Sweet Briar’s Closing Evokes the Value of Women’s Colleges

Sweet Briar will close in 2015, but Hollins University and others will carry the torch of women’s colleges. Women become leaders in women’s colleges.
Sweet Briar’s Closing Evokes the Value of Women’s Colleges
Commencement at the Barnard College, famous women’s college in New York, on May 17, 2010. Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images
Mary Silver
|Updated:

When Sweet Briar College announced it would close, other women’s colleges rallied like the sisters they are.

My alma mater, Hollins University, invited Sweet Briar students to transfer. My alumnae association board issued a formal statement that Sweet Briar alumnae are welcome at Hollins. It read in part, “The Hollins Alumnae Association Board of Directors proclaims our utmost sympathy, support, love, and admiration for the alumnae and students of Sweet Briar College, and will continue to provide help in the future.”

That is the tone I remember from my time at Hollins. The sisterhood is real. 

Behold the beautiful facts: A women’s college graduate is nearly twice as likely to complete a graduate degree as a public college graduate. The difference is 51 percent compared to 27 percent, according to Women’s College Coalition (WCC). A big majority, 81 percent, said “their college was extremely or very effective in helping prepare them for their first job.” 

It is a transformative experience.
— Nancy Gray, president,, Hollins University
Mary Silver
Mary Silver
Author
Mary Silver writes columns, grows herbs, hikes, and admires the sky. She likes critters, and thinks the best part of being a journalist is learning new stuff all the time. She has a Masters from Emory University, serves on the board of the Georgia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and belongs to the Association of Health Care Journalists.
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