the top person is six months is pretty rare.

I did notice that in their formal announcement, Rutgers did not mention the things people seem to be most talking about - being first African American president there, having played football at Stanford etc.


RobertRoe said:

from Bob Roe:   When I was at RU, I had no black professors and very few black classmates.   Rutgers College was all men although the Ag school was coed and Livingston had just opened.   Like many families, I and my brother were first generation to go to college.  Mason Gross was President and you would often see him walking around campus.  I am very glad to see the large numbers of minority students RU now has and like me, I expect many if not most are first generation college.  I think I read somewhere that women students now outnumber men.  I wish the new President much success.  

 Yes, 54% of current Rutgers students are women.


yahooyahoo said:

boomie said:

I work at Rutgers and I am floored by the speed by which a President was selected.  That is all.

Barchi announced in July he was stepping down.  Are you surprised by the speed in general or by Rutgers choosing that quickly?

 I have seen presidential searches last over a year and be international in scope.  I would have expected that and more from this institution.  But I am very happy with the hire.  Just shocked.  Although Barchi announced in July, a search committee wasn't formed till later, so its super fast.



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