Rutgers' first African American president takes head amid global pandemic.

Byline: Daniel J. Munoz

Long-time educator Jonathan Holloway is taking the helm July 1 as Rutgers University's first African American president, at a time when the increasingly cash-strapped institution faces uncertainty over how students will return to the campus in September amid a global pandemic.

"Soon after my January introduction as Rutgers 21st president, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic made clear that the terms of my future presidency had changed," Holloway, the former provost at Northwestern University, said in a Wednesday university-wide email.

"Because of these enormous setbacks, I will be focusing much of my initial energy as president on repair and rebuilding."

Holloway arrives at Rutgers at a time when Black Lives Matter protests for racial equality and an end toward police brutality and misconduct rock the nation; and are likely to continue once college campuses welcome back students for the fall 2020 semester.

"We are also living in a moment of global racial reckoninga development born of tragedy, willful ignorance, and grotesque violence," said Holloway, who sits on a 21-member commission advising Gov. Phil Murphy on how the state's economy can get moving once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

"These developments present us with an opportunity to work toward a world where phrases like 'social justice' and 'Black Lives Matter' are understood not as assaults on the common good, but as declarations that we should be a country that lives up to the aspirations in its founding," Holloway said.

Under a June 17 announcement from Gov. Phil Murphy, the state's dozens of colleges and universities have to submit a 10-point plan to the administration...