This is a guest opinion column
Alabama stands here, in the last throes of winter 2023, on the brink of losing one of its brightest gems and greatest resources. State legislators are pondering a possible one-time investment in Birmingham-Southern College, which would give it enough time to finish paving the pathway to financial resilience. That five-year, $200M endowment campaign was cruelly interrupted by the global pandemic just as it was gaining steam. The state investment would let BSC reclaim the time stolen by Covid so it can raise the remaining private funds needed for long-term stability.
I have a dog in this fight, it’s only fair to admit. I graduated from BSC in 1988 and now serve on its Board of Trustees. I regularly volunteer there, and have done so from the very day I left Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa with a law diploma in hand 32 years ago. So when I think of BSC, I don’t see an institution. I see generations of students and the families they’ve raised, their professional service, and their good works in communities across Alabama.
So I definitely have skin in this game. How could I not, when BSC was the biggest influence of my life, other than my family and my church? When it gave me the small, tight knit circle of serious students that I so needed, having realized that a big school would drown me? And best of all, when it was close enough to the Rocket City for regular trips home to visit my beloved family, which includes my two BSC-graduate sisters and a BSC brother-in-law?
Had it not been for BSC, I would have had to look outside Alabama for a small college with nationally ranked academics. At less than two hours away, BSC was like manna from heaven for the nerdy, determined homebody I was in 1984. I literally can’t imagine my life without it.
So yes, I am certain that the proposed state investment is a good one. I know it with every cell of my body, down to the core of my marrow. I have seen, over and over, what our graduates do for this state, and that we would be immeasurably, tragically poorer without them. Every Alabamian has a dog in this fight, whether they know it or not.
But don’t take my word for it; I’m partial, as I’ve already allowed. Let’s look at an example instead: Madison County, where I live and work. To see what just one county stands to lose in a world without BSC, let’s do a little thought experiment.
Imagine if all the BSC graduates in Madison County disappeared overnight, wiped off the chessboard by a cosmic hand. What would we find the next morning? Here are the devastating holes in the community fabric we would wake up to find:
- 83 doctors, dentists, and other highly trained medical treatment providers
- ·20 pastors and other ministry professionals
- 2 veterinarians
- 46 lawyers, including four county criminal prosecutors and one state court judge
- 35 K-12 teachers and administrators including four principals and an assistant principal
- 20 College and university teachers, coaches, and administrators
- 104 in STEM-related fields, including 69 defense industry professionals
- 117 in accounting, banking, finance, and commerce
- 26 in the arts, culture, and non-profit organizations
Given that BSC might – in a busy year – graduate 350 students, these numbers are nothing short of astonishing. It’s hard to deny that this little college punches way, way above its weight class. And this count is no doubt missing quite a few people because it’s based on an alumni list from several years ago, with some limited sleuthing over the past week to update it.
So next time you take your child to the pediatrician or go to the dentist or get called for jury duty, peek at those diplomas on the wall or check out the credentials of the key players. There’s a pretty good chance you’ll see one from BSC, thanks to the powerful circular pipeline from the cities and towns of Alabama to BSC, then to medical or dental or law school and then back home again. And there are similar pipelines for other professional and graduate programs as well.
Without BSC, quite a few of those ambitious high school seniors will head to other states for a challenging small school experience. And when they leave, they’re less likely to come back. Everybody knows that. Without BSC, we would face a sad and needless brain drain that would harm Alabama and its citizens. That isn’t speculation. It’s a fact. And it doesn’t have to happen if we act now.
Please join me in supporting this one-time public investment in a resource our state can’t afford to lose. Help give BSC time enough to pull itself up by its own bootstraps, and watch that investment be repaid countless times over by BSC’s hardworking graduates, serving in ways small and large across Alabama for decades to come.
Vicki VanValkenburgh, a 1988 graduate of Birmingham-Southern College and a 1991 graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law, is a Realtor with VanValkenburgh & Wilkinson Properties, Inc. She is a member of the Historic Huntsville Foundation Board of Directors, the North Alabama Land Trust, and First United Methodist Church of Huntsville.