“The message was so special,” says Mable L. Millner, smiling as she reads a card resting next to a bouquet of flowers on her desk: “‘Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.'”
The Shirley Chisholm quote, signed with words of gratitude from an alumna, is just one of the many notes, texts and calls Millner has received from alumni since last fall. In October, she announced her January 2020 retirement as associate dean of students for diversity and inclusion and director of multicultural education.
After nearly 20 years of service striving to make Holy Cross a more inclusive home for all students, Millner sits in her office, the sun setting out the window on Hogan Courtyard, and reflects on a career deeply informed by her own life journey. “You wanted to do it. You had to do it,” she explains. “There were people who gave their lives for us to be able to go to school … and so it wasn’t necessarily a choice. It was kind of understood that you would contribute with the time, talents and skills that you had.”