Oakland’s Mills College announced on Wednesday it will no longer grant degrees and won’t enroll new undergraduate students after this fall’s class.
President Elizabeth Hillman cited the COVID-19 pandemic, declining enrollment, changes in higher education and budget deficits as driving factors.
"It’s become clear through a deep and searching process of reflection and analysis by the college’s leadership that we cannot continue to fulfill Mills’ mission in our current form," Hillman said in a video posted to YouTube.
Mills College will now become an institute, with input from faculty, staff and trustees over the next few months driving its future, Hillman added.
The school started in 1852.
While Mills entered a partnership with UC Berkeley that brought some Cal students to its campus in October 2017, a reported expansion of that agreement up for discussion would not involve UC Berkeley acquiring the school.
"Today’s news signals the end of an era in Mills College’s history. It may provoke a variety of reactions and emotions in you, as it has in me," Hillman explained. "I also expect you will have many questions, some of which I will not yet be able to answer."
The small liberal arts college for women and gender nonbinary students will likely give out its final degrees in 2023, depending on further action by the Mills College Board of Trustees.
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