Inside Higher Ed has an exhaustive discussion of what’s going on at Mills College. The women’s college in Oakland, California, is having a hard time keeping up enrollment. Faculty at the school are beginning to worry that it may follow in the footsteps of Sweet Briar College in Virginia, which will close its doors this year.

Although Mills has a bigger endowment than Sweet Briar (it’s more than $150 million), the school’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s in November to what IHE calls “one rung above a junk bond.” Several years of austerity led the faculty to threaten the president with a vote of confidence–as she was quietly planning not to renew her five-year contract, anyway.

The problems are classic–low enrollment in spite of heavy discounting on tuition, the narrowing of the market by being a women’s college, and competition from California’s low-priced state system. I’d add the possibility that California has lost its lure. I remember for years that Mills was a tony college with a good reputation–that may not be the case anymore.

The closing of Sweet Briar elicited some advice on how a school could avoid closure. Perhaps Mills should try it. On the other hand, the school has been aware of the problems and may have done all it can already.