Mills College
PAE-2: Strategic Plan

One of the main goals of the 2008-2013 Strategic Plan is Environmental and Fiscal Sustainability: Expand and maintain the College’s physical environment, incorporating ongoing concern for environmental sustainability, and pursue strategic goals while maintaining financial sustainability. This includes objectives such as: Provide an outstanding accessible campus environment to support Mills’ educational mission, and incorporate sustainable guiding principles in campus planning, building, and operations. Create a process for submission of funding requests for capital projects and establish criteria for the College Budget Committee to use in evaluating requests. Establish criteria and processes for the College to determine the priority and/or advisability of major facilities projects. Engage the campus community in ongoing dialogue regarding facilities projects. Fund deferred maintenance at two percent of the operating budget annually.

One of the main goals of the 2008-2013 Strategic Plan is Educational Access and Diversity: Enhance educational access for and retention of an excellent and diverse student body and a diverse faculty and staff. The objectives include: 1. Strengthen Mills’ leadership role in recruiting diverse undergraduate and graduate student populations while meeting target enrollment goals of 1,000 and 550, respectively, by 2013. 2. Develop outreach programs to educate first-generation students and their families on financial aid, branching out from Oakland to other areas with concentrations of traditionally underrepresented and underserved students, as well as struggling middle-class students. 3. Support diverse student populations with admission, financial aid, academic, and co-curricular programs that increase student retention and persistent rates. 4. Continue to focus recruitment strategies on attracting a diverse faculty and staff that embrace traditionally underrepresented groups. Provide appropriate role models for students, and enhance retention of this workforce through mentoring programs, multicultural sensitivity training, and community building activities. 5. Collect and disseminate baseline statistics. Articulate goals and chart institutional progress for students, faculty, and staff.

One of the main goals of the 2008-2013 Strategic Plan is Environmental and Fiscal Sustainability: Expand and maintain the College’s physical environment, incorporating ongoing concern for environmental sustainability, and pursue strategic goals while maintaining financial sustainability. This includes the objective to: Continue the College’s commitment to financial sustainability by achieving balanced budgets, decreasing reliance on the quasi-endowment, and adhering to the endowment pay-out structure.