By Barnett Wright | The Birmingham Times
If anyone knows the importance of Birmingham-Southern College (BSC), it would be Joanice Thompson, President of Bush Hills Connections, a nonprofit organization to pool resources and forge partnerships to benefit their neighborhood.
One of the neighborhood’s biggest achievements, the Bush Hills Community Garden and Urban Farm, came about with the help of BSC students, she said. Since 2018, property in Bush Hills has been designated an urban farm, and now produces 50,000 pounds of various fruits and vegetables.
“The students have been helping us with the complex, and community garden and urban farm that we have,” the community leader said. “They wrote the first plan for the marketplace” on the grounds.
BSC, a private liberal arts school in the Bush Hills community on the west side of Birmingham, announced Tuesday it will close May 31 after a nearly 170-year history.
“This is a tragic day for the college, our students, our employees, and our alumni, and an outcome so many have worked tirelessly to prevent,” Rev. Keith Thompson, chairman of the BSC Board of Trustees said in an announcement to alumni. “We understand the devastating impact this has on each of you, and we will now direct our efforts toward ensuring the smoothest possible transition for everyone involved.”
There are approximately 700 students enrolled at BSC this semester and Joanice Thompson said she feels for every one of them.
“We [community leaders] did as much as we could possibly do to try to keep it open, not only just for Bush Hills residents but for those 700 students …,“ she said. “I have three sons I put through college. If their school had closed on them, that was part of their life journey, can you imagine the impact it would have had on my boys … they were making a future in the world that we as older people designed for them, and said, ‘you should go [to college]’ and now a college closes on them.”
Kamau Afrika, a community activist and 1985 graduate of BSC, also knows the importance of his school. It’s been a place where nearby residents could obtain a Community Pass to gain access to the gym, library, cafeteria and other facilities on campus, he said.
“If you wanted a safe and secure [gym to workout] you go to Birmingham Southern you can stay in there until 9-10 at night,” Afrika said. “The library is open until 11 o’clock at night. My grandson [an 11-year-old standout basketball player] would not be where he is now if I didn’t have the use of that facility as well as the weight room and the track [for myself].”
Lawmakers would have found a way to keep the school open “if it were in their community,” Akrika said. Added Joanice Thompson, “I don’t know what those state legislators were thinking about. They should have thought about those warm bodies at the school.”
Alabama lawmakers last year approved a new loan program that could lend BSC as much as $30 million. School supporters had hoped to use the loan while seeking commitments from private donors. But Young Boozer III, the state treasurer, twice denied the loan last year.
A new bill this session sponsored by State Sens. Jabo Waggoner and Rodger Smitherman cleared the Senate earlier this month, but school officials said they were told they didn’t have the votes in the House.
“Word of the decision to close Birmingham Southern College is disappointing and heartbreaking to all of us who recognize it as a stalwart of our community,” Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said in a statement. “I’ve stood alongside members of our City Council to protect this institution and its proud legacy of shaping leaders. It’s frustrating that those values were not shared by lawmakers in Montgomery.”
Birmingham City Council President Darrell O’Quinn said news of the closing was “devastating” for the students, faculty members, families and everyone affiliated with the historic institution.
“It’s also profoundly distressing for the surrounding community, who will now be living in close proximity to an empty college campus,” he said. “As we’ve seen with other institutions that have shuttered their doors, we will be entering a difficult chapter following this unfortunate development … We’re approaching this with resilience and a sense of hope that something positive can eventually come from this troubling chapter.”
