issue

the

Value addedWomen’s perspectives

inform economic studies

Mills Quarterly2 0 0 8 – 0 9 A n n u A l R e p o R t t h e m o s t g e n e R o u s g e n e R At i o n C o l l e g e p R A n k s 1 0 1

Winter/spring 2010 Alumnae magazine

Who gives to Mills? Kate Eltrich ’99 Career: Associate Director for Legislative Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, The White House

Major: Political, legal, and economic analysis

What she learned to love at Mills: “Rowing crew. I was never terribly athletic, but at Mills there were women at all levels of ability. The most important thing was to contribute to the team.”

Most useful thing she learned: “Being able to interact with people from any background. Having an ease about meeting people has been good for me professionally.”

Why she Contributes to the Mills College

annual fund: “To make sure that women are always able to go to Mills and benefit from the small class sizes, opportunity for discussion, and strong sense of community.”

Join Kate in supporting the education of tomorrow’s leaders.

> Make a gift by

phone: talk to the student who calls you on behalf of the Mills College Annual Fund or call 510.430.2366.

> send a gift in the enclosed envelope.

> give online at www.mills.edu/giving.

Mills Quarterly

contents Winter/Spring 2010

269

Departments

4 MillsMatters

15 ClassNoteswith Notes from Near and Far: Alumnae Activities Report

23 InMemoriam

3 A message from the President and the Chair: Leadership transitionPresidentHolmgrenannouncesthatshewillnotseekrenewalofherappointmentasPresidentbeyondJune30,2011

9 More than money by Kate RixInbothresearchandteaching,Millseconomicsfacultybringawoman-centeredperspectiveandotheralternateanalysestotheirfield.

12 Women power the transfer of wealth by Janis JohnsonAstrillionsofdollarspassfromonegenerationtothenextinthecomingdecades,womenhaveanoutstandingopportunitytosupportthecausestheybelievein.

14 A family affairby Heather HaasAclanofBentTwigshonorsfamilybondsandthetraditionofmusicatMillsbynamingseatsintheJeannikMéquetLittlefieldConcertHall.

26 Sound off! What is your best Mills prank?

Thecollegelifestyleistailor-madeforcreativepracticaljokes.Millsprankstersandprankeesalikesharesomeoftheir“extracurricularactivities.”

12

CoverillustrationbyStephanieDaltonCowan

Building

Giftson Our

2008–09 Annual Report of GivingWith much gratitude, Mills publishes this honor roll of donors

who made gifts to the College between July 1, 2008, and

June 30, 2009.

Special insert

w i n t e r / s p r i n g 2 0 1 0 1

2  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly2  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly2  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly2  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

VolumeXCVIIINumber3(USPS349-900)Winter/Spring2010

PresidentJanetL.Holmgren

Executive Vice President for Institutional AdvancementRamonS.Torrecilha

Vice President for Institutional AdvancementCynthiaBrandtStover

Senior Director of CommunicationsDawnCunningham’85

Managing EditorLindaSchmidt

Design and Art DirectionNancySillerWilson

Contributing WritersHeatherHaasJanisJohnsonKateRix

Editorial AssistanceKelseyLindquist’10

Special Thanks ToAnitaAragonBowers’63CynthiaGuevara’04

TheMills Quarterly(USPS349-900)ispublishedquarterlybyMillsCollege,5000MacArthurBlvd.,Oakland,CA94613.PeriodicalspostagepaidatOakland,California,andatadditionalmailingoffice(s).Postmaster:SendaddresschangestotheOfficeofInstitutionalAdvancement,MillsCollege,5000MacArthurBlvd.,Oakland,CA94613.

Copyright©2010,MillsCollege.

AddresscorrespondencetotheMills Quarterly,MillsCollege,5000MacArthurBlvd.,Oakland,CA94613.Letterstotheeditormaybeeditedforclarityorlength.

Email:quarterly@mills.eduPhone:510.430.3312

Printedonrecycledpapercontaining30percentpost-consumerwaste.

A Message from the ChairHow fortunate Mills College has been to have Janet L. Holmgren serve as our President for almost 20 years! President Holmgren’s decision to step down from the Presidency in 2011 initiates a leader-ship transition at Mills that follows an amazing era of transformation and growth.

As you will read in our annual report, under the President’s leadership, the Mills community raised $18.2 million for the College in the 2008–09 fiscal year. This total is nearly double the average amount raised annually in the early 1990s, when President Holmgren arrived at the College. Also in the past year, we added a new architectural treasure to the cam-pus: the building for the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business. Its opening represented the culmination of a decade in which Mills invested $100 million in capital projects. Meanwhile, the value of our endowment increased from $71.2 million in 1990 to $175 million today.

While strengthening the College’s finances and physical plant, President Holmgren has also transformed Mills’ student body. Since 1991, the College’s enrollment has climbed from 1,044 to 1,510 students. Diversity has increased apace, with a population of 39 percent undergraduate students of color and 25 percent faculty of color today, compared with 21 percent students of color and 5 percent faculty of color in 1991, when President Holmgren arrived.

Generations of students to come will benefit from the President’s thoughtful, strategic, and creative leadership in posi-tioning Mills to continue as one of the country’s leading women’s colleges. The Board of Trustees is deeply committed to fulfilling the College’s mission of edu-cating undergraduate women and pro-viding strong professional and graduate programs for women and men. We will build on the strengths and innovative

programs of the past 20 years of recom-mitment to women’s education and carry this forward into the future as a mandate for the next President of Mills College.

We are now convening a Presidential Search Committee to be led by Wendyce Hull Brody ’68, who is a Mills College Trustee as well as an alumna. This com-mittee will work closely with the Board of Trustees and will seek input from alumnae and other members of the Mills community on the attributes and com-petencies we seek in our next President. In the weeks ahead, we will outline our search process on a special section of the College’s website. Meanwhile, we are developing a series of events to honor President Holmgren’s contributions to the College. Alumnae will have many opportunities to participate.

President Holmgren’s work at Mills College is not done. We are fortunate to have her energetic and dedicated leader-ship over the next year and a half. We will continue to build for the future as we simultaneously celebrate her leadership and seek a worthy successor.

Thank you for providing the support that will sustain our forward momentum throughout this period of transition. Sincerely, Kathleen J. Burke Chair, Board of Trustees

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“Building on our gifts,” the theme of our 2008–09 annual report at the cen-ter of this Quarterly issue, highlights the enormous contributions of our alumnae and friends in making Mills a strong, creative, diverse institution.

With your help, we have built a wom-en’s college of national prominence. We have supported cutting-edge curricula, research, and creativity. We have devel-oped innovative graduate programs that leverage the strengths of our undergraduate departments. We have preserved and enhanced our human and physical resources, while raising enrollment to an all-time high. We are a diverse community committed to intel-lectual and social integrity.

There is no better place to study, no better place to teach or work, and certainly no better place to be a college president.

Our position of strength makes this an ideal moment to plan for changes that will ensure Mills’ future. At the end of February, I announced a big change to alumnae (via email) and to the campus community: I have decided not to seek renewal of my appointment as President beyond June 30, 2011, the 20th anniver-sary of my arrival at Mills.

I love Mills and am deeply grateful for the amazing opportunity I have had to lead and support the College. But now I am called to return to writing and research that I have put on hold for nearly two decades. I also plan to teach as a member of the Mills faculty. This semester I am teaching Development of the English Language, and I am rediscovering the joy of being in the

classroom with students—especially the engaged, inspiring students who make Mills such an exciting place to be.

Our leadership transition process will be inclusive and thoughtful. A Presidential Search Committee, made up of alumnae, Trustees, faculty, students, and staff, will be convened to identify my successor. You will hear more about this committee and the national search process in future communications from Mills and the Chair of our Board of Trustees, Kathleen Burke.

In the remaining 16 months of my pres-idency, I will work to ensure that Mills continues to attract outstanding students and faculty and to raise the funds needed to support the College’s mission. I will be turning to you for help in making these efforts a success.

We will have many opportunities—including Commencement in May and Reunion in October—to come together in celebration of the College’s achievements since its recommitment to women’s edu-cation 20 years ago in May 1990. At that historic moment, heeding protests by stu-dents and alumnae, the Board of Trustees reversed a decision that Mills would become coeducational at the undergrad-uate level.

Today, the College is unwavering in its commitment to women’s education and leadership. I am proud of our shared val-ues, and I am grateful for the support that has enabled us to achieve excellence in all that we do. I look forward to your par-ticipation as we continue to build on our gifts in the coming months.Sincerely, Janet L. Holmgren President

A Message from the President

Leadership transition continues a tradition of institutional renewal

PerspectivesLeadership

For more information on the presidential search, visit www.mills.edu/presidential_search

Photos by elese lebsack

As Mills student-athletes sprint, row, paddle, and volley their way through spring meets and matches, many of them are propelled by pride in the accomplish-ments that defined this year’s fall season.

The cross country team won the California Pacific Conference meet in early November, a victory that took them to the NAIA National Championships hosted by Cascade College and Nike in Vancouver, Washington, later that month. In competition with more than 300 of the best runners in the country, the Cyclones performed well; their top three finishers were co-captain Angie Sandoval ’10, Kim Chew ’11, and Lupe

Athletics Department honored for diversity effortsThe Mills College Athletics Department has received a Diversity in Athletics Award for its diversity strategy from the Laboratory for Diversity in Sports at Texas A&M University in collaboration with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Mills was one of 11 award recipients selected from 199 NCAA Division III athletics departments. Criteria for selection included the influence of diversity on the department’s processes and outcomes; its proactive diversity management strategy; its inclusive work environment; and steps taken to ensure the diversity-related momentum in the department.

“We have a very diverse, success-ful student-athlete population,” says Athletic Director Themy Adachi. Reflecting on Mills athletes’ participa-tion this year in national championships in cross country and swimming, Adachi observes, “These successes stem from an inclusive work environment with coaches who are encouraged to under-stand and honor differences…. It’s not about molding each person to fit into a team system, it’s about discovering what makes each person whole and what makes each one thrive.”

Cyclones dash to victory

Cazares ’10 (lead runner in photo above). At an awards ceremony follow-ing the championship meet, co-captain Perla Cantu ’10 was honored with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Champions of Character individual award, an honor given to one athlete on each team com-peting in the championship meet who models the qualities of respect, respon-sibility, integrity, servant leadership, and sportsmanship. Cazares and fellow senior Elena Adler were recognized as Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athletes for maintaining a minimum GPA of 3.5.

Adachi receives Trailblazer AwardThemy Adachi, director of athletics at Mills College, has received the Northern California Diversity Committee Trailblazer Award from the United States Tennis Association (USTA). The award, presented in San Francisco on January 30, honors Adachi’s “lifelong and ground-breaking service in bringing tennis to, and growing the sport in, traditional and non-traditional communities.”

In addition to her work with Mills

student-athletes, Adachi has been instrumental in providing community outreach and accessible programs to Alameda County’s diverse populations, particularly through her efforts in co-founding the Mills Community Tennis Program in 2000. The program provides personalized tennis instruction and academic tutoring for elementary and middle school students in Oakland, many of whom have had little or no exposure to the sport. Program participants gain familiarity with a college environment and have the opportunity to enter Mills

Mills Matters

4  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

Rothrock accepts second term as Alumna TrusteeGayle Rothrock ’68, who has served as Alumna Trustee since 2007, will continue to hold this position for the period 2010–2013.

“It has been my privilege to serve the interests of the alumnae and the College,” says Rothrock. “I am fascinated by the work and feel particularly engaged by the sustainability issue, both as applied to the operation of the College and campus and to our financial health. I think it is appli-cable to the relationship of the College and its alumnae, too.”

A resident of Vancouver, Washington, Rothrock has 36 years of experience in public and nonprofit administration and community college teaching. She has served on state boards adjudicating land use, natural resources, pollution control, and large-scale energy plant siting proposals and permit appeals. She has been a board member and volunteer for several nonprofit organizations and is a certified community mediator.

Rothrock currently chairs the Board of Trustees’ Ad-Hoc Committee on Alumnae Relations. “We look closely at the continuing improvement and robust-ness of the ties between alumnae and the College,” she says. “The talented and motivated College staff and AAMC officers and branch activists are finding their way to intelligent and practical resolution of outstanding matters and putting us on good footing for this 21st-century environment.

“Serving on the AAMC Board of Governors and the College’s Board of Trustees means keeping the past, present, and future all in mind. I look forward to being an Alumna Trustee for another three years.”

College’s nationally acclaimed Upward Bound program. The Community Tennis Program runs each fall semester and is now led by Head Tennis Coach Jesse Medvene-Collins.

Adachi has been a strong leader of other community service activities, including the Women’s Cancer Resource Center’s Swim-A-Mile fundraiser; the Mills College “You go, Girl!” afterschool program, which builds self-esteem through participation in sports; and unit-ing the athletic teams to complete one major community service event per year.

Alumnae Relations and Annual Giving

www.mills.edu/alumnae

510.430.2123

Alumnae-relations@mills.edu

Find out about Reunion, alumnae clubs,

and events; update your contact information;

and request our @mills enewsletter.

LauraGobbi,SeniorDirector....... 510.430.2112

AlexandraWong,AssociateDirector,

AlumnaeRelations....................... 510.430.3363

CaitlinMcGarty,Coordinator....... 510.430.2123

Career Services

510.430.2130

Learn how Mills can help with your career.

Alumnae Admission Representatives

510.430.2135

Help prospective students learn more about

the College.

JoanJaffe,AssociateDeanofAdmission

Email:Joanj@mills.edu

Giving to Mills

www.mills.edu/giving

510.430.2366

mcaf@mills.edu

Make gifts to the Mills College Annual Fund

or the AAMC endowment.

Alumnae Association of Mills College (AAMC)

Learn about AAMC membership, merchandise,

travel programs, Board of Governors, committee

meetings, or reach your elected representatives

on the College’s Board of Trustees.

Email:aamc@mills.edu.................510.430.2110

AnitaAragonBowers’63,

President...................................... 510.430.3374

Email:AnitaAragonBowers@alumnae.mills.edu

BillWhite,Accountant.................. 510.430.3373

To contact the Alumnae Association

of Mills College, please write to:

AAMC, P.O. Box 9998, Oakland, CA 94613-0998

At Mills, for Alumnae

In 2005, Adachi was inducted into the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame.

“The Trailblazer Award acknowl-edges that others have noticed what a difference Mills students are mak-ing,” Adachi says. “Mills strives to educate women to ‘make the world more,’ and our Mills Community Tennis Program is one way students can practice being leaders and giving to their communities. Students learn the power and satisfaction of making a difference in the lives of others.”

w i n t e r / s p r i n g 2 0 1 0 5

May2 MFA Thesis ExhibitionMills College Art Museum, free; opening reception May 1AnexhibitionofworksbystudentscompletingMills’graduateprograminstudioart,onviewthroughMay30.

15 122nd Commencement9:45 am, Toyon Meadow, freeGathertohonorandcelebratethegraduatingClassof2010withSpeakerNancyPelosi.AlumnaewillrobeupforCommencementprocessionat8:00amatReinhardtAlumnaeHouse.

15 AAMC Annual Meeting2:00 pm, Danforth Lecture Hall, Aron Art Center Forinformationaboutthisimportantmeetingopentoallalumnae,contacttheAlumnaeAssociationofMillsCollegeat510.430.2110oraamc@mills.edu.

6  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

March30 Senior Thesis ExhibitionMills College Art Museum, free; opening reception April 3, 3:00 pm AnexhibitionofworksbyMillsseniorstudioartmajorsonviewthroughApril18.

30 The Chana Bloch Reading of Writers in Translation: Ammiel Alcalay5:30 pm, Mills Hall Living Room, freeApoetandscholar,Alcalay’stranslationsincludeSarajevo BluesbytheBosnianpoetSemezdinMehmedinovic,Keys to the Garden:New Israeli Writing,andOutcastbyShimonBallas.Forinformation,callStephanieYoung,510.430.3130.

April3 Mills Music Now: Lore of Moments8:00 pm, Littlefield Concert Hall, $15 general, $10 seniors and non-Mills students, free with AAMC card

AneveningofimprovisationalmusicwithMillsfaculty,key-boardistWayneHorvitz,per-cussionistLeQuanNinh,andothers.Call510.430.2296orseemusicnow.mills.edu.

6 Contemporary Writers Series: Laila Lalami5:30 pm, Mills Hall Living Room, freeLalami’sfirstnovel,Secret Son,wasdescribedbytheNew York Times as“anuanceddepictionoftherootsofIslamicterror-ism,writtenbysomeonewhointimatelyknowsoneofthestratifiedsocietieswhereitgrows.”Forinformation,callStephanieYoung,510.430.3130.

9 Center for Socially Responsible Business Annual ConferenceSeebackcover.

Nancy Pelosi,thefirstfemaleSpeakeroftheUnitedStatesHouseofRepresentatives,willbeourCommencementspeakeronSaturday,May15,2010.

AnalumnaofTrinityCollege,awomen’scollegeinWashingtonDC,PelosihasrepresentedCalifornia’sEighthDistrictintheHouseofRepresentativessince1987.Herlegislativerecordincludesstronginitiativestoimproveeducationalopportunity,environmentalpolicy,women’shealth,andworkers’rights.

Joinusinwelcomingthisdistinguishedandgroundbreakingleadertocampusaswecommemoratethe20thanniversaryofthestudentandalumnaeproteststhatresultedinMills’recommit-menttowomen’seducation.

Come to Commencement 2010

9–10 Mills Music Now: X Sound Festival 8:00 pm, Littlefield Concert Hall, freeAfestivalofworksbycurrentMillsseniorcomposers.Forinformation,call510.430.2296orseemusicnow.mills.edu.

15–17 Dance Department Graduate Thesis Concerts8:00 pm, Lisser Hall, $10; additional performance April 17 at 2:00 pm Graduatedancestudentspresenttheculminationoftheirwork.Fordetails,contact510.430.2175ordance@mills.edu.

28 MBA Information Session7:00 pm, Lokey Graduate School of Business Gathering Hall, freeLearnaboutcurriculum,admis-sion,andfinancialaidfortheLorryI.LokeyGraduateSchoolofBusiness.RSVPtoKatherinePerry,510.430.3173ormba@mills.edu.

Cal

enda

r Mills artist exhibits around the worldProfessor of Studio Art Hung Liu has created a collection of paintings reflecting on the aftermath of the 2008 earthquake in the Sichuan province of her native China, in which nearly 90,000 people were killed or went missing.

The series title, Apsaras, refers to wingless angels or female spirits of the clouds and waters depicted in ancient Buddhist images. When Liu’s images were exhibited at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York last fall, New York Times critic Holland Cotter wrote, “Everything—the images, the over-lays, the forthright brushwork, the pictures as a group—is soberly judged, deeply felt, mature. It’s hard to ask for more.” The collection continued on to the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art in Colorado, where Kyle MacMillan, the Denver Post’s fine arts critic, called it a “stunning, at times haunting, exhibition.”

This exhibition is the latest of several high-profile shows and events by Liu. She completed commissions for artwork installed at the Oakland International Airport in 2006 and at the San Francisco International Airport in 2008, and last year the artist traveled to Hong Kong to attend the opening recep-tion of her solo exhibition, Prodigal Daughters, at the well-known contemporary art gallery 10 Chancery Lane.

Save the Date Reunion 2010: September 30–October 3

Celebrating class years ending in 5 and 0 and the 50th Reunion of the Class of 1960

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Other faculty news

• VisitingAssistantProfessorofEnglishStephanieYoungwasawarded the Irvine Fellowship at the Sally and Don Lucas Artists Residency Programs, an international multidisciplinary residency at Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California. The Irvine Fellowship is an award for emerging or mid-career artists from California who are working in areas of visual, performance, or literary arts.

• ProfessorMaggiPayne,co-directoroftheCenterofContemporary Music, was awarded a 2009 El Capitan Award in the Environmental/Mountain Film Competition at the 2009 Yosemite Film Festival for her video work titled Liquid Amber, for which she shot and edited the video and composed the music.

• DavidDonahue,associateprofessorofeducation,has published three papers within the past year. His topics cover the experience of students of color in service-learning, profes-sional development in a diverse urban public school, and connecting classrooms and communities through Chicano mural art.

• ProfessorofEducationalLeadershipSabrinaZirkelispartofa team that has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to investigate barriers inhibiting women pursuing stud-ies in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Finding the bottom lineMills offers course in financial literacy Mastering your money is more complicated than ever in today’s world of volatile financial markets, job insecurity, and rising debt. But women must learn to do so in order to suc-ceed in their careers, support families, and manage wealth.

To prepare undergraduates for financial independence, Mills is offering a pilot course in financial literacy this spring, Dollars and Sense. The course covers topics from managing debt (including student loans) and building credit to devel-oping a budget, understanding insurance and taxation, and planning for large purchases, investments, and retirement. Offered by the Economics Department, Dollars and Sense also features visits from financial professionals, such as bank managers and insurance brokers, who answer student ques-tions, and research projects on a variety of topics.

“People can spend money they don’t have quite easily now,” says Robert Kennedy, who teaches the class. Kennedy is a property and small business developer who also teaches economics and financial and managerial accounting at the College of Marin. “And most people don’t understand the difference between income and wealth, and the trappings of wealth—a nice car, expensive clothes, and so on,” he adds

“We’ve spent a lot of time examining the importance of liquid assets and of building your net worth.”

Among the 40 students enrolled in the course, one third are economics majors; according to a class survey, more than half have student loans, and 20 percent carry unpaid credit card balances, while 25 percent expressed that they are worried about being able to meet future loan payments.

“I’ve had students work out their financial balance sheets, but we’re also looking at non-financial assets, such as their skills or stable relationships,” says Kennedy. “We have come to see how these things work together. You may have great artistic talent, for example, but if you can’t manage a budget to purchase supplies and materials, you’re prevented from using that non-financial asset to its fullest.”

The course is made possible through a $10,000 grant from Bank of the West, which has also provided support for the Summer Academic Workshop (SAW) and scholarship funding for students in the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business.

“This course gets people started in learning to ask the right questions,” says Kennedy. “True financial literacy is built over a lifetime.”

The paintings displayed there were based on a Chinese propaganda film from 1949 in which eight women soldiers fight off the Japanese and, with their backs to a river, choose to drown rather than be taken prisoner. This spring, her paintings are on display at the Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco and, until April 11, at the Bedford Gallery of the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California.

Liu has also collaborated with poet and playwright Michael McClure to produce the artist’s book Deer Boy, published by Magnolia Editions in 2009.

Apsaras, White, by Hung Liu

8  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly8  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

Nadine Dixon ’09 is in her second semester of the public policy master’s program at Mills, but she’s been an economist most of her life.

As a mother, Dixon fed, clothed, and nurtured more than 30 children—for all but one, as a foster parent—in her San Francisco home, bud-geting the limited resources of time, energy, and money. She was, in fact, that anomaly in American society: the paid mother.

“The government paid me to parent other people’s children,” Dixon says. “I went to soccer games. We had homework hour together. We listened to books on tape. I’d ask my kids, ‘What do you enjoy? Do you like to paint? Do you like to play basketball?’”

As a single parent to one biological daughter, Dixon received welfare. As a foster parent, she received financial support as well, though much more than what welfare paid. Recognizing this discrepancy made her want to understand why care-giving is valued more in the foster system than under welfare law. During that time she also began to question one of the basic assumptions of market economics—the scarcity of resources—particularly because she had made do with so little for so long.

“Scarcity is a created concept,” says Dixon, who is 50 and received her under-graduate degree in economics from Mills last year. “As women, the concept of scarcity is something we live with on a regular basis, but we have a different mindset. We can create what we need. We always have, for ourselves and for our families. We sew and cultivate gardens. Women are creators.”

With this line of inquiry, and with her experience as a foster mother trading goods and services with other parents, Dixon had entered into an only recently mapped landscape, known to economists as the non-monetary market. It is a place occupied largely by caregivers. In many cases, the network is made up of women who trade support without the use of money. It is a market where the traditional laws of supply and demand are not the only forces at work.

This is a place increasingly familiar to faculty economists at Mills, who inte-grate concerns about historically “feminine” issues in their research, such as the role of supportive social structures on the economic well-being of women and children, the rise of collaboration rather than competition as a business model, and, perhaps most urgent in our time, the growing importance of eth-ics in business. In the classroom, too, students like Dixon are encouraged to bring their own perspectives to the analysis, to put the needs and concerns of women at the center of the discussion, and to question the traditional frame-works underlying economics scholarship.

By Kate Rix

More thanmoney TheMills

EconomicsDepartmentencourageswomen’sperspectivesandothernon-traditionalviewsofthefield

Siobhan Reilly (right) with a student

w i n t e r / s p r i n g 2 0 1 0 9

“Economists like to look into the mar-ketplace, to see what’s bought and sold, what the prices and wages are. But a huge portion of what is important has to do with resources that don’t have a market value,” says Siobhan Reilly, profes-sor of economics at Mills since 2001. “The activities of the non-market economy include child-rearing, breastfeeding, caring for elderly family members, and maintaining a household. These things don’t have a price and don’t go into calculating the Gross Domestic Product. This devalues women and gives a distorted view of the economy.”

Reilly and her husband, Assistant Professor Eirik Evenhouse, conduct research together and co-author all of their academic articles. They also have four children. Their lives as parents and part-ners form a backdrop to their lives as scholars; they have published several papers on poverty, inequal-ity, and welfare reform and they quite specifically

pose questions about the way society values, or does not value, children and their care. One of the social realities that drives their research is the high poverty rate among children in the United States: nearly 18 percent in 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey.

Reilly and Evenhouse have conducted two recent studies examining the economic impact of welfare law on the behavior of mothers. The wel-

“The activities of the non-market economy include child-rearing, breastfeeding, caring for elderly family members, and maintaining a household. These things don’t have a price... This devalues women and gives a distorted view of the economy.” —Siobhan Reilly

DaviD schMitz

Nadine Dixon ’09

phil channing

10  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

fare system was originally intended to provide cash support for children whose fathers had died or abandoned them. While the rules were later changed to create some small exceptions, Reilly and Evenhouse note that the criterion that made most families eligible was the absence of a biological parent. The cash benefits of welfare may not have amounted to much, but recipients auto-matically became eligible for Medicaid—that is, government-provided health insurance—and food stamps.

“We wondered whether the fact that mothers living with unrelated men were treated so much more generously than mothers living with their chil-dren’s fathers might have an actual impact on behavior,” Reilly says.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation, Reilly and Evenhouse tracked the variation in welfare benefits among states and over time from 1985 to 1996 (prior to major welfare reforms implemented in 1997). Because the survey also documents the relationship between every pair of individuals in a household, for each woman receiving welfare they were able to determine whether the woman’s children all had the same father, and also whether her male partner, if she had one, was the father of any or all of her children. So while right wing pundits often blame government support to single mothers for the decline of the nuclear family in America, Reilly and Evenhouse concluded that increased welfare payments do not signifi-cantly increase the number of children living with only one biological parent.

“This has big implications for policy,” says Reilly. “Our findings suggest that we could make our social safety net considerably more generous without producing large negative responses, including split relationships or parents shirking their responsibilities.” If welfare benefits could be raised substantially, Evenhouse adds, poor children in the United States would no longer be so much poorer than their counterparts in other rich countries.

Evenhouse notes that in parts of Scandinavia and Europe, care-giving par-ents receive a government stipend. “Our current American model is highly compatible with the typical 1950s family, but not modern families,” he says. “While our society has made gains in many ways—women’s rights and gay rights—even with the family-friendly policies that have been implemented, we haven’t taken the hard edges off of capitalism.”

In short, Reilly and Evenhouse argue, a society in which the economic struc-ture supports women and families goes a long way toward solving some of our biggest social problems. “If you don’t do things to foster non-remunerated

activities, you stunt your society,” adds Reilly. “This is what we have done. Under this model, it doesn’t pay to take care of the environment, or to take care of children or sick people or old people. Nobody rushes to do that work.”

Nancy Thornborrow, head of the Mills Economics Department and founding dean of the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business, focuses her research on women in the labor force, includ-ing analyses of the rigidity of fringe benefit plans, which would benefit women more if they could negotiate for more pay in place of benefits. Her paper, “Women in the Labor Force,” co-written with Professor of History Marianne B. Sheldon for the 1995 book Women: A Feminist Perspective, is a seminal reference for scholars of gender and labor issues. She also engages students in challenging traditional notions of economics in her course, Women and the Economy.

“My goal is not to dismiss the neoclassical model of supply and demand,” Thornborrow says, “but to expand upon the analysis by including additional variables and information from other disciplines that acknowledge that preferences are also shaped by social norms and by individual psychology.”

She cites labor market discrimination as an example of the irrationality of the marketplace. According to the neoclassical model, employers who discriminate will be driven out of the market by competitive forces, and wage differentials will disappear in the long run. Since this clearly has not happened, there must be non-market factors that influence economic behavior. Thornborrow has her students read a variety of different writers to analyze this problem and encourages debate about whether economics provides the appropriate tools to analyze gender equity.

DaviD schMitz

steve babuljak

Eirik Evenhouse

Nancy Thornborrow

heroic side, there’s the WorldCom whistle-blower, Cynthia Cooper, who dis-covered and revealed fraud within the accounting firm where she worked, and Sherron Watkins, a vice president at Enron who helped uncover massive accounting abuses within that company.

“At great risk to their careers, these women alerted authorities and called attention to wrongdoing within their companies,” Williams says. “We study how these women looked at the problems and what they did to take action.” Students also review the misdeeds of female executives such as Martha Stewart and Leona Helmsley.

“We study classic cases from contemporary business,” says Williams. “When Nike operates in a developing country, should they pay a living wage or the prevailing wage? If Merck discovers a drug that cures a debilitating disease in the third world, but the potential patients cannot afford the medicine, should they spend corporate resources and effectively tax shareholders’ dividends in order to provide free distribution?

“Milton Friedman wrote that the business of business is business, not char-ity,” she continues. “But the only way to make a decision that you can live with is to think it through using all of your reasoning tools—including tools of classical philosophy and even religious beliefs.”

Other economics faculty bring their own experiences as women and concerns as citizens to bear in their research and in their course cur-ricula. Assistant Professor Lorien Rice focuses on poverty, discrimination, inequality, and transpor-tation and its relationship to employment. Her paper, “Cars, Employment, and Single Mothers: Do Welfare Restrictions on Assets Have an Effect?”

examines how access to transportation affects employment options for poor women.VisitingAssistantProfessorZohrehNikniahasconductedextensiveresearch on immigrant women in the U.S. as well as on gender, globalization, and development.

At Mills, the study of economics is rigorous; the department’s core is built on quantitative accounting and statistics courses. But the department also embraces research that turns traditional economic theories inside out, takes into account the ways that women’s work is often undervalued, and aims to help women become leaders with balanced lives.

The Mills program purposefully expands upon traditional “supply and demand” market discussion and delves deeply into an array of issues that affect economic conditions, including family, education and training, volun-teerism, and labor force participation.

Economist Julie Nelson wrote in her 1995 article “Feminism and Economics” that this kind of expanded analysis might not be “feminine” nor “female” but rather “an improvement of all economics, whether done by female or male practitioners.”

Or, as one student wrote in a final exam essay for Thornborrow’s course, “there are many conflicts between work and family, and unfortunately women tend to bear the brunt of that conflict. The solution, however, is not . . . to make it easier for mothers to work, rather for the structure of work to shift, and for participa-tion in the non-market activities to be more equitably shared within families.”

w i n t e r / s p r i n g 2 0 1 0 11

While the Economics Department offers an undergraduate core curriculum rooted in rigorous scholarship and critical thinking, it also supports related master’s degree programs in business and public policy. “Good business decisions are based on sound economic reason-ing,” says Thornborrow. She points to the MBA course Ethics, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship to illustrate how Mills encourages alternate models to the stereotype of the economics or business student as a profit-driven corporate shark. In the course, students examine potential conflicts between corporate interests and indi-vidual responsibility through a variety of philo-sophical lenses.

Nancy Williams, who teaches the ethics course, offers examples of women who, in the end, have made both good and bad decisions when confronted with ethical choices. On the

“The only way to make a decision that you can live with is to think it through using all of your reasoning tools—including tools of classical philosophy and even religious beliefs.” –Nancy Williams

steve babuljak

Nancy Williams

Dana Davis

12  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

m ary Lanigar ’38, who made history by becoming the first woman partner in a “Big Eight” accounting firm, was a passionate investor in the future. “She understood the importance of philanthropy,” says Clare Harding Springs ’66, an estate planning attorney who administered Lanigar’s $6.3 million bequest to Mills College. Lanigar designated most of her bequest to the Northern California Regional Scholarship, now renamed the Mary E. Lanigar Endowed Scholarship. Twenty Mills students received the scholarship this year; hundreds more will ben-efit from it in the years to come.

Lanigar’s generous and strategic gift planning was forward-looking in another significant way. Her estate symbolizes the power that women hold in the transfer of wealth from one genera-tion to the next. It also symbolizes their power to sustain the institutions and causes that they believe in—and to exercise this power beyond their lifetimes.

More than $41 trillion is expected to pass from one generation to the next or to nonprofit orga-nizations in the first half of this century. Because women, on average, live seven years longer than men, they are expected to have or inherit as much as 70 percent of this wealth to spend, invest, and donate, according to a report last year by Boston College’s Center on Wealth and Philanthropy and Forbes maga-zine. In fact, their impact is even more sweeping: research by the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University shows that, in addition to their own giving, married women also have a major influence on their spouses’ philanthropic decisions.

Estate giving at Mills

More than 400 alumnae have announced plans to make an estate gift to Mills—that is, they have included Mills in their wills or have established annuities or trusts that will benefit the College. Whether large or small, estate gifts have consistently

women power

made a tremendous difference to the College’s financial strength. In 2008–09, Mills received 30 such gifts, ranging in size from $1,000 to $1.8 million and adding up to $8.9 million, nearly half of all private giving in that time period. These gifts help the

College build for the future and make great progress toward its important goals of fiscal sustainability and institutional renewal.

Many alumnae from the 1930s, such as Lanigar, were able to accumulate wealth partly because of the remarkable economic growth in the half-century following World War II and partly because of the high value they placed on saving. Their propensity to distribute wealth to charities as part of this inter- generational transfer is a fortunate trend, but not a permanent source of funding.

Subsequent generations demonstrate different giv-ing patterns. For Baby Boomers, affected in several criti-cal ways by the recent recession, a temporary “reset of the giving button” is already noticeable, says Springs, founder and CEO of San Francisco law firm Springs & Associates, a Mills Trustee for the past 19 years, and chair of the College’s Board of Trustees from 1996 to 2001. “Baby Boomers are facing financial responsibili-ties for their children’s education and other needs, delayed retirement, and a longer life expectancy after retirement,” she says. Many members of this genera-

tion are reconsidering their giving plans and approaches in light of these unforeseen obligations.

“But that is no reason to stop thinking about philanthropy,” adds Springs. “People may need to readjust their sights, but the basic principles should not change. Women should be support-ing the causes they believe in, such as women’s education.”

Education is a key focus of women donors

New research from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute shows that women who take the lead in making choices for their households or who give independently from their husbands are more likely to give to education. In such instances, women

the transfer of

wealthBy Janis Johnson

Women have stepped up and realize that philanthropy is part of their responsibility. –Clare Harding Springs ’66

w i n t e r / s p r i n g 2 0 1 0 13

also give nearly twice as much. “As women’s wealth increases, so does their visibility and leadership in business, government, and the nonprofit sector,” according to Women’s Philanthropy on Campus: Releasing the Energy of Women Donors and Embracing the Winds of Change, published by the institute in December 2009. “Concomitant to these developments is a desire to expand the philanthropic base. Women’s philanthropy is emerging as one of the key trends that will change the course of society and the face of philanthropy today.”

The Women’s Philanthropy Institute has identified a phenom-enon it calls “the contemporary women’s philanthropy move-ment.” As more women attend college, their earnings have increased, enabling them to give independently; in addition, women have begun to realize their power to support causes that are important to them. “Women have stepped up and realize that philanthropy is part of their responsibility,” Springs says.

Understanding women’s opportunities

Women can increase the power they hold in the transfer of wealth by carefully planning their wills. They should take into account the potential impact of estate taxes, ways that planned gifts to charities can reduce such taxes, and the financial cir-cumstances of their loved ones. Some children, grandchildren, and other family members may have their own earning power, while others may have significant financial needs. “The question to consider is the amount that you feel that you can commit to your charity while still taking care of your family,” Springs advises. Conversely, when parents are planning their wills, financially successful daughters can suggest that their stake in a family’s wealth be contributed to Mills or to other nonprofit organizations they support.

Loyalty, passion, and relationships to an alma mater or other cause are major influences in women’s decisions about chari-table giving, and many take seriously the chance to teach the next generation of philanthropists to do their part. “Mills has achieved great status, and it’s very important for those of us who know Mills to continue to support it,” says Springs. “Mills presents an opportunity for women that we must preserve: a high-level education combined with an environment in which women come first. In this economic climate, we need women to think strategically about how they can best use their power and wealth to support the people and places they care most about.

“It’s a good time to rethink the things that are important.”

wealthMills women share the wealthEstategiftslargeandsmallhelpMillssupporttalentedstudents,recruittop-notchfaculty,anddevelopinnovativeprograms.HerearethreemorealumnaeofdifferentgenerationswhosecarefulplanninghasmadeabigdifferenceattheCollege.

ReadaboutMichelle Crede ’70onpage19ofMills’2008–09 Annual Report of Giving(insert).CredehasusedherinheritancetosetupanannuitythatwillfundascholarshipforresumersatMills.Uponherdeath,theprincipaloftheannuitywillendowthescholarshipinperpetuity.

MarinezoologistE. Alison Kay ’50earnedherPhDattheUniversityofHawaii,Manoa,andservedasaprofessorthereuntilherdeathin2008.Asaresultofherstudiesofnativemollusks,Kaybecameanenvironmentalactivist,fightingtosavethevolcaniccraterDiamondHeadfromdevelopmentandservingontheScienceAdvisoryBoardoftheEnvironmentalProtectionAgency.ToensureMills’academicexcellence,sheleft$1.75millionfortheCollegetouseinfulfillingitsgreatestneeds.

In1939,Jean Jenkins ’35sentMillsagiftof$1withanotethatsaidshewishedshecouldgivemore.Ahomemakerandmother,shemarriedacircuitcourtjudgeandinheritedfamilywealth.Shesteppeduptomanagethecouple’spersonalinvestmentsandlandholdingsafterherhusbandsufferedastrokein1990.Whenshepassedawayin2008,sheleft90percentofherestatetotheCollege.Hergifthasprovidedscholarshipsupportto293students.

How estate gifts make a difference at Mills

Endowed Academic Support

17%

Endowed Student Support

13%

Current Support andScholarships

70%

This chart shows the distribution of estate gifts that came to the College between July 1, 2008, and June 30, 2009.

To learn more about how you can contribute to Mills through your estate planning, contact Director of Gift Planning April Hopkins toll-free at 877.PGMILLS (877.746.4557) or by email at aprilh@mills.edu.

W

14  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

was a resumer working on my BA, and a friend was prepar-ing to go abroad for a semes-ter. We threw a going-away party for her, and her fiancé brought Walter Sanford to the party.” Ellen and Walter soon began dating, and Ellen met her future in-laws on the Mills campus. She recalls, “We attended a Shakespeare play in Lisser Hall. I was so ner-vous to meet Helen!” Ellen needn’t have worried, though; she and Helen grew close, she and Walter married and had a daughter, and Walter began work on a master’s degree in interdisciplinary computer sci-ence at Mills. He would drop Kaila off at the Children’s School on his way to class. Eric Sanford commented, “We have more generations of girls in the family who are growing up and hearing about Mills, so we may have some additional Bent Twigs in the future.”

hen Mills announced the opportunity to name seats in the newly-renovated Jeannik Méquet Littlefield Concert Hall in winter 2009, Ellen McDaniels Sanford ’88 imme-diately thought of her mother, Dorothy Barton Cone: “My mom couldn’t afford to go to Mills, but she lived nearby and walked to Mills twice a week to take piano lessons. The 20th anniversary of her passing is this year, and I still deeply miss her. My daughter, Kaila, has now transferred to Mills, so it seemed appropriate for my mom, my daughter, and me to ‘sit together’ in the beautiful concert hall.”

Ellen called her mother-in-law, Mills Trustee Helen Drake Muirhead ’58, who remem-bers, “When Ellen told me that she planned to name seats in the Littlefield Concert Hall to help support the renovation effort, I was all for it.” Both

women describe their family as “extremely close,” which meant, in this case, that Helen began calling other relatives to see if they might be interested in cre-ating a row of named seats.

In all, nine seats were named for members of the family, seven of whom attended Mills: Helen; her son, Walter Sanford, MA ’93; Walter’s wife, Ellen; their daughter, Kaila Sanford ’11; Krista M. Muirhead ’88, MD, Helen’s step-daughter and an oncologist; Cynthia Morris, MD, Helen’s niece, now a fam-ily practitioner who completed her post-baccalaureate pre-medical certificate at Mills in 1985; and Eric Sanford, MD, Helen’s son, who completed his post-bac pre-med certificate in 1988 and now practices family medicine for the underserved.

“I wouldn’t even be a part of this wonderful family if it weren’t for Mills,” Ellen Sanford explained. “In the late 1980s, I

The entire family plans to visit the Littlefield Concert Hall—and their seats—far into the future. All say that Mills has been an important part of their lives, and their relation-ship to the College is one of the many ties that binds them.

When you make a gift to name one of the Littlefield Concert Hall’s 442 fixed seats, your name—or the name of a relative, friend, or professor you choose to honor—will be engraved on a brass nameplate on the seat ’s armrest. Two donation levels are available: with a gift of $2,500, you may name a seat on the main level, which is clos-est to the stage. With a gift of $1,500, you may name a seat in the upper tier.

To name a seat—or seats for your entire family—contact Allison Murdock, donor relations coordinator, at 510.430.2301 or amurdock@mills.edu.

Helen Drake Muirhead ’58 and her clan sponsor a row

of seats in the Jeannik Méquet Littlefield Concert HallA family affair

Best seats in the house: The Sanford and Muirhead families gather in the Littlefield Concert Hall. Front row, left to right: Walter Sanford, MA ’93; Helen Drake Muirhead ’58; Cynthia Morris ’85, MD. Back row, left to right: Ellen Sanford ’88; Kaila Sanford ’11; and Krista M. Muirhead ’88, MD. Not pictured: Eric Sanford ’88, MD.

By Heather Haas

dana davis

w i n t e r / s p r i n g 2 0 1 0 23

Alumnae Elaine Baker ’31,October5,inRoseburg,Oregon.Shewasanaccomplishedweaver,spinningherownwoolandattendingworkshopsinGreeceandScandinavia.Sheissurvivedbytwochildrenandsixgrandchil-dren.

Kathryn Miller Bowden, MA ’35,October4,inSeattle.AdocentattheSeattleArtMuseumandtheAsianArtMuseum,sheissurvivedbythreedaughtersandsixgrandchildren.

Dorothy Shwayder Heitler ’35,November26,inDenver,Colorado.Sheissurvivedbyfivechildren,includingLynnHeitler’70;sisterNormaShwayder Degen’43;cousinEleanorSims’64;and17grandchildren.

Elizabeth Chandler McEwen ’36,January20,2006,inAlbany,Oregon.

Harriet Burnside Russell ’36,July7,2001,inRanchoMirage,California.

Louise Ganteaume Littlehale ’37,October7,inPlymouth,Massachusetts.

Yvonne Ford Bowman ’39,October20,inSalemtowne,Oregon.AnOregonnative,shespentmostofheradultlifeinHawaii,whereshewastheorganistforseveralchurchesaswellasaccompanistfortheHonoluluSymphonyChorus.ShewasalsoassistantchoraldirectoratKailuaHighSchool.Survivorsincludethreechildrenandfourgrandsons.

Jean Hinton Bennion ’40,June16,2003,inWorley,Idaho.AlongtimeresidentofSpokane,shewasamemberoftheChurchofLatterDaySaints,thePTA,andChiOmegasorority.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,Irving;fivechildren,includingKathleenBennionBarrett’64;14grand-children,includingAndreaBarrett’90;andnieceMargaretYoungOrlando’69.

Maybelle Clark Macdonald ’40,December10,inPortland,Oregon.Aleadingphilanthropist,sheestablishedacharitablefundwhichsupportedawidevarietyoforganizationsadvancingeduca-tion,thearts,health,andpublicwelfareinthePortlandarea.Sheissurvivedbyasonand11grandchildren.

Virginia Hoag Stephenson, MA ’40,November12,inSanAntonio,Texas.Shespent20yearsasanArmywifebeforesettlinginSanAntonio,whereshewasactiveintheBelleMeadeGardenClubandvariousorganizationsatTrinityUniversity.Sheissurvivedbyherdaughterandtwograndsons.

Ernestine Johnson Gonzales ’42,October14,inElMonte,California.

Katherine Eaton Bennett ’43,November6,2007,inMonterey,California.

Katherine Philipsborn Rosenblatt ’44,November10,inSanLeandro,California.Shewasaneducator,writer,lesbianactivist,andadvocateforolderwomen.ShealsoservedasclassagentandamemberoftheAAMCBoardofGovernors.Sheissurvivedbyherpartner,JoycePierson,andthreechildren.

Mary Scofield McIntosh ’45,April26,2009,inSalinas,California.

Margery Foote Meyer ’45,November25,inCarmel,California.AfoundingmemberfortheCasaAbregoClubforWomenandanaccomplishedswimmer,sheracedfromAlcatrazIslandtoSanFranciscoattheageof71andwasinductedintotheInter-nationalMastersSwimmingHallofFamein2009.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,Bruce;twochildren;andtwograndchildren.

Ruth Armstrong Reid ’45,July29,inMedford,Oregon.Shewasamastergardener,adedicatedcivicvolunteer,andalongtimehorsewomanandskier.Sheissurvivedbythreesonsandsixgrandchildren.

Elizabeth Raines Harrop ’47,October11,inSanDiego,California.RaisedinaNavyfamilyandlatermarriedtoanArmyofficer,shelearnedaboutculturessurroundingheratpostsfromAustriatoGuamtoPalestine.Shewasagracioushostess,anactivememberoftheEpiscopalChurch,andaworldtraveler.Sheissurvivedbytwochildrenandfivegrandchildren.

Marilyn Endres Larsen ’47,October26,inSacramento,California.Aftera20-yearcareerasateacher,sheenjoyedtraveling,playingbridge,andvolunteeringasadocentattheSacramentoZoo.Sheissurvivedbytwochildrenandthreegrandchildren.

Babette Harris Meyers ’47,May5,2009,inSanBernardino,California.Sheservedonhercommunityhospitalfoundationandthelibraryboard,andwasaleaderinothercivicorganizations.Sheissurvivedbytwosonsandthreegrandchildren.

Jean White Sell ’47,July1,inConcord,California.

Lucy Perkins Shauer ’48,Sept.20,inCamarillo,California.Survivorsincludeason.

Barbara Johnson Piper ’49,August2,inHutchinson,Kansas.Shehadalongcareerinrealestatesales,wasamemberofthePresbyterianChurch,andsupportedherlocallibraryandartsorganizations.Survivorsincludetwochildren.

Sammie Loftin Carlile ’50,April18,2008,inCoronado,California.Devotedtoherfriends,family,boating,andcruises,shewasalongtimememberoftheSanDiegoYachtClub.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,Morton;fourchildren;sixgrandchildren;andhersister,SterlingDorman’47.

Philomen Kelly Severance, MA ’50,July15,inSonoma,California.Ahighschoolteacherandcommunityvolunteer,shewasanexcellentbowler,chairingtheCaliforniaSeniorWomen’s

In MemoriamNoticesofdeathsreceivedbeforeDecember31,2009

Ruth Church Gupta ’38 (left), September 18, in San Francisco. She and her husband established the law firm of Gupta and Gupta, where she practiced until her retirement in 1995. An advocate for women’s rights, she was the first female president of the Lawyers Club of San Francisco, served as the first woman on many professional and government committees and commissions, and was named Hastings College of Law alumna of the year in 1981, the same year she pre-sented the Commencement address at Mills. Survivors include many nieces and nephews.

Tournamentfor23years,competingin38championshiptournaments,andeditingthestateGolden Nuggetbowlingnewspaper.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,Robert,andason.

Elizabeth Chase Ward Wheelock ’50,November24,2008,inEdina,Minnesota.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,Bob;twochildren;andfivegrandchildren.Lucy Wichers Rathjens ’51,June18,inLexington,Massachusetts.

Anne Johnson Scepansky, MA ’53,November4,inHouston,Texas.Asamilitarywife,sheentertaineddignitariesinpostsaroundtheworld;later,shefoundedachapterofPiBetaPhiandwas

activeinthatorganization’sactivities.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,Joseph;adaughter;andtwograndsons.

Martha McInally Hadsell ’54,January27,2009,inNaples,Florida.Shewasanadvocateforeducationforunderprivilegedchildren,anavidgolfer,andaskilledseamstress.Survivorsincludeherhusband,Norman;threesons;sixgrandchildren;andsisterMaryMcInallyGrover’61.

Annette Lee Park ’55,November24,inColusa,California.Shewasco-ownerofChungSunMarket,amemberoftheOrderoftheEasternStar,andastaunchRepublican.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,SoHan;twochildren;andthreegrandchildren.

Patricia Ducommun Frey ’56,October25,inWalnutCreek,California.AlongtimeresidentofSantaBarbara,shewasactivetherewithCommunityCovenantChurch.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,Gerald;threechildren;andfivegrandchildren.

Katherine “Kitty” Sinclair Collins ’57,November7,inBelvedere,California.ShewasasupporterofthedeYoungMuseumandalongtimememberoftheFranciscaClub.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,Tim;twochildren;andthreegrandchildren.

Letitia Thoreson Teeter ’57,December3,inKnoxville,Tennessee.Anaccomplishedflutist,shewasavolunteerteacher’sandlibraryaideandworkedoccasionallyasafreelancebookeditor.ShewasanactivememberofPhilanthropicEducationalOrganization(PEO)andoftheOssoliCirclewomen’sclub.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,Dwight;threechildren;andagrandson.

Earlene Neill Martin, MA ’58,June22,inBandon,Oregon.

Tekla Henningsen Budd ’60,May3,2005,inWelches,Oregon.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,Donald;twochildren;twostepchildren;andeightgrandchildren.

Judith Kuster Ackerly ’62,October16,inSanDiego,California.SheearnedherJDfromtheUniversityofSanFranciscoandpracticedpovertylawasciviliancounselfortheNavy.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,RobertFlynn;twosons;andfourgrandchildren.

Martha Latt, MFA ’67,October5,inCleveland,Ohio.Shewasanartistandteacherindrawing,sculpture,andphotography.Inlaterlife,shewastourguidetothousandsofvisitorstotheClevelandarea.Survivorsincludehersisterandseveralniecesandnephews.

James Shields, MFA ’72,September17,inOakland,California.HesangwiththeSanFranciscoOperaChorusandOaklandInterfaithGospelChoirandservedasanOaklandpoliceofficer.Survivorsincludehiswife,Mary.

Phyllis Kelsey ’77,October27,2008,inHaddam,Connecticut.

Myra Paradise ’77,October20,inOakland,California.Sheworkedasaninstructorfordisabledchildren,wasagracioushostess,andenjoyedgardening.

Linda Alaniz Graff ’78,December3,inAlameda,California.Shewasapreschoolteacherandacommittedvolunteerinmanychurch,school,andcommunitygroups.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,Gary;threesons;andthreegrandchildren.

Diane Coffelt Crosby, MA ’02,September4,inHayward,California.Sheissurvivedbyherhusband,John;threechildren;andagranddaughter.

Tiffany Thigpen ’05,October3,inOakland,California.

Leila Abu-Saba, MFA ’07,October8,inOakland,California.ShewasanEnglishcompositionteacheratlocalcommunitycollegesandwrotetheblogDove’sEyeView,exploringtopicsofMiddleEastpeace,literature,cooking,sustainabledevelopment,andmore.Survivorsincludeherhusband,David,andtwosons.

Wynetta Spencer Kollman ’73,October 13, in Sacramento. She earned her PhD in chemistry at Howard University and had a long career with the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. She was a member of Delta Sorority, the Order of the Eastern Star PHA, and the Order of the Golden Circle. She is survived by her parents, four siblings, and many nieces and nephews. A part of Kollman’s estate will fund a scholarship at Mills for African American women pursuing degrees in physical sciences.

Faculty and StaffEffie Lee Morris Jones,alecturerineducationatMillsinthelate1970s,diedNovember10inSanFrancisco.ShegraduatedwithaBSandMLSfromCaseWesternUniversityandin1963movedtoSanFrancisco,whereshebecamethefirstcoordinatorofchildren’sservicesattheSanFranciscoPublicLibrary.Achampionofmakinglibrariesaccessibleforallpatronsregardlessofage,disability,orlanguagespoken,shefoundedtheSanFranciscoChapteroftheWomen’sNationalBookAssociationandbecamethefirstAfricanAmericanpresidentofthePublicLibraryAssociation.Morrisserved12yearsontheCaliforniaStateLibraryBoardandwasalifetimememberoftheSanFranciscoAfricanAmericanHistoricalandCulturalSociety.Survivorsincludetwochildren,DavidandJacqueline.

Thomas O. Bente,November13,inPalmSprings.AnassistantprofessorofSpanishatMillsfrom1967to1972,hetaughtfor25yearsintheSpanish,PortugueseandLatinAmericanStudiesdepartmentsatTempleUniversityinPhiladelphia.HeretiredtoPalmSpringsin1999andcontinuedtoteachasanadjunctatCollegeoftheDesert.Heissurvivedbyhispartner,GeoffreyW.LaDomus.

Spouses and FamilyYoshiko Adachi,motherofDirectorofAthleticsThemy-JoAdachi,November22,inElCerrito,California.

John Baptista,husbandofMaryBradyBaptista’47,inSanLeandro,California.

William Berreyesa,part-nerofDianeCalesonMerchant’58,December8,inLosAltos,California.

Jean Boyce-Smith,motherofAnnHarrisBoyce’72,September25,inNapa,California.

Keith G. Coblentz,sonofJaneCudlipKing’42andbrotherofNancyCoblentzPatch’80,October6,whileonvacationinSouthLakeTahoe.

24  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

’70

w i n t e r / s p r i n g 2 0 1 0 25

Gifts in Memory of

Leila Abu-Saba, MFA ’07, by Donna Baranski-Walker and Martin Fong, Nan Bentley, Alistair Black and Deborah Savage, Nicholas Bu-Saba and Maha Farhat, Edythe Chan ’71, MA ’72, Joan Hoelzer, F. Edward Bentley, S. Bayne Bentley, Susan Cregger, Deborah Downer, Eva Eilenberg, Janet and M. Edward Gibson, Joy and Robert Hilden, Ellen and Martin Klein, Katharine Kunst, Lynette Lee, Leah Libow, Stephanie Lipow and Anthony Walecka, Ericka Lutz, Celeste MacLeod, David MacLeod, Lois Mark, Sally and David McIntyre, Eva and Michel Nicola, Katherine and Michael Olivier, Paula Rainey, Hilary and Andrew Redmond, Joan Roderman, Susan and Hiko Shimamoto, Mady Shumofsky, Elizabeth Sibley, John Simon, Vanessa Spear, Susan Yascolt

Joan Gilbert Bailin ’51 by Georgian Simmonds Bahlke ’51, P ’80

Sheila Weibert Ballantyne ’58 by Margaret Roberts Tomczak ’58

Janet Costar Bentley ’43 by Evelyn Lenker Hart ’41

Keith Coblentz, sonofJaneCudlipKing’42,by Barbara L. Hunter ’57

Katherine “Kitty” Sinclair Collins ’57 by Jean Mann MacDonald ’57

Jane Curliano ’88 by Cecily Peterson ’88

Evelyn “Peg” Deane ’41 by Mary Hart Clark ’42

Courtney Donnell ’08 by Charles Betsey and Margaret Simms, Carolyn and Elmo Neal, Amber Valdez ’08

ReceivedSeptember1–November30,2009

Edith Lilienthal Dorfman ’42 by Rachel Walter Michaelsen ’41

Sybil “Syb” Johnson Dray ’41, P ’72 by Lester Dray, P ’72, Elizabeth Bryant Miles ’34, Barbara Johnson Penhallow ’46, Jean Morgan Randall ’41

John Gilbert Fall, P ’81, husbandofMargaretBardFall’50,P’81,by Yvonne Steele Byron ’50

John Fenley, P ’75, by the Mills College Club of New York

Lori Fong by Marilyn and William Learn

Herbert Graham by Carol Lotz Wenzel ’46, MA ’47

Francis Herrick, husbandofMariamWhiteHerrick’23,by Sally Mayock Hartley ’48

Wynetta Spencer Kollman ’73 by the De Goff family

Jean and Y.H. Kwong, P ’54, P ’70, by the family of Y. H. Kwong, Mei Kwong and Laurence C. Franklin

David Landes, P ’08, by Daphne Muse, P ’08

Marilyn Endres Larsen ’47 by Sheila Zisko

Elaine Lubisch, P ’92, by Karen Lubisch ’92

Boitumelo “Tumi” McCallum ’09 by Mildred Hudson, John Jordan, A. Lenora Magubane, Teboho Moja, P ’09, Margaret Moja, Dolores Morris, Lillian Petty, Cynthia Rountree, Mavis Shepherd, Roberta Yancy

Robaline Jenne Meacham ’43, MA ’44, by Phyllis Gardiner, Kathleen and John Swart, Edith Walsh

Elsie Richmond Monette ’46 by Betty Taves Whitman ’46

Laura Bliven Moseley ’64 by Oakland-Berkeley Branch, Alumnae Association of Mills College

Isabel Schemel Mulcahy ’44 by Isabelle Hagopian Arabian ’45, Bret Brodowy, Cathryn and Jon Buurma, C & V Representatives Inc., Anne Sherwood Copenhagen ’44, Michelle Deng, Jean and Arnold Fickett, Julie Wilson Ganz, Marjorie Greene, Judy and Walter Haniger, Allan Howard, Barbara L. Hunter ’57, Jay Jacobus, Albert and Frances Matteucci, Catherine McCormack McGilvray ’56, UCSF Clinical Informatics & Clinical Documentation Team, Janet Meyer, Lorraine and Frederick Mielke Jr., Ronald and Lisa Miller, Tessa Moore and Paul Taylor, Thomas Mulcahy, Newton Remmel Attorneys, Jeanne and George O’Brien, Donald Ostrus, Palo Alto Area Mills College Club, Peninsula Endodontics, Patricia Rivers, Nancy and Norm Rossen, Claudia Rossi and Stephen Sanfilippo, Jeanette Schemel, Kethen So, Joan Spicer, Elizabeth and Raman Stultz, Judith and Larry Suelzle, Neilda and Howard Sussman, Margaret Taylor, Jocelyn Tom, Carol Viele

Grace Williams Nicholl ’39 by Nancy Marwick DeMuth ’70

John Sartin, husbandofNorrisMurphySartin,MA’45,by Helen Haigh Mills, MA ’46

Barbara Miller Schlauch ’48 by Marilyn Wilson Newland ’48, P ’75

Mary and Walter Schreitmueller, P ’86, by Teresa Schreitmueller ’86

Dorothy Shauer Smythe, P ’79, by the Mills College Club of New York

Martha Wickland Stumpf ’46 by Carol Lotz Wenzel ’46, MA ’47, Thomasina Woida ’80

Ann Peck Ward ’38 by Peggy Weber ’65 and Robert Whitlock, P ’02

Shirley Weishaar by Deborah Feldman ’89, Thomasina Woida ’80

John Morris Fenley,fatherofMolissaFenley’75,October21,inModesto,California.

Abdul Ghani,husbandofAneesGhani’91,MA’94,May14,inDublin,California.

Ekkehard Heyder,husbandofBettyWileyHeyder’60,January28,2009,inSt.Charles,Missouri.

Marian Jackson,motherofGwenJacksonFoster’67,October2,inLosAngeles.

Chris Johnson,fatherofJenniferKristenJohnson’09,April5,2009,inCalistoga,California.

Harry Kendall,fatherofJudithKendall’84andElizabethKendall’75,January18,2008,inOakland,California.

Tor Lyshaug,husbandofElizabethWilcoxLyshaug’51andfatherofAnneKariLyshaugWortmann’81,inWilsonville,Oregon.

Elaine Lubisch,motherofKarenLubisch’92,March23,2007,inWinters,California.

James Moritz,fatherofRamonaMoritz’89,October8,inWatsonville,California.

Charles Reno,fatherofDeborahReno’78,September1,inGreenValley,Arizona.

John Sartin,husbandofNorrisMurphySartin,MA’45,November15,inMetairie,Louisiana.

Dorothy Smythe,motherofSuzanneSmythe’79,June22,2009,inCarmel,California.

William Turner,husbandofMarySusanTurner’57,May21,2009,inMesa,Arizona.

Randall Y. Warner,husbandofElizabethAvakianWarner’76,October20,inSanDiego,California.

Delmar Vuksich,husbandofAnkaBratichevichVuksich’38,August2,inSanJose,California.

P=parent;Forinformationaboutmakingatributegift,contact510.430.2097ordonors@mills.edu.

Want to be part of the next “Sound off”? Sign up for the @mills email newsletter—just send your email address to alumnae-relations@mills.edu

along with your full name, any previous name, and class year. Write “@mills” in the subject line of your message. We’ll also post the next

“Sound off” question on Mills’ Facebook page.

I had a mouse (a real, live mouse) in my Olney

Hall dorm room that really irritated me. I convinced

the dorm mother, Mrs. Fusco—a very sweet, soft-

spoken woman—to come to my room, but when

we got there someone had placed a stuffed mouse

near my closet. Of course, Mrs. Fusco was quite

relieved and then didn’t believe that there was

really a mouse problem at all. To this day I don’t

know who put the stuffed mouse in my room.

—Rosemary Passman Trujillo ’63

26  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly26  M i l l s Q u a r t e r ly

Tell us the best prank you pulled— or that was pulled on you. College life isn’t all about

serious academic inquiry. Sometimes it’s more about serious fun.

i l l u s t r at i o n s b y d e b o r a h z e m k e

Sound off!

w i n t e r / s p r i n g 2 0 1 0 27

I returned to my top-floor room in Olney Hall one afternoon to discover that my bed was teetering on the wall of the sleeping porch, right above the entrance to the dormitory! It didn’t take long to gather friends to help me pull the bed back where it belonged. I was sure I knew who had done it, so I called her brother, and he sent me a picture taken of her when she was a child. I saw to it that the picture was printed in the next edition of the Mills Weekly (now the Campanil). The perpetrator was my future sister-in-law Aimee Wolff Minkin ’43. We have now lived next door to one another for 35 years so you know there were no hard feelings!

—Ann Sulzberger Wolff ’42

A favorite of the Class of 1952 was ringing the Campanil chimes 52 times and running fast. We also moved all the furniture from the Mills Hall liv-ing room to the second floor. Aside from water bagging over the Mills Hall front portico, I think the best was removing bedroom doors (they came up by lifting them off the hinges) and installing them under the victims’ mattresses, awaiting discovery when victims finally decided to go to bed after a fruitless search. Good Lord, we were energetic!

—Louise Levis Weiss ’52

For whatever reason, a holiday had been cancelled—it might have been Heyday Playday—and classes were to be held as usual. Someone (not me, really!) stole a piece of President Barbara White’s letterhead and wrote a memo restor-ing the holiday and cancelling classes. The typed and signed (forged, of course) memo was taped up on the doors of all the dorms the night before and so every-one went crazy and made plans to stay up late, sleep in, blow off whatever assign-ments were due.… Administration con-ceded defeat and we had our holiday.

—Sara McClure ’81

When we cleaned out the storage area in our dorm, Reinhardt Hall, we found an enormous stuffed St. Bernard that we affectionately named “Ho-Bag.” A few weeks later, on a warm spring night,

a group of us—including Therese Poncy ’87, Karen Simi ’89, and Cindy d’Armand ’87—enjoyed some “liquid refreshments,” then decided to explore the mysteries of the upper floors of Mills Hall, which had been closed since before we arrived on campus. Somehow we managed to pull down the fire escape ladder and climb in through an unlocked window.

At some point, realizing our adventure would be nothing but a memory unless we did something about it, we climbed back down, ran to the dorm, and picked up Ho-Bag. We somehow managed to get him up the ladder in our inebriated state and placed him prominently in the center window of the fourth floor.

—Cheryl Reid-Simons ’87

A small room off the entry hallway in Ethel Moore Hall is called the Date Room, because in the old days when a gentle-man came to call on a resident, they had to sit together in the date room under the supervision of an adult staff member.

One of my dormmates had a date with a guy who had never been to Mills before, so my friends and I made arrange-ments with her. My friend Rebecca, a theater major, dressed up in spinsterish clothes, pinned up her hair, and put on some spectacles. When the young man in question showed up he had to meet the “dorm mother” in the Date Room. He and his date sat there for almost half an hour while Rebecca peppered him with questions to determine his suitability. We watched from the next room, trying not to giggle too loudly. After he was given strict admonishments to have her home by 10 and to “act like a gentleman,” they were finally allowed to leave. I don’t know if he ever had the courage to come back for a second date!

—Stephanie Saad Thompson ’88

During our senior year , we had a publication party for our literary maga-zine, the Walrus. Two of my friends left the reception, taking with them one of the delicious sourdough bread bowls filled with spinach dip. A friend and I decided to “punk” them by sending them a letter on ASMC Academic Board letter-head, stating that they were seen steal-ing the spinach dip and potentially would not be able to walk the stage during Commencement. They both panicked; one was on the verge of tears. I let them sweat it out for almost 24 hours, then let the cat out of the bag. I endured a couple of their loving expletives, then we all had a huge laugh afterward. Yes, those spin-ach dips were quite tasty.

—Sonja Piper Dosti ’92

I also snuck into Mills Hall’s third floor with some friends on a bored night. We donned black outfits, berets, and flash-lights, studied the frequency of security patrols, and climbed up the tree and fire escape. Spooky! There was a big stuffed St. Bernard dog in the top floor middle window—his silhouette got all of our adrenalin pumping!

—Stephanie Griffin ’91

Mills College 5000 MacArthur Blvd. Oakland, CA 94613-1301

510.430.3312 quarterly@mills.edu www.mills.edu

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Mills Quarterly

The Three P’s: People, Planet, ProfitThe Second Annual Conference  of the Center for  Socially Responsible Business

Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business at Mills College

Business and nonprofit executives, economists, policy makers, scholars, and students are invited to learn how a variety of companies fulfill their commitment to sustain the environments and communities where they do business. Speakers at this free one-day event will discuss the idea of the “Three Ps,” in which a corporation’s success is measured not only by the financial bottom line, but also by its social, ethical, and environmental performance.

Registration is free but space is limited; lunch will be provided in the Student Union.

Please register online by April 8 at www.acteva.com/go/csrb. For more information, visit www.mills.edu/mba/csrb, call 510.430.3248, or email csrb@mills.edu.

The Center for Socially Responsible Business is made possible through generous support from

The Elfenworks Foundation.

Friday,April9,2010 r 8:45am–5:00pm

Keynote Speaker:  Suzanne Fallender, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and Communications, Intel Corporation

1. Mike Hannigan,PresidentandCo-founder,GiveSomethingBack

2.Simran Sethi,AssociateProfessor,UniversityofKansasSchoolofJournalismandMassCommunications;authorofEthical Markets: Growing the Green Economy

1 2

Celebrate Commencement

May 15, 2010Honor Mills’ recommitment to

women’s education with Speaker

NaNcy pelosi

See page 6 for details