Birmingham-Southern College has erroneously awarded millions of dollars in extra financial aid in recent years, contributing to economic woes that are now forcing the private institution to cut as much as $10-million from its $49-million budget, The Birmingham News reported. The problems, discovered in a recent audit, do not involve missing funds or illegal activity, the college’s president, G. David Pollick, said. But several high-ranking employees in the college’s finance and financial-aid offices have resigned, he said. The college has taken strong action to deal with financial problems before. In 2007, it moved to the NCAA’s Division III to ease a $6-million deficit incurred during an eight-year stint in Division I.
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2 Responses to Birmingham-Southern College Plans 20% Budget Cut, Citing Costly Student-Aid Errors
cpme3242 - June 16, 2010 at 1:15 pm
The Birmingham News article blames most of the financial woes on incorrect awarding of Pell Grants. This is unbelievable. Furthermore, the President acts as if the financial aid and finance offices are the only ones to blame. At a very small liberal arts college, how can the admission office not know what’s happening with the financial aid packages? Also, Dr. Pollick has been at BSC for too many years to still be blaming major problems on the previous administration (or as he hinted, the 20-yr infection at the school). Even if the finance officers were incompetent, he should have caught on to the problems before now. A more realistic article about this issue might report on the tuition discount rate of the school and the size of the incoming freshman class. BSC has done a nice job of framing their financial woes in light of their overawarding to needy students, which we might can forgiveable incompetence. I’m not buying the spin job. Let’s see some real numbers about tuition discount and enrollment and then we can begin to formulate theories about the financial woes of this school.
lms347 - June 23, 2010 at 10:49 pm
They’re also threatening their incoming hires. Talk about unforgivable. Contracts were SIGNED!!!!