Presidential Bearing
FROM THE EDITOR: The empathy of President Jonathan Holloway
In preparing for my first interview with Jonathan Holloway, the new president of Rutgers, I came across information that led me to believe that he and I had a certain connection unlikely to be replicated in the annals of Rutgers employees. It goes something like this. Holloway received his graduate degree in history from my father’s alma mater: Yale University. And I received my undergraduate degree in political science from his parents’ alma mater: Ohio Wesleyan University. This should make a good icebreaker, I figured.
Upon meeting President Holloway at his residence, I could see that there would be no need to break any ice at all. He makes for one gracious host. We sat down in the sunroom and began to talk, with his Labrador retriever Joey lying next to me on the sofa, resting his head in my lap (he was having none of dad’s entreaties to get on the floor). As Holloway answered my questions thoughtfully and thoroughly, he presented an attractive alchemy of elegance, candor, friendliness, and understanding.
He’s clearly a person at peace with himself, exuding a preternatural calm. Coupled with his intelligence, education, and experience, his unassuming manner will be an enormous advantage as the leader of Rutgers for years to come. His empathetic disposition informs one of his administration’s major propositions, which he announced in September: the ideal of “a beloved community.” Distilled and simplified, it comes down to our being nice to one another and making a point to include all types of people in pursuing our collective opportunity at Rutgers. Given the deteriorating state of civic discourse in the nation, troubled by unrest over persistent social, racial, and economic inequalities, a beloved community sounds like a pretty good idea to me.
Holloway, eager to go full steam ahead once the coronavirus is subdued and life can return to normal at Rutgers, has other plans for the university. You can read about them in my profile of the new president, “A Beloved Community.”