28. Mills College Trustees Rushing Into A Deal Without Knowing Terms

Image: The Running Of The Bulls, Pamplona, Spain

Never Seen Anything Like It

The next hearing in Alameda Superior Court with Judge Stephen Pulido is today, September 9, 2021 at 2:30pm PST. Listen live here.

Lisa Kremer has posted a declaration from Jack McBride, a mergers and acquisitions specialist on the Plaintiffs' high-powered legal team. In 40 years of experience he has never seen a deal like this - with so many items not finalized - being presented to a Board to vote on. Even so, it seems 18 of the Trustees signed a form letter saying they planned to vote "yes" on the deal without even knowing what the terms are.

Each page is labeled "ALL TERMS SUBJECT TO ONGOING NEGOTIATIONS" - so from a legal perspective, the document is meaningless.

Fiduciary duty of loyalty and care? Agreeing to a deal without knowing the terms is liking signing a blank piece of paper. It is mind-blowing that the whole world is watching this happen, Mills College has been on TV, in Forbes, the Daily Beast and the New York Times. The Attorney General Rob Bonta is part of the Mills College faculty and his wife Mia Bonta just won the election for his vacant assembly seat. Congresswoman Barbara Lee went to Mills, has a Chair in Women's Leadership endowed there in her name, and recently celebrated her birthday there. She has said that she "owes a debt of gratitude" to Mills and is "heartbroken and outraged" over these plans. Vice President Kamala Harris is from Oakland, her cousin went to Mills College. Nancy Pelosi received an honorary doctorate from Mills after giving a commencement speech, as did Barbara Boxer. Gavin Newsom and Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis took an interest in Mills...at least, when it looked like the UC system might be the one absorbing it.

Somehow, all of these people can just sit by and let 18 of the 23 trustees of Mills College state under penalty of perjury that they would sign a deal to give the College away forever without knowing what the terms of that deal are; and that there is no need for them to respect a judge's order to show Plaintiff trustees the documents they are entitled to see anyway.

Barbara Lee at Mills College on her birthday with the Save Mills Coalition.
Source: Twitter

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Source: Facebook

Source: Facebook

Plaintiffs Become Defendants

Two of the original Plaintiffs have now switched sides and are filing form letters on behalf of the Defendants...while claiming to represent the Alumnae, who overwhelmingly support the lawsuit they filed. A special petition has been made to the Board of Governors of the Alumnae Association of Mills College (AAMC) for a vote to remove these two treacherous Trustees.

Predictably, the cry of "that's racist!" comes...from those happy to serve a majority-white Board hell-bent on destroying a Minority Serving Institution to give it to another majority-white Board of a majority-white College. No, that's not racist, that's all just fine, let's just agree without even knowing what the deal is...as long as they make a "Mills Institute of Leadership In Anti-Racism" for the Ethnic Studies department to get cushy jobs in.

Critical thinking does not change based on skin color. People of all races know that you shouldn't agree to a deal without knowing what the terms are.

Brave Professors Cut To The Chase

Contrast the divisive gaslighting of the Defendant's social media influencer campaigns with these thoughtful expressions of support for Mills to remain true to its charter from Mills economics professor Roger Sparks, and Professor Emerita Carol Chetkovich:

"I can only speculate about what will happen to the $206 million Mills endowment, because the faculty and staff have not, to my knowledge, been told anything. My best guess is that the current Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees will maintain control of the endowment and use it to find the Mills Institute. This will enable the endowment's current investment managers to continue earning substantial fees well into the future while having a much smaller obligation for annual payouts from the endowment."

This seems to be the real heart of the matter. Who is getting rich off the riches of Mills College?

#NoDeal

#NewLeadership

Read these and many more of the hundreds of letters sent to the Board of Trustees at the AAMC web site.

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#MILLSFOREVER

28. Mills College Trustees Rushing Into A Deal Without Knowing Terms

Never Seen Anything Like It

Plaintiffs Become Defendants

Brave Professors Cut To The Chase

DISCLAIMER

SEE ALSO