Mordechai Rozanski

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Mordechai Rozanski (b. 1946) became Rider University’s sixth president on August 1, 2003. In his first year, he has built upon both the foundation of his predecessors and Rider’s rich history.

President Rozanski’s 30-year record of higher education leadership includes service at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Wagner College, on Staten Island, New York until his appointment as president of the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, where he served from 1993 to 2003. During his tenure as Guelph’s president, President Rozanski led the University to national prominence as Canada’s top rated comprehensive university on three occasions; academic and research excellence among its faculty, students, staff and programs; and two successful capital campaigns, increasing Guelph’s endowment by 300 percent. Rozanski Hall, a new classroom complex, was named in his honor shortly after his departure from the University of Guelph.

President Rozanski’s life story evokes his philosophy that education has the power to transform lives. Born in Poland, the son of Holocaust survivors, his family fled to Israel, lived in France and immigrated to Montreal in 1953.

He was the first in the family to complete high school and went on to study at McGill University in Montreal, earning a B.A. in Chinese history and a Ph.D. in Chinese history/American East Asian relations at the University of Pennsylvania in 1974. He variously held summer fellowships at Columbia University and Stanford University and a year-long fellowship in Chinese language studies and research in Hong Kong.

President Rozanski held the rank of professor and taught Chinese and Asian history at several universities and colleges. He has published and lectured on Chinese history, Chinese-American relations, international education, higher education, and other related topics.

President Rozanski recently received American citizenship, making him a dual citizen of both Canada and the United States of America.