Yesterday the face of an Ivy League university changed - literally.
Early Thursday afternoon, officials at Brown University in Providence, R.I., officially named Smith College President Ruth J. Simmons Brown's 18th president. When Simmons assumes control of Brown on July 1, she will become the first black president of an Ivy League institution. She also will join the University of Pennsylvania's Judith Rodin as the only female Ivy League presidents ever.
Simmons succeeds Gordon Gee, who angered many on campus by resigning as Brown's president on Feb. 7 to become chancellor of Vanderbilt University.
Since then, Sheila Blumstein, a professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, has served as interim president.
University of Virginia President John T. Casteen III commended Brown for choosing Simmons as its next leader.
"I think [the choice] says that Ruth Simmons has proved that she is a superb president as well as a scholar of serious stature, and that the time was right for Brown and for her. Good choice on Brown's part, good decision on her part," Casteen said.
Simmons, the youngest of 12 children, grew up in a low-income family in Texas. Her father was a sharecropper, and her mother worked as a domestic servant.
Despite this less than privileged upbringing, Simmons earned a scholarship to Dillard University, from which she graduated, summa cum laude, in 1967. After receiving her Master's degree and Ph.D. at Harvard, Simmons taught French at the University of New Orleans.
From there, she went to Princeton University, where she worked as the acting director of the African-American studies program and as assistant dean of the faculty.
Simmons is mindful of the importance of faculty members to an institution's success. In an interview with The New York Times, she said her priorities at Brown would include improving "faculty resources," which she defined as leaves, salaries and research support.
"She must have been the most qualified candidate for the job, which makes me feel comfortable with her appointment," Brown freshman Jaron Zitrin said. "Hopefully, she will be able to promote even more progress at Brown than she did at Smith."
According to Brown's student newspaper, The Brown Daily Herald, officials at Smith College credit Simmons with recruiting more minority faculty and increasing diversity on campus; improving undergraduate education through intensive seminars for first-year students; establishing the first engineering program at a women's college; and creating a program that allows students to be paid for their summer internships.
More importantly, during her five-year tenure, the endowment nearly doubled, to $900 million, a feat she hopes to repeat at Brown, where the endowment of $1.5 billion is miniscule compared to the rest of the Ivy League.
Brown students are optimistic that Simmons' strong track record will mean good things for their school.
"We are very excited to have her and we have been waiting for a long time to fill this void," said Megan Rooney, Brown senior and executive editor of Brown's Daily Herald. "For the past five years Brown as a whole has cared a lot about racial diversity on all levels, and we are very proud that Brown is the first Ivy League school to have a black president, male or female"
Read More
Honor Committee considers formal ban of AI detectors as evidence in trials
By Lexie Stadler | YesterdayThe Committee also addressed balancing student perspectives with those of Committee representatives during panel discussions.
Pro-Palestinian protesters form encampment near University Chapel
By CD News Staff | YesterdayThe encampment overlapped with a separate “May Day” protest on the Lawn, which was hosted by student activist group U.Va. Dissenters and the U.Va. Apartheid Divest Coalition.
Another aggravated assault incident reported to UPD
By Thomas Baxter | YesterdayThis is the first community alert of May.
