I feel like Mr. Vaughn and others who
are camped outside are not disrupting
my ability to come and go from the
house. I have guests at the house where
I do the University’s business quite
often — that’s why I live on campus.
That hasn’t been disrupted. So I want to
really shout them out for the respectful
way that they’re persistently advocating
their cause, and that’s the way change
happens. I understand the passion, and
I respect the high level of character with
which they’re propagating their protest.
TMD: The protesters have said you
enter and leave your house through
the side door, and have not directly
acknowledged their presence in person.
Why do you always leave out of the
side entrance of your house? Even if
you won’t have a conversation with the
survivor protesters, could you physically
acknowledge their presence?
MS: Well, obviously I just did,
because I told you the nature of their
character and actually complimented
them, but the way I’ve chosen to
listen to members of the survivors’
community doesn’t include stopping
by the front of the house and listening
to a group of folks in tents. But rest
assured that myself and the regents
are listening to not just Mr. Vaughn
and the others who are out there, but
the broader community. I get emails
all the time, and we’ll continue to listen
throughout the process.
TMD: In terms of physically
avoiding the protesters, this protest has
garnered significant regional and even
national media attention. How do you
think that your physical avoidance of the
protesters reflects on the University?
MS: I don’t have more to say. I
explained the rationale for how I’m
engaging and how I’m learning about
the experiences of not just Mr. Vaughn,
but the many others who have been
impacted by Dr. Anderson, and then all
the other episodes of misconduct that
have occurred through the years at the
University.
TMD: You said the mediation is
confidential. At this time, I’m curious
to know if there’s a specific protocol in
place that prohibits you from speaking
to survivors?
MS: I’m not an attorney, but the
judge-ordered behaviors have to do with
the mediation and aspects of relevance
to the mediation.
TMD: Is the 4.5% disbursement rate
of the endowment up for reconsideration
given the recent 40% growth of the
endowment?
MS: The endowment is actually what
makes us different from most large public
universities. This year we’re taking $404
million out of the endowment. Compare
that to the $330 million we got from the
state of Michigan — we’re getting more
out of the endowment. That amount
grows every year, and it’ll grow even
faster because of this spectacular year the
endowment had.
What we worry about in good
Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View
A&M University, a historically Black universi-
ty in Houston, Texas, will be the main speaker
at the Winter 2021 Commencement on Dec. 19.
Simmons is also recommended for an honor-
ary Doctor of Laws degree, if approved by the
Board of Regents.
Simmons became the first African-Amer-
ican president of an Ivy League institution
when she took the role as the 18th president of
Brown University in 2001. She is also an advo-
cate for social justice and equal opportunity in
education. Simmons graduated summa cum
laude from Dillard University in 1967 and was
a member of the Fulbright Scholars Program.
Simmons also earned a Master of Arts degree
in 1970 and a Ph.D. in 1973, both from Harvard
University.
When Simmons left Brown in 2012, she
publicly announced that she was retiring from
leading colleges. Yet five years later, she took
on the job of president of Prairie View A&M in
an interim president role, which later became
permanent. Simmons told the Texas Tribune
in 2017 that students’ “determination, their
commitment to try to better themselves”
convinced her to keep the job past the interim
period.
Simmons worked in numerous roles at the
University of Southern California and Spel-
man College from 1979-1991. She was also
vice provost at Princeton University Simmons
from 1992-1995. Simmons served as the presi-
dent of Smith College from 1995 to 2000 and
launched the firSst engineering program at an
American women’s college.
During her tenure at Brown, which lasted
from 2001 to 2012, Simmons created a pro-
gram to expand faculty and increase financial
support and resources for students. She also
worked on initiatives to increase education
around the school’s historic relationship to
slavery, an issue that is personal to Simmons,
who is the great-granddaughter of slaves.
Brown was the first school in the country to
make public its role in perpetuating and prof-
iting off slavery, with a comprehensive report
published in 2006.
Simmons is a fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of
the American Philosophical Society and the
Council on Foreign Relations and serves on
the boards of the Houston Museum of Fine
Arts, the Smithsonian National Museum of
African American History and Culture and
The Holdsworth Center. She is also the recipi-
ent of the United Negro College Fund Presi-
dent’s Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill
Medal, the Foreign Policy Association Medal,
the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and Harvard
University’s Centennial Medal.
E Hill De Loney, a leader in community-
based research and advocate for public health
in Black communities, Cleve Moler, founder
of the mathematical software company
MathWorks and Kathy Anne Perkins, the-
ater scholar and lighting designer, were also
recommended for honorary degrees and will
be awarded at the commencement if granted
approval from the Board.
The Board will vote to approve these
degrees on Dec. 9.
Daily Staffer Reporter Kate Weiland can be
reached at kmwblue@umich.edu
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
2 — Wednesday, November 17, 2021
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NEWS BRIEFS
HBCU president Ruth
Simmons named Winter 2021
Commencement speaker
Former Brown University president was first
Black person to lead an Ivy League institution
KATE WEILAND
Daily Staff Reporter
Associate Editor: Julia Maloney
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Every Wednesday and Saturday morning, 120 vendors travel from different parts of Michigan and Ohio to set up their stands and prepare for another busy day at the Ann Arbor
Farmers Market. Picture captured Nov. 6 at the market.
PHOTO
Senior Layout Editor: Sophie Grand
Six-year-old Julian Gagnon was rewarded for his discovery
and donation of a rare mastodon tooth to the University of Mich-
igan’s Museum of Paleontology, according to a Michigan Radio
article published in October.
Gagnon, who discovered the tooth while taking a hike with
his family in Rochester Hills, Mich., received a behind-the-
scenes look at the University’s Ann Arbor Research Museums
Center and the paleontologists’ labs as a thank you for his dona-
tion.
Gagnon first noticed the fossil when he walked near a creek
at Dinosaur Hill Nature Preserve. Michigan Radio reported that
Gagnon was initially interested in a bright spot in the water, and
did not know what he had found.
“I walked over there and I saw this cool rock, and I kind of
picked it up and looked at it,” Gagnon told Michigan Radio. “I
didn’t know if it was a rock or if it was a dinosaur tooth.”
His family urged him to take it home, where they researched
Michigan’s native prehistoric creatures and decided to con-
tact the paleontologists at the University. Dr. Adam Rountrey, a
Research Museum collection manager and 3D specialist at the
Museum of Paleontology, told The Daily that after identifying
the mastodon tooth from Gagnon’s email, the University sent a
team of paleontologists to Dinosaur Hill to search for additional
material with Gagnon and his family.
Rountrey said he was impressed that Gagnon found the tooth
under such difficult conditions.
“The water in the stream there, Paint Creek, I believe it’s
called, it was fairly deep and running pretty quickly,” Rountrey
said. “So it was hard to see the bottom when we were sort of
searching around the area where he had found the tooth. I think
he was really lucky to have found it under the water like that.”
Rountrey said they did not find any further signs of fossils
during their search and that the Mastodon tooth is the first ver-
tebrate fossil the museum has received from Dinosaur Hill. He
said after Gagnon agreed to donate the tooth to the museum,
they invited him to take a behind the scenes tour of the research
museum center to see where the fossil collections are stored.
“So we gave him a tour here, he donated the tooth, and we’ve
agreed to produce a 3D model of it,” Rountrey said. “And (we also
produced) a couple of 3D prints to get back to Julian and for the
Nature Preserve to have for their interpretive programs.”
Gagnon, who liked the idea of becoming an archeologist when
he was older, told Michigan Radio about his experience giving
the University ownership of a certified fossil.
“I signed my name like two times on a very special piece of
paper with a very special pen,” Gagnon said.
LSA sophomore Oona Woodbury said she has grown more
interested in paleontology since taking the Earth 103 mini-
course called “Dinosaurs and Other Failures” and heard about
the Mastodon tooth during class. She said she wishes she would
have begun searching for fossils when she was younger and
hopes that Gagnon’s story will inspire people to explore their
geologic environments.
“I hope it makes people think about where our scientific
knowledge comes from,” Woodbury said. “We do kind of, in
paleontology at least, rely on things being donated to the public
to be able to study them and to advance our scientific learning …
And it’s so cool that this kid got this great experience, and it’s just
the tip of the iceberg of this whole topic.”
Daily Staff Reporter Vanessa Kiefer can be reached at vkiefer@
umich.edu.
Six-year-old donates rare
Mastodon tooth to Michigan
Museum of Paleontology
Julian Gagnon found fossil while hiking in
Rochester Hills, Mich.
CAMPUS LIFE
BECCA MAHON/Daily
Prairie View A&M President Ruth Simmons was chosen as the Winter 2021 Commencement speaker.
SCHLISSEL
From Page 1
VANESSA KIEFER
Daily Staff Reporter
Read more at MichiganDaily.com