Mills to merge with Northeastern?

[ss20ts]

I don't have strong feelings on either side, but I imagine that a lot of alumnae feel they have a stake in it because small private colleges do a lot of fundraising from their alums. There is a good chance that many alums have made donations (including very large ones) for years and years on the understanding that those donations were made to sustain the college, without being given insight into the very real possibility that it could close or undergo a merger on a predictable timeline.
(I'm not commenting on whether donating to a college actually gives you the right to be involved in its administration, just on the fact that this is a common conception among donors.)
And I would expect that the merger being with a university that is based in Boston, when Mills is in California, is part of the concern. They probably want to know if there's been any talks to merge with a more local private institution, like Stanford etc., and if there haven't, why not.

Stanford isn't going to want Mills College. Merging isn't as easy as it sounds. First Mills has to find a school who is interested in buying them or merging with them. Given the number of schools in financial trouble these days, they have slim pickings!