Key points
- Birmingham-Southern College’s board of trustees announced the school will close on May 31, after years of financial struggle.
- The school was founded by Methodists and has had longstanding ties with The United Methodist Church.
- Denomination officials noted that many United Methodist clergy are alumni of Birmingham-Southern.
Birmingham-Southern College, founded by Methodists and with longstanding ties to The United Methodist Church, will shut down on May 31.
The small, academically distinguished liberal arts college struggled financially for years, and an effort to get emergency funds through the Alabama Legislature appeared doomed.
That led to the closure decision, made unanimously by the college’s trustee board on March 26.
“This is a tragic day for the college, our students, our employees and our alumni,” said the Rev. Keith D. Thompson, the college’s board chair, a member of its class of 1983 and pastor of Canterbury United Methodist Church in Birmingham.
Bishop Deborah Wallace-Padgett oversees the North Alabama Conference and described herself and many others as “heartbroken” that the school will close.
“Our United Methodist Church has particularly benefited from the many talented individuals educated at Birmingham-Southern College who have served as ministers, educators and church and community leaders,” the bishop said.
Bishop David Graves of the Alabama-West Florida Conference also lamented the development.
“Many of our gifted clergy and laity completed their undergraduate work at BSC and heard a call into ministry on ‘The Hilltop,’” he said.
The Rev. Dalton Rushing graduated from Birmingham-Southern in 2005, going on to Candler School of Theology. He met his wife, the Rev. Stacey Rushing, at Birmingham-Southern. Both are ordained United Methodist clergy serving in the North Georgia Conference.
Dalton Rushing said he did not grow up going to church but felt a call to ministry at Birmingham-Southern. He noted the opportunities for worship, Bible study and other religious education, and said he found a mentor in the late United Methodist Bishop Robert “Bob” Morgan, an alumnus of Birmingham-Southern who served there as bishop-in-residence in retirement.
“Though it is not a perfect school, it really modeled Christian community for me in a very tender time in my life,” Rushing said. “This is a huge loss for those of us who went to school there, as well as for The United Methodist Church, Birmingham and Alabama.”
The Rev. Greg Bergquist, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, described Birmingham-Southern as a “top-tier” school for Methodism since the 19th century.
“We bid Birmingham-Southern farewell with sadness, but also with gratitude for the countless lives that have been transformed by its educational mission,” he said. “(Methodism founder) John Wesley’s concern for body, mind and spirit was embodied at Birmingham-Southern and we are eternally grateful for its contribution to the United Methodist connection.”
The school’s closing will have practical consequences for the North Alabama Conference.
The conference headquarters is in the United Methodist Center at Birmingham-Southern, and the conference archives are in the school library.
“The North Alabama Conference Board of Trustees is evaluating various options for the operation of the United Methodist Center in the current building or another location,” the conference said in response to questions from UM News.
Guy Hubbs, conference archivist, described an “extensive” collection of historical materials to find a new home for, including some 150 manuscript collections, as well as records for hundreds of churches.
“It’s not a matter of sticking some stuff in the back of a pickup truck,” he said.
But Hubbs said the archives have lots of supporters and that leaves him hopeful.
“I’ve been promised a good place will be found, and I have no reason to doubt that,” he said.
Birmingham-Southern turned to many parties, including the conference, as it tried to keep going. Last year, the North Alabama Conference Board of Pension and Health Benefits approved a note receivable from the college for $2.5 million, according to a press release.
“The conference advanced funds to Birmingham-Southern College as an investment in a fully secured note receivable bearing a market rate of interest,” the conference said on March 27. “The conference anticipates full repayment of the note receivable, including accrued interest, without incurring any financial loss on the investment.”’
In 1856, the Alabama Legislature chartered Southern University as a Methodist institution. The school opened three years later in Greensboro, Alabama, though many of its students would soon leave for the Civil War.
By 1918, Southern had merged with Birmingham College to become Birmingham-Southern, on the city of Birmingham’s west side.
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The college has been there since, becoming the first in the state to have a Phi Beta Kappa Society chapter and producing a handful of Rhodes Scholars.
But Birmingham-Southern’s prospects grew shaky in 2010, with the revelation that it had incorrectly calculated Pell Grant awards, overpaying by millions and forcing layoffs and budget cuts, according to the online publication Inside Higher Ed.
The following years saw periods of relative stability, but Inside Higher Ed reports a pattern of borrowing from the endowment to cover operating losses, as well as enrollment declines.
Birmingham-Southern officials warned in December 2022 that the school might have to close and sought help from the Alabama Legislature. Lawmakers last year approved the $30 million Distressed Institutions of Higher Learning Revolving Loan Fund to help save the school. But the state treasurer was put in charge of the program and he refused to approve the loan, citing Birmingham-Southern’s history of financial mismanagement.
An effort in the legislature to amend the program and allow emergency funding for Birmingham-Southern did not seem likely to pass, prompting the board’s decision to close.
Birmingham-Southern said in a press release that it is working to assist students as they transfer to other colleges and will offer “as much help as possible” to employees who will be out of work on May 31.
“If you are a college looking for incredible students and faculty, or an employer looking for profoundly loyal employees, you will not find better people than the people on this campus,” said Thompson, the trustee board chair.
Hodges is a Dallas-based writer for United Methodist News. Contact him at 615-742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free daily or weekly Digests.
