ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 9, 1996 TAG: 9611110024
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
JANET RASMUSSEN SURPRISED two former presidents with an announcement that two gifts totaling $750,000 had been given in their honor.
After 228 years, it was just about time for Janet Rasmussen's family tree to sprout another college president.
"One line on my mother's side links me to a signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Witherspoon," Hollins College's ninth president told the nearly 900 people attending her inauguration Friday evening. "Recently, I learned that Mr. Witherspoon was not only a distinguished Presbyterian churchman and civic leader, but also the president of Princeton University."
For much of Friday, it appeared likely that Rasmussen would have to pull on her galoshes before following in her ancestor's footsteps. But the rains that had pelted the campus all day broke shortly before Rasmussen arrived at the Jessie Ball duPont chapel on the arm of her Norwegian husband, Ulf.
Rasmussen was chosen in May by the college's board of trustees to succeed Jane Margaret O'Brien, who is now president of St. Mary's College of Maryland. Rasmussen received her doctorate in Germanic languages and literature from Harvard University. She came to Hollins from Lincoln, Neb., where she was vice president for academic affairs at Nebraska Wesleyan University.
Representatives from 93 colleges and universities attended the inauguration, as did all four living past presidents of Hollins: O'Brien, Paula Brownlee, Carroll Brewster and John Logan Jr. Rasmussen's mother and former colleagues from Harvard, Pacific Lutheran University and Nebraska Wesleyan also were present.
Quoting from historical accounts, Rasmussen said her ancestor arrived at Princeton from Scotland and "was surprised to find that his first task was to restore the disordered finances of the college. So, as soon as he had settled himself in his new home, he set out on numerous tours, in which sermons alternated with appeals for aid."
Instead of asking for money, Rasmussen surprised former presidents Brownlee and O'Brien with an announcement that two gifts totaling $750,000 had been given in their honor.
Income from a $500,000 gift to the college's $64million endowment will be used to recognize and reward Hollins professors for their accomplishments in the sciences. The money will establish the Paula P. Brownlee Professorship in Science.
A second gift of $250,000 will pay for computers and other equipment for the Jane Margaret O'Brien Multi-Media Classroom in the newly renovated Pleasants Hall, an academic building used primarily for humanities courses. Both gifts are from anonymous donors.
Brownlee, now president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, participated in the inauguration ceremony and sat beside Rasmussen on stage.
"We represent many years of building this special place," she said. "But now, Janet, you are the holder of all our dreams for Hollins."
Students were equally enthusiastic about their new president.
"We love her," said sophomore Sahar Javedani. "She's a new driving force. I can feel she has very good energy on campus."
"I personally feel very connected to her," chimed in freshman Jacy Bartlett. "And we love Ulf."
Scandinavia - Ulf Rasmussen's home region and the focus of Janet Rasmussen's academic work - was the inspiration for the buffet that followed the inauguration.
The smorgasbord included Swedish meatballs, lamb tips with dill sauce, boneless loin of pork with prune filling, pickled herring, and assorted pates and cheeses.
Rasmussen joked that she had been advised to give her inaugural address in Norwegian, but she remained true to English throughout.
She built her address around a metaphor that came from Rasmussen's first faculty meeting at Hollins in August. She asked those attending the meeting to come up with a metaphor for Hollins.
Donna Faye Burchfield, an assistant professor of dance, had suggested "Hollins is the landscape of creativity." Rasmussen said the metaphor was "inspired."
"Hollins is the landscape of creativity, a garden proudly planted amid the beauty of the Roanoke Valley, a community shaped by tradition and place and constantly renewed by spirit and space," she said.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Janet Rasmussen built her addressby CNBaround the metaphor that ``Hollins is the landscape of creativity,''
planted amid beauty and shaped by tradition. color. Graphic: Chart:
Janet Rasmussen. KEYWORDS: MGR