We referenced this in our last post 11 - Mills College caught speechless by AAMC Resistance

The list keeps growing, and includes professors from Australia, Austria, the UK, France, Italy, Norway, Poland, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and across California, Hawai'i and the rest of the United States.

Poor leadership should not result in the closure of this 170-year old iconic institution.

SUPPORT MILLS COLLEGE WORKERS

A few weeks ago it was announced that Mills College was closing and would shortly become the Mills Institute. Since then we have received many messages of support and outrage. None surprised us more than a colleague from another school who expressed regret about the College going bankrupt. Mills is not, however, going bankrupt. Despite its constant annual deficit, Mills’ endowment is over $200 million. The College’s assets include a rare book collection worth millions, an art museum with holdings of incalculable value, and vast square footage with beautiful, historical buildings in an urban area famous for high land costs.

Since the Board announced it was closing the College, several student and alumni groups have organized to stop this closure and maintain Mills’ degree-granting status. We admire and support these efforts. We are writing to clarify what is happening, to share our demands, and to present a cautionary tale for those who may also work at colleges such as Mills.

Prior to the closure announcement, faculty and staff had been working with the administration on what we understood would be a merger, potentially with UC Berkeley and if not, then with another college or university. We were told that this merger would maintain the College’s ability to serve the uniquely diverse and inclusive student body. So we were as stunned as our students when it was announced that the College would transition to a non-degree granting institute. This decision was made without faculty consultation and has allowed the administration to theoretically keep control over the endowment. It also effectively forecloses any possible merger that the faculty might attempt to pursue, but instead allows Mills to sell off the land and buildings not targeted for future use by the still undefined or budgeted Institute.

The administration claims that the Institute will maintain the Mills mission. But the staff and faculty, and the students we serve, are the College's mission. We have advised and taught countless students, many of us for 15 years or longer. We have done this work in the face of pay cuts, workload increases, unpaid furloughs, no cost of living increase, and cuts to our retirement match. We accepted these cuts because we were told that austerity measures were necessary to protect the College’s future. Now the administration’s transition plans involve taking control of the very endowment we have been protecting for our future and that of our students, instead using it for an amorphous Institute.

As best as we can figure out, full time faculty may face layoffs as soon as Fall 2022 with no guarantee of severance. Some adjunct faculty have already been informed of reduced teaching loads starting this fall, with others anticipating further cuts to classes and thus health benefits. Nothing is clear for staff. There is some talk from the administration about how they hope we will all be on “Team 23,” but there are no guarantees that the College will employ those who want to remain, nor any indication that adequate financial and professional support will be provided for those who do stay on.

Things are moving quickly, and we are worried that we will miss our chance if pressure is not placed on the administration immediately to support the faculty and staff through what will be, for us, not a transition but an ending, in the midst of a bleak employment landscape in higher education. Along with gifts from countless donors, the College’s endowment consists of our donated labor, retirement matches, and cancelled cost-of-living increases. We have often heard that because so much of the endowment is restricted, it cannot be used to help offset the deficit. So here we are, we hope not too late, giving notice that our many donations over the years are restricted or should be. Any closure that does not offer real, material support to staff and faculty therefore represents a kind of theft, one we are no longer willing to let go without a fight.

The following demands are made by a small group of faculty, some tenure line and some not. Adjunct faculty and staff have union representation, but as ranked faculty at a private college, we have not been able to unionize. We are focused now on demanding recompense for our labor and for the years of reduced compensation, as well as financial and professional support to navigate the coming years in which many of us may lose employment. We support whatever our fellow workers pursue through union negotiations, and demand that the College immediately agree to ratify all union contract demands. We make the following demands on behalf of everyone who works at Mills without union representation. We see these demands as just the beginning of the support owed to us by the administration, and the only way to meaningfully enact teach-out plans as promised to current and incoming students.

(SCROLL DOWN PAST SIGNATURES TO ADD YOUR NAME THROUGH THIS FORM)

WE INVITE ANYONE TO SIGN THIS PETITION IN SUPPORT OF THE FOLLOWING DEMANDS:

Course schedule immediately frozen and no cuts to classes, even if under enrolled. The remaining students deserve a full range of classes.

“Stay pay” salary increase of 15 percent for all faculty and staff who choose to remain at Mills, starting immediately.

Back pay for salary cuts plus COLA plus retirement match for the last 10 years for all faculty and staff who are currently employed at Mills.

An immediate freeze on layoffs, course reductions, or mandatory furloughs for all faculty and staff jobs.

Additional aid and/or fee waivers for the summer and J-term classes that students will be forced to take to get their degrees.

Seamless transfer plans, without any student fees incurred in the process, with Mills covering any cost difference in tuition as soon as possible.

Additional staff in support services to assist students with the stress of this transition, with backgrounds and focus on BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and first-gen students.

A minimum of two years severance pay for all terminated faculty and staff.

A minimum of paid COBRA benefits for two years for all terminated faculty and staff.

Emeritus status for faculty with library privileges.

Individual career coaching from a nationally reputable firm for all who desire it.

Tuition remission for any faculty and staff who want to retrain for employment reasons.

Extension of tuition remission at partner schools for those whose children are attending, until they graduate.

Agreements with partner institutions to offer ongoing free career support services for all Mills alumni.

First hired for any possible faculty or staff jobs with the Institute for the next 10 years, with equivalent or above pay rates.

First in line for any fellowships at the Institute, beginning with adjuncts and assistant professors, for the next 10 years.

Kim Zarins, Professor of English, the California State University at Sacramento
Julie Paulson, Professor, San Francisco State University
Masha Raskolnikov, Associate Professor, Cornell University
Georgiana Donavin
Susan Ito, Mills alum 1994, adjunct faculty
Diane Cady, Mills College
Dan Breen, Associate Professor, Ithaca College
Anonymous, Mills Faculty
Michael Calabrese, Professor, CSULA
Anonymous
Dana Chalupa Young
Marta Montoro, Class of 1997
Dylan Neely, MFA '14
Stacey Monteiro Leanos, 1997 & 2005
Joshua Clover, Professor, UC Davis
Leora Fridman, St Lawrence University
Sianne Ngai, Professor, University of Chicago
Jennifer Scappettone, Associate Professor, University of Chicago
Cynthia Franklin, Professor, U of Hawai'i
beck levy alum
Elmaz Abinader, Professor, English
Michael Robbins, Associate Professor, Montclair State University
Julian Murphet, Jury Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Adelaide
Karla Brundage, 826 Valencia
Yulia Pinkusevich, Mills College Faculty
Andrea Gadberry, Associate Professor, NYU
Natalia Cecire, Senior Lecturer, University of Sussex
Sandeep Parmar, Professor of English, University of Liverpool
Andrea Lawlor, Assistant Professor, Mount Holyoke College
Miranda Mellis, Evergreen State College
Rachel Zolf, Artist in Residence, University of Pennsylvania
Sarah Brouillette, Professor, Department of English
Meryl Bailey, Associate Professor, Mills College
Annie McClanahan, Associate Professor, UC Irvine
Michael Mersereau, Adjunct Faculty, Mills College
Ariel Resnikoff, Fulbright US Scholar, The Hebrew University
Julia Bloch, University of Pennsylvania, and Mills MFA ‘02
Benjamin Madden, University of Adelaide
Eileen Fradenburg Joy, UC Santa Barbara
Jasmin Ansar, Adjunct faculty
Aaron Begg, Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University
Roger Sparks, Mills Faculty
Ivy Johnson, Mills MFA Creative Writing Alum
Ana Schwartz, Univ of Texas at Austin
Divya Victor, Associate Professor, Michigan State University
Hans Thomalla, Professor, Northwestern University
Anna Kornbluh, Professor, UIC
José Vadi, Mills MFA 2012
Matthew Hart, Associate Professor, Columbia University
Christopher Fan, UC Irvine
Joy McEntee, University of Adelaide
Jerrine Tan, Visiting Lecturer, Mount Holyoke College
Mitch Therieau, Stanford
Adam Miyashiro, Associate Professor, Stockton University
Maia Averett, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Mills College
Jena Osman, Professor, Temple University
Anahid Nersessian, University of California, Los Angeles
Katie Funes, Mills Class of 2019
Oliver Baez Bendorf, Assistant Professor, Kalamazoo College
Anahid Nersessian, Associate Professor, UCLA
Jared Young, Associate Professor, Mills College
Sierra Lomuto, Rowan University
Sarah Ross, PhD Candidate, JHU
Alexa Rae Barger, PhD Student, UCLA, Mills BA '18
Sarah Dowling, University of Toronto
Nicholas Deyoe - California Institute of the Arts
Hannah Manshel, Assistant Professor of English, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Hugo García Manríquez, UC Davis.
Julie Orlemanski, University of Chicago
Tonya M. Foster, Assistant Professor, San Francisco State University
Jane Malcolm, Associate Professor, Université de Montréal
Kurt Doles - MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, BGSU
Morgan Day Frank -- Lecturer, History and Literature, Harvard University
Christopher Chen, Associate Professor, UC Santa Cruz
Frances Richard, Places Journal
Charles Kell, Assistant Professor, Community College of Rhode Island
MC Hyland, adjunct faculty, NYU
Achy Obejas, writer, Netflix (former Mills faculty)
Anne-Lise Francois, Associate Professor, UC-Berkeley
Thomas Strychacz, Mills College
Kimberly Drake, Associate Professor, Scripps College
Orchid Tierney, Assistant Professor, Kenyon College
Geoffrey G. O'Brien, Professor of English, UC Berkeley
Jo Giardini, PhD Candidate, Johns Hopkins University
Shelly Silver, Associate Professor, Columbia University
Noah Jenkins, PhD candidate Northwestern University
Orchid Tierney, Assistant Professor, Kenyon College
Rob Sean Wilson, Professor of Literature & Creative Writing, UC Santa Cruz
Claire Grossman, Stanford graduate student + Mills alum
Jane Hu, PhD, UC-Berkeley
Sarah Chihaya, Assistant Professor, Princeton University
David Diamond, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Natalie Shapero, Professor of the Practice, Tufts University
Rei Terada, Professor of Comparative Literature, UC Irvine
Meilan Carter-Gilkey, BA 2006, MFA 2008
Anonymous, Staff
Yétúndé Olagbaju (Artist & Mills Alum)
Anonymous Vermont College of Fine Arts faculty
Sofia Córdova , artist in residence at Mills Museum
Dirk van Nouhuys, Berkeley writer, long time admirier of Mills.
Francis Lo, Mills MFA 2012
Merve Emre, University of Oxford
Brenda Kwon, Associate Professor, University of Hawai'i HonCC
Sidney Le, Oakland resident
Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé, Associate Professor, Tulane University
Karen Carr, Portland State University (Emerita)
Nancy Pitt, class of 1965! I'm disgusted.

Continued...
Part 2 Part 3

7. UC Berkeley "Life and Death" Financial Crisis, How Can They Afford Mills College Problems Too?

8. Strong, Proud and Determined to Save the College We Love

9. Sue the Board - It Worked For Sweet Briar, Could It Work For Mills College?

10. Déjà Vu - Organized Faction of AAMC Pushing UC Merger Plan Similar to Board of Trustees

11. Mills College Leadership Caught Speechless by AAMC Resistance

Academics From Around the World Unite to Support Mills College Faculty (Pt 1)

SUPPORT MILLS COLLEGE WORKERS