Former Birmingham-Southern College students enjoy a graduation tradition for the last time
Former Birmingham-Southern College students ring a bell on their old campus as part of a tradition they began as freshmen.
Clicking heels echoed across an empty Birmingham-Southern College campus as girls in white dresses and others in flowing graduation gowns gathered with their former classmates on Tuesday. A year after Birmingham-Southern closed, having succumbed to financial mismanagement, former students who are graduating this spring from Samford University visited the campus to capture a bit of tradition.
“It’s sentimental,” Graduating student Victoria Langevin said. “It’s very weird to be back just because I went here for three years and went to another school for one year.”
Langevin found out her school was closing for good on spring break last year. She transferred to Samford University to finish her psychology degree.
“I definitely wish I was graduating from here,” Langevin said. “But I don’t know. I’m excited for my future.”
Sophie Rose Lovett also transferred to finish her degree.
“It’s great to see people you haven’t seen in a year again,” Lovett said with a smile. “I just wish we were wearing different robes.”
Lovett said the original BSC robes would have been black instead of the deep blue of Samford University. She was not the only graduating student mourning the loss of her school
“It’s like overwhelming,” Maddie Moravek said. “It’s familiar, but also really empty and different. It just feels weird, like, it’s not how we pictured any of it.”
These graduates did celebrate one tradition. All of the students gathered around a large bell, tucked between brick school buildings and beneath budding, green trees. Here, Victoria Langevin stepped up to the bell and, just as she once did as a BSC freshman, she rang it. The bell signifies the end of her four years in college and the end of her time at Birmingham-Southern College.
In photographs, scientists revel in the world they seek to discover
The magazine Nature announced the results of its annual Scientist at Work photography contest. The six winning entries are a set of dramatic, intimate portraits of research from all over the globe.
How homeowners are saving on insurance by upgrading their houses against disasters
Home insurance is getting pricier as hurricanes and wildfires get worse. States are trying new incentives, encouraging homeowners to retrofit homes against disasters to get an insurance discount.
How Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ threatens access to Obamacare
If the law passes, new paperwork requirements and other logistical hurdles could lead to millions of people on ACA plans becoming uninsured, according to Congressional Budget Office.
Hong Kong police accuse mobile game of promoting ‘armed revolution’
The crackdown on the video game and its users is just the latest in what democracy and human rights advocates say is an erosion of Hong Kong's civil rights and freedoms.
Protests grow across the U.S. as people push against Trump’s mass deportation policies
Protests of President Trump's immigration policies grew across the U.S. on Tuesday, with rallies held in New York City, Chicago and Seattle.
A new father finds comfort in a doctor’s words of advice
In 2019, Darren Wayman was about to become a new father. He was terrified. Then, a doctor came into the delivery room and said something that changed his perspective on parenthood.
