Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 20, 1992 TAG: 9201200046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
HOLLINS CLASS GETS TO KNOW MAGGIE
Since 1968, Hollins College undergraduates have used the month of January for exploring.Hollins is one of the few private colleges in Virginia that offers "short term," four intensive weeks nestled between the fall and spring semesters. A Hollins catalog describes short term's premise as seeking "to keep vital the college curriculum by encouraging innovation and experimentation."
Some students are studying abroad. Others have stayed on the Hollins campus in North Roanoke County, enrolled in such seminars as "Adam and the Animals: Animal Rights and Human Obligations" and "Jazz in Cultural Context."
A third of the undergraduates sought internships, including Kimberly Enderson, a senior from Hampton, who is "doing whatever they need me to do" in Marilyn Quayle's office at the White House.
Katreniah Washington, a senior from Charlottesville, is in New York on location with Eddie Murphy's new movie, "Boomerang." Xiaoquing Zhou, a junior from China, is supplementing her business and computer major with an internship at the Roanoke investment firm of A.G. Edwards & Sons.
But one of the 1992 short term's most unusual undertakings is that of Hollins President Maggie O'Brien. O'Brien has returned to the classroom, spending four to five hours each weekday teaching "The Global Environment and World Politics."
It is a seminar restricted to freshmen - a precursor to a course-in-development on world history and world culture, O'Brien said.
The seminar, which is limited to 10 students, filled up five minutes after short-term registration opened.
Jenny Hall, a freshman from Greensboro, N.C., showed up an hour and a half early for registration to ensure a slot in O'Brien's class. With an interest in international relations and a profound admiration for O'Brien, Hall said that after she read the course description, "it just clicked."
"I remember her [O'Brien] coming to my dorm and asking us what we wanted to see and why we came here," Hall said. "And I remember her saying that to be in touch with the students, she had to be with the students. She was adamant about teaching one class.
"That meant a lot to me."
O'Brien had been out of the classroom for years, but class seemed the natural place to learn what Hollins students want and what motivates them.
"Do Hollins students have a strong social conscience? Are they involved in volunteer activities? Are they interested in international studies?" O'Brien asked.
"You can only grab that from very intensive interaction with students. That's part of my purpose."
In one class session last week, O'Brien was not standing before students lecturing but was seated among them, listening intently as Paul Blank, a geography professor from Humboldt State University in California, reviewed Middle Eastern history.
When class resumed after a lunch break, desks were arranged in a circle, encouraging an intimate atmosphere.
"I thought taking this class would be a good way to get to know Maggie," Ellen Cooper, a freshman from Columbia, S.C., said during the break. "It's great."
Short term presented an ideal opportunity for O'Brien to get out of her office and return to the classroom, something she intends to continue. The term fosters innovation, serving as a way for the college to introduce new courses and programs into the curriculum.
"As a president, you don't want to give a company line on how well the college is doing," she said. "You want to be able to tell what students are doing, thinking. And you can only know by getting to know the students."
O'Brien said she has found that Hollins students have a strong social conscience and a broad interest in the world. "They aren't here to appease their boyfriends or their parents," she said. "They are here for themselves."
Short terms at private liberal arts colleges evolved in the 1960s but have disappeared as schools turned to straight semester systems.
At Hollins, students welcome the time of transition.
"This gives you the best perspective on what you might want to do," senior Catherine Parrott said of her internship in the photo department of Life magazine in New York. "It gives you a realistic picture of what a job might entail, of what you want to do with your life."
"I love the program," Enderson said. "If I were on straight semesters, I would not have had this chance.
"With Hollins pushing you, helping you along, it allows for experiences I wouldn't normally have had."