Trustees File Suit Against Mills College Officials

Four members of the Mills College Board of Trustees filed suit against a handful of Mills College administrators last month in an effort to slow the college’s imminent closure.

The private liberal arts college in Oakland, Calif., announced in March that it would no longer admit new students -- the first step toward an eventual closure. More recently, the college said it was in talks to be acquired by Northeastern University.

The plaintiffs -- Adrienne Foster, Viji Nakka-Cammauf, Tara Singh and Deborah Wood -- are asking an Alameda County Superior Court judge to issue a restraining order against Elizabeth Hillman, president of the college, as well as other college administrators and members of the Mills College Board of Trustees. The order would prevent the defendants from moving to close the college or proceeding with a potential acquisition by Northeastern until 60 days after they provide requested financial information to the trustees.

The legal action highlights a sharp divide among trustees, alumnae and college officials over how an institution that has struggled financially for years should move forward. College officials have tried repeatedly to balance Mills’s budget in past years. They declared a financial emergency, laid off dozens of faculty members and in 2017 reset the tuition price. They also implemented a financial stabilization plan and even sold signature works from Shakespeare and Mozart.

“This action comes at a pivotal time -- indeed, the pivotal time -- for the future of Mills and its very existence,” the lawsuit states. “In the past few months, Mills -- with Defendants at the helm of the College and its Board of Trustees -- has publicly announced its imminent closure and begun an apparent wind-down toward that end. These plaintiff trustees, however, have not approved such a course of action or such messaging. In fact, plaintiffs have not even been asked to authorize such actions, nor to their knowledge have other members of the board.”

The four plaintiffs are also alumnae of the college and serve simultaneously on the Alumnae Association of Mills College Board of Governors. They were blindsided by the college’s closure and acquisition announcements, said Alexa Pagonas, a spokesperson for the association.

“The trustees believed that they had voted to begin conversations about winding down the college,” she said. “They did not believe they had voted to close the college.”

The plaintiffs also say that Hillman and other Mills administrators have refused to share requested financial information with the trustees and that the trustees are being asked to “review, consider and vote on proposed actions as to which they are being denied information,” according to the lawsuit.

Hillman, one of the nine defendants named in the complaint, slammed the plaintiff’s actions.

“The lawsuit filed by four alumna trustees is a factually incorrect and legally mistaken effort to undermine confidence in the leadership of the College,” Hillman wrote in a statement released Friday. “All other Mills College alumnae on the Mills College Board of Trustees agree that they reviewed more than sufficient information to make all decisions made on the future of the College.”

Hillman also said one plaintiff’s term on the Board of Trustees expired at the end of June and that two of the plaintiffs are withdrawing from the suit. A college spokesperson declined to say which of the plaintiffs Hillman was referring to. The lawyer for the plaintiffs did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

The defendants also include Katie Sanborn, chair of the board; Maria Cammarata, vice president for finance and administration and treasurer for the college; and Renée Jadushlever, vice president for strategic communications and operations at the college.

Following a 1990 strike on campus by students and employees over the college’s decision to go co-ed, college officials reformed the Board of Trustees to include several alumnae trustees, who are elected by the alumnae association and also serve on the association's Board of Governors.

“The point was to be able to create transparency in conversations between the two groups,” Pagonas said.

The alumnae association is bankrolling the trustees’ legal fight. The association spent $165,905 in April and May alone to retain the law firm Greenberg Traurig and to hire a forensic accountant and higher education consultant, according to the alumnae association website.

“It was discussed that the lawsuit itself could easily cost millions of dollars and that one should only begin litigation if they were committed to seeing it through,” the website said.

The association will pay for the legal fees using its general fund and plans to launch a fundraising campaign to support the legal effort. Several anonymous alums in the Los Angeles Mills College Alumnae branch have already pledged more than enough money to cover the cost to date, according to the website.

Hillman suggested the association should spend its money on students and alumnae.

“We urge the Alumnae Association of Mills College to rededicate its resources to supporting our students and Mills College rather than funding a costly legal fight,” she wrote in her statement.

The Save Mills College Coalition -- a group of Mills students, parents, alumnae and employees who are advocating for the college to remain open and independent -- supports the alumnae trustees’ legal action.

“We’re incredibly grateful to them,” said Darcy Totten, a spokesperson for the coalition. “I am very glad that they are being brave and demonstrating a really deep commitment to their duty as trustees and trying to really model what I think of as effective leadership.”