Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 1, 1995 TAG: 9511010042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"People were not willing to give up until we got what we wanted," Branigan said.
Come February, Branigan is going to Paris after all - but not, O'Brien said, because O'Brien had a change of heart.
Branigan and the others were always going to Paris, O'Brien said Tuesday after meeting with students planning to make the spring trip.
```Terminate' is not a word I used, and 'cancel' is not a word I used," O'Brien said. "I think the language that some people used did frighten some people."
What she has said is that the Hollins Abroad Paris program, which is offered in the fall and spring, probably will be offered only one semester in the 1996-97 school year.
That statement prompted students to pen letters, attempt to pass a resolution in student government, and start a petition to keep both a fall and spring program. At the time, O'Brien was in Paris celebrating the program's anniversary with 200 alumnae.
She responded to the flurry of student activism with a letter to the student body dated Oct. 19.
"A program of study will be provided for the students who have planned to study in Paris this spring," she assured in the letter.
Initially, however, students planning to make the spring trip - and who could wait until the fall to go - were being asked to delay, said Tom Edwards, dean of international programs.
The reason for the request was simple: money. The program has been in the red for several years.
The program, which started with 35 students in 1955, grew to 60 students in the 1960s and '70s. But since the late '80s, the number of Hollins students in the program has dropped, to fewer than 10 each semester.
Hollins stepped up its promotional efforts by distributing an extensive program brochure and marketing it to other schools.
Still, by the Oct. 15 application deadline for the spring trip, only six Hollins students and three students from other schools had applied.
Since then, that number has grown to 18, which is just shy of the 20 students officials said are needed per semester to keep the program afloat.
O'Brien credits the students' activism for the additional applicants, and their efforts will be rewarded with what she calls a better program.
Those 18 students will have a greater emphasis on language acquisition, by having an increased number of courses offered, she said.
The college, however, still is exploring other ways to improve the program and cut costs. One possibility, O'Brien said, is a consortium with other schools that offer study abroad programs.
But regardless of whether Hollins is running its own program or working with someone else, a study program in France will be available, even for those students who want to spend a full year overseas, O'Brien said.
"Our broader objectives are not to diminish international programs."
by CNB