Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway has announced he is leaving his position at the end of the 2024–2025 school year.

Holloway has reportedly been facing criticism for how he and the university have handled pro-Palestinian, anti-Jewish protests on campus.

“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 said.

“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 first faced backlash following a town hall event discussing BDS (boycott, divest, and sanction) referendums, disrupted by a group of pro-Palestinian protesters chanting anti-Israel slogans like “one solution, intifada revolution.”

“Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway and administrators ‘ran away,’ ‘leaving 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,’” one student said at the time.

In August 2023, Rutgers made headlines when it announced it would disenroll students who failed to comply with COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

The university said at the time that it had a “commitment to health and safety for all members of its community,” although former Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky admitted that COVID-19 vaccines do not prevent one from contracting the virus.

In 2021, Rutgers became the first university in the United States to mandate students receive the vaccine prior to the fall 2021 school year.

The school also issued a booster mandate for 2022.