Racial Representation Report Card

The charts on this page show levels of racial representation in Mills Quarterly over the last five years, from the start of the 2018–19 academic year through the winter 2023 issue. These figures were determined by cataloguing everyone* who’s appeared in each issue of the Quarterly and cross-referencing them against our database. The classifications below reflect those in our database, which largely reflect the classifications required when reporting statistics to the US Department of Education. (For instance, the Mills database includes a “Bi-/ Multi-racial” category, which the Department of Education does not require.) These reports, which consist entirely of data reported by members of the Mills community themselves, were only required within the last 50 years, so there are gaps in our data as a result.

The number of people who are marked Unknown do not have an ethnicity marked in our database (or do not appear in our database at all, as they are outside the Mills community), so it’s tough to perform a definitive analysis of these statistics. That aside, the data at hand do show that the Quarterly ’s representation of individuals who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or People of Color) over the last five years has evolved in ways that more accurately depict the makeup of the overall population of Mills alums. Representation within that group has fluctuated over that same time period, indicating that a more consistent approach in outreach to our various affinity groups is needed.

We recognize that not every issue can be an exact microcosm of our readership. But we do strive to ensure an overall balance that fully illustrates every aspect of the alum experience—work that is never truly finished.

* These statistics include each individual who was interviewed or highlighted in a story or column, or credited with writing, photography, or graphic design. If the person was mentioned in multiple items, they were counted for each separate appearance per story or column. For instance, if an alum appeared in a feature article and in Class Notes, they were counted twice.