“Mills has a social-justice and diversity policy that’s public and is supposed to drive institutional decisions around staffing and pedagogy,” said Brendan Glasson, a 2018 Mills graduate and staff organizer who now works as the music center technical director. “This is about helping Mills adhere itself further to its commitments to equity and sustainable working conditions.”

Some Mills staff have gone as many as eight years without raises, and benefits such as retirement contributions have declined as well, according to staff organizers. Employees have also been laid off and then encouraged to reapply for similar positions with added responsibilities. For example, Madison Davis, an alum and staff organizer who’s worked as a Mills fundraiser since 2017, said her job was previously divided between two people.

Due to the working conditions and low morale, Mills struggles with employee retention, and union organizers point out that rapid staff turnover also diminishes the student experience. “As a longtime employee, I’m watching Mills become a place where people work for 2-5 years and then leave, and that’s not particularly sustainable for us or our students,” said Vala Burnett, a Mills alum and staff organizer who’s worked as a health-sciences coordinator since 2005.

Mills, a private college for women and gender non-binary students, with graduate programs for all genders, declared a financial emergency in 2017 to resolve a $9 million deficit, and moved to fire eleven professors, many of them tenured, including the internationally renowned composer and improviser Roscoe Mitchell. The American Association of University Professors criticized the administration for “declining to consider … alternatives to terminating faculty appointments.”

Beyond forcing out Mitchell, an important draw for music students, the crisis dramatically affected the storied Center for Contemporary Music: Co-directors Chris Brown and Maggi Payne, longtime campus and music scene fixtures, retired early in the hopes of pre-empting additional cuts. Several other departments were also marked for downsizing as the school struggled to increase enrollment and, in the view of critics, prioritized sciences over liberal arts.

“Like many other small colleges, we are continuing to manage a budget deficit created by investment in new programs and lower enrollments,” Hillman said in a statement.

In the wake of the restructuring—part of a financial stabilization plan aiming to balance the budget by next year—Mills staff believe unionizing will give them greater representation in cost-cutting decisions in order to avoid or mitigate the effects of similar layoffs. “So it’s also about transparency,” Burnett said. “Through this process we get to the table, we get to open the books, and then staff is positioned to bring our knowledge to help Mills solve its problems.”

SEIU Local 1021, which represents staff and faculty at several local private colleges, helped Mills adjuncts ratify their first union contract in 2016. According to the union, the contract provided adjuncts with an average 13-percent raise, protection against reduction of benefits and more say in working conditions. SEIU, known for representing public employees, has been organizing adjunct professors in recent years as part of its “Faculty Forward” campaign.