Birmingham Southern College may shut down

Looks like another small college may be closing the doors due to financial issues. I grew up in Birmingham and it was always considered a very good private college and consistently ranked high nationally. From an article I saw -

"Birmingham-Southern President Daniel Coleman is seeking $30 million in state funding for the private college - $12.5 million from funds provided by the American Rescue Plan Act and $17.5 million from the Education Trust Fund.

He is also seeking $5 million from the city of Birmingham and $2.5 million from Jefferson County."

As stated, the college has always had a good academic reputation -

"Birmingham-Southern is one of only six baccalaureate-liberal arts institutions in the country so classified by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to hold both AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation—and the designation of Phi Beta Kappa. Each year, Birmingham-Southern ranks #1 in Alabama and among the nation's best in percentage of all graduates accepted to medical, dental, or health-career programs; the college also ranks high nationally in graduates accepted to law school."

While I hate seeing the college potentially shut down, I don't believe that public funds should be used to prop up a private college, especially if the reason for need is due to unwise use of endowment funds. It will be next to impossible for such a small college (currently about 1,100 students) to replenish the endowment to sustain itself. BSC also has the extreme disadvantage of location, which is in the same neighborhood as Legion Field.

Over the next 10 years, I bet we see a lot of small private liberal arts colleges shutting down.