There was a big crowd outside the gates of Mills College in Oakland Friday afternoon, as staff and former and current students protested the 2023 planned closure of the school.
There has been a grassroots effort underway to save the college.
It’s a question that is hard for many former Mills students to answer, and not because they don’t know the answer: why is this school so worth saving?
“Now you’re going to get me crying,” said Kate Beckwith, who is with the Mills College Alumni association and a staff union organizer.
She said the diversity, the creativity, the high quality education and the atmosphere of acceptance Mills provides are all things that will be lost if the school does close. And, there’s another thing.
“Mills staff has really born the brunt of the financial difficulties in the past decade or so, actually probably longer than that,” she told KCBS Radio. “So, it’s kind of a punch in the gut to have been hanging on for so long and putting yourself into this place, and trying your best and then, now it’s gone.”
Robin Mills, who graduated in 2001, hopes that grassroots fundraising can possibly turn things around.
“Honestly, Mills was a life changing experience for me,” she said.
When asked for comment on the movement, college officials said they support and encourage freedom of expression, and respect and value the protesters’ perspective in preserving the Mills mission.
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