Behind Mills College Chief’s Decision to Step Down, Faculty Tensions Loomed

Alecia A. DeCoudreaux, who announced last week that she would not seek to renew her contract as president of Mills College, was facing the possibility of a faculty no-confidence vote in her leadership when she made her decision.  In a memo to the campus, sent on Thursday, Ms. DeCoudreaux said she would step down in June 2016 after five years as president of Mills, a liberal-arts college for women in Oakland, Calif. She cited a desire to spend more time with her husband and her mother, but did not acknowledge simmering unrest among professors.