ATLANTA, Ga. (March 26, 2024) – Southern Athletic Association charter member Birmingham-Southern College has announced it will cease operations on May 31, 2024.
“Our hearts go out to the entire Birmingham-Southern community,” stated SAA Commissioner Stacey LaDew. “BSC has been an invaluable partner to this conference since its inception, and we are deeply saddened by today’s news. As a conference, we will continue to support the Panthers staff and student-athletes through this difficult time.”
The conference will work through its course of action and communicate further information when appropriate.
From Birmingham-Southern:
Birmingham-Southern College Announces Closure; Operations to Cease on May 31, 2024 --
Birmingham-Southern College will cease operations on May 31, 2024, following an 18-month effort to obtain bridge funding from a $30 million state loan program conceived and enacted to save the 168-year-old, nationally ranked liberal arts institution.
The College Board of Trustees voted unanimously today to close the College after a 2024 bill designed to amend the 2023 legislation that established the loan program failed to win sufficient support in 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’83. “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.
“Through this challenging year and a half, we have talked a lot about BSC’s more than $90 million annual economic impact on Alabama, with $68 million of that right here in our city,” Thompson added. “But beyond that loss – which is enormous -- the loss of a nationally ranked liberal arts college that has contributed so much to this state and to the world – and still had so much to give – is incalculable.”
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