After a symposium welcome from Brown President Christina H. Paxson on Friday, Feb. 17, Ruth Simmons — Paxson’s predecessor, who served as president of Brown from 2001 to 2012 — was the first of many speakers who argued forcefully that it was educators’ responsibility to model a life dedicated to justice for the next generation of leaders. Simmons made national headlines this week after stepping down early as president of Prairie View A&M University, having learned that she would not be able to appoint senior leaders in the final months of her presidency.

“I had a choice between accepting that decision and enjoying [hugging] my students in May [at Commencement], or [showing] my students what it was like to live a life that was well integrated with your values,” said Simmons, who joined the symposium virtually. “And so I chose the latter. I sent a letter to my students… giving them advice about how it is possible to move through life protecting your convictions, acting in the interest of justice, and being able to accept who you are even in the moments of greatest challenge.”

In a Friday, Feb. 17, panel discussion inspired by Guinier, Simmons and Crystal Williams, president of the Rhode Island School of Design, touched on topics Guinier was passionate about, including the role of standardized testing in college admissions. Long before more than 1,800 colleges and universities stopped requiring applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores, Guinier argued in the Chronicle of Higher Education that standardized test scores don’t accurately predict the success, impact and happiness students will have later in life — and that race- and class-conscious admissions has been shown to better produce classes of effective future leaders. 

Williams said that rather than judging a prospective student’s capability using standardized tests, she prefers an admissions process that evaluates applicants’ capacity for empathy, among other things.

“One of the things I think is important for all of us, particularly [educators], to help young people understand is that humility and compassion and curiosity are not [just] nice things to have,” Williams said. “They are requirements for a life that is fulfilling, meaningful, [that] engages effectively with a broad diversity of people.”

Late on Saturday, Sylvia Carey-Butler, vice president for institutional equity and diversity at Brown, moderated a panel that emphasized the need to raise awareness of hooks’ and Guinier’s generation-defining work.

Noliwe Rooks, a professor of Africana studies at Brown, described hooks’ profound influence on her doctoral dissertation on the politics of Black hair — a topic that once wasn’t considered worthy of study until hooks wrote, “our feminism is in our hair.” Evelynn Hammonds, a professor of the history of science and of African and African American studies at Harvard, said hooks’ writing helped her articulate the importance of studying Black Americans’ significant contributions to medicine through the centuries. And Williams said that it’s thanks to previous generations of Black leaders, like Guinier and Simmons, that she feels empowered to speak frankly and fight for equity at work.

“I recognize that I have that kind of freedom, that kind of power, because I stand behind people like Dr. Simmons [and Guinier],” she said. “There is a direct line between my freedom and their work. [They taught me that] you can’t stop bringing the truth to the fore just because people are going to oppose it.”