A discussion about how colleges and
universities can confront legacies of injustice will be one of the
featured plenary sessions at ACE2018, ACE’s 100th Annual meeting scheduled for March 10-13 in Washington, DC.
The discussion between Ruth Simmons,
president of Prairie View A&M University (TX), and John J. DeGioia,
president of Georgetown University (DC), will take place at the Monday
Breakfast Plenary from 8:00—9:15 a.m. The session, Facing History, will
be moderated by Judy C. Miner, president of Foothill-De Anza Community
College District (CA) and ACE Board chair, and is sponsored by the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation.
In 2006, under the leadership of Simmons, Brown University released a landmark report from its Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice.
The report documented the participation of some of Brown’s founders and
benefactors in the 18th-century trans-Atlantic slave trade and
presented recommendations on how to address this troubling legacy. That
pioneering effort encouraged other colleges and universities to
undertake similar projects and to discover and reveal histories of
injustice and the complex political, legal, and moral issues that
emerge. A decade later, DeGioia and Georgetown University followed suit,
releasing a report in 2016 from the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation.
During the session, DeGioia and Simmons will
reflect on the role of historical legacies and how they can create
opportunities for higher education to confront the past in an effort to
better its future.
ACE2018, the country’s premier higher
education event, offers an environment of open dialogue where hundreds
of senior higher education leaders will network, hear from newsmakers,
and share ideas for tackling common issues in practical ways.
Visit the ACE2018 website for additional information and to register. Join the conversation on Twitter at #ACE2018DC.