Thank you, everyone, for your support, emails, public comments and presence leading up to yesterday's Oakland City Council meeting. You made a difference! 80 public comments were logged, countless emails were sent and 14 supporters shared during the open comment time. It was a long meeting, filled with many emotional moments. After so many stops and starts during these many months since March 17, 2021, the unanimous vote took us by surprise! The Resolution Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan and Council President Pro Tempore Sheng Thao have called for a resolution “Celebrating the contributions of Mills College to the City of Oakland and beyond, and calling on the California Bureau of Private and Post-Secondary Education and the U.S. Department of Education to conduct an independent investigation into the circumstances of the merger between Mills College and Northeastern University." Read the Press Release See the Oakland City Council Meeting, 7/19/22 Read the Comments Our Next Steps Our Legislative Team will be meeting to strategize our next steps. If you are inspired to get involved, now is the time! All areas of expertise needed. Let's save Mills together. Connect with us to get connected: all4millsnow@gmail.com. |
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Reasons (reminders) Why We're Calling For This Resolution - Mills is one of only 33 remaining historically women’s colleges (HWCs) in the US. Like HBCUs, when an HWC closes it will never reopen due to antidiscrimination laws.
- With a $220 MILLION endowment, Mills is one of the wealthiest colleges in the entire U.S. The Mills endowment is higher than 80% of 4-year colleges and universities.
- Mills has educated world leaders, business leaders, and artists around the world. Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Dave Brubeck (Contemporary Music grad program) are Mills grads. Discover more amazing Mills alums here.
- To justify the closure, the Mills President and Board have provided misleading and inaccurate financial information—including to a Superior Court Judge in Alameda. This was revealed by 2 renowned, independent economists who specialize in educational finance.
- It has been confirmed that the Mills President and Board of Trustees plan to move money from Mills' $220 MILLION endowment to their own lucrative new, potentially for profit "Institute" (aka "think tank").
- The Mills President has been awarded a new, probably higher paid position as a result of brokering the “sale” of Mills. But she has refused to disclose her new salary and bonus structure to the Mills community.
- Mills students were promised that the acquisition would offer them more opportunities and allow them to graduate from Mills until 2023. Instead, they were lied to. Hundreds of Mills students have been told their majors will no longer exist at the new Northeastern campus. These students are being forced to transfer, repeat years of coursework, and take out tens of thousands of dollars in additional student loans so they can graduate. This is FRAUD, plain and simple.
- Mills total assets, including land, a $220 million endowment, and priceless art works and rare books are worth more than $1 BILLION. Yet, Mills Leadership has agreed to “sell” Mills to Northeastern University for less than 1% of its total worth (under $30 million). Northeastern has a history of predatory college takeovers. They charge their students as much as $75k per year to attend Northeastern—more than all Ivy League colleges. Previously an all-male college, the majority of Northeastern students, faculty, and Board of Trustees are white men. Essentially, a majority male college was allowed to “buy” a racially diverse, historically women’s college for less than 1% of its total net worth.
- Northeastern is not a “good neighbor.” As journalists have reported, Northeastern has a private on-campus police force that carries semiautomatic weapons and has been found guilty of covering up on-campus rape. Residents of Massachusetts are also currently embroiled in a land dispute with Northeastern. Are these signs of what’s to come in Oakland?
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Student Civil Suit Update The College has responded to the student civil suit. In the filing, the College, clearly blames the students for all of the bad that happened to them. The Failure to Mitigate Damages States: "Plaintiffs have failed to take reasonable, necessary, appropriate and feasible steps to mitigate their alleged damages and, as such, Plaintiffs should be barred from recovering some or all of the damages they seek." Amazingly, during the last year, students have done their very best to advocate for themselves. Countless voicemails to the Administration and a student led Occupation of Mills Hall yielded no additional answers or support. Hours were spent with counselors who had no information to share because The College failed to provide a detailed Teach Out plan. And at this very moment, students who are staying to finish their majors are still waiting to access the class registration to sign up for classes or receive financial aid packages. Their phone calls have gone unanswered for weeks. The fall semester starts next month.. Read the Full Complaint Here Tune Into The Upcoming Hearing 7/26/22 Complex Determination Hearing 9/08/22: Initial Case Management Conference, 8:30am @Rene C. Davidson Courthouse, Dept. 23 Case #22CV011159 Case assigned to the Honorable Brad Seligman See the Lawsuit |
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*ACTION* Let's continue to gather signatures for the petition to Congress. Grab the PDF and print out this flyer! Post it on your car window, at your library's bulletin board and at any public announcement space. Thank you so much! | | |
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Sign ALL The Petitions! Our Fire Beth Campaign now stands at: 1,136 supporters. Let's keep sharing and thank you! |
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Please take the time to check out all of the petitions and add your signature: - Stand Up For Our LGBTQ Community - Fire President Beth Hillman - Fire the Board of Trustees - Solidarity with the MFA Collective - Protect the Music Dept. - Investigate Mills College Check Out The Petitions Twitter: @All4Mills @save_mills Instagram: @All4MillsNow @_savemills |
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Team Meetings: Fridays, 12pm pst |
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Team meetings are happening! Jump in and find your lane. Email for the Zoom link: all4millsnow@gmail.com |
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"She has given to her children, the Alumnae of the school, and to the women of California, an inheritance whose value cannot be measured. She bids us pass it on a priceless heritage to our children's children." - from a former Mills student in a memory book about Susan Mills |
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