Birmingham-Southern College plans to close after 168 years

A photo of Birmingham-Southern College's campus. (Birmingham-Southern College Communications Department)

Birmingham-Southern College will close on May 31 after a nearly 18-month fight to keep the liberal arts school open. 

BSC’s Board of Trustees voted to shut the school down after legislative leaders told them that a bill to extend the private school a $30 million loan was unlikely to pass the Alabama House of Representatives. 

“This is a tragic day for the College, our students, our employees, and our alumni,” said Board Chair Rev. Keith D. Thompson in a statement. “But it is also a terrible day for Birmingham, for the neighborhoods who have surrounded our campus for more than 100 years, and for Alabama.”

BSC faced declining enrollment and poor finances stemming from overbuilding, the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. It had sought a bridge loan from the Legislature to continue operations. 

The school said in a statement that it is making arrangements to maximize credit transfers for students.

“We are putting students first, and we will do everything we can to help them find the best place to continue their path to graduation,” said Provost Dr. Laura K. Stultz in a statement.

The school said arrangements will be made for a small group of seniors planning to graduate Summer 2024 to finish their degrees. Meetings are scheduled with employees over the next few days.

Natalie Davis, a professor emerita of the college who had been there for 45 years, said Tuesday that she had received a “slew” of texts from former students.

“It’s a sad day for the college,” she said.

Doug Turner, an alumnus of the school who had been involved in organizing alumni during the 2023 legislative session, said that he doesn’t understand how the Legislature could have passed something last year but couldn’t support it this year.

“I guess that means that you don’t really care what your constituents think or you don’t think they’re watching,” he said.

Ellen Potts, an alumna and executive director of the Tuscaloosa Habitat for Humanity, said that “it’s a sad day for the state of Alabama.”

“It makes me sad for future generations who will not have access to that kind of quality education,” she said.

Birmingham-area leaders expressed sadness and criticized the Legislature for failing to act. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said in a statement Tuesday that the closing was “disappointing and heartbreaking.”

“I’ve stood alongside members of our city council to protect this institution and its proud legacy of shaping leaders,” the statement said. “It’s frustrating that those values were not shared by lawmakers in Montgomery.”

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, released a statement on social media Tuesday that the school meant a lot to many people.

“While no one had hoped for this outcome, the failure of state leaders to do their part and provide assistance to BSC is particularly disappointing,” she wrote.

Lost in the Legislature

Alabama State Treasurer Young Boozer speaks in support of a bill to bring gambling to the state at a meeting of the House Economic Development and Tourism Committee on Feb. 13, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

The Legislature last year passed a law to extend a loan to the school. The loan was considered all-but-guaranteed until last fall, when State Treasurer Young Boozer, who oversaw the program, declined to issue it. Boozer cited concerns with the school’s long-term stability.  

The school filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the Treasurer’s Office after the denial.

Boozer wrote in an email Tuesday that “I have already made the comments that were needed to be made.”

A bill that would have changed administration of the program to the head of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education passed the Senate last month and got out of a House committee last week, but some lawmakers seemed doubtful of its chances. 

A message was left Tuesday with Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, who sponsored the legislation. 

Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, who co-sponsored the legislation said he didn’t “want to give up hope,” but said the news was a “tragedy” that would cost jobs and hurt businesses from the loss of students.

Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, who chairs the House Ways and Means Education Committee, overseeing the state budget, said Tuesday that the key to the legislation last year was the role of the State Treasurer as the “gatekeeper” to the program. 

“Apparently it was the case that removing the treasurer there just wasn’t enough support in the House,” he said.

Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, whose district includes the school, said that “everything was problematic” with the bill and that the exclusion of the treasurer hurt its chances. She said she would never have believed that school was going to close on May 31, saying that the institution was too “storied.” She said she was “very hurt.”

“It’s a sad day for the state of Alabama but certainly for the city of Birmingham,” she said. “The school is called Birmingham-Southern.”

Inside Higher Ed reported that 14 nonprofit four-year colleges closed in 2023, with a 15th essentially shutting down. The schools were mostly small, private, tuition-dependent and had small endowments. Ten of the 15 schools were also religiously affiliated.

The Hechinger Report reported in 2022 that 861 colleges had closed since 2004.

Birmingham-Southern College was founded in 1918 after the merger of Southern University, chartered in 1856, and Birmingham College, founded in 1910.

A message was left with the chair of the Senate education committee, Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur.

Givan, who had predicted last week that the bill would not pass, said that the work for the bill had been focused in the Senate with the sponsor, and there wasn’t enough support in the House. She said the right stakeholders had not been involved.

Davis said that she had attended a liberal arts college, and it changed her life. She said that she wanted to do similar things. She said that the school has historically had students from rural communities who use their education to live “successful lives,” including law and medical school.

“I think we were very successful over the years,” she said.

Potts said that her family of four were all graduates of the school. She said she thought that a school that produced so many “highly educated” graduates would be something the state would want to preserve.

“At a time when the brain drain of other colleges and universities in this state, of the graduates leaving the state at a time when that is well documented, there’s no effort to keep this quality of graduate in state,” she said.

Turner said that thousands of graduates who fought for last year’s bill thought the issue was settled, and that he thought this year’s bill was moving along until a decision was made, in his words, “behind closed doors.”

“Frankly, we don’t have a lot of people covering the Alabama Legislature day to day and maybe we should because they’re really surprised that this is what happened,” he said. “And I think that it is for those of us who wish to continue investing in our communities, with our presence and our participation, we need to look to our state legislators and say, ‘What happened?’”

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