editorial

As a member of the Trinity community, there are a couple reasons why you might recognize the name Birmingham-Southern College (BSC). Both schools belong to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, as well as the Southern Athletic Association. In other words, we’re both small liberal arts schools, and we beat them a lot in football. More recently, however, BSC announced the doors of its campus in Birmingham, Alabama would be closing in May, leaving students, faculty and alumni to grapple with its shutdown.

My parents are both alumni of BSC. On March 26, they both got an email from the head of BSC’s board of trustees explaining how the closure came to pass. Over the years, BSC has faced declining enrollment as well as poor finances, which have been exacerbated by the Great Recession in the late 2000s and the economic downturn brought on by COVID. During the last 18 months, university administrators attempted to obtain a $30 million loan from the Alabama Legislature in order to provide BSC the means to maintain itself.

However, the legislature had other ideas. The Distressed Institutions of Higher Learning Revolving Loan Fund, established by the Alabama Legislature and signed into law in June 2023, was literally created to handle situations like BSC’s. The original act put the State Treasurer in charge of the program, but an amendment passed on March 5 that later moved the administration of the loan program to the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. Even so, the bill did not have enough support to move forward, and thus the loan was not issued to BSC.

BSC is far from the first private liberal arts school to shut down after prolonged periods of financial strain. Since 2016, 91 American private colleges have met similar fates as a result of mismanagement or general oversight on behalf of government and accrediting entities. For students pursuing a liberal arts education, this rise in closures is slowly limiting options.

A liberal arts education provides students the opportunity to take a variety of classes across multiple disciplines, developing disciplines and skills they may have neglected otherwise. While all schools are invested in their students’ success, I’d argue that liberal arts colleges offer their students more practical and interdisciplinary experiences — room to grow beyond their own expectations, if you will. Like so many other liberal arts schools, BSC provided a space that fostered this kind of growth for students.

While at BSC, my mom switched from biology to psychology. After she graduated, she went on to law school to build on the foundation a liberal arts education gave her. Similarly, my dad started out as a sociology and math double-major, then ended up in international studies before going to grad school for political science. It’s not unheard of for people to switch their major, of course, but schools like Trinity and BSC actively allow students the maneuverability to explore possibilities outside their chosen field before completely switching gears if they decide their chosen path doesn’t suit them.

I myself have benefitted from this process during my time here. Initially, I came to Trinity as a prospective English major, thinking I wanted to pursue a career in creative writing. Just in the span of my first year, I knew I wanted to move away from that and go into environmental studies instead. Further, along the way, I picked up a couple other things I realized I enjoyed, like rocks. Hence the geoscience minor. Though I still have a deep love for writing, I found another passion in climate advocacy, and I now know the direction I can take in the future.

I owe my whole experience at Trinity to my parents. Way back when I was applying to colleges, I knew I wanted to go to a school where I could explore my interests and see where they took me. Through their connections and experiences from BSC, my parents recognized the similar possibilities Trinity embodied for me. In retrospect, I couldn’t have known where I would end up at the end of my senior year, but, despite everything, I couldn’t be happier with how the past four years have panned out.

I know that the current students and alumni of BSC are dealing with a truly heart-wrenching situation. This editorial is not meant to flaunt the wonders of the liberal arts experience in the face of those who have had it stripped away from them. Instead, I wanted to draw attention to the benefits I have witnessed and experienced myself. There’s a strange irony in having my parents’ college close as I’m set to leave mine. It makes this whole process feel a lot more uncertain, like I’m not sure what I’ll come back to in 20 years.

But there’s also the confidence that both my parents’ experiences as well as my own at Trinity have equipped me to step into my future, knowing what I am capable of. To the BSC alumni and students, I can’t speak for you, but something tells me that you have and will do the same as you move through your own lives. In the midst of their experience at BSC, my parents were lucky enough to find each other. During my time at Trinity, even in the classes I didn’t like as much, I was lucky enough to find myself. And I’ll carry that with me for the rest of my life.