Ruth Simmons, who has served as the president of Brown University since 2001, announced today that she will be stepping down this coming June. Simmons, a French literature scholar, was the first African-American president of an Ivy League school. She had previously been president of Smith College. At Brown, she spearheaded a fundraising campaign that raised $1.6 billion.
Ruth Simmons Stepping Down From Presidency At Brown
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She did a great job at Smith before leaving for Brown. She was a visionary who was a great fund raiser and who also won the hearts of the students and faculty. There are too few like Ruth Simmons among the ranks of college administrators. My two daughters who are Smith alums really regretted her leaving Smith.
President Simmons spoke at the Emory conference on Slavery and the University last year. I thought she was a rare university administrator: someone who really gets and values the idea of the university as a place for risk-taking and critical self-reflection.