
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 8, 1991                   TAG: 9103080723
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SINGLE-SEX COLLEGE ASSURES EQUALITY

AS A STUDENT at Hollins, I can tell you that discrimination is the last thing on the minds of the educators and students (letter, Feb. 27). The opposite is true, and that is why colleges such as Hollins exist.

Women deserve the right to a quality education as much as men do, and all too often they don't get it at coeducational schools. Studies show that women are given "easy" questions or simply overlooked in question-and-answer sessions at coed schools.

At single-sex schools like Hollins, women get the education they deserve without being passed over because they are women. Equal service is not denied. There are many coed schools people can attend if they prefer.

Equal service would be denied if coed schools weren't available. Equal service would be denied if single-sex schools, for women as well as men, weren't available. Equal service is denied when students aren't given projects or allowed to answer questions based solely on the fact they are female or male. Schools like Hollins strive to ensure that women are given the chance they deserve in education.

Saying Hollins is a "bigoted" school is unfair. True bigotry is found instead in people who think racial equality is fine but that the quest for equality in education is not. BEATRICE A. SHAW HOLLINS

by CNB