OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) – Mills College, Oakland’s historic women’s school, will be halting the enrollment of new students, citing economic burdens from the COVID-19 pandemic, structural changes across higher education, budget deficits and Mills’ declining enrollment.
Fall 2021 will be the final semester that new students will be able to join the college while it expects to operate through 2023 and issue all necessary degrees for current students wishing to complete their education at Mills, or help transfer them to different institutions.
While the exact future of the college is up in the air, President Elizabeth L. Hillman says Mills will work towards transitioning into an institute that will “continue to foster women’s leadership and student success, advance gender and racial equity, and cultivate innovative pedagogy, research, and critical thinking.”
“Today’s news signals the end of an era in Mills College’s history,” Hillman said. “It may provoke a variety of reactions and emotions in you, as it has in me. I also expect you will have many questions, some of which I will not yet be able to answer. Mills takes seriously our obligation to keep you apprised as we assess options and build pathways for transition.”
Founded in 1852 as the Young Ladies Seminary in Benicia, Mills was relocated to Oakland in 1871 and became the first women’s college west of the Rockies. The school provides undergraduate degrees for women and gender non-binary students as well as graduate programs for all genders.