This is an opinion column.

To the Birmingham-Southern College Class of 2024,

Something was lost in Alabama this week, and no one will ever understand the seriousness and severity of this loss as well as you.

There will be many reasons given in the coming days for why the college failed and lots of people trying to point to one thing or another for its closing. The truth is there was never one thing, but several — the liberal arts falling out of fashion, the Disney-like attraction of much larger universities, the recklessness of past administrations, and so on.

But perhaps more than anything, what poisoned BSC was uncertainty and doubt. The moment the college couldn’t guarantee prospective students that it would survive until their commencement, it entered a doom loop.

But despite everything that’s happened in the last two years, you didn’t give up hope, which will make the heartbreak sting worse. I implore you not to second-guess yourselves for having held on. Hope is never needed where success is assured, but only where the stakes are high and the odds are doubtful.

When you leave BSC, there will still be one thing left for you to do for your college.

Remember.

Public officials will float a lot of plans and ideas for what to do with the campus, and perhaps someone can find a suitable use better than a 190-acre vacant lot.

But institutions are not buildings.

BSC was not, as many outsiders believed, an elitist college populated by Little Lord Fauntleroys, but rather, a place where the child of a timber forester and a teacher could reach the next rung on the ladder.

I was that kid once.

BSC brought me to Birmingham, like so many others, and introduced me to a city I came to love and make my home. Colleges are the ports of entry for the cities and states they serve. This city and this state won’t be the same without it.

BSC showed me that important ideas come from unexpected places. I’ve lost count how many times the key to one success or another was something I learned in a class outside my major.

BSC taught me that learning doesn’t end with a degree, but is something you do for the rest of your life. I still call on old professors when I need their expertise and I keep a few of my better textbooks on my shelves today.

BSC made me realize that an imperfect community is worth being a part of. If you want to fix the world, you have to start where it is broken.

However, some things, once broken, can never be put back together. No one is going to make another BSC. No one is going to replace it. As alumni have warned for the last two years, once it’s gone, it’s gone.

On May 31, BSC as a college ends. But that’s not where the college ends for you.

What’s going through you right now — the anger, the despair, the disbelief — put some of that in a bottle. Keep it somewhere safe, but always within reach. When you begin to feel numb to this loss, when enough time passes that it doesn’t seem to matter anymore, take a sip from it.

Remember. But do so carefully.

Bitterness is dangerous stuff, and I’m not going to tell you not to plot a little political revenge against those who failed you. It will be a long time before I vote for an incumbent again, and I hope this experience has taught you not to place your trust lightly in the powerful.

But for now, sit with the pain.

Pain isn’t meaningless and it isn’t useless. It’s a reminder and motivator. That hurt you feel is because this thing you’ve been a part of was important.

And soon you will be all that’s left of it.

As you no doubt have had to explain to family and friends, the liberal in liberal arts has little to do with politics and everything to do with freedom. The ancient Greeks thought — accurately, I believe — that a certain kind of learning is what makes people free. That was the mission of our alma mater.

Your mission after today, wherever you go, is to be freedom fighters.

Forward ever be our watchword.

Conquer and prevail.

Kyle Whitmire is the 2023 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. You can follow him on Threads here and subscribe to his weekly newsletter, Alabamafication.