Simmons, who is the first and only black president of an Ivy League university, was appointed as Brown’s president in 2001.
Among the initiatives she oversaw at Brown was the establishment of a Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice in response to arguments by conservative writer David Horowitz against paying reparations to descendants of American slaves.
The committee recommended an acknowledgment of the university’s “part in grievous crimes,” noting that early benefactors had benefited financially from slavery, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The committee’s findings also led to efforts by Brown to atone for past racial transgressions, such as a public education endowment for local students.
Simmons joined the Princeton faculty in 1983 as a professor of Romance languages. She left in 1990 to join the administration of Spelman College and then returned to Princeton as vice provost from 1992 to 1995, where she oversaw a review of campus race relations.
After stepping down as Brown’s president this year, Simmons plans to continue as a member of Brown’s literature and African studies faculty.
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