Dive Brief:
- Hollins University in Roanoke, VA, has distinguished itself as a destination for female undergraduates, whether they were considering a women’s college or not, flourishing in a sector that was most recently marked by Sweet Briar College’s plan to close and ensuing lawsuit to keep it open.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education reports Hollins President Nancy Oliver Gray has secured the university’s financial profile over the last 11 years, growing the endowment and putting it in a position to weather a tough climate.
- The school has aggressively recruited students who might not be looking for a women’s college, touting the college’s writing program, leadership school, diverse student body and alumni internship program.
Dive Insight:
The Sweet Briar College ordeal was seen as a reflection of the declining role of single-sex education in higher ed nationally. But Interim President of the Women’s College Coalition Marilyn Hammond at the time said the culprit was not simply the single-sex mission but tough competition, more generally. Others said the issue was universal across small, rural institutions that focus on the liberal arts. Hollins president Nancy Gray attributes the institution's success to a number of factors, including the role of strong institutional traditions in building a tight sense of community among students and alumnae.
Along with Hollins, Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, the nation's only historically black women's college, also serves as an outlier, perennially topping national rankings and holding strong to enrollment goals. Still, the number of all-female colleges has dropped quickly in the last 50 years and no new ones have opened to take their place as women have been welcomed onto once all-male campuses. Many of those women’s colleges, however, have continued to serve their core population, just with men alongside them.