Jonathan (Jon) Alger, a nationally famend scholar of upper schooling coverage, has been named American College’s sixteenth president. Alger, who has served for 12 years as president of James Madison College, will be a part of AU on July 1 upon the completion of President Sylvia Burwell’s changemaking seven-year tenure.
Beneath Alger’s management, JMU—a publicly chartered college in Harrisonburg, Virginia—elevated exterior analysis funding by 92 p.c from 2019 to 2023 and attained the R2 nationwide analysis college designation beneath the Carnegie Classifications. JMU’s endowment greater than doubled throughout his presidency, and the college exceeded the fundraising aim in its current complete marketing campaign. Alger additionally championed the creation of the Valley Students Program, which has offered full-tuition scholarships to lots of of first-generation JMU college students, and the nonpartisan James Madison Heart for Civic Engagement, which promotes democratic participation.
“Jon Alger is one in all America’s nice college presidents,” mentioned Ted Mitchell, president, American Council on Schooling (ACE). “His collaborative management fashion, deliberative demeanor, and strategic imaginative and prescient will solely speed up the good progress AU has made beneath President Burwell.”
Alger’s choice is the end result of a extremely aggressive six-month course of led by the Presidential Search Committee, which included school, workers, college students, alumni, and trustees. Gina Adams, SPA/BS ’80, chair of the AU Board of Trustees, mentioned his dedication to and fervour for scholarship, analysis, studying, and neighborhood engagement stood out amongst a gifted pool of candidates.
“His imaginative and prescient for AU, his understanding of the distinctive attributes of a college neighborhood, and his confirmed skill to deal with the complicated challenges going through increased schooling have ready Jon to steer AU shifting ahead,” Adams mentioned.
A Harvard-educated lawyer, Alger—who additionally holds a bachelor’s in political science from Swarthmore School—beforehand served as senior vice chairman and common counsel at Rutgers College. As assistant common counsel on the College of Michigan, he performed a number one function in two landmark instances on variety and admissions earlier than the US Supreme Court docket. Alger has taught undergraduate and graduate programs in management, legislation, increased schooling, public coverage, and variety at JMU, Rutgers, and Michigan.
Earlier in his profession, the Rochester, New York, native labored for the American Affiliation of College Professors and the US Division of Schooling’s Workplace for Civil Rights, the place he spearheaded the event and implementation of nationwide insurance policies on race-conscious monetary help, racial harassment, and free expression.
Alger’s scholarly work has appeared within the Journal of School and College Legislation, the Legislation of Larger Schooling, and different publications. He presently serves as vice chair of the nationwide board of administrators for the American Affiliation of Faculties and Universities and chair of the Affiliation of Governing Boards’ Council of Presidents. Alger—winner of ACE’s Council of Fellows/Constancy Investments 2021 Mentor Award—can also be a member of the Knight Fee on Intercollegiate Athletics.
“At a time when main a college is extra complicated than ever, Jon brings a wealth of expertise to the presidency,” mentioned Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Affiliation of Faculties and Universities. “He leads with compassion, transparency, integrity, authenticity, ethical braveness, and humor. I can consider no higher exemplar in the case of American College’s mission of empowering lives of objective, service, and management.”
Alger will be a part of an AU neighborhood that’s catalyzing impact-driven scholarship, fostering mental curiosity, and empowering lives of objective. Beneath Burwell’s management—and guided by the Changemakers for a Altering World strategic plan—AU has doubled externally funded analysis, expanded experiential studying to greater than 230 alternatives, launched or named 4 signature facilities, and created eight endowed school positions. AU is on the cusp of closing its historic $500 million Change Can’t Wait marketing campaign and has begun building on the $109 million Scholar Thriving Complicated, which marks the most important ever funding in pupil thriving.
“Encouraging college students to ‘dream large’ is the center of upper schooling, and the chance to affix American College is a dream come true for me and my household,” Alger mentioned. “AU’s stellar educational profile and world affect mirror the distinctive and galvanizing traits of the school, workers, college students, and alumni. Collaborating with the AU neighborhood to create the following chapter of this nice establishment is an unparalleled alternative.”
The transfer marks a homecoming of types for Alger, who met and married his spouse Mary Ann, who has an in depth background in enterprise and entrepreneurship, at Nationwide Presbyterian Church, simply down Nebraska Avenue from campus. Their daughter Eleanor is a screenwriter in Los Angeles.
AU will host a campus occasion on April 10 to welcome Alger and his household to the Eagle neighborhood.
