Unless Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) has suitors bidding in the shadows, Miles College is the only one left standing in the race to acquire BSC’s West Birmingham campus. BSC has a signed letter of intent with Miles conveying both schools’ interest to enter a legally binding purchase agreement for BSC’s property.
BSC’s corporate entity will reportedly remain active for several more years to facilitate the wind-down process. Shutting up a 168-year-old institution is, after all, a long, laborious business.
We will see if Miles finally gets its hands on BSC, having long coveted BSC’s campus since the 1970s. It’s not hard to see why: The Hilltop is an ideal urban locale for any HBCU (historically black colleges and universities) to set up shop. That’s why A&M badly wanted to get its hands on the Hilltop before BSC balked at A&M’s low-ball offer.
When Miles made several bids to purchase BSC in the 1970s at a time when BSC strongly considered partaking in “white flight” and absconding to the suburbs in Shelby County (a move Samford University made in 1957), Miles didn’t have enough cash to play ball.
Where is Miles going to get its hands on the requisite purchasing power this time?
Miles College’s endowment is a humble $27 million. Assuming Miles was willing to drain their entire endowment for the proposed BSC purchase, $27 million isn’t going to cut it for BSC’s assessed value of $55 million and an assessed liquidated value of $25 million (a total valuation of $80 million.)
In 2006, Miles purchased a new 41-acre campus adjacent to their existent campus in Fairfield, Ala., doubling the land size of their college. A top-tier HBCU, Miles is indisputably strong financially, but not strong enough to outright purchase BSC with open pocketbooks.
I have nothing against Miles College or any privately-funded HBCU (or any educational institution for that matter – white, Black, whatever) moving to buy BSC’s defunct campus. I do, however, have everything against public dollars being denied as a loan to save a historic educational institution integral to Alabama’s educational landscape only to see public dollars scheming to try to purchase the very private institution the state let flounder into oblivion.
That said, I am relieved to see Alabama A&M – a public (state-funded) institution – out of the running.
If Miles College is forced to take on debt to finance its ambitious purchase of BSC’s lucrative West Birmingham lot, it should not be public debt. No one will lend to leveraged out BSC anymore, including the state. Thus, the state should not lend to Miles either.
Let’s see if Miles can bring enough cash to the dance this time and close the deal.
If BSC must sell to anyone (which, of course, it does if it hopes to pay its creditors and wriggle itself out of this convoluted financial mess), Miles is my preferred choice. However much as the Hilltop would change, it would, at least in theory, still maintain its liberal arts emphasis.
In my view, what the State of Alabama hates more than “liberal” liberal arts colleges are HBCUs. Alabama State Treasurer Young Boozer III was instrumental in shutting BSC’s doors. He is the man left standing over BSC’s smoldering corpse holding the smoking gun.
Many, including myself, attribute an inherent prejudice rooted in the misnomer “liberal” in liberal arts as a factor in Boozer’s curmudgeonly decision to condemn the only one of these nationally ranked “liberal” liberal arts colleges in Alabama.
Make it happen, Miles. Stick it to Boozer and the unimaginative barbarians who sentenced Alabama’s most important educational institution to death. Revitalize the Hilltop and bring life and learning back to Birmingham.
It won’t be my BSC. It’ll never be our BSC again. But it will be substantially better than seeing the sacred Hilltop sold to become an Amazon Fulfillment Center or some other perverse mutation.
Conner (CR) Hayes is a small business owner based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is a 2017 alum of Birmingham-Southern College and a screenwriter, novelist, and poet. CR Hayes is published in various mediums, including academic articles, journalism, prose, and poetry.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819news.com.
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