As soon as Harvard University President Lawrence Summers announced his resignation last Tuesday, academics and the media began speculating about who will succeed him.
One frequently mentioned name is that of Brown President Ruth Simmons, whose office has so far declined to answer any questions regarding her interest in the Harvard presidency.
A scholar of college presidents, a prominent former Harvard professor and a current Harvard professor who helped oust Summers said Simmons would make a compelling candidate to lead one of the world's most prestigious institutions of higher education.
"If I'm sitting on the Harvard Corporation and I looked at Ruth Simmons' presidency both at Smith (College) and Brown, I would know she has the capacity to be the next president of Harvard," said Stephen Nelson, who studies college presidents. "My guess is that she's probably going to be on the list and that she's going to get some serious consideration."
Nelson is an associate professor of educational leadership at Bridgewater State College and the author of a book titled "Leaders in the Crucible: The Moral Voice of College Presidents." He is also affiliated with Brown's Leadership Alliance.
Simmons might be appealing to Harvard in light of Summers' tumultuous tenure, Nelson said. Summers resigned primarily because members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the university's largest school, criticized his leadership ability following the resignations of many of the school's top deans and administrators.
What Simmons could bring to the Cambridge, Mass., university is the ability to be a strong leader while building coalitions, Nelson said.
"Simmons clearly is a listener," he added. "She would clearly listen while still having great force herself. She would work to a consensus and work with people to build coalitions and do what Summers wouldn't do. Harvard, as an institute, is going to need someone to get the organization back together."
Simmons could also "instantly" heal some wounds that Summers inflicted at the university last year, when he remarked at an academic conference that women may have less innate scientific ability than men, Nelson said. Simmons, who at Smith started the first-ever engineering program at a women's college, may appeal to many at Harvard, if only for the fact that she is female. That she is black is another plus, Nelson said.
Harvard has never had a woman or person of color as its president in its 370-year history.
Simmons has received rave reviews from a Harvard faculty member closely following developments with the university's presidency. Judith Ryan, the Harvard German and comparative literature professor who authored the no-confidence motion that precipitated Summers' resignation, said she has known Simmons since her tenure at Smith and believes she would make a good candidate.
"(Simmons) has a lot of experience," Ryan said. "She's a person who's very savvy and I think she's a remarkable role model for anyone in higher education."
But Ryan added that a wide number of candidates should be considered and that it is too early to settle on a few names.
Simmons' name also appeared last week in a Bloomberg News article in which former Harvard and current Princeton University professor Cornel West called her a "model" for what the Harvard president should look like. West was unable to return calls from The Herald for comment.
Beyond academia, various media outlets have speculated on what Harvard will look for in its next president. Bloomberg, the Boston Globe and other sources reported that women - such as Princeton President Shirley Tilghman and former Wellesley College and Duke University President Nan Keohane - and scientists appear to top the wish list of those at Harvard.
An article in the most recent issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that several search-firm consultants and sitting presidents put Simmons on the shortlist of potential candidates for the Harvard presidency, saying that she was "among the names that came up most frequently."
An editorial from Inside Higher Ed suggested possible candidates have three requirements: "a Harvard degree (or three), demonstrated intellectual accomplishment (and) a certain amount of gravitas."
Simmons appears to have all three. She received her Harvard degree in 1973 - a Ph.D. in romance languages - and was also honored in 1997 with the university's Centennial Medal, awarded annually to distinguished alums.
Of course, Simmons may not even be considered for the Harvard position. Nelson said the Harvard Corporation, the school's governing body that will select the next president, may pass over Simmons because of her age. At 60, she still has great energy, Nelson said, but Harvard is looking for someone who can commit to the university for at least 10 years, and any 60-year-old would think twice about making such a long commitment.
In addition, the Harvard Crimson, the university's student newspaper, reported that in 2001, the university's presidential search committee passed over then-University of Michigan President Lee Bollinger, who was 54 at the time, in part because he was too old. The committee ultimately selected Summers, who was 46 upon taking office.
Nelson said another downside to Simmons is that her leadership experience at Smith and Brown might not translate well in Cambridge. Harvard, with a student body of about 21,000 and several world-class professional schools, is drastically larger and more complex than Brown, which had roughly 7,500 total students in 2004. But Nelson added that several college presidents have made successful jumps from smaller schools to larger ones, citing former Brown President Howard Swearer, who led Carleton College, a small liberal arts school in Minnesota, before coming to College Hill.
Still, Simmons will appear to many Harvard Corporation members as a "top-10, maybe top-five" candidate for the university's presidency, Nelson said. The only question is: will she be tempted to leave Brown if offered the Harvard position?
So far, Simmons is keeping her mouth tightly shut. Marisa Quinn, assistant to the president, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that the Office of the President would not be responding to questions about "the situation at Harvard."
But Nelson cautioned to not interpret anything from the lack of comment.
"I don't think there's anything suspicious about that or that she's hiding or ducking anything," Nelson said. "It would be best for her and best for everyone else if nobody knew" if Harvard has been in contact with Simmons.
If Simmons is interested in the position, she would hurt those at Brown by publicly declaring her interest, Nelson said. But if she is not interested in the Harvard job, making this public could be detrimental to Harvard's search and potentially embarrassing to those on the university's search committee - some of whom Simmons may know.
Nelson said it would be difficult for Simmons to not consider "the most distinguished headship of an academy in the world."
"Harvard is such a prize," he said. "With all due respect to (other top universities), Harvard is a platform, a noted pulpit that is unlike any other. I think it would be hard to turn it down out of hand."
Simmons may want to use that noted pulpit to push her own agenda for higher education in the United States. A Smith College spokeswoman said Simmons left Smith for Brown in part because she would have greater influence on national policies.
"When (Simmons) went to Brown, she noted it would enable her to play a more direct role in national needs - things like graduate education, minority access to education and national education policies," said Kristen Cole, media relations director at Smith. "She had ambitious plans."
A chance to become one of the most prominent role models and biggest American success stories may also sway Simmons towards Cambridge, Nelson said. Time Magazine profiled her in 2001. Born the last of 12 children in a sharecropper's shack in Texas, where there was no money for books or toys, Simmons received an apple, an orange and 10 nuts for Christmas every year. When she walked to school, people called her "nigger." But despite the odds against her, Simmons won a scholarship to Dillard University, graduated in 1967, earned her doctorate from Harvard in 1973 and has been making waves in the world of academia ever since.
"Her personal story, her personal narrative, would be enormous both for Harvard and for academics and for the country," Nelson said. "Those things are very seductive, in the best sense of the word."
On the other hand, a few things may keep Simmons on College Hill, Nelson said. Other than age, Simmons may want to see through her Campaign for Academic Enrichment, which started its public fundraising phase in November and is expected to conclude in 2010. Ryan, the Harvard professor, was quick to point this out.
"Brown is in the middle of a campaign right now, and I would imagine she would have conflicting feelings" about leaving the University, Ryan said.
"I could see her staying at Brown as well as being tempted to come to Harvard if an offer was made," Ryan added.
Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences Sheila Blumstein, who served as Brown's interim president immediately before Simmons arrived, declined to speculate on whether or not Simmons would have an interest in the Harvard position. But she did say that it would be "very bad" for Brown if Simmons did leave for Harvard.
"There's a lot of unfinished business (at the University)," Blumstein said. "It would be a disruption to the Plan for Academic Enrichment. We've just started a capital campaign and we can't raise money and capital without a president onboard."
Blumstein continued: "(Simmons) has given great stability and goals and aspirations to the institution. My hope is that she will see it through."
Simmons told the Providence Journal last year that the Brown presidency will be her last job. The article suggested that she expected to stay at Brown for 10 years - the length that most university presidents tend to lead. This July will mark her five-year milestone at the University.
However, Simmons is not under contractual obligation to stay at Brown, Nelson said, and Simmons left Smith after only six years for College Hill. Her tenure was the shortest of any Smith president.
Simmons' lack of comment did nothing to alleviate Brown students' worries that their president may jump ship.
Simmons currently enjoys an 86.7 percent approval rating by students, according to a February Herald poll.
Two students sitting in the Blue Room Tuesday afternoon expres-sed dismay over the possibility of Simmons' departure.
"I would be very upset and I would feel betrayed," if Simmons left Brown, said Matthew Soursourian '08. "She's only been here for (four-and-a-half years), and in terms of college presidencies, it's not a really long time. She can't leave - she just started the capital campaign. It's something she needs to follow through."
Soursourian said he understood why Simmons would decline to comment about her views on the Harvard job, adding that Simmons should keep her interest, if there is any, private. But he said Simmons should publicize her intent to leave Brown as soon as she makes a decision.
Reed Keefe '06, a Boston native who has been closely following the developments at Harvard, also said she thinks Simmons should stay.
"I think that would be very bad move," Keefe said of the possibility of Simmons leaving. "She's very popular at Brown right now. She's just sort of found her place in the Brown community and started her plan."
Keefe said she heard rumors of Simmons going to Harvard as soon as Summers resigned and, unlike Soursourian, thought that Simmons should come out with a definitive statement about her interests.
"I would like it if she made a definite statement that she wanted to stay," she said. "I'm surprised that there hasn't been a statement made already."
