spring 2014 issue 6 (commencement edition)

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Go Green ‘14 THE CAMPANIL 05.06.14 MELODIE MIU Achievements Remembered News Anna Murch UCSD Bound 2 see page 9 see page Adjunct Union see page Soon-to-be Mills gradu- ate Camille Kaslan is off to UC San Diego to study physical chemistry. Mills remembers one of its most re- vered professors and prolific artists. Murch taught at Mills for 22 years before she died of cancer March 26. Mills’ adjunct professors are cur- rently voting in a union election. Get all the details and see what one adjunct has to say about it. volume 99 issue 13

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Spring 2014 Issue 6 (Commencement Edition) of The Campanil.

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Go Green ‘14THE CAMPANIL 05.06.14

MELODIE MIU

Achievements Remembered News Anna MurchUCSD Bound

2see page 9see page

Adjunct Union

see page

Soon-to-be Mills gradu-ate Camille Kaslan is off to UC San Diego to study physical chemistry.

Mills remembers one of its most re-vered professors and prolific artists. Murch taught at Mills for 22 years before she died of cancer March 26.

Mills’ adjunct professors are cur-rently voting in a union election. Get all the details and see what one adjunct has to say about it.

volume 99 issue 13

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Senior Camille Kaslan, a chemistry major, has been accepted to the biochemistry and chemistry department’s doctorate program at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), with a concentration in physical chemistry. As Kaslan graduates from Mills, she is following the legacy of her grandmother, aunt and mother, who are all Mills alumnae.

“Specifically, the program I was accepted into is a track that emphasizes physical chemistry,” Kaslan said. “For people who don’t know what physical chemistry is, that’s kind of where chemistry and physics kiss and kind of become the same thing,”

She will be working with the quantum behavior of matter, where chemistry and quantum mechanics connect, according to Kaslan. Kaslan will also be focusing on how a molecule works when using optics, a branch of physics that involves the behavior and proper-

ties of light.One lab Kaslan saw while at UCSD was a materials research lab where transistors, a device that can control the flow of an

electric current like a switch, are being built. “It doesn’t really seem to be analogous to what people think of chemistry as,” Kaslan said. “It’s not liquids and beakers any-

more; it’s giant machines and vacuums and expensive parts and pieces. You walk into this lab that I looked at and you feel like you’re walking onto a spaceship.”

As of right now, Kaslan is hoping that once she gets her doctorate, she could do post-doctoral research either in a national laboratory or at NASA, or find a position as a tenure-track chemistry professor at the university level.

“Hopefully, that’ll happen before I’m 50. We’ll see,” Kaslan said.Kaslan also has dreams of returning to Mills to teach.

“I’ve often had dreams about going back and teaching at Mills just because so many women in my family have been to Mills, [and] it’s done so much for me,” Kaslan said. “It’s kind of a pipe dream I have.”Kaslan said that her time at Mills has helped her learn to think more critically.

“Lately, I have been noticing the way I think about the world. The way that I intake information and process it is really different from when I was 18 years old,” Kaslan said. “I’m really able to make really great logical deduction and reasonable connections, really incorporate skepticism and analytical thought. It’s been very rewarding to me.”

Amelia “AJ” Parmidge isn’t just graduating with the standard bachelor’s degree in May; instead, she will be receiving a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a Masters of Arts in Interdisciplin-ary Computer Science. To top it off, she has a full time position as a software engineer at the huge tech mogul

Google waiting for her after she has her degrees in hand.Like most recent graduates, Parmidge is unsure of where her career will take her, only that she plans to stick with

Google for now.“I’ll be anywhere Google needs me to be!” Parmidge said in an email. “To be honest, anywhere Google is is a

tech hub.”Parmidge has had two summer internships at Google during her undergraduate career that have led up to her securing

a full-time position. Parmidge described interning with Google as an “incredible” experience.“Working in [the] industry is a very different experience from taking classes,” Parmidge said in an email. “In the begin-

ning of my internships, I sure found it odd not to have homework when I left for the night! I would say that I learned at least as much during my internships as I have from any of my classes.”

When asked what she will miss most about Mills, Parmidge’s response was the kindred spirits she has found in staff and professors as well as students, who Parmidge said “challenge each other to be the best they can be without

destructive competition.”“Historically, I’ve always rolled my eyes when someone said, ‘You’re going to make lifelong friends here,’ but my

experience at Mills has shown me that such a thing is actually possible,” Parmidge said.Parmidge wasn’t always set on venturing into the field of computer science; when she first arrived at Mills, she was

positive that she was going to work towards being a biochemist. However, she said that when she took her first computer science course, she realized that changing her academic path was an option.

In light of that change, Parmidge’s advice for prospective students is simple: “don’t pigeonhole yourself.”“That’s what’s so incredible about Mills; there are so many opportunities to cross disciplinary boundaries,” Parmidge said. “I am so incredibly grateful that I got the chance. If I had gone somewhere else, I am not sure that I

would be who and where I am today.”

Imani Russell: Off to Africaby Terrapin Frazier

Often, graduation is both the celebration of past achievements and the beginning of a new adventure. For senior Imani Russell, who will receive a biology degree, her achievements in the last four years have paved the way to South Africa, where she will be working with Animal Planet’s Meerkat Manor this August.

Meerkat Manor will not be Russell’s first research experience with fuzzy mammals; Russell said her research at Mills has helped prepare her for the job. In 2013, Russell was awarded the Barrett Scholarship to conduct research alongside Mills Professor Dr. Jenn Smith. For eight hours a day over the summer of 2013, Russell studied the sociality of California ground squirrels at Briones Regional Park.

“A lot of studies are doing this right now, which is pretty interesting, using [animals’] social habits and how they interact with each other and form coalitions and how that applies to human behavior,” Russell said. “We all had different aspects of the project, but mine was on parasites and disease transmission.”

The potential for undergraduate students to work with professors on research is one reason Russell said she’s glad she chose Mills over Berkeley, but it was a close call four years ago. Russell said opportunities like this have become an important part of her experience at Mills.

“It was a tie, [because] I wanted to go to Berkeley also,” Russell said. “The undergraduate research opportunities at Mills are amazing. I don’t think I’d be where I am today, and I don’t think I’d be on the same path if I had gone to a bigger school like Berkeley. I think I’d be farther behind and still trying to figure out what I wanted.”

Russell’s degree will be a Bachelor of Science in biology with an ecology practice track. Russell said she hopes to pursue a doctorate and a career in ecology.

“Overall, I want to do field research in conservation of endangered species and ecosystems. Anything that falls under the um-brella of that, I think I wouldn’t mind having as a career.”

Because neither of her parents finished college, Russell said she had trouble in the college application process and difficulty set-tling into a school routine. Russell was able to reach out to friends for help, but also recommends the resources on campus for other students.

“I’m trying to tell people who are first generation or kind of first generation to just use the resources that are available at Mills, and you can push yourself to achieve whatever you want to achieve if you put the effort forth,” Russell said. “It doesn’t really matter if you don’t have the resources at home because there are a ton of resources, especially at Mills.”

Russell said she is looking forward to commencement, which her brother, boyfriend, parents and grandparents will all be attending. “They’re super excited,” Russell said. “My mom didn’t finish college so they’re very excited that I made it through, I’m moving on and going for my PhD, ulti-

mately. They’re very proud.”

by Natalie Meier

Camille Kaslan, UCSD Boundby Octavia Sun

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05.06.14 Achievements

Going to Google: Amelia “AJ” Parmidge

05.06.14 3

Graduating senior Beki McElvain has accomplished a lot at Mills College. Along with completing her Bachelor of Arts in public policy, she founded The Policy Forum, Mills’ first public policy publication, which provides a space for open policy discussion and discourse. In the summer of 2013, McElvain also attended the International Summer Exchange

Program hosted by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology — a university ranked number one in the World’s Top 300 Asian Universities for the past three years.

“I participated in a research project outside of Guangzhou, where we studied the cultural sustainability of villages during the rapid urbanization of China,” McElvain said.

McElvain explained that her Mills thesis, “Oakland Chinatown: Displacement Risk and the Ethnic Economic Enclave,” was inspired by the summer exchange.

The list of her accomplishments goes on.Last week, McElvain was presented the Most Outstanding Senior in Public Policy award – an award only given to a

graduating student who has demonstrated both academic excellence and service towards the local and Mills communities. Moments like this made McElvain’s list of favorite Mills memories, which also includes her Chinese classes, Loke Davis’ tennis classes and the quiet days in which she would walk the trails on campus.

Beki has chosen to pursue a master’s of city planning at UC Berkeley with a focus on urban design, community develop-ment and affordable housing for the Bay Area.

“I feel incredible,” McElvain said. “I remember someone telling me many years ago that college was never an option for me. But check me out!”

A Passion For Policy: Beki McElvain by Greta Lopez

by Brian Walker

A Father’s Letter to His Daughter:

Dear Brittne,The past four years, in fact the past 22

years, have gone by in the blink of an eye, al-though not uneventfully. You’ve gone from my newborn baby girl and joy of my life, to the joy of my life who is the independent, intelligent, strong and beautiful young woman I know today.

Your birth forever changed my life, an experience I’ll always hold dear in my heart. You are among the most important people who influenced my life, which has greatly affected who I am today. Just being my daughter, you helped me discover and reach my own potential. As a father I’ve strived to be a good example, a positive influ-ence and someone worth emulating.

I remember seeing you, holding you, hearing you laugh and cry, crawl, etc. for the first time. As a proud father, I have been able to witness each major milestone. We have experienced many firsts together, one of the many were the Daddy Daughter dances.

We are going to experience another first for us. It will be the first time I have not attended a major milestone in your life, your graduation from Mills College. Although I hope you know how important you are too me, it’s ex-tremely important for you to hear it. I am impressed and proud of your accomplishments both in school and in life. I am also humbled by the passion and drive you’ve showed reaching your achievements. I love you and love the fact you’re my daughter!

As you start a new journey, some “fatherly advice” is in order. One piece of the advice may seem contradictory to another. However, they can both be accomplished at the same time.

1. Every day, let those you care about know how you feel.

2. Keep thinking for yourself.Think and form opinions for yourself or others will

think and form opinions for you. Remember you have a perspective and it’s important.

3. Listen to the experience of others.Hear the perspectives of others. Use the ratio 2:1 (2

ears, 1 mouth)4. Respect the opinion of others.Everyone wants to be heard (see 2:1 ratio).5. Embrace Change.Difficult skill to master, be a change leader.6. Respect the current approach.Microsoft Vista, New Coke… Understand the “why”

behind what is working and not working.7. Work hard & be lucky.Winning the lottery is luck, being in the right place at

the right time (lucky) takes hard work.8. You have permission to fail (and learn).Oprah Winfrey, Vera Wang, J.K. Rowling, Arianna

Huffington, etc…9. Program your GPS.Have a plan — work the plan, always remember “to

hope” is not a plan.10. Take chances.Some of the greatest discoveries came by “accident.”11. Never spend more than you earn.Pay yourself first!12. Have gratitude & empathy for others.“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said,

people will forget what you did, but people will never for-get how you made them feel” — Maya Angelou.

I’ll Love You Always,Daddy

COURTESY OF BRIAN WALKER

Brittne Walker

An Artist’s Journey: Dave Young Kim

At Korean restaurant Ohgane on 40th and Broadway in Oakland stands a 130 feet mural painted by graduating Mills College second-year MFA studio candidate, Dave Young Kim. The mural displays the narrative of an iconic figure in Korean history, Yu Gwan-sun. For two months, Kim battled cars as he painted the mural located in the restaurant parking lot.

Kim has painted 18 murals around Oakland, including those located at 8th and Campbell across the street from the West Oak-land Bart Station, at the Oakland Fire Station on 14th Street, and the East Oakland Youth Center.

Many of the murals Kim has painted were commissioned through the Community Rejuvenation Project (CRP), an Oak-land-based organization aimed at beautifying and unifying communities one mural at a time. Through CRP, artists such as Kim contact businesses to ask if they’d like a mural painted on the side of their building. While some say yes or no, many businesses simply do not answer such inquires, prompting Kim and other artists to paint the murals anyway. While this is technically illegal, Kim and his collaborators do this in broad daylight, knowing that the police force has other things to worry about.

“[The police] are busy in Oakland; we’re putting quality work up on the streets. That is not a priority for them. They probably see good stuff happening, and let it happen until it becomes a problem,” Kim said. “Once, I had a cop come up to me and ask if I could paint a mural for him.”

Kim believes that his studio art experience at Mills has made him a better artist and helped him understand his craft. “I think about my work differently and more effectively,” Kim said, “which helps me say what I want to say

through medium[s].”His studies also helped him better understand the idea of a narrative, which helped him shape what he wanted to do: tell stories

through art.“Being here [at Mills], I was well guided and well shaped into doing that successfully,” Kim said.

by Amanda Edwards

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Recently, a teacher [who I had my first semester] pulled me aside at Mills to talk to me about my progress, which was really cool because some-times it’s hard to gauge [it yourself]. And for me, Mills has predomi-nately been an academic experience [so] it was cool to get praise when we’re so often critiqued for our work. It was [great] to have that kind of affirmation that I have progressed since I got here — and she did it on her own initiative.

E: [One of my favorite moments at Mills was] the senior moment photo shoot that we did for our [dance] thesis concert.

T: I think our whole thesis in general.

E: Yeah, that was a really great experience.

T: Really great because we got a lot of people to come out for it—

E: —it was a full house.

T: We had been working on it all semester and it was really, really awesome to see so many people from different walks of life to show up and support us, and to get our work out there.

E: And we put a lot of work into organizing everything.

T: And I think […] the Class of 2014 dance majors were really close and [...] we each have a really unique voice but we work well together.

E: I think [the concert] was a good accumulation of our time here.

I used to eat granola with this girl Nia Bella in her room. We would get healthy granola foods. That was good. […]

I’ve eaten a lot of ice cream on this campus [though]. [And] I feel like I’ve really figured out the Tea Shop.

I don’t know. I’ve had a lot of memories here that have been really trau-matic but also at the same time hilarious. I feel [that] the reason I’ve had the strange combination of experiences is because we feel safe enough to experience them…here.

–Sarah Madison Ahern

For the last eight years I have been preparing myself to become a veterinarian. However, I am aware that there are many current social and political inequities in education, and I have come to the realization that becoming a vet will not allow me to be a catalyst for social change.

From my ethnic studies minor, I’ve become aware of socioeconomic boundaries [that] help prevent minorities from performing at their maxi-mum potential. As a biology major, I have personally experienced the lack of representation of people of color in this field. As a Latina, I have also experienced instances where I was reminded that my race might inhibit my career aspirations from becoming reality. Everyone has a purpose in life and though I have been on a completely different career trajectory until now, I have decided that I will be a teacher in Oakland.

–Valeska Muñoz

–Kim Ip

–Thea Anderson and Elektra Ditto

Mills Senior Moments

MACKENZIE FARGO MACKENZIE FARGO

COURTESY OF KIM IP

COURTESY OF VALESKA MUÑOZ

Thea Anderson (left) and Elektra Ditto (right).

05.06.14

Fashionable Faculty (1st Installment): Collect Them All!

PHOTOS BY NORA ROTH

Stephanie Young, visit-ing assistant professor, English department.

Michael Beller, head of reference & access services librarian.

Jay A. Gupta, assistant professor of philosophy.

What you might have missed

Originally cast sometime around 1893 for the Columbian In-ternational Exposition in Chicago, the bells in Mills’ El Campanil bell tower did not have a home until after a visit to the 1894 Midwinter Fair in San Francisco. David Hew-es then bought the bells and donat-ed them to Mills College in 1902.

From “Four Score and Ten,” a book about Mills history on the donation of the bells: “‘When [Hewes] told me of his purpose,’ said President Mills, ‘I replied at once that we had no funds to erect a suitable tower for such a chime and he had best bestow them else-where. But the bells arrived and found a quiet resting place near Lisser Hall, and there, amidst the stir and merry life of our young people, they alone were silent. Our silent ten, we called them.’”

Julia Morgan was then com-missioned by private contributions through the college to design a suit-able bell tower for Mills’ “silent ten.”

El Campanil was completed in April 1904, 110 years ago, and it still houses all 10 of the bells today.

Today the bells are once again silent. It’s not the bells that you hear throughout campus every

quarter hour — it’s a speaker.The bells’ combined weight

is five tons, with the smallest weighing two hundred and fifty pounds and the largest weigh-ing nearly two thousand pounds.

Each bell has a name, as was the custom at the time; the donor of the bells suggested names for the bells. Hewes suggested that they be named after the graces of the spirit in Saint Paul’s letter to the Gala-tians. The largest bell is called Love and the smallest is Meekness. The other eight are Faith, Hope, Peace, Joy, Gentleness, Self-Control and Long Suffering. The names of the bells are carved above each bell.

All 10 bells have survived the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes and have remained untouched during numerous redesign efforts through-out the Mills campus. El Campanil and its bells have remained unboth-ered besides the periodical clean-ing and maintenance for 110 years.

[info for this has been collected from “Four Score and Ten: a His-tory of Mills College” by Rosalind Keep, “Celebrating the Cultural Landscape Heritage of Mills Col-lege compiled by Vonn Marie May, Robert Sabbatini and Karen Fiene. Additional help and information was provided by Vala Burnett.]

5

EMILY MIBACH

by Emily mibach

Brief History of the El Campanil Bells

05.06.14

On-Campus Missed ConnectionsI always see you in OM, and I think it’s cute that you seem to never be wearing pants. I’ve always wanted to come up and ask how you got your hair that purple/silver color and what was the inspiration for your new tattoo of the tesla coil. Maybe next semester I’ll see you around, and we can con-nect like I’ve always wanted to. -B

Like an anchor, your face took hold of my breath and sunk it down so low that I stopped caring about ever being able to reach the surface againbecause maybe if I learned how to breathe underwater,I’d be able to speak to you with the grace of a great blue whale swimming next to a school of silver moonfishpretending they were just shooting stars who fell out from a skythat got too heavy and I’m not sure if I believe in angels but you,you have the style of an East Coast transplant trying to find your roots amongst a forest full of redwoods.You and that lovely lumberjack flannel livingbeneath a puffy blue jacket and thosecuffed up denim jeans restinguponthe soft brown of your boots.You, with an alternative lifestyle haircut so perfectthat it looks like it was sculpted by Michelangelo. You’re like, hella beautiful and I hope to see you around campus again.

The first time I met you I asked for a lighter, and you had two for me to pick from. I’ve always thought you were real good lookin’, but then I had a class with you. Hearing you talk was surprising but also so great — that’s the thing about Mills, we’re surrounded by smart cuties all the time (though oh my god, you missed so many classes I have no idea how you passed). Any-way, this is to say that I hope you have a wonderful life. We probably won’t meet again, and if we do, I assure you I’ll look surprised. I hope you’re happy sometimes and loved most times.

What you might have missed

Commencement05.06.14

Liz Pyper Newman: Our Stellar Student Speaker

Four years in Mills’ biology program has led Elizabeth Pyper Newman to the opportunity of a lifetime: after

graduating, she will be entering the Integrated PhD program at New York Medical College. Her plan is to work in vaccine development, and while at NY Medical College she will be working with influenza strains that will go into making seasonal vaccines. Not only will New-man be embarking on a journey to follow her dreams in the medical field, but she will also be giving a speech for her Commencement cer-emony on May 17.

“I have always been fascinated with human

biology, especially immunology,” Newman said. “My dad has a chronic autoimmune dis-order, so I spent a ton of time in hospitals and soaked it up.”

At first, Newman considered being a doctor; however, that quickly changed after taking im-munology courses at Mills.

“It became very clear to me that there are still so many unanswered questions in sci-ence, especially related to the complexity of human disease, and I wanted to be a part of finding the answers,” Newman said. “I still feel like I am going to be helping people, but in a much more ‘behind the scenes’ capacity. I love

research because it challenges me and affords me the opportunity for freedom and ownership in my work.”

According to Newman, Mills’ biology department has been incredibly supportive of her along her journey. She extends particular gratitude towards doctors Helen Walter and Jared Young, both of whom have inspired her through their teachings.

“The biology department at Mills is as supportive as they are brilliant; you bet [that] they will be getting a big thank you from me come May,” Newman said.

Mills has offered Newman the chance to follow her dream of working in medical re-search, and it has also given her fond memo-ries. All the experiences she has had with friends and faculty have left a lasting impact on her life.

“Both my professors and peers in NSB [Nat-ural Sciences Building] have taught me that science works better when as many viewpoints as possible are present and valued,” Newman said. “I am not confident I would have left any other institution with the same sense of empowerment I have gained at Mills.”

The fondest memories she has, however, were spent outside the classroom.

“My fondest memories will be all the late nights spent studying (and pro-crastinating) in NSB with my besties, especially Camille Kaslan and Alex Toledo,” Newman said.

After what she calls a “stellar” four years at Mills, Newman feels prepared for her future in the world of medical research.

by Maria Aguilar

COURTESY OF NICCI VAN DYKE

What’s on the Gown?

Sashes and stoles are used to reward aca-demic achievements like participation in or-ganizations or programs, and are normally

ordered by the club or department or honor soci-ety. Sashes can also be given to someone who has helped you along the way. Some sashes and stoles you might see at commencement include: -Hellman Summer Science and Math Fel-lows: red sashes provided by the program. -Phi Alpha Theta for history honors students -Student Athlete sashes: gold sashes with blue trim, as well as the words “Student Athlete.” An athlete who has been on the team for four years will also have “Four Years” embroidered on the sash. -ASMC sashes: These are given to all graduat-ing members who have held a position for at least one semester. These are provided by ASMC. They are blue with gold lining and have the student’s title and year of title in ASMC embroidered onto it. -Stole of gratitude: Purchased by a student and given to a close friend, family, or faculty member during or following the ceremony to recognize the support they have provided through their college life. The Stole of Gratitude has the word “Mills” in white and is white and gold.

Cords can be used to recognize academic achievements such as graduating with honors. The color of the cord can be used to

distinguish a student’s major or minor. Some cords include: -The Veterans Cord: red, white and blue -Latin Honors such as sum laude, magna cum laude, summa cum laude

Pins are worn by graduates to show school pride or that they belong to or-ganizations. At Mills, a popular pin is

the Eucalyptus pin. Here are some fun facts about the eucalyptus pin: -The eucalyptus pin was created by the Class of 1948 to commemorate their 50th Reunion. The pin is sold directly through the Alumnae Associa-tion of Mills College. -Each eucalyptus leaf is hand picked on Mills’ campus and strengthened with copper. The leaf can either be preserved in 18-karat gold or sterling silver. A common eucalyptus leaf shape is long and narrow.

Before you leave Mills College, you have to know one thing: it isn’t like the real world.

While occasional glitches may present themselves, for the most part, Mills is a safe cocoon where you’re encouraged to raise your hand and ask questions. You establish close re-lationships with your professors. While attend-ing Mills, I regularly asked my advisor how his 6-foot-6-inch son was doing and when I could ask him on a date.

Diving into the real world after leaving Mills truly shocked me. I graduated a semester early, which ultimately felt like punishment. Why did all of my friends get to stay at Camp Mills while I pounded the pavement in San Fran-cisco looking for work? Directly after graduat-ing, I interned at a magazine in San Francisco where I couldn’t even afford the daily BART fare of $7. The worst part? It was mindless, te-

dious work that included mailing packages and organizing binders.

Somehow, though, I got a job working at a newspaper in Santa Cruz. While I thought it was my dream job, it further proved my theory that nothing else feels like Mills. While pounding out article after article on deadline, I dreamed of strutting around campus in my cutoff shorts, my legs bronzed and my hair bleached from hours spent in the pool during swim team. If I could only get back to that time in my life, the time I felt the most beautiful, strong and valued.

In an attempt to chase after that feeling of contentment that Mills gave me, I left my job and moved back up to the Bay Area. I just start-ed a new job as development and marketing as-sociate at A Home Within, a nonprofit in San Francisco that offers open-ended pro bono ther-apy to foster youth. My sublet in Oakland falls through in two weeks and I have absolutely no

idea where I’ll live, but for now, I feel at ease. I’m making a difference in the world, and I’m back in the Bay Area’s embrace.

I don’t want all of this to depress you. If any-thing, I want it to light a match under your ass to do whatever it takes to continue living a life inspired by Mills College. I always thought I’d have everything figured out by the time I gradu-ated from college. While this isn’t the case, I acquired even more precious knowledge: I fig-ured out what I want out of life. I want to listen to Lou Reed several decibels too loud. I want to swim for so long, the hairs on the back of my neck turn white. And I want to write let-ters to Mills students who are terrified to en-ter the real world, yet know that somewhere, there’s a burnt-out yet hopeful alum thinking about them.

Bonnie Horgosis the former Features Editor of The Campanil.

On the Outside:

Bonnie Horgos by Bonnie Horgos

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CommencementLiz Pyper Newman: Our Stellar Student Speaker

Four years in Mills’ biology program has led Elizabeth Pyper Newman to the opportunity of a lifetime: after

graduating, she will be entering the Integrated PhD program at New York Medical College. Her plan is to work in vaccine development, and while at NY Medical College she will be working with influenza strains that will go into making seasonal vaccines. Not only will New-man be embarking on a journey to follow her dreams in the medical field, but she will also be giving a speech for her Commencement cer-emony on May 17.

“I have always been fascinated with human

biology, especially immunology,” Newman said. “My dad has a chronic autoimmune dis-order, so I spent a ton of time in hospitals and soaked it up.”

At first, Newman considered being a doctor; however, that quickly changed after taking im-munology courses at Mills.

“It became very clear to me that there are still so many unanswered questions in sci-ence, especially related to the complexity of human disease, and I wanted to be a part of finding the answers,” Newman said. “I still feel like I am going to be helping people, but in a much more ‘behind the scenes’ capacity. I love

research because it challenges me and affords me the opportunity for freedom and ownership in my work.”

According to Newman, Mills’ biology department has been incredibly supportive of her along her journey. She extends particular gratitude towards doctors Helen Walter and Jared Young, both of whom have inspired her through their teachings.

“The biology department at Mills is as supportive as they are brilliant; you bet [that] they will be getting a big thank you from me come May,” Newman said.

Mills has offered Newman the chance to follow her dream of working in medical re-search, and it has also given her fond memo-ries. All the experiences she has had with friends and faculty have left a lasting impact on her life.

“Both my professors and peers in NSB [Nat-ural Sciences Building] have taught me that science works better when as many viewpoints as possible are present and valued,” Newman said. “I am not confident I would have left any other institution with the same sense of empowerment I have gained at Mills.”

The fondest memories she has, however, were spent outside the classroom.

“My fondest memories will be all the late nights spent studying (and pro-crastinating) in NSB with my besties, especially Camille Kaslan and Alex Toledo,” Newman said.

After what she calls a “stellar” four years at Mills, Newman feels prepared for her future in the world of medical research.

How is the commencement speaker chosen? Renee Jadu-shlever gave us some insight

on the process.The senior class has a committee to

make recommendations for the com-mencement speaker. They usually begin work early in the semester and present a list of names to the Office of the Presi-dent in the Fall of their graduating year. They include information on why they selected a specific speaker. Based on three criteria that the President’s Office looks at helps determine who the senior class will ask to speak at com-mencement. The crite-ria includes whether the speaker has spoken be-fore, if the speaker has costs and if there is any previous or good connections with the speaker.The President’s Office then tries to con-tact the top choices for the speaker. A let-ter is written on behalf of the senior class and comes from the President. Then based on responses from the speaker and their staff, a speaker is chosen.Daljit Baines, a 1999 alumnae, will be this year's commencement speaker. She spoke with The Campanil about her time at Mills, her upcoming speech at com-mencement and her current position at the Peace Corps.TC: What are your plans for your com-mencement speech?DB: My topics are going [to] be in service and public service. I named my speech "Walking the Earth;" being able to 'walk' where we live firstly for self-development and then realize the contributions we can make to the world. I think we have a better idea of it when we get out of the worlds we live in personally, interpersonally, professionally and sometimes physically. Sometimes if you have a rough go of it...it really leads to self-development.TC: Did you ever have a feeling that you would be giving the commencement ad-dress at Mills?DB: Haha, never. [I] wasn’t on every var-sity team, and I wasn't getting 4.2's. I think a lot of this is the focus is on the people who are thinking 'oh I didn’t do enough

there,' and there's this nagging voice in the back of their head. It's funny because my dad leaned over during my ceremony to my sister and my mom and said “Isn’t she going to get any awards?” I remembered a part of it always kind of resonated with me, saying to myself "oh I should have done more, I didn’t do enough, [I] should have done more to make my parents proud." It's interesting because it's come full circle. I'm very honored and humbled to be asked to speak. It really is a very big honor.TC: How does your experience from Mills relate to your career now?DB: I think the exposure at Mills has been really good for me in a lot of ways. The small classroom sizes really encour-age conversation and dialogue. I think that’s a really important thing for me. The other big things have been a sense of intellectual curiosity, which was really encouraged...'cause of the smaller cam-pus, it was easier to have conversations

from women studies majors to art majors [and] from race re-lations to anthropol-ogy. So it was really a comprehensive ed-ucation while [I was just] a bio major. ... The work I do at the Peace Corp is about human relations, the work you do as a journalist is about human relations,

what the president of Mills does is about human relations -- everyone is differ-ent, everyone is introverts or extroverts, there is no right or wrong. That’s what life is about at the end of the day, com-munity and what you can do to establish connections. Establishing connections is the sense of community and connections with people.TC: Lastly, do you have any advice for soon-to-be grads?DB: It’s hard, because of Steve Jobs' speech [that said] follow your intuition, follow your heart, because I feel like that’s completely taken and belongs to that speech, but it holds true. Be true to you and be true to who you are. Being true to a big part of your life is self-care, so be careful of what is coming into your mind. What are the messages you be-lieve? I believe that grads today are fac-ing the same headlines that everyone has faced—that today [is] the worst time to get a job, and I think it really starts to af-fect you and it really on what you focus on. Be careful what you focus on. It’s a constant input because there are so many negative issues...Do something for you to make sure it’s replacing some-thing else. Whatever you're do-ing to cultivate the garden of your mind so it’s not all the weeds and the dead flowers or whatever, but you’re plan-ning your peach trees and plum trees...

by Emily Mibach

Q&A with Commencement Speaker: Daljit Bains

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FRANCESCA TWOHY-HAINES

Before you leave Mills College, you have to know one thing: it isn’t like the real world.

While occasional glitches may present themselves, for the most part, Mills is a safe cocoon where you’re encouraged to raise your hand and ask questions. You establish close re-lationships with your professors. While attend-ing Mills, I regularly asked my advisor how his 6-foot-6-inch son was doing and when I could ask him on a date.

Diving into the real world after leaving Mills truly shocked me. I graduated a semester early, which ultimately felt like punishment. Why did all of my friends get to stay at Camp Mills while I pounded the pavement in San Fran-cisco looking for work? Directly after graduat-ing, I interned at a magazine in San Francisco where I couldn’t even afford the daily BART fare of $7. The worst part? It was mindless, te-

dious work that included mailing packages and organizing binders.

Somehow, though, I got a job working at a newspaper in Santa Cruz. While I thought it was my dream job, it further proved my theory that nothing else feels like Mills. While pounding out article after article on deadline, I dreamed of strutting around campus in my cutoff shorts, my legs bronzed and my hair bleached from hours spent in the pool during swim team. If I could only get back to that time in my life, the time I felt the most beautiful, strong and valued.

In an attempt to chase after that feeling of contentment that Mills gave me, I left my job and moved back up to the Bay Area. I just start-ed a new job as development and marketing as-sociate at A Home Within, a nonprofit in San Francisco that offers open-ended pro bono ther-apy to foster youth. My sublet in Oakland falls through in two weeks and I have absolutely no

idea where I’ll live, but for now, I feel at ease. I’m making a difference in the world, and I’m back in the Bay Area’s embrace.

I don’t want all of this to depress you. If any-thing, I want it to light a match under your ass to do whatever it takes to continue living a life inspired by Mills College. I always thought I’d have everything figured out by the time I gradu-ated from college. While this isn’t the case, I acquired even more precious knowledge: I fig-ured out what I want out of life. I want to listen to Lou Reed several decibels too loud. I want to swim for so long, the hairs on the back of my neck turn white. And I want to write let-ters to Mills students who are terrified to en-ter the real world, yet know that somewhere, there’s a burnt-out yet hopeful alum thinking about them.

Bonnie Horgosis the former Features Editor of The Campanil.

On the Outside:

Bonnie Horgos

“That’s what life is about at the end of the day, community and

what you can do to establish connections.

-Daljit Bains

by Abbey Flentje

After 25 years, Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Susan Spiller is finally bidding Mills adieu. When her National Science Foundation [NSF] grant was

not renewed, it seemed to Spiller like the perfect time to make her exit and retire. She also thinks that there is something re-ally nice about a number like 25.

According to the NSF’s website, their grant “funds re-search and education in most fields of science and engineer-ing.” They receive over 40,000 research proposals every year and from there, only 11,000 are accepted. While at Mills, Spiller researched a bioengineering project focused on mak-ing red fluorescent tags in living cells to mark the activity of a particular molecule inside that cell. With research be-ing her main focus, it is important for her to be able to con-tinue, which she plans to do despite the NSF grant running out. Through her affiliation with Lawrence Berkeley National Labo-ratory, Spiller will be able to continue her research as it is more equipped to handle the needs of her work with high-powered fluorescent microscopes.

Science was not al-ways a path that Spiller saw for herself. Her first undergraduate degree was a bachelors in English from the University of California, Berkeley. Spiller found that she struggles in her English work, but that only made her work harder; she knew that there must be something there that she needed to work on. It was not until her junior year that she discovered that she may have a passion for science. However it was too late in her course work to change majors.

After graduation, she was hired by Bank of America to do performance reports in trusts. Working at the then world headquarters of Bank of America in San Francisco enabled Spiller to live in San Francisco, which had always been a dream of hers. Working and living in downtown San Fran-cisco did not suit her for very long. She wanted to be outdoors and in nature, and also decided that she would pursue her passion for science.

So she headed back to UC Berkeley to get her second un-dergraduate degree in biology. By the end of her second year,

she found that she loved being in a laboratory. Experimental science and the physiology of plants were especially intrigu-ing to her. They were both things that she was not expecting to love so much. In trying to decide what to do next, she ap-proached one of her biology professors. He told her that if she wakes up in the morning with all these bubbling ideas about experiments or observations, maybe she should consider a graduate degree in research. She went on to receive doctorate in plant physiology from UC Berkeley in 1979.

From 1979 to 1988, Spiller went on to receive three post-doctoral degrees from UC Davis, Stanford and UC Berke-ley. It was then that her three daughters were old enough for her to return to work. Though she lived in the East Bay for many years, Spiller had never been to the Mills campus until

a colleague told her of a job opening at Mills for a professor of plant biol-ogy. Twenty five years later, she is leaving as an integral part of the Mills community.

Even though her future in research is opening up, Spiller will miss the con-stantly enthusiastic stu-dents and small commu-nity. Students have been a primary focus for her

as she can often be seen leading her Exploring Plants class around campus or even sitting down for long chats with stu-dents in the lobby of the Natural Sciences Building.

Part of her passion for students included hiring recent Mills graduates to assist in research. This enabled students to not only fill the gap year between undergraduate and gradu-ate school but gave them an additional point on their resume as well as health insurance. Spiller said the additional help was greatly needed as Mills could not appropriately staff for major research. While most students stay only one year, some students end up working for Spiller for two postgradu-ate years.

Spiller believes that the future is bright for science stu-dents at Mills as they will be led by a young and vigorous fac-ulty. If the opportunity ever came for her to be able to teach a research course at Mills, she would gladly take the job.

In terms of her own future, Spiller said she is open to

the possibilities.“I think what I really want is to see what happens, to ap-

proach the world with a childlike wonder of time and take time to explore,” Spiller said.

Susan Spiller: All in the Timing

Edith Kinney: Moving Forward But Not Forgetting

After four years, Edith Kinney, visiting as-sistant professor of the

social sciences division, will be de-parting Mills and taking a tenure-track position at San Jose State University.

Kinney has taught five courses during her time at Mills, spanning two departments and a division. She has taught in the social sciences division as well as the government and public policy departments. Since Political Legal and Economic Analysis (PLEA) allows students to take classes in multiple disciplines, Kinney’s own teaching flexibility matched well with the program. A new professor will be hired to teach the two key PLEA courses, Law and Society and Women and the Law, in Fall 2014.

As Kinney prepares to leave Mills, she finds herself with conflicting feelings.

“It is with regret, but excite-ment, that I will be heading to San Jose State University,” Kinney said.

Kinney will start her teaching position in August 2014, where she will be a part of the justice studies department and will have the opportunity to work on SJSU’s

human rights program.Paul Schulman, head of the

PLEA program at Mills and one of Kinney’s colleagues, has mixed feelings about her leaving.

“I’m sad to see her go,” Schul-man said. “But she has a career to build, and that I understand.”

PLEA and English double major Acacia Lommen-Nelson has taken three classes with Kinney and has valued each class. Kinney is Lom-men-Nelson’s PLEA major advisor.

“I’m sad that she’s leaving be-cause she has a lot of vitality in her field, and if the college allowed

teachers with that connection in their work fields, then Mills could

have a lot more opportunities for growth,” Lommen-Nelson said.

Lommen-Nelson cites Kinney’s Law and Society class as a funda-mental class not only for PLEA but also for the social justice curricu-lum at Mills.

“I took Law and Society my first semester at Mills, and it changed the way I looked at law and the way the community looks at whether law can be a tool for social change,” Lommen-Nelson said.

Kinney will greatly miss her students at Mills and the unique perspective that teaching at an all-women’s college brings.

“I will definitely miss students

here at Mills and how engaged they are in the class room and critically analyzing contemporary events,” Kinney said. “There are certainly a lot of issues in the legal world that need a Mills ‘woman’s critique.”

Kinney is interested in seeing how Mills and SJSU will compare in the classroom.

“One of the interesting things is [that] the student body tends to be a little more ideologically diverse at SJSU, and there seems to be a critical mass of progressive critical scholars here at Mills, and so teach-ing at an ‘all women’s campus’ has been a real pleasure to speak freely on all of those issues [surrounding women in the law] that I think are really important to study in the jus-tice system,” Kinney said.

Kinney urges PLEA students to look into SJSU’s law department upon graduation from Mills. Kin-ney plans to remain in contact with folks at Mills. She also hopes to have the opportunity to host future summer workshops at Mills.

“I really have enjoyed making relationships with students and fac-ulty here, but I am excited to move to a department where there is more exchange in my field,” Kinney said.

Dr. Spiller [center] is leaving Mills after a 25 year career of teaching and research in the biology department.

by AmAndA Polick

Edith Kinney, loved by faculty and students alike, is departing Mills for San Jose State Univeristy.

by Emily mibAch

“There are certainly a lot of issues in the legal world that need a Mills

‘woman’s’ critique.”

-Edith Kinney

“I think what I really want is to see what happens, to approach the world with a childlike wonder of time

and take time to explore.”

-Susan Spiller

COURTESY OF SUSAN SPILLER

ARI NUSSBAUM

05.06.14 Retiring & Remembered

by Octavia Sun

On March 26, the Mills art commu-nity lost one of its most revered and prolific members when Pro-

fessor Anna Valentina Murch died of cancer. Murch had been at Mills for 22 years and cre-ated art installations around the world.

Murch was born in Scotland and grew up in England, where she earned a B.A. at the Uni-versity of Leicester, a masters degree from the Royal College of Art in London and a second masters degree at the Architectural Associa-tion in London. In 1988, Murch married Doug Hollis, an environmental artist; the two col-laborated on numerous art installations until Murch’s death. Murch’s art can be seen in nu-merous places throughout the US and Europe. While at Mills, she was awarded numerous faculty grants and served as the Joan Danforth Chair of Studio Art from 2005 to 2007.

Catherine Wagner, professor of studio art, was a colleague of Murch’s for about 20 years.

“[Anna] had a keen eye for both aesthetics and the conceptual foundations of a work of art,” Wagner said in an email. “She asked diffi-cult questions of the students, and it raised the bar in a positive way. Her own creative work was such a positive force in her life and for the communities that could engage with her public sites. She will be greatly missed in both the un-dergraduate and graduate programs.”

To commemorate Murch, MFA students Veva Edelson and Malena Lopez-Maggi re-cently collaborated on an art project they hoped would provide emotional release for the community. Together, the two created a hearth using wood that they charred in a Japanese technique called shou sugi-ban, which is done to create a layer of protection over the wood. According to Lopez-Maggi, the hearth was in-spired by a 1514 etching by Alfred Durer called

Melancholia I. The hearth has a slot at the top where students and community members can place notes or messages for Murch or about their grief.

Murch was Lopez-Maggi’s advisor and mentor; she described Murch as “radiant” and as a “pillar” of the Mills art community.

“She was just very committed to her stu-dents, and even when I was in her last class that she taught here, we didn’t know how sick she was,” Lopez-Maggi said. “She was always 100 percent present and just very energetic and just forceful. She just had a really powerful pres-ence and never let on that she was suffering or feeling weak in any way.”

Although Edelson only had the opportunity to work with Murch for one semester, she felt that Murch was able to offer insight about her students’ work and was extremely perceptive and inspiring.

“She had a very easy way of deep reading,” Edelson said. “In Anna’s work, she tried to cre-ate a sense of space and make space that’s gen-erative and where people can experience their humanity.”

Lopez-Maggi agreed that Murch’s work was unique, as were her thought processes.

“[Anna] was pretty abstract in her thinking, and she called herself a lateral thinker where she’d...address subjects by tangentally going off and building a cloud around them,” Lopez-Maggi said. “She had a really incredible mind in that way.”

A memorial was held on May 4 at the Mills College Art Museum for Murch. During the memorial, the hearth constructed by Edelson and Lopez-Maggi was burned as a way of met-aphorically releasing the community’s grief. To learn more about Anna Valentina Murch and her work, visit annavalentinamurch.com.

Kennedy Golden, cur-rently the associate dean of students, has

taken on a lot of roles ranging from faculty wife to acting dean during her time at Mills College since July 15th, 1969. Golden has also raised her son on the Mills campus and has gotten a B.A. in theatre man-agement and an M.A. in counseling psychology while working at Mills. After many memorable years at Mills, Golden has decided that it is time to move on and retire.

At first, Golden was a faculty wife, which was popular during the 1960’s and 70’s when the wives of faculty members were expected to perform unoffi-cial duties for the college such as hosting dinner parties. At the time, Golden’s then husband was a pro-fessor in the theatre (dramatic arts) department. Golden also taught students how to build scenery and helped expose a lot of students to all kinds of aspects of theatre in the Bay Area.

After being a faculty wife, Gold-en was then the voice of Mills Col-lege on the switchboard, a system

used to connect phone calls from multiple lines, for many years. She has also worked at the bookstore where she has seen many opening and closing semesters at Mills.

Golden acted in various jobs because of changes in staff that re-quired someone else to cover the work. In some cases, Golden took

on the jobs to help balance paying the bills while still working in the-atre, such as backing up computer tape.

“I had just gotten a divorce, and I had to pay my rent,” Golden said. “I am always up for a challenge I guess. I can even say in hindsight that I did pretty well in each but they did stretch me.”

Golden has also worked in stu-dent life and has worked with a to-tal of nine deans. She also became interim dean.

“I call it my five months of hell

just because it’s really-really hard work,” Golden said. “An incredibly challenging job, especially when you’re between deans, the needs don’t stop.”

Golden has been lobbying for Mills to bring back the theatre de-partment since its demise in 2004. She feels the partnership with the

American Conservatory Theater (ACT) will pro-vide students with adequate training and exposure for the profession.

Because of the flexibility of Golden’s job at Mills, it has allowed her to take time off to get joint replacement

surgery on both of her knees, her hip and her shoulder.

While Golden would not dis-cuss her reason for retirement, she said she will miss participating in the amazing journeys, seeing the growth and change of Mills and the people who come through her door.

“I’ll just miss coming to work every day,” Golden said. “I have lit-erally watched trees grow at Mills.”

Golden will also miss the stu-dents of Mills as they keep her young and energized. She also has great hopes for Mills in the future

as it is not easy for a liberal arts women’s college such as Mills to be surviving in this economy

As for post-retirement plans, Golden has many projects planned. One of her plans includes revisiting her and her husband’s childhood places throughout the world. Gold-en also wants to help the elderly.

“It is my goal, hopefully within

the next two years, to be volunteer-ing and working with senior citi-zens in transition, either from home to a facility, or one level of care to another or being alive to not being alive,” Golden said.

Golden is also thankful for the longevity of her time at Mills.

“Forty-five years is a lot of fabu-lous memories,” Golden said.

Kennedy Golden: Jane of All Trades

Anna Murch:

During her lifetime, Anna Murch won numerous awards for her art work.

After 45 years at Mills, Kennedy Golden is saying farewell.

by ari nuSSbaum

“Forty-five years is a lot of fabulous memories.”

-Kennedy Golden

SPIKE MAFFORD

OCTAVIA SUN

Never Forgotten

05.06.14Retiring & Remembered

Over the last month, Mills Col-lege has seen an influx of support for the adjunct faculty: flyers have appeared across campus alerting the community that the adjuncts have filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board [NLRB], and since, a petition ask-ing that the administration remain neutral in the union decision has been circulating among students.

The adjuncts are being repre-sented by the Service Employees International Union [SEIU], who filed the petition on the faculty’s behalf. The SEIU typically repre-sents employees in the healthcare, property service and public service industries including janitors, bus drivers and nurses, but in recent months has moved to unionizing higher education institutions with the campaign Adjunct Action. Their goal is to create a nationwide union of adjuncts.

A recent article in The Chroni-cle for Higher Education says, “the thinking behind the approach holds that sufficient union saturation of a given local labor market will not only produce big gains at unionized colleges, but put nonunionized ones under pressure to treat adjuncts bet-ter, too. Those colleges might be prompted to improve pay or work-ing conditions to be able to com-pete for talent or, in some cases, to discourage potential unionization drives on their own campuses.”

So far, the Adjunct Action cam-paign has reached 10 metropolitan areas and 30 campuses, employing around 25,000 adjuncts.

Why Now?Today, adjuncts account for a

higher portion of the nation’s pub-lic and private college faculties than ever before. The Chronicle

of Higher Education reports that about half of the nation’s educators are adjunct, while KQED Arts and The Atlantic cites numbers closer to 75 percent. Either way, there is now a much smaller number of highly competitive tenure posi-tions and a plethora of temporarily employed professors.

These contingent employees receive disproportionately low pay compared to their tenured col-leagues and are often part-time employees, splitting their time be-tween different institutions to make ends meet. Many adjuncts across the nation also do not receive any benefits, though Mills does offer health care for some adjuncts, de-pending on the contract.

In the midst of this dispropor-tionate turn towards easy-come-easy-go adjuncts, a union is wel-come news to many, as seen on the flyer posted around campus donning the faces and thoughts of several Mills adjuncts.

“When adjuncts — the majority of instructors — are fostered, we will have a stronger school and a richer experience for the students,” visiting artist Michael Swaine is quoted as saying on the flyer.

Distinguished visiting writ-er Achy Obejas expressed similar sentiments.

“We all want the same thing,” her quote reads, “the best possible education experience, for both stu-dents and teachers.”

However, not all professors be-lieve the union will take care of these problems. One professor, who wished to remain anonymous, was unsure of how effective a union could really be given the fact that non-tenured professor’s contracts can simply now be renewed, and thus those represented by the union will be constantly shifting.

This professor also brought up concerns about how equipped

the SEIU is to represent faculty, given their minimal experience with educational organizing, among other things.

The majority of the faculty con-tacted for this article declined to be interviewed out of fear of ad-ministrative retribution. Though the Mills administration has hired an anti-union lawyer, an email sent from President DeCoudreaux to the faculty on April 11 pledged neutrality. In the email, the presi-dent acknowledges that it is the fundamental right of the faculty to unionize and encourages the adjuncts to vote, but closes with a mixed statement:

“While this is a very important issue for our campus, I must re-mind you that Mills is engaged in an ongoing effort to reduce its op-erating deficit during these difficult financial times. Mills will continue to focus on this effort and will not actively engage in a campaign with respect to the organization of our adjunct faculty.”

What Next?The faculty will vote for or

against the union through mail-in ballots that were sent out on April 28 and will be counted on May 14. If the majority vote is “yes,” the Mills adjuncts will join the SEIU’s union. If the majority vote is “no,” the adjuncts will either choose not to unionize, or will have to wait one calendar year before selecting another union organization to rep-resent them.

If the SEIU is chosen, a bar-gaining process will begin as early as this Fall between the union and Mills, through which a contract will be negotiated between all adjuncts and the administration. Among other things, the contract could bring legal protections, higher pay and more job security to union members.

Opinion

This week saw the beginning of a historic election here at Mills as adjunct professors vote on wheth-er or not to unionize with SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Local 1021.

Mills College relies on a large group of highly qualified contin-gent faculty, who comprise over 60 percent of the college’s total faculty and teach approximately half of all courses. We receive widely disparate ranges of pay, job titles, contracts, employment re-quirements and expectations, usu-ally with no transparent process for raises or advancement or job security, despite the fact that some of us have been teaching at Mills for over a decade. We can expect to be unemployed every summer, meaning that every spring, many of us are scrambling to find de-cent summer jobs. Despite excel-lent qualifications and experience, we have no job security, are paid less than what tenured and tenure-track faculty earn (sometimes even when teaching the same courses!), have reduced access to profes-sional activities and career support and are disenfranchised from full participation in faculty governance (imagine, a majority of faculty un-able to fully participate in faculty governance!). Needless to say, it is hard to plan one’s life and career year to year without a clear expec-tation — much less guarantee — of continued employment, fair pay, or benefits. Though teaching is our passion, most of us cannot depend on it to make a living. One adjunct, for example, earns more work-ing in a coffeehouse than teaching

at Mills!The two-tiered system — a di-

rect product of the corporatization of the university system in the US — that treats adjunct faculty as second-class employees is some-thing that educators, activists and students are no longer willing to ac-cept. Adjuncts across the nation are uniting to systematically raise stan-dards of employment and to uphold the central importance of teaching and teachers in our institutions.

Like our colleagues on many other campuses across the coun-try, we are organizing at Mills to unionize and work in solidarity with tenured and tenure-track fac-ulty, staff and students in a collab-orative effort to bring the college’s day-to-day operations in line with its commitment to social justice and equality.

Students pay tens of thousands of dollars to go to Mills College; do they not deserve a well-paid and well-supported faculty? Should they not expect that their professors won’t have to rush off campus to other jobs just to make ends meet, or skip professional and academic conferences because Mills won’t pay their fees or be unable to sup-port students as advisors or men-tors since most adjunct faculty are not paid to do so?

Forming a union will give ad-juncts at Mills the ability to advo-cate for students, education and ourselves. We will all benefit from a supported and empowered faculty at all levels, and Mills will be able to maintain its standards of aca-demic excellence as well as live up to its social justice mission.

by Tessa Love

T H E T I M E TO U N I O N I Z E

I S N OWby David Buuck, Visiting

Assistant Professor of English

Tenured faculty are professors, lecturers and instructors who hold permanent, salaried positions.

• Title – Tenured professors can sometimes (but not always) be identified by the title “Professor of…” Tenure-track faculty at the different stages can be identi-fied by the titles “Assistant Professor” and “Associate Professor.”

• Tenure Process – To obtain tenure, a faculty must first be hired on a tenure-track line. At this point, they are generally (but not always) called assistant pro-fessors. After several reviews of their professional, teaching and college service work, they may be granted tenure and promoted to associate professor. This promotion usually comes after about six years. The performance reviews then continue every three years for the duration of their career at Mills. After six years as associate professors they are eligible to be promoted to full professors.

• Contract – Tenured professors have a standing contract that does not change.

• Pay – Tenured professors receive a yearly salary with potential for a steady raise, though a six-year pay freeze has halted raises.

• Job Security – A tenured professor’s position is essentially locked down. Tenured professors can only be dismissed with just cause or circumstance and only after a hearing before a faculty committee.

Adjunct faculty, also known as contingent or “at-will” faculty, are professors, lectur-ers and instructors who do not hold a permanent or salaried position.

• Title – Adjunct professors can often, though not always, be identified by the title “Visiting.” This includes Visiting Professor, Visiting Artist, Visiting Writer, etc. However, some adjunct professors hold "Professor of..." titles.

• Contract – Adjunct professors typically negotiate single-semester, one-year or two-year contracts. Every adjunct professor’s contract is different in pay and length of term.

• Pay – Adjunct professors are paid per course, and each professor negotiates a different rate of pay for each course.

• Job Security – Adjunct professors essentially have no job security. If, for instance, a professor has a year-long contract, at the end of that year they may or may not be asked to return. If they are asked to return, they must negotiate a new contract. If they are not asked to return, they are not considered laid-off. They are simply not rehired.

• Cancellation Clause – Every adjunct professor's contract includes a can-cellation clause, which states that the professor's contract may be cancelled at any time for any reason. This includes, but is not limited to, when a class does not reach its enrollment goals (generally 12 students).

Adjunctvs

With Mills' adjunct professors currently in the process of a union election (see “Adjuncts to vote for union” above for full details), you may be wondering what exactly the difference is between tenured and adjunct professors. Wonder no more, and read on to find out.

05.06.14

Union election in progress

Compiled by Tessa Love

News

by Ari Nussbaum

BWC demands still being answered months later

In response to the Black Wom-en’s Collective’s List of Demands finalized on March 4, President Alecia DeCoudreaux has imple-mented numerous services that are available for Black students across campus. This list of demands is a direct response to the racist, anon-ymous confession posted on the Mills Confessions Facebook page that targeted Black women on cam-pus and reflects the needs of Black students at Mills. After the silent protest held by Black students on March 5, President DeCoudreaux sent out two respective emails on March 21 and May 2, updating the Mills community and address-ing all of the demands that had been fulfilled.

The BWC demanded immedi-ate implementation of the second and seventh demands. The second demand called for a task force spe-cifically charged with the tasks of “investigating impediments to re-cruitment, retention, and matricula-tion of Black students.” The email sent on May 2 from President De-Coudreaux discussed the assembled task force, called the Black Student Enrollment Task Force (BSETF) whose stated goals are to re-eval-uate these questions as well as the financial aid awarded to Black stu-dents. The Board of Trustees will be meeting with the BSETF later this month to discuss their plans.

“I am very grateful to the indi-viduals who have agreed to serve on this Task Force,” DeCoudreaux said in a previous email to the Mills community. “While the focus of the work of this Task Force will be on Black students, I anticipate that the forthcoming recommendations will benefit all Mills students.”

The seventh demand is con-cerned with an emergency cri-sis response team comprised of Black mental health professionals taking appointments with Black

students, faculty and staff to pro-vide counseling. This demand has been implemented and students are able to speak with someone should they need to.

In response to demands three (“investigation and reforma-tion of racist policies that police the presence of Black people on campus”),;four (“establishment of an emergency fund for Black stu-dents”); five (“a shift away from lumping students of color together in one group”); six (“a marked in-crease in tenure - track faculty of color”); and eight (“a revision of the Social Justice mission state-ment”), the president stated that these items are already in progress.

There has been investigation into the policies of Public Safety with regard to Black women on campus, and a plan to look over the financial aid process and ap-plication has been made. Both of these work to satisfy demands three and four.

The president said work by Pro-vost Kimberly Phillips is underway to address demands five and six. They are working with consultants who are advising them in the best practices to hire diverse faculty and looking over data compiled by the retention committees.

Revisions to the Social Justice Mission Statement are also being made. The president and others are working to hire social justice consultants to make revisions; two people have been hired to begin working on the policy. The presi-dent also recently hired the Chief Human Resources EEO and Com-pliance Officer Aurora Rezapour, who will work with the president herself, to interview and iden-tify diversity trainers to facilitate conversations and training for the Mills community.

In conjunction with the implementation of these demands,

many students and faculty of col-or have optimistic responses to these changes.

First-year student and BWC member Dasia Mack spoke about her emotions during the silent pro-test and how it affected her.

“As I was standing, I thought about all of the civil rights pictures where people were marching and standing up to police for greater equality,” Mack said. “I thought, ‘if they did that, then the least I can do is stand there and fight, here and now in this moment.’ That day, that moment, I will never forget it.”

Mack has been staying updated with how the campus climate is changing around the implementa-tion of the list of demands.

“I’ve seen all of the updates and messages about what’s been implemented and what has not. I am ultimately waiting for some of the more big ticket items to happen on campus,” Mack said. “I hope our community can start having honest, unadulterated conversations. In order to see if there is a problem, we’ve got to get people together talking honestly.”

Director of the Office of Student Activities Jennifer Wells shared her vision for the future of Mills.

“It has been an absolute honor to witness the Black Women’s Collective engage in true student leadership in calling for a campus environment that is supportive to all students,” Wells said. “Together as a college, students, faculty, and staff [can] work together to inten-tionally move towards the vision of what Mills can be, even when sparked by a very painful time for our entire campus.”

The Black Women’s Col-lective’s complete list of de-mands can be found online here: http://www.thecampanil.com/black-womens-collective-list- of-demands/.

On April 30, a community meet-ing was held in the gathering hall of the Lorrey I. Lokey Graduate School of Business to discuss the possibility of leasing underutilized land at Mills. The meeting was hosted by Chief of Staff and Vice President for Operations Renée Jadushlever and Campus Archi-tect Karen Feine; approximately 50 people attended, including stu-dents, community members, fac-ulty and staff.

The possibility of leasing this land was announced on March 12 by President DeCoudreaux. The section of land being considered for development is approximately five acres located near the Seminary Avenue exit off of Highway 580 and Highway 13. This area is cur-rently only used for facilities and maintenance services. The Real Estate Development Task Force (REDTF), which was created by the Board of Trustees, has not yet committed to the project and is still researching its feasibility. How-ever, the college has entered into a year-long agreement to discuss development ex-clusively with this particular develop-er, whose name has not been released. If the college de-cides to move for-ward with the proj-ect, it would be a decades-long lease and the land would not be sold. The developer hopes to use the land for commercial spaces, housing and offices.

During the community meeting, many attendees raised concerns about the project and its potential impact on Mills and the surround-ing community. Some questioned whether having businesses close to Mills would increase crime on and around campus. However, Ja-dushlever believes that the project would actually improve the safety of the area.

"There would be more eyes on the street," Jadushlever said.

Jadushlever continued to ex-plain that there would be an in-crease in streetlights and security cameras, as well as a secure barrier between the area and the campus, though she did not specify what kind of barrier this would be.

Another major issue raised was the potential effect on wildlife at Mills. Feine stated that the college and the developer would take the environment and natural habitats into consideration if the project were to continue.

"We would be very mindful about wilderness," Feine said. "That's what we love about Mills."

Many attendees were also con-cerned with how this project could impact the surrounding commu-nity outside of Mills, particularly

because the majority of nearby resi-dents are low-income. Jadushlever stated that the developer would take the community into account, as would the REDTF, during their research. Additionally, if the proj-ect were to continue, the college would have to find a new location for facilities, which could affect parking lots and other areas.

Jadushlever also addressed another question that has been prevalent amongst the community recently — whether this will lead to the selling of the campus bit by bit. She stated that the college will not be selling the section of land; however, she also noted that the physical form of the college could change in the decades to come, whether it becomes a primarily in-ternational-based school or perhaps online-based. Ultimately, she said, Mills is here to stay.

"We're 162 years old and we want to be 362 years old," Jadushlever said.

At the close of the meeting, Jadushlever asked the commu-nity what they would like to see

in the area. Some of the suggestions included grocery stores, pharma-cies and/or doc-tors' offices, cafes and restaurants, a laundromat, day-care and spaces for local business owners to rent or

student enterprises.Senior Jessica Knapp felt more

informed about the project after attending the meeting, though she still has some reservations.

"There are a lot of potential negative impacts the project could have, especially on socioeconomi-cally disadvantaged families in the community, but there are positive ones as well," Knapp said. "Gen-trification is always a possibility because of the 580 divide, which is right where the site is located. I think we have to be conscious, but there is a lot of potential."

Knapp and first-year Eileen Saltman recently completed a map-ping project related to socioeco-nomic factors in Oakland, which they plan to share with Jadushlever to aid in the research of the land de-velopment. Both Knapp and Salt-man felt that there needs to be more transparency and communication involving the students as well as more community involvement with the project.

The earliest this project would be completed is 2017. According to Jadushlever, the developer will be providing updates every step of the way, and all partners must be ap-proved by Mills. The college plans to update the community regularly as well. Renée Jadushlever can be reached at [email protected].

Community meeting centers on land

development project

by Chardonnay Hightower-Collins & Abbey Flentje

MELODIE MIU

“We’re 162 years old and we want to be 362

years old.”

-Renee Jaduslever

The College is currently working on addressing the demands of the BWC finalized in March.

News 05.06.14

We’ll see you on the flip side

I’ve started this goodbye letter four times now, passing the “third time’s the charm” threshold and reaching a level of desperation. There is so much and so little I want to say and it’s all pushing and pulling inside of me. Part of me wants to tell you my whole Mills story, how I waited and waited for my acceptance letter, how much I loved my first moments

here and how the education that taught me to think critically led me to turn my gaze back on the faults of this very school. But maybe that’s too much to go into right now. For now, I’ll tell a different story.

It’s just before midnight on a Thursday, the day after the Black women on campus staged their powerful silent protest on the Tea Shop steps. At The Campanil, we are scrambling to cover it all, to make sure all the voices are heard, and heard correctly. Earlier this same evening, we decided to publish an anonymous letter from a student that ended up being so controversial we received a mass amount of criticism in the few hours it was live on our website. We realized our mistake for publishing it, and took it down. But this midnight, all the tired staff members of The Campanil were up and on their computers, shooting messages back and forth about how to handle the explosion we’d inadvertently caused. At the time, I thought it was one of our saddest moments as a staff. We fought and got overwhelmed and let our emotions get the best of us and argued to the end for our own opinions. I remember going to bed that night with a heavy chest and numb mind.

Looking back just a few months later, I realize it is moments like this that I will miss the most about being the editor in chief of The Campanil. We are a group of passionate, driven women who will argue for what we know is right, even in the face of harsh criticism. Though we take things hard sometimes, we are glad when we are challenged, glad when we are asked to justify our actions. We welcome the chance to understand that we’ve done wrong, like we did the day after our midnight madness when members of the community and the Black Women’s Collective joined us for our impromptu open hours and told us how our actions effected their livelihoods. A good education teaches you to teach yourself, to have the guts to make mistakes, learn from them and keep going. This is what The Campanil has taught me. That’s what Mills has taught me.

At the end of my time here, I am frustrated with a lot of the walls I’ve run into at Mills and the hoops I’ve had to jump through to get where I need to go. I am tired of the mask that the administration wears to cover up what’s really going on and the rhetoric we at The Campanil, and we as students, were often fed in place of truth and honesty. This school has a good number of faults and shortcomings, but I say now that in a certain light I wouldn’t want it any other way. Nothing is perfect no matter where you are, and being a watchdog for this community has made me who I am today: a stronger and more passionate woman than I ever thought I could be, and someone who is proud to call Mills my alma mater, and The Campanil my home.

Tessa Love

Editor In ChiefMelodie Miu

Online Editor

I typed out this goodbye in my little blue corner of Rothwell 157. And in true Online Editor fashion, with all the HTML and hyperlinks. I’m graduating, and I’m going to get that friggin’ degree this May when for the longest time I didn’t think I’d ever graduate. But the more I allow myself to think about ‘finally’ leaving, I get, in less than elegant terms, totally bummed out

because I’m also leaving the only place at Mills I loved. I mean, for real? The Campanil was the source of my best and happiest and most interesting memories as an undergraduate.

I remember laughing in Ron Nagle’s office as the now-retired ceramics professor regaled me about doodling during department meetings and hating Grateful Dead. I once ran through the rain to do a video interview with a bearded burlesque dancer. I followed an animal trapper around with my little voice recorder as he wrangled raccoons and skunks on campus. I almost cried when report-ing during the Black students’ silent protest against campus racism at Adams Plaza. I actually cried when I won first place and third place prizes for my stories the same semester I was told I was disqualified from Mills.

That doesn’t even include my experiences working alongside these knuckleheads I call my colleagues. Thank you for all the hard work, laughter, weird Post-its, pumpkins and chocolates left on my desk and letting me back in when I left. Allowing me to vent whenever I felt overwhelmed and respecting me even after we’ve had a rough back-and-forth and making sacrifices to help me even when you had other responsibilities to do and especially, the friendships. Thank you for everything.

I’ll end this with some food for thought for both the new and old staff members:

- Always aim for diversity. If a journalist’s job is to show different views, then do the same by actively looking for more diverse writers. It’s not about tokenism, it’s about the power of representation. It’s simply powerful when our readers can see that those listed on the byline are of color, LGBTQA and/or gender-variant.

- Being an “unbiased” journalist doesn’t mean you have to be cold and unfeeling. Handle everything fairly with consideration for the other person, whether they’re your source or another reporter.

- Immediately address criticism and apologize when you’ve done wrong. That means transparency: opening your doors, reaching out for story pitches, explaining the process and fixing your mistakes.

- As a sign that once hung on the back of our door used to say: Remember you are the watchdogs, not the lapdogs, of the administration.

- It’s time to replace that brown couch cover. It’s been there since 2010, fyi.

Thank you and good luck. Truly, I’ll miss you all.

05.06.14

This month I’m graduating. Three years ago, I didn’t believe this day would come.I came to Mills as a transfer student in 2011, two months after my grandmother, who encouraged me to go to Mills, passed

away. I dropped my last semester of Junior College that would have made my status entering Mills as a junior drop down to a sophomore.

At the time, I was one year into reintegrating myself into society after having chronic panic attacks every time I left the house. I was still struggling daily with panic attacks and anxiety, which eventually caused me to drop down my course load to one class and one independent study class just to keep enrollment; needless to say, my first year was rough at Mills.

I did not know one person and did not attend orientation — so I really didn’t know anyone and had no clue how to navigate the campus.

In my second year I took the beginning journalism class with Meredith May and my college experience completely changed. This beginner journalism class opened me up to a community on campus that I never knew I always wanted to fit into.

The Campanil swooped me up from my very first meeting and threw me into the hustle-bustle of what it means to be a journalist. I was also required to write stories for them and submit them for publishing for the class — so we were sort of pushed into each other’s arms.

At first I was really intimidated; so many young, intelligent women just going for it and learning on the job, accepting the consequences as they came. Also immediately learning that as a student journalist, you receive a lot of push back from the entire Mills community, which makes getting any story done on a deadline next to impossible.

That’s part of a college newspaper. It’s also part of a lot of real life jobs out there — you learn as you go, taking your mistakes in stride. And here was a group of women doing it together as a team, supporting each other. It was beautiful!

After my first few stories I started to recognize people from the newsroom. I wrote a few more stories and random people on campus started approaching me with Kudos and ideas for more stories I could write.

“It’s Kate, right?” one woman said. “You wrote that one article about overcrowding in women’s prisons right, didn’t you? I am so glad The Campanil covered that story.”

I took my second and almost all subsequent journalism classes with Sarah Pollock who immersed me in all of her amazing knowledge and skills as a journalist, a teacher and a mentor through multiple learning styles — a must for someone recovering from anxiety and relearning how to learn and live life. I was sold. I declared my minor in journalism and never looked back.

All of a sudden I had people; people that knew me, checked up on me, who cared for me. They were my people. All of a sudden, I became a “WE.”

“We” might not be such a big deal to most, but it was something I have never known at a school before Mills. Before The Campanil, I was only a “me:” alone, barely existing in this tiny bubble we call Mills.

The “we” of The Campanil got me my degree.Copy Chief

Kate Carmack