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'Two steps backwards': Rutgers-Newark chancellor will be replaced next year
By
Karen Yi
Published Aug 16, 2023
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L. Busacca/WireImage for EMI Music Publishing
By
Karen Yi
Published Aug 16, 2023
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Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway plans to replace the longtime head of the Newark campus once her contract expires next June, he announced in an email to staff on Wednesday.
Chancellor Nancy Cantor has led Rutgers-Newark since 2013 and news of her departure was quickly met with dismay by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, state legislative officials and other city leaders, including the CEO of the NJ Performing Arts Center.
“To discard Chancellor Cantor is taking two steps backwards,” Baraka wrote in a letter to Holloway co-signed by 13 other civic leaders. “It disrupts a long and hard-fought progress that Newark is journeying on. It flies in the face of the collective work that we have been doing many times with Chancellor Cantor’s insistence, her commitment, and sheer will. Therefore, I, along with the following group of leaders dedicated to improving our city, implore the University to reconsider its decision to replace Chancellor Cantor. It would be a grave error.”
Dory Devlin, a spokeswoman for the university, wouldn’t confirm whether Cantor was non-renewed or why she was leaving once her contract expired June 2024. Cantor’s office didn’t return a request for comment.
The news of Cantor’s departure surprised faculty and city leaders. Cantor is well liked among the teaching staff and her 10-year tenure on campus has been marked by her relentless advocacy for Newark.
“When Cantor came to Newark, she committed to that and has really followed through,” said Kyle Riismandel, director of the graduate program of American Studies. “Telling the stories of Newark, the history of Newark, helping the people of Newark represent themselves, was extremely important.”
Cantor has been a major cheerleader for the city, leveraging university resources to provide data-informed approaches to increasing safety in Newark, green-lighting research projects on Newark’s affordable housing crisis and launching Express Newark, an arts collaboration.
Baraka said Cantor boosted college enrollment among Newark residents by 60% during her tenure, expanding financial aid programs and helping students through the college application process. She even hired 440 Newark residents as part of a city initiative to boost local hiring by anchor institutions.
“No longer does the university feel like an untouchable fortress located in the city; it is not a vital part of our community because of her leadership,” Baraka wrote in his letter.
Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz, Assemblywomen Shanique Speight and Eliana Pintor Marin, as well as leaders of the Newark Museum of Art and the Victoria Foundation also signed the letter.
Holloway said a national search would be conducted to replace Cantor.
“There may be no other chancellor in the country as committed to the impact that a university can have on its host community as an anchor institution. In carrying out this commitment, Dr. Cantor has offered a sterling example of how to make higher education more inclusive and more publicly engaged,” he wrote in the note announcing her leave.
Devlin said as part of her contract, Cantor will take a one year sabbatical at her current salary next June and have the option of returning as a university professor with tenure.
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Karen Yi
Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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