Harvard President Lawrence Bacow Awarded Prairie View A&M University President’s Medal
Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow was awarded the Prairie View A&M University President’s Medal by the university’s outgoing president Ruth J. Simmons at a Monday afternoon ceremony.
Harvard announced hours before the Prairie View event that
Simmons will be appointed senior adviser to the president of Harvard on engagement with historically Black colleges and universities. Simmons will step down from her role as president at the end of the month.
Sara N. Bleich — who was
recently appointed Harvard’s vice provost for special projects — opened the event with an overview of the University’s work on implementing
recommendations from its April 2022 Legacy of Slavery report.
Bleich announced that Harvard intends to assemble HBCU presidents at a conference this fall, a next step in implementing the report’s third recommendation — establishing stronger relationships with HBCUs.
“We hope to convene a group of HBCU presidents to explore how we can deepen and expand our connections and partnerships and how we can assist those leaders in addressing their goals and challenges,” Bleich said.
Bleich called Harvard’s landmark Legacy of Slavery initiative both “sobering” and “exciting.”
“We very much look forward to working and learning from others and advancing this initiative in a way that is worthy of those lives that were so constrained by slavery and its legacies,” she said.
The event, held on Simmons’ penultimate day in office as president, offered an opportunity for the two outgoing university presidents to reflect on their careers in higher education and to shower praise on each other.
Simmons commended Bacow for leading Harvard with a “warm heart and a generous mind,” citing his leadership as the University defended affirmative action and supported students in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow was awarded the Prairie View A&M University President’s Medal by the university's outgoing president Ruth J. Simmons at a Monday afternoon ceremony.
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