Brown Announces Simmons as First Black Ivy League President

Brown University appointed the first black president in the Ivy League last week, naming Ruth J. Simmons, the president of Smith College and a Harvard alumna, to the post.

Simmons, a well-known advocate for diversity in higher education, has headed Smith since 1995. She will assume office as Brown's 18th president in July 2001.

"When I was told I had been elected this afternoon as president of Brown, I said, 'My ancestors are smiling,'" Simmons said in a news conference.

"I do want to say that I leave Smith with very mixed feelings," she said. "I loved it there, and I never thought anybody could persuade me to leave. So, in a sense, I'm surprised that Brown was able to do that. But being here today I know that it is the right decision for me."

Brown's announcement comes at a time when two other Ivy League universities, Harvard and Princeton, are also searching for new leadership. Although Simmons is highly regarded and has the requisite Harvard degree, her name had not been circulated in media speculation about potential candidates to succeed outgoing Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine.

Harvard's search committee began collecting suggestions from the community this summer. In mid-October, search committee members announced that they had a list of 400 candidates. A former member of the Board of Overseers, the University's second-highest governing board, said that Simmons had probably been nominated.

"If there were 400 names on the list, almost certainly her name was among them," the Overseer said. "She had experience at a major research university and had since been president of a college. It's not surprising that Brown would turn to her."

Simmons received her master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard in Romance languages and literatures. At Brown, she will be a tenured professor of comparative literature.

Her selection ends a nine-month search at Brown, where officials were stunned in February by the news of then-President E. Gordon Gee's departure for the high-paying chancellorship of Vanderbilt. His unexpected decision--he had only served two years--hit the Brown community hard.

Brown junior Margie B. Kwoka said she thought Simmons would be a better fit than her predecessor.

"Everybody is really enthusiastic about the new president," Kwoka said. "She is so invested in the kind of values and ideals and goals that Brown students have, which wasn't necessarily a great fit with Gee."

Simmons, 55, is the youngest of a dozen children born to Texas sharecroppers. Major newspapers, including The New York Times, have portrayed her appointment as an academic Cinderella story.

"I remember the first time I asked my mother if I could go to college. She said, hesitating, 'If you can get a scholarship, you can go,'" Simmons said at the news conference.

"Her mouth said, 'If you can get a scholarship,' but her eyes said that she didn't think it would ever happen. So it's been very important to me to imagine that my mother would have been very happy," she said.

A graduate of Dillard University in New Orleans, she has held administrative posts at several schools, including all-women's Smith and historically black Spelman. Her highest post at a major research university was at Princeton, where she served as vice provost before assuming the leadership of Smith.

Her predecessor at Smith, Mary Maples Dunn, who is now the acting dean of the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, said she was happy to see a second woman at the helm of an Ivy League school. (Judith Rodin is the president of the University of Pennsylvania.)

"It was about time for that to happen," Dunn said. "Us Smith folks like to think of ourselves as her springboard."

Simmons received a warm welcome in her first appearance at Brown.

After her news conference, Simmons delivered an address to Brown students in which she spoke about values, student aid and faculty resources. Kwoka said Simmons was "soft-spoken" and an excellent speaker.

Smith sophomore Nancy A. Martira also said Simmons was an outstanding orator--and an accessible president.

At Smith, Martira said, Simmons is known affectionately by her first name, and when she speaks, Smith students often greet her by chanting it.

"She makes herself that approachable. It's definitely in terms of endearment and familiarity, certainly not out of disrespect," Martira said.

Martira said students at Smith are sorry to see "the most respected person on campus" go.

"The big joke over here is that we don't have a president," she said. "We don't have a president of the nation and we don't have a president of the school."

According to Martira, students were notified of Simmons' decision Thursday morning in two separate letters. But rumors were already flying around Smith by election night. On Wednesday, the Brown Daily Herald broke the story.

"The fact that it all came together was really kind of bewildering. Most people were still confused and upset about the election," Martira said. "There's a lot of hurt feelings on campus but I can't really blame her."

Brown's Corporation voted unanimously in favor of Simmons' selection in a special meeting Thursday afternoon.

Sheila Blumstein, a highly regarded professor of cognitive and linguistic science, has been serving as Brown's interim president. She will return to teaching and research upon Simmons' arrival.

Simmons serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, where Brown's 16th president, Vartan Gregorian, currently serves as president.

"I believe the curiosity, insight, discipline and intelligence she has shared with us as an active member of our board will make a difference at Brown for the students, faculty and administration," Gregorian said in a statement.

Brown Chancellor Stephen Robert, who chaired the search committee, also praised Simmons.

"It is no surprise that she has emerged as a national spokesperson for liberal education and for the ethic of civic responsibility," he said. "Dr. Simmons inspires trust and confidence and exudes personal warmth and strength of character."

--Staff writer Vasugi V. Ganeshananthan can be reached at vganesh@fas.harvard.edu.