Mills Quarterly fall 2006

Mills Quarterly Fall 2006 Alumnae Magazine

Because you give to the Mills College Annual Fund,

Lilian aims higher.

“I have always been interested in the sciences, and the great support of the professors in the Science Department made my decision to major in biochemistry easier. After graduation I will be going to medical school to pursue my career in pediatrics.

“Mills is a great place to get an education. The class size, the professors, the students, and the financial aid are all amazing. Mills has made me a woman who is a lot stronger and more confident.”

— Lilian Gonzalez, biochemistry student and recipient of a scholarship supported by the Mills College Annual Fund

I give because

Mills students matter.

“Mills women can and will be successful on whatever path they choose. Mills College offers the skills and experiences to make that happen, including a diverse learning environment. Scholarships are crucial to ensuring that the Mills student body is diverse in every way—from artistic talent to life experiences.”

— Robbie Davis, ’71, Mills College Annual Fund scholarship donor

Call 510.430.2366 or visit www.mills.edu /giving to make a gift to the Mills College Annual Fund

and transform women’s lives today.

PAT SOBERANIS, CREDENTIAL ’06

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BOB HSIANG

DAVID M. BRIN, MA ’75

PEG SKORPINSKI

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Mills Quarterly

CONTENTS FALL 2006 11

One Destination, Many Roads: New Students Explore Mills

by Joanna Iwata, Dean of Students

Innovative orientation programs encourage new students to take charge of their college experience.

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A Springboard into the World of Science

by Jennifer J. Black, ’07

The Jill Barrett Research Program gives undergraduates access to research experience.

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Portrait of a Neighborhood: The MacArthur Boulevard Portrait Project

by Patricia M. Wakida ’92

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Catching Up with Upward Bound

by Pat Soberanis, Credential ’06

Mills hosts program that helps Oakland teens reach college.

D E PA R T M E N T S 4

Inside Mills

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Mills Matters

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Profiles

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Passages

ABOUT THE COVER: New student Gina Bacigalupi moves all the essentials of college life into Olney Hall with the help of her parents.

See the article about new students on page 11. Cover photo by Peg Skorpinski.

Mills Quarterly Volume XCV Number 2 (USPS 349-900) Fall 2006 Alumnae Director Sheryl J. Bize-Boutté, ’73 Editor David M. Brin, MA ’75 <dbrin@mills.edu> (510) 430-3312

On This Issue

Acting Editor Ariel Eaton Thomas, ’63 Design and Art Direction Benjamin Piekut, MA ’01 Associate Editor Pat Soberanis Assistant Editors Katrina Wardell, ’07, Alison Lazareck, ’08 Contributing Writers Moya Stone, MFA ’03, Jo Kaufman Quarterly Advisory Board Jennifer Neira Heystek, ’04, Marian Hirsch, ’75 Jane Cudlip King, ’42, Jane Redmond Mueller, ’68 Cathy Chew Smith, ’84, Ramona Lisa Smith, ’01, MBA ’02 Sharon K. Tatai, ’80, Lynette Williams Williamson, ’72, MA ’74 Class Notes Writers Alice London Bishop, ’58, Julia Bourland Chambers, ’93 Laura Compton, ’93, Barbara Bennion Friedlich, ’49 Sally Mayock Hartley, ’48, Marian Hirsch, ’75 Cathy Chew Smith, ’84, Judith Rathbone, MFA ’05 Special Thanks to Caroline Glesmann, David M. Hedden Erinn Noel House, Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Board of Governors President Thomasina S. Woida, ’80 Vice Presidents Anita Aragon Bowers, ’63 Diana Birtwistle Odermatt, ’60 Treasurer Beverley Johnson Zellick, ’49, MA ’50 Executive Director Sheryl J. Bize-Boutté, ’73 Alumnae Trustees Sara Ellen McClure, ’81 Susan Brown Penrod, ’71, Sharon K. Tatai, ’80 Governors Lila Abdul-Rahim, ’80, Michelle Balovich, ’03 Micheline A. Beam, ’72, Lynda Campfield, ’00, MA ’02 Cecille Caterson, MA ’90, Harriet Fong Chan, ’98 Vivian Fumiko Chin ’89, Beverly Curwen, ’71 Suzette Lalime Davidson, ’94, Cynthia Guevara, ’04 Kathleen Miller Janes, ’69, Linda Jaquez-Fissori, ’92 Krishen Laetsch, MA ’01, Nangee Warner Morrison, ’63 Ramona Lisa Smith, ’01, MBA ’02 Karlin Sorenson, ’92, Lynette Williams Williamson, ’72, MA ’74 Regional Governors Joyce Menter Wallace, ’50, Eastern Great Lakes Nancy Sanger Pallesen, ’64, Middle Atlantic Albertina Padilla, ’78, Middle California Adrienne Bronstein Becker, ’86, Middle California Judith Smrha, ’87, Midwest Linda Cohen Turner, ’68, North Central Carolyn Chapman Booth, ’63, Northeast Brandy Tuzon Boyd, ’91, Northern California Gayle Rothrock, ’68, Northwest Louise Hurlbut, ’75, Rocky Mountains Colleen Almeida Smith, ’92, South Central Ann Cavanaugh, ’65, Southeast Julia Almazan, ’92, Southern California Elaine Chew, ’68, Southwest The Mills Quarterly (USPS 349-900) is published quarterly in April, July, October, and January by the Alumnae Association of Mills College, Reinhardt Alumnae House, 5000 MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94613.

Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, CA and at additional mailing office(s). Postmaster: Send address changes to the Mills Quarterly, Alumnae Association of Mills College, P.O. Box 9998, Oakland, CA 94613-0998.

Statement of Purpose The purpose of the Mills Quarterly is to report the activities of the Alumnae Association and its branches; to reflect the quality, dignity, and academic achievement of the College family; to communicate the exuberance and vitality of student life; and to demonstrate the worldwide-ranging interests, occupations, and achievements of alumnae.

This issue of your Quarterly, by delightful happenstance, reflects many of the qualities that keep Mills warm and vital in our hearts.

The Upward Bound program, in its 39th year at Mills, is continuing to challenge, inspire and encourage Oakland high school students toward success.

Mills is one of only 13 colleges in the country to receive a 2006 Campus Heritage Grant from the Getty Foundation.

Record numbers of bright new undergraduate and graduate students have enrolled, attracted by high energy courses, challenging professors, and new academic programs.

Students and faculty in biology and many other fields are pursuing significant research and creative work of all kinds.

Mills’ enduring connections with our neighbors and friends in the Fruitvale district and greater Oakland and, of course, the great warmth of our continuing relationships with alumnae who care about Mills, enrich the Mills experience immeasurably.

Altogether, this Quarterly presents a richly deep and diverse picture of the values, the people, the commitments, and the passion for learning that make Mills, our College, so vital today.

I am especially grateful to Ariel Eaton Thomas, ’63, for stepping in to complete this issue while I was on medical leave. I knew the Quarterly would be in good hands with Ariel, who was the editor of the Quarterly from 1966 to 1975. I also want to thank Pat Soberanis, who served as the associate editor of the Quarterly for two and a half years. Pat received a teaching credential at Mills this spring, and she has begun a teaching career. This issue would not be in your hands were it not for these two capable and dedicated individuals.

EMAIL FOR LIFE One of the benefits of AAMC Membership is our free email for life service.

Click on “E-mail for Life” on the Alumnae pages of the Mills College website, <www.mills.edu>.

Letters to the Editor

I embrace the fact that Mills provides a progressive environment for students to learn and explore.

However, I am concerned that the college’s point of view has become so one-sided.

I was particularly dismayed to read the quote from Barbara Boxer’s commencement speech [Mills Quarterly Summer 2006, p. 23]: “You will not shine as brightly as I know you can until America regains her luster.” I love my college and love my country; and believe that

neither has America lost her luster nor that Mills grads will fail to shine.

I keep wondering when the College will present a conservative point of view to balance the leftward rhetoric. A solid education requires more than one perspective.

—Mary Andrews Trampus, ’70 I was so pleased to read in the Winter 2006 Mills Quarterly that the College has appointed a director of services for students with disabili-

ties. As an occupational therapist and former director and associate professor of occupational therapy at Mills from 1952 to 1955, I have had a continuing interest in all efforts to assist the handicapped. In my personal life, I am very proud of our son and his wife, who live in Tenafly, New Jersey, for the way they are raising our 12-year-old grandson in the face of his serious disability.

—Anne Nicholson Turchi, ’47

Annual Giving Report

Corrections

Generous support from Mills alumnae and friends in

An article in the summer issue of the Quarterly

the 2005–06 fiscal year made this the most successful

identified the estate of Eileen Gibbs, ’36, as the

year of fundraising in the College’s history outside of a

largest bequest to Mills College. Instead, it is the

major campaign. The College surpassed its goal by

second largest. A bequest from the estate of Carroll

$10 million, with more than $26 million raised in gifts

Donner, ’51, is the largest to date. The College

and pledge payments. In its first year of operation, the

received a total of $11.4 million between 1985 and

Mills College Annual Fund met its goal of $2.1 million.

1996 from that estate, which paid for major campus

To thank our donors and celebrate our shared

improvements.

success, Mills College is publishing an annual report

•

separately from the Quarterly. The report lists our

Several alums identified the man at the left of the

donors, reviews the notable achievements of the

photo that appeared on page 18 of the Summer

year, and summarizes our financial performance. The

Quarterly as Assistant Professor of Economics

annual report will be mailed to all donors in

Richard Jay. The two students have not been

November.

identified definitively.

Fall 2006 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

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inside mills When Women Take the Lead

by President Janet L. Holmgren

W

hat would the world look like if women leaders were as highly valued as their male counterparts? What would change if women held parity on corporate boards and among policymakers?

We might well expect the position of women in society to improve. But I believe the potential for change reaches even farther. When women’s perspectives and experiences are taken seriously in decision-making processes, everyone benefits.

We need not assert that women have inherently better leadership styles in order to recognize that women bring to the table different perspectives and experiences than men. For example, women leaders’ perspectives are often informed by the challenges of caregiving and of balancing work and family.* These perspectives, applied to management practices or to the design of public services, can bring about innovations that improve the well-being of all members of our society.

At Mills, we instill in our students the understanding that their experiences as women matter—and they matter at the very highest levels of decision-making. We do this by encouraging them to bring their life experiences into classroom discussions; by ensuring that they have women role models among senior faculty, administrators, and trustees; by connecting them with alumnae who affirm their perspectives and values.

Two of Mills’ new professional degree programs, profiled in the following pages, exemplify this approach to educating women for leadership. Our MBA program is designed to take women seriously as business students ready to bring innovation to the marketplace and the nonprofit sector.

Our Master in Public Policy (MPP) program engages the perspectives and talents of women in all questions of public policy. Either degree may be earned as part of a “4+1” program, which allows undergraduates to take foundation course-

* For a general introduction to issues relating to women’s public leadership, I recommend Constance Buchanan’s Choosing to Lead: Women and the Crisis of American Values (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996) and Laura Liswood’s Women World Leaders: Fifteen Great Politicians Tell Their Stories (London: Pandora, 1996).

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work in these areas as part of a bachelor’s degree and then earn a master’s with one additional year of advanced study.

Both of these graduate degrees, as well as other new programs in the sciences and health professions, have made an impact on undergraduate enrollment at Mills. The number of first-year undergraduate applications has more than doubled in two years, and enrollment is at an all-time high.

Many students say our 4+1 programs are a major draw, because they build on the liberal arts curriculum to provide specific skills for effecting positive change in society. Our professional degree programs were also cited in a July 30 article in The New York Times that identified Mills as one of 20 “stealth powerhouses” off the beaten Ivy-League track.

In colleges and universities across the nation, women students now outnumber men and increasingly outshine them in academic achievement.

This phenomenon has provoked some to ask, “What’s wrong with men?

Why aren’t men achieving?” At Mills, we know this is the wrong question.

The real issue is that, for generations, women were not empowered to achieve their full potential in higher education. We are encouraged that this has begun to change, and look forward to seeing both women and men achieve at high levels. So we continue to focus on what’s right about women, and encourage our students to bring their experiences and perspectives as women to bear on every aspect of society.

LEADERSHIP IN THE PROFESSIONS

MBA Equips Students to Rise Above Glass Ceiling Alumnae mentors play key role

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I want to share my experiences—from networks and relationships with lthough women make up half the working for a huge multinational mentors. “Nearly 90 percent of jobs U.S. workforce, they hold only 16.4 corporation to running my own are found through networking,” says percent of corporate officer positions, business—and help other Mills women Ileen Erickson, MBA career services according to a study released in July by discern their career options.” director. Each fall, Erickson pairs Catalyst, a research organization. Among The appeal of the Mills MBA is students with business leaders who the reasons cited for the persistence of the evident in the program’s rapid growth. volunteer to serve as mentors. “glass ceiling” that prevents women from Enrollment has increased from 12 Mentors and students meet regularly advancing into management positions students in 2001 to 74 now. Although throughout the academic year. are lack of access to informal networks the program is open to all genders, all Cora Tellez, ’72, a member of the and lack of role models. An earlier study current students are women.

Mills College Board of Trustees, has

by Catalyst also pointed to low enrollMayumi Stroy, MBA ’03, enrolled in served as a mentor. Tellez—who is ment by women in MBA programs.

2002 after a decade-long career in the president and CEO of Sterling HSA and “The Mills MBA program addresses high-tech and publishing the roadblocks that keep women “One of the biggest challenges going from industries. Stroy used from entering business school, business school into a career is understanding what opportunities to meet with while helping students build netMills alumnae to build works and find mentors and role it takes to be successful. As a mentor, I can help networks that have continmodels,” says Nancy Thornborrow, give students the insight they need to move ahead.” ued to support her after dean of the Mills Graduate — Mayumi Stroy, MBA ’03 graduation. She attributes School of Business, Glenn and landing her current job—as marketing previously served as president of Health Ellen Voyles Professor in Business manager at PayPal—to a chain of Net of California and Prudential Education, and professor of economics. events that began in a Mills classroom, Healthcare, Western Division—says, “One of the roadblocks is the where she heard a lecture by Meg “My rise up the corporate ladder was requirement by many business schools Whitman, CEO of PayPal’s parent greatly assisted by mentors. But at the that students enter with five years work company, eBay. time, there were very few women in experience,” Thornborrow explains.

Eager for other women to benefit leadership positions. My male colleagues “It’s difficult for women with that much from the kind of relationships that helped went out for drinks after work, and I experience to give up a job and personal her, Stroy began volunteering as a Mills went home to change diapers. Today we plans in order to attend graduate school MBA mentor one year ago. “One of the can provide women starting out in their for two years. Mills makes it possible to biggest challenges going from business careers with a network of mentors who earn an MBA early in one’s career school into a career is understanding can help them with such challenges.” through the 4+1 BA/MBA option or, for what it takes to be successful,” she says.

Inge Hendromartono, ’81, has those with career experience, to take as “As a mentor, I can help give students the served both as a mentor and as a little as one year off work to earn the insight they need to move ahead.” panelist in Mills MBA-sponsored MBA through the fast-track option. career workshops. Hendromartono “Women benefit from other program completed an MBA at UCLA, held a features designed to meet their needs.

To volunteer as a mentor or provide marketing position with Procter & We’re very good at teaching the quantitainformation about internship and job Gamble, and now serves as president tive skills that enable women to master opportunities, contact Ileen Erickson at of Inge Christopher, a handbag design MBA coursework. More than half of our (510) 430-2179 or <ierickso@mills.edu>. company she co-owns. “At Mills, I faculty are women, and we incorporate Alumnae and their families have provided was given the confidence to ‘just do it’ case studies of interest to women in class.” generous financial support to the MBA and I had women role models. I didn’t Outside of the classroom, MBA program. If you would like to support get that at UCLA,” she recalls. “Now, staff help students build informal this program, call (510) 430-2097.

Fall 2006 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

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inside mills New Graduate Program Puts Women at the Center of Public Policy A Conversation with Carol Chetkovich, Associate Professor and Director of the Public Policy Program

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n less than one year, the first students will enroll in the newest of Mills’ graduate degree programs: the Master in Public Policy (MPP). Program plans were approved in February by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, which accredits Mills, and applications for admission are now being accepted. The program, which builds upon the College’s five-year-old public policy undergraduate major, was designed by Professor Carol Chetkovich, former program director Emery Roe, and the Public Policy Steering Committee. Funds contributed

by Mills alumnae supported the program’s development. Dr. Chetkovich, a

visiting professor at Mills from 1996 to 1997, returned to the College in 2005 after serving for eight years on the faculty of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

What is public policy, and what do you do with an MPP? Public policy is concerned with problem-solving, with applying knowledge from such disciplines as economics and political science to issues like poverty, environmental protection, and education reform. Common destinations for public policy graduates include government (analyzing policies or budgets, evaluating programs, or managing proj-

Recommended Reading

ects); nonprofits (providing service, advocacy, or analysis); and the private sector, handling government relations, community relations, or philanthropy.

What’s different about the MPP at Mills?

We’ve developed a program that covers the same basics as any other MPP program, and yet offers something unique and useful to women. Our program emphasizes analytics linked to action, community engagement, and especially local policymaking. For example, we’ll have a core graduate course on local planning and policymaking, in which students will work with community organizations, local government agencies, or public leaders. In another course, students will analyze a variety of real-world policy problems and interact with practi-

On public policy and gender: Women, Policy and Politics: The Construction of Policy Problems, by Carol Lee Bacchi (London: Sage, 1999), examines a range of public policy problems and asks, What assumptions are embedded in these definitions of the problem?

By Carol Chetkovich: Real Heat: Gender and Race in the Urban Fire Service (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997), an ethnographic study of firefighters in Oakland, won the Outstanding Academic Book Award from Choice in 1998 and still inspires fan mail, especially from women in the fire service.

Winning the Best and Brightest: Increasing the Attraction of Public Service (PricewaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of Government, 2001), available from <www.businessofgovernment.org>, surveys the changing occupational goals of MPP students at Harvard and UC Berkeley. It is part of Dr. Chetkovich’s ongoing study of the occupational culture of policy professionals.

From the Ground Up: Grassroots Organizations Making Social Change (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, forthcoming fall 2006), with Frances Kunreuther, examines 16 social change organizations working to increase the power of marginalized groups.

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Carol Chetkovich’s classes encourage students to explore the impact of public policies on women and minorities.

LEADERSHIP IN THE PROFESSIONS

tioners who work on those problems.

Another difference is that we’ve designed the MPP so it can be completed as part of a 4+1 program. As undergraduates, Mills students can take foundation courses that normally make up the first year of a two-year graduate program.

After graduation, they’re prepared to complete the MPP here in one year.

We’re also accepting applications from Mills alumnae who haven’t taken public policy coursework, as well as from graduates of other institutions, who may pursue the degree as a regular two-year program.

How does being at a women’s college affect the way you teach public policy?

This is the first opportunity I’ve had in nine years to focus on issues of specific interest to women—such as childcare, employment discrimination, and domestic violence—or on how “generic” policy areas, such as social security, have a particular impact on women. These topics often get short shrift in policy training and research.

At Mills, students feel free to bring up issues that tend to get left out in classroom discussions in coed institutions. There’s not only more discussion of how policies affect women, there’s also a greater comfort in voicing opinions not held by the majority of the class. Gender—as well as race, ethnicity, and other dimensions of social identity—will be a staple of discussion in our program.

There’s a much greater opportunity at Mills for women to assume leadership roles, to claim their own voices.

It’s important for women to have that practice and gain that confidence.

What we’re about is growing women leaders; and some of that work takes place in the classroom.

To learn more about the MPP, visit <www. mills.edu/pubpolicy-grad> or call (510) 4302147. To make a gift that supports Mills’ academic programs, call (510) 430-2097.

Enrollment Exceeds Goals

M

ills attracted a record-breaking number of applications for undergraduate admission this fall: more than 1400, nearly double the number for fall 2004. Of that applicant pool, 333 women joined the Mills student body at the start of the semester. This incoming class not only boasts the highest grade-point average in 12 years, but also great diversity. More than 40 percent are women of color or multiracial, and the number from out-of-state is 33 percent higher than two years ago.

The College’s total enrollment— 1410, of which 927 are undergraduates—is the highest on record and

surpasses enrollment goals set forth in the College’s strategic plan.

Mills has succeeded in attracting more students while becoming more selective because of new degree programs, like the MBA and MPP 4+1s, and a strong faculty. Says Giulietta Aquino, new dean of undergraduate admissions, “It’s a competitive recruitment environment in which students have choices and expect highly individualized attention. But with the recent additions to the College’s curriculum, we’re well-positioned to provide what this generation needs and wants from their education.”

Welcoming Giulietta Aquino Home “I’ve been given the opportunity to work with some of the brightest women in the country and to give back to an institution that has shaped much of who I am,” says Giulietta Aquino, ’93, of her appointment in June as dean of undergraduate admissions.

Aquino earned a Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and has played key admissions roles at Mount Holyoke and Wellesley colleges. But her professional interests and her rapport with prospective students began with experiences at Mills.

“I was among the first generation in my family to go to college,” says Aquino, whose parents immigrated from the Philippines and raised their children in American Canyon, California. “The moment that I stepped off the bus for my first visit to Mills, I knew this was my college.”

As a major in political, legal, and economic analysis (PLEA), she developed an interest in social and educational policy. At Harvard, she focused on women’s education, access to higher education, and women working in higher education.

“I want women from all backgrounds—even those conditioned to think that college is not for them—to realize that Mills is an ideal place to grow.

I want them to look beyond undergraduate education toward professional development or advanced degrees.”

Fall 2006 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

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MILLS MATTERS

New Faculty “I’m excited about sharing the discipline of economics with Mills students.

Economics provides a valuable set of tools that can empower women to better understand and shape our world.

I’m looking forward to showing students how the tools of economics can be applied to issues of interest to their lives,” says Lorien Rice.

One of two new assistant professors in economics, Lorien earned her BA at Oberlin and Lorien Rice her PhD at UC San Diego. Her enthusiasm about Mills students, and about her field, is echoed by our three other new professors as well.

Eirik Evenhouse, also a new assistant professor in economics, earned his Eirik Evenhouse BS at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; DEA Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris; MA, Johns Hopkins University (SAIS); and PhD, University of California, Berkeley.

“The bulk of my work has focused on behavioral responses to certain Diane Ketelle

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incentives and the implications for social policy,” he says. “For example, I have looked at the question of how the shift in states’ divorce laws (away from fault toward no-fault laws) affected the bargaining strength of divorcing spouses.

In recent years, economists (myself included) have become much more interested in understanding everyday behaviors that look like obvious departures from the rational self-interest that has dominated economic analysis for so long.”

Diane Ketelle ’78 (Dance) and MA ’89 (Education) at Mills; PhD in public administration from USC, is now assistant professor in the Educational Leadership and Administrative Service Credential programs in the School of Education. Before becoming a professor at St. Mary’s College, she was an elementary school teacher and principal.

Since 2003, she has been visiting assistant professor of education and a director of the administrative credential program at Mills.

Li Chiao-Ping has won dozens of awards and grants for her choreography and dance, including several from the Endowment for the Arts. She earned her MA in dance and choreography from UCLA, and since 1993 has been a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her interests include choreography, intermedia and video dance (dance created for the camera). A native of San Francisco, she has presented and screened her work throughout North and South America. Her list of honors, awards and grants is, literally, too numerous to mention.

Li Chiao-Ping

Outstanding Student Journalists The Public-Radio Reporting class members (Annie Abernethy, Adina Lepp, Hallee Berg, Thea Chroman, Kristin Darling, Alexandra Kostoulas and Ilana Murphy) have received this year’s Northern California Society of Professional Journalists award for Outstanding Student Journalist in any medium. They were honored for the two-part series on redevelopment issues in Oakland that was broadcast on KALW-FM.

Getty Foundation Campus Heritage Grant One of only 13 colleges to be awarded a Campus Heritage Grant from the Getty Foundation in 2006, Mills will receive $170,000 to create a campuswide plan for the restoration and preservation of historically important campus sites such as the Oval, Lake Aliso, and Richards Road. “American

NEWS OF THE COLLEGE AND THE AAMC

The MacArthur Boulevard Project The MacArthur Boulevard Portrait Project article in this issue [see page 19] documents an historic initiative sponsored by Mills and supported by the James Irvine Foundation.

The beautiful and striking photographs of the Fruitvale/Dimond districts on MacArthur Boulevard that were taken for this project will be displayed in Mills Hall on the second floor from mid-October into the spring. In digital form, they will be archived at Mills’ F.W. Olin Library, and at the Oakland Public Library’s Oakland History Room for public access.

PEG SKORPINSKI

college and university campuses are often museums of great architecture and design. They provide students, faculty and visitors with both inspiration and a vital link to the past,” says Foundation interim director Joan Weinstein. “Our grants have assisted these institutions as they make plans to care for, maintain, and preserve their important historical resources.”

Paul Richards, director of campus facilities, says that Mills is currently identifying various campus habitats to gain a better understanding of what needs to be preserved. Leona (Lion) Creek, for example, is currently being studied to see how the Creek is doing, and how to preserve its landscape features. Other historic landscape features being studied include the Oval, Toyon Meadow, Lake Aliso, and Richards Road, with its stately and historic sycamore trees.

Under Construction The new Natural Sciences Building now under construction is the first “green” building—designed to be energy-efficient and environmentally responsible—on the Mills campus. Built on the footprint of the old Life Sciences Building, it’s scheduled for completion in spring 2007.

Also in construction phase is the complex of three townhouse apartment buildings on the slopes of Prospect Hill. Danforth House opened on August 19th with 29 graduate students in residence; Stephenson House and Springs House are scheduled to be completed later in the fall. The buildings are named after three extraordinary Mills women who have chaired the College’s board of trustees: Joan Danforth, ’53; Vivian Stephenson, Honorary Degree ’05; and Clare Springs, ’66.

How Others See Us Washington Monthly College Rankings named Mills as one of the country’s leading liberal arts colleges.

Mills was placed 36th of 202 institutions and rated highly on the basis of the College’s community service, research spending, the quality of preparation for graduate education, and social mobility.

Black Enterprise magazine (September 2006 issue) has chosen Mills as one of the top 50 colleges for African Americans. Mills was ranked 31st based on a survey of 500 African American professionals in higher education. Mills enrolled approximately 34% students of

color in 2005–06, with African Americans composing nine percent of the student population.

Recognized as one of the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News & World Report, Mills currently ranks 16th for diversity among the country’s liberal arts colleges.

The Princeton Review’s annual guide, The Best 361 Colleges (2007), describes Mills as “all about the empowerment of women, innovative thoughts, independence, and activism.”

The profile also points out that Mills offers “plenty of support and guidance from the faculty to aid in each student’s individual success.”

Fall 2006 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

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MILLS MATTERS

The New York Times has named Mills one of 20 colleges nationwide that students should consider attending, based on the quality of its teaching, academic programs, and campus environment. The Times singled out Mills for a number of “firsts,” including being the first women’s college to offer a computer science major. Mills was also recognized for its new professionally focused programs such as infant mental health and pre-nursing, and for “advancing electronic music through the Center for Contemporary Music.” The writer observed that Mills succeeds in achieving a diverse student population with one-third of undergraduates representing minority groups.

Rufiena Jones, ’03, with both excitement and some trepidation, will teach English and learn Thai, as well as Thai dance. “I feel really powerful now because I had this goal to travel and live overseas. And I’ve definitely worked for it. It kind of scares me—am I capable? It also excites me—I want to be good at what I do,” she says. “I’m often a person who’s a bridge between different groups. I want to find a way for people with different cultures to communicate.” A high school teacher, she has taught students that creative expression can evaporate boundaries that exist between people because of language barriers, long-standing traditions, and fear.

Rachel Niec, ’06, a chemistry and biology major, earned a Fulbright grant in

Standing in line is boring. Boring. But what if you knew fascinating and wonderful things about some of your fellow standees? In this line, you’d find a student who designed a sticker for the Museum of Tolerance. The organizer of an Earth Day event at which Jane Goodall spoke. A brain mapping assistant. An actor/zoo volunteer/Model United Nations member. A literary/library columnist. A nationally competitive rhythmic gymnast. A deckhand on her dad’s fishing boat in Alaska. A season champ of the Junkyard Wars reality TV show. The founder and co-president of the Esangweni Hope Project—an AIDS service project with a school in Verulam, South Africa. The co-emcee of a fundraiser that raised over $300,000 for her school. And this is just a small sample of what the entering class of 2006 has to offer.

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M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY Fall 2006

Cheryl Colopy

Tara Rodgers

Rachel Niec

Four Mills Alumnae Fulbrights

The Line

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Rufiena Jones

medical science in Bali, Indonesia. The Fulbright Committee recommended her for her knowledge of Indonesia, and for her knowledge of the medical situation of the HIV patient population in her study.

She has secured a direct affiliation with an HIV research and outreach foundation, with UCSF School of Medicine, and with Udayana University in Indonesia.

Tara Rodgers, ’06, with a Mills MFA in electronic music and recording media, was awarded a Fulbright grant in the Communication Department at McGill University in Montreal. Her recommendation noted that she has extensive experience as a performer and multimedia producer focusing on women artists. She has established contacts for numerous collaborations in Canada, and intends this project to be a two-way exchange, learning from local resident artists while contributing her own resources and connections.

Cheryl Colopy, ’66, our fourth “Fulbright” alumna, surfaced by pure Mills luck; while writing the Alumnae Association that she couldn’t come to Reunion, she mentioned that she is now living in Nepal, where she has a Fulbright grant for this year to research a book and documentary on water issues in South Asia.

One Destination, Many Roads Orientation activities immerse our new Mills undergraduates in the Collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unique culture.

By Dean of Student Life Joanna Iwata

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Fall 2006 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

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Stephanie James, ’10, Giulietta Aquino, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, and President Janet Holmgren.

Below left: Freshwoman Vanessa Rivera, ’10, moves into Warren Olney Hall.

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M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY Fall 2006

The original Mills motto, “One destination, many roads,” was the theme of this year’s new student orientation, held August 19–22, with the spotlight on Mills as a community. Along with residence hall check-ins, registration, and student meetings, the orientation program focused on shared values.

Three sessions were especially important in this regard, says Dean of Student Life Joanna Iwata: Saturday’s welcoming event, Sunday’s Mills Treasure Hunt, and the Exploring Our Diversity program. A key component of the welcoming event was a discussion of community expectations, with Mills juniors and seniors talking to students about what it means to be a Mills woman, and about core Mills values around leadership and volunteerism, academic success, diversity, and community activism.

Both Iwata and Director of Career Services Kate Dey helped to organize this session, agreeing that “It’s an important way to set the tone, to get people feeling that this is their home, their community.”

The new Director of Student Diversity Programs, Gina Rosabal, led the mandatory diversity session.

“It was an exchange of values and beliefs in the form of an interactive talk show,” Iwata says, “a new and different way to engage students in exploring the challenges of how we come together to talk about the “isms,”—racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, religious and cultural pluralism—that affect our living in a community together.”

The Mills Treasure Hunt was a new feature added to this year’s program; 11 teams composed of new students learned more about the unique aspects of Mills history and different sites through competitive activities. This was a huge success according to Courtney Young Law, director of student activities;

Right: New transfer student Chelsea Crown and her family waiting for barbecue on Toyon Meadow the first day of Orientation.

Below: Senior staff and College officers at President Holmgren’s welcoming speech to new students and their families.

Bottom left: Joanna Iwata, Dean of Student Life Bottom middle: A new student moving in

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Bottom right: Mail room manager Vern McKenzie, outside Warren Olney Hall dispensing incoming packages to incoming students.

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it promoted Mills spirit and helped acquaint new students with the campus in a fun, educational and meaningful way.

Traditionally, President Holmgren has hosted a reception in the garden behind the President’s House; this year, she spoke at the Mills Cyclone Cookout on Toyon Meadow, where she could meet the families as well as the students. “It was a wonderful way to end our first day of Orientation, and it added a special community focus to the event,” Iwata says.

The Orientation Committee also brought back several successful events begun in 2005. The diversity session was one; another was Easing the Transition, an event in the Concert Hall geared toward parents and family members of new students. With representatives from all the major service departments on hand—from the Division of Student Life, M Center, Office of Parent Relations, and Public Safety to the Provost’s office—family members were able to get all of their questions answered.

The Living Learning Communities (LLC’s) introduced last year in the first-year residence halls were so successful that they have been expanded and are now a requirement. Those students choosing to live in an LLC receive support through an introductory course given by a professor who also serves as their first-year advisor in both Warren Olney and Orchard Meadow.

This year’s nine LLC’s include Nursing Leadership, History, Music, Chemistry, Poetry, Public Policy, Computer Science, Spanish for Spanish Speakers, and Creative Arts. There are also non-academic LLC’s (Scholars in Action initiative) which are just as popular: Leadership and Social Justice, Wellness, and Adventure Education.

During Orientation, all new students also had a chance to meet with assistant professor of English, and author, Yiyun Li, whose award-winning book, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, was sent to every new undergraduate student over the summer.

And students had plenty of fun evening activities to enjoy, from the traditional new-student initiation ceremony to karaoke and board games, a San Francisco Giants game, and the Alumnae Association’s Taco Tuesday. Special events for new transfer, resumer and commuter students, as well as graduate students, were also incorporated into the four-day program.

With so many ways to immerse themselves in Mills life, new students who participate in these activities learn how to become productive members of the community, discover the range of resources Mills offers them, and enjoy many opportunities to make the kind of friends they will keep for life.

Fall 2006 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

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A Springboard into the World of Science

by Jennifer J. Black, ’07

Gauging the Viral Vulnerability of Local Magpie Populations Professor of Biology John Harris teaches biology and ecology courses during the school year and focuses his research on California native animal populations. In previous summers he has led Barrett scholars in researching the endangered Mohave Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus mohavensis) and Variable Checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas chalcedon) populations in Redwood Regional Park in Oakland.

This summer Professor Harris worked with students on a timely new project—researching the impact of West Nile virus on Yellow-billed Magpies (Pica nuttalli) that populate the East Bay’s Livermore and Tri-Valley areas.

Given the magpies’ limited distribution, local ornithologists are especially concerned that the virus could quickly decimate the resident population.

Professor Harris and two research scholars, Jennie Tanouye and Julia Timpson, used observational field studies to establish baseline data such as habitat use, nest location, nest size, and the number of young. Their overall goal is to identify behaviors that may make the magpies more susceptible to viral infection.

Restoring and Conserving Native Plant Life Biology professor Bruce Pavlik teaches plant biology and ecology during the academic year, and he is concerned about the many threats faced by California’s native plants. His research projects focus on restoration and conservation.

This summer Dr. Pavlik advised research assistant Lisa Mayor as she studied the effects of grazing on native bunch grasses, using samples from various California locations.

From 1998 to 2004, Dr. Pavlik helped students restore vernal pools in Santa Rosa, California and oversaw another student’s research into the genetic basis of heat-tolerant Sonoma Valley grasses. In 2005, Professor Pavlik mentored research scholar Victoria Parson, ’05, as she developed a management plan for the endangered Santa Cruz tarplant (Holocarpha macradenia).

Her research provided data for answering questions on how the plant was pollinated. It also made her aware of the patience and observation required by fieldwork. “At some points, I would sit in one spot for several hours and count the number and behaviors of visiting insects,” Parsons says. “Such tasks

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ARIEL EATON THOMAS, ’63

IT’S NOT EVERY DAY that an undergraduate gets to investigate the effects of a virus on birds, study the impact of grazing on native California grasses, or research the learning behaviors of roundworms. But at Mills, the Jill Barrett Research Program supports just such opportunities, offering current undergraduate biology-related majors the exceptional experience of working with professors on significant biological research.

Each summer since 1998, Mills’ biology-related majors have conducted research projects under the mentorship and guidance of Mills biology professors. This past summer, 10 students participated in the program, and projects ranged from investigating the impact of West Nile virus on Yellow-billed Magpies in the East Bay to exploring how certain bacteria sense light.

Magpies are loud and conspicuous, but not always easy to follow. Jennie and Julia needed sharp eyes and patience to follow magpies through the dense riparian forest, battling ticks and possible rattlesnakes. Found only in California, Yellow-billed Magpies may be especially sensitive to West Nile virus.

often open up one’s eyes and help one to understand the world from a different perspective, which is a very important asset in a scientist.” Her experience later helped her secure a job as a biology lab technician.

Observing How a Worm Learns at the Molecular Level Assistant Professor of Biology Jared Young began teaching neurobiology at Mills in spring 2006. This past summer, he worked with four Barrett scholars researching the genetic learning and memory components that directly contribute to the behavior of roundworms.

Caenorhabditis elegans is a popular animal for biological studies because of its relatively small number of neurons, flexible reproductive capabilities, and learning capacity. Unlike the hundreds of billions of neurons in a human being, C. elegans has only 302 neurons, making it much easier to determine the influence of individual genes on behavior.

The worm can produce genetically identical offspring (essentially clones) through self-fertilization as well as heterogeneous offspring through sexual reproduction. Students learned that C. elegans can also be trained using associative conditioning techniques and can retain that learning for a few hours or days.

Students first disrupted the normal functioning of genes involved in learning, and then trained the worms to form positive or negative associations with certain odors. After this training stage, students conducted a series of assay tests—to test whether those associations were learned and remembered.

These studies aim to identify genes involved in learning and memory.

This first study establishes the foundation for future work. By studying a simple organism, Dr. Young hopes to increase understanding of learning processes in higher organisms.

Determining How Certain Bacteria Sense Light Assistant Professor of Biology Susan Spiller heads the Mills Biophotonics Research Project, investigating how organisms interact with light energy at the molecular level. This summer marks the third year she and a student scholar (Diane Liang this year) have researched proteins that act as “eyes” for cyanobacteria.

Cyanobacteria contain pyrroles, the building blocks for many biologically important compounds. Pyrroles can assemble in different formations, resulting in compounds—such as chlorophyll and phytochromes—that use pigments and light to perform key biological processes. Four pyrroles in a ring formation, for example, create chlorophyll, used in photosynthesis.

In past summers, research focused on phytochrome-related genes of two cyanobacteria: Thermosynechococcus elongatus BP1 and Nostoc punctiforme. Of five genes thought to be involved in phytochrome-related activity in T. elongatus, students have conclusively identified one gene (known as tlr0924) as having many characteristics necessary for light-sensing activity.

This summer, Diane Liang continued to study this gene and others.

Understanding how biomolecules detect color may have significant future applications in fields ranging from health care, to environmental science, to

Small Wonder: Though only 1 mm long, the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans has made big contributions to our understanding of a wide range of biological processes, including aging, development, cancer, and nervous system function.

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Using DNA Sequencing to Determine Genetic Ancestry Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Barbara Bowman, a molecular biologist, found inspiration for her two research projects in presentations given by fellow professors Pavlik and Spiller. Bowman and two student scholars are continuing two research projects initiated in the summer of 2005.

The first project involves determining the evolutionary history of a California grass species. Found only in Death Valley, the endemic dune grass Swallenia alexandrae has a highly contested evolutionary background, with multiple hypotheses for its ancestry and family relationships. To determine the dune grass’ lineage, scholar Crystal Corbett had to first construct a DNA-based evolutionary family tree using six closely related grass species. Working in collaboration with professors Bowman and Pavlik and using the resources of the UC Berkeley’s DNA sequencing facility, she learned to extract, clarify, and analyze the plant’s DNA sequence data. The resulting evolutionary tree conclusively eliminated one of the hypotheses.

Corbett hopes to have a paper published sometime this year.

The second project is a gene hunt in the earliest evolutionary branch of fungi, the chitridiomycota, commonly called “chytrids.” Scholar Caitlin Quigley is continuing her investigation on whether certain phytochrome (light-sensing pigment) gene sequences present in other organisms also exist in these fungi; establishing these links would clarify their evolutionary development. Since scientists have found similar sequences in neighboring organisms on the evolutionary timescale, it’s logical but uncertain that chytrids have them as well.

While probing for these elusive genes, Quigley got real-life experience with the hurdles faced in lab research. Early on she had to change her method, and later had to diagnose and fix continuing problems resulting from bacterial contamination and oxidized chemicals. Despite the obstacles, Quigley successfully obtained enough data to continue her exploration. “I had a blast,” she says. “I like solving the kinds of puzzles I solved; it just seems to suit me. If I learned anything, it’s that I have the resilience to succeed, and the lab is where I want to be.”

Investigating Sea Urchin Development Imagine watching a marine creature transform itself from translucent and delicate to purple and spiky. Associate Professor of Biology Lisa Urry and her past student researchers have used the purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) to analyze skeletal-mineralization stages of the embryos and larvae, research applicable to human bone and tooth formation. Student researchers raised urchin young in aquariums to better observe their physical development.

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DAVID M. BRIN, MA ’75

electronic data storage for computer networks. Dr. Spiller credits the summer research program for also enabling new partnerships. She says, “Our capacity to offer undergraduate biology research, with support from the Jill Barrett Research Program, has also helped us secure funding from the National Science Foundation and the Center for Biophotonics, Science, and Technology at UC Davis, and new collaborations with Stanford University and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.”

Biochemistry major Crystal Corbett, ’06, used DNA sequences to discover the evolutionary history of a grass that lives on a single dune in Southern California.

The Jill Barrett Research Program Since its inception in 1998, the Jill Barrett Research Program has provided research opportunities for 45 students. Drs. Urry and Pavlik of the Mills biology department administer the program and make certain that all participants gain value from the experience. Students apply to the program as scholars or research assistants, depending on their previous research experience and the individual professors’ needs. Scholars generally have knowledge of the particular field and substantial experience with research methods and procedures, and receive a full stipend for 400 hours of work. Research assistants help staff and scholars with their summer research projects, learning standard research techniques and acquiring hands-on research experience; they receive a partial stipend for 250 hours of work.

But it’s not just about results; as Dr. Pavlik says, “Research is about communicating it as well as doing it.” At the project’s end, students either create, or assist in creating, a written manuscript, oral presentation, or a poster to present their findings. They also receive travel funds to attend scientific meetings and discuss their work.

The impact of the Jill Barrett Research Program has been tremendous.

The research experience enables undergraduate students to consider seriously a career in research science. While some deepen their passion for research work, others decide—after ten intense weeks of hands-on laboratory or fieldwork—to pursue a different path. The program facilitates contact with the broader scientific community, connections that can provide students with future graduate school and employment opportunities. Most importantly, students grow, developing important personal and practical skills and deeper self-awareness. Faculty also benefit, gaining practical assistance with their research projects, solid research results, and the opportunity to mentor the next generation of scientists. “The program is a tremendous boon for the department,” says Dr. Urry. “We all feel we’ve been able to do things we wouldn’t have been able to.”

Jill Barrett was a biology major who graduated from Mills in 1993.

Passionate about biology and research, she was a volunteer at the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece in 1995 when her life was tragically cut short in an auto accident. The Barrett family funds the program in her memory, enabling students to more fully experience laboratory and field research work in biology.

DAVID M. BRIN, MA ’75

Student research yielded data that Dr. Urry included in her paper, “A Larval Staging Scheme for Strongylocentrotus purpuratus,” slated for publication in the Journal of Morphology this year. Currently concentrating on other projects, Dr. Urry did not mentor scholarship recipients this summer.

Crystal Corbett sums up the experience of many scholarship recipients: “Thanks to [the Jill Barrett Research Program], . . . I can now say without a doubt that I love research and will incorporate that into my career as a woman in science. . . . I may have never known what skill, interest, and passion I will offer to the scientific community through research. I am excited to see where this takes me and will never forget the Jill Barrett Research Scholarship springboard that launched me into the world of science.”

Caitlin Quigley, ’06, also a biochemistry major, loved solving the puzzles posed by her Barrett research project. She intends to pursue a career in medical research, and is now a research intern at The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Fall 2006 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

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Have you heard?

Your IRA can make a difference for Mills students today.

A charitable IRA rollover may offer you tax advantages and enable you to make the gift of a lifetime—a gift that will help provide Mills women with the knowledge, confidence, and leadership skills they need to make a difference in the world.

A new federal law allows you to make a tax-free charitable gift from your individual retirement account (IRA) for a limited time, if you are age 70 1⁄2 or older. In tax years 2006 and 2007, you can rollover up to $100,000 per year to qualifying charities, including Mills College, without paying federal income tax.

Charitable gifts from IRAs make sense for younger alumnae and friends, too. If you are between 59 1⁄2 and 70 1⁄2 years of age, you can still withdraw funds from your IRA without penalties for the purpose of making a charitable gift—and you may receive a charitable tax deduction.

Charitable gifts from IRAs can help reduce the tax burden of heirs.

Your non-spousal beneficiaries may be taxed up to 70 percent when your IRA or other pension savings is distributed to them. Naming Mills as your beneficiary can help preserve the value of your retirement savings.

Learn more about the advantages of a charitable IRA rollover.

Please contact April Hopkins, Director of Planned Giving, toll-free at 877.PGMILLS (877.746.4557) or by email at aprilh@mills.edu, or visit www.mills.edu/giving/planned_gifts.php.

Mills College does not offer or provide tax advice. Consult your professional advisor before making a gift that could have tax consequences.

Planned Giving

PORTRAIT OF A NEIGHBORHOOD: T H E M A C A R T H U R B O U L E VA R D P O R T R A I T P R O J E C T

HEIKE LISS, MFA ’02

B Y PAT R I C I A M . WA K I D A ’ 9 2

M

acArthur Boulevard is a long river of asphalt that starts in the city of San Leandro and runs through the major parts of central Oakland. Within that stretch lie the Laurel and Dimond neighborhood districts, a short strip of commercial bustle running between Seminary and Fruitvale Avenues—and a typical contemporary California neighborhood. People of different races and ethnicity— black, white, Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Laotian, Cambodian, Korean, Salvadoran, Mexican and Tongan— crowd the sidewalks and go about their daily business.

The district boasts a dizzying array of mom and pop types of businesses: a local hardware store aligns itself against a classic luncheonette, followed by a trophy engraving store, an optometrist’s office, a barber specializing in fades, and a karate school. Some shops show the wear of decades of

experience; others sparkle with a new owner’s enthusiasm.

This past spring 2006, photographers Heike Liss, MFA ’02, Johnna Arnold, MFA ’02, and Bob Hsiang wandered up and down MacArthur Boulevard capturing an intimate “portrait” of the East Oakland business district that leads up to the Mills College campus.

Armed with digital cameras, the three photographers shot a series of “portraits” of MacArthur Boulevard storefronts and business owners. Heike Liss took portraits of business owners inside and outside their stores.

Bob Hsiang photo-graphed store exteriors, including architectural details, signage, and window displays. And Johnna Arnold captured street culture (transportation, Above: Lease Wong at Komodo Toys, 4004 MacArthur Blvd.

Photograph by Heike Liss, MFA ’02 Fall 2006 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

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“Of all the store owners, I was ultimately most impressed with the karate/martial arts studios.

The two owner/teachers that I got to know were not only kind but also thoughtful and took great pride in the purpose of their business. Here a boy getting ready for class looks at me JOHNNA ARNOLD, MA ’02

through the window.”

—Johnna Arnold, MFA ’02 Superior Martial Arts, 3823 MacArthur Blvd.

Photograph by Johnna Arnold, MFA ’02.

pedestrian movement, and objects on and around the boulevard). Together, their images give one a sense of roaming the neighborhood. The results are breathtaking and vibrant, instilled with both a historical perspective and a preservationist’s purpose, but through an artistic lens. Sharp angles from afternoon shadows cast by bus benches, ghostly reflections of customers onto Laundromat windows, and truly remarkable portraits of the people who spend their lives working the Boulevard are but a few examples of the work they have collectively recorded.

Travelers along MacArthur Boulevard will notice the seeming overabundance of motel options—a result of the creation of MacArthur Boulevard as a thoroughfare to feed and receive traffic from the newly built Bay Bridge in 1936. Today, that traffic drains onto Interstate 580, effectively bypassing and degrading the business climate along MacArthur Boulevard for much of its length. When Interstate 580 was opened in 1963, it inadvertently became a physical barrier running through East Oakland neighborhoods, dividing class and race.

With each well-intentioned wave of redevelopment in East Oakland, the surrounding neighborhoods began to unravel. The once largely white middle-class population fled for the hills, leaving vacancies for the poor—first displaced African Americans from the South, following shipbuilding work during World War II, then a large influx of immigrant Asians and Latinos and, in the last two decades, a growing population of the poor. With few resources to even feed their families, many residents paid little attention to their surrounding environment and, like so many inner city neighborhoods, the local Laurel/Dimond shopping district became a nearly forgotten strip of stores from another time. The one constant on the Boulevard has been a set of core small businesses that have endured over the years.

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Oakland is currently experiencing a tremendous upsurge of new immigrants, booming real estate prices, and an influx of change. And now, with a new infusion of enterprising business owners and residents—both results of the dot com boom—we are seeing the role of MacArthur Boulevard shift yet again.

One very important aspect of this project was to take a closer look at the powerful social, political, economic, and environmental long-term impact that the Interstate 580 freeway has had on this commercial area of MacArthur Boulevard and its neighborhoods, and to explore the notion of “progress” and how small communities like the Laurel/Dimond district can play a crucial role in deciding California’s future in terms of business, transportation, and our general quality of life.

The MacArthur Boulevard Portrait Project is part of a larger historical initiative, sponsored by Mills College and supported by the James Irvine Foundation, to record the stories of Oakland residents who have experienced the city’s transformation over the past century and to connect the College with its surrounding neighborhoods. One such project, the Oakland Living History Program, is dedicated to recording the stories of people who have witnessed substantial change in Oakland. All “oral history” interviews and the MacArthur Boulevard portraits will be stored in digital archives at Mills College’s F.W. Olin Library and with our partner in this project, the Oakland Public Library’s Oakland History Room, where they will be available for public access and use. For more information about this project, contact Nancy MacKay, Mills Oakland Living History Program Coordinator, at (510) 430-2028.

Patricia Wakida, ’92, is a book artist and occasional freelance writer. She works at Heyday Books in Berkeley and served as the MacArthur Boulevard Portrait Project coordinator.

HEIKE LISS, MFA ’02

BOB HSIANG BOB HSIANG

Top: Loard’s Ice Cream, 2825 MacArthur Blvd., a favorite with Mills students for more than 50 years.

Photograph by Bob Hsiang.

Left: Giant Burgers, 4215 MacArthur Blvd. Photograph by Bob Hsiang.

Above: Kris Mueller at Kids n’ Dance, 3841 MacArthur Blvd. Photograph by Heike Liss, MFA ’02.

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Catching Up with Upward Bound Mills hosts program that helps Oakland teens reach college.

by Pat Soberanis, Credential ’06

At 8 a.m. on a warm summer Wednesday, Romeo Garcia, MA ’87, stands center stage in the glassenclosed chapel at Mills College.

Surrounding him in the semicircular pews are some 171 teenagers, all from impoverished neighborhoods in Oakland, all willing to spend five weeks of their summer vacation in school if it will help them get to college. Mr. Garcia is director of the federally funded Upward Bound program at Mills, and that is his promise to them—if they do their part.

“A passing grade is C, not C–,” he warns. “If you get a C– or less in the same class two weeks in a row, you can’t stay in the dorms anymore.

You’ll become a commuter.”

The room grows quiet. Few students are at risk, but all of them know that being removed from the dorms is one step away from being removed from the program. For many, leaving the program means losing their one chance to go to college.

At 6-foot-7, Mr. Garcia is a gentle giant of a man, more nurturing than reproachful, with high expectations for his students. During recruitment he emphasizes how much current Upward Bound students are like the potential applicants, most of whom are students of color. “I tell them they come from the same middle schools; they’re going to the same high schools.”

When Mr. Garcia interviews prospective students, he says, “I want to hear they’re willing to do the work.

We’re not looking for grade point average or major. We want them to understand that this is a college prep program, and that it entails work.”

The Mills program is one of the largest and most successful in the country. Last year 98 percent of all seniors went on to four-year col-

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leges—an astounding rate for lowincome populations. About 45 middleschool graduates enter each year, a third of all applicants. Roughly twothirds of Upward Bound participants are girls. “It’s harder to recruit and retain boys,” says Mr. Garcia.

Those who make the cut find a full gamut of resources at their disposal, from bus passes to tutors to help with college applications. They come to Mills 25 Saturdays during the school year for advising and tutoring. The five-week summer program is not remedial; it is preparation for the coming school year. Freshmen take algebra, for instance, while sophomores take chemistry and Shakespeare, and seniors take calculus. With rare exceptions, none of the courses are taken for credit. Summer courses are followed by a weeklong tour of several California colleges for 50 seniors and juniors.

Mr. Garcia and his staff make sure

students have every chance to succeed.

“We’re their safety net,” he says.

“They have nowhere else to go.”

Their care is not lost on these teenagers. “They employ the best teachers,” says Felicia Walker, a sophomore at McClymonds High School.

“They’re not here just to get a check.

They really want you to understand.

They come to the dorms, too.”

One such instructor is algebra teacher Julia Hughes. Like many Upward Bound teachers, Ms. Hughes was recruited from the Mills teaching credential program. “It’s really good for the kids to have to prove themselves academically,” she says. “At most schools, they don’t. Here, they have someone to answer to. It gives them the will to keep trying. So many kids get left by the wayside.”

No matter what the class, students feel safe here—to ask questions, make guesses, try out ideas. That’s an achievement in itself because, as

Upward Bound girls dressed as boys during Spirit Week’s Gender Bender Day.

Oakland High School sophomore Lirio Zepeda says, “In regular school you feel embarrassed to tell people that you want to go to college.”

Teachers and staff who join the Mills Upward Bound “family” tend to stay for years. Mr. Garcia started in 1983 and became director in 1996, and this is the 13th year for assistant director and freshman counselor Sharon Nesbitt Jones. Assistant director and senior counselor Susana Hernandez began as a tutor in 1995, as a Mills freshwoman, and joined the staff after earning a teaching credential and master’s degree at Stanford University. “I came in [to Mills] really wanting to be premed and a doctor [like my sister],” Ms. Hernandez says. “When I started this, I got turned on to education. This is the program that worked best. I knew I wanted to stay here.”

Like the students, veteran Fremont High School math teacher Richard Staniland spends his summer vacations at Upward Bound—in his case, teaching calculus and advanced math to upperclass students for the last 18 years. “If it weren’t for Upward Bound, I might have left the profession years ago,” he says. “I know it’s possible here [for students to succeed]. It’s the rule, not the exception. . . . By junior or senior year, they understand, and that’s when they cross over the line and can see a future.”

Ms. Hernandez has seen her students blossom. “They gain confidence.

They come here, grow, and believe in themselves.”

Many students also come back to Upward Bound. One returnee is tutor Uirl Mayweather, who graduated in 2005. “The program helped me stay focused in regular school,” he says. “I would have graduated, but I may not have done as well as I did.” He takes pre-nursing courses at Merritt College in Oakland and returned this summer to “hopefully affect change the way it affected me.”

“I see transformations all the time,” says Ms. Hernandez. She mentions one particular student who “was

motivated but struggled a lot. We thought she had a learning disorder.” Upward Bound helped confirm the disability and provided expert assistance. It helped her to know that the disability had nothing to do with her abilities.

“She just graduated from Smith College,” Ms. Hernandez says, Left to Right: Sophomores Della Singleton (Skyline High), Felicia sounding like a proud Walker (McClymonds High), Christine Nelson (Oakland Technical High), and Lirio Zepeda (Oakland High). mom. “She came back every summer as a tutor, and this summer Indeed, the Bush administration’s as a teaching assistant.”

2007 budget proposes eliminating the Each night from 7 to 9 p.m., Upward Bound program entirely, the entire Mary Morse Hall—boys’ nationwide. and girls’ wings alike—is as quiet as That would end the dreams and a library. Tutors and teachers tiptoe transformations of freshmen like through the halls, asking if anyone Donald Biagas, who entered Oakland needs academic help. Mr. Garcia High School last fall. This past year, and his counselors check on their he brought his grade-point average up charges, ready to lend an ear or a to 3.8 and is aiming for 4.0. “I really helping hand. want to go to college,” he says. With “If you need to chill out, you can Upward Bound, “I’m feeling confident talk to people, and not just about acawith math way more. Before, I just demic stuff,” says Christine Nelson, a thought I was dumb. The [algebra] sophomore at Oakland Tech. “It’s like teacher, Ms. Hughes, and Mr. Garcia a family.” are always on my side.”

“Everyone is open,” says fellow Mills Professor of Education sophomore Della Singleton, of Skyline Tomás Galguera teaches the High School. “They’re willing to give Educational Research elective and you answers.” worries about the uncertain funding.

Later, outside the dining hall, “It’s a necessary program,” he says.

Oakland Tech senior Lien Truong “This is what school should be like. confirms the family dynamic of This is what’s making a difference.”

Upward Bound. “We never let anyone Tutor Uirl Mayweather worries down—we participate in class, finish about uncertain funding too. essays, take care of each other. It’s like “Everyone should support Upward a dream school everyone wishes they Bound in all ways possible,” he says. could be in.”

You sense that his and many other As in any dream school, not everyhearts would break if the program thing is academic. Plaid shirts, toowere to end. short slacks, suspenders, and thick“I loved it,” he says. “I couldn’t lensed glasses abounded as Truong wait to come back in summer.” and fellow seniors judged costumes for Revenge of the Nerd Day. Pat Soberanis <soberanis@usfca.edu>, The chapel grew quiet once again earned a teaching credential from that Wednesday morning when Mr. Mills in 2006. She is a writer based in Garcia announced, “If you don’t do San Francisco. your best, our funding might be cut.”

Fall 2006 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

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Profiles

HO M ES F R O M T H E H E A RT: V I J I N A K K A - C A M M A U F, M A ’ 8 2

by Sarah J. Stevenson, MFA ’04 Imagine having a vision of a world in which no child goes hungry, no orphan goes homeless, and no one goes without a loving community. Viji Nakka-Cammauf, MA ’82, is working to fulfill just such a vision—and she’s changing the world a hundred children at a time.

As president and founder of Little Flock Children’s Homes, a Christian ministry, Viji hasn’t chosen an easy road. Recent statistics report that well more than 100 million children worldwide have lost one or both parents (Children on the Brink 2004, a joint report by UNICEF, USAID, and UNAIDS). The statistics on poverty and homelessness are equally staggering. Five years ago, for example, 7,000 children were orphaned overnight due to a single earthquake in India.

When Viji heard that incredible number, she knew something concrete needed to be done. Even if it was only ten or twenty or a hundred children, she felt that “if we can do this and do this well, when our life on earth is done, we can be satisfied that we made a difference.”

It’s clear that she’s going to make a difference in one rural community in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where ten cottages have been built on an eight-acre land parcel. Each cottage will house ten children and two caretakers—not a standard orphanage. Under Viji’s caring supervision, the first 20 children arrived at the end of June.

The caretakers will be drawn from another needy group: disenfranchised widows. In India, widowed women can be cruelly ostracized. Their parents cannot always afford to take them back into the family home, and many of them end up on the streets.

“We hope that we can fulfill their desire to be

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in community and with children,” says Viji. At Little Flock, the widows will be welcomed as caretakers and trained to serve other important roles such as promoting public health in nearby homes.

The goal is to create a self-sustaining community, with meeting rooms, a library, a medical clinic, a computer lab, and vocational training, addressing some of the area’s most urgent needs.

The home’s residents will also provide for themselves and the village by cultivating a vegetable garden, raising livestock, and possibly even staffing a water purification plant.

Most of these admirable goals are still in the works, since the land was purchased just last year.

So far, enough money has been raised to build the cottages, kitchen, and dining hall. The community center, as well as staff and guest housing, are still pending. But donors have been giving, and despite obstacles such as rain and the remoteness of the area, people from local organizations and church groups to entire multigenerational families have been volunteering to go to India and help.

“Our goal is to really make it self-sustaining,” Viji says, “so that we can move to another part of the world and do the same thing.”

Tellingly, her global vision started small—as a child in India, where she learned the value of education and a nurturing home life, and as a student in the Mills community. She was welcomed by the Mills Christian Fellowship, where she learned about leadership as well as service to others. They inspired her spiritually, too, and she went from studying English at Mills to ultimately receiving a PhD in theology and literature from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.

Still, Viji’s ideals remain simple and down-toearth: She stresses the importance of taking care of others, and giving to the point of hurting.

“There’s just no need for any child to die, for anyone to be without a home. There isn’t at all,” she says, pointing out that there are enough resources in the world, but they just aren’t getting to the right places. With quiet conviction, she once again stresses social responsibility toward those in need: “They are helpless, and we are called to be a voice for the voiceless.”

For more information, contact Little Flock Children’s Homes, 4060 Huntington Street, Oakland, California, 94619.

Sarah J. Stevenson, MFA ’04, is a freelance writer, editor, artist, and designer. For contact information, please visit <www.thedecklededge.com>.

Profiles

P E RFORMING F O R EDU C AT IO N : R O S A L I N D S A R A H , M A ’ 9 9

by Pat Soberanis, Credential ’06 When The San Francisco Chronicle chose to feature San Francisco’s Malcolm X Academy for a series of stories during the 2005–06 school year, principal Rosalind Sarah, MA ’99, didn’t flinch. After all, media attention is nothing new for the former Sarah Tomato, clown and face painter extraordinaire once featured in Time magazine.

With face painting, Rosalind says, “The public is there, people are watching you, everything has to be connected. It’s a whole production, like being a principal. You have a school, there are clients there.

You hope they want to buy your show.”

The Chronicle series came about after San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom backed Malcolm X in April, 2005, when it was on the school district’s short list of potential closures because of underenrollment. The next day, Rosalind brought a busload of students, teachers, and parents to the school board meeting. The elementary school was spared—this time.

Working under a media microscope isn’t easy, even for a pro. Malcolm X’s students live in a neighborhood known for poverty and violence—the school is locked down several times a year because of nearby gunshots—making it difficult to focus on academics. As a result, its test scores have been chronically low. This year, the school community got used to seeing the Chronicle reporter and photographer on their weekly visits, interviewing teachers, students, and parents, and attending many school events.

“It keeps you honest,” Rosalind says.

Sadly, Malcolm X’s enrollment has dropped yet again for 2006–07, and the school board’s swing voter is leaning toward closing it

a year from now. Because of the uncertainty, four of the school’s 11 longtime teachers have found jobs at other schools, and Rosalind, 57, won’t be back this fall. She’s taken a job as principal of Jefferson Elementary School, the largest in Oakland, where 70 percent of the students are Spanish-speaking. “I think I like the excitement and the challenge of working with low-performing schools and helping bring them up,” she says. “It’s really who I am.”

Rosalind is proud of her accomplishments in just four years at Malcolm X: a 12 percent increase in test scores in one year alone, a new afterschool program, and more parental involvement. “At our [educational] bingo night, we’d have more than 150 people playing,” she says. “Two-thirds of our students would come with their families”—an astonishing figure for a lowincome area. As with all family events, this one was catered, thanks to an existing partnership with publisher CMP Media. (With potlucks, Rosalind says, parents feel they can’t come if they can’t afford to bring a dish.) Through similar partnerships, she also found funding for school uniforms, athletic shoes for 100 students, backpacks for every child, and daily snacks—things that are taken for granted in middle-class schools.

Rosalind’s route from Sarah Tomato to Principal Sarah was circuitous. Her face painting career took off just as she earned two teaching credentials at UC Berkeley in 1975 and began teaching in Oakland. When her son, Gabriel, was born in 1980—she also has a stepson, Terran, from her marriage to the late Michael Benveniste, an artist and filmmaker—she stopped teaching and

sold ads for the then-fledgling Parents Press, a monthly local magazine. In 1984 she went back to teaching, this time in Berkeley. In 1989, she became the founding director of the youth and family department at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center in Berkeley, where she stayed for nine years. All the while, she continued her face painting on weekends, hiring helpers for the popular Harvest Festival as well as for corporate parties. She didn’t simply paint yellow daisies—she decorated whole faces with cats, dogs, and monsters. She let her business go when she entered Mills in 1997; a year later, she took a job running the Berkeley school district’s New Teacher Programs while completing her master’s degree at Mills.

“I’ve always had two jobs,” says Rosalind. “That’s why I could go to graduate school while working full time. I’ve never had summers off.”

She joined the inaugural class of the educational leadership program at Mills. “I was intrigued by the new EdD,” she says. “I was excited after meeting Pete Mesa” (now-retired Visiting Distinguished Professor of Education Richard “Pete” Mesa, formerly superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District). “He’s like a guru in education. We shared a vision . . . [that] education is the key to change.” She completed her master’s degree, administrative credential, and all coursework for the EdD. “It was an incredible experience.”

It’s an experience Rosalind brings to her educational leadership. Whether at Malcolm X or Jefferson, her question is always, “What are we going to do [that is] new and different to excite everyone about learning?”

Pat Soberanis <soberanis@usfca.edu> is the former associate editor of the Mills Quarterly and continues to write on a variety of subjects.

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Profiles

CLOS ING TH E GENDER GA P As girls approach adolescence, a sudden drop in self-confidence often stymies their academic development, especially in science and mathematics, causing a measurable gender gap in those fields.

Two Mills alumnae, Lacy Asbill, ’03, and Elana Metz, ’02, have dedicated themselves to bridging this gender gap and have created a successful Oakland-based business called Girls Moving Forward <www.girlsmovingforward.com>.

Accepting girls in kindergarten through 12thgrade from all socioeconomic levels, Lacy and Elana concentrate their efforts on building selfesteem, confidence, and empowerment through tutor-based educational programs. With private clients, community partnerships, and programs branching from the East Bay to Mountain View and East Palo Alto, these young entrepreneurs mentor and lead by example.

Students are matched with tutors hand-picked

by Lacy and Elana. Both strive to provide “good jobs to good women” and currently employ more than 50 tutors. Having become close friends as women’s studies majors during their time at Mills,

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Lacy Asbill, ’03, and Elana Metz, ’02

they joined forces when both faced turning points in their careers. They decided it was time to take their learning and experience and make a difference in people’s lives. As Lacy says, “We want to leave a measurable impact on young women.”

—Erinn Noel House

PASSAGES Gifts in Honor of Christopher Agee,

by Elizabeth Agee Hancock, ’40 Isabelle Hagopian Arabian, ’45, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Alice London Bishop, ’58, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Gail Blackmarr, ’79, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Brandy Tuzon Boyd, ’91,

by Lisa Kosiewicz, ’91 Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68,

by Kathleen Miller Janes, ’69 P. Doreen Bueno, ’97,

by Patricia Ann Bueno Kathleen Burke,

by Peggy Weber, ’65 Pamela Caserta, ’06,

by Peggy Weber, ’65 Judy Euphrat Castaillac, ’70, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club The Charming Cottages Tour Volunteers, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club

Tracey Franklin Corbett, ’65,

by Peggy Weber, ’65 and Robert Whitlock Emily Eisele, ’06,

by Peggy Weber, ’65 Barbara Evans, ’63, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Clifford Evans, father of Barbara Evans, ’63,

by Barbara Evans, ’63 Leone La Duke Evans, MA ’45,

by Peggy Weber, ’65 Susan Candland Graham, ’63, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Katherine Hancock Gray, ’71,

by Elizabeth Agee Hancock, ’40 Carl Hackney,

by Peggy Weber, ’65 Anna Wilkins Henderson, ’82, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Mary “M’Liz” Hancock Hinds, ’67, by Elizabeth Agee Hancock, ’40, P ’67, P ’71 Marian Hirsch, ’75, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club

Beth Hoffman, ’06,

by Janet Bianchi Katharine Chalmers Kewley, ’65,

by Peggy Weber, ’65 and Robert Whitlock, P ’02 Jane Cudlip King, ’42,

by Michelle Balovich, ’03, and the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club George and Helen Leong, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Jennifer Mangel, MA ’06,

by Deborah and Jay Shulruf Sue McClelland, ’56, Happy Birthday from your MEC Family,

by Liz Solomon Randy McGlauthing,

by Richard Piskulic Eileen Mello,

by Colta Feller Ives, ’64 Madeleine Milhaud by Katherine Farrow Jorrens, ’57 Carolyn Jensen Monday, ’61,

by Ann Gordon Bigler, ’61 Jo Ellen Sako Nichols, ’80, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Helen Dencker Osborne, ’48, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Palo Alto Area Mills College Club, by Barbara Evans, ’63 Sandy Pitts-Malone, ’74,

by Ellen Goldschmidt Figueira, ’75

Marilyn (“Mary”) McArthur Holland, ’45, 1924–2006 A longstanding member of the President’s Circle of the Cyrus and Susan Mills Society, Mary McArthur Holland made four- and five-figure annual contributions to the College for decades. These gifts culminated in 2004 with a $4 million gift to support a faculty position and students in early childhood education, and new Mills students in the summer academic bridge program.

“Education is a primary part of the Holland philanthropy,” says Polly Royal Langsley, ’49.

Mary’s generosity didn’t end with Mills. In her hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, Mrs. Holland was known for her philanthropy to children’s and arts organizations. Over the years her kindly face became well known to the staffs of the Winners Circle, All Our Kids, the Omaha Performing Arts Center, Omaha’s opera and symphony, and the Joslyn Art Museum.

Mary Holland was tireless in her efforts. In 2004, the Holland Performing Arts Center opened in downtown Omaha, thanks to a major contribution by her and her husband, Richard Holland, a retired advertising executive. “Life isn’t just reading, writing, and arithmetic,” she told the Omaha World Herald at the time. “It’s more than that. Music penetrates the soul. . . . [It] brings joy and quiet pleasure.”

She was also dedicated to children. At the time of her death, Mrs. Holland was leading a $10.7 million fundraising campaign for a new building for the Child Saving Institute, whose mission is to prevent and treat child abuse.

Polly Langsley felt Mary Holland’s warmth early on. “When I arrived in Omaha after graduation from Mills,” she says, “probably the warmest greeting I had was from Mary Holland, then-president of the Omaha Mills College alumnae branch. Fifty-seven years later, Mary exuded that same warmth as she stood at the door of the Holland Performing Arts Center greeting the 2,000 people who came for the opening.

“Whoever met Mary felt her genuine interest and concern for their needs.”

Estrellita Hudson Redus, ’65, MFA, ’75,

by Peggy Weber, ’65 and Robert Whitlock Eric Roberts,

by Peggy Weber, ’65 and Robert Whitlock Marilyn Schuster, ’65,

by Peggy Weber, ’65 and Robert Whitlock Paula Merrix Sporck, ’46, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Barbara Steinbauer, mother of Sanda Steinbauer, ’96,

by Sanda Steinbauer, ’96 Mary Gordon Trichell, ’66,

by Ann Gordon Bigler, ’61 Susan Van Dyne,

by Peggy Weber, ‘65 and Robert Whitlock, P ’02 Reynold Wik,

by Katherine Farrow Jorrens, ’57

Gifts in Memory of Abigail “Gail” Hunter Allen, ’51,

by Bette Dreyfous Goldsmith, ’51 Phyllis Cole Bader, ’35,

by Gretchen FitzGerald Chesley, ’68, David and Nancy Clark, Sharon Coleman, ’68, Florence Selvin Drake, ’35, Sheridan Mason Murphy, ’37, and Lorinda Bader Reichert, ’67 Barbara “Babs” Ganteaume Bankart, ’36,

by Sydney Griswold Charlotte Bonica, ’68,

by Nancy Dreyer Blaugrund, ’68, Laurel Burden, ’68, Katherine Coopman, ’68, Pamela Hunt, ’68, Helena Kramer Kennedy, ’68 Alexandra Brucker,

by Stephanie Levin, ’00 Jae Giddings Carmichael, ’46,

by Bonese C. Turner Norman Clare, my uncle,

by Sharon Coleman, ’68 Suzanne Smith Cluett, ’64,

by Andronike Janus, ’64 H. Peter Converse, husband of Sheila Powers Converse, ’57, by the Mills College Club of New York Pat Rak Crane, ’56,

by Caroline Houser, ’56 Joan Clements Dale, ’53, by the Mills College Club of New York Evelyn “Peg” Deane, ’41,

by Mary Hart Clark, ’42 Jean Ginder Dew, ’56,

by Judith Ireland, ’56 M I L L S Fall 2006 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

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Passages Carol Meyer Doyle, MFA ’81,

by Pauline Meyer Virginia “Ginny” Peterson DuMont, ’38,

by Jayne DuMont Mack, ’67 Mary Evans, mother of Barbara Evans, ’63, by Barbara Evans, ‘63 Jean “Scotty” Sundstrom Farrell, ’52,

by Neil Farrell Joy Waltke Fisher, ’55,

by Diane Smith Janusch, ’55 Muriel Stoner Follansbee, 40, MA ’44,

by Marilyn Endres Larsen, ’47 Charlotte Frey

by Julie Ehrenworth Solomon, ’94 Elizabeth “Liz” Oldaker Garretson, ’38,

by Elizabeth Lane Baker, ’38, MA ’41, and Mary Kuzell Niznik, ’40 William and Helen Gaw

by Jane Farrell Gaw, ’52 Roy and Melba Gillogly, parents of Karen Gillogly Lang, ’74,

by Karen Gillogly Lang, ’74 Elizabeth “Betsy” Rulison Harrington, ’40,

by Helen B. Smith Evelyn Merrell Hinrichsen, ’38, MA ’40,

by Barbara M. Bundschu, ’38, and the Mills College Club of New York Mary McArthur Holland, ’45,

by Polly Royal Langsley, ’49, and Judy Rapp Smith, ’60 Virginia Holmgren, mother of President Janet L. Holmgren,

by Leone La Duke Evans, MA ’45 Ethel Gilfillan Joy, ’31,

by Janet Joy Cyr, ’61 Ernie Kellberg,

by Diane Smith Janusch, ’55 C. Rodgers Kines, husband of Barbara Newman Kines, ’55,

by Diane Smith Janusch, ’55 Adelaide Soles Kirkbride, ’40, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Louise Barkan Klein, ’38,

by Barbara M. Bundschu, ‘38 Laura Bucknell Knudsen, ’64,

by Jill Nathanson Rohde, ’64 Edward Koda, husband of Tama Tsuchiya Koda, ’50,

by Virginia Ong Gee, ’51 Sharon Cox Lang, ’43, mother of Nancy Lang,

by Patricia Boadway Cox, ’43, MA ’44, and Nancy Lang John LaRoche, brother of Catherine LaRoche, ’85,

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by Catherine LaRoche, ’85 Ken LaRoche, brother of Catherine LaRoche, ’85,

by Catherine LaRoche, ’85 Seck Law, by Virginia Ong Gee, ’51 James Lewis, by the Mills College Club of New York Alan Hartman Long, ’64,

by Andronike Janus, ’64 Elizabeth “Liz” Carr Mayer, ’48,

by Ruth Sherrill Webb, ’48

Andrew Meyer,

by Nancy Meyer Neal, ’70 Elizabeth (Betty Jane) Logan Narver, ’56,

by Madeline Merrill Schalk, ’56 Tanya Neiman, ’70,

by Marion Ross, ’44 Alexander Nepote, MA ’42,

by Bonese C. Turner Constance “Jade Snow” Wong Ong, ’42,

by Priscilla-Joy Everts, ’40,

Jean McMinn Greenwood, ’43, Judith Ireland, ’56, Sharon Tatai, ’80, for her pioneering efforts of Asian American women in the arts, Connie Young Yu, ’63, Margaret and Gert von der Linde, and Betty Chu Wo, ’46 Alfred and Ditta Osborne, parents of Sheila Osborne,

by Sheila Osborne, ’68 Robbyn Panitch, ’79,

Willa Klug Baum, MA ’50, 1926-2006 Oral historian Willa Baum lived her life in true Mills fashion—with quiet competence, a clear vision, and always on her own terms. Her passing in May 2006 is a loss to her family and her colleagues, but the legacy she leaves is priceless. In her 43 years as director of the Regional Oral History Office, commonly known as ROHO, at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, she built a collection and a methodology of international acclaim.

Willa was born in 1926 in Chicago and raised in southern California. Her unconventional youth included schooling in Germany and Switzerland, tap Willa Baum with two of her grandchildren. dancing, and hitchhiking across the country. She majored in history at Whittier College, where a professor horrified her with the comment that she was his second-best student ever, after Richard Nixon.

At Mills, she studied under Richard Current and wrote her thesis on the economic interests and arguments of leading anti-Federalists in 1787 and 1788. After receiving her master’s degree in history from Mills, she enrolled in the PhD program in history at UC Berkeley, one of two women in the program at the time.

About this time historians were beginning to recognize the value of oral history as a legitimate historical method, and an oral history program was begun at UC. Willa was hired in 1954, first as a transcriber and research assistant at $1.70 per hour. By 1958 she had assumed the directorship of the newly created ROHO. Under her leadership, ROHO produced more than 1600 oral histories on topics pertaining to California and the West, including environmentalism, disability rights, politics and government, and women in politics. Upon her retirement in 2000, she was honored with the prestigious Berkeley Citation Award.

Willa was instrumental in providing guidance and leadership to this new field by writing, speaking, and consulting around the country. She served as president of the Oral History Association, and her classic texts, the Oral History for the Local Historical Society and Oral History: an Interdisciplinary Anthology, have never gone out of print.

Willa’s accomplishments and interests extended far beyond her career. She raised six children in her North Berkeley home, and her Monday night dinners were legendary, as family and an array of guests and colleagues would gather around her large oak table for food and conversation.

Willa’s own oral history is in progress. Three of her former colleagues at ROHO have conducted interviews which are now being processed and should be available soon at the Bancroft Library.

Willa Baum is survived by her sister, five children, and seven grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her son, Noah Baum, and former husband Paul Baum.

—Nancy MacKay, Mills Librarian and Oral Historian

Passages

by Patricia Soberanis, Teaching Credential ’06 Robert Poindexter, husband of Helen Townsend Poindexter, ’46,

by Betty Rowen McCord, ’46, and Paula Merrix Sporck, ’46 Audrey Coker Robinson, ’52,

by Leone La Duke Evans, MA ’45 Charmian Everding Robinson, ’46,

by David Robinson Irene Wood Schulte, ’39, wife of Roger Schulte,

by Roger Schulte Barbara Fuller Seller, ’45,

by Isabelle Hagopian Arabian, ’45, and Mary Sellers, ’45 Jean Roy Shell, ’45,

by Isabelle Hagopian Arabian, ’45, Margery Foote Meyer, ’45, Emily and Walter Roeder, Patricia Scott, Alice Marshall Treseder, ’45, and Marian McCormack Wilkie, ’45 Barbara Smith,

by Colleen Almeida Smith, ’92 Meta “Kay” Anderson Stanley, ’35,

by Barbara M. Bundschu, ’38 Priscilla Manley Swain, ’43,

by Jean McMinn Greenwood, ’43, and Mary Eleanor King Holmes, ’43 Jeanie Thomas, ’64,

by Josephine Patrick Rappaport, ’65 Holly Vickers, ’79,

by Heather V. Ryan Imogene and Franklin Walker,

by Katherine Farrow Jorrens, ’57 Joseph Weber, father of Peggy Weber, ’65, and grandfather of Susie Whitlock, ’02,

by Peggy Weber, ’65 and Robert Whitlock

Carolyn Everett Wellington, ’55,

by Diane Smith Janusch, ’55 Ann Beyer Wert,

by Barbara M. Bundschu, ’38 Colden Whitman,

by Betty Rowen McCord, ’46 Helen Bryan Wik,

by Katherine Farrow Jorrens, ’57 Dick Young, father of Erika Young, ’94,

by Erika Young, ’94

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The Great Reinhardt House Landscaping Project Ron Galvan. Ernesto Guerrero.

Abraham Moreno. Miguel Cendejas.

Fredy Lopez. Juan Martinez. Mark Murphree. These seven men staff the College grounds department under grounds manager Dwayne DeFount, with Mike McBride and Lee Baller from the engineering department providing additional assistance. It’s their heart and skill that keep Mills beautiful. It’s their commitment and caring that trans-

formed the front yard of Reinhardt Alumnae House in June.

The project took about a month to complete. Liquidambar trees were dug out and removed, along with the overgrown ivy beds, and a new sidewalk installed. The irrigation main line was extended to the front of the building, with automatic control valves and sprinkler piping to water the entire front yard. Then the entire area was re-grad-

ed, and 10 cubic yards of soil conditioner were tilled into the soil. Finally, some 10 new trees—Vine Maples—were planted, along with more than 30 kinds of plants (daphne shrubs, fuschia and geranium plants, to name a few).

So, when you next visit Reinhardt Alumnae House, choose a bench near the front door, linger, take a deep breath and enjoy.

Clockwise from top left: A backhoe digs up the ivy; beginning the planting; and the newly planted beds.

El Campanil Art Building Mills Hall

BRUCE COOK

BRUCE COOK

BRUCE COOK

Music Building

Mills Holiday Ornaments!

The Alumnae Association is pleased to offer four holiday ornaments. These limited-edition ornaments are made from solid brass, finished in 24-karat frost and shiny gold. Each ornament is presented in a gift box and includes a ribbon for hanging. Ornaments can be purchased at Reinhardt Alumnae House for $20. Shipping and handling fees are $2 per ornament.

BRUCE COOK

Order form Music Building Holiday Ornament $20 if you pick it up at Reinhardt Alumnae House $22 per ornament if you would like it shipped to you Number you would like: ________

Art Building Holiday Ornament $20 if you pick it up at Reinhardt Alumnae House $22 per ornament if you would like it shipped to you Number you would like: ________

Mills Hall Holiday Ornament $20 if you pick it up at Reinhardt Alumnae House $22 per ornament if you would like it shipped to you Number you would like: ________

El Campanil Holiday Ornament $20 if you pick it up at Reinhardt Alumnae House $22 per ornament if you would like it shipped to you Number you would like: ________

NAME

ADDRESS

CITY

STATE

PHONE NUMBER

TOTAL AMT. ENCLOSED

ZIP

Send your check made payable to AAMC along with the order form and mail to Reinhardt Alumnae House, PO Box 9998, Oakland, CA 94613-0998 or call with your credit card information. If you have questions, please contact Laurie Krane at (510) 430-2110 or email <lkrane@mills.edu>.

Mills Trips 2007 India January 3–16 An unbelievable price for a high-quality trip that visits the highlights of India: Taj Mahal, new and old Delhi, Agra, Sikandra, Ranthambora, Jaipur, and Sanganer. Mary Ann Milford will be the study leader. $3,895 plus air Guatemala March 13–23 Your visit to this small country will be surrounded by the natural beauty of an exceptional landscape. There are three cultures to explore: the pre-Columbian Mayan, the Spanish Colonial heritage, and the modern society. Visits to Antigua, Antitlan, Chichicastenango, Tikal, Guatemala City, and more. $2,895 plus air Libya April 23–May 6 This country recently opened to Americans after two decades.

Following an overnight stay in London, we sail from Gibralter for North Africa to explore archeological sites that rival Athens, Rome and Ephesus. See the UNESCO heritage sites of Magna, Sabratha, and the Bardo Museum in Tunis. The hotel is the Clipper Adventurer; it offers complete comfort and an intimate ambience. An optional extension to Malta is available. $5,920 plus air

Mills Quarterly Alumnae Association of Mills College Reinhardt Alumnae House Mills College PO Box 9998 Oakland, CA 94613-0998 (510) 430-2110 aamc@mills.edu www.mills.edu

PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT OAKLAND, CA AND AT ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICE(S)

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Printed on recycled paper with soy-based inks.

The Danube to the Black Sea May 25–June 9 Sail on the 129passenger river boat through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Iron Gate region, experiencing a wide range of cultures and history in this Eastern European area. $4,595 plus air The Italian Riviera June 16–24 This Alumni College trip explores ancient fishing villages, silky sand beaches, classic architecture, art, and the cuisine of the area. We will be staying in the seaside town of Seato Levante. All meals, excursions, and educational opportunities are included. This area is where Christopher Columbus was born and Michelangelo chose the carrara marble for his masterpieces. $2,395 Brochures list actual itinerary. Any clarification of details will be available when brochures are received. Please call (510) 430-2110 or email Laurie Krane at <lkrane@mills.edu> to request a brochure.