HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Officials with Alabama A&M University have officially made an offer to buy the campus of beleaguered Birmingham Southern College, which recently announced it would be shutting down operations at the end of the current term. A spokesperson for AAMU confirmed Thursday a $52 million offer was made Wednesday to representatives of BSC.
"If [the purchase is] granted, the campus will operate as a stand-alone, independent campus under the AAMU umbrella," A&M tells FOX54. "We are confident that our offer positions us to build on the BSC legacy and make new ground for AAMU."
BSC's board of trustees in March voted unanimously to close the college after an 18-month effort to obtain bridge funding from a $30 million state loan program fell through. The liberal arts college said in its closure announcement that it "exhausted every option to obtain the loan through the Distressed Institutions of Higher Learning Revolving Loan Fund."
Birmingham-Southern College was founded in 1918 through the merger of two Methodist colleges: Southern University, chartered in 1856 in Greensboro, Ala., and Birmingham College, which opened in 1898.
AAMU, poised to celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2025, is one of several schools across Alabama and other southern states that have offered scholarships to BSC students to allow them to transfer and continue their education. A&M has an approximate enrollment of 6,100 students.
BSC has about 1,000 registered students. The college is scheduled to shut down May 31.