Alumnae trustees sue Mills for information they need to help decide the College’s future

July 7, 2021

Note: Alumnae trustees Adrienne McMichael Foster ’74 and Deborah M. Wood ’75, who are listed as plaintiffs in the complaint, withdrew from the lawsuit after it was filed.

Oakland, California – Representatives of the Alumnae Association of Mills College (AAMC) who serve on the Mills College Board of Trustees say they and other trustees have not been granted the information they need to make informed decisions regarding the future of Mills College, including decisions leading to a March 2021 announcement that the College would stop functioning as a degree-granting college and become a “Mills Institute.”

With support from the AAMC, these AAMC representatives filed a lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court to gain access to the information they need. AAMC President Viji Nakka-Cammauf, MA ’82, and Tara Singh ’05, MBA ’07, who served as an alumna trustee on the Mills board until July 1, want the College to produce “financial data, term sheets, due diligence, consultant reports and other reports, other materials pertaining to the contemplated ‘Institute,’ and other information regarding the facts underlying the announcement and the announced upcoming changes to the College,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit says, furthermore, that the College’s allegedly improper actions began with a “consent agenda” presented to the Board of Trustees for its March 4 meeting: a section of typically pro-forma matters that require little discussion before approval. But instead of being limited to pro forma matters, this March consent agenda included language purporting to allow the College to develop a “teach-out plan.” At most, the consent agenda stated that the item to be developed was a plan only, which would be considered by the board for final approval later. Thus, the board did not make any decision to stop admitting students. The plaintiffs allege that the College’s March 17 announcement prematurely signaled the end of Mills’ role as a degree-granting college.

The lawsuit was filed on June 7, but due to COVID-related court closures that delayed the lawsuit’s processing, this legal action could only recently be made public. The lawsuit does not address the College’s current partnership negotiations with Boston-based Northeastern University, announced on June 17 after the lawsuit was filed. However, the plaintiffs have since asked the College for additional information they need to evaluate the current circumstances, including the contemplated partnership with Northeastern University.

Alumnae trustee positions were created in 1990 following a student strike protesting the Board of Trustees’ decision that Mills would be a co-ed institution. That decision was famously reversed.