American University (DC) announced Monday that its 16th president will be Jonathan Alger, a higher education policy scholar who has been president of James Madison University in Virginia for the past dozen years. Alger, who goes by Jon, will step into the position July 1, when current AU President Sylvia Burwell departs after seven years of leading the private university in Northwest Washington. American University, which has about 14,000 students attending, was chartered by Congress in 1893 and includes schools of law, public affairs and international service.