History & Mission

Mission Statement

Hollins University is dedicated to academic excellence, creativity, belonging, and preparing students for lives of purpose. Hollins provides an outstanding and academically rigorous undergraduate liberal arts education for women and entrepreneurial and innovative graduate programs for all in a gender-inclusive environment. We lift our eyes, Levavi Oculos, to create a just future as we build on our past.

History

Hollins was initially established in 1842 as Valley Union Seminary, a coeducational college. Charles Lewis Cocke, who devoted his life to “the higher education of women in the South” during an era when many women were denied the opportunity to earn a college degree, was named principal and business manager in 1846. Six years later, the male department was eliminated and the school became an institution for women. Cocke went on to earn designation as the school’s founder because the institution would not have survived without his leadership during financial crises, disease epidemics, the Civil War, and other challenges over the course of 55 years.

Others played an important role in Hollins’ institutional history. The school was founded during a time in America when slavery regrettably existed, especially in the South. Men and women worked at Hollins before and during the Civil War as enslaved people. Hollins remains grateful to members of what was known at the time as the Oldfields Community, who, along with its founder, helped Hollins become the institution it is today.