American Notes - SEXES

When the trustees of Mills College announced three weeks ago that the only hope of saving the 138-year-old women's school in Oakland from a looming financial crisis would be to begin admitting undergraduate men next year, they were probably unprepared for the severity of the reaction. Students wept, boycotted classes and mounted noisy demonstrations, chanting, "Traitors!" and "Better dead than coed!"

To help close the budgetary gap, graduates raised $3 million in a week-long telephone campaign, and started a rescue plan that would add $10 million to the college's $72 million endowment by doubling the yearly gift from the alumnae association. Last week Warren Hellman, chairman of the board of trustees, announced that Mills might not need to enroll male students after all. "You have had a lot of banners for us all week. Here's one for you," Hellman told a crowd of about 300 cheering women as he unfurled a banner that read MILLS -- FOR WOMEN. AGAIN.