我们的目的
We had a shared mission here on the Hilltop: to prepare students for lives of significance. Everything the college did was designed to help our students — 和 everyone in the community — develop, 学习, 并参与到更广阔的世界. 不管你是谁，也不管你想去哪里, our faculty 和 staff were committed to helping you rise to your potential.
历史与传统
伯明翰南方学院的历史可以追溯到1856年, the year the 阿拉巴马州bama Legislature chartered Southern University as a Methodist institution; the following year, 学校的基石是在格林斯博罗奠基的, 阿拉巴马州.
In 1859, Southern University opened with 52 students—many of whom left two years later to fight in the Civil War, 这使得该机构耗尽了资金. 学校成立十年后，只剩下28名学生. 但, 在卫理公会领导层的重新承诺下, 南方大学再次崛起, 1889年有238名学生，1897年第一位女学生毕业.
一年后，在大约100英里之外, the North 阿拉巴马州bama Conference College opened on a hilltop west of the young city of Birmingham; in 1906, 学校改名为伯明翰学院. The school began to flourish—the first of six 澳门新葡京官网 Rhodes Scholars was named in 1910—but, 与南方大学如出一辙, 美国加入第一次世界大战耗尽了学生人数.
5月30日, 1918, Southern University merged with Birmingham College on that hilltop location—the same referred to in the college’s alma mater:
“在城市的西部边界
高耸入云，
我们的母校自豪地屹立着
随着岁月的流逝.”
1921年，美国.S. President Warren Harding inaugurated Guy Snavely as the newest president of southern大学. Snavely set about—和 succeeded—building the finest undergraduate institution in the state. In 1931, 为了学院75周年庆典, Stockham Hall was built; 1935, the undefeated 澳门新葡京官网 football team won the Dixie Conference; in 1927, 该学院获得了该州第二个Phi Beta Kappa分会, 它现在仍然有效.
但战争再一次改变了大学的面貌. By the end of 1941, the campus had lost most of its male students 和 faculty. In future years, 澳门新葡京官网 would not be sheltered from conflict, both local 和 national. In 1965, the college enrolled its first black students; some 澳门新葡京官网 students had previously joined their African-American peers from other institutions to fight for civil rights. College leaders contemplated moving the college out of Birmingham in the 1970s, but then-Pres. Dr. Neal Berte held fast to the vision of the college on the city’s western border—和 helped build the institution to a nationally-ranked liberal arts college with an innovative curriculum 和 a commitment to student success.
澳门新葡京官网将于2024年5月31日结束正常操作.
在过去的二十年里, 澳门新葡京官网 struggled to stabilize its finances through a series of leadership changes 和 challenges within 和 beyond its control. The College focused on raising unrestricted operating funds 和 drew too heavily on its shrinking endowment without making meaningful progress in increasing that endowment.
The implementation of several ambitious capital projects in the mid-2000s – 和 the assumption of large debt to fund them – coincided with two factors that led to a decade-plus-long financial struggle:
2009年金融市场的崩溃, 澳门新葡京官网遭受了2500万美元的捐赠损失.
The discovery in 2010 of a material error in the budgeting of federal student financial aid, 每年的预算是4900万美元，而预算是500万美元.
这些因素导致数百万美元的预算削减, 取消5个专业和29个教职, 以及暂停教职员工慷慨的退休补贴. The crisis triggered an additional $12 million draw on the endowment by the end of the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
当澳门新葡京官网的第16任总裁Daniel B. 科尔曼, 于2018年12月就职, he saw the financial issues through the lens of 30-plus years of experience in the finance industry. Too-high draws on the College endowment to cover operating losses depleted what should be – 和 must be – the institution’s most stable resource.
His plan called for raising a new endowment large enough to fund at least 20 percent of annual operating costs. 留出时间来筹集资金, 澳门新葡京官网 appealed to state legislators to create a loan fund using a small fraction of a $2.教育信托基金盈余80亿元. The 阿拉巴马州bama Legislature passed SB278 – the Distressed Institutions of Higher Learning Revolving Loan Program Act – with overwhelming bipartisan support. 虽然她曾反对该计划，但奥巴马州长说. Kay Ivey submitted executive amendments that were accepted by the Legislature 和 signed the bill on June 16, 2023.
国家的钱去哪了?
澳门新葡京官网 met the qualifications for the loan 和 provided two proposals in which the State of 阿拉巴马州bama would have had first position on collateral more than sufficient to back the loan. 即便如此，美国财政部长杨. 经过几个月的拖延，布泽尔三世在2023年10月拒绝了澳门新葡京官网的贷款.
2024年2月6日，学院的立法冠军——Sen. 60年的杰博·瓦格纳和参议员. 罗杰·史密瑟曼(roger Smitherman)提出了一项修改2023年法案的法案. 比尔, which moved the administration of the loan program to the 阿拉巴马州bama Commission on Higher Education, 增加了一层审查，以确保国家的立场, 设定贷款条款, 并规定了批准或拒绝的时间框架, 于3月5日在阿拉巴马州参议院通过.
3月20日，通过众议员的努力. 大卫·福克纳，众议院议员 & Means Education Committee approved a substitute bill that further strengthened the State’s position. 即便如此, subsequent conversations with House members 和 leadership confirmed that the bill did not have enough support to move forward.
2024年立法会议结束时, the Distressed Institutions of Higher Learning Revolving Loan Fund was repealed 和 the funds were returned to the Education Trust Fund.
我想Gen. 克鲁拉克拯救了学院. 发生了什么事?
在他担任第13任总统的4年里. 查尔斯C. Krulak focused on raising enough operating funds to keep the College afloat. 他重新编制了预算，以防止进一步裁减教员. 他于2015年退休, 他招募了自2010年以来最大的一批新生, succeeded in moving the College off sanction with its accrediting organization, 和, 在很多人眼里, 拯救了学院.
但 the endowment had dropped from $122 million to $53 million by the time of Gen. Krulak’s arrival, 和 fundraising efforts during his years were focused on spendable money. Many donors were asked to liquidate their endowed funds so the College could continue to operate. Most agreed, with the expectation that 澳门新葡京官网 would restore those funds when it could.
关闭学院会对社区产生什么影响?
在找到买家之前，校园将由安保人员监控.
澳门新葡京官网 sits on 192 acres – with dozens of administrative 和 classroom buildings, 学生宿舍, 带游泳池的公寓大楼, 一个湖, 还有运动场.
作为这个城市的主要租户, 澳门新葡京官网提供了稳定性, 安全, 为布什山的邻居们服务, 大学的山, 和史密斯菲尔德, 一个多世纪以来，反之亦然. With millions of federal dollars on the way to create affordable housing 和 a more visible 和 attractive pathway between downtown 和 the west, such a large property being left vacant for any length of time is a huge setback to the neighborhoods that surround it.