CAN WELLS ALUMANE LEARN FROM THE MILLS MODEL?
FROM MILLS COLLEGE (FIFTEEN YEARS AGO)
***THE PLEDGE AND THE FUTURE***
Make no mistake about it. The work to be done is tremendous. At the time of writing this, faculty are meeting to create freshman seminars for the fall and discuss reorganization of departments, administrators and alumnae leaders are meeting with students, staff, and alumnae to channel recruiting efforts, phonathon projects are underway, personal solicitation of alumnae is occurring, staff are signing up for volunteer projects, and members of each constituency are meeting together to discuss what happened to Mills and how to prevent that ever happening again.
The alumnae commitment, accepted by the Board of Trustees, is clear.
**UNLESS WE MEET OUR PLEDGE THE COLLEGE MAY BECOME A CO-EDUCATIONAL WITHIN THREE TO FIVE YEARS.**
Our proposal to the Board of Trustees, approved by the Board of Governors, and endorsed by an overwhelming response to the emergency phonathon in May:
The Alumnae Association of Mills College in a motion passed unanimously by its Board of Governors on May 8, 1990, urges the Board of Trustees to set aside their decision to admit men for three to five years. In recognition of the efforts of the Board of Trustees to maintain the financial viability of Mills College, we propose to meet the following fundraising goals to be substantiated with firm pledges:
- 1. $10,000,000 in new endowment by the end of fiscal year 1994/95.
- 2. Annually increasing the unrestricted gift to the College from the$450,000 gift raised during the fiscal year 1988/89 to $750,000 from funds
raised during fiscal year 1992/93, holding at that level or above in the two subsequent years.
- 3. 45% participation by solicited alumnae in the annual fund within three years and 50% within five years (up from 39% last year.)
- 4. Formation of a task force of alumnae to develop and monitor a business plan to accomplish the above goals.
- 5. Mills Hall renovation and fundraising will be postponed and contingent upon reaching these goals.
Additionally, although not included in the motion passed by the Board of Governors, the Alumnae Association is committed to similarly aggressive recruitment goals for its Alumnae Admissions Representatives (AAR) program. We propose the following five-year goals for the AAR program:
- 1. Increase AAR-generated prospect contacts to 6% of total in 1993 and to 8% of total in 1995 (up from 4% currently).
- 2. Increase AAR-generated applicants to 15% in 1993 and to 18% in 1995 (up from 8% currently).
- 3. Increase AAR contact with admits to 43% in 1993 and to 45% in 1995 (up from 40% currently).
- 4. Increase number of participants and training of AARs based on geographic markets identified in the College's admissions plan.
- 5. Form a task force of alumnae to develop and monitor a business plan to accomplish AAR program goals.
The Board of Governors of the Alumnae Association of Mills College has unanimously agreed that should the Association fail to meet the benchmarks and goals set forth above, and should such failure have a material adverse impact on financial projections based upon such benchmarks and goals, it will recommend to the members of the Association that the future decision to admit men to Mills College based upon such failure not be opposed.
It is anticipated that there will be cooperation between the Development Office of the College and the Alumnae Association to define "new endowment." Guidelines for new endowment definition and other points in this proposal would be developed between the AAMC and college within two months of acceptance of this proposal by the Board of Trustees.
Furthermore, it is the intent of the Alumnae association to work as a community of students, faculty, staff, administration, and trustees to meet the goals proposed by each constituency.
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ONE RESPONSE RE WELLS COLLEGE TODAY: "One thing that struck me, though, is that we may have a more complicated challenge here in succeeding to keep Wells all women. It is fine to propose a moratorium on going co-ed if certain financial and enrollment goals are met, as they did at Mills, seemingly with much success. However, it doesn't address that we as alums could make these worthy efforts, and still have the same ineffective administrative management in place, which, let's face it, hasn't done a bang-up job with the resources it's had up til now. I'm happy to whip out my checkbook, I'm happy to recruit students, but not unless I feel like I can trust my money will be well spent and my efforts will not be wasted on encouraging students to attend a college that might continue to be so poorly managed. What can we do? Because I am having little faith in Lisa Ryerson and the Board of Trustees."
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