In a recent U.S. News analysis that compared universities’ spending with the educational quality they offer, Belmont ranked No. 5 among its peers in the South region and was the highest ranked private University in that category, indicating the high efficiency of Belmont in providing excellent educational quality while keeping expenses low.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “This ranking is a huge deal to us because it reflects the overall Belmont strategy to provide a first-class education to our students while keeping our costs low. All credit for this accomplishment goes to the diligence of our faculty, staff and administration, who work extremely hard at their jobs and do their best to find effective—and economical—solutions to our campus’ needs.”
According to the website, U.S. News compared public and private colleges’ academic quality, as measured by their position in the 2015 Best Colleges rankings, to the funds spent to achieve that quality, and ranked the most efficient universities under that matrix. The publication noted, “Schools that are featured on these lists are doing a good job in managing their financial resources relative to other schools that may have far greater financial resources because of more state funding, higher tuition or larger endowments.”
English Professor Douglas Murray served as a guest clinician at OrgelFest, a East Tennessee gathering for young organists, sponsored by the Department of Music at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Murray discussed Renaissance and Baroque traditions and techniques of improvisation and coached three students in a masterclass on improvisation. He closed the three hour session with three improvisations, each in a different style, on a given hymn tune.
With the addition of Belmont’s largest building, the Wedgewood Academic Center, students in the University’s College of Sciences and Mathematics have the opportunity to learn in state-of-the-art science labs, including Belmont’s first educationally purposed green roof.
Although the original plan for the green roof was to be used solely in biennial courses, Dr. Panvini said students are already asking how the green roof can be used more frequently. With the success of the green roof this semester, Panvini is working through ways to incorporate it into additional courses, including this semester’s ecology course.
Based off a six standard scale, educator preparation programs are evaluated in areas including professional disposition, assessment systems, field experiences, diversity, faculty qualification and resources, among others. Belmont’s Department excelled at all listed criteria, earning an unprecedented mark of no citations or areas of improvement.