Brown University President Ruth Simmons will step down from her position which she has held since 2001 at the conclusion of the 2011-2012 academic year, Simmons wrote in a letter to the Brown community on Sept. 15. Simmons, the first and only black Ivy League president in the history of the League, said in an interview with The Brown Daily Herald that she initially planned to vacate the post after 10 years but remained for an additional year after a request by Brown's governing body. During her presidency, Simmons began a Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, set up an endowment for public school students in Providence, R.I., increased the number of Brown faculty members by 20 percent and established tuition-free fellowships for students completing master's degrees in urban education and urban-education policy. Simmons will continue to serve as a comparative literature and Africana studies at the university, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported.
Deep Springs College, which has remained an all-male institution since its founding in 1917, will begin to admit women after a 10-2 vote by the school's Board of Trustees, Inside Higher Ed reported. Students at the two-year California college have pushed for the change in the past, but trustees resisted until this year. Chairman of the Board Dave Hitz said in an email to alumni and community members that Deep Springs has lost prospective students, donors and faculty members who oppose the school's single-sex policy. Deep Springs will need at least one year to fully integrate women into the college, which is renowned for a unique curriculum that combines homework with fieldwork, as well as for small classes of under 30 students, according to Inside Higher Ed. Students, all of whom receive a full scholarship to attend Deep Springs, typically transfer to highly selective colleges following completion of the program. Despite the recent change, Deep Springs does not intend to increase enrollment, Insider Higher Ed reported.
Average SAT scores declined nationwide across all three sections of the test for the first time in recent years, Inside Higher Ed reported. The national average of scores on the mathematics and writing sections fell one and two points respectively, while average scores for the critical reading section fell three points. The College Board attributed the most recent decline to a growing number of test-takers and the increased diversity of the test-taking pool, according to Inside Higher Ed. The data also indicates a widening gap between the SAT performance of members of certain racial and ethnic groups. While the average scores of Asian Americans has risen by 30 points over the past three years, scores for every other group have declined, Inside Higher Ed reported.
