![]() ![]() Simon added the Mills’ unique learning environment partly came from the value it put “on justice, equity, inclusion and feminist power.” She finished her degree in 2018, the same year her oldest daughter also graduated from Mills. She said she thrived in the small classes taught by dedicated professors and was permitted to take breaks in her studies to raise her two daughters. Simon serves on BART’s board of directors and is a member of the board of trustees for the California State University system. “I found my deep purpose at Mills for education and for public policy,” said Lateefah Simon, president of the Oakland-based civil rights organization, the Akonadi Foundation. Graduates and others were saddened by the news. A program to partner with UC Berkeley to share degrees and student housing also was undermined by the pandemic, Hillman added. The college also slashed the cost of its undergraduate tuition by 36 percent - from $44,765 to $28,765 in the 2018-19 year - to make Mills more affordable.īut Hillman acknowledged that the tuition reduction didn’t attract enough new students. Mills declared a “financial emergency” in 2017 with a $9 million deficit, eliminating such majors as philosophy and Latin American studies and laying off even tenured faculty. Across San Francisco Bay, Notre Dame de Namur University, a 170-year-old private Catholic institution in Belmont, staved off possible closure by shifting its focus from undergraduates to offering graduate and online programs. Experts say small, private colleges, especially those in rural areas, have been struggling for years. The existential challenges facing Mills are not unique. ![]() We’re looking for a way to continue Mills’ legacy in a form that we can actually sustain.” Those things are tremendously important now. “The mission of Mills is more important than ever,” Hillman said, explaining that an institute will do “what Mills has long done: promote women’s leadership, advance gender and racial equity and promote critical and creative thinking. Hillman said details of this new entity are being worked out - as in whether Mills could become some kind of think tank or otherwise employ faculty, educate students or run programs for the larger community.įor the students who enter Mills in the fall or who remain at Mills over the next two years, the school will work to ensure their transfer to other universities. Mills College officials announced Wednesday that the historic womenÕs college will stop admitting new students after fall 2021 and confer its last undergraduate and graduate degrees in 2023.(Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)įor the next two years, faculty will continue to run undergraduate and graduate classes as Mills works to transform from an independent liberal arts college into an institute. Mils College President Elizabeth Hillman stands in front of the Mills College Campanile in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, March 17, 2021. The decision comes after years of multimillion dollar deficits and declining enrollment, which were exacerbated by the pandemic, said President Elizabeth Hillman.įacing a $3 million deficit against a $50 million budget, Hillman said it had become clear that “we can’t actually continue to fulfill Mills’ mission in its current form.” But Hillman said the decision to stop admitting new students won’t lead to Mills closing its picturesque 135-acre Oakland Hills campus - home to the college since 1871 - anytime soon. OAKLAND - Left financially reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, Mills College officials announced Wednesday that the historic women’s college will stop admitting new students after fall 2021 and confer its last undergraduate and graduate degrees in 2023. ![]()
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