Mills Quarterly summer 2010

Who gives to Mills?

Viji Nakka Cammauf, MA ’82 BA, Queen Mary’s College, Chennai, India; MA, English, Mills College; MDiv, American Baptist Seminary; PhD, Graduate Theological Union Viji’s degrees:

“I formed an organization, Little Flock Children’s Homes, to build orphanages. We opened our first in India in 2006, which today houses 46 children and will eventually serve 100.”

Her calling:

“Classroom moments of great joy, of learning, and just wishing it wouldn’t end.”

Her memories of Mills:

How she learned about the College:

“Family friends who lived in Oakland came to visit us in Chennai. They told us about coming to the Mills campus for a concert by Ravi Shankar!”

“I was able to fully develop as a person at Mills, where I found friends, faith, and even a new direction for my life.”

Why she contributes:

Help today’s Mills students find their life’s work. > Send a gift in the enclosed envelope. > Give online at www.mills.edu/giving.

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Mills Quarterly

contents

Summer 2010 4

For women, forever

President Janet L. Holmgren reflects on the path that led her to Mills and on the legacy of the Strike.

8 Creating a curriculum, changing communities by L.A. Chung ’79 The Ethnic Studies Department was born of student activism 40 years ago; today, student scholars apply knowledge from the classroom to work for justice for communities of color.

12 Passion, promises, progress Two decades after reversing the decision to go co-ed, Mills has proven the merits of its approach to women’s education. But not all of the Strike’s promises have been fulfilled.

32 Sound off! What does the Strike mean to you?

Alumnae, students, and friends responded to this question with insight and enthusiasm.

Departments 2

Presidential Search Update

6

Mills Matters

17

Bookshelf

18

Class Notes with Notes from Near and Far: Alumnae Activities Report

29

In Memoriam

“What an extraordinary place, that they would have this kind of passionate commitment to women’s education.”

—Janet L. Holmgren 32

On the cover: “Power of Woman,” a bronze statue created by Roberta Weir ’86, MFA ’90, is based on a sketch by Weir that became an icon of resistance during the Strike of 1990. A gift from the Class of 1991, the sculpture was unveiled at President Holmgren’s inauguration in the fall of that year. It resides proudly in the courtyard outside the Student Union. Photo by Philip Channing.

2010

s Summer 200 19 0 winter/spring

1 1

Jak ub Mosur

An update from the chair of the Presidential Search Committee Volume XCVIII Number 4 (USPS 349-900) Summer 2010 President Janet L. Holmgren Vice President for Institutional Advancement Cynthia Brandt Stover

I

n the three months since

Our main focus to date has been on

Holmgren

gathering input from the Mills commu-

announced that she would not seek

nity on the factors we should consider in

renewal of her appointment to the

our search, including the challenges and

presidency beyond June 30, 2011, much

opportunities that lie ahead and the attri-

progress has been made in our search for

butes to look for in the next president. So

the 13th president of Mills College.

far, we have:

President

Janet

L.

I was honored to be selected to serve

• Held a forum and a series of inter-

Senior Director of Communications Dawn Cunningham ’85

on behalf of the Board of Trustees and

Managing Editor Linda Schmidt

Presidential Search Committee (PSC). My

• Invited alumnae, students and their

roots with Mills College are deep—both

parents, faculty, staff, and friends to

my mother and my great-grandmother

fill out an online survey in May, the

went to Mills. Since graduating from the

results of which we are currently ana-

Design and Art Direction Nancy Siller Wilson Contributing Writers L.A. Chung ’79 Pamela Wilson Editorial Assistance Kelsey Lindquist ’10 Special Thanks To Mills College Marketing Department

the Mills community as chair of the

College in 1968, I enjoyed an early career

views with members of the campus community in April.

lyzing.

in health economics, raised two children,

• Convened a forum at Mills College at

and worked at Johns Hopkins University

which alumnae shared their thoughts

for more than 12 years (while my hus-

in early June.

band was president of the university). I

Informed by the input we have received

have been president of the Palo Alto Area

this spring, we will begin reviewing can-

Mills College Club and have served on

didate submissions in the summer.

Mills College has benefited greatly in the

The Mills Quarterly (USPS 349-900) is published quarterly by Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613. Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, California, and at additional mailing office(s). Postmaster: Send address changes to the Office of Institutional Advancement, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613.

numerous boards and advisory councils

by a leading global executive search

Sincerely,

Copyright © 2010, Mills College.

and assessment firm, Russell Reynolds

Wendy Hull Brody ’68

Address correspondence to the Mills Quarterly, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613. Letters to the editor may be edited for clarity or length.

Email: quarterly@mills.edu Phone: 510.430.3312 Printed on recycled paper containing 10 percent post-consumer waste.

2

M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

of arts and educational institutions.

past 19 years from the strong leadership

Joining me on the PSC are 14 mem-

of President Holmgren. We are confident

bers of the Mills community—including

that with your help we will identify a suc-

Trustees, alumnae, students, faculty, and

cessor who will continue Mills’ tradition as

staff—chosen from an expansive list of

a model of women-centered education.

nominees. We are assisted in our work

Associates, and by Vice President for Operations Renée Jadushlever, who is staffing the committee.

For more information about Mills’ presidential search, visit www.mills.edu/presidential_search.

If you have questions about the search or would like to submit a candidate name for consideration, please contact Russell Reynolds Associates at MillsPresident@russellreynolds.com.

Presidential Search Committee The Presidential Search Committee (PSC) is charged with identifying the opportunities and challenges that will face the 13th president of Mills College; developing selection criteria; identifying and interviewing candidates; and recommending the top candidate or candidates to the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Wendy Hull Brody ’68 Chair, Presidential Search Committee Current Trustee BA, Mills College Jim Fowler Vice Chair, Presidential Search Committee Current Trustee, Former Chair of Campus Planning Committee BA, UC Santa Barbara; JD, UC Berkeley Kathi Burke Chair, Board of Trustees BA, Washington State University; JD, Georgetown University Gordon Chong Current Trustee; Chair Elect, Campus Planning Committee BA, University of Oregon; MA, Edinburgh University Dawn Cunningham ’85 Staff BA, Mills College; MA, UC Berkeley Linda Jaquez-Fissori ’92 President Elect, AAMC BA, Mills College Jennifer Lin ’11 Graduate Student BA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ajuan Mance Faculty BA, Brown University; MA, PhD, University of Michigan Mary Ann Milford-Lutzker Faculty BA, MA, PhD, UC Berkeley Alexandra Widmann Rinde ’08 Current Trustee BA, Mills College; JD, UC Berkeley (in progress)

Launching at Reunion 2010: Mills’ first online alumnae community Beginning October 1, whether you attend Reunion or not, you can be part of an online community only for Mills alumnae that will make it easy for you to: • Find your Mills friends online • Create your own profile for friends to read • Network for career or other interests • Read and post class notes • Get the scoop on Mills news and events

Prepare to take part Watch your mail this summer for the alumnae community invitation. The invitation will contain a contact information update form. Return the completed form to us to speed up the process of registering for your free account this fall. The invitation will also contain information about how to register and the benefits of joining the community. If you do not wish to participate, use the update form to opt out.

If you don’t receive an update form in the mail in July, please contact Online Community Manager Angelique Felgentreff ’90 at 510.430.2111 or alumnae-community@mills.edu.

At Mills, for Alumnae Alumnae Relations and Annual Giving www.mills.edu/alumnae 510.430.2123 Alumnae-relations@mills.edu Find out about Reunion, alumnae clubs, and events; update your contact information; and request our @mills enewsletter.

Laura Gobbi, Senior Director........ 510.430.2112

Dan Ryan Faculty BA, New College of Florida; MA, MPhil, PhD, Yale University

Alexandra Wong, Associate Director, Alumnae Relations........................ 510.430.3363

Marjan Soleimanieh ’11 Undergraduate Student

Career Services 510.430.2130 Learn how Mills can help with your career.

Vivian Stephenson Current Trustee; Former Chair, Board of Trustees BS, New York University; MBA, University of Havana Margaret Wilkerson Current Trustee BA, University of Redlands; MA, UC Berkeley; PhD, UC Berkeley Barbara Ahmajan Wolfe ’65 Trustee Elect BA, Mills College

Caitlin McGarty, Coordinator........ 510.430.2123

Alumnae Admission Representatives 510.430.2135 Help prospective students learn more about the College.

Joan Jaffe, Associate Dean of Admission Email: Joanj@mills.edu

Giving to Mills www.mills.edu/giving 510.430.2366 mcaf@mills.edu Make gifts to the Mills College Annual Fund or the AAMC endowment.

Alumnae Association of Mills College (AAMC) Learn about AAMC membership, merchandise, travel programs, Board of Governors, committee meetings, or reach your elected representatives on the College’s Board of Trustees.

Email: aamc@mills.edu..................510.430.2110 Anita Aragon Bowers ’63, President (through June 30); Linda Jaquez-Fissori ’92, President Elect.............................. 510.430.3374 Bill White, Accountant................... 510.430.3373 To contact the Alumnae Association of Mills College, please write to: AAMC, P.O. Box 9998, Oakland, CA 94613-0998

Summer 2010

3

A look back at the tenure of President Holmgren

For women, As President Janet L. Holmgren enters her final year as the head of Mills College, we present a four-part series reflecting on her experience and legacy of leadership at the College.

Thorne: You were vice provost at Princeton University in 1990. What did you hear about the Strike then and what were your impressions of Mills as a result?

In this first conversation, Muffy McKinstry Thorne ’48—lifetime Trustee of Mills College, former editor of the Quarterly, president of the Alumnae Association of Mills College during the Strike of 1990, and a member of the presidential search committee that selected Holmgren 19 years ago—sat down with the President in her Mills Hall office to discuss her earliest impressions of Mills, the Strike, and the College’s recommitment to women’s education.

Holmgren: I heard about the Strike one evening when I was at home in Princeton, cooking dinner. I saw the 6 o’clock news with all of these women and their signs of protest, and I was actually moved to cheers and tears. I called in my daughters, Liz and Ellen, to watch with me. I thought, “What an extraordinary place, that they would have this kind of passionate commitment to women’s education.”

How did you learn that Mills was looking for a president?

I learned, first, through the associate dean of students at Princeton at the time, whose mother received an MA in music at Mills and always talked about how much she loved the College. Months later, I received a letter from the search committee, saying that several people had nominated me. It took me several weeks to decide to put my hat in. I actually took a trip to Washington DC to talk with my guru, Donna Shavlik, then head of the American Council on Education Office of Women in Higher Education. She told me, “Yes, you should apply. It’s a wonderful place; you’re ready to be president.”

What were your experiences and values that made you feel the job was a good fit?

About 10 years into my academic career, I became very involved in women’s studies. While at the University of Maryland, I advocated for curricular transformation for women and began working with women leaders and women’s organizations. I had always been a feminist, but I became an academic feminist.

When I thought about Mills, I could imagine a women-focused environment with real academic strength and opportunity.

What were your reactions when you learned you were selected?

Actually, I already had an offer to become president of Hollins University in Virginia but Donna Weaver, chair of the Mills search committee, sent a telegram after my last interview at Mills—the only telegram I have ever received—reading: “It’s raining in Roanoke. It’s cold in Princeton. It’s sunny in Oakland.

Come to Mills.” It was absolutely precious.

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M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

Friends and family: At left, Muffy Thorne and President Holmgren in spirited conversation this May. Facing page, Holmgren on the steps of the President’s House in 1991 with her daughters Ellen (left) and Liz (middle).

sense of unfinished business and a sense that we had to move forward in the right way. We didn’t want to have this question hanging over our heads. When I accepted dana dav is

the position and met with the board, I was very explicit about not having the issue of co-education on the table anymore. I didn’t want to be president of Mills as a I asked my two daughters, “Do you want to move to California?”

co-educational institution. I wanted it to

and they said, “Yes.” Harold Shapiro, the president of Princeton

be for women forever, and that was why I was coming, to make

University at the time, advised: “I would think a great deal about

that work.

going to an institution where the board has reversed itself; that is a very big challenge for a president.” But I had fallen in love with Mills; at that point there is nothing that could have stood in my way.

When you arrived on campus in 1991, what was the mood among students, faculty, and alumnae who had experienced the Strike?

In what way do you see the Strike as having been most successful?

Mills has become a model as a top-level academic institution that embraces, in every sense, diversity and multiculturalism.

That could not have happened if we hadn’t challenged ourselves to think about what it means to be a college committed to empowering all women, in every way. The Strike was an institu-

Everyone was very, very welcoming and everyone was very anx-

tional wake-up call, but it was also a national and international

ious to move forward. I think the year between the Strike and

wake-up call to take the education of women seriously and to

my arrival was a period of uneasiness. There was a lot of good

acknowledge that women, like men, cover the span of humanity.

publicity that brought student interest to the College, but also a

It’s not as though education is only for a certain group. We really developed a message about who we are and what we represent.

A leader for women

Are there areas in which the promises of the Strike remain unfulfilled?

For the third year in a row, President Janet L. Holmgren has been named one of the “Bay Area’s Most Influential Women in Business” by the San Francisco Business Times.

This annual recognition honors the most dynamic and accomplished women in business, including those leading nonprofit or public agencies.

One area that is very much on my mind is greater ownership

“A leader needs a clear sense of direction and purpose, but also must be inclusive in balancing others. I try very hard to show respect and listen to all the people in my life and to learn and grow as a result,” Holmgren says.

involved in ways that make a difference. But alumnae need to

Holmgren also received the 2010 Smart Women Award, given

by Girls, Incorporated of Alameda County, for her achievements in higher education and as a role model to young girls.

Holmgren says these honors are particularly meaningful to her, having announced in February that she will step down in 2011 after 20 years at the helm of Mills to focus on teaching, research, and women’s leadership issues.

by alumnae. We had hoped to get donor participation among alumnae to over 50 percent and that’s been challenging—today the participation rate is half that goal. There are very strong and devoted supporters, and many students who graduated in the last 20 years have a passion for Mills. They are already getting think about Mills as a strong, enduring, “go-to” institution that they want to support.

What advice would you give your successor?

Believe in what you are doing. What has sustained me for my years at Mills has been my absolute commitment to Mills and to my values, and to the academic and social experiences of our students. Trust yourself, take risks. This is a courageous institution, so don’t play it safe. And have fun! There is a lot of fun to be had here.

Summer 2010

5

Mills Matters in applied anthropology from Cornell University and her BA from Hampshire College. She has received several prestigious fellowships and grants from the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Fulbright Hays, and the Social Science Research Council.

Katherine Schultz (below) will assume leadership as the new dean of the School of Education as of September 1. An authority on preparing teachers for success in urban schools and adolescent literacy practices, she comes to Mills from the University of Pennsylvania, where she is a professor in the Graduate School of Education and director of the Center for Collaborative Research and Practice in Teacher Education. She also directs the Philadelphia Writing Project’s network of more than 500 teachers.

“Professor Schultz comes to Mills with a powerful blend of expertise in urban school reform and experience as an educator that is particularly well suited to further deepen and enrich our tradition of excellence in teaching, research, and promoting

A new decade brings new deans in business and education

social equity and inquiry in schools,” says President Holmgren.

Deborah Merrill-Sands (above) has been appointed the new

media, and democratic participation.

dean of the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business. She

Schultz replaces Joseph Kahne, who, after four years as dean, will return to teaching and conduct a study on youth, digital “I cannot imagine a school whose vision and goals are more

begins her role August 1, following six years as dean of the

aligned with my own. I’m eager to build on the groundbreak-

Simmons College School of Management in Boston.

ing programs in early childhood, urban teacher education, and

“The appointment of Dr. Merrill-Sands together with the opening of our spectacular new green building will ensure

leadership,” says Schultz.

Schultz received her PhD and MSEd in reading, writing, and

that the Mills MBA Program will achieve national prominence

literacy from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School

and offer students new avenues for their professional and

of Education. She also has an MEd in elementary education

leadership development,” says President Janet L. Holmgren.

from Lesley College and a BS in environmental education from

Merrill-Sands is an authority on women and leadership

Yale University. Involved in several strands of research, she is

and gender dynamics in the workplace. Her recent work

the author of many manuscripts and several books, including

has focused on the areas of ethics, corporate responsibility,

Rethinking Classroom Participation: Listening to Silent Voices.

and sustainability. Prior to joining the Simmons School of Management, Merrill-Sands worked with the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, and the United Nations, working on increasing the role of women in science and addressing the livelihood of rural poor women and families in developing countries.

“I am particularly enthusiastic about the start-up nature of the business school and Mills’ strong academic reputation, its attention to academic rigor, and its commitment to women’s education, diversity, and sustainability,” says Merrill-Sands.

Merrill-Sands replaces founding Dean Nancy Thornborrow, who created the Mills MBA Program in 2001 and helped raise more than $30 million for the Lokey Graduate School of Business. Thornborrow will return to teaching and continue as chair of the Department of Economics.

Merrill-Sands is the author of numerous monographs, journal articles, and book chapters, most focusing on diversity and gender issues in the workplace. She received her MA and PhD 6

M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

Alumnae and friends provide new resources for Mills students Mills College gratefully acknowledges recent gifts and pledges of $50,000 or more from the following generous donors: Kathi Burke, chair of the Mills College Board of Trustees, and her husband, Ralph Davis, made a substantial gift to the Mills College Annual Fund in honor of President Janet L. Holmgren.

Jacklyn Davidson Burchill ’44 and her husband, Philip, also contributed to the Mills College Annual Fund.

Thomas Wolfe and Trustee-elect Barbara A. Wolfe ’65 contributed signifi cant funding for the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business.

Momi Chang ’74 and Gaynor Chinn established the Mr. and Mrs. Frank Fong Endowed Scholarship, named for Chinn’s grandparents.

Leslie Decker ’79 created the Leslie J. Decker Endowed Scholarship to support a business student.

Alice and Fred Feller endowed the Jessica Feller Memorial Scholarship for nursing students to honor their daughter, a Mills Nursing Program student who passed away in February.

L. Bruce Meyer endowed a scholarship in memory of his wife, Margery Foote Meyer ’45.

Mei Wei-Ching Kwong ’70 established the Jean and Y.H.

The College received generous bequest distributions from

Kwong Fellowship Endowment in memory of her parents. The

the estates of Berlyn B. Brixner, widower of Audrey Chew

initial gift was provided by Mei and her husband, Larry Franklin,

Brixner, who taught English at Mills between 1948 and 1958;

through the Morris S. Smith Foundation. Mei and Larry also

William E. Cannady, husband of the late Florence Caswell

named the Jean and Y.H. Kwong Study Room in the Business

Cannady ’33; Patricia E. Lincoln ’33; Delphine C. Sparks ’44;

School building and two outside benches.

and Lucy Wren Turner-Powers ’64.

Katie Brown Sanborn ’83, who donated an annual scholarship

Scholarship funds have been established from the bequests

named for her grandmother in 2006, created an endowment in

of Wynetta Spencer Kollman ’73, Georgia Thomas Peel ’35,

December to fund the Ruby L. Harp Endowed Scholarship in

and Betty Valentine ’29.

perpetuity.

Go for the

gold

The Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business building, which opened at Mills College last fall, has achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certifi cation from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The building’s natural, textural elements such as Douglas fir, corrugated zinc shingles, and a massive quartzite stone wall provide an aesthetic envelope for energy- and water-saving features including radiant-heated floors, an evaporative cooling system, efficient plumbing fixtures, an iris pond which collects rainwater for reuse, and a living green roof planted with

dana dav is

drought-tolerant plants. It is anticipated that the 28,500-square-foot building will realize an energy cost savings of nearly 22 percent annually and will save 100,000 gallons of water each year.

The facility was designed by Peter Bohlin of the award-winning architectural firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. It is the second campus building to meet rigorous standards as a LEED facility. Mills’ Betty Irene Moore Natural Sciences Building received a platinum rating in 2007.

Summer 2010

7

creating a curriculum,

By L.A. Chung ’79 photos by Dana Davis

s

ally Smith ’70 remembers when there were no ethnic studies classes at Mills College.

She remembers when she and a handful of others

were the only black students in 1968. She remembers her very first day of school, before even taking a single class, when the dean of students told her that she was on academic probation—and, by the way, that the Huey Newton poster on her door was coming down.

And the student activist from East Palo Alto remembers protesting. A lot—over the high cost of text books, low minority admissions, the many elitist conditions that she found to be so glaring at Mills.

It was, however, that one protest on that one Friday, March 21, 1969, that others remember.

With colleges—and the country—changing all around them, the few members of the Black Students Union and more than 100 allies took over President Robert J. Wert’s office, demanding that Mills change, too. This protest would lead, ultimately, to the establishment of the Department of Ethnic Studies and it could be seen, in retrospect, as the harbinger of the College’s increasing awareness and embrace of diversity in the years to come.

“We had a rally. We marched to Mills Hall. And we went in—we all crammed into his office,” Smith says. To her surprise, the tiny group of just 8 or 10 black students who had staged protests in the past were joined by an impressive number of white students and small numbers of other students of color. “There must have been more than 100

Forty years ago, ethnic studies was born of student demand. today, that sense of engagement informs work in the classroom and beyond.

young women.”

News reports say there were 150 young women— fed-up, restive, and hell-bent, rallying the day after the five-month-long Third World Strike at San Francisco State University had ended victoriously with the establishment of the College of Ethnic Studies on that campus. They were demanding an answer to their requests for an autonomous ethnic studies department, classes more relevant to a

8

Students, alumnae, faculty, and friends gathered in November 2009 to celebrate 40 years of ethnic studies at Mills. Among the crowd were (at left) Jabrilla Carr ’11 and Professor Julia Sudbury, as well as (at right) Barbara Morrow Williams ’68 and E. Paul Williams.

M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

changing communities changing student body, and black administrators with authority to hire black faculty.

“I thought, ‘You just can’t stay that backwards.

You can’t sit in East Oakland and act like you’re

“The world has gotten so much smaller,” says E. Paul Williams, who chaired the curriculum committee to create the first ethnic studies program at Mills the summer following those 1969 protests.

not there,’” Smith says, describing her anger. “The

“It’s become incumbent upon us to learn

rest of the world was getting black studies and

about people who live not only next door but

women’s studies and there we sat, Mills, with this

half a world away,” says Williams, now dean of

attitude of privilege.”

humanities, arts, and social science at Victor

They were scared to death in Wert’s office, Smith says. But they took strength from their numbers.

Valley College in Southern California. Williams holds a master’s degree in South Asian Studies,

“There were so many white girls there support-

an interest stoked by a foreign exchange experi-

ing us, I figured it must be Drewry who got them

ence in India 45 years ago, and a doctorate from

there,” Smith says of Drewry Hanes ’70, her white

UC Berkeley.

classmate, ally, and the daughter of a well-known family. Hanes, now Nostitz, had become involved in the efforts to make the Mills administration more responsive to students’ demands for courses relevant to all students, particularly women’s history.

“I knew if I held her hand and they arrested me, they would have had to arrest Drewry, too,” Smith recalls. “And they wouldn’t do that.”

Amazingly, things did change after that day.

A fledgling ethnic studies curriculum was insti-

“The world has gotten so much smaller.

It’s become incumbent upon us to learn about people who live not only next door but half a world away.”

—Paul Williams

tuted for fall 1969, and Mills celebrated the 40th anniversary of the inception of ethnic studies this year. Now a full-fl edged department with four tenured faculty, visiting professors, an ethnic studies fund with plans to offer scholarships, and strong anchors intertwining scholarship with community service, the department has successfully withstood what some say were years of benign neglect, and, indeed, flourished in the last several years.

“Ethnic studies at Mills is really a central part of the curriculum, well-resourced, and essential to the life of the College,” says Professor Julia Sudbury. “We are part of the community and the national conversation.”

Ethnic studies has evolved and matured as a discipline in the past four decades, Sudbury says.

Once confined to the borders of the United States, ethnic studies now stretches inquiry globally, as commerce, migration, and media have become more transnational.

suMMer 2010

9

Conservatives may continue to disparage ethnic studies as merely the spawn of identity politics, but those students who choose the major see value for their tuition dollars. The department, says one, provides students with academic rigor and a structured opportunity to be agents of change.

“I like how Mills professors emphasize

our ability to make change even while we are still students.”

–shunkila black calf ’11

“I’ve known for a long time that I wanted to go to law school, but didn’t know what my core studies would be,” says Maria Dominguez ’08, who will begin her law studies in fall 2010. Common majors for pre-law students include political science or English, but Dominguez realized that an alternative field of study could provide more relevant experience. “When I saw the potential of studying communities of color, how they are impacted by the law, and the history of their relationship with the law—and how all these things intersect— I thought, ‘This is what I want to focus on,’” she says. “This will give me the tools to work with.”

Introduced to her first ethnic studies course at Mills while concurrently enrolled at Peralta Community College, it was, in fact, the availability of the ethnic studies major that led to her decision to transfer to Mills. The works Dominguez discovered in her studies, particularly those by the late Gloria Anzaldua, a feminist scholar who wrote about her role as a bridge in multiple worlds, pro-

Building a network of support

vided insights that Dominguez found instructive.

The Ethnic Studies Department complements a wide variety of classroom offerings with resources and events that build a sense of identity, pride, and understanding throughout the wider campus community.

went through the Upward Bound program on cam-

The department sponsors month-long heritage celebrations during which students, faculty, and staff organize performances, workshops, fi lm screenings, meals, and guest speakers highlighting the culture and contributions of various ethnic groups. In keeping with the department’s inclusive and interdisciplinary approach, events are frequently developed in collaboration with other groups, such as the English Department’s Contemporary Writers Series.

in her aspirations to serve her community.

The Women of Color Resource Center provides a community and educational base for women of color at Mills and in the Bay Area with activities such as leadership training, building coalitions between ethnic groups, and sponsorship for academic research and conferences.

Founded in 1992, The Womanist is an annual publication featuring prose, poetry, and artwork by students, alumnae, faculty, and staff of color. Compiled and edited by students, The Womanist provides an opportunity for women of color at Mills to critically and creatively share stories of celebration and resistance.

Administrative Assistant Jean Wong, who has managed the daily operations of the department for nearly two decades, provides support for all faculty, students, and events.

She grew up just a mile from Mills in East Oakland, pus, and found herself negotiating the landscape between traditional academic success and fitting “Our students are less interested in celebrating how different we are, and more interested in the question of how can we transform the world for more justice for diverse racial groups,” Professor Sudbury says. “They are interested in understanding why we face the inequalities we do.”

Shunkila Black Calf ’11 also has found an academic home in ethnic studies.

Black Calf, whose mother is Navajo from Arizona and whose father is Sicangu-Lakota from South Dakota, grew up on the Navajo reservation. Each year, the family would spend weeks at a time at her father’s reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

The Ethnic Studies Department encouraged her to take what she was learning at Mills into the community, and back to the reservation.

“I like how Mills professors emphasize our ability to make change even while we are still students,” Black Calf says. The service-learning component of her first ethnic studies course led her to volunteer at the International Indian Treaty Council in San

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M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

academics and activism Faculty members of the Ethnic Studies Department combine groundbreaking scholarship with a commitment to social justice, researching and writing on the intersections of gender, sexuality, and class.

Through the experiences and examples of their professors, students learn to become involved with local communities and engage with grassroots organizations.

Jean Wong, Amina Mama, Margo Okazawa-Rey, Déborah Berman Santana, Julia Sudbury, and Vivian Chin.

Francisco. The council then asked her to develop a report on housing to brief the special rapporteur for adequate housing, under the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Black Calf researched the report while visiting her father’s reservation last summer; she interviewed residents, took pictures, and got the kind of access an outsider could only dream of getting. Based on the report, the special rapporteur decided to make a personal visit to the reservation. Black Calf realized the great responsibility she carried.

And then there is the learning atmosphere created by the ethnic studies classes at Mills.

“As a person coming from the Navajo reservation, it’s really been helpful to me to come to a city like Oakland and fit into classes with women of color,” she says. “It helps me to see brown faces in the classroom; as an indigenous person, you can feel invisible and marginalized.”

All of this is satisfying news to Smith, who reflected back on those difficult days in 1969, her profound sense of isolation as a black student at Mills then, and the power of that afternoon in President Wert’s office.

“I think we knew when we were doing all that, that it wasn’t just for us,” Smith says, remembering how her father was literally afraid for her safety for making such waves on campus.

“Nobody expected things to change in the short run. The idea was, ‘Don’t leave it like you found it.

Make it better for the ones coming after you.’”

Associate Professor Vivian Chin ’89 has taught at UC Berkeley and Kobe University in Japan; her coursework at Mills centers on critical examinations of literature in terms of culture, gender, and race. She is currently completing her book “Unreal Origins, Cosmopolitan Vampires, and Other Myths of the Asian Diaspora.”

Amina Mama was the fi rst Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women’s Leadership, from 2007–09. She is chair of the Board of the Global Fund for Women, serves on the United Nations Committee for Development Policy, is founding editor of Feminist Africa, and sits on the boards of 10 academic journals on feminist studies, development studies, and human rights.

Associate Professor Melinda Micco became the department’s fi rst tenure-track faculty member in 1993. She has received numerous grants and fellowships to pursue her research and fi lm making (her current fi lm project is Killing the Seventh Generation: Reproductive Abuses Against Native Women). An enrolled member of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, she has been honored for her work as a mentor to indigenous women.

Visiting Professor Margo Okazawa-Rey is a co-founder of the International Women’s Network Against Militarism and a leader in other peace and human rights organizations. Her articles on transnational feminism, militarism, and multicultural education have been widely published and she recently co-edited Activist Scholarship: Antiracism, Feminism, and Social Change with Julia Sudbury. The Claremont Colleges has honored her by creating the Margo Okazawa-Rey Social Justice Fellowship for students implementing “community-based projects that integrate social justice, multiracial solidarity, and feminism.”

Professor Déborah Berman Santana has been an activist since she organized for recruitment and retention of students and faculty of color while pursuing her PhD in geography at UC Berkeley. Today, in addition to her role as head of the department, she teaches courses on topics including economic sustainability, political sovereignty, and environmental justice; community activism; racism and colonialism; and militarism and the environment. Berman Santana was honored with Mills’ Mary S. Metz Professorship for Excellence and Creativity in Teaching, 2002–03.

Professor Julia Sudbury has been involved in racial and gender justice and antiprison movements in the U.S., U.K., and Canada for two decades. She has received numerous academic honors, including the Mills College Trefethen Award for curricular and scholarly innovation, served as department head in 2002–03 and 2008–09, and has written and edited books on justice, transracial adoption, and black women’s organizations.

Christine Williams, visiting assistant professor, is an attorney who serves on the Supreme Court of the Yurok Tribe. Her professional and academic interests include Indian law and policy, child welfare, and preservation of Native American sacred sites and culturally signifi cant areas.

Summer 2010

11

passion promises Many students now enrolled at Mills College weren’t yet born when the Strike of 1990 took place. In many ways, the world— and especially the world for women—is a different place today than it was 20 years ago. Women have become increasingly visible in prominent positions: Madeleine Albright became the first female Secretary of State in 1997, and Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of

Twenty years after the Strike of 1990, how has Mills kept women’s education relevant and vital?

Representatives, now ranks as the most powerful woman this country has ever known. Oprah Winfrey is routinely acknowledged as one of the most influential people in the entertainment business. Harvard University named its first female president, Drew Gilpin Faust, in 2007.

But although women make up over half of America’s labor force, only 12 Fortune 500 companies have a woman as CEO or president. A significant wage gap persists: in 1963, when the national Equal Pay Act was signed, women made 59 cents on average for every dollar earned by men. Today, women still earn barely 80 percent of men’s wages. For women of color, the statistics are even less encouraging: census data from 2008 show that African American women make 71 percent of men’s wages and Latinas make just 62 percent.

Numerous reports have shown the benefits of single-sex education for women, including a 2008 study from the Women’s College Coalition that found alumnae of women’s colleges were more likely than their female peers from liberal arts colleges or public flagships to pursue advanced degrees, to have received leadership training, and to become entrepreneurs. Students at women’s colleges interact more frequently with faculty and higher percentages of students enroll in the traditionally-male disciplines of math, science, and engineering.

So where does this leave women’s colleges in the 21st century? And what steps has the Mills community taken to fulfill the promises of the Strike and ensure the continued advancement and achievement of all women?

12

M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

photo by peg skorpinsk i

lisa waits

Mills women, all women The resolution of the Strike helped refocus the College’s mission “What has happened since the Strike is not just a recommitment to women’s education,” says Marianne Sheldon. “We’ve also recentered our focus: the College has realized its commitment to education for many different kinds of women. We’re committed to ethnic diversity, of course—the voices of women of different ethnic groups were very, very notable in the Strike—but also to lesbians and a whole range of women who started to realize that the preservation of Mills as a women’s institution was important for them.”

Sheldon–a professor of history who has been at Mills since

the strike in a nutshell

1975 and served as associate provost from 2001 to 2005–has had plenty of call to reflect on the deeper meanings of the Strike and its long-term effects on the College. She contributed the chapter

When the Board of Trustees voted on May 3, 1990, to open the doors of Mills’ undergraduate program to men, they cited declining enrollment and the economic doldrums following the 1987 stock market crash as insurmountable threats to the College’s viability as a women-only institution.

“Revitalizing the Mission of a Women’s College,” one of several case studies of women’s colleges in the 2006 book Challenged by Coeducation. “We’ve embraced that we are an incredibly diverse institution and we’re thinking more about the pathways that such students need,” she says.

But reaction was swift and powerful. For two weeks, students banded together in unity to blockade buildings all across campus, and the Strike grabbed national headlines in newspapers and on television. Alumnae, faculty, and staff joined in supporting the students, providing food, supplies, and emotional solidarity. They proposed measures to keep Mills a women’s college by increasing enrollment, cutting costs, and growing the endowment. Alumnae pledged to increase financial contributions and student recruitment efforts. Faculty offered to take on more teaching responsibilities than at peer colleges, without extra compensation.

There were 298 women’s colleges in the U.S. in 1960 but, in the following two decades, many of them opened enrollment to men, merged with existing men’s institutions, or simply shut down. (In that same time period, dozens of formerly men-only colleges opened their doors to women for the first time.) A few decided against coeducation, such as Bryn Mawr and Wellesley College, but by 1990 only 94 women’s colleges remained. Today, about 60 American campuses survive as women-only schools.

Mills College is the only institution to have reversed the deci-

On May 18, impressed by the passion shown and promises made, the Trustees reversed their decision, reaffirming Mills’ identity and commitment to women’s education. Warren Hellman, then chair of the Board of Trustees, unfurled a banner above the Tea Shop steps that announced, “Mills. For Women. Again.”

sion to go coed.

Despite such statistics, an article in U.S. News and World Report (March 11, 2009) states that women’s colleges “are among the country’s more ethnically and socioeconomically diverse liberal

phil channing

mills college: then and now

1990

2010

Undergraduate Enrollment

777

926

Students of Color— Undergraduate

20%

39%

Graduate Enrollment

264

584

Students of Color—Graduate

8.3%

37%

Male Students—Graduate

21%

21%

Endowment

$71.2 million

$176.2 million (as of 12/31/09)

GivingtoMills

$10.7 million

$18.2 million (as of 6/30/09)

Female Faculty—Full Time

55%

62%

Faculty of Color—Full Time

5%

25%

Source: Mills College Office of Institutional Research, Planning, andAcademicAssessment

Summer 2010

13

All together now: The combined efforts of alumnae, students, and faculty—such as Ruth Saxton, MA ’72, Giulietta Aquino ’93, and Marianne Sheldon, left— made the Strike a success. Their ongoing contributions ensure that those successes continue.

arts colleges, offering generous financial aid packages. Just as women’s colleges originally were founded because women

teaching with a difference

couldn’t go to college elsewhere, many of today’s women’s col-

Faculty find new awareness of women’s education

leges are surviving—and thriving—by educating specific popula-

As one of the promises made during the Strike, faculty members pledged to teach extra classes. “The quality of teaching here has always been top-level,” says Professor of English Ruth Saxton, MA ’72, “and after the Strike we all pitched in to do something more.” Many teachers took on an additional course each term— a labor-intensive undertaking in the Mills model—or oversaw special programs, such as those Saxton ran in writing and women’s studies. That workload has now expanded to include additional responsibilities in advising and student support.

tions of women who are still underserved.”

“The emphasis on professional scholarship has increased dra- matically,” adds Saxton, whose daughter Kirsten Saxton ’90 was a student during the Strike and now holds a position of her own in the English Department. “More than ever, we publish, speak at conferences, and have greater engagement with the wider community of scholars.”

percent of transfer students were first-generation college stu-

This is notably true at Mills, where enrollment of undergraduate students of color has doubled since 1990. Gains by Hispanic/ Latina students have been most dramatic, rising from 12 to 18 percent of the student body in just the last four years. In the graduate programs, ethnic minority enrollment is four times what it was 20 years ago.

In addition, in 2009, 37 percent of first-year students and 26 dents. Giulietta Aquino ’93 was herself a first-generation student when she slept outside the registrar’s office during the Strike.

“I was so impressed by how engaged students were, how they voiced their opinions and grappled with different issues, how socially aware they were,” she says. “As a first-generation college

Perhaps most importantly, Sheldon asserts, faculty have developed a greater understanding of their responsibilities. “The consciousness about being a professor at a women’s college has expanded dramatically over the past decades,” she says. “It used to be that if you were teaching, you were teaching, and it didn’t really matter what type of institution you were in. But faculty are much more conscious about their roles as teachers in an institution for women, and their influence in preparing women to become leaders in whatever they’re doing once they leave.” She points to the Institute for Civic Leadership as an example of institutional commitment to this issue.

student, I felt the inclusive environment at Mills.” The experience of those tumultuous days made such an impact that she has committed her career to women-focused education ever since.

Aquino, who now serves as dean of undergraduate admission for the College, says, “Mills has always had a strong tradition of serving students who have different life experiences, and I would argue that we are ahead of the curve in regard to students who are the first in their families to access higher education.”

She notes that the legacy of the Strike is long-lived: “Some of the students I meet don’t even know who the Beatles are,”

“I never could understand how we would have marketed ourselves as a coed institution,” Sheldon says. “Why would men have rushed here? Now the consequence of that decision to remain a women’s institution is: how do we continue to sharpen and refine our focus, rather than to adopt a whole new one?”

she laughs. “But I’ve heard them talk about the sacrifice that students made 20 years ago. They are grateful that the students took a stand and fought to keep Mills a women’s college for future generations.” phil channing

14

M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

Keeping pace with progress The growth of graduate programs allows greater advancement Graduate programs at Mills, which have admitted men since 1935, have become an increasingly important part of the College’s overall curriculum: the graduate population has risen from 25 percent of total enrollment in 1990 to 39 percent in 2009, and phil channing

the number of graduate students has more than doubled.

“When I came here in 1970, there was a very low limit on graduate enrollment, partly to maintain the undergraduate flavor,” says Saxton. “Now the English graduate programs have grown from about a dozen students 40 years ago to more than 100.”

This expansion allows wider variety in graduate-level scholarship, serves a highly age-diverse group of students, and bolsters the College’s economic stability.

Percent of total degrees in U.S. granted to women

And rather than diluting the women’s college experience, this growth in graduate programs is one of the College’s greatest suc-

1990

2010 (Projected)

53.2%

57.8%

cesses in refining its focus on women’s education. Women have

Bachelor’s

consistently made up 81 percent of Mills’ graduate population,

Master’s

52.6%

59.6%

and new graduate programs have been designed specifically to

Doctorates

36.4%

50.9%

prepare women for leadership in their professions.

One of these is the MBA Program, launched in 2001. Nationally, women obtain 50 percent of all undergraduate business degrees but account for only 30 percent of the student body in graduate business programs. The faculty of Mills’ economics department,

Graduate education attained by alumnae of different types of undergraduate programs

led by Nancy Thornborrow, noted the obstacles that most business programs place in women’s way, such as the requirement

Women’s Colleges

Other Liberal Arts Colleges

Public Flagships

that applicants have five years of prior professional experience.

Earnedgraduate degree

53%

38%

28%

This presents a particular challenge for women, for whom career

Some graduate education

7%

7%

9%

Nograduate education

39%

55%

63%

interruptions are often a significant problem.

In designing the Mills MBA, the economics faculty waived that requirement. They also developed a “4+1” track that allows Mills undergraduates to begin fulfilling their MBA requirements while working on a BA—in any department on campus—and then spend a fifth year working exclusively on business courses.

Quality of education recalled by alumnae of various kinds of colleges Women’s Colleges

Other Liberal Arts Colleges

Public Flagships

College experience frequently includedstudent presentations

55%

43%

40%

Involvedin campus publications or student government

7%

31%

13%

Learnedtosolve problems

54%

38%

27%

Learnedtorelate topeople from different backgrounds

52%

40%

30%

Learnedtothink analytically

54%

48%

26%

Learnedtowork as part of a team

47%

36%

28%

Receivedhelptolearn towrite effectively

59%

44%

29%

“This lets women maintain their academic momentum,” says Thornborrow, who has taught at Mills since 1980 and was an outspoken supporter of the Strike in 1990. “You don’t have to be an EMT before you go to medical school. Now, women don’t have to choose between the baby and the MBA.” Today, the College offers more than a dozen advanced degree programs, many of which are tailored to women’s needs and interests. In addition to the 4+1 MBA track, Mills undergraduates who want to complete both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in five years can choose from 4+1 programs in public policy, teacher education, infant mental health, mathematics, and interdisciplinary computer science. Several post-baccalaureate certificate programs help prepare women for advanced study in science fields where they are traditionally underrepresented.

Source: Women’s College Coalition

Summer 2010

15

dana dav is

Fulfilling the pledge Alumnae support has been essential to keeping Mills a women’s college Anne Marie Mersereau Kodama ’91, right, was a junior during the 1990 Strike. As a 24-year-old resumer and transfer student, she had a slightly different relationship with the campus than younger resident students. But the Trustees’ decision to make Mills a coeducational college struck her with the same force.

“Even though I lived off-campus, I made a commitment to come to Mills to stand in front of the doors of the Cowell Building for a few days,” she remembers. “The experience really made me think about what I was getting out of being at Mills and the importance of its being a women’s college. And these are the same reasons I continue to support the College today.”

Kodama took to heart an agreement Mills alumnae made at the time of the protests: to promote the sustainability of an undergraduate program for women, alumnae pledged to contribute to the College’s endowment, boost unrestricted gifts, and improve the overall rate of alumnae giving to 50 percent. Alumnae also pledged to increase their efforts to recruit new students.

Muffy McKinstry Thorne ‘48, president of the Alumnae Association of Mills College (AAMC) in 1990 and now a Lifetime

Alumnae have continued to give generously to the College:

Trustee of the College, recalls, “The AAMC had a dawn-to-dusk

$3.5 million in 2008-09. But for most of the last two decades,

telephone campaign over several days of the Strike, asking alum-

the percent of alumnae contributing has been only half the

nae to pledge a gift to Mills if the board reversed its decision

target set by alumnae during the Strike: last year just over one

and Mills remained a women’s college. We reached $3 million in

quarter of undergraduate alumnae gave.

pledges. I’ve always thought we contributed considerably to the Strike’s success.”

Kodama is one of those who have given regularly to the College. She made her first gift to the College just four months after she graduated. “I wanted to do what I could,” she says. “I

dav id schmit z

think at the beginning, I was only giving $100 a year.”

Seven years later, she endowed the Kodama Family Undergraduate Scholarship at Mills, which will be awarded to a student for the first time in the 2010-11 academic year. “I knew it would be a bit of a stretch to endow a scholarship,” she explains, “but I investigated the options and talked it over with my husband, and we decided it was worth the stretch to make a difference.”

An English major with a minor in history, Kodama taught English in Japan for a year after graduation. Her interest in Japan eventually led her to a job with Stanford University’s Asia/Pacific Research Center. She moved up within the Stanford system and is now a financial management analyst in the university’s Office of the Vice Provost and Dean of Research.

Fund the education of women at Mills, forever Due to donor interest, the deadline to create an endowed scholarship with a gift of $50,000 has been extended.

The minimum will increase in fiscal year 2011-12.

Pledges may be paid over five years. To find out how

Kodama credits Mills with preparing her to take on many different types of work. She says, “Being at Mills during the Strike helped me find my voice. That experience, along with the College’s small classes where you’re expected to participate, gave me a lot of confidence to develop my career.”

you can endow a scholarship, please call 510.430.2097

Kate Rix, Linda Schmidt, Pamela Wilson, and Mills’

or send email to donors@mills.edu.

Marketing and Institutional Research Departments all contributed to this story.

16

M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

Bookshelf A Dreamer’s Guide to Cities and Streams

By Joan Gelfand, MFA ’96 San Francisco Bay Press, 2009

Utilizing a variety of forms from highly structured sonnets and haiku to fl owing free verse, Gelfand’s collection of poetry is unified by a sense of serenity and reflection. She takes on a wide variety of subjects as well: whether observing nature and the

Perfectly Revolting: My “Glamorous” Cartooning Career

threats to it, cities from San Francisco to Venice, or a moment of childhood past, her words are gentle,

By Kristen Baumgardner Caven ’88 KristenCaven.com, 2010

fluid, and elegant. The author is president of the

Generously fi lled with illustrations from her time

editor for Zeek magazine.

as the Mills Weekly cartoonist and other drawings, Caven’s memoir presents an insightful, open, enthusiastic, and often downright funny portrait of the artist as a young woman. It’s fascinating and entertaining to follow her as she grapples with

Women’s National Book Association and fi ction

How Will I Know Where I’m Going, If I Don’t Know Where I’ve Been?

A Genealogical Journey

ideas of feminism and femininity, of independence

By Elizabeth Ruderman Miller ’70 AuthorHouse, 2009

and identity, and of realizing the power in her pen.

The author undertakes a journey of literal self-

Complete with a reprint of Caven’s “Inside the Mills

discovery as she delves into the lives of her ances-

Revolution”—the award-winning series of cartoons

tors, using her own family story to uncover a larger

she drew documenting the Strike of 1990—this

history of European Jews. Historical documents and

book is a charming and honest memoir of growing

family photos enliven this small book, which pro-

up with a creative mind.

vides a very personal exploration of the painstaking process of genealogical research. Miller shares

Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound

several good Internet resources, an explanation of documentation, and the desire to preserve a fam-

By Tara Rodgers, MFA ’06 Duke University Press, 2010

ily’s legacy for generations to come.

“Pink noise” is used in professional recording stu-

Containment Scenario: DisloInter MedTextId entCation: Horse Medicine

dios as a test signal but is typically kept out of the audible mix. Rodgers uses this concept as a metaphor for female composers, DJs, and other noisemakers and breaks the silence with a collection of

By M. Mara-Ann, MFA ’07 O Books, 2009

interviews with 24 such women. Several—including

This is not so much a book as an experience:

Professors Pauline Oliveros and Maggi Payne, MFA

the author manipulates the text of her extended

’72; Laetitia Sonami, MFA ’81; and Blevin Blectum

poem in a highly visual manner, presenting letters,

(Bevin Kelley, MFA ’08)—have connections with

phrases, sentences, and symbols both as images

Mills College. Rodgers brings forward a vision of

and as words. Rhythms emerge and meanings shift

the performance of electronic music as embod-

in a theatrical dreamscape that is both familiar and

ied, affective engagement with technology, char-

disorienting. In fact, the author is presenting an

acterized by nuance and care. She questions why

intermedia performance series employing impro-

men are frequently positioned, to the exclusion of

vised music, dance, video, and theater to bring the

women, as cultural producers and aesthetic inno-

book to life on the stage for auditory and visual

vators. Through her interviews, she documents the

“reading.” Information about the fourth install-

women who have stormed the stage and studio as

ment, taking place in fall 2010, can be found on

leading thinkers and producers of electronic music.

www.medusa.org.

Summer 2010

17

You’re never too young to start planning.

Wynetta Spencer Kollman ’73, PhD At age 13, Wynetta decided she wanted to become a chemist. Fourteen years later, after completing a PhD at Howard University, she began her career in physical chemistry.

At 44, Wynetta drew up her will. She decided on a bequest to Mills College that would create a scholarship to inspire women of color to become scientists.

She passed away in 2009. Next year, the Dr. Wynetta S. Kollman Scholarship will be awarded to a Mills student for the first time.

Wynetta left a legacy. You can too.

It’s never too early to plan the legacy you want to leave.

Including a charitable bequest to Mills College in your will means:

• You become a member of the Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Society, Mills’ legacy giving club.

• You maintain complete control of your assets throughout your life.

• You can change your bequest at any time if your circumstances change.

• You know your gift will help transform the lives of Mills students.

Find out how to start planning your own legacy at Mills.

Contact Mills’ gift and bequest planning team at 1.877.PGMILLS (877.746.4551) or planagift@mills.edu.

In Memoriam Notices of deaths received before April 1, 2010

Barbara Stern Kay ’40, February 7, in Roslyn Heights, New York.

Alumnae

Alberta Webster Lewallen ’40, November 29, 2008, in Linden, California. She was a partner in Lewallen Cattle Company.

Miriam Hart Alfaro ’33, May 19, 2008, in Panama.

Jane Gray Walta ’33, August 8, in Downey, California. She taught high school English and music for more than 30 years and served as church organist. Survivors include four grandchildren.

Elizabeth Knowles Sevier ’35, May 23, 2009, in Carbondale, Colorado. She is survived by three children and seven grandchildren.

Phyllis Armstrong Haggard ’38, March 1, in Tucson, Arizona.

A piano teacher and mother, she is survived by four children and 12 grandchildren.

Mary Peoples Albers ’39, February 16, in Altadena, California.

Eleanore Cobb Lee, MA ’39, May 27, 2009, in Alexandria, Virginia. She was a high school English teacher and, as the wife of a foreign service offi cer, lived in many countries. She is survived by three children and eight grandchildren.

Julia Dorn Peters ’39, March 8, 2009, in Chico, California.

Marie de Lemos Storm ’39, February 26, in San Leandro, California.

Phyllis Jones Woolf ’39, March 25, 2009, in Pittsburgh, California.

Janet Goodrich Berryhill ’40, February 11, 2007, in Granada Hills, California. She worked as a design engineer and management analyst for North American Aviation for more than 25 years.

Jean Carleton Bruce ’40, December 2, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Thelma Crosby Games ’40, September 26, in Reno, Nevada.

Keiko Uchida Kakutani ’40, February 3, 2008, in New Haven, Connecticut.

Mary Zelle Lindsay ’40, January 11, 2009, in Wayzata, Minnesota.

Doris Mount, MA ’40, August 26, in San Jose, California. A teacher and psychological tester at St. Andrew’s School for more than two decades, she was a member of AAUW and a Girl Scout leader. She is survived by her daughters Barbara-Sue White ’64, MA ’67, Alice Groch Sheppard ’66, and Jane Mount Mont ’71, and two grandsons.

Betty Loeb Root ’40, January 21, in Clackamas, Oregon. She owned and operated a construction business with her husband, Don. She is survived by three children.

Jean Colgate Stafford ’40, January 4, in Woburn, Massachusetts. She was a fi fth-grade teacher with a passion for math and computers in the classroom. She is survived by six children and 25 grandchildren.

Joanna Ratliff Ballou ’41, January 22, in San Francisco. She provided 50 years of service to civic and nonprofi t organizations, serving on the boards of the World Affairs Council and the St. Francis Hospital Foundation as well as two terms on the San Francisco Juvenile Justice Commission.

She is survived by two daughters and two granddaughters.

Jeanne White Erickson ’41, February 6, in Oak Park, Illinois.

She supported the Art Institute of Chicago, her local church, and several other charities.

She is survived by four children and three grandchildren.

Evelyn Lenker Hart ’41, January 10, in Pasadena, California. She taught parent-child education at Pasadena Community College for three decades; in retirement, she was an active volunteer and traveler. She is survived by two children and eight grandchildren.

Virginia James Hodges ’41, October 22, in King City, Oregon.

She brought families together as an adoption counselor with the Boys and Girls Aid Society.

She is survived by three children and seven grandchildren.

Emilie Antoinette Scaglione ’46, August 15, in Hollister, California.

She operated a successful retail business in San Diego for a number of years before moving to Hollister. She is survived by three sons and two grandsons.

Eloise Giblett ’42, September 16, in Seattle. She had a 32-year academic career at the University of Washington School of Medicine; her research on blood led to improvements in transfusion matching and blood bank practices.

Sylvia Jaureguy Love ’47, March 12, in Portland, Oregon. A leader in Campfi re Girls and in the United Church of Christ, she served as a trustee of Pacifi c School of Religion. She is survived by her husband, William; four children; and eight grandchildren.

Carolyn Moulton Nadeau ’42, June 15, 2009, in Jackson, Michigan. A member of AAUW, she is survived by two children and four grandchildren.

Kathryn Yost Powell ’47, February 2, in Mercer Island, Washington.

She was a world traveler, avid reader, and regular patron of the Seattle Symphony. Survivors include many nieces and nephews.

Zora De Kussevich Leimbacher ’43, October 7, 2009, in Zurich, Switzerland. A native of Budapest, Hungary, she is survived by a daughter.

Robaline Jenne Meacham ’43, MA ’44, July 21, in Salem, Oregon.

A longtime resident of Mill Valley, California, she was a pianist, composer, and music teacher.

She is survived by her former husband, Charles; two children; and six grandchildren.

Priscilla “Penny” Patch Johnson ’44, January 27, in Swampscott, Massachusetts.

Christine Olson Jarvis ’45, January 16, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She was a volunteer at the Cleveland Clinic, a sailboat racer, a world traveler, and a theater fan. She is survived by her husband, Frank; two sons; and a grandson.

Marjorie Magee Sabey ’45, December 27, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Survivors include her husband, John, and three sons.

Virginia Vollmer Barr ’46, February 12, in Prairie Village, Kansas.

Charlotte Caraplis Relos ’46, December 20, in Portland, Oregon. She made a career as an investment advisor.

Nancy Bennet McLaughlin ’48, January 31, in San Francisco. A 41-year resident of Portola Valley, she was an active church member, a docent at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center, and a talented crewel worker. She is survived by her husband, Charles; three children; and six grandchildren.

Barbara Miller Schlauch ’48, October 10, in Lake Oswego, Oregon. She tended a large bonsai collection, was a president of the Country Garden Club, and volunteered for 25 years at Portland’s Japanese Garden, where she served as a board member. She is survived by three children and seven grandchildren.

Betty Bryden Holmes ’50, February 8, 2008, in Casper, Wyoming. Survivors include her husband, Roy, and daughter Dana Hoffhine Howie ’72.

Zoe Desloge Lippman ’50, February 2, in Florissant, Missouri. An accomplished athlete and horsewoman, she is survived by her husband, Max; three children; and 12 grandchildren.

Barbara Ridenour Maley ’50, January 22, in Lodi, California. She worked as a kindergarten teacher and was a thoughtful leader of her family. She is survived by her husband, Louie; a daughter; and three grandchildren.

Summer 2010

29

70 Rita White by Estate of Marilyn Miller

Gifts in Memory of Received December 1, 2009–February 15, 2010 Leila Abu-Saba, MFA ’07, by David and Bonnie Parsons

Charles Larsen by Elizabeth Terhune ’90

Sheila Weibert Ballantyne ’58 by Margaret Roberts Tomczak ’58

Marilyn “Lynn” Endres Larsen ’47 by Sterling Loftin Dorman ’47

Betty “Sage” Culpepper Belt ’47 by Bruce Belt

Edward LeFevour, husband of Julia Darley LeFevour ’73, P ’90,

by Elizabeth Terhune ’90

Marilyn Frye Bettendorf, P ’75, by Marilyn Barrett ’75 Linda Nelson Branson ’77 by James Branson Mark Caldwell by Martin Koenig, Stacey Shulman Margaret Hall Callahan by Mary Mac Millan Dreiman ’47 Willa Wolcott Condon, MA ’32, by Ann Condon Barbour ’69 Elizabeth Abreu Cravalho ’60 by Betty Anne Mathewson Mahoney ’60 Mary Lou Stueck Cunningham ’51 by Robert Cunningham Evelyn “Peg” Deane ’41 by Margaret Deane Doris Dennison by Rebecca Fuller, MA ’54 Helene Dietrich ’58 by Barbara Baxter Pawek ’56 Sybil “Syb” Johnson Dray ‘41, P ’72, by Lester Dray, Susan Schumacher Morris ’70 Jonna Pelto Espey ’87 by Karen Robinson ’88 John Fenley, P ’75, by Rebecca Fuller, MA ’54 Joy Waltke Fisher ’55 by Diane Smith Janusch ’55 C. Bruce Flick, P ’50, by Alice Lorena Flick ’50 Barbara “Bobby” Coleman Frey ’68 by Patricia Abelov Demoff ’68 Patricia Ducommun Frey ’56 by Edmond F. Ducommun Foundation Elaine Johnson Gutleben ’44 by Chester Gutleben Clara Mears Harlow ’30 by J. Robert Israel George Hedley by Mura Kievman ’64, May Ohmura Watanabe ’44 Helen Hedley by Mura Kievman ’64 William and Jacqueline Hennigh, P ’72, by Susan Hennigh ’72 John Hohmann, husband of Sharon Bramkamp Hohmann ’56,

by Barbara Baxter Pawek ’56 Noreen McAllister Hough ’48 by Jacqueline Burnham Feiger ’48 Erinn House by Venkatram and Annis Aiyar Marian Jackson, P ’67, by Gwen Jackson Foster ’67 C. Rodgers Kines, husband of Barbara Newman Kines ’55,

by Diane Smith Janusch ’55 Ruzena “Duda” Chytilova Kutvirt, MA ’42, by Elizabeth “Betty” Loudon Daugherty ’43

Carol Lennox ’61 by Lina Au ’77 Joyce Leyland ’47 by Mary Osborn Tor Lyshaug, husband of Elizabeth Wilcox Lyshaug ’51, P ’81,

by Nancy Kenealy Soper ’51 William G. and Mavis A. Mackay by Candace Mackay Kramer ’70 Diane McIntyre by Elizabeth Kelley Quigg, MA ’89 Elizabeth McKeon by Laura McKeon Scholtz ’62 Robaline Jenne Meacham ’43, MA ’44, by Katharine Mulky Warne ’45 Margery “Footie” Foote Meyer ’45 by Joan Bartlett, Belvedere Scientific Fund, Nancy Ogg, Fred Bohlander, Virginia Donohugh, Lucile Pedler Griffiths ’46, MA ’47, P ’75, Junior League of Monterey County Sustainers Book Club, L. Bruce Meyer, William and June Parry, P ’77, Marion Ross ’44, The Olympic Club, Tostevin Accountancy Corporation, Susanne and William Tyler, Katharine Mulky Warne ’41, Isabelle Hagopian Arabian ’45, Betty Taves Whitman ’46, Donna and Roy Woods Marcia Miller ’63 by Susan Marks Craven ’63, Susan Schumacher Morris ’70 Isabel Schemel Mulcahy ’44 by Jean Grossberg Weeks ’44 Robbyn Panitch ’79 by Betsey Shack Goodwin ’76 Annette Lee Park ’55 by Stephen Paik Daniel Peck by Katherine Chastain Lorber ’73 Helen Pillans by Barbara Berendsen Capron ’65 Joan Goforth Schippmann ’54 by Annette Swann Krueger ’54 Mary and Walt Schreitmueller, P’86, by Teresa Schreitmueller ’86 Mary Van Beuren Seavey ’70 by Susan Schumacher Morris ’70 Anne Sherrill by Elizabeth Terhune ’90 Laura Stevens ’06 by Denise Libarle McCarthy ’61 Letitia Thoreson Teeter ’57 by Barbara Currell, Nancy Green, Herbert Howard, Joseph Trahern, Patricia White Janet Ward by Wendi Berman ’95 Hugh Wass by Warren and Honor Wass Rita White by Estate of Marilyn Miller Reynold Wik by Sally Matthews Buchanan ’64

P=parent; For information about making a tribute gift, contact 510.430.2097 or donors@mills.edu.

Candace Benjamin Owen ’51, February 9, in Brunswick, Maine.

She remained involved in civic and educational matters throughout her life, both as a professional and a volunteer. Survivors include her husband, Martyn; three children; and six grandchildren.

Shirley Bergman Engleman ’52, December 21, 2008, in Palm Springs, California.

30

M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

Joanne Gearey ’52, February 3, in Eugene, Oregon. A stewardess for more than 25 years, she was an accomplished potter and painter and champion of animal rights.

Joan Goforth Schippmann ’54, January 19, in Lafayette, California. She worked as a career counselor and was a longtime volunteer with the Lafayette Crisis Hotline. She is survived by two daughters.

Marcia Hinderman Smith, MA ’54, September 16, in Seattle, Washington. She enjoyed skiing and hiking and had a fulfi lling career teaching and performing piano. She is survived by three children and eight grandchildren.

Barbara Halladay Yarter ’56, January 9, in Denver, Colorado.

She worked as a speech therapist and was involved with the PTA. She is survived by her

husband, Philip; four daughters; and ten grandchildren.

Helene Baxter Dietrich ’58, January 3, in Stockton, California.

Survivors include her cousin, Barbara Baxter Pawek ’56.

Ladonna Sandahl McCarty, MA ’59, December 9, in Hood River, Oregon. Survivors include her husband, Gordon Morgan.

Colette Christopherson Darocy ’60, September 16, in Prunedale, California. She worked as a lab technician at Santa Cruz County Hospital and at a veterinary hospital in Santa Cruz, and enjoyed being a docent at Elkhorn Slough. Survivors include her husband, Alex.

Jill Johnson Golden ’60, October 12, in Carmel, California. She lived in many states and countries before settling in Carmel, where she was a hospice volunteer. She is survived by three sons and two grandchildren.

Judith Yrisarri Nichols ’63, January 26, in Denver, Colorado.

She worked for McDonnellDouglas, helped found a local opera guild, and supported many animal welfare groups. She is survived by family and friends.

Ann Cavanaugh ’65, November 13, in Tequesta, Florida. She had a lengthy career as a bank offi cer for U.S. Trust and later Bank of America and enjoyed birding in remote parts of the world. Survivors include her husband, Carl Stinchcomb.

Margaret O’Neil Freeman ’66, January 24, in Seattle. She was a rehabilitation counselor for many years with the University of Washington and other organizations. She is survived by her husband, Clarence; two daughters; and a granddaughter.

Mary Halsted Lonergan ’68, February 8, in San Francisco.

She co-authored the book Taking Charge of your Health, was involved in organizations from Junior League to her children’s schools, and was a founding member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra board. She is survived by her husband, Richard; two children; and two grandchildren.

Dorothy Rodruck Holley ’70, December 6, in Grants Pass, Oregon. She worked as a paralegal on behalf of labor unions and workers affected by asbestos. She is survived by her husband, Lee, and two children.

Cynthia Lee Brown ’76, February 12, in San Anselmo, California.

A biomedical researcher at UCSF, she went on to complete a law degree at Golden Gate Law School in 2002 and took a job in civil litigation. She also served as a Scout leader and classroom volunteer. Survivors include her husband, Bob Brunner, and two children.

Anna Horton Sylvan ’76, August 30, in Berlin, Germany.

She received her doctorate in vocal performance and choral conducting at the University of Texas, El Paso. After moving to Germany in 1989, she sang with the opera company in Mainz and later became the conductor of a children’s chorus in Berlin.

Terry Eaglin ’82, March 5, in Sacramento, California.

Richard Sanford, MFA ’85, March 6, in Calistoga, California.

A composer and teacher of electronic music, his survivors include his wife, Lisa Quinzani.

Karen Rosenblum ’96, November 21, in Los Angeles.

Spouses and Family Edward “Ted” Doyle, husband of Barbara Johnson Lewis ’56, January 2, in Scarborough, Maine.

Peter Evens, husband of Joanne Wright Evens ’53, October 21, 2008, in Granite Bay, California.

Pandora Howles, daughter of Joaquina Ballard Howles ’52, December 16, in California.

Thomas Linton Jr., husband of Sally Kleinhen Linton ’52, January 8, in Encino, California.

Rudolph Papale, husband of Catherine Genaro Papale ’48, March 26, in St. Helena, California.

Philip Warriner, husband of Kristin Palmquist Warriner ’59, January 31, 2009, in Sacramento, California.

Doris Adele Dennison 1908–2009 Doris Dennison, assistant professor of dance and one of the original members of the 1939 John Cage Percussion Ensemble, died November 21, just shy of her 102nd birthday.

Dennison grew up in the Seattle area, where she graduated from the progressive Cornish School for the Arts. She went on to study in England with Emile Jacques-Dalcroze, developer of the Eurythmics training method.

On her return to the United States, she took a job teaching at the Cornish School. There she met John Cage and Merce Cunningham, who would remain her lifelong friends. In 1939, Dennison came to the Bay Area and soon began a long and fruitful period of collaboration with students and faculty in music and dance at Mills.

Doris accompanied technique and choreography classes and played for every dance concert for 30 years. She composed and arranged music and directed campus percussion ensembles. Her Rhythmic Analysis course became a foundation course in the music major and she later established Labanotation courses.

Students appreciated the “rescuing knowledge” they learned from her, her patience and deep knowledge, and her spirit of adventure and experimentation. They remember her seated at the piano with straight back, her hair braided up on top of her head, her blue eyes twinkling and a sweet smile on her face always ready to play. They remember also that they learned good humor, generosity, compassion, and humanity from Doris.

Doris’s life partner of nearly 70 years, Laurette Schorcht, died February 20. Doris is survived by her niece, Barbara Tittle.

Memorial contributions can be made to the Dance Enhancement Endowment Fund of Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613.

—Remembered by Rebecca Fuller, professor emerita of dance

Jack Euphrat, P ’70, ’73 Jack Sterling Euphrat, father of Judith Euphrat Castaillac ’70 and Janice Euphrat-Hepper ’73 and grandfather of Kylie Hepper ’06, MBA ’08, died January 14 in Atherton, California. Euphrat began his career as an executive with the Pacifi c Can Company, a tin can manufacturer founded by his father, and later specialized in commercial real estate, securities, and investment management. He was a founding member of the College’s Cyrus and Susan Mills Society, comprised of Mills’ top donors. The Euphrat Family Plaza outside the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business was named in honor of Jack Euphrat, his wife, Marion Euphrat, and their family to recognize the generous support they provided for the Business School’s new building.

Summer 2010

31

Sound off!

What does the Strike of 1990 mean to you?

The 1990 Strike at Mills created deeply personal and lasting impressions, so when we sent this question out to the Mills community, we heard from Golden Girls, students not yet born at that time, and even men who never attended Mills. Shawn Rorke-Davis ’70, Elizabeth Warner ’76, Suzanne Wickens ’90, and Susan Donaldson ’94 all proudly hold on to treasured “Better Dead Than Coed” t-shirts. Several alumnae, including Ann Kasper ’81, Sarah Lehman ’86, Rita Morin ’87, Lisa Kremer ’90, and Abbey Stamp ’95 recalled the appearance of Mills women on the Phil Donahue television talk show. Read on for more!

I remember Warren “go to” Hellman

was at the top of my list. When I heard the

The women at the College of St. Catherine’s

announcing the decision to go coed. It

news, I drove to campus and joined the

held a huge rally in St. Paul, Minnesota,

was like a knife striking at my very core.

protesters. The next day I returned with

to support their Mills sisters. Mary Jean

Our emotion flowed deep and wide as we

provisions and teamed up with a group of

Fike, mom of Libby ’92, jumped up on the

cried and howled. We refused to simply

students blocking access to a classroom. I

platform and gave a rousing speech. After

accept this fate and turned that emotion

had decided that if Mills went coed, I was

many testimonials to women’s education,

into action immediately We reacted—

going to withdraw my application. What a

several St. Kate’s students shaved their

thoughtfully, powerfully. With my Olney

thrill when the crowd learned that the idea

heads. Mary Jean and I collected the shorn

Hall porch mates, I barricaded Sage Hall.

had been overturned! I am always grateful

locks and sent them to Mills. It was an

For days. This was not just about us, but

to Mills for the opportunities it afforded

amazing afternoon. —Peggy Weber ’65

about the future of our beloved school.

me and continues to afford women now

Finally, I stood on the steps of the Tea

and in the decades to come. Thank you,

I remember thinking that Mills gave

Shop and howled yet again, with great

student strikers, for standing up, saying no,

women from orthodox and conserva-

joy as Hellman revoked the decision.

and saying yes to women’s power. —Wendy

tive countries and cultures a safe place

With hearts full of hope, we knew our

Patrice Williams ’92, MFA ’94

to explore their talents and aspirations, and that I needed to do my part to ensure

Strike success left a legacy that would change the future of young women for

As a student, I was proud of how we got

that the College would not lose its unique

generations. —Joyce Fung Yee ’90

our message out. We learned how to orga-

value to such students. I was there when

nize, negotiate, and present ourselves and

Warren Hellman, chair of the Trustees at

It just made me so proud to be an

our arguments. But many have come to

the time, conceded defeat. There was a

alumna! I cheered them all the way!

believe that this was a student movement

great sense of relief and accomplishment

—Jane Worthington Nelson ’56

only, while so much support was given

for all of us! —Viji Nakka-Cammauf ’82

and pledged by staff, professors, and alumI had spent two years at a large university

nae, parents, and students from other local

I got married during the Strike, right

where women in science struggled for sup-

colleges who came and sat “on the lines.” It

there in the chapel. I hadn’t paid too much

port; I studied my third year at a women’s

was a full community movement, and all

attention—I knew about the Trustees vote

college in New York City and found a lot of

factions deserve recognition for the sup-

but, frankly, was pretty busy with last min-

support there. So when I decided to return

port they gave. —Cherlene Wright ’92

ute details. I was glad the students were

to college later in life, a women’s college

32

M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

protesting, though.

photos by Melody Miu

That morning, Melody Fuller ’82 called

On the East Coast, I’d

Recently I had the oppor-

to ask how we would get in to the Chapel

heard about the Strike. I

tunity to tag along on a

since the students were blockading the

liked the way the students

tour of campus. Inside

buildings. Somehow we managed to make

went on the warpath and

the Campanil, on the far

it all work. In fact, the ceremony went off

was intrigued by their

side of a shaft inside the

without a hitch, but you can hear horns

courage and fortitude. I

tower, was some graffiti:

honking and students yelling in the back-

admired them in preserv-

“Better dead than coed.”

ground on my wedding video.

ing a personal freedom for

That was the first time I

all—keeping a college for

heard of the Strike, but

women.

as I began to question

My husband, Mark, and I remain happily married, and our commitment to women’s education is as strong as our commitment to each other. —Lucia Stauffer Savage ’84

the importance of keep-

I keep in touch by giving

ing a school to only one

annual donations, receiving the alumnae newsletter, and enjoy see-

gender, it took almost no time to find my

The Strike taught me the power of tak-

ing the liveliness of students. It feels right

answers. I had been invited there that day

ing risks. As a member of student board

and comforting that Mills continues. Vivat

by my girlfriend, the most amazing woman

and orientation, it seemed like we had had

Mills! —Len Finegold

I have ever met. She was the answer. Mills created an environment that has helped

endless meetings regarding the coed issue, yet on the day of the vote the Board of

The Strike was the first time I had heard

her grow into who she is, an environment

Trustees still took the college I knew and

of Mills. I was at first confused and then so

that wouldn’t be the same if the school

loved away from us, away from me. At the

impressed by this gathering of women and

had become coed. That is what needed to

beginning, I lacked the energy and willing-

how sure they were of what they wanted. I

be preserved, the freedom to be who you

ness to put it all on the line once again,

wanted to be sure of myself, too. And then

are, and the chance to be more. —Colin

but I learned that sometimes—probably

I went to Mills, and Mills changed me. I

Ferguson

most importantly when there doesn’t seem

have always been proud of my choice.

to be anything left—you must dig way

—Larissa Brown Shapiro ’95

My daughter saw the newspaper I saved all these years with a picture of my car

down deep inside to find that last kernel of belief, of faith, of energy, and to believe

The determination of these women awes

filled with friends driving the campus

in taking a chance and venturing forward,

me in so many ways. Every time I watch

with banners and shouting, “better dead

for in such action there is everything to be

footage of the strike I cannot but see myself

than coed.” After hearing the story and

gained. —Meighen S. Katz ’92

standing there with them. This strike was

meeting my friends, she wants to attend

for the past, present, and future women who

an all-women’s college. She is only 15

Alas, I have had no connection with Mills,

call Mills their home. All I can say is thank

and may change her mind on many

don’t think I’ve ever been there, nor met

you to those who held to their convictions

issues over the next three years, but I will

an alumna. My karyotype is XY, and I have

and did not let anyone change their mind.

do my best to keep that flame lit in her.

no daughters. I went to a coed college.

—Kylie Stevens ’13

—Lisa Campognone Pedersen ’92

Pass the word: Stephanie Griffin ’91 and Elizabeth Carter ’92 (facing page) were among the many veterans of the Strike who came together on May 4 to mark the 20th anniversary of those protests. Dozens of students (left) were fascinated and inspired by their stories.

Read more alumnae responses in an online supplement at www.mills.edu/quarterly or check out the discussions about the Strike on the Mills College Facebook page.

Want to be part of the next “Sound off”? Sign up for the @mills email newsletter—just send your email address to alumnae-relations@mills.edu along with your full name, any previous name, and class year. Write “@mills” in the subject line of your message. We’ll also post the next “Sound off” question on Mills’ Facebook page.

Summer 2010 33

Mills Quarterly Mills College 5000 MacArthur Blvd.

Oakland, CA 94613-1301 510.430.3312 quarterly@mills.edu www.mills.edu Address service requested Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, CA and at additional mailing office(s)

Mills: For Women, Again  Again

October 1 through 3 • Golden Girls events begin on September 3

Reunion 2010

Honoring the Golden Girls of 1960, alumnae from class years ending in 0 or 5, and all who were students at Mills during the Strike of 1990

Highlights include: • Convocation on October 1 with speaker Dolores Huerta, P ’98, co-founder of United Farmworkers of America • State of the College presentation by Janet L. Holmgren during her last Reunion as Mills College President • The Strike: 20th anniversary celebration and exhibition • Ethnic Studies: Commemorating 40 years at Mills • Class Luncheon and AAMC Awards Ceremony • Career workshops and networking

For more information

• Launch of Mills’ first online alumnae community: see page 3 inside for details

Reunion hotline: 510.430.2123

• Graduate alumnae/i reception

Web: www.mills.edu/reunion

New this year: A full day of activities on Sunday!

Email: alumnae-relations@mills.edu Brochures with full schedules and registration information will be mailed this summer to all alumnae from class years ending in 0 and 5, alumnae who attended Mills during the strike, and all alumnae in the Bay Area; they will be available to other alumnae by request.