Jonathan Holloway, president of Rutgers University, released a statement on Tuesday saying he intends to resign from his current position at the state school in New Brunswick, N.J., at the end of the academic year, when his five-year contract expires.
“I welcomed the opportunity to join the Rutgers community in July 2020 because I found inspiration in the possibilities that this institution represented,” he said. “This decision is my own and reflects my own rumination about how best to be of service.”
Holloway, 57, plans to take a sabbatical to focus on research projects for his work as a U.S. historian before he joins the university’s faculty full-time in the fall of 2025.
“If he resigned today, President Holloway’s legacy would be one of empowering antisemites and terrorist sympathizers,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, in a statement. She insisted that Holloway use his fifth and final year as president “doing everything in his power to change that.”
She suggested that Holloway begin repairing his professional reputation by “closing the antisemitic, pro-terror Center for Security, Race and Rights; enforcing the rules; and enacting policies to protect Jewish students and faculty.”
On March 27, Foxx sent a letter to Holloway and other leaders at the school, demanding a variety of documents related to administrative handlings of antisemitism.
She wrote that it “stands out for the intensity and pervasiveness of antisemitism on its campuses. Rutgers senior administrators, faculty, staff, academic departments and centers, and student organizations have contributed to the development of a pervasive climate of antisemitism.”
On May 23, Holloway appeared before Foxx and her committee with other university presidents, where she said he should be “doubly ashamed” for his response to campus antisemitism. He said he had no plans to shut down the Center for Security, Race and Rights.
Five days later, the U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into Rutgers for possible violations of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
