Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 19, 1990 TAG: 9005190300
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: OAKLAND, CALIF. LENGTH: Short
Students chanting "women's education for the next generation" greeted the announcement by F. Warren Hellmen, the chairman of the board.
In an interview later, Mills president Dr. Mary Metz said that the trustees' decision included a provision that certain goals had to be met for Mills to remain a women's college.
These include a full-time undergraduate student body of 900 by the fall of 1993 and 1,000 by the fall of 1995.
Under the trustees' earlier vote, men would have been admitted as undergraduates in the fall of 1991. They have been attending as graduate students since the 1930s.
The students oppose coeducation because they believe, and cite studies showing, that women educated in women's colleges achieve higher positions in both the private and public realms after graduation.
On May 3, the Board of Trustees voted to admit men as undergraduate students beginning in the fall of 1991, citing the need to increase enrollment from the current 777 students to a minimum of 1,000 by 1995 in order to survive without being forced to spend the school's endowment.
Students responded to the vote with the strike and a blockade of the administration offices, barring school officials.
by CNB