
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 10, 1990                   TAG: 9005100449
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DEPARTING HOLLINS CHIEF WINS PRAISE

The abrupt resignation of Hollins College President Paula Brownlee surprised many associated with the women's school, eliciting warm reminiscences about a woman who knew almost all students by name - before ever meeting them.

Her decision, however saddening, appears to have been well-timed.

Brownlee, chief executive of the school since 1981, announced Tuesday she would become president of the Washington-based Association of American Colleges only a few days before the Board of Trustees holds its annual spring meeting.

But college officials, in announcing that the board would meet this weekend, did not say whether an interim president would be named then.

In a statement released Wednesday, Board Chairman Sion Boney said, "A regular meeting . . . is taking place this weekend and announcements will be forthcoming as decisions are made following that meeting." Reached at his home in Greensboro, N.C., Boney declined to elaborate on the statement.

Brownlee, who spoke by telephone with board members to tell them of her decision, announced her departure in a special meeting with the faculty and a regularly scheduled meeting of the Student Government Association, which gave her a standing ovation.

News of Brownlee's departure left Liz Conner Harris, a trustee, "in shock," she said, describing the outgoing president as "the model peer" - a mother, a wife, an academician.

"She's just enormously popular with the alumnae. I can't tell you how we clamor to have her at functions across the country," said Harris, also president of Hollins' national alumnae association.

"I think she has been an outstanding leader for Hollins," said another trustee, Bittle Porterfield III of Roanoke. "This move is outstanding for Paula. The position . . . is a very prestigious one, especially as regards liberal arts colleges nationwide.

"She has really done a yeoman's job in community relations . . . bringing Hollins programs to the Roanoke Valley," he said.

Some 620 public and private colleges and universities belong to the Association of American Colleges, whose Project on the Status and Education of Women is the oldest national program for women's equity.

by CNB