Holloway attends his 1st in-person RUSA town hall event to discuss variety of issues at U.

This past Thursday, the Rutgers University Student Assembly held a town hall meeting with University President Jonathan Holloway in which he answered live questions about current issues impacting Rutgers.

Prior to taking questions from attendees, Holloway offered a statement regarding Rutgers' memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Tel Aviv University (TAU) in Israel, which has received criticism from some student groups.

Members of the student organization Students for Justice in Palestine at Rutgers—New Brunswick (SJP) were present at the town hall to voice their dissent toward the partnership and ask questions about how the University plans to protect its Palestinian students while working with TAU. 

In his prefacing announcement, Holloway said the MOU does not propose any significant changes other than the establishment of a grant program that will provide select researchers from both signatory institutions the opportunity to work on projects within the upcoming NJ Innovation and Technology Hub.

“(The MOU) is actually an utterly mundane document,’” he said. “It is a boilerplate MOU in the sense that Rutgers signs these kinds of agreements with universities across the country, around the world.”

Holloway said that while he recognizes negative feelings individuals may have toward the agreement, he said he cannot offer any political commentary on the state of Israel as University president. Additionally, he said he finds it difficult to scrutinize other institutions' practices, given that Rutgers itself has a history of injustice.

Holloway later clarified this point during the event’s question-and-answer portion, where a student asked whether the president’s mention of Rutgers’ history is meant to excuse injustice in the present, specifically in relation to TAU.

“I'm not trying to compare trauma between the two universities … I'm saying, 'Be mindful of longer histories of institutions in the ways that you're criticizing right now,'” he said. “But when I am looking to sign scientific agreements, my metric has not been … to run a political assessment of the institution with which I am signing documents.”

In response to another student’s question about TAU’s work with the Israeli military in developing strategies of disproportionate force against civilian Palestinian communities, Holloway said he cannot comment on the situation since Rutgers also has contracts with military forces, namely the U.S. Department of Defense.

Upon being asked by an SJP member, Holloway said he would be open to meeting with students from the organization to further discuss the issue.

In addition to the University’s MOU with TAU, multiple students also asked questions about the underfunding of specific departments within Rutgers, specifically those that focus on the humanities, ethnic studies or religion.

Aarushi Govil, a School of Engineering senior, said it is difficult to reconcile the University’s goal of creating socially conscious students with its lack of course offerings that teach cultural competency skills. Holloway said this issue can be attributed to decentralization within the University.

“There are silos in higher (education) where everybody focuses on their little space — that's natural,” Holloway said. “I have never seen silos with walls as thick as the ones (at Rutgers).”

He said the University’s lack of centralized communication disallows departments and faculty to coordinate with each other in terms of courses, sabbaticals and research. This results in courses being cut and programs being underfunded, he said.

Holloway said the Rutgers—New Brunswick Academic Master Plan takes a broad look across the University’s many departments and will use that data to change Rutgers’ internal communication structure in a way that better addresses these issues.

With regard to questions about the campus bus system and safety for off-campus residents, the president deferred to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Antonio M. Calcado, who was also present at the event.

Calcado said the University is currently monitoring data regarding bus usage and will use that information to make adjustments. Though, he said that adding more buses has already been ruled out.

“This year, there is, at least, a perception that the (bus) system seems to be slowed down for whatever reason. Interestingly, we have 20 percent less ridership on the buses than we did pre-pandemic,” he said. “So there is a belief that there may be some self-correction, given the fact that we're 20 percent less than we were two years ago, and we are studying that data on a regular basis.”

With respect to safety issues for off-campus students, especially at night, Calcado said that Rutgers works closely with the New Brunswick Police Department to monitor areas where off-campus students live.

In addition, students can request a public safety representative from the Rutgers University Police Department to escort them home at night, he said.

At the end of the event, Holloway said he appreciated answering questions from students and was open to engaging with them in a town hall format again.

“This is my first in-person appearance at the town hall,” he said. “If (the Assembly) will have me back, it will not be my last one.”