Category: Birmingham-Southern College
Birmingham-Southern College Closing After 168 Years Educating Students
Birmingham-Southern College is closing its doors May 31 after a nearly 18-month fight to overcome its financial shortfalls. The BSC board of trustees met Tuesday and decided to close the school after learning that a bill to lend the college $30 million from a state higher education loan fund was unlikely to pass the Legislature this year. Read more.
A Call to Call: BSC Alumni Again Urged to Appeal to Legislators to Save Their School
Alumni of Birmingham-Southern College have again received a call to contact state legislators, this time to seek a rewrite of last year’s legislation that had been designed to provide a reprieve from the college’s possible closing. Read more.
City OK’s $5 Million to Help Keep BSC Open
The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved $5 million in funding to help keep Birmingham-Southern College operating.
The city will provide BSC a $2.5 million loan that will be forgiven provided BSC opens classes in the fall and a 20-year loan for the same amount to be repaid at a 1% interest rate. Read more.
Birmingham-Southern hoped to borrow money. Now the school is on borrowed time
Birmingham-Southern College is running out of money and time. After the state treasurer rejected the school’s $30 million loan application, school officials must now consider their options, including closing the 167-year-old campus on Birmingham’s west side. Read more.
Birmingham City Council President Dissents From Vote Pledging Financial Support for Birmingham-Southern College
It’s not about Birmingham-Southern College; it’s about the residents of Birmingham.
That’s what Birmingham City Council President Wardine Alexander said Tuesday in her dissent from passage of a resolution pledging city dollars to support BSC, a private college, if the institution is able to obtain additional funding from the state. Read more.
BSC Board Votes to Keep the College Open
The board of trustees of Birmingham-Southern College voted unanimously Wednesday evening to keep the college open. Late last year, college officials reported that the private liberal arts college could close as early as this spring due to old accounting errors, a drained endowment and years of financial stress. The college has asked government officials for bridge funding, with limited success. Its $200 million fundraising campaign so far has raised nearly $46 million from private donors. Read more.
Birmingham Council Delays BSC Funding Decision Until at Least Mid-April
The Birmingham City Council needs more questions answered before it will officially lend its support to the financially struggling Birmingham-Southern College.
A “resolution of intent” on the agenda for Tuesday’s council meeting would have seen the city promise to provide financial support to BSC — if the college could also secure binding funding commitments from the state of Alabama and the Jefferson County Commission.
But some councilors were reluctant to make that commitment without further discussions with college administrators first.
BSC President Daniel Coleman has said the board of trustees must decide the college’s future by the end of March to give students time to decide where to transfer and help faculty and staff make plans for their future. Read more.
