More Millions for Hollins University

It’s been a pretty good month for Hollins University’s bottom line. The Virginia institution of higher learning with the best record in managing its endowment last year received a $1 million gift in March and now has been promised a $5 million matching grant.

Hollins grad Jean Hall Rutherfoord and her husband, Thomas made a gift of $1 million to support Hollins’ study abroad program in Paris in March and now alumna Jane Parke Batten of Norfolk has challenged Hollins to raise $5 million by December 2013 in order to receive a matching grant of the same amount.

Successfully meeting the challenge build scholarships for students who want to attend the university’s Batten Leadership Institute; scholarships for current Hollins students who want to earn a certificate in leadership studies; and scholarships for other deserving students.

The Batten family has had a close relationship with Hollins for more than 80 years. Dorothy Martin, the mother of Jane Batten’s late husband, Frank (who served as chairman and CEO of Landmark Communications, Inc., from 1967 to 1998), attended Hollins in the early 1920s; Jane Batten is a member of the Class of 1958; and the Battens’ daughter, Dorothy, graduated in 1985.

Frank Batten served three terms on the Hollins Board of Trustees between 1969 and 1991. Frank and Jane Batten gave $2 million to Hollins in 1995 to establish the Batten Scholars program, and in 2002, they funded the creation of the Batten Leadership Institute, which provides a diverse array of initiatives that focus on students’ personal, interpersonal, and intellectual development; four years later they gave Hollins $2 million to further endow the Institute, and in 2008 added a $3 million gift to support its mission. In 2003, the Battens gave Hollins over $2.2 million to fund an endowed chair in leadership.