The news is coming in thick and fast from Mills College. We'll bring you another post soon about Flanigan's shenanigans, wily Wiley, and the other trustees who are finally speaking out about their plans to give Mills College away for no reason while insisting that transparency is a silly inconvenience.
In this post, we will look at a couple of recent examples of Northeastern's interactions with the local Black and Latinx community, and the fate of College's it took over with bold promises of partnership and pedagogy.
Don't Believe The Hype
Northeastern University has promised the world. Many of the abused victims of the Hillman "Financial Destabilization Plan" have embraced those promises whole-heartedly. "They said we were great! They said everyone would get a payrise! They said we could keep our jobs and have better working conditions! Hooray for them!"
Fortunately, most members of the Mills College community of stakeholders are not so naive. The desperation, gaslighting, and deception is becoming increasingly public - and now being put into sworn Court documents. There's a reason trustees have gone all the way to a high-profile lawsuit with a megadollar law firm just to get transparency.
If a business case to close Mills College actually exists, now is the time to show it. President Hillman can stop this madness at any time, just by being honest. Instead it is divide, conquer, and malign the stakeholders. It seems like she is on a maniacal mission to do whatever she can to devalue the Mills brand further in the time she has left. All bridges will be burned, the earth will be scorched, in the "Game of Thrones" battle to steal Mills away from those who love it and seek to preserve it.
Study The Playbook
Mills College is not the first acquisition target of Northeastern University, and it is unlikely to be the last. Northeastern seems to have absorbing small colleges down to a fine art. Go ask Wall Street...mergers and acquisitions is a lucrative business.
We can deconstruct their standard operating procedures by studying recent examples.
- Identify a struggling college in a strategic geographic target area
- Promise the college that you value their culture and uniqueness
- Promise their "core values" will be maintained
- Announce the deal before it is negotiated
- Complete the transaction in great haste
- A couple years down the track, do whatever Northeastern wants, they own it totally.
Case in point? The New College of Humanities in London. Initially, renamed to "NCH at Northeastern". Now, a few short years after the initial announcement, renamed again to "Northeastern University - London" and moved to a different location.
This time will be different. This time, Mills College's "core values" of women's leadership and racial and social justice will be more important to Northeastern than promoting their brand, expanding their business and increasing their bottom line.
Here's what Northeastern President Joseph Aoun said about New College at the time they announced the absorption strategic alliance between distinct and complementary institutions:
Compare that to what he's saying about Mills College now:
...and what President Hillman is saying:
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme. Actions speak louder than words. A mere two years later, the words Northeastern smoothly spoke in press releases at the time of acquisition are irrelevant. NCH is no more, fully absorbed by the mighty Northeastern M & A juggernaut.
How's that "complementary pedagogy" working out for you, Dr Grayling?
Seems a little odd that we have a Hillman weighing in:
I would say "abandoning" is indeed a really significant change in direction. Of course, at the time, faculty were told there would be no change in direction:
It's all just part of the university as a multinational corporation, needing to globalize its business model in an era of rising competition:
Softly Softly, Catchee Monkey
The deal started softly, with freshmen from Northeastern's N.U.in program appearing on campus in the Fall:
Similarly, Mills is beginning with "NU Bound". Check out former President Alecia DeCoudreaux in the video - Hillman won't even put her face to this!
In fact, the latest news is that President Hillman's plans to host "200-300" co-ed Northeastern students on the Mills College campus this Fall have, predictably, fallen through. Another deal announced to the media before being signed? We hear only a couple dozen applications were even received. It seems nobody likes the idea of this merger except the two majority-white Boards of Trustees of Mills College and Northeastern University.
We will talk more about this in an upcoming post.
Tricking Their Way Up The Leaderboard
Northeastern University are notorious for gaming the US News & World Report College rankings. Someone who formerly worked for the College suspects that is what their true motivation is for Mills:
Why can't they play games with their own College? Mills has earned its multiple #1 rankings by providing a quality education for at least 164 of the past 169 years.
The Save Mills coalition commissioned an expert investigation of Mills College, based on publicly available data. His conclusion? Mills College can be saved!
From Inside HigherEd:
The Save Mills College Coalition is skeptical that Mills must close or sell soon and has asked the California attorney general to investigate college leadership.
“We at Save Mills are saying, ‘Stop. Let us see what’s really going on here,’” said Kieran Turan, a member of Save Mills College and a longtime supporter of the college. “This is a precious institution.”
"Change Is Rarely Unanimous"
Since St Patrick's Day President Hillman has plastered herself all over the media. Inside HigherEd seems to think the opposite:
Hillman, the president of Mills, has made few public comments since she announced in March that the women's college would cease admitting new students, and the college has declined to make anyone available for a phone interview about the potential acquisition by Northeastern.
In the handful of public statements Hillman has released, she described several factors that led to Mills’s poor finances: ongoing budget deficits, declining enrollment and structural changes in higher education. She also cited the COVID-19 pandemic, which ripped through college budgets, depressed their revenue streams and left many with retention and enrollment challenges.
After our post The Defendant Tells The Media About The Plaintiffs, do you think the college's attorneys advised the President to stop giving interviews? Or is it that she is simply unable to answer any financial questions, as we saw at the Town Hall meetings?
Apparently this is not a desperate fire sale, but in fact is the very model for the future of education itself:
Unwise and unsubstantiated. The lack of substantiation is coming from the Defendants; this is the basis for the lawsuit. Once again, President Hillman gets it wrong.
"By becoming a co-ed college owned by a Boston tech school, Mills-Northeastern will bring greater benefits to alumnae and its neighbors". Substantiate that, please. You think the neighbors want to live next to a large-scale building site instead of a peaceful oasis? It sure seems like there are people in the City of Oakland rubbing their hands together with glee at the thought of all the big construction contracts to come.
Big Buck$ For Boston
This impressive skyscraper was Northeastern's vision for gentrifying contributing to the minority communities of Boston. Think of the breathtaking bay views from condos like these upon Mill College's prized land! Each one would sell for at least a million. The penthouses alone might fetch $20 million, especially amongst Silicon Valley's cashed-up girl bosses.
Pillars Of The Community
We are told by the Hillman Administration that Northeastern is a model citizen with a great track record of looking after minorities and its local community. As we have come to expect by now, the actual facts tell the opposite story. Northeastern are being sued by local Black and Latinx community for their real estate development plans. See Black Developers Sue Northeastern
The Plaintiffs tried to resolve the matter out of Court, but got nowhere. Sound familiar?
"The Only One Who Has Benefitted Is Northeastern"
Even Boston's first black and first female mayor chimed in to criticize Northeastern's fake community participation:
Read her full letter here, the Court documents for this case here and a good article here.
Have the Mills College Board of Trustees done even basic due diligence on this so-called "partnership"? Or is it only being done by those of us here on social media? Let's hope the Attorney-General's "investigation" goes deeper than reading President Hillman's press releases.
The damage done by Northeastern "has been so severe that the community many never be able to recover from it"
Conclusion
Does this really sound like Northeastern are in "perfect congruence with Mills and its ideals"? Or does it sound like they are robber barons, taking wealth from minority communities who need it most to enrich themselves?
Can anyone - let alone university professors entrusted with the minds of our future leaders - really believe the promises Northeastern make in their sales pitches to their absorption targets?
Is their proven track record of buy & dismantle just some meaningless coincidence?
Can we rely on the negotiation skills of the Hillman team to get the best outcome for all Mills stakeholders - while actively shutting those stakeholders out from participation?
Perhaps President Hillman can elaborate further on how this partnership helps the City of Oakland, the College's neighbors, and alumnae. We hate claims that are unsubstantiated.
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SEE ALSO
1. Mills College is Worth Billions - Who Gets the Prize?
2. 135 Acres Worth Less than $300,000? College Owns Hundreds of Millions in Equities, Real Estate
3. We Got the Mills College Receipts - From the IRS
4. Mills College Financially "Very Healthy" With 100% Rating From Charity Navigator
5. Mills College 2017 Financial Stabilization Plan
6. Gasoline on the Burning Platform - Men to Live on Mills College Campus
7. UC Berkeley "Life and Death" Financial Crisis, How Can They Afford Mills College Problems Too?
8. Strong, Proud and Determined to Save the College We Love
9. Sue the Board - It Worked For Sweet Briar, Could It Work For Mills College?
10. Déjà Vu - Organized Faction of AAMC Pushing UC Merger Plan Similar to Board of Trustees
11. Mills College Leadership Caught Speechless by AAMC Resistance
12. Save Mills Coalition Steps Up, Hillman Administration Gets Voted Down
13. Mills College Community Stunned by Another Hillman Hand Grenade
14. The Art of the Steal 2.0 - Billion Dollar Black Holes From Barnes to Bender
15. Trustee vs Trustee - Mills College Board Members Sue For Transparency
16. F*CK YOUR INDEPENDENCE: Hillman Declares War Against Mills College Alumnae
17. White Supremacy Reigns in Mills College and Northeastern Boards
18. The Defendant Tells The Media About The Plaintiffs
19. Good News For Women's Colleges - Congratulations, Beth!
20. $25 Million To See The Books
21. "Damage So Severe The Community May Never Recover"
22. Desperate Defendants Finally Speak: Gaslighting Frenzy Before Court Monday
23. Failed Leadership Fakes Support With Fake Forum
24. Mills College Has $85 Million Without Restrictions, So Why Can't It Stay Independent?
26. Simple Solutions For Mills College Financial Situation
27. Online Education In The Bay Area: New Gold Mountain
28. Mills College Trustees Rushing Into A Deal Without Knowing The Terms
29. What Happened At The First Mills College Court Hearing?
30. Mills College Is Lost, But The Perpetrators Of Its Downfall Remain