FB: Southern Athletic Association

[cush]

If BSC seriously believes they can fundraise $200 million by 2026 than I don’t know why they would close down. Even if you knock $50 million off that goal if that was suppose to come from state aid, $150 million over 3 years is a lot more coming in than most small liberal arts colleges. As I said before, the church of the highlands with their highlands college and fundraising ability seems like the best vehicle to keep a private liberal arts college at the BSC location. Yet, that would assume the church of the highlands wants to run a private liberal arts college to expand their brand along with a bible college at the former health south campus.

[Ron Boerger]

Apropos of nothing, I updated the enrollment numbers for the SAA schools on Wikipedia this morning.  With one exception the numbers all come from the respective school's "about" sites; the one for Oglethorpe is from an Atlanta Constitution-Journal story from earlier this school year. 

• Berry:  2367 (including ~150 graduate students)
• BSC: 1283
• Centre: 1400
• Hendrix: 1,144
• Millsaps: 700
• Oglethorpe: 1494
• Rhodes: 2070
• Sewanee:  1735

The numbers that were on Wikipedia previously are of unknown provenance but probably provide a sense of trends over at least the last few years. 

• Berry +22%
• BSC -20%
• Centre -1%
• Hendrix -18%
• Millsaps -39%
• Oglethorpe +49%
• Rhodes +4%
• Sewanee +25%

If you're Millsaps, you're in trouble.  OTOH, the increases at Berry, 'thorpe, and Sewanee are welcome surprises.

[jknezek]

Apropos of nothing, I updated the enrollment numbers for the SAA schools on Wikipedia this morning.  With one exception the numbers all come from the respective school's "about" sites; the one for Oglethorpe is from an Atlanta Constitution-Journal story from earlier this school year. 

• Berry:  2367 (including ~150 graduate students)
• BSC: 1283
• Centre: 1400
• Hendrix: 1,144
• Millsaps: 700
• Oglethorpe: 1494
• Rhodes: 2070
• Sewanee:  1735

The numbers that were on Wikipedia previously are of unknown provenance but probably provide a sense of trends over at least the last few years. 

• Berry +22%
• BSC -20%
• Centre -1%
• Hendrix -18%
• Millsaps -39%
• Oglethorpe +49%
• Rhodes +4%
• Sewanee +25%

If you're Millsaps, you're in trouble.  OTOH, the increases at Berry, 'thorpe, and Sewanee are welcome surprises.

MIllsaps -- declining enrollment, a 100MM endowment, and located in a city that has a hard time providing water to its residents. If one of my kids was interested, I'd be pretty vocal about them looking somewhere else.

[True To The Cru/Riley Zayas]

Apropos of nothing, I updated the enrollment numbers for the SAA schools on Wikipedia this morning.  With one exception the numbers all come from the respective school's "about" sites; the one for Oglethorpe is from an Atlanta Constitution-Journal story from earlier this school year. 

• Berry:  2367 (including ~150 graduate students)
• BSC: 1283
• Centre: 1400
• Hendrix: 1,144
• Millsaps: 700
• Oglethorpe: 1494
• Rhodes: 2070
• Sewanee:  1735

The numbers that were on Wikipedia previously are of unknown provenance but probably provide a sense of trends over at least the last few years. 

• Berry +22%
• BSC -20%
• Centre -1%
• Hendrix -18%
• Millsaps -39%
• Oglethorpe +49%
• Rhodes +4%
• Sewanee +25%

If you're Millsaps, you're in trouble.  OTOH, the increases at Berry, 'thorpe, and Sewanee are welcome surprises.

MIllsaps -- declining enrollment, a 100MM endowment, and located in a city that has a hard time providing water to its residents. If one of my kids was interested, I'd be pretty vocal about them looking somewhere else.

Well and you also consider that there are a ton of other options for prospective students right in the same area. If we're talking athletics, Belhaven and Mississippi College are both nearby, and from what I understand, in a better situation as far as resources and finances. Tough to overlook that. There's nothing that really stands out about Millsaps (in my opinion of course) and I think it is represented in the enrollment numbers.

[BSCpanthers]

Today is the day for BSC, announcement by the school is supposed to be at 12:30 central time, so a little more than 5 hours from now, 

This morning is going to go by especially slow. 

[BSCpanthers]

Today is the day for BSC, announcement by the school is supposed to be at 12:30 central time, so a little more than 5 hours from now, 

This morning is going to go by especially slow.

Never mind, meeting has been postponed……..

[Ron Boerger]

Today is the day for BSC, announcement by the school is supposed to be at 12:30 central time, so a little more than 5 hours from now, 

This morning is going to go by especially slow.

Never mind, meeting has been postponed……..

This actually could be good news - that they're trying to finalize the funding needed to continue.  But at the same time it's excruciating to have to wait indefinitely - did they reschedule?

[BSCpanthers]

Today is the day for BSC, announcement by the school is supposed to be at 12:30 central time, so a little more than 5 hours from now, 

This morning is going to go by especially slow.

Never mind, meeting has been postponed……..

This actually could be good news - that they're trying to finalize the funding needed to continue.  But at the same time it's excruciating to have to wait indefinitely - did they reschedule?

They say they are still meeting, even now at 7pm local. They say they will update tonight. I’m taking it as a good sign, if they were closing, it would have been announced already.  It I see this as they are still turning over rocks and poking bears.

[BSCpanthers]

Announcement now at 11am central tomorrow for BSC. Hopefully they’ll stick to it this time.

[The Third Division]

they can't keep delaying forever.

[SagatagSam]

I wandered over here from the MIAC board because I saw something on Twitter about BSC's potential closure.

My big question is: how did this information leak? You'd think that discussions of potential closure would be had only the highest levels with the first priority being confidentiality. This discussion being leaked to the public could cause all sorts of untold damage. If I'm a parent whose child is looking at BSC, the first thing I ask myself is whether it is worth going to a school that just about closed--especially with the 2026 demographic cliff coming.

I'm sure there's other nuance and speculation at play here. There's probably plenty I've missed, but wanted to join the discussion.

[Ron Boerger]

I wandered over here from the MIAC board because I saw something on Twitter about BSC's potential closure.

My big question is: how did this information leak? You'd think that discussions of potential closure would be had only the highest levels with the first priority being confidentiality. This discussion being leaked to the public could cause all sorts of untold damage. If I'm a parent whose child is looking at BSC, the first thing I ask myself is whether it is worth going to a school that just about closed--especially with the 2026 demographic cliff coming.

I'm sure there's other nuance and speculation at play here. There's probably plenty I've missed, but wanted to join the discussion.

The school itself made it public late last year.   You can get the gist of things by looking back in the archives of this channel.

[The Third Division]

11:08 now. This is like the scene from The Dark Knight where neither boat explodes because no one wants to pull the pin.

[BSCpanthers]

BSC is staying open!!!

[SagatagSam]

BSC is staying open!!!

Source?