December 15, 1994
Ruth Simmons selected to become Smith’s next president
The board of trustees announced that Ruth Simmons would become Smith’s ninth president. Simmons, who was working as vice provost at Princeton College, would be the first black president at a Seven Sisters College and the first black woman to lead a top-ranking college in the U.S. Simmons, who grew up in the Jim Crow South, was a key figure in race relations at Princeton: a 1993 report she wrote led to the establishment of a Princeton office to handle racial bias and harassment complaints.
The full Sophian article on the announcement can be found here (1, 2).
[Last updated on October 31, 2018]