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1842 - 1852: Valley Union Seminary and Charles Lewis Cocke
Hollins was first established in 1842 by the Reverend Joshua Bradley as the coeducational Valley Union Seminary. Bradley left in 1845 for Missouri, and in the following year, the Seminary's trustees hired a math instructor from Richmond named Charles Lewis Cocke to direct the institution. In 1851, Cocke abolished the men's department of the institiution, and in 1852, the school became a woman's college called the Roanoke Female Seminary and headed by Cocke. In 1855, John and Ann Halsey Hollins gave $5000, and the school was renamed Hollins Institute.

1852-1901: Family institution
As the school's president, Cocke saw his students as a part of a family and himself as their father figure. His attitude towards Hollins students was based upon the "southern sensibility that a lady was to be trained to submit to the order of men". As part his goal to develop "the graces and values of antebellum Southern society", Hollins students were denied autonomy; Cocke insisted that women studying at Hollins seek permission to receive guests, obtain outside reading materials, or make purchases. However, Cocke was conflicted as to whether the purpose of women's education was to prepare them for the domestic or the professional sphere. 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". 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 serious" instruction and "high standards".

The Hollins of Cocke's ambitions was limited by region, as Cocke was interested in educating women only from Southern states. 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. However, Hollins benefited from the rise of women seeking higher education in the last two decades of the 19th century, and saw their enrollment rise during this time.

1901-1932: Matty Cocke and accreditation
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. "Miss Matty", as she preferred to be called, was intent on preserving the "genteel" atmosphere her father had cultivated at Hollins. Though she was a "charismatic leader" and the first woman to head a college in Virginia,, 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 in nearby Lynchburg, 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". In 1911, the school was renamed Hollins College.

The Cocke family literally owned Hollins at the time of meant that the school could not raise an endowment through alumna donations. Further stalling Hollins' prosperity was President Matty Cocke's distaste for fundraising. 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" The Cocke family agreed to turn over ownership if sufficent 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.

1958-1998: Rise of Writing Program
One of the first writers 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.

In 1985, Hurricane Juan hit Virginia, creating the worst flood in the Southwest Virginia region at the time. Fishburn Library at Hollins took in 200,000 gallons of water, destroyed nearly a third of their collection. Despite the help of local volunteers and donations of books from the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Boston College, the damage to the library was long-lasting.

1998-present day
Hollins was christened a third time as Hollins University in 1998, in recognition of its expanded graduate offerings. Include the Dillard scandal In 2005, Nancy Oliver Grey became Hollins' eleventh president. The university's status as a single-sex undergraduate institution has been a subject of debate as more and more women's colleges, such as the former Randolph-Macon Women's College nearby, become co-educational. Though the graduate writing program has admitted men since 1958, president Nancy Grey insists that Hollins will stay single-sex. As with previous Hollins era, the

Plan for Hollins page after history section:

Campus
something about acclaimed beauty

Swannanoa Hall
needpic Swannanoa houses Hollins' English and creative writing departments. The structure was originally built in 1910 as the school infirmary. It was later known as a residence hall called Starkie. In 2007, it was renovated to add an elevator, air-conditioning, faculty offices, classrooms, and seminar rooms. The renovations cost $1.3 million from a grant by Robert and Ruby Priddy of Wichita Falls, Texas, who named the house in honor of his mother, Swannanoa Horne Priddy, who graduated from Hollins in 1911.

Technology
Hollins University has a number of beloved traditions, many of which have been observed for more than 100 years. Tinker Day is the school's best known and best loved tradition. One day in October, classes are cancelled so that students, faculty, and staff can climb nearby Tinker Mountain while wearing colorful and silly costumes. The exact date of the celebration is a closely held secret. It was created by Charles Lewis Cocke

Campus
Hollins is situated on Hollins University Quadrangle is on the National Register of Historic Places.

History of campus
Its placement in the Roanoke Valley was tied to its beginnings as a place of religious learning;

Housing


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

Dormitories
Residence Halls

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.

Organization and Interest-Related Houses

Near East Fine Arts, located in Near East and commonly called '"NEFA," is devoted to increasing fine arts awareness and participation among Hollins students and members of the Roanoke community.

HOP Hall, for Hollins Outdoor Program, is located in West and is devoted to bringing together people who share a common love for the outdoors, the environment, and adventure. HOP is dedicated to training effective outdoor leaders and increasing the awareness and participation of all Hollins students in activities pertaining to outdoor recreation.

Otaku is located in Tinker House. Its purpose is to create a community in which everyone feels at home and to expose others to the creative and imaginative appeal of fantasy, anime, and science fiction.

Sandusky House is 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.

International and Language Houses

The Spanish House is situated next door to NEFA in East and is for students studying Spanish. The French House is one of the Hill Houses and houses students studying French. Carvin House, another Hill House, is for international students and students interested in international affairs.

Hollins Community
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