Hollins University

Hollins University
Motto Levavi Oculos[1] (Latin)
Motto in English
 Lift thine eyes
Type Private women's college
Established 1842
Endowment US $180.6 million [2]
President Pareena G. Lawrence
Academic staff
 105
Undergraduates 613
Postgraduates 181
Location Roanoke, Virginia, USA
Colors Green and Gold          
Mascot None
Website

hollins.edu

Hollins College Quadrangle
Location Hollins College Campus, Hollins, Virginia
Area 6 acres (2.4 ha)
Built 1856 (1856)
Architect Multiple
Architectural style Classical Revival, Greek Revival, Romanesque
NRHP reference # 74002145[3]
VLR # 080-0055
Significant dates
Added to NRHP November 5, 1974
Designated VLR May 21, 1974[4]

Hollins University is a private university in Hollins, Virginia. Founded in 1842 as Valley Union Seminary in the historical settlement of Botetourt Springs, it is one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States.

Hollins is today a full university with about 800 undergraduate and graduate students. As Virginia's first chartered women's college, undergraduate programs are female-only. Men are admitted to the graduate-level programs.

Hollins is known for its undergraduate and graduate writing programs, which have produced Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Annie Dillard, current U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey, and Henry S. Taylor. Other prominent alumnae include pioneering sportswriter Mary Garber,[5] 2006 Man Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai, UC-Berkeley's first tenured female physicist (and a principal contributor to theories for detecting the Higgs boson) Mary K. Gaillard, Goodnight Moon author Margaret Wise Brown, Lee Smith, photographer Sally Mann, and Ellen Malcolm, founder of EMILY's List.

History

Hollins College Quadrangle

The Hollins College Quadrangle consists of six contributing buildings. The earliest buildings were built for the Botetourt Springs resort which operated from 1820 to 1841. The first built specifically for the college is East Building, erected 1856–58 opposite the hotel building. The Main building was built in 1861 at the north end of the quadrangle, Bradley Chapel was erected in 1883 between the East and Main Buildings, the octagonal Botetourt Hall was built in 1890, and the Charles Cocke Memorial Library was built in 1908 at the south end of the quadrangle.[6]

The main dorm of Hollins University was decorated and improved in the 19th century by local carpenter and woodworker Gustave A. Sedon. "In Sedon's daybook, his journals, all these bits and pieces of decorations are noted. Seadon (sic) was a very interesting character with a wry sense of humor, even though he had troubles spelling in English. One year just before the Civil War, his journal notes he had to build a walkway to the necessary—a walk way to the outhouse behind the building. The next year he cryptically noted a cover to the walkway to the necessary. Obviously, the young ladies didn't like getting wet as they walked downstairs."[7]

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[3]

1842–1855: Valley Union Seminary and Charles Lewis Cocke

A view of the Cocke Building on the front quad from East.

The institution of higher learning that would become Hollins was first established in 1842 by the Reverend Joshua Bradley as the coeducational Valley Union Seminary.[8] Bradley left in 1845 for Missouri, and in 1846, the seminary's trustees hired a 25-year-old math instructor from Richmond named Charles Lewis Cocke to direct the institution.[9] Cocke arrived with his wife, Susanna, and 16 slaves.[10] The same year, Cocke established the first school for enslaved people in the Roanoke area; many students at the school worked at the seminary.[11] In 1851, Cocke abolished the men's department of the institution, and in 1852, the school became a women's college called the Roanoke Female Seminary.[12][13] In 1855, Lynchburg residents John and Ann Halsey Hollins gave $5,000, and the school was renamed Hollins Institute.[8][13] The Hollinses gave an additional $12,500 in gifts before their deaths in 1859 and 1864 respectively.[14]

1855–1901: Family institution

As the head of Hollins, Cocke saw his students as a part of a family and himself as their father figure. His pedagogy was based upon the "southern sensibility that a lady was to be trained to submit to the order of men".[15] Though he thought women studying at Hollins were best confined to domestic duties, he still placed great value on intellectual excellence.[15] Cocke considered the higher education of young women in the South to be his life's calling; in 1857, he wrote that "young women require the same thorough and rigid mental training as that afforded to young men".[12] Hollins was known as a rigorous institution where degrees were not easily earned during Cocke's tenure. Students at the school during this period remember the "unbelieveably [sic] serious" instruction and "high standards".[12] During this period, Hollins also pioneered several academic practices; it became the first school in the United States to begin a system of elective study, and it was the first to establish an English department under a full professor.[16]

The Hollins of Cocke's ambitions was limited by region, as Cocke was interested in educating women only from Southern states.[17] Because of this limited scope, Hollins struggled to "professionalize" in the 1880s and beyond. Its remote location far from the better respected and funded men's institutions put Hollins in contrast with the Seven Sisters in the Northeast. Despite its academic rigor, Hollins and other southern women's colleges were smaller and poorer than women's college such as Smith College and Mount Holyoke in the north.[18] However, Hollins saw its enrollment rise in the last two decades of the 19th century, as more women sought higher education nationwide.[17]

Before the Civil War, Hollins used the labor of enslaved people to build and maintain the grounds. In addition, many students brought "servants" with them who were likely slaves. After slavery was abolished, Hollins employed many formerly enslaved people, mostly women whose names were not recorded. Students were encouraged to ignore these workers in the college handbook during this era, and employees were forbidden from developing friendly relationships with women studying at Hollins.[19]

From 1846 until his death, Cocke did not take a stipulated salary from the institution so that the trustees could instead put the school's income toward paying faculty and improving the grounds.[14] In 1900, the board of trustees found themselves so thoroughly in debt to Cocke that the school was deeded to him and his family.[16]

1901–1932: Matty Cocke and accreditation

Charles Lewis Cocke's death in 1901 at the age of eighty-one was a grave moment for the Hollins Institute, but the transition to the leadership of his forty-five-year-old daughter Matty Cocke was smooth.[20] "Miss Matty," as she preferred to be called, was intent on preserving the "genteel" atmosphere her father had cultivated at Hollins.[21] Though she was a "charismatic leader" [21] and the first woman to head a college in Virginia,[22] Miss Cocke was not interested in waging any battles for women's education; indeed, she let her nephews, Joseph Turner and M. Estes Cocke, handle the school's financial dealings entirely. Miss Cocke shared the opinion of President John McBryde of Sweet Briar Women's College, who in 1907 decried the "independence" sought by Vassar and other members of the Seven Sisters and suggested instead that women's education focus on "grace [and] refinement".[23] In 1911, the school was renamed Hollins College.[8]

Because the Cocke family owned Hollins, the school could not raise an endowment through alumna donations.[24] Further stalling Hollins' prosperity was President Matty Cocke's distaste for fundraising.[21] Due to their financial limitations, Hollins was not able to hire high-quality faculty or assemble an up-to-date library or laboratory, making accreditation hard to achieve. This was not unusual for the time; as of 1916, only seven southern women's college were certified by professional organizations as "standard," while both Hollins and Sweet Briar were designated as "approximate".[25] The Cocke family agreed to turn over ownership if sufficient funds were raised in 1925, but the Depression slowed their efforts. A scathing 1930 letter from alumna Eudora Ramsay Richardson in the South Atlantic Quarterly indicted the American Association of University Women for regional bias. Richardson's letter and prompting from the presidents of Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr sped up the accreditation process. The Cocke family turned the school over to a board of trustees and President Cocke tendered her resignation in 1932, as the school finally gained accreditation.[26]

1933–Present

Hollins was home to the first exhibition gallery in the Roanoke region in 1948. One of the first writer-in-residence programs in America began at Hollins in 1959. Hollins was home to the first graduate program focusing on the writing and study of children's literature, established in 1993. Hollins University Quadrangle is on the National Register of Historic Places.The institution was renamed Hollins College in 1911, and in 1998 it became Hollins University.[8] Nancy Oliver Gray led Hollins from 2005 until she retired in 2017; that same year, Pareena Lawrence became Hollins's twelfth president.[27][28]

Traditions

Hollins University has a number of beloved traditions, many of which have been observed for more than 100 years.[29] Tinker Day is the school's best known and best loved tradition, dating back to the 1880s. One day in October, after the first frost, classes are cancelled so that students, faculty, and staff can climb nearby Tinker Mountain while wearing colorful and silly costumes. After a lunch of fried chicken and Tinker Cake, the students and new faculty perform skits and sing songs before returning to campus. The exact date of the celebration is a closely held secret.[30]

Academics

The Hollins logo.

Hollins offers small classes with a 9:1 student-teacher ratio in a variety of majors. The most popular majors are English, psychology, studio art, business, and biology. Currently Hollins offers graduate programs in dance (M.F.A.), creative writing (M.F.A.), children's literature (M.A., M.F.A.), liberal studies (M.A.L.S.), playwriting (M.F.A.), screenwriting and film studies (M.A., M.F.A.), and teaching (M.A.T.). As of 2011, Hollins offers a graduate-level certificate in Children's Book Illustration.

Hollins was one of the first colleges in the nation to establish a study abroad program, launching Hollins Abroad-Paris in 1955. Approximately half of Hollins students have an international learning experience. Hollins runs its own programs in London and Paris; non-Hollins students are free to apply to the Hollins Abroad-London and-Paris programs. Hollins students can also study through Hollins-sponsored programs in Argentina, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Japan, Mexico, Spain, South Africa, and in various other countries through the School for Field Studies. Hollins also sponsors an annual service-learning project in Lucea, Jamaica.

In January, or J-Term, students follow their own independent course of study with a sponsoring professor, take off-campus internships, or study abroad with other Hollins students. The innovative 4-1-4 calendar, established in 1968, was one of the first in the nation.

Hollins's peer tutoring center is known as the Center for Learning Excellence and includes the Writing Center, which offers students support and feedback on their writing interests, and the QR Center, established in 2002, which offers support to students enrolled in quantitative courses.

In 2009, Hollins was ranked among the top 100 of America's Best Colleges.[31] Hollins was among the 372 most interesting schools according to the 2008 Kaplan/Newsweek How to Get Into College guide, and the Princeton Review named Hollins a "Best in the Southeast" college and featured the school among "The Best 373 Colleges" in its 2011 guide.

Curriculum

A liberal arts school, Hollins has designed its own Education through Skills and Perspectives (ESP) general education requirement program. Rather than focusing on the usual math, science, English, and history booklist of required courses, Hollins requires each student to take a variety of skills classes (writing, oral communication, applied quantitative reasoning, and applied research techniques) and perspectives classes (aesthetic analysis, creative expression, ancient and/or medieval worlds, modern and/or contemporary worlds, social and cultural diversities, scientific inquiry, and global systems and languages). These requirements can be completed in as few as 8 courses but aim to help the students explore other fields of study while rounding out their basic understanding of the world.[32]

Hollins offers majors in the fields of studio art, art history, biology, business, chemistry, classical studies, communication studies, dance, economics, English, environmental studies, film, French, gender and women's studies, history, interdisciplinary studies, international studies, mathematics, music, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, religious studies, sociology, Spanish, and theatre.

Other academic offerings include: arts management certificate, certificate in leadership studies, education, first-year seminars, three-year accelerated degree program, pre-law, pre-med, pre-nursing, pre-vet, short term, and Horizon program for adult women.

Writing Program

The graduate program in creative writing was founded by Louis D. Rubin, Jr., in 1960, but Hollins has offered classes in creative writing for even longer. In 2008 the Jackson Center for Creative Writing was established through a generous gift from Susan Gager Jackson '68 and her husband, John Jackson, of Far Hills, New Jersey.

The Jackson Center for Creative Writing is home to Hollins' esteemed undergraduate and graduate writing programs, which have produced dozens of writers of national and international acclaim, including Lee Smith '67 and Pulitzer Prize winners Annie Dillard '67, M.A. '68; Henry S. Taylor M.A. '66; and Natasha Trethewey M.A. '91. Kiran Desai M.A. '94 won both the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The fiction of Madison Smartt Bell M.A. '81 has been recognized by a Strauss Living Award, and numerous other Hollins writers have received NEA, Guggenheim, and countless other grants and awards for their poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, contributing to the cultural life of the nation that is disproportionate to the program's size. In fact, Hollins's creative writing program has been called "the most productive writing program in America" by Creative Writing in America.[33]

The campus has two literary magazines. Cargoes, which won the Undergraduate Literary Prize for content by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs in 2005,[34] and The Album, which is offered as a more alternative campus periodical. R. H. W. Dillard, Cathryn Hankla, and Jeanne Larsen are among the writers who teach at Hollins.

Horizon Program

Established in 1974, the Horizon program is dedicated to offering nontraditional women students the opportunity to earn a bachelor of arts degree. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Hollins' Horizon Program is that the degree is the same degree that all Hollins graduates earn, not a separate certificate. Horizon students are fully integrated into the Hollins community and often participate in campus activities, clubs, and study abroad.

Athletics

Hollins is a member of Division III of the NCAA and competes throughout Virginia in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC). Intercollegiate sports include basketball, golf, lacrosse, riding, soccer, swimming, tennis, and volleyball. Hollins also has fencing, cross-country, and martial arts sports teams.

Hollins is well known for its riding program and was named a Kaplan "Hot School" for riding in 2004–05. To date, Hollins has won 18 individual national championships, two team national championships, and four individual national high point rider championships. Hollins consistently dominates ODAC team competition.

Hollins does not have a mascot, and the sports teams do not have an official nickname. In 1989, students voted against 100 mascot ideas.[35][36]

As part of its Education through Skills and Perspectives (ESP) general education requirement program, two regular terms of physical education course work are required for graduation.

Housing

A view of West from the front quadrangle.

There are nine residence halls on campus. Most first-years live in Tinker and Randolph in doubles. Sophomores and juniors generally live in West or in singles in Tinker and Randolph, and primarily seniors (with a few exceptions) live in Main, or the university apartments across the street from campus. Housing choices are determined by a lottery number given after the housing deposit is paid in the spring; the lottery numbers are assigned randomly from within a preset range determined by class year.[37]

All undergraduates are required to live on campus. The exceptions to this rule are Horizon (nontraditional) students, married students or those with children, those over the age of 23, or those whose official residence with parents or guardians is in the Roanoke Valley area.

All residence halls, houses, and apartments are smoke-free.

Specialty housing

Hollins does not have sororities; instead, undergraduates can choose to live in "specialty housing." Each house or hall with this designation operates as an independent community within Hollins and has competitive admission.

A view of NEFA from Front Quad.

Near East Fine Arts (NEFA) – Devoted to increasing fine arts awareness and participation among Hollins students and members of the Roanoke community. Housed in East.

Sandusky – Devoted to increasing awareness and participation of all Hollins students in activities pertaining to community service. House members lead by example to encourage students to serve on campus and in the Roanoke Valley and to collaborate with S.H.A.R.E staff to reach this goal.

Mind, Body, Spirit (MBS) – MBS residents seek personal balance by finding ways to get themselves and others involved in and out of the classroom. All MBS residents commit to a substance-free lifestyle. Housed in Far East.

Fandom (formerly Otaku) – Its purpose is to create a community in which everyone can live in a general sense of geekery and appreciation of all things anime and fandom. Housed on the first floor of West.

International and Language Houses

Spanish House is situated next door to NEFA in East and is for students studying the Spanish language and culture.

French House is one of the Hill Houses and houses students studying the French language and culture.

Carvin House, another Hill House, is for international students and students interested in international affairs.

Student body

Hollins has about 794 undergraduate students from 46 states and 13 countries; 20% are students of color. The average high school GPA is 3.5. By the time they graduate, nearly two-thirds have had internships and almost 50% have had an international learning experience. Within one year of graduation, an average of 70% are employed and 27% are attending graduate or professional school.

The university's official policy regarding transgender students states, "If a degree-seeking undergraduate student undergoes sex reassignment from female to male at any point during her time at Hollins, she will not be permitted to continue attending Hollins beyond the conclusion of the term in which sex reassignment is initiated, and under no circumstances will such student be allowed to graduate from Hollins." Currently, Hollins is reviewing the transgender policy. The university's Diversity Initiative Advisory Board, composed of students, faculty, and staff, is spearheading that discussion.

Clubs and organizations

Hollins has a number of organizations that are open to all students.[38]

The university has a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.[39]

Freya walks take place on nights of special events or issues. Members of this secret society walk at night to call attention to or celebrate current events. They wear black-hooded robes to protect their anonymity and carry candles to symbolize hope. Since 1903 Freya has sought to emphasize the notion that "concern for the community is a creative and active force."[40]

Eleanor D. Wilson Museum

Founded in 2004, the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, an art museum, is housed at the university.[41]

List of firsts

  • first chartered women's college in Virginia
  • first college in Virginia to name a woman president, Matty Cocke, 1901
  • the nation's first women's intramural sports team established at Hollins, 1917
  • Presser Hall, 1926, the first of numerous music buildings nationwide donated by the Presser Foundation of Philadelphia
  • first exhibition gallery in the Roanoke region, 1948
  • Hollins Abroad-Paris among the first abroad programs in the country, 1955
  • first women's college in Virginia to offer coed graduate programs, 1958
  • one of the first writer-in-residence programs in America was established at Hollins, 1959
  • with the 4-1-4 calendar, Hollins established one of the first Short Terms to be used for innovative classes, research, independent study, internships, and study abroad, 1968
  • first liberal arts college in region to network all residence halls, a port per bed, 1992
  • first graduate program focusing on the writing and study of children's literature established, 1993
  • Wyndham Robertson Library named the first National Literary Landmark in Virginia, 1999

Notable alumnae

References

  1. ↑ W:\Docs\GVCalendar\gvtemplate.htm Archived September 3, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ "Our President & Leadership". Hollins. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  3. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  4. ↑ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Archived from the original on 2013-09-21. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  5. ↑ "New York Times", obituary, September 22, 2008
  6. ↑ Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission Staff (April 1974). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Hollins College Quadrangle" (PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources. and Accompanying photo
  7. ↑ Whitwell, W. L. 1989. "Overlooked Buildings by the Side of the Road". Journal of the Roanoke Valley Historical Society. 13, no. 1: page 46.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "History and Mission". Hollins University. Retrieved June 27, 2012.
  9. ↑ Parrish, Nancy (1998). Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, and the Hollins Group: A Genesis of Writers. Louisiana State University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0807124345.
  10. ↑ Smith, Ethel Morgan (1999). From Whence Cometh My Help: The African American Community at Hollins College. University of Missouri. pp. back cover. ISBN 978-0826212603.
  11. ↑ Smith, Ethel Morgan (1999). From Whence Cometh My Help: The African American Community at Hollins College. University of Missouri. p. 5. ISBN 978-0826212603.
  12. 1 2 3 Parrish, Nancy (1998). Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, and the Hollins Group: A Genesis of Writers. Louisiana State University Press. pp. 25–26. ISBN 978-0807124345.
  13. 1 2 Angleberger, Tom (22 March 2010). "Readers fill in the gaps to answer questions". Roanoke Times. Archived from the original on 1 February 2013. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  14. 1 2 Smith, W.R.L. (1921). Charles Lewis Cocke. Boston, MA: The Gorham Press.
  15. 1 2 Parrish, Nancy (1998). Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, and the Hollins Group: A Genesis of Writers. Louisiana State University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0807124345.
  16. 1 2 "Hollins Freed". Time Magazine. Vol. 20 no. 7. 15 August 1932. p. 18.
  17. 1 2 Parrish, Nancy (1998). Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, and the Hollins Group: A Genesis of Writers. Louisiana State University Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0807124345.
  18. ↑ Parrish, Nancy (1998). Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, and the Hollins Group: A Genesis of Writers. Louisiana State University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0807124345.
  19. ↑ Smith, Ethel Morgan (1999). From Whence Cometh My Help: The African American Community at Hollins College. University of Missouri. pp. 12–17. ISBN 978-0826212603.
  20. ↑ Parrish, Nancy (1998). Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, and the Hollins Group: A Genesis of Writers. Louisiana State University Press. pp. 26–27. ISBN 978-0807124345.
  21. 1 2 3 Parrish, Nancy (1998). Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, and the Hollins Group: A Genesis of Writers. Louisiana State University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0807124345.
  22. ↑ "Traditions". List of traditions at Hollins University. Hollins University. Retrieved 4 July 2012.
  23. ↑ Parrish, Nancy (1998). Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, and the Hollins Group: A Genesis of Writers. Louisiana State University Press. pp. 27–28. ISBN 978-0807124345.
  24. ↑ Parrish, Nancy (1998). Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, and the Hollins Group: A Genesis of Writers. Louisiana State University Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0807124345.
  25. ↑ Parrish, Nancy (1998). Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, and the Hollins Group: A Genesis of Writers. Louisiana State University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0807124345.
  26. ↑ Parrish, Nancy (1998). Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, and the Hollins Group: A Genesis of Writers. Louisiana State University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0807124345.
  27. ↑ Petska, Alicia (July 2, 2017). "Nancy Gray hands over the reins at Hollins". The Roanoke Times. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
  28. ↑ Dashiell, Joe (December 26, 2017). "Hollins University's new President is learning, looking ahead after six months on the job". WDBJ7.com. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
  29. ↑ "Traditions". Hollins University.
  30. ↑ Hutkin, Erinn (October 26, 2006). "Tinker Day has arrived". Roanoke Times. Archived from the original on February 8, 2013. Retrieved June 27, 2012.
  31. ↑ "America's Best Colleges". Forbes.com.
  32. ↑ "Hollins University: Academics". Hollins.edu. Archived from the original on 2011-05-15. Retrieved 2011-02-20.
  33. ↑ "Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing – MFA – Graduate Degree Program at Hollins University". Hollins.edu. Retrieved 2011-02-20.
  34. ↑ "AWP: National Program Directors' Prize Winners". www.awpwriter.org. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  35. ↑ Roanoke College seeks symbol; by Marquita Brown; Apr 26, 2008; The Roanoke Times
  36. ↑ It's Not Easy Being Green (and Gold); by Susan Kinzie; January 12, 2008; The Washington Post
  37. ↑ Archived September 1, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  38. ↑ "Clubs & Organizations". Hollins. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  39. ↑ Archived October 18, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  40. ↑ "Traditions". Hollins. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  41. ↑ "The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum – Hollins University". hollins.edu. Retrieved 27 May 2015.

Coordinates: 37°21′17.8″N 79°56′30.4″W / 37.354944°N 79.941778°W / 37.354944; -79.941778

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