Please support the Mills College MFA Collective and our call for accountability. 

The Mills MFA Collective is a consortium of MFA and MA first year students at Mills College. 

The MFA Collective is seeking a Just Transition from Mills College to Northeastern University, one that centers on honoring the legacy of Mills College for future generations, and valuing the current community of Faculty, Staff, and Students.

Under the pending acquisition of Mills College by Northeastern University several undergraduate and graduate degree programs are facing sweeping changes or folding entirely. One such massive change, directly affecting Mills College first year MFAs: All six separately accredited MFA programs--creative writing, book-art, visual art, music performance and literature, electronic music & recording media, dance--and the two accredited MA programs--dance and music composition--will be collapsed into a single degree at NEU: an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts. 

Below is the Collective's List of Demands pertaining to Northeastern University’s acquisition of Mills College. These demands were sent to Mills College, and Northeastern University administrators March 1st 2022.
[click here for pdf link]

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1. Mills College President Beth Hillman must resign from her position, or be removed by the Board of Trustees. 
   ° This request is based on Beth Hillman’s lack of transparency and accountability to the Mills student body during the closure of Mills College, and subsequent negotiations for the acquisition of Mills College by Northeastern University.
   
2. Mills College will hold Mills at NEU graduate and undergraduate Departmental Zoom Town Halls once a month, beginning in March 2022. 
   ° Students will be notified two weeks in advance of each Town Hall. 
   ° Town Halls will be a place for students to voice concerns, ask questions, and seek collective clarity on the transition from Mills College to Mills at NEU.
   ° Town Halls will be recorded, and students will have permissions to download recordings for their records.
   
   
3. Mills College Faculty and Staff retention will be included in the agreement between Mills and Northeastern.
   ° Mills will recognize the Mills College Staff Union and meet with their representatives to negotiate acquisition contract terms that will be honored by Mills at NEU. 
   ° Mills College will meet with Mills College Adjunct Faculty to negotiate terms of an adjunct-acquisition-contract-outline to be honored by Mills at NEU.
   
   
4. Mills College must issue Honorary Degrees to each student enrolled at Mills during the 2021-2022 academic year with degree plans to graduate from Mills during the academic year of 2022-23. 
   ° This includes the issuance of Honorary PhD/MFA/MA(s) to graduate students, Honorary BA(s) to undergraduates, and Honorary Certificates to certificate program students. 
   ° Each Honorary degree issued in the major/minor/certificate-program will be printed/postmarked by May 14th, 2022. 
   
   
5. It will be written into the acquisition agreement: for every Mills College Student Transferring to Mills College at NEU, Mills College at Northeastern University will give supplementary Scholarships to compensate Mills College students for the added living costs (on-campus or off-campus) students have to undertake for each additional credit/semester required to complete degrees with Mills at NEU.
   
6. It will be written into the acquisition agreement: that Mills College at Northeastern MFA IA will be accredited for at least 10 accreditation cycles from the date of acquisition.
   
   
7. It will be written into the acquisition agreement: NU will become dedicated to the preservation and maintenance of Mills College MFA studios and facilities for: Book Art, Dance, Visual Art, and Music.
   
   
8. It will be written into the acquisition agreement: Mills College at NEU MFA IA will retain the Flex model that exists within the Mills College MFA Creative Writing program.
   
   
9. It will be written into the acquisition agreement: Mills College at NEU will gain accreditation (during NEU’s next accreditation cycle) for landmark Mills College undergraduate/graduate majors that are presently absent from the NEU catalog: Women's - Gender and Sexuality Studies, Ethnic Studies, Art History, Early Child Development, Business Administration, MA Dance, MA Music Composition. 
   
   
10. It will be written into the acquisition agreement: NU will become dedicated to the preservation of community legacies and histories of Mills and Mills’ programs via the following items:
    ° Mills College at NEU will create a Scholarship Fund for Black, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, white - women, and LGBTQI2A+ students. All Mills College alumni donations will be directed to this fund to subsidize the tuition/fees/housing costs for graduate/undergraduate students whose demographics match the legacy of students at Mills College. Additionally, NU will create  supplementary scholarships/ financial opportunities for Black, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, white - women, and LGBTQI2A+ students at Mills College at NEU based off of a percentage of annual profit gained by Northeastern from enrollment at Mills College at NEU. 
    ------ To help new students aligned in the Mills College legacy historically economically disadvantaged groups--better afford Mills College at NEU.
    ° NEU will: incorporate Mills College land-acknowledgements of Ohlone Land at Mills College of NEU, and begin using land-acknowledgements at all NU campuses. 
    ° NEU will integrate Preferred Name, Gender Identity, and multiple pronoun recognition across all NEU student records, and integrate both Preferred Name and Multiple pronoun recognition across all student/faculty learning platforms.
    ° NEU will preserve the Summer Academic Workshop (SAW), to continue to provide free transitional support to first generation undergraduate students accepted into Mills at NEU. Approximately thirty-five percent of undergraduates at Mills are the first in their family to attend college, and NEU must continue to provide the skills, resources, networks, and support for first generation students to succeed.
    ° NEU will establish a demographic restriction on student enrollment of white cis-males on campus at Mills College at Northeastern University to retain the Mills campus’ legacy as a haven for Women, LGBTQIA+, and BIPOC in higher education.
    ° Mills at NEU will preserve the Mills College archives on the Oakland (Ohlone Land) campus. 
    

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The Mills MFA Collective is seeking support from fellow: Mills students, alum, family, friends, the Bay-Area community; fellow creatives and professionals in the Arts and Higher-Education. 
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RELEVANT ARTICLES

"Mills College Faculty Levels Vote of No Confidence"

“Mills-Northeastern merger a sign of challenges facing women’s colleges”

“After Mills merges with Northeastern, some students’ majors will no longer exist”

"Opinion: Mills College spent more on administration than instruction”

“The Colleges that won’t die.”

RELEVANT MEDIA

Mills Staff and Faculty Union Rally | March 1st 2022