Brown selects Ivy's first black president

Two days ago, three Ivy League universities were searching for new presidents. Yesterday, Brown announced its search was complete, leaving Princeton and Harvard with one fewer candidate from which to choose.

Smith President and former Princeton University Associate Provost Ruth Simmons was appointed by Brown yesterday to become that university's 18th president next year.

Brown's selection committee chose Simmons after a nine-month search. She will become the first African-American president of an Ivy League institution and the first female president of Brown.

"I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead this outstanding University," Simmons said in a statement yesterday. "It gives me enormous pride and joy to think that I will serve as president of an institution that not only has the ideals I can share, but also earnestly seeks to live those ideals."

With Brown's presidential decision process complete, search efforts at Harvard and Princeton remain in high gear.

Princeton began its formal search soon after President Shapiro announced his resignation Sept 22. Harvard has been seeking a successor for its president, Neil Rudenstine '56, since last summer.

And Simmons, a widely respected administrator in the higher education community, was considered by many to be a contender for both those positions.

"She certainly would have been a seriously considered candidate" for Princeton's next president, Vice President and Secretary Thomas Wright '62 said yesterday. "She was extraordinarily open and accessible" when she was a Princeton administrator, he noted.

Simmons earned her master's and doctorate degrees in Romance languages and literature at Harvard. She has served as an interpreter for the U.S. State Department, as acting director of international programs at California State University in Northridge and as associate dean of graduate studies at the University of Southern California.President of the University Board of Trustees Robert Rawson '66, who is chairing Princeton's presidential search committee, said he thinks very highly of Simmons but did not know if she would have been considered as a possible successor to Shapiro.

"We are in the very preliminary stages of our search process," he said. "We just didn't have the opportunity to get to consider Ruth."

Trustee Paul Wythes '62, the search committee's vice chair, said yesterday that committee members are still soliciting opinions of students, faculty and other administrators on what qualities those groups are looking for in the next University president. As a result, the committee has not yet created a formal applicant pool.

And while Wythes said he was pleased to hear of Simmons' appointment, he said he did not necessarily view the announcement as a setback in Princeton's search.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"Brown is a very different university from Princeton and from Harvard," he said. "It has very different needs. I don't think any one person would be right for all three schools."