Angry Students Sound Off at Soon-to-Be Co-Ed Mills

The usually serene campus of Mills College was shut down Friday by spirited protests against the decision to accept men at the all-women’s school in 1991.

Students boycotted classes and blocked entrances to offices. They drove cars around campus, honking horns and waving placards. Many trees were wrapped with yellow ribbons, symbols of anger at the announcement Thursday that undergraduate men will be enrolled at the 138-year-old college starting next year.

“Until the first man registers, the decision can be reversed,” said Sauda Garrett, a junior from Oakland, who was at the student union headquarters for the demonstrations.

Mills officials had a sympathetic reaction and took no steps to deter protesters.

“I hope the grieving will begin healing and we’ll be ready at an appropriate time to get on with the life of the college,” said President Mary Metz.

However, Metz said it is unlikely that college trustees will reconsider the switch to coeducation as the best way to solve the school’s money and enrollment problems. “I believe each member of the board voted after a long, personal process of deliberation,” she said.

When Metz, college president since 1981 and a popular figure until now, told a meeting of students Friday that she voted reluctantly for coeducation, many walked out or turned their backs on her.

Most of the student anger was directed at Warren Hellman, a San Francisco businessman who is chairman of the Mills College Board of Trustees. Hellman could not be reached for comment.

Campus police reported no arrests and no major incidents of vandalism Friday. The Oakland Fire Department responded to two false alarms on campus. At one point, students briefly blocked the route of of a fire engine.

Student leaders said they would continue the boycott through at least Monday. Spring semester classes end Wednesday and professors are being allowed to cancel exams if they want to.

“I think there will be a lot of independent negotiating with students,” dance teacher Mary Ann Kinkead said of the confusion surrounding tests, final projects and grades. An alumna who opposes the admission of men, Kinkead said she owes it to graduating seniors not to cancel all remaining activities this semester.

The Alumnae Assn. leadership voted to explore possible legal action to reverse the trustees’ decision. But Metz said she knew of no possible grounds on which a lawsuit could be filed.

Meanwhile, as a protest, the senior class has decided to give its $1,500 graduation fund to St. Catherine’s College, a women’s school in Minnesota. And Mills is bracing for an expected sharp drop in donations from alumnae.

Zina Jacque, dean of admissions and financial aid, said Friday that the deadline for next year’s new students to send in their deposits was extended a week to May 11 to allow them to consider if they want to attend a co-ed school. Jacque said that two students have told her they plan to transfer to other all-women’s colleges.

The change at Mills will leave only 93 women’s colleges nationwide, down from 298 in 1960, and only two west of the Rockies: Mt. St. Mary’s in Los Angeles and Scripps in Claremont.

Undergraduate enrollment at Mills has declined from 907 in 1971 to 772 now. Officials say 1,000 students are needed for fiscal stability and not enough young women want to attend a single-sex school.