BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Miles College said in a statement Tuesday that there has been a “pause” in their efforts to acquire the campus of the former Birmingham-Southern College.
But the liberal arts school, an HBCU, indicated that it was still open to purchasing the property a day after the trustees of of BSC announced that the purchase agreement with Miles had expired Monday.
“We will continue to explore every avenue to secure this opportunity in the future,” the emailed statement said. “This setback does not deter us; it motivates us to pursue excellence and opportunity with greater determination.”
Mya Jolly, director of public relations for the school, wrote in a Monday email that the purchase agreement has expired “but the college still has the ability to make another offer.”
BSC, which traced its origins to 1856, shut down in May after years of financial hardship and enrollment decline. The school sought to secure a loan from the state to help it sort out its financial issues, but was ultimately unsuccessful.
The trustees of BSC said Monday that the purchase agreement expired at 3 p.m. on Nov. 25. According to the trustees, Miles asked for an extension to Dec. 24, but the extension was not granted. Neither the trustees of BSC nor Miles College have publicly commented on the reasons.
The statement from BSC said “to meet its commitments to lenders and other creditors, the BSC Board of Trustees is obligated to sell the 192-acre campus property as quickly as possible.” It did not rule out a future sale to Miles.
This article originally appeared in the Alabama Reflector, an independent, nonprofit news outlet. It appears on FOX54.com under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
