Dr. William F. Tate IV,
Tate, who has led the LSU system since May 2021, will begin his tenure at Rutgers on July 1, 2025, succeeding Dr. Jonathan Holloway, who served as president for five years. Along with the presidency, Tate received appointments as University Professor and Distinguished Professor.
"I am honored to join the Rutgers family, where the Rutgers Edge is more than a concept," Tate said in a statement. "It is reflected in a history of leading with outstanding research, clinical excellence, insightful pedagogy, innovative partnerships and storied athletic feats."
As president of the LSU system, Tate currently oversees multiple campuses serving more than 55,000 students across Louisiana, including 12,000 graduate students and 2,000 professional students in university health centers. His experience managing a complex, multi-campus institution with a significant athletics program (LSU competes in the SEC, while Rutgers is in the Big Ten) likely factored into his selection. Diverse profiled him in 2022.
Board of Governors Chair Amy L. Towers praised Tate as "an extraordinary leader, a scholar, an innovator and a transformative force whose vision will unite academic excellence with public impact."
Tate brings an impressive academic and administrative background to Rutgers. Prior to his presidency at LSU, he served as executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of South Carolina. Before that, he spent nearly two decades at Washington University in St. Louis, where he held roles including department chair, dean of the Graduate School, and vice provost for graduate education, along with the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professorship in Arts & Sciences.
His early career included positions at Texas Christian University, where he held the William L. and Betty F. Adams Chair, and as a tenured faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Tate's academic credentials are equally impressive. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics with a minor in mathematical sciences from Northern Illinois University, a master's in mathematical sciences education from the University of Texas at Dallas, and a Ph.D. in mathematics education with a cognate in human development from the University of Maryland, College Park. His postdoctoral training includes an Anna Julia Cooper fellowship studying social and public policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a second fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine, where he earned a master's degree in psychiatric epidemiology.
At LSU, Tate holds faculty appointments across multiple disciplines and campuses, including sociology, psychiatry and behavioral medicine, epidemiology, and population and public health. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Education, and a fellow of the American Educational Research Association.
Board of Trustees Chair Amy Mansue expressed confidence in Tate's leadership.
"Rutgers will continue to excel under Dr. Tate's leadership, in service both to New Jersey and to our nation," she said. "We welcome this next era in our great history."
Several Rutgers faculty members also praised the selection.
"I’m excited to have someone of Bill Tate’s reputation as the new president at Rutgers,” said Dr. Marybeth Gasman, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education & Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University - New Brunswick. “I think he is a wonderful complement to our current President, Jonathan Holloway, who has led the institution in a truly profound manner during difficult times.
Tate, Gasman added, is an excellent scholar, and as President of the Louisiana State University System, “he has led a highly complex organization and faced immense political challenges. Given the times we are living in and his experience, I think he is an excellent choice."
Dr. Timothy K. Eatman, the Inaugural Dean of the Honors Living-Learning Community and a Professor of Urban Education at Rutgers University-Newark agrees.
“I have known Dr. Bill Tate for many years and can personally attest to his impeccable sense of humanity and visionary leadership,” said Eatman, who added that Tate’s “leadership is far reaching and positively impactful whether at a national level in roles such as president of the American Educational Research Association or at the several campus and system level posts that he has held over the years.”
At a time when leadership in higher education could not be more important, he said that Tate “will bring to Rutgers the bold and measured focus that our great institution warrants.”
Eatman added: “With staid but compassionate and collaborative energy, Bill will bring to bear a deeply thorough analysis of what it will take to usher Rutgers into its next era of greatness and champion the manifestation of such.”
