First Black President in Ivy League Inaugurated
Brown University’s new president has risen to the pinnacle of academia from humble beginnings, inspired along the way by her teachers.
It was no surprise then that Ruth J. Simmons encouraged those at her inauguration to value the excellence of teaching and learning, even encouraging students to pursue a teaching career.
“Teaching, wherever it occurs, is the lifeline of the university, the nation and the world,” said Simmons, the Providence, R.I., university’s 18th president and the first black to lead an Ivy League school.
Simmons, 56, is the youngest of 12 children from a poor family of sharecroppers in segregated Texas.
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