PVAMU new president update?
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Storm96
Well-Known Member
Simmons’ Presidency Ushers in New Era for Prairie View
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – Dr. Ruth J. Simmons took the mantle this weekend as the first woman and eighth president of Prairie View A&M University, marking the special occasion with the creation of a $100,000 scholarship to honor her parents.
The Fannie and Isaac Stubblefield Endowed Scholarship will be matched by an additional $100,000 from the Texas A&M University System and its Chancellor John Sharp.
“How could I turn away from doing for other young people what was done for me?” Simmons asked during her inaugural address, reminiscing about her journey from her days as an undergraduate student at Dillard University to earning a doctorate from Harvard. Along the way, she said she encountered “teachers who cared enough to help a poor student.”
“Poverty is not the state of one’s mind, it is the condition of one’s purse,” she told the hundreds in attendance during the outdoor ceremony under overcast skies on a cool, windy spring day. “My mother and father lived most of their lives at the poverty level, raised 12 children to adulthood. They taught us how to live with dignity and purpose, insistent on us showing the basic respect that they were never afforded. This $200,000 will be the beginning of my commitment to give as much as I can to ensure that our students have the support they need to complete their students.”
Simmons also announced a $20,000 fund to support four student scholarships annually.
“When we first found out Prairie View was in need of a new leader, we knew Dr. Simmons was retired, we knew she was living in Houston and we knew it was a long shot,” Sharp said. “She and I had a meeting and as I sat there listening to her talk about Prairie View and the impact an education from Prairie View had on her own brother, I saw her love for the university. Watching her accept this challenge was the most exciting moment of my career.”
He added: “I guarantee you that you will not find a president who is more dedicated to the students than Ruth is. In every conversation we’ve had, the students have been her main concern. It’s no wonder they call her ‘Ruth the Truth.’”
A humble upbringing
Born on a farm in Grapeland, Texas, alongside 11 siblings, Simmons fought back tears as she recalled her educational struggles and growing up poor during the height of segregation.
“My parents kept us safe at a dangerous time. Without their sacrifice and teaching, I could not stand here today,” Simmons said as she took the helm of the institution which was founded as Alta Vista Normal School for Colored Youth in 1876 to educate former slaves.
Her inauguration at PVAMU brought Simmons’ academic career full circle. She graduated from Phyllis Wheatley High School in nearby Houston’s fifth ward in the 1960s and made history as the first Black and first female president of Brown University. She also held administrative roles at the University of Southern California, Princeton University and Spelman College before her appointment in 1999 as president of Smith College, the largest women’s college in the United States.
In her speech, Simmons mentioned Massachusetts education reformer Horace Mann – who entered Brown University at age 20 and graduated as valedictorian – as a role model.
“Like me, he was born on a farm with limited access to education. Like me, he found the town library as a resource,” she said. “I concluded that in spite of the limitations of segregation, I could hope for a brilliant future.”
Those in attendance represented universities across America and included Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas; Dr. Johnetta B. Cole, the first Black female president of Spelman; Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, professor of sociology at Georgetown University; and actor Chris Tucker.
“Chris Tucker reached out to me after Hurricane Harvey and asked how he could help. There were students who needed help, including automobiles being flooded,” Simmons said before asking Tucker to stand. Through the gifts of Tucker and numerous others, students were able to replace lost items.
“We are grateful for her humble beginnings here in Texas, and we are grateful to her for her academic leadership here at Prairie View,” Lee said. “She believes that nothing is broken and that human beings can thrive.”
Dr. Walter E. Massey, former president of Morehouse College and now chancellor of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, gave the keynote address, praising Simmons’ work in academia.
He said Simmons’ decision to lead Prairie View demonstrated the importance of HBCUs.
“HBCUs have a commitment to student development. They do more with less and do it well because they have no choice,” Massey said. “She is in an ideal situation. No doubt, many HBCUs are at a critical point. Their numbers have been decreasing over the years and today there are less than 100. Pressure to raise money is the main reason many presidents leave.”
However, Massey said, beginning in 2016, the remaining HBCUs have started to achieve record enrollment. He also noted that PVAMU’s College of Engineering is a leader in producing black engineers and number one in producing black architects in America.
http://diverseeducation.com/article/114768/?utm_campaign=DIV1804 DAILY NEWSLETTER APR23&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – Dr. Ruth J. Simmons took the mantle this weekend as the first woman and eighth president of Prairie View A&M University, marking the special occasion with the creation of a $100,000 scholarship to honor her parents.
The Fannie and Isaac Stubblefield Endowed Scholarship will be matched by an additional $100,000 from the Texas A&M University System and its Chancellor John Sharp.
“How could I turn away from doing for other young people what was done for me?” Simmons asked during her inaugural address, reminiscing about her journey from her days as an undergraduate student at Dillard University to earning a doctorate from Harvard. Along the way, she said she encountered “teachers who cared enough to help a poor student.”
“Poverty is not the state of one’s mind, it is the condition of one’s purse,” she told the hundreds in attendance during the outdoor ceremony under overcast skies on a cool, windy spring day. “My mother and father lived most of their lives at the poverty level, raised 12 children to adulthood. They taught us how to live with dignity and purpose, insistent on us showing the basic respect that they were never afforded. This $200,000 will be the beginning of my commitment to give as much as I can to ensure that our students have the support they need to complete their students.”
Simmons also announced a $20,000 fund to support four student scholarships annually.
“When we first found out Prairie View was in need of a new leader, we knew Dr. Simmons was retired, we knew she was living in Houston and we knew it was a long shot,” Sharp said. “She and I had a meeting and as I sat there listening to her talk about Prairie View and the impact an education from Prairie View had on her own brother, I saw her love for the university. Watching her accept this challenge was the most exciting moment of my career.”
He added: “I guarantee you that you will not find a president who is more dedicated to the students than Ruth is. In every conversation we’ve had, the students have been her main concern. It’s no wonder they call her ‘Ruth the Truth.’”
A humble upbringing
Born on a farm in Grapeland, Texas, alongside 11 siblings, Simmons fought back tears as she recalled her educational struggles and growing up poor during the height of segregation.
“My parents kept us safe at a dangerous time. Without their sacrifice and teaching, I could not stand here today,” Simmons said as she took the helm of the institution which was founded as Alta Vista Normal School for Colored Youth in 1876 to educate former slaves.
Her inauguration at PVAMU brought Simmons’ academic career full circle. She graduated from Phyllis Wheatley High School in nearby Houston’s fifth ward in the 1960s and made history as the first Black and first female president of Brown University. She also held administrative roles at the University of Southern California, Princeton University and Spelman College before her appointment in 1999 as president of Smith College, the largest women’s college in the United States.
In her speech, Simmons mentioned Massachusetts education reformer Horace Mann – who entered Brown University at age 20 and graduated as valedictorian – as a role model.
“Like me, he was born on a farm with limited access to education. Like me, he found the town library as a resource,” she said. “I concluded that in spite of the limitations of segregation, I could hope for a brilliant future.”
Those in attendance represented universities across America and included Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas; Dr. Johnetta B. Cole, the first Black female president of Spelman; Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, professor of sociology at Georgetown University; and actor Chris Tucker.
“Chris Tucker reached out to me after Hurricane Harvey and asked how he could help. There were students who needed help, including automobiles being flooded,” Simmons said before asking Tucker to stand. Through the gifts of Tucker and numerous others, students were able to replace lost items.
“We are grateful for her humble beginnings here in Texas, and we are grateful to her for her academic leadership here at Prairie View,” Lee said. “She believes that nothing is broken and that human beings can thrive.”
Dr. Walter E. Massey, former president of Morehouse College and now chancellor of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, gave the keynote address, praising Simmons’ work in academia.
He said Simmons’ decision to lead Prairie View demonstrated the importance of HBCUs.
“HBCUs have a commitment to student development. They do more with less and do it well because they have no choice,” Massey said. “She is in an ideal situation. No doubt, many HBCUs are at a critical point. Their numbers have been decreasing over the years and today there are less than 100. Pressure to raise money is the main reason many presidents leave.”
However, Massey said, beginning in 2016, the remaining HBCUs have started to achieve record enrollment. He also noted that PVAMU’s College of Engineering is a leader in producing black engineers and number one in producing black architects in America.
http://diverseeducation.com/article/114768/?utm_campaign=DIV1804 DAILY NEWSLETTER APR23&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua
Storm96
Well-Known Member
A third act
High expectations surround Ruth Simmons' presidency at Prairie View A&M University
PRAIRIE VIEW — Emotion pulled at Ruth Simmons when she visited Prairie View A&M University’s campus last year.
As she considered taking charge of the historically black university, she remembered where she’d begun her academic path that would lead to the top rungs of higher education as president of Brown University, an Ivy League school.
She had been a poor student. She knew firsthand that historically black colleges could change lives. She saw Prairie View A&M’s students striving to move ahead, just as she once had.
How meaningful it is, she thought, to have this place.
At Prairie View A&M — hundreds of miles and worlds away from the elite private institutions she once led — Simmons thought she might be able to do something significant.
There would be challenges. Unlike at Ivy League schools, very poor students make up the majority of those who enroll. Many struggle to graduate in six years, let alone four. The last time a national spotlight focused on the university was in 2015, when alumna Sandra Bland’s death in a Waller County jail after a traffic stop brought national outrage.
But Simmons took her fears — of disappointing students, of failing to realize how difficult the job might be — as a sign to take charge. Now 72, she came out of retirement to accept the post.
“I believe in a way that my path to Prairie View was written in the heavens,” Simmons said in April at her inauguration as the university’s eighth president. “For how else can I explain the improbable way I came to this task? How can I turn away from doing for other young people what was done for me?”
Simmons has eye-popping goals for the 142-year-old institution that would be difficult for any president to achieve, even one with the nationwide reverence she inspires. She believes Prairie View can be among the best smaller universities in the country, and the best historically black college.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...m_source=CMS Sharing Button&utm_medium=social
High expectations surround Ruth Simmons' presidency at Prairie View A&M University
PRAIRIE VIEW — Emotion pulled at Ruth Simmons when she visited Prairie View A&M University’s campus last year.
As she considered taking charge of the historically black university, she remembered where she’d begun her academic path that would lead to the top rungs of higher education as president of Brown University, an Ivy League school.
She had been a poor student. She knew firsthand that historically black colleges could change lives. She saw Prairie View A&M’s students striving to move ahead, just as she once had.
How meaningful it is, she thought, to have this place.
At Prairie View A&M — hundreds of miles and worlds away from the elite private institutions she once led — Simmons thought she might be able to do something significant.
There would be challenges. Unlike at Ivy League schools, very poor students make up the majority of those who enroll. Many struggle to graduate in six years, let alone four. The last time a national spotlight focused on the university was in 2015, when alumna Sandra Bland’s death in a Waller County jail after a traffic stop brought national outrage.
But Simmons took her fears — of disappointing students, of failing to realize how difficult the job might be — as a sign to take charge. Now 72, she came out of retirement to accept the post.
“I believe in a way that my path to Prairie View was written in the heavens,” Simmons said in April at her inauguration as the university’s eighth president. “For how else can I explain the improbable way I came to this task? How can I turn away from doing for other young people what was done for me?”
Simmons has eye-popping goals for the 142-year-old institution that would be difficult for any president to achieve, even one with the nationwide reverence she inspires. She believes Prairie View can be among the best smaller universities in the country, and the best historically black college.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...m_source=CMS Sharing Button&utm_medium=social
Storm96
Well-Known Member
n April, Ruth Simmons was formally inaugurated as the eighth president of Prairie View A&M University at a ceremony in the school’s football stadium. It was an unlikely new chapter for the 72-year-old educator, who previously served as president of Brown University and Smith College, two of the most elite schools in the country. For Simmons, who grew up in Houston’s Fifth Ward and attended Phillis Wheatley High School before earning degrees from Dillard University and Harvard, the new post also marks a Texas homecoming. Texas Monthly recently caught up with Simmons by phone to discuss her plans for Prairie View.
Texas Monthly: When you retired from Brown in 2012, did you anticipate that you would ever be a university president again?
Ruth Simmons: Oh, heavens no. In fact, I was absolutely certain that I would not ever wish to do that. I was offered presidencies after I left Brown, and I refused. I had a wonderful career, and I had already been president at two very fine places. In each instance I would say my tenure was thoroughly enjoyable, so I thought I didn’t deserve another presidency. Besides, I think old people should get out of the way and let younger people take the helm.
TM: What changed your mind?
RS: The possibility of doing something in Texas. If I had the opportunity to come to Texas earlier in my career, I would have done that. So when [Texas A&M Chancellor] John Sharp contacted me and asked if I would be willing to fill in for a while at Prairie View, I thought, here’s an opportunity to do what I love in Texas. [Simmons served briefly as interim president before her official appointment.] I knew Prairie View, because my brother and other members of my family went there. It’s a place my family prized. And one of the things I’ve learned in my career is that loyalty from alumni is evidence of something very worthwhile taking place at the institution. I came to understand what an immense asset the university is to the state.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/r..._campaign=Web Social&utm_content=Ruth Simmons
Texas Monthly: When you retired from Brown in 2012, did you anticipate that you would ever be a university president again?
Ruth Simmons: Oh, heavens no. In fact, I was absolutely certain that I would not ever wish to do that. I was offered presidencies after I left Brown, and I refused. I had a wonderful career, and I had already been president at two very fine places. In each instance I would say my tenure was thoroughly enjoyable, so I thought I didn’t deserve another presidency. Besides, I think old people should get out of the way and let younger people take the helm.
TM: What changed your mind?
RS: The possibility of doing something in Texas. If I had the opportunity to come to Texas earlier in my career, I would have done that. So when [Texas A&M Chancellor] John Sharp contacted me and asked if I would be willing to fill in for a while at Prairie View, I thought, here’s an opportunity to do what I love in Texas. [Simmons served briefly as interim president before her official appointment.] I knew Prairie View, because my brother and other members of my family went there. It’s a place my family prized. And one of the things I’ve learned in my career is that loyalty from alumni is evidence of something very worthwhile taking place at the institution. I came to understand what an immense asset the university is to the state.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/r..._campaign=Web Social&utm_content=Ruth Simmons
Storm96
Well-Known Member
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors has appointed Prairie View A&M University President Ruth Simmons to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ Houston Branch board of directors.
The Houston Branch board consists of seven members, four appointed by the Dallas Federal Reserve and three by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. Simmons will serve the remaining portion of an unexpired term ending Dec. 31. As a board member, Simmons will provide input into regional economic conditions as part of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy functions.
The Houston Branch board consists of seven members, four appointed by the Dallas Federal Reserve and three by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. Simmons will serve the remaining portion of an unexpired term ending Dec. 31. As a board member, Simmons will provide input into regional economic conditions as part of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy functions.
Storm96
Well-Known Member
Ruth Simmons to deliver principal address at Harvard celebration for Class of 2021
Ruth Simmons, Ph.D. ’73, president of Prairie View A&M University, president emerita of both Brown University and Smith College, and one of the nation’s foremost leaders in higher education, will be the principal speaker at Harvard’s celebration of the Class of 2021 on Thursday, May 27.
“I am delighted to announce that Ruth Simmons will deliver our principal address,” said Harvard President Larry Bacow in a message to the Harvard community today in which he announced the virtual celebration, calling her “among America’s foremost advocates for higher education.”
“Having led a women’s college, an Ivy League research university, and a historically Black university, she has a unique perspective on how very different types of institutions contribute to the fabric of our nation” said Bacow. “She has also defended with great passion the possibility of improving our society by learning from our differences. I very much look forward to hearing her remarks later this year.”
Ruth Simmons to deliver address at Harvard’s celebration of the Class of 2021
Prairie View A&M University President Ruth Simmons, who earned her Ph.D. from Harvard in 1973, will give the principal speech at the celebration for the Class of 2021.
news.harvard.edu
Storm96
Well-Known Member
Ruth J. Simmons will speak at Princeton’s Baccalaureate ceremony
Prairie View A&M University President Ruth J. Simmons, who previously served as president of both Brown University and Smith College, will deliver the keynote address at Princeton University’s 2021 Baccalaureate ceremony.
www.princeton.edu
Storm96
Well-Known Member