You can see from the moment she enters a room, firmly shaking hands, that Nancy Gray is strong and confident. Gray, president of Hollins University, spoke candidly during a recent interview about issues that concern many. For starters, she talked extensively about the role Hollins University is playing in the local community as well as the university’s commitment to recycling.
“We have a strategic plan and there are four markers; global awareness, cultural understanding, opportunity and leadership,” said Gray. Drive onto the campus and you will see the most artful recycling bins, brightly painted and decorated by Hollins University students. Hollins has also partnered with the city of Roanoke and has an area designated for the community to get involved and to bring items for recycling. Gray said, “There is even talk of signing a sustainability pledge.”
Gray has spoken in favor of the Amethyst Initiative, which was founded by an organization called Choose Responsibility. This group is dedicated to the issue of alcoholism on college campuses, and has attracted both good and bad attention. For starters, a number of college and university presidents, including Gray, contend that lowering the drinking age back to 18 (from 21) might not be the worst thing in the world, and would eliminate the cache that comes with obtaining alcohol while underage. She had this to say on the subject: “A decision should be made only after careful and thoughtful study.”
Gray, who graduated from Vanderbilt University, a coed school, became president of Hollins University in 2006. She speaks very proudly of the Liberal Arts University she presides over and firmly believes that single-sex schools offer advantages to women academically.
“Women have to compete with men in the world,” said Gray. “The growth is huge in single-sex schools. Women learn to think for themselves, they learn who they are and how to go for their goals. Single-sex schools build self-confidence and self-knowledge. The greatest gift a single-sex school can give a woman is belief in self and permission to be you.”
Gray is perhaps the school’s biggest cheerleader, “Hollins prepares students for their first and last job through internships, study abroad programs and best of all, the ability to connect what is learned to the rest of the world.”
Hollins University also offers the opportunity for adult women to return to school through a program called Horizons. Gray calls Horizons “an ideal setting as, well as [offering] tremendous support and encouragement for their academic success.”
By Lisa Brown [email protected]