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Birmingham-Southern: an enduring value
There are a lot of different paths to
Birmingham-Southern College. As an
alumnus, the husband of a BSC grad, and
the parent of a BSC alumna and a current
student, I know that well.
My own landing at Birmingham-
Southern—which I learned about
through the Summer Scholars program—
was very different from that of my wife,
Sonya (Thomas ’86), who transferred in
after starting at another college.
We followed different roads through
and after BSC as well. I was convinced
I would be a chemistry major, but I
became a double major in physics and
philosophy and ended up working for
technology companies that acquire
and grow their businesses. It was not
something I would have planned to do
in college.
Our middle child, Mary-Stewart,
graduated from BSC in May and has
mapped her own path in a way that
would be dif cult to do at another
institution. She pursued her love of
mathematics while in college, but her
dream was to become a meteorologist—a
career many would not associate with
Birmingham-Southern—and she never
gave up on her dream.
A classmate helped her identify a BSC
connection to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration’s Forecast
Of ce in Birmingham. Her determination
and the college’s reputation helped her get
an internship her senior year. She learned
skills like becoming certi ed to launch
weather balloons; she did her senior
project on the math behind forecasting
tornados. Her experience and her degree
at BSC distinguished her from others
applying at some of the few universities
offering a master’s degree in meteorology.
She’s now working on her master’s in
meteorology at Mississippi State University,
and we couldn’t be more proud.
Our daughter, Catherine, is a rst-year
student at Birmingham-Southern, and
we’re excited to watch her adventure
unfold. We’ve learned our lesson about
early expectations regarding majors and
careers, but we are con dent she will have
a great experience and that the BSC family
will take care of her while she is there.
Sonya recently made some changes
in her life. While we transition to empty
nesters, she has fully converted from
a full-time mother to controller at
Bridgeway Diagnostics, an imaging center
in Auburn and Phenix City, Ala. This has
been a signi cant change in our lives, but
she found her accounting degree from
BSC is just as relevant today as when we
graduated. Our degrees have held their
value throughout our lives, and if we had
to make the decision again, we would
make the same choices.
Why do I tell you these stories?
Because I am so thrilled about the news
that the college is resetting its tuition
next fall. Not because it directly impacts
us as a family—as a member of the BSC
Board of Trustees, I will be supporting
Birmingham-Southern no matter
what—but because it allows me to tell
prospective students and their parents
about the strengths of BSC without
having to work through the barrier of
perception with regards to the posted
sticker price. I repeatedly hear from
parents who tell me they would like their
child to look at BSC, but they won’t let
them visit because they don’t want their
child to fall in love with a school they
can’t afford.
As a parent living in Auburn, I’ve had
more conversations than I can count
with young people and their parents
who chose a state institution by default
based on a price perception, without
investigating what the cost for their child
would be.
We know that BSC isn’t for everyone.
Our son, Mason, was laser-focused on
becoming an electrical engineer and
found his best t at the Citadel. But we
would love for every student to be able
to make choices freely the way my own
children have. When two of our children
picked BSC, they couldn’t easily explain
why this is the school they picked, but
they were both passionate about their
choice and were able to decide without
looking at the cost rst. We knew that the
sticker price wouldn’t be the nal price
with their academic and test scores, but
some of the students their age that would
have looked at the school did not.
That’s why as a parent and as
a graduate, I am impressed that
Birmingham-Southern is making this
bold move on college pricing. Now the
children of parents who wouldn’t have
looked at BSC because of the sticker
price can make the choice based on the
college’s merits and what it can do for
them in their lives to come. If they visit
and decide to attend BSC, I am con dent
they will go far and do incredible things.
Wachter is General Counsel for ITC
Capital Partners LLC in West Point, Ga.,
as well as its operating companies like Point
Broadband. He is a member of the BSC
Board of Trustees.
‘SOUTHERN VOICES
BY CHAD WACHTER ’87