Enrollment Holds Steady in Wake of Mills Decision to Remain All-Women

In the aftermath of its highly publicized debate over coeducation and the decision to temporarily remain a women’s college, Mills College reported Tuesday that its numbers of returning students and new “freshwomen” are down from last fall, but that enrollment of transfer students is up.

Altogether, Mills has 774 undergraduates, three fewer students than in September, 1989, officials said.

Last May, Mills trustees voted to admit undergraduate men in 1991, and then reversed that decision after student and alumni protests. The college may admit men if it does not increase its enrollment to 900 by 1993, toward a target of 1,000 by 1995.

Mills officials are concerned about the dips in first-year students from 162 to 158 and in returning students from 544 to 520. They are encouraged by the nearly offsetting rise in transfers and emphasize that effects of a new recruiting program would not be felt until next year. Since the coeducation furor, the school also has had to cope with the resignations of its president, admissions director and dean of faculty.

Mills is one of three women’s colleges in the West, along with Scripps in Claremont and Mount St. Mary’s in Los Angeles.