Princeton names current provost Eisgruber as 20th president of Ivy League school

PRINCETON, N.J. – Princeton University is promoting its current No. 2 administrator, Provost Christopher Eisgruber, to succeed Shirley Tilghman as president.

Eisgruber, a 1983 Princeton graduate, is a former Rhodes Scholar and a constitutional scholar, who has spent the last nine years as Princeton's provost, or chief academic officer. He will become Princeton's 20th president effective July 1. Tilghman announced last fall she planned to step down after 12 years in office.

The announcement closes out a year of exceptional turnover among the presidencies of Ivy League and other elite universities, with Yale, Brown, Dartmouth and MIT all selecting new leaders within the last 12 months. Yale also recently promoted its provost to president.