NU starts talks to merge with Mills College
‘Northeastern’s history and enduring focus on inclusion and empowering people from all backgrounds to realize educational and lifelong success is in perfect congruence with Mills and its ideals.’
JOSEPH AOUN Northeastern president
Northeastern University announced that it will begin formal talks to combine with Mills College, a liberal arts school of just under 1,000 students in Oakland, Calif.
“Renowned for its preeminence in women’s leadership, access, equity, and social justice, Mills College has been a pillar of educational opportunity for more than a century,” Northeastern President Joseph Aoun said in a letter late last week. “Northeastern’s history and enduring focus on inclusion and empowering people from all backgrounds to realize educational and lifelong success is in perfect congruence with Mills and its ideals.”
The merger talks come as Mills faced “mounting financial challenges,” according to a letter sent by Mills President Elizabeth Hillman. The school announced in March that it would stop accepting first-year students after this coming fall, and would likely confer its final degrees in 2023.
Under the new partnership, the school would be known as Mills College at Northeastern University, and would accept students of all genders at the undergraduate level. Previously, the school was only open to women and nonbinary students as undergraduates.
Current Mills students will have the option to earn their degrees from Mills College or Mills College at Northeastern University, “depending on a student’s degree path and timing of the alliance,” according to Mills’ letter. Students would also be able to transfer to Northeastern at no additional cost.
The letter also states that “a significant number” of Mills faculty and staff would be offered employment at either the Oakland campus or one of Northeastern’s campuses.
Northeastern would also help launch a Mills research institute “to advance women’s leadership, educational access, social justice,” and other causes, according to Mills’ letter, though it is unclear what other programs may be available for Northeastern students on the potential new campus.
Mills is one of the nation’s most diverse liberal arts colleges, with 44% first generation students, 58% LGBTQ+ students, and 65% students of color, many of whom are Hispanic or Latinx, according to Mills’ website.
The potential merger marks a further expansion of Northeastern into the West Coast. The school already has campuses and programs in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, as well as Seattle, Charlotte, N.C., Toronto and Vancouver in Canada, and Portland, Maine.
Both Mills and Northeastern deferred further comment beyond the presidents’ letters.