Next U. president: Search committee chair sheds light on process to select Holloway's successor

It has now been three months since University President Jonathan Holloway announced to the Rutgers community that he would round out his presidential term at the conclusion of the current academic year.

On Friday, the University released a profile that included the goals, characteristics and experiences it hopes to find in an incoming chief executive. It incorporated perspectives shared at town halls across the University from December 3 to 10.

The list hints at a potentially more academically-oriented candidate, as it explicitly addresses the University's increasing pursuits to enter a more competitive sphere in higher education. Other goals for the incoming president include strengthening the University's research programs and scaling up its cultural and academic dominance.

Board of Governors Chair Amy Towers, who is also the co-chair of the Presidential Search Committee, sat down with The Daily Targum earlier this month to further explain the process of finding the University's 22nd president and the qualities the committee will be looking for in future candidates.

The committee, whose membership was announced in a University-wide email in late November, seeks to represent various constituent groups across the University and the state as evenly as possible — shrinking a community of approximately 100,000 University faculty, staff and students down to just 20 committee members.

To guide the search for Holloway's successor, the University also tapped WittKieffer, an external search firm that has assisted in 19 searches to fill vacancies at Rutgers. One of its strengths lies in its vast long-term connections across industries, according to Towers.

"Perhaps it's a sitting president. Perhaps it's somebody else in a professional or private environment," she said. "Maybe (WittKieffer) placed somebody five years ago, who's now really ready and groomed up for this, and they have a pre-existing relationship that they can reach out."

Towers also emphasized the value of the University community's perspectives, both through a series of town halls that took place earlier in December, as well as through nominations that can be submitted via email to both Rutgers and WittKieffer.

Despite the town halls' timing overlapping with the concluding weeks of the Fall 2024 semester, Towers said the scheduling appeared not to interfere with turnout. They were conducted across all three campuses at various times of day in both virtual and in-person formats. Some sessions saw more than 120 attendees, she said.

"We're really trying to meet people where they're at — time of day, virtual, in-person, email — so, hopefully, people will find their place in the process," she said.

Regarding the presidential position itself, Towers revealed that unlike Holloway and his predecessor, former University President Robert L. Barchi, the new president will not be hired with a set institutional or operational goal in mind. By contrast, Holloway told the Targum that he was hired with the intent to be the University's "chief lobbyist" and "chief cheerleader," compared with Barchi, whose main purpose was to facilitate the establishment of Rutgers Biomedical Health Sciences.

Despite the openness of the role, Towers underlined the exclusivity of being selected for the Rutgers presidency.

"This is a very unique position," she explained. "It's one of the largest public universities in the country. We're one of the most prestigious research universities in the country. So, there's a lot of people who, frankly, wouldn't be qualified for this job."

Candidates must also share the University's existing values and identity, such as its promotion of diversity, financial accessibility and first-generation college attendance. Based on University-wide discussions, Towers said the search committee deduced that the University community appears to agree on its identity and goals, and the incoming president should work toward those rather than pursue their own ideas.

She also said candidates for the role must carry a certain set of social competencies and qualities, including strong communication skills and an enthusiasm for the job.

"With everything going on in higher ed right now, you can be really smart, but if you can't communicate Rutgers' values, if you can't communicate our vision and mission, if you are not effective at communicating the leadership that Rutgers has, then that's not helpful either," she said.

According to the presidential search website, the search committee seeks to confirm a candidate for the presidency by April 2025. Towers said the next step over the coming months is for WittKieffer to investigate candidates, interview them and offer up recommendations to the Board of Governors, who will finalize the decision. In the presidential profile, WittKieffer asked candidates to submit documents for consideration by March 3, 2025.

Should the process not be completed within the required timeline, Towers said the last resort would be to select an interim president, who would fill the vacancy temporarily. Thus, the committee must balance competing pressures to select the correct candidate for the job before Holloway's departure on July 1, 2025.