Interview with Nancy Oliver Gray, President: Hollins University
Her Campus Hollins: What accomplishment inside of Hollins are you most proud of?
Nancy Oliver Gray: That we have almost doubled our endowment and [nearly] eliminated our debt. This has given us strength when the economy has been floundering. [This] has allowed us to continue giving Financial Aid, supporting faculty, and [supporting the] Alumni Engagement Initiative.
Her Campus Hollins: What changes would you most like to see at Hollins?
Nancy Oliver Gray: I would like to see the enrollment grow – but with students who can contribute. The right students. I would also like to complete the renovation of the hill houses and build more apartments. There is also a new academic project by new honor program faculty.
H.C.H: What is the accomplishment outside of Hollins that you are proudest of?
N.G: Blending [my family]. [I have] three sons and four stepchildren who love each other and all get along. I am very proud of each of the seven kids and I’m very grateful for how we’ve really become one family. And I welcome my new granddaughter!
HCH: What did you want to be when you were 18? What did you think your career would be?
NG: I was all over the map, but, during high school, I considered being a pastor, an attorney, or a speech therapist. In college I considered being a speech therapist or an actress. But ultimately I thought I wanted to be a dean of women. And this was back in the day where at a co-ed school there was a dean of men and a dean of women rather than a dean of students. So I wanted to be the dean of women, And I look back at this now and think, Well, I am the dean of women! So that was what I wanted to do. That’s what I sort of found my way to, by the time I was a senior. [Pause] Oh Clinical Psychologist, that was something else that I thought I wanted. Some students change their majors. I changed my career plans. But I finally landed on dean of women and that’s really guided my career ever since then.
HCH: Which of the past college presidents do you most admire?
NG: I’ve admired everyone of my predecessors for different things. I think John Everett did a really good job of hiring really first rate faculty, I think Jay Logan fostered a very strong sense of academic excellence and community and I have really admired Paula Brownlee’s leadership ability and I am grateful for her ongoing connections. But I think each of my predecessors have made important contributions and I really stand of the shoulders of the ten people who came before me.
HCH: Who was your role model in college vs. now? Why?
NG: In college there was a professor of theater – the Ernie Zulia of my undergraduate days -who was very much a hero. As were two women in the dean’s office, the associate dean and the dean of women. . .One other was Alexander Heard, maybe most of all was Alexander Heard, chancellor of Vanderbilt University. When I served on the Vanderbilt board of trustees . . . he was still there and I worked for him later, when I was getting into education . . . He was someone I really looked up to. He presided in a very difficult time in America, during the Vietnam war, during a time of racial strife and [in a time that] lack[ed] gender equality. And he did things like this – when I was working for him we together were making a call to raise some money for a big corporation in Pittsburgh and we were to meet with the gulf oil corporation. The meeting was to take place in an exclusive club in Pittsburgh. And they didn’t let women in the club. So we went to the front door and a man comes to the front door and says, to me, I’m sorry you cannot come in this entrance. You’ll have to go in the backdoor to go to your meeting. The chancellor had said, “Will you show me the back door? And he went in the back door with me. And that was pretty . . . pretty wonderful. That’s one example. Another example, there was a time when students were protesting the Vietnam war, when students took over the administration building, and he, rather than asking the students to leave, didn’t join the protest, but he served them food. And he engaged the students in conversation and I think his willingness to engage them was very productive and healing to the campus. And he’d go to student parties if he was invited. He just had a remarkable ability to engage students, faculty, community leaders, trustees, in inspiring ways. It was great. And I guess the person I might admire most now is . . . my parents. That would have have been the answer for college, that’s for sure.
HCH: Why?
NG: Because they are resilient. Because of their ability to accept happens, to cope with it but to move beyond it and not get stuck. They cope and move on. They’re in their late 80s, they’re still learning, they’re still active, they have many friends they’ve experienced losses but they cope and they keep going forward. Which is really an admirable trait. And they maintain very close relationships with my children and grandchildren, which not all grandparents are able to do. They’ve done it really quite well. They are incredibly generous . . . and they have fun, they still enjoy life.
HCH: What are the three skills you use most in your life?
NG: Public speaking, goal orientation, and collaboration.
HCH: Favorite Hollins tradition?
NG: It’s probably Tinker Day . . . but I also love the Senior Rock. [The senior rock] is the little tradition I like the best. Tinker day is the big one.
HCH: Most commonly used item?
NG: Hairbrush.
HCH: What do you wish you knew graduating college?
NG: Hmmm . . . That life will not always be what you expect it to be. Or want it to be. But if you are open to new people and open to situations, willing to keep learning,willing to take risks, you can build a very meaningful happy life. And there will be disappointments -there will be!-, but you can get past them.
HCH: Secret hobbies?
NG: Attempting to cook. Attempting being the key word. -laughs- Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner usually, for a very large family.
HCH: Do you feel there are myths around woman’s colleges? If so, how do you work to dispel them?
NG: Yes I do. I feel that people tend to think -mistakenly – we are either a finishing school or that we are some mysterious kind of nunnery, and we are neither. We are a place where strong, independent women find their voices and find the encouragement to peruse their passion, whatever that might be. So I work very hard in trying to help people understand what a woman’s college really is like, and really encourage prospective students to come visit. Just to come see – if they meet our students, if they go into a classroom, it’s all women. If they see these women in leadership positions, just in every, EVERY, aspect of the student body, whether it’s in the chemistry lab, or it’s behind stage at the theater, or it’s in the barn, wherever, it’s all women. If we could get them here and they could talk to our students, they are more likely to see how special this place is.
HCH: Favorite movie or book?
NG: All the books by Madeleine L’Engle, Crosswicks Journal especially. Another book called, Composing a Life and Gift from the Sea. They were helpful to me as a young woman.
HCH: Favorite class in college?
NG: My Renaissance Drama class, probably. And the Shakespeare classes. I took a lot of Shakespeare classes and Renaissance drama. I also really enjoyed my rhetoric classes.. . . but [at the core], I enjoyed good professors who engaged us, in active learning exercises, who challenged us intellectually. And I enjoy small classes where there was a good interaction with my peers.