– NJCU
Andrés Acebo, who is credited with turning around the financial fortunes of New Jersey City University, was formally installed as the institution’s 13th president during an investiture ceremony on Sept. 10 in the university’s Margaret Williams Theatre.
Acebo was unanimously appointed by the NJCU Board of Trustees in July after serving as interim president since January 2023.
Hundreds of guests from across the state representing higher education institutions, civic and government organizations, and local and state leadership attended the ceremony which immediately followed NJCU’s 44th Annual Academic Convocation.
Under Acebo’s leadership over the past two and a half years, the Jersey City university has made a remarkable financial and academic recovery. Most notably, Acebo signed a letter of intent in May to advance a historic merger integrating NJCU into Kean University that will create Kean Jersey City upon completion. The university also received its first positive financial outlook from Moody’s and implemented transformative academic and enrollment initiatives.
Acebo, who led the university through the most critical period in its 98-year history, is the son of Cuban exiles and only the third Hispanic person to serve as leader of a four-year public institution in New Jersey and the youngest known president to lead a public university in the state.
In his address, President Acebo outlined his philosophy of leadership as service, emphasized his commitment to the community that shaped him, and higher education’s special responsibility to our democracy in this pivotal moment in history.
“This moment is not about me — it is about us,” Acebo said during his investiture address.
“About the generations who have walked these steps before us: immigrants who carried hope across oceans, first-generation college students who carried dreams across generations, working parents who carried textbooks in one hand and childcare schedules in the other, veterans who carried the weight of service, dreamers who carried the promise of tomorrow learning to translate their ambition and purpose but spoke it proudly with an accent that reveals what they carry and who they carry it for. They made this campus the most beautiful thing a university can be — a mirror of its community.”
Since Acebo took office as interim president during a financial emergency in January 2023, Moody’s Ratings upgraded NJCU’s outlook from “negative” to “stable” in February 2024, followed by Fitch Ratings which did the same in November 2024. In May 2025, Moody’s upgraded New Jersey City University’s outlook from stable to positive — the first time Moody’s has ever assigned a positive outlook to the university.
“In early January 2023, when we found ourselves at one of the most perilous moments in our university’s 98-year history, the board of trustees came to Andy and asked him to step into a role that would have intimidated most seasoned administrators,” said Luke Visconti, chair of the NJCU Board of Trustees, in video remarks. “Nobody could have anticipated the scope of his success.”
He has implemented four major strategic initiatives during his tenure: the NJCU Recovery and Revitalization Plan (April 2023), the university’s first Academic Master Plan (February 2024), the institution’s first Strategic Enrollment Plan (April 2024), and the first Student Development and Community Engagement Strategic Plan (December 2024).
Under his leadership, NJCU made the most significant overhaul of its general education curriculum in decades, allowing every course on the approved New Jersey Council of County Colleges (NJCCC) list, including those without direct equivalencies, to be accepted at NJCU for general education credit.
Acebo has also strengthened community partnerships, including the Hudson Connect Program with Hudson County Community College and similar agreements with Essex County College and Mercer County Community College.
He is also credited with bolstering the university’s relationship with local communities, including enhanced partnerships with Jersey City Public Schools and the creation of the NJCU President’s Community Advisory Council in August 2024.
Under Acebo’s leadership, NJCU was ranked No. 1 in New Jersey and 10th nationally in CollegeNET’s 2023 Social Mobility Index, maintaining its top state ranking and Top 20 national position in 2024.
Acebo has been widely recognized for his transformational leadership. In May 2024, ROI-NJ named him the No. 1-ranked Influencer in New Jersey.
