Mills College Declares Financial Emergency and May Cut 30 to 35 Jobs

Mills College, a liberal-arts institution for women in Oakland, Calif., declared a financial emergency on Tuesday as a first step toward dealing with financial challenges, including a projected $9.1-million deficit in the coming fiscal year.

In a news release and in a statement emailed to faculty, staff, and students on Tuesday afternoon, the college described the Board of Trustees’ approval of the declaration of emergency as a step that authorizes Mills to restructure all of its expenses in pursuit of financial stability. Its next step, it said, will be to put in place a “financial-stabilization plan” that will require a reduction in force of approximately 30 to 35 staff and faculty positions. That plan, if approved by the board, is expected to be in place by July 1.

Mills’s long-term plans also include restructuring its academic programs and co-curricular activities. The college has long resisted pressure to admit men as undergraduates — its graduate programs are coeducational, but it admits only “self-identified” women to its undergraduate programs — and that apparently will continue. It said a key component of the restructuring would be the creation of a “bold, new education experience that will bring additional women and gender-nonbinary undergraduate students to Mills.”