Ruth Simmons leaving

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
21

<p>I could go on for a very long time about the importance of President Simmons, who was most certainly a transformative leader at Brown. If you don’t recognize the difference in Brown’s fundraising infrastructure, physical infrastructure, and faculty infrastructure, then at least look at the dramatic change in culture and tone at Brown. If you hadn’t been an active member of the Brown community it is quite possible you missed the abysmal, depressed, and self-defeated attitude amongst many members of the Brown community of the 90s. Many former leaders at Brown and prominent faculty members, some of whom did not agree with the broad direction President Simmons was moving, would be the first to admit that Brown went from a place where nothing was possible because of its size and financial position to doggedly fighting for and acquiring whatever resource is needed when there is a core need identified to improve the community.</p>

<p>But ultimately I’d rather not talk about President Simmons tenure and instead talk about some major issues that Brown will be facing in the next ten years that I hope all members of the community will be thinking about during the next year.</p>

<p>Brown has expanded virtually to capacity on College Hill. Though we have made some strategic investments in Downcity and the Jewelry District, revising the comprehensive plan to maintain, update, and acquire property will be an essential role the next president plays. We must think carefully about how we want to continue to use the space we purchased in the Jewelry District, decide if we want to purchase land in the newly opened acreage where I-195 used to cut through the heart of the city, and how to maintain and strengthen our relationship with our College Hill neighbors as we struggle to better utilize what space remains within and contiguous to Brown’s current campus.</p>

<p>Brown must reconsider its relationship with the city of Providence and state of Rhode Island. Both have been in an economic free fall since 2006 and are facing unique challenges. The vitality of Providence is as critical to Brown’s success as Brown is to Providence’s success. We must consider how to best bring Brown’s resources to bear to improve our condition at home. Whereas the community is crying for fiscal resources, a comprehensive relationship that involves sharing our human and cultural capital is at least equally important. Brown has generally been wonton about entering local policy matters that dont’ directly impact the university. It may be time to rethink how our resources around planning, design, information technology, education, and infrastructure can be leveraged effectively by the city.</p>

<p>Brown cannot become Harvard South. This is a term that faculty and student’s have been using throughout the past couple of years as an indicator of the hesitation about some decisions President Simmons has made. I believe that Brown has made smart investments and expansions on the whole, personally. But it is important that Brown continues to define itself in the context of a broader mission and vision that is unique. The university-college is a concept coined to describe Brown as far back as the first few years of the 20th century. Redefining and reaffirming this concept in a clear way will help to guide ensure our decisions are strategic and on mission. President Simmons provided us with a model for investing in our strengths and making necessary improvements to maintain our standing as a university that engages in serious, world-class scholarship. This is an important model for moving forward but it is also a model that has potential to get out of hand and cause mission-creep.</p>

<p>Brown needs to rethink its relationship with alumni, alternative students, and the world. Brown has fallen woefully behind peers who have taken part in OpenCourseWare and other initiatives to blur the boundaries between the public scholarship and private instruction that has traditionally existed on college campuses. Increasingly, adults are going to require on going training and retraining to be effective workers. Brown needs to think about ways to disseminate existing knowledge beyond College Hill that are at least as effective as the ways that Brown faculty disseminate cutting edge knowledge worldwide.</p>

<p>These are, in my opinion, the largest issues facing our leadership of the next decade (in no particular order).</p>

22

<p>Modestmelody:</p>

<p>I do not disagree with many of your points but would you please give some reference to
the statement that “university-college is a concept coined to describe Brown…”. I was just a little surprised by that claim.</p>

<p>I do agree that Brown cannot become Harvard South but I am wondering which
Universities or colleges you consider to be peers of Brown and in what sense would
they be peers.</p>

23

<p>The term “university college” was first used to describe Brown in a 1908 article in the Brown Alumni Monthly titled, “Which College for the Boy?”-- Brown A University College written by Professor Henry T. Fowler. I’ve uploaded the article to a public Google Doc here: <a href=“https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B33vHehfDdflZTAyODJmN2YtNDc2OC00ZTNmLWFiMDctODEyMTg1NTYwZjlh&hl=en_US[/url]”>https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B33vHehfDdflZTAyODJmN2YtNDc2OC00ZTNmLWFiMDctODEyMTg1NTYwZjlh&hl=en_US&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

24

<p>modest has written on the subject before: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/385841-brown-curriculum-university-college-explained.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/385841-brown-curriculum-university-college-explained.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

25

<p>Modestmelody:</p>

<p>Thank you for that very interesting article. it was interesting to note that even then, there
was a call for Brown to develop the graduate department. Although Brown has pockets of excellence in graduate education it would appear
that Princeton has done a better job in this regard while still giving much emphasis to undergraduate education. That being said the only other school that I can think of
that is the size of Brown with a more notable graduate school would be Chicago
which really started with an emphasis on graduate school and then built an undergraduate
school around that. In this sense the emphasis is different.
This is why I asked you about what schools you considered peers of Brown because
I cannot think of many schools that are really similar.</p>

26

<p>Mg, I have neither the time or inclination to post a detailed, long, response to your admirably passionate missive. However, nothing you said has altered my position. I am a Brown graduate, and I’ve observed the vicissitudes of Brown from Swearer through Simmons. In my opinion, Swearer is the finest Brown president of the last 100 years. He was transformative in so far as Brown was literally teetering on the brink of bankruptcy when he assumed the presidency, and the faculty was extraordinarily demoralized. He not only help to create a firm financial footing for the university, he enhanced its legitimacy as a quality institution of higher learning.</p>

<p>Let me briefly address some of your points. I stand by what I said about endowments. You can tease out money per student all you want, but the totality of a college’s strength is based on its endowment “as a whole”, not piecemeal. Cornell, Columbia, and Penn may have per student endowments similar to Brown, but as overall universities, despite having higher overall enrollment, they are far stronger institutions, and that strength benefits undergraduates. Whether the undergraduates have the drive and sophistication to take advantage of these resources is a moot point, the resources are there. I can’t think of a single Brown graduate department that is at the top of its field. Not one. There aren’t many that are even in the top 10 or 15. I said it before, and I’ll say it again, for a 200+ year old school to, at the very least, not have a professional school the quality of Tuck, a graduate school the quality of Princeton’s, or a combination of professional schools/graduate schools the quality of Chicago, all undergraduate teaching schools, is a disgrace, and a testiment to the poor quality of leadership the university has had. </p>

<p>My significant other is a Harvard grad, and I have some affiliation with Penn. When I’ve gone to the Harvard Club in Boston, or when I review the literature for the Penn Club in New York, they don’t seem like dinosaurs. They are vibrant venues for their alumni to meet, make connections, or just have an extremely pleasant place to stay at while in those cities. One of the perks of going to their schools. The fact that Brown never considered doing this, or at least have an affiliation with fellow New England Ivies Dartmouth, Harvard, or Yale, tells you something. What it says to me is that the university is too poor, its graduates not as successful, and the benefits of that Brown degree not as valuable as its fellow New England Ivy brethren. That dovetails with having the poorest endowment in The League as well.</p>

<p>It will be interesting to see if Brown has the ■■■■■■■ to go and get a Lee Bollinger, or some other truly visionary and charismatic leader, or will, as is its wont, settle for a nice, safe, leader, they think won’t bolt for a better offer and proceed to offer its students and their families a good product, but one that could be oh so much better.</p>

27

<p>^I genuinely appreciate your willingness to engage me on those points.</p>

<p>I have even less time and inclination to reply fully than you do. I’ll just say this: I think you’re looking for Brown to seek something that is (1) not admirable, (2) out of touch with modern reality, and (3) not beneficial to undergraduates. I have a feeling that we simply disagree on these points, and I’m not sure that there’s much convincing that can be done otherwise.</p>

<p>Your suggestion that Brown graduates might not be ‘successful’ betrays what I think is an unhealthy trust that you have in the salary markets as measures of value and success. In fact, throughout your missives, you have demonstrated an unhealthy obsession with money and prestige – an obsession that thankfully is not shared by many in the Brown community.</p>

<p>But let me turn the market-based argument back around on you: when it comes to the market for talented college applicants, Brown performs well out of proportion to its US News ranking and it’s supposedly-pitiful endowment. And that performance has improved over the past ten years way out of proportion to Brown’s peer schools. How do you explain that? Applicant stupidity? The OC and Emma Watson? Or could it be, just maybe, that the market is successfully identifying the fifth-ish-best (discounting MIT & Caltech, since that’s really a separate market) institution in the country for spending one’s undergraduate years?</p>

<p>It’s clear that Brown isn’t what you want it to be. So far as I’m concerned, it’s also clear that Brown would kinda suck if it was what you wanted it to be. When it comes to your analysis of the situation, you seem to have more in common with the editors of US News and poorly-informed college applicants – “Schools must be good and bad on an simple scale and we can rank them!!!11!!11!!!11111” – than with the intelligent, nuanced thinker that your writing suggests you might be. I suggest you take a step back and ask yourself, “These ideas of prestige and superiority that I have, how exactly do they translate into a better undergraduate experience?” I know what my answer to that question would be.</p>

28

<p>Galanter</p>

<p>Applied mathematics has been and still is one of the very strongest graduate groups.
Mention applied mathematics and academics will always mention </p>

<p>Courant Institute and Brown as well as MIT.</p>

29

<p>Galanter wrote:

</p>

<p>I seem to remember a fellow named, Vartan Gregorian who was the very embodiment of the “high roller” presidency you describe; he was the toast of the town for eight (?) years; he did all the right things; he raised money and poured it into Brown’s grad programs, just as you suggested. In the end, I think what is standing in Brown’s way is not money; they are the twin demands of two completely different outlooks, 1) the New England tradition of the small college emphasizing humanist values and, 2) the university movement which Brown did not fully embrace until after World War II. That it, along with Dartmouth, Tufts and a few others, should stand somewhere in-between those two imperatives should be celebrated, not condemned.</p>

30

<p>Research is essential to any university, even in the humanities. How can we have outstanding research without losing the quality of attention given to undergraduate education, which is the very heart and soul of Brown?</p>

31

<p>One word. Princeton. Princeton consistently ranks better than Brown as a teaching college within a larger university, and its graduate school is superb and influential. Here’s the kicker. Its overall student population is less than Brown. The new president Brown has selected is precisely what I thought Brown would do. It went to Princeton, where Simmons came from, and got what I would call a lighter shade of Simmons. I am sure she is a perfectly nice, intelligent, person, as is Simmons. But she does not strike me as the type of prospective college president who will dramatically increase Brown’s endowment to where it should be-between 4-8 Billion dollars.</p>

32

<p>I agree. Whenever I hear of Brown’s “university-college” character as a reason for caution in strengthening its graduate programs, I think of Princeton, which has managed to have both excellent undergraduate AND graduate programs while maintaining an intimate community. This shows that strengthening graduate education doesn’t necessarily disadvantage undergraduate education. </p>

<p>As for Paxson, I’ve heard her speech at Sayles during the announcement of her appointment, and I must say, I was disappointed. Her statements ended in a questioning intonation expressing doubt, a manner of speaking that doesn’t befit a university president. Neither did she exude or inspire the kind of sheer excitement President Simmons had, which doesn’t bode well for fundraising. I’m also not particularly fond of economists. I can only hope that my first impression turns out to be way off.</p>

<p>As for President Simmons, whose presidency at Brown I’ve followed throughout her tenure, she was ideal. I’m very grateful for her service and am glad she’ll be staying on at Brown as a professor.</p>

33

<p>

</p>

<p>Hmm - isn’t it Ruth Simmons’ Plan for Academic Enrichment which is changing all of that?</p>

34

<p>

</p>

<p>[How</a> Elite Firms Hire: The Inside Story, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty](<a href=“http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2011/11/how_elite_firms.html]How”>How Elite Firms Hire: The Inside Story - Econlib)</p>

<p>They do seem to care a lot about where you went to college. Not that I (or other Brown students) would actually care.</p>

35

<p>^Again, I suggest you actually take a look at the study. The inclusion of law firms, for example, makes absolutely no sense, because law firms hire from law schools, which are elite along different lines from colleges. When you’re at an elite law school (as I am, at Harvard), no one who’s looking at your resume gives the faintest consideration to where you went to college.</p>

36

<p>Depends on the law firms. I am talking about the best of the best firms. At these firms, it’s not only where you went to college, but where you “prepped”(think Groton, St. Paul’s, Hotchkiss, Deerfield, Choate, et al.).</p>

37

<p>^That is a confused load of BS. My father is a partner at a white shoe law firm, and I am a third-year law student. I know what I’m talking about.</p>

38

<p>Paxson has not started her work at Brown yet, so i suggest give her some time, then see how things play out. If outsider can’t fix the problem or make it better, Brown must find insider to do the right thing, and do it right. </p>

<p>I am more concerned about Brown’s academic future in every aspect, including medical school, graduate school, and undergraduate. When Brown is improving under Simmons, other schools are also improving. That’s when ranking (with a lot of measuring criteria) comes in, fair or not, that’s another story. Lower ranking means something is not improving enough, or peer schools have improved a lot.</p>

<p>When anyone says she/he doesn’t care about ranking, or doesn’t care anything, that’s ignorant, selfish, arrogant, and complacent in my opinion. Unless he/she has been graduated from Brown, and attended a higher rank professional or graduate school, if that’s the case, of course, he/she doesn’t care that much, because he has found another significant alma mater.</p>

<p>When people speaking of Brown, it must have something to be proud of, and is top-notched. It is a Ivy-league school not Williams/Amherst/… not liberal art colleges kind. For years, Brown has generated students for other top-school’s alumni, now it’s time to polish its own brand. Otherwise, i only see the school ranking deteriorate overtime.</p>

39

<p>Agree with you BigFire. MG, you may be a third-year law student, and your father may be a partner at a “white-shoe” firm, but that does not mean it is at the tippity top firm. I am not disagreeing with your premise that for law it is more important where you went to law school than where you went to undergraduate school, what I am saying is that at the tippity top there can be a presumption that Brown is not a pinnacle school. Why close off “any” opportunity to its students to get the highest jobs under the ruse that rankings “don’t matter”, or some other rationalization for why The University shouldn’t go for the highest in a rankings category. Aside from “Happiest Students”, can you name a rankings category where Brown is the best, based on some sort of hard metrics?</p>

40

<p>^Sorry, let me be clearer. My father is a partner at a “tippity top” New York firm. What you’re claiming is completely, utterly false.</p>

<p>The vast majority of law students do not even put their secondary schools on their resumes. The career office at HLS specifically directs you not to include your secondary school on your resume.</p>