William F. Tate IV, the current president of the Louisiana State University (LSU) system and chancellor of its Baton Rouge campus, has been appointed as the 22nd president of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Tate will officially begin his tenure on July 1, 2025, succeeding Jonathan Holloway, who has served as Rutgers president for five years.
The Rutgers Board of Governors approved Tate’s appointment during a joint meeting with the Rutgers Board of Trustees. In addition to becoming president, Tate will also hold the titles of University Professor and Distinguished Professor at Rutgers.
Tate’s selection comes after an extensive search by a 20-member presidential search committee, which included representatives from Rutgers’ diverse campuses, students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community partners. Amy L. Towers, chair of the Rutgers Board of Governors and co-chair of the search committee, expressed confidence in Tate’s leadership abilities.
“When the presidential search committee began the search for Rutgers’ next president, we sought a transformative leader who embodies Rutgers’ values and our multi-campus identity – someone who is intentional, collaborative, and unafraid to think big,” said Towers. “Dr. Tate is that extraordinary leader, a scholar, an innovator, and a transformative force whose vision will unite academic excellence with public impact.”
Tate has served as LSU president since May 2021. During his tenure, LSU’s enrollment grew significantly, and its research output increased. As president, he oversaw the entire LSU system, which includes more than 55,000 students across multiple campuses in Louisiana. He also holds faculty appointments in sociology, psychiatry and behavioral medicine, epidemiology, and population and public health at LSU and its affiliated health sciences centers.
Before joining LSU, Tate held several prominent academic leadership positions. He served as executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of South Carolina (UofSC), where he oversaw 13 schools and colleges, two medical schools, and academic affairs across the university. Among his accomplishments at UofSC were launching Carolina Online to expand access to online degree programs and establishing the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program to enhance research productivity.
Earlier in his career, Tate held leadership roles at Washington University in St. Louis, including serving as dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education. He also served as a department chair and held the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professorship in Arts & Sciences. Prior to that, he was the William L. and Betty F. Adams Chair at Texas Christian University (TCU) and a tenured faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics with a minor in mathematical sciences from Northern Illinois University, a master’s degree 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. He completed two postdoctoral fellowships—one at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying social and public policy as an Anna Julia Cooper Fellow and another at Washington University School of Medicine, where he earned a master’s degree in psychiatric epidemiology.