Mills Matters

The typical autumn weather blew onto the Mills campus in October and November, bringing with it howling winds and several days of cancelled classes thanks to threatened power shut-offs by PG&E. (The shut-offs never materialized.) But it did make way for an unusual partnership— staffers at the Oakland Zoo visited campus to salvage branches and leaves from an acacia tree that was brought down by winds near Reinhardt Alumnae House. While the tree is no longer part of the College’s ecosystem, it did provide a tasty meal for the zoo’s giraffes.

Big gifts create big opportunities at Mills

Mills College gratefully acknowledges the following donors for gifts, grants, and pledges of $50,000 or more received from July 1 to December 31, 2019. The Fletcher Jones Foundation gifted the College with a five-year grant for MPOWERed for Transfer, a summer program to help transfer students make successful transitions to Mills through emphasizing college-level skills, planning for student success, peer mentoring, and proficiency in informational and financial literacy. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has provided a twoyear grant to support the Creating Conditions for Adult Learning Project, which develops partnerships with school districts to create programs for adult learning.

The ongoing campus optimization project, which aims to locate new sources of revenue for the College from existing physical spaces, received big boosts from Kathleen J. Burke and Ralph Davis, Michele Van Blitter-Kirsch ’83 and Steven Kirsch, and Leslie Decker ’79 and Stephen Rimmer.

Kathleen J. Burke and Ralph Davis also supported the Mills Community Farm, bolstering the farm’s role as a living lab for students and a hub for food justice.

Barbara Wolfe ’65 has made a donation to the Mills branding initiative, which will refresh the look of the College and help launch new admissions efforts.

Mills’ Greatest Need benefited from the generosity of Catherine Coates ’65, Mei Kwong ’70 and Laurence Franklin, and Ann S. Wolff ’42. Linda K. Jesmok ’68 is establishing the Kraft-Jesmok Endowed Scholarship to provide financial aid to students studying in the liberal arts, including humanities and fine arts.

With a Mills Teacher Scholars grant, the Yellow Chair Foundation aims to empower educators to improve learning outcomes through teacher-led, collaborative inquiry.

Karen May ’86 and Keith Shultz have pledged to underwrite faculty development with a generous gift, enabling professors to stay nimble in the constantly changing environment of higher education. The Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture is supporting the Taube Family Student Scholarship to make a Mills education accessible to more students. The Bernard E. and Alba Witkin Charitable Foundation is financing Mills College Children’s School Preschool and Infant Care Program assistantships to provide professional development for those teaching young children, as well as scholarships for the Children’s School.

Kathleen Terman is establishing the Sally Briscoe Terman Endowed Memorial Scholarship, in honor of her late mother, to sponsor students who are interested in studying the fine arts, especially music.

The estate of Josephine Malti ’62 is establishing the Josephine Malti Endowed Scholarship for undergraduate students majoring in the liberal arts and the Josephine Malti Music Fellowship for female-identifying students in graduate music programs.

Starr King School for the Ministry to make its new home at Mills

A new partnership between Mills and Starr King School for the Ministry promises exciting opportunities for the College. On December 12, 2019, President Elizabeth L. Hillman announced that, thanks to the hard work of Vice President of Strategic Partnerships Renée Jadushlever, Starr King would relocate to the Mills campus in fall 2020 as part of ongoing efforts to bring in new educational partners. Campus leaders are hopeful that this particular partnership will connect Mills to an institution with complementary values and intertwined histories. While details such as the school’s location on campus and educational opportunities for Mills students are forthcoming, the success of past partnerships such as the one with the Middlebury Summer Language Institute show what can be gained when the College collaborates with like-minded organizations.

Starr King, a part of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) and currently located in Berkeley, offers graduate degree programs in divinity as well as social change. The school is rooted in the Unitarian Universalist (UU) faith, a non-creedal religion that encourages a “free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” While based on liberal Christian theology, the Unitarian Universalist Association broke away from the Christian church, and members combine all manners of spiritual and religious practices and beliefs into their faith. The Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism include values that resonate deeply with the Mills community, such as “justice, equity, and compassion in human relations,” and

“The school’s inclusive, affirming orientation and emphasis on social transformation helped prepare me to serve a place like our community at Mills, with our curious, diverse, passionate, and dedicated students, staff, and faculty.” –Dara Olandt, Mills chaplain and graduate of Starr King

“respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”

Starr King is one of two UU seminaries in the country and was founded in 1904 as the Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry. Its first classes were held at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, but in 1906, it moved to Berkeley to be near other seminaries and the University of California, where students were free to take classes. From the beginning, the school welcomed students from other parts of the world and denominations, as well as women. In 1941, the school took on its current name in honor of Thomas Starr King, a Unitarian and Universalist minister who served the San Francisco Unitarian Society during the Civil War.

Mills Director of Spiritual and Religious Life Dara Olandt—a UU minister and graduate of Starr King herself—says she holds bright hopes for this partnership. “The school’s inclusive, affirming orientation and emphasis on social transformation helped prepare me to serve a place like our community at Mills, with our curious, diverse, passionate, and dedicated students, staff, and faculty,” Olandt says. Besides Olandt, Mills and Starr King share someone else in common: Aurelia Henry Reinhardt, who served as the first female moderator of the American Unitarian Association for 12 years and was a member of Starr King’s board of trustees. “A Unitarian ethical framework undoubtedly shaped Reinhardt’s life and compelled her to make leadership choices that furthered opportunities for positive social change,” Olandt explained. To honor Reinhardt, Starr King has held an endowed faculty position in her name since 1981.

In a letter announcing Starr King’s move, President Rosemary Bray McNatt wrote that “[Mills’] educational philosophy beautifully matches our own commitment to educating to counter oppressions.” Similarly, Olandt notes that Starr King’s values “are absolutely and beautifully congruent with the values that have been important at Mills, past and present.” As the work of Starr King starts to make a home at Mills College, the campus looks forward to seeing what will grow out of this partnership.

–Lila Goehring ’21 and Kate Robinson Beckwith, MFA ’13

Redwood Regional Park receives familiar new name

There was already Reinhardt Hall and Reinhardt House, but now there’s also Reinhardt Park.

On October 15, 2019, members of the East Bay Regional Park District’s board of directors voted to amend the name of Redwood Regional Park, located just a few miles from campus on the other side of Skyline Boulevard, to Aurelia Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park. The vote was timed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment’s passage by Congress, which secured women’s right to vote.

In addition to her long tenure as president of Mills, Aurelia Henry Reinhardt was also key to the 1934 founding of the park district, and of the five original board members, she was the only woman. Her work (and admiration of redwood trees) helped lead to the original incorporation of the park that now bears her name.

Dee Rosario, the park district’s director, spearheaded the effort. “Aurelia had a long history of public service and advocacy for human and environmental rights,” she told the Livermore Independent. “She was an amazing woman whose legacy is still alive today in the park district’s 73 regional parks and 125,000 acres of preserved open space.”

Pow Wow 2020 April 5 A gathering that celebrates Native American community and culture, the Mills College Pow Wow is a longstanding community event supported by the Bay Area’s Native American community. This is the eighth anniversary of the Indigenous Women’s Alliance and the Mills College Ethnic Studies Department leading and organizing this event. 10:00 am–4:00 pm, The Oval. Contemporary Writers Series April 7 ■ mai c. doan & Aiden Thomas mai c. doan, MFA ’16, is poet and writer from Southern California. Her first full-length collection, water/ tongue, was published by Omnidawn in 2019. Aiden Thomas ’10, MFA ’15, is a YA author originally from Oakland who now lives in Portland, Oregon. Aiden’s debut novel, Cemetery Boys, is forthcoming from Macmillan in July 2020. 5:30 pm, Mills Hall. Mills College Art Museum Fault Lines: 2020 Senior Thesis Exhibition March 31–April 19 Opening reception ■ April 4, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm Studio art majors exhibit work in their first show in a professional art museum. 2020 MFA Thesis Exhibition May 3–31 Opening reception ■ May 2, 6:00 pm-8:00 pm Completed bodies of work from MFA recipients in studio art. Calendar C A N CE LL E D Due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More info at mills.edu. mai c. doan

The museum is open 11:00 am–4:00 pm Tuesday through Sunday and until 7:30 pm Wednesday. Admission is free. Visit mcam.mills.edu for more information.

Artist Lectures All events are free.

April 8 ■ Sofia Córdova Born in 1985 in Carolina, Puerto Rico, and currently based in Oakland, Sofía Córdova’s work considers sci-fi and futurity, dance and music culture(s), the internet, mystical objects, extinction and mutation, migration, and climate change under the conditions of late capitalism and its technologies. She is also one half of the music duo XUXA SANTAMARIA. 7:00 pm, Danforth Lecture Hall at Jane B. Aron Art Center.

April 15 ■ Intimate Artists Talk In conjunction with Fault Lines: 2020 Senior Thesis Exhibition. An evening discussion in which a moderator will interview a panel of three to five artists about their work and their relationship to sexuality, bodies, gender, and trauma. 7:00 pm, Reinhardt Alumnae House.

Campus kudos

A selection of recent achievements by faculty, staff, and students

Holland Professor of Early Childhood Education Priya Driscoll offered advice in the Washington Post article titled “The Socially Awkward Person’s Guide to Playing with Children,” which was published on October 11, 2019. Professor of Dance Molissa Fenley was a featured performing artist at SALONE! by the Society of Fellows of the American Academy in Rome, which took place at Roulette in Brooklyn, New York, on March 24. Her company also danced the first variation of Cosmati Variations, which Fenley composed while in residence at the academy in Rome.

Assistant Adjunct Professor of Education Victoria Forrester wrote a piece for The Hill on the new Inclusive Curriculum Law in Illinois, which ensures that LGBTQ+ history has a place in public-school textbooks, and explained how teachers can adapt to the changes of the law. Professor of Music Nalini Ghuman was commissioned by the British Library to write an article on the influence of Indian culture on English composer and arranger Gustav Holst. In fall semester 2019, Associate Professor of Public Policy Mark Henderson and Assistant Professor of Practice Adam Parker taught a course on the census. Henderson and Parker were interviewed by the Oakland Post about the course, and the story also included a quote from Caroline Love ’21. Associate Adjunct Professor of Education and Director of Online Programs Nolan Jones wrote a piece

Music Department Concerts March 30 ■ The Whale Listening Project Annie Lewandowski performs her immersive musical piece, The Whale Listening Project, with humpback whale songs she recorded with renowned bioacoustician Katy Payne and the Hawaii Marine Mammal Consortium off of Hawaii’s Kohala Coast in February 2019, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Songs of the Humpback Whale. All events start at 7:30 pm in the Music Building Ensemble Room (unless otherwise noted). $15 general, $10 to alumnae, seniors, and non-Mills students. Visit performingarts. mills.edu for more information. Performances March 6 ■ Senior Thesis Dance Concert This year’s program will include the work of four graduating senior dance majors: Ariel Green-Hill, Casey Moorhead, Alex Tiscareno, and Stephanie Tobon. 4:00 pm, Lisser Hall. April 1 ■ One Drop of Love A multimedia one-woman show exploring the intersections of race, class and gender in pursuit of truth, justice and LOVE. One Drop is written, produced, and performed by Fanshen Cox. 7:00 pm, Lisser Hall. April 11 ■ Catherine Pooley Senior Vocal Recital 8:00 pm, Littlefield Concert Hall April 16 ■ California Electronic Music Exchange Concert 8:00 pm, Littlefield Concert Hall April 26 ■ Mills College Choir Concert 3:00 pm, Littlefield Concert Hall June 3 ■ Constance Hockaday: Old Man, Dance Final performance from the Mills artist in residence. 7:00 pm, Lisser Hall. C A N CE LL E D Due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More info at mills.edu. for The Conversation, an independent, nonprofit publication, about the role that hip-hop can play in the classroom. A highly anticipated exhibition by Professor Emerita of Studio Art Hung Liu at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, China, was cancelled by the Chinese government. The San Francisco Chronicle covered the controversy and Liu’s work in general in an article published on November 21, 2019. Cellist and Darius Milhaud Distinguished Visiting Professor Tomeka Reid and her quartet released their second album, Old New, on October 4, 2019.

Professor of English and Dean of Graduate Studies Juliana Spahr spoke with WFHB’s “Interchange” about her book, Du Bois’s Telegram: Literary Resistance and State Containment, which was released by Harvard University Press in 2018. The book was also covered in the Los Angeles Review of Books in September 2019. Professor of Book Art Kathleen Walkup displayed her wares in an exhibition at F. W. Olin Library titled Transitory Matter: [Mostly] ephemera from the presses of Kathleen Walkup. The works were on display through December 13, 2019.

Adjunct Professor of Ethnic Studies Connie Wun spoke with KQED about her research of and experience with the sex industry on January 24. Adjunct Professor of English Stephanie Young, who recently released a book of poetry titled Pet Sounds, participated in a live performance at Woodland Pattern Book Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on November 1, 2019.