Mills to merge with Northeastern?

[Johann]

update
City of Oakland | Oakland City Council Votes to Urge Investigation… (oaklandca.gov)

What on earth does the City of Oakland have to do with a private college? I still want to know how the college hasn't been transparent in its financial crisis? They've been in trouble for many years and been public about it.

What does the city REALLY have to do with a private college? I'd say nothing. But the City people holding this view say otherwise. And they say they're going to get the State involved...

The mechanics of the situation are: 

(1) The Council President pro tempore is a Mills alumna.
(2) She, the Vice-Mayor and two members of the Save Mills Coalition are spearheading the Council's efforts 
(3) They want the State to investigate the alleged non-transparency and other alleged wrongs.

These people say they and the Oakland Community feel the closure of Mills is an attack on their ideals and on women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights etc. I'm not there, in Oakland. I don't know for sure if the community supports this or not. I also don't know if the alleged wrongs all occurred as stated. If they did, I'm for having something done about it, too - but I'm in another country, thousands of miles away from Oakland. It looks like something to be decided in a California courtroom.

Perceived wrongs like this rightfully make people want something done. It's not always clear exactly what can be done. In this case, it seems the first desired outcome is an investigation which the City, or at least some of its spokespeople want - and they want it done by the State -at State cost, no doubt. Yes - I definitely see a courtroom in this. Maybe more than one.

[wow]

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.

[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!

[wow]

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!

Note the "etc." after Stanford. I'm not from California. It was literally the only private school in the bay area that I could think of. So I used it as an example with "etc." to indicate that it was an example, not a suggestion,
nor something I assumed was a realistic prospect.

Like I said, I don't really care. Just speculating on why people are angry about this, since that was a question people asked higher up in the thread.