Current Millersville associate provost, former Yale assistant dean, Vanderbilt graduate to take helm as Belmont’s chief academic officer
Following an extensive nationwide search, Belmont University announced today that Dr. Thomas Burns, current associate provost at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, is being named Provost. Dr. Pat Raines, Belmont’s interim provost and dean of the College of Business Administration, will continue to serve as provost until Burns’ term begins January 1.
In the role of provost, Burns will act as the university’s chief academic officer, providing visionary direction and serving the academic mission of the University. Reporting to the President and serving in his absence as the chief executive officer, the Provost has broad responsibilities for the planning, development and administration of Belmont’s academic programs and student services.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “The provost position has been one of the key factors in Belmont’s success. I have no doubt that in this role Thomas Burns will continue to create one of the most amazing stories in higher education.”
Burns said, “My wife and I are both very excited to move our family to Nashville to join the fantastic community at Belmont. It is a rare privilege to be able to join such a strong student-centered institution and to become part of an overwhelmingly positive, supportive academic community like Belmont. I am particularly excited about joining the students at Belmont because of the University’s dedication to preparing them to be active, confident participants in our society.”
Belmont Appoints Dr. Thomas Burns to Provost
Belmont Alumnus Wins Election in Sumner County
Belmont alumnus Matt Stamper was elected to the Sumner County Board of Mayor and Aldermen yesterday in a tight, three-way race.
Stamper, a tax accountant for Gaylord Entertainment Company, received his undergraduate degree from Belmont in 2001 and his Master of Accountancy degree in 2003. He is also the son of Dr. James Stamper, a professor in the Education Department.
Stamper has said his first priority is looking over the city’s finances.
Residence Life Receives Grant from CHASCo
The Office of Residence Life recently received a grant of $1,000 from the Coalition for Healthy and Safe Campus Communities (CHASCo). CHASCo is a Tennessee organization proactively addressing issues of alcohol, other drugs and violence in order to promote healthy and safe campus environments.
One of the initiatives CHASCo is funding through a grant opportunity is Alcohol Free Alternative Campus Programming. Alcohol free alternative initiatives are defined as “activities that are free of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs and for which participation is voluntary” (Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, 2001). Furthermore, these activities are held at late night hours and on weekends when there is a greater threat of high-risk drinking for college students (Wechsler, 2001). CHASCo received $25,000 to distribute to college campuses throughout the 2010-2011 academic year to fund Alcohol Free Alternative Campus Programming. Though the application process was very competitive, Belmont’s Office of Residence Life received one of the grants.
The grant-sponsored event took place Thursday night in the courtyard between Maple and Hail Halls. In addition to Halloween decorations and snacks, the evening included costume contests, trivia contests and a screening of the movie “Gremlins.”
First ‘Alumni on Mission’ Guests Share Story of ‘Standing with Hope’
School of Music alumni Gracie and Peter Rosenberger Speak on Accident, Mission
On Wednesday, Belmont welcomed back School of Music alumni Gracie and Peter Rosenberger for the inaugural “Alumni on Mission” event, sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations. Alumni on Mission is a new series featuring Belmont alumni who incorporate mission and ministry in their everyday lives.
Emerging from a catastrophic car wreck resulting in more than 70 operations, including the amputation of both legs, Gracie and her husband Peter founded non-profit organization Standing With Hope in order to provide artificial limbs to amputees in developing countries… all as an evangelical Christian outreach. The couple also recently released a new book chronicling their story, Gracie, Standing with Hope.
On Nov. 18, 1983, Gracie was injured in a devastating car accident as she traveled from Belmont, where she was in the first semester of her freshman year, to Little Rock to meet a friend. The extensive trauma Gracie experienced included multiple breaks in every bone from her waist down, multiple compound fractures, massive blood loss requiring 23 blood transfusions, and infections. Eventually, both legs were amputated below the knee. Relinquishing her own legs became the springboard to a ministry to other amputees. Drawing upon her own experiences with quality prosthetic limbs, Gracie purposes, through Standing with Hope, to equip and train local technicians in developing countries to fabricate and maintain limbs for their own people.
“It takes a lot more guts to believe in a good and loving God when you’re doing it wearing artificial, metal legs,” Gracie said, as she described her loss as beacons of God’s redemption. “I’m so grateful that I’ve been allowed the opportunity to see the part of God that redeems horrible things. If God can make sense out of this, then He can do it for you. He’s big enough.”
Click here to see additional photos from the event.
2010 Humanities Symposium Writing Competition Announces Winners
On Sun., Oct. 24, Belmont student winners of the 2010 Humanities Symposium Writing Competition read from selected poetry and prose. Excerpts of the student work will be published in the 2011 Belmont Literary Journal. Listed below are the winners, runners-up and honorable mentions:
Poetry
First place: Erin Turberville, “Cherry Blossom”
Runner-up: Nathan Haney, “An Evening Reunion, Winter”
Honorable Mentions: Grant Anderson, “Trophy Scars”; Ben Richardson, “Neoncarnation”; and Matthew Brady, “A Poet’s Preferences”
Creative Nonfiction
First place: K. S. Anthony, “Faith of the Faithless”
Runners-up: Katie Kuriyama, “I Believe in Fairy-Like Things: How Embracing a Fantastical Ontology Has Created a Healthier Writer” and Nina Adel, “North of Inverness but Not as Far as Wick”
Honorable Mentions: Mallory Kimbrell, “Snow Crazies”; John Thierry, “Edgar Allen”; and Levi Gordon, “Battles”
Fiction
First Place: Iaian Smallwood, “Gone Hollywood”
Runners-Up: Sam Williams, “Two-Piece Puzzle” and Tessa Tompkins, “The Girl in the Pink Dress”
Honorable Mentions: Shannon Titus, “Elsewhere”; Kevin Foster, “The Betrayed Congregation”; and Margaret Kingsbury, “Apocalypse Day”
Screenwriting
First Place: “Burn,” by Erica Scoggins
Runner-up: “Love Thy Neighbor,” by Matthew Rosenbaum
ATO Raises Funds for Blood:Water with Disco Party
On Fri., Oct. 22, the brothers of Alpha Tau Omega hosted their 17th annual “Disco is Dead?” event. The campus-wide ’70s themed dance party was held in the Curb Cafe and played host to over 400 “groovy” guests. Through donations from attendees, the chapter was able to raise over $1,200 for Blood:Water Mission, an organization with Nashville roots that provides clean water and helps fight HIV/AIDS all across Africa. Thanks to the hard work of Brian Johnson and Chris Housman, chairs of the event, ATO was able to prove yet again, that for at least one night out of the school year, disco is not dead.
Curb College Launches Student-Run Publishing Company
Representatives from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, several publishing companies and A&R groups joined Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business (CEMB) faculty, staff and students on Oct. 21 at Ocean Way Studio A for an intimate reception celebrating the launch of Bruin Publishing, Belmont’s newly established publishing company. In addition to student creator Kevin Grosch’s poignant description of the inception, purpose and goals of the company, attendees got a taste of the talent Bruin Publishing will work with through performances from student songwriters Matt Wright, Keith Johnson, Jena Rickards and Claire Dunn.
Bruin Publishing is completely student-run, working exclusively with currently enrolled student songwriters, engineers, musicians and other music business students. Bruin Publishing is being supported by the Center for Entrepreneurship, which will be assisting hte students with the logistics of running a business. The primary goal of Bruin Publishing is to give students invaluable hands-on experience and a solid understanding of how they will interact with publishers, record labels and other business professionals in the industry. Rather than competing with established music publishers, Bruin Publishing will likely serve as an incubator for developing writers who will graduate with a better understanding of the publishing process and be better prepared and equipped to develop into professional writers.
“We will develop a catalog of the best works of Belmont songwriters, and we will showcase their writing and performing talents at regular writers’ nights at leading Nashville venues,” explains Grosch of the enterprise. “Every song that is part of our catalog will be the subject of a single song agreement, but because the purpose of Bruin is solely to benefit our students, there will be absolutely no exclusive writer agreements. Our student engineers, musicians and vocalists will be charged with producing quality recordings of the songs in our catalog, and our music business students will provide catalog administration, organizational functions and song plugging services.”
Bruin Publishing aims to provide a benefit for the Nashville music industry, as well, by offering access to the tremendous songs being crafted by Belmont students and by helping establish professional track records for Belmont writers, making them much more attractive candidates for publishing companies and record labels following graduation.
Curb College Strategic Programs Director Sarah Cates added, “Most importantly, we view Bruin Publishing as a training ground for success for all of our students – and it is our goal that the industry will be able to count on Bruin Publishing credentials as a guarantee that our graduates will be able to hit the ground running and perform to the highest professional standards.”
Pharmacy Student Receives National Achievement Award
Pharmacy student Ali Foster is a recipient of the 2010 RXportfolios National Achievement Award for her outstanding professional portfolio.
As a winner, Ali will receive national recognition as RXportfolios sends e-mails about Ali’s award to 90,000 pharmacists, 9,000 students,1,500 pharmacy school faculty and administrators and 2,000 industry executives. In addition, letters are sent to all Pharmacy University Deans about Ali’s achievement.
A committee of pharmacy industry professionals selects one winner from each school of pharmacy, and the decision is based on content, quality of writing and overall accomplishments displayed in a professional portfolio.
Gonzalez Interviewed on NPR
Pinky Gonzalez, an Entertainment Industry Studies instructor and new board member for the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, was recently interviewed on NPR regarding Taylor Swift’s success with social media marketing. Click here to read the interview.
Acree Serves as National Science Foundation S-STEM Reviewer
Glenn Acree (Mathematics and Computer Science) recently served on a panel to review proposals for the National Science Foundation. The review panels met September 26 – 28 in Arlington, Virginia. The grant applications were for the Scholarships for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program which seeks to increase the quality and number of undergraduates with majors in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
This fall the School of Sciences is benefiting from a S-STEM grant through which five entering freshman and six sophomores are receiving up to $10,000 each in scholarships. These scholarships are renewable for up to four years. Additional Pathways Scholars will be added each year for the next two years, so that a total of 20 students in the sciences will be supported by the grant. Belmont has committed to sustaining this scholarship program beyond the NSF funding period.
