The Road to Downtown Abbey class in front of Highclere Castle.
The Cooperative Center for Study Abroad, which is housed at Belmont, offered “The Road to Downton Abbey: The English Country House in Fact & Fiction” class in London for the first time this summer, taught by Belmont faculty member Dr. Doug Murray. The class read poems and novels centering on country houses while touring some of the most famous ones found in literature. This literature included Ian McEwan’s “Atonement,” E. M. Foster’s “Howard’s End” and Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.”
Another site the class visited was Austen’s brother’s Chawton and Highclere Castle where the “Downton Abbey” TV series is filmed. The series follows the fortunes of the fictional Grantham family, hereditary owners of Downton Abbey. This series is the most recent chapter in a conversation about the stately homes of England, places which have been depicted as sites of hospitality, beauty and the responsible use of wealth as well as reminders of social satisfaction and injustice.
“Taking the Road to Downton Abbey class was my neatest collegiate experience to date. It was amazing to visit the various country houses of England while studying them,” said senior Katie Mulrain. “We were so lucky to be able to visit Highclere Castle, where the show was filmed, as tickets are sold out throughout the next year.”
Alumnus and former employee Samuel Kabia now lives in Freetown, Sierra Leone in West Africa where he has begun Rufiondu Education Project for Orphan Children.
While at Belmont, Kabia earned his master’s in education and worked in the landscaping.
“The Belmont community has been my savior and main supporter of my nonprofit organization Rufiondu Education Project for Orphan Children whose mission is to provide functional Literacy Programs and Educational Resources for street children, less privilege girls, children of beggars, orphan children and their communities in Africa,” he said.
The project’s main aim is to equip the community members with the knowledge and skills necessary to create a sustaining environment able to provide the basic necessities of life.
The University has donated more than 100 computers to Sierra Leone, which helped with the establishment of the Belmont Rufoindu Computer Literacy Program in three schools. More than 600 students been trained and have graduated from the program, and 90 percent of graduates have gained employment with government and private institutions i.
Belmont Rufiondu Education project is now in its second phase of construction and development. As a continuation of the projects educational initiative programs, a Belmont Rufoindu Orphanage School has opened with 120 students enrolled. Many of them are orphans.
To learn about how you can help Belmont Rufoindu Orphanage School, contact Kabia at kabiasamuel13@yahoo.com.
With classes beginning today for the Fall 2013 semester, Belmont University reached its largest enrollment to date, this time with a total of 6,918 students. This is the thirteenth consecutive year the University has topped its previous enrollment.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “In 2009, Belmont announced in its Vision 2015 statement an enrollment goal of 7,000 students, and at the time, that number appeared quite lofty and difficult to attain. But young people in record-breaking numbers are embracing Belmont’s mission to match their purpose, gifts and talents to the world’s needs. It’s an honor to welcome all of our students home to Belmont to start a new academic year.”
New students have been engaged the past several days in a number of annual “Welcome Week” activities designed to acclimate them to both the campus and the community. In addition to a variety of orientation sessions and social activities, 1,800 students—consisting primarily of new freshmen and transfers—spent Monday afternoon volunteering with several Metro Beautification sites, five Metro Nashville Public Schools and 16 non-profit organizations during an annual event called SERVE.
This year’s total enrollment marks an increase of 253 students from last year and includes 26 members of the charter Bridges to Belmont class. In addition, Belmont’s new Motion Pictures program anticipates that approximately 20 new and returning students will join the major in its inaugural year. The Belmont student body currently consists of 5,518 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate and professional students, representing a record for total enrollment.
Belmont freshman Fia Binford, of Hudson, Ohio, plays with Baby, a 2-year-old pit bull.
Following an inspirational message from State Rep. Brenda Gilmore and charge to serve their new hometown from Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher, Belmont’s Class of 2017 along with new graduate and transfer students volunteered throughout Nashville through the University’s annual SERVE Project on Monday afternoon.
“There’s a lot of work to be done in our community,” Fisher said. “I am grateful for a city like Nashville that gives us so many opportunities to serve,” Fisher told the 1,800 students before they departed campus for several Metro Beautification sites, five Metro Nashville Public Schools and 16 non-profit organizations, including the Hands On Nashville Urban Farm and Bridges for Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
An annual “Welcome Week” tradition for more than a decade, SERVE provides a perfect tie-in to Belmont’s ongoing commitment to engage students in their community and encourage the values of service on both a local and global level.
At a West Nashville home, 50 Belmont students helped nonprofit organization Music City Hounds Unbound install a fence for Baby, a 2-year-old pit bull, who has lived most of his life chained to a tree.
“The big thing about service is it is all about love. You don’t really know who needs to be shown love, but when you think about it, everyone needs love,” said Fia Binford, a freshman from Hudson, Ohio, while petting the dog.
Music City Hounds Unbound Director Amy Brown said, “It’s difficult to find a large group of volunteers especially that are capable of putting a fence up. (SERVE) enhances the volunteer experience because they get to see Baby get off the chain. It usually takes our group several weekends to complete a fence project.”
The new classmates also covered the mostly dirt back yard with hay, assembled an insulated dog house and shared toys and treats with Baby, providing a project and services worth $3,000 to the dog’s owner, Brown said.
Incoming Belmont students install a fence in a West Nashville backyard as part of the University’s annual SERVE Project.
Sophomore Neal Buckley, a Towering Traditions orientation leader, added, “This is all about team work and making new friends. This project is all about working together and requires communicating and connecting. It’s great for freshmen to let the community know that Belmont is here for them. We are here to learn and grow but also here to serve others.”
At other sites across the city, the new students packed food, toiletries and cleaning supplies for needy families, cleaned facilities, removed graffiti, painted walls and gardened vegetables, among other community service projects.
“SERVE Day is a very important day for Belmont and our students. It sets the tone for our new students because it helps them know that being a part of Belmont means to serve,” said Director of Service-Learning Tim Stewart. “In addition to learning about places in the community where they can volunteer, many of the students will see these agencies again as they engage in service-learning courses during their time at Belmont.”
188,000-square-foot structure plus five-level underground garage will be largest campus building to date
Belmont University celebrated the official topping out today for the 188,000-square-foot Wedgewood Academic Center siting above a 430-space parking garage on the corner of Wedgewood and 15th Avenues. The building will house most departments from the College of Arts and Sciences as well as the School of Religion, providing much-needed classroom and lab space for the growing University. The center will house a 280-seat chapel, a coffee and sandwich shop, 30 classrooms that vary in seating capacity, state-of the-art laboratories, study rooms and conference room space. Anticipated to cost $76.5 million, the structure connects on three floors to both the Inman Center and McWhorter Hall.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “This structure is the product of significant collaboration among the students, staff, faculty and leadership team. It is clear that we really are ‘better together!’”
The topping out marked the completion of the concrete structure and five-level underground parking garage. Since Belmont’s general education and core curriculum requires courses in writing, speech, math and religion, among others, every undergraduate will take classes in the Wedgewood Academic Center. The building is designed for interdisciplinary collaboration and planned collisions between students and faculty.
Dr. Thomas Burns, who serves as Belmont’s Provost overseeing all academic programs, added “From inception, our faculty and students have been involved in helping to design a facility that serves current needs, provides extraordinary potential for our future and creates an environment where collaboration and community will help define the future of higher education. Today’s topping out ceremony brings us one step closer to realizing our shared vision.”
As part of Belmont’s ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability, the University is seeking Platinum-level LEED Certification for the Wedgewood Academic Center. The LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™ is a feature-oriented rating system that awards buildings points for satisfying specified green building criteria. The new facility is incorporating a number of green features including a green roof adjacent to biology lab space, garage recycling room and trash compactor, motion-sensor lighting in all offices, classrooms and labs and a variable flow refrigerant HVAC system.
Designed by ESa with construction by R.C. Mathews, the academic building will be complete and ready for occupancy by fall 2014.
Alumnae Kati Anderson Bumgardner and Robin Kirk and a current Belmont student Kalé Hailemariam were featured on the Season 2 premiere of AMC’s “The Pitch.” Fletcher Rowley Inc., a national advertising, strategic communications and political media firm, recently filmed the documentary-style television show. Bumgardner is the firm’s director of media and Kirk is the firm’s director of operations. Hailemariam was an intern at the time of the filming. The brand to which the firm presented their creative idea was College Hunks Hauling Junk & College Hunks Moving, a national junk removal, labor services, donation delivery and moving company.
Fletcher Rowley is a full-service advertising and branding company that also does extensive video production and crisis management. The firm has run successful ad campaigns in 47 states for political candidates, corporate clients, nonprofits and advocacy groups. In season two, “The Pitch” explores the lengths, intense stakes and tight deadlines advertising agencies encounter when they take aim at a new piece of business.
Assistant Professor of Art John Watson has recent sculptures and drawings on display at Vanderbilt University Space 204. The exhibition opens Aug. 22 and runs through Sept. 27. Working primarily with reclaimed wood, Watson creates sculptures that are architectural in reference. The cast-offs of trade and industry or the discarded gems from remodeling projects are collected and repurposed into objects and installations.
Dr. Teresa Plummer, assistant professor of occupational therapy, recently presented at the annual conference of the Batten Disease Support and Research Association (BDSRA) held in Nashville, Tenn. Plummer shared her expertise in a presentation on handling and positioning children with Batten disease and assistive technology products for children with the disease.
Batten disease affects children from birth and causes mental impairment, worsening seizures, and progressive loss of sight and motor skills over time. Eventually, the child becomes blind, bedridden and unable to communicate, and the disease is always fatal. Although Batten disease and related disorders are considered rare, they often strike more than one person in families that carry the defective gene.
BDSRA was formed in 1987 by a family who had three children with the disease. The association provides technical assistance and support to families who battle the disease while promoting research and education.
Dr. Noel Boyle, associate professor of philosophy, published a chapter in Chronic Illness and Spirituality. His chapter is titled “In Spite Of: Reflecting on My Son’s Pain and Suffering.”
Boyle’s son, Ciaran, now 13, has a rare and destructive seizure disorder known as Dravet’s Syndrome. Boyle tells the story of Ciaran’s suffering, including numerous brain operations, days with hundreds of seizures each, seizures lasting for hours, the isolation of lacking language skills altogether and about 1,000 nights in the hospital.
Refusing easy answers that deny the reality and purposelessness of Ciaran’s suffering and isolation, Boyle builds on the work of existentialist theologian Paul Tillich to find a more genuine standpoint from which to reflect on Ciaran’s suffering. Tillich maintains that, instead of fleeing from anxieties regarding such things as death and meaninglessness, we need to embrace them and take them on.
Following Tillich’s lead, Boyle does not deny Ciaran’s suffering, but asks whether joy exists in spite of his suffering, whether meaning emerges in spite of the pointlessness of Ciaran’s pain. While holding that authentic affirmative answers to these questions do not and cannot, come easily, Boyle suggests that they do come. In the end, Boyle suggests that an honest confrontation with Ciaran’s suffering has helped him more clearly what Tillich calls “the God who appears when God disappears in the anxiety of doubt.”
Dr. Ronnie Littlejohn, professor of philosophy, has published “First Contact: The Earliest Western Views of Daoism in Matteo Ricci’s Journals,” in The Dynamics of Cultural Counterpoint in Asian Studies (SUNY Press, 2013).
He has also been asked to respond to the panel on his book Daoism: An Introduction at the 9th International Conference on Daoist studies at Boston University on May 30 and June 1, 2014.
