On March 17, President Hillman of Mills College announced the closure of one of the most distinguished women’s colleges in the country. Founded in 1852, Mills will stop conferring degrees in 2023. The finality of this decision came as a shock to Mills faculty, lecturers and students. Rumors swirled about possible solutions—including negotiations with UC Berkeley that already houses some Berkeley students in underutilized Mills College dorms, and recently announced a new year-long residential program for freshmen at Mills. But the biggest attraction of Mills College for Berkeley’s administration is land for an auxiliary campus.
Of course, our first response is one of sympathy and concern for our faculty colleagues at Mills who have lost their jobs. Perhaps a second, equally automatic response might be to ask if our campus can do anything to ameliorate their plight. No doubt public universities are in no position—financially or otherwise—to enter the business of saving private colleges, but any possible acquisition of Mills College should be more than a simple land grab.
To help the Mills administration deal with the dismay and outrage of its faculty, the Berkeley administration has offered token support and vague promises with unknown funding. Mills faculty have been asked to prepare dossiers if they want to be considered for positions on our campus. Berkeley departments will then be asked whether they have any interest in any of the candidates. As far as we know, the terms of any such appointment and how they might affect a department’s future faculty positions have not yet been worked out.
We can all learn from the Mills experience. We have to be especially vigilant in times of crisis—especially, when high-finance is at stake. It is not enough for the Academic Senate to be running surveys on this, that and the other—including surveys about shared governance itself. We need to be exercising shared governance, not waiting to be “consulted” after pivotal decisions are made. That is the only way to avoid being blindsided.
Michael Burawoy and Celeste Langan for the Board of the Berkeley Faculty Association.
