List of Rutgers University presidents

The President of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (informally called Rutgers University) /ˈrʌtɡərz/ is the chief administrator of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Rutgers was founded by clergymen affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church in 1766 as Queen's College and was the eighth-oldest of nine colleges established during the American colonial period. Before 1956, Rutgers was a small liberal arts college and became a full university in 1924 with the offering of graduate degree programs and the establishment of professional schools. Today, Rutgers is a public research university with three campuses in the state located in New Brunswick and Piscataway, Newark, and Camden. The state's flagship university with approximately 65,000 students and employing 20,000 faculty and staff members, Rutgers is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey.

Since 1785, twenty one men have served as the institution's president, beginning with the Reverend Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh, a Dutch Reformed clergyman who was responsible for establishing the college.^[1][2] Before 1930, most of the university's presidents were clergymen affiliated with Christian denominations in the Reformed tradition (either Dutch or German Reformed, or Presbyterian).^[2][3] Two presidents were alumni of Rutgers College—the Rev. William H. S. Demarest (Class of 1883) and Philip Milledoler Brett (Class of 1892).^[4][5] The current president Dr. Jonathan Holloway, who became the university's twenty-first president on July 1, 2020. Dr. Holloway, who is African American, is the first person of color to lead Rutgers University.^[6][7]

The president serves in an ex officio capacity as a presiding officer within the university's 59-member board of trustees and its eleven-member board of governors,^[8] and is appointed by these boards to oversee day-to-day operations of the university across its three campuses. He is charged with implementing "board policies with the help and advice of senior administrators and other members of the university community."^[9] The president is responsible only to those two governing boards—there is no oversight by state officials. Frequently, the president also occupies a professorship in his academic discipline and engages in instructing students.