New Beginnings FAQ

Maintaining our current building was expensive; it costs $100,000 to run each year if nothing needs to be fixed. In addition, it is not fully accessible, and the space no longer works for the number of staff and students we have. We’d hoped to lease the building, but there were no appropriate offers. Therefore, after much reflection, the Board of Trustees made the difficult decision to sell the property.

We plan to leave during the summer of 2020, and to be on the Mills College campus in Oakland CA by August 2020, in time for our usual intensive classes to begin. We’re still at work on the logistics, but we will let you know more once those details are finalized. Just as important, we’ll also have information in the coming months about how we will celebrate and honor our long-time home before we go.

After our departure in the Summer of 2020, our former property will be transformed into new market-rate student housing. We know from personal experience that creating more student housing is very much needed here in Berkeley. We are heartened that our campus will be used to fill this vital community need.

There are several reasons that this kind of collaboration made sense for us. One crucial reason is that Mills’ educational philosophy beautifully matches our own commitment to educating to counter oppressions. Mills is a nationally renowned, independent liberal arts college for women and gender non-binary students, with graduate programs for all genders. Founded as the Young Ladies’ Seminary in 1852, Mills has been a leader in pioneering educational opportunities for women for more than century. Today, it is ranked one of the most diverse liberal arts colleges in the nation. It was the first women’s college to create a transgender admissions policy. And in 2017, Mills College qualified as a Hispanic serving institution, with Hispanic/Latinx students representing more than 25
percent of the student body.

We also decided to co-locate at Mills because of the many collaborative opportunities we can develop there. Located on a beautiful, 135-acre campus
in East Oakland, Mills is a perfect mix of state-of-the-art facilities and the natural world. Starr King is positioned to be one of several strategic partners with Mills College as it reimagines its future in the East Bay. What’s more, we will be rooted in an Oakland community filled with opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to hone our skills in social justice and sacred social change. We are especially excited at the possibility of accessing traditional, on-campus student housing, reducing the financial burden for Starr King students who would otherwise have to find their own market-rate housing in a deeply competitive area.

In short, the decision to co-locate with Mills will help Starr King grow stronger and free us to more fully live into our mission. There are still terms that need to be negotiated and more details to come. Once we are able, we will share those details with you.

We don’t yet have an answer to that. We expect to begin negotiations on specific space right after the New Year, and we’ll be sure to share that information as soon as we have it. In the meantime, we encourage you to visit www.mills.edu/#virtualtour and take the virtual tour to get a sense of how beautiful the campus is!

We hope to have that information very soon. We are particularly excited at the likelihood of accessing traditional student housing on campus, as this can meaningfully reduce the financial burden for students who would otherwise have to find their own housing in a deeply competitive market.  

We have just begun to explore the many possibilities that such a partnership can produce. We’ve had preliminary conversations with the school’s provost, as well as well as the deans of the graduate Schools of Education and Business, and they have been very encouraging! We look forward to having more to report soon.

For the moment, our relationship with the GTU remains the same. At the same time, our Board of Trustees is considering a number of options in light of our
upcoming move away from Holy Hill. Once again, as leadership comes to a decision on this issue, we will be sure to share those details with you.

Simply put: No. Our New Beginnings process is designed help Starr King to grow stronger and more sustainable as we continue to prepare our students for the work of 21st century religious leadership. This latest set of decisions were just one part of a larger process. There are many more decisions to be made and more steps to take to reach our goals.

But as this process continues, we are committed to being transparent and accountable to our Starr King community. We will continue keeping you
informed as we continue our work. And we are deeply appreciative of all the support and ideas we have received thus far

We will schedule another community Q&A in the new year so that you can ask questions, share concerns and learn more about what lies before us. Please check our New Beginnings page for the date and time of those meetings, as well as our usual updates as news develops.

You can also email us with your ideas and suggestions at future@sksm.edu. We read every email and have already received many engaging ideas from our community.

Both the board and staff have been examining this issue for at least a year, with in depth analysis over the past six months that included consultants in seminary education. By the time we gathered at the April 2019 board meeting, it became clear that it was time to set this exploratory process in motion. Because we are committed to being both transparent and accountable to the community, we decided to be as open as possible about our thinking, even though there are many things we don’t yet know.

In spite of the fact that we own our property debt free, our building is very expensive to run; preliminary research by one board working group suggests that we could reduce costs by relocating the school to a different site. That same working group is in the process of speaking to possible partners in the East Bay that have the capacity to house Starr King on a short or long-term basis. Since discussions are not yet complete, we’re not free to share more.

Not right away; we expect it to take about 18 months to find the right place. At the same time, we are in preliminary conversation with other institutions that might be willing to house the school on a long-term basis. Additionally, we are speaking with knowledgeable people to help us understand the highest and best use of our LeConte Ave. property. As we learn more about the options before us, we will be able to provide a clearer timeline. We are committed to keeping our community informed as we evaluate our options and make decisions.

The most immediate change will be a tuition increase effective in the 2019-2020 academic year, to $775 per credit. Our goal was to keep the increase modest while helping to defray some of the rising costs facing the school. For now, classes will be held pretty much as they are right now. We are committed to ensuring that our students receive the education they need to tackle the work of progressive religious leadership today.

In the short term, there is no immediate change to the student housing shortage. One avenue of exploration for us is whether we can find an institution with the capacity to help with the housing challenges our students face. Pacific School of Religion is offering their last year of housing SKSM students for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Starr King remains steadfast in its values and our commitment to educating to counter oppressions {ECO}, and to create just and sustainable communities. One of our values is to teach by who we are and what we do. Throughout this process, we aim to model that value.

As we explore potential partnerships with other organizations and institutions, we will work to ensure that our partners share our core values and competencies. We are committed to keeping our ECO commitment at the heart of what we do, to retain our Unitarian Universalist identity while embracing our multi-religious character, and to keep the school going strong.

We also will be as transparent as possible about the decisions we make and what those decisions will mean for our community.

Yes! We are committed to helping our students succeed and prepare them for the work of religious leadership in the 21st century. That will not change.

Right now, we have no such plans. At the same time, we are exploring a variety of partnerships and opportunities that will strengthen the school and help it to grow, so no option is yet off the table.

Absolutely not! For the past 115 years, Starr King has been educating our students for the practical realities of progressive religious leadership. We have no intention of stopping now.

You can reach out to our leadership team at any time by emailing us at future@sksm.edu with your questions or concerns. In the next several weeks, we hope to schedule an in-person meeting with Zoom capability to allow for the start of Starr King conversations. We will also be creating a web page on the school website that will allow us to post updates about this process as we move ahead.