Antonio D. Tillis

Antonio D. Tillis
Chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden
Incumbent
Assumed office July 1, 2021
Preceded by	Margaret Marsh
President of the University of Houston–Downtown
Interim
In office July 2020 – July 2021
Preceded by	Juan Sánchez Muñoz
Personal details
Born	1966 (age 57–58) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Education	Vanderbilt University (BS) Howard University (MA) University of Missouri (PhD)

Antonio D. Tillis (born 1966) is an American academic administrator currently serving as the chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden. He assumed office on July 1, 2021. A few months later, faculty in the School of Arts and Sciences voted no confidence in him, criticizing Tillis for having "grievously injured the College of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers-Camden" and having "seriously eroded the trust of its faculty in his leadership."

Education

Tillis was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and was the first member of his family to attend college. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Spanish from Vanderbilt University, a Master of Arts in Spanish literature from Howard University, and a Ph.D. in Latin American literature from the University of Missouri. He is fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese.

Career

Tillis has contributed articles to several academic publications, including The Afro-Hispanic Reader and Anthology, Callaloo, Hispania, Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, CA, and Transit Circle. He co-authored The Trayvon Martin in US: An American Tragedy and edited Critical Perspectives on Afro-Latin American Literature. Tillis served as the dean of the School of Languages, Culture & World Affairs at the College of Charleston. He also chair of the Latin American and Latino studies department at Purdue University. He was also the chair of the African and African-American studies department at Dartmouth College.

Tillis joined the University of Houston–Downtown as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. He was selected by trustees of the University of Houston System to serve as interim president on July 2, 2020. On April 27, 2021, Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway announced that Tillis would assume the post of chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden on July 1, 2021.

Tillis' research focuses on Hispanism, African-American studies, Latino studies, African-American culture, Latin American culture, Afro-Latino culture and literature, and Latin American literature.

Rutgers–Camden presidency

Controversy and No-Confidence Vote

The no-confidence vote, which has rarely occurred at the university, arose because of Tillis' sudden dismissal of Howard Marchitello, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Dean at Rutgers—Camden. The decision sparked widespread controversy and apprehension among faculty, graduate workers, students, and staff. Marchitello's abrupt removal was purportedly tied to his vocal criticism of ongoing university pay equity issues. Camden professors argued that they receive lower pay compared to their peers at Rutgers’ New Brunswick and Newark campuses.

During a Faculty Senate meeting on November 1st, Marchitello said it was possible that his termination was a result of public remarks he had made regarding the "structural and chronic underinvestment" in the Camden Campus. Rebecca Givan, president of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT faculty union, highlighted the university's lack of sufficient investment in the campus, which predominantly serves students from lower-income backgrounds, making them "feel like second-class citizens, and that matters." These circumstances contributed to the occurrence of the 2023 Rutgers University strike.

Marchitello also disclosed that he was instructed by his superiors on multiple occasions to refrain from discussing the pay equity program with faculty, despite his pivotal role in the recommendation process. According to Keith Green, director of Africana Studies at Rutgers-Camden and associate professor of English, the dean's dismissal is reflective of a style of leadership that disregards the concerns and viewpoints of Rutgers-Camden students and faculty.

Enrollment Decline

Under Tillis' chancellorship, Rutgers’ Camden campus experienced a decline in first-year enrollment of over 30 percent, the largest drop of any university in the country, according to a September 2022 report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. In contrast, the Newark campus experienced a decrease of only 8.2 percent while New Brunswick’s rate increased by 9.9 percent and the overall University’s first-year enrollment increased by 3.3 percent. According to a university report, the campus had a total of 3,928 undergraduates in 2023, down 32% from a seven-year peak of 5,776 in 2018.