Mordechai Rozanski, president of the University of Guelph in Ontario, to take post Aug. 1.
By: Lea Kahn
Mordechai Rozanski, a child of Holocaust survivors who rose to become the president of a top Canadian university, has been named the sixth president of Rider University in Lawrence.
Sporting a Rider University lapel pin in his suit jacket, Dr. Rozanski was introduced Tuesday morning as Rider’s next president by outgoing President J. Barton Luedeke and Anthony G. Dickson, vice chairman of Rider University’s board of trustees.
Dr. Rozanski will take over from Dr. Luedeke Aug. 1.
The 56-year-old president-elect was chosen from among a field of 100 candidates for the top job at Rider University. Dr. Rozanski, who currently is the sixth president of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, was among three finalists for the position at Rider.
Stepping to the podium Tuesday morning, Dr. Rozanski said he was "delighted, honored and somewhat humbled" to be chosen for the job.
Dr. Rozanski noted that as Dr. Luedeke retires, the school’s budget is in the black, the faculty is dedicated, enrollment at the 5,500-student school is rising and the quality of students is improving.
Rider University includes Westminster Choir College in Princeton Borough.
"I believe that the next step in Rider’s progress is the development of a new strategic plan that will affirm its vision, guide the continued enhancement of its academic stature, expand its financial resources and solidify Rider’s stature as a top-tier university," he said.
Dr. Rozanski said he had rarely seen a group of faculty that was so dedicated to the students’ success. The measure of a school’s success, beyond administrators’ rhetoric, is whether the students succeed once they have graduated, he said.
Now that he is set to take over the helm at Rider, Dr. Rozanski said, he has several goals that he wants to accomplish. He said he wants to increase the school’s endowment and invest in scholarships for students. He said he also wants to raise the school’s visibility, adding that "Rider is one of the best-kept secrets around."
While there are professional reasons for assuming the presidency of Rider University, there are personal reasons as well, Dr. Rozanski said. His wife, Bonnie Rozanski, grew up in Queens, N.Y. She followed him to Canada when he took the job at the University of Guelph, and now it is her turn, he said. She wants to be closer to her family.
Dr. Rozanski served as provost at Wagner College on Staten Island, N.Y., from 1991 to 1993, until he was appointed president of the University of Guelph in Canada. He held the president’s post for 10 years, until he accepted the Rider University post.
The University of Guelph was ranked as the best overall comprehensive university in Canada by Maclean’s magazine the equivalent of U.S. News and World Report in 1999 and 2002. Annual research funding exceeds $106 million, placing it as Canada’s leading comprehensive research university in 2002.
Dr. Rozanski held the rank of professor of history at the University of Guelph, Wagner College and Fairleigh Dickinson University.
The new Rider University president, who was born in Lodz, Poland, earned a bachelor’s degree in history from McGill University in Canada and a Ph.D. in Chinese history and American-East Asian relations from the University of Pennsylvania in 1974.

