Voting Station

Ruth Simmons

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Educator

The Resume

    (July 3, 1945- )
    President of Smith College (1995-2001)
    18th president of Brown University (July 1, 2001- )
    First African American president of an Ivy League institution
    Professor of comparative literature
    Author of 'My Mother's Daughter: Lessons I Learned in Civility and Authenticity'

Why she might be annoying:

    She is planning to accept students to Brown who can't afford it and thus putting a financial burden on the school.
    By a policy of diversity, she may be turning down other worthy students.
    She received an honorary degree from Princeton (1996)
    In most of her writings, she speaks much more of her mother than her father.
    She was the 12th child born to poverty stricken sharecroppers in Grapeland, Texas.

Why she might not be annoying:

    Chancellor Stephen Robert called her 'a person of character, of integrity, and of depth.'
    Her great-great-grandparents were slaves.
    She graduated summa cum laude at Dillard University in New Orleans (1967).
    She earned her master's and doctorate at Harvard in Romance languages and literatures (1970, 1973).
    She is especially concerned how society would allow 'racial cruelty and legally enforced segregation.'
    She works to opening higher education, particularly elite private institutions to disadvantaged minorities.
    She was the last of the twelve children of Isaac and Fannle Stubblefield.
    She was named CBS Woman of the Year (January 1996), NBC Nightly News Most Inspiring Woman (August 1996) and Glamour Magazine Woman of the Year (November 1996).
    She wrote 'I was intent on doing something productive and on being everything my parents taught me to be. Their values were clear: do good work; don't ever get too big for your breeches; always be an authentic person; don't worry too much about being famous and rich because that doesn't amount to too much.'
    She had not known one friend or relative who attended college, until she did.
    Her high school teachers, cared so much for her, they help pay her way through college. One teacher even gave her clothes to wear to school.
    She went to Europe to see an alternative to the prejudices in the U.S. but observed that cultural difference in Europe were also met with hatred and bigotry. She concluded 'We are all flawed, We all face the same great challenge: to try to learn how to overcome the uncivilized instincts that come so naturally to us, instincts to distrust, belittle, and attack anyone who is different.'
    She believes eventually people will overcome the ignorance and mistrust that becomes bigotry.

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 6 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 11 Votes: 63.64% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 13 Votes: 61.54% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 32 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 43 Votes: 74.42% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 26 Votes: 65.38% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 57 Votes: 47.37% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 92 Votes: 59.78% Annoying
    In 2005, Out of 181 Votes: 55.25% Annoying
    In 2004, Out of 270 Votes: 54.81% Annoying
    In 2003, Out of 498 Votes: 54.02% Annoying