Alumni of the 2007-08 edition of the Belmont/BMI Catalog Cast program are enjoying concrete evidence of their hard work, as compilation CD song “You Can Let Go” currently climbs radio airplay charts. Recorded by RCA artist Crystal Shawanda and co-written by Cory Batten and Kent Blazy, “You Can Let Go” snagged the attention of veteran producer Scott Hendricks, who added the track to Shawanda’s debut album.
Mentored by BMI staffers, Belmont students in Catalog Cast cull through hundreds of compositions penned by Music Row writers and dive into Nashville’s contemporary creative process by selecting a limited number of pitch-worthy, potential hit songs for a compilation CD. Participants then act as a liaison for the songwriters and publishers, distributing the compilation CDs to Music Row decision-makers including producers, managers and A&R executives. The Catalog Cast program was originally conceived by former Shelby Kennedy, now senior vice president and COO of Cherry Heart Music and adjunct instructor in Belmont’s Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business.
“Through the Catalog Cast, Belmont students grasp the true foundation of our industry,” says BMI Vice President of Writer/Publisher Relations Jody Williams. “The process of listening to, identifying and pitching songs is the lifeblood of Music Row.” Catalog Cast will continue its run when the program begins again in January.
Song Selected, Pitched by Students Climbs the Charts
CNN Visits Campus to Interview ‘Green Bag Lady’
CNN came to campus last week to interview Associate Professor of Art Teresa Van Hatten-Granath about her work as the Green Bag Lady. Earlier this year Van Hatten-Granath began sewing fabric bags from donated and recycled material and then giving the bags away for free to anyone who committed to using them instead of paper or plastic bags. To date, nearly 2,500 free bags have been handed out thanks to the “Green Bag Lady.” CNN Science and Technology reporter Azadeh Ansari interviewed Van Hatten-Granath last Wednesday in the Leu Center for the Visual Arts, along with a number of students, faculty and staff who have used her bags. Click here to view the story which ran on Wednesday.
Education Students Learn First-Hand About Policy, ‘Inclusive Practices’
Dr. Danielle Mezera (director of the Mayor’s Office of Children and Youth) and Wendy Tucker (co-chair of the Mayor’s Advisory Council, Attorney, Adjunct Professor of Law-Vanderbilt) spoke on campus Monday night about “The Road to Inclusive Practices” from the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Special Education. The event came about when Belmont’s Dr. Sally Barton-Arwood and Dr. Annette Little from the School of Education were brainstorming how to integrate Debate08, specifically the candidates’ educational platforms, into their Diverse Learners class. Diverse Learners addresses how to meet the needs of students with diverse issues in the classroom, in particular, students with disabilities. Barton-Arwood and Little quickly discovered in their research that Nashville Mayor Karl Dean had appointed an advisory council to investigate how to best support students who are receiving special education services in Metro Public Schools. On Aug. 13, the Mayor’s advisory committee submitted its report “The Road to Inclusive Practices.” Because the content of the Diverse Learners class and the recommendations made in this report are closely aligned, Belmont’s Diverse Learners’ students studied the report and then proposed and researched follow-up questions. On Monday, Mezera and Tucker spoke about the work of the Advisory Council and how it impacts the local community and future teachers. After their presentation, the students from Diverse Learners presented the results of their research projects during a poster session.
Students Participate in Breast Cancer Walk
More than 175 students volunteered along with staff from Belmont Health Services to walk or raise funds for the recent Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk. The team collected nearly $2,500.
The 5-mile walk, which started at LP Field and wound through downtown Nashville, is designed to raise awareness of breast cancer and money for research. More than 15,000 people put on their walking shoes to help in the fight against breast cancer, raising a total of nearly $600,000.
Belmont Breaks Ground on New Pharmacy/Health Sciences Building
$30 million structure to include professional pharmacy, research labs
Belmont University broke ground today on an estimated $30 million building that will become the permanent home for the Belmont School of Pharmacy. The building, which has an anticipated completion date of June 2010, will also house the university’s School of Physical Therapy and will include expansion space for the Schools of Nursing and Occupational Therapy as well as the Social Work and Psychology programs. Together with the Inman Center, this new structure will provide a consolidation of all the university’s health science studies—pharmacy, nursing, social work, occupational therapy and physical therapy—on the campus’s northeast corner.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “Establishing a permanent, state-of-the-art facility for our School of Pharmacy represents another significant step for Belmont University in addressing a serious health care provider shortage in this country, especially as it relates to pharmacists and nurses. This building will be a model, 21st century academic facility, providing a venue where our students and faculty resources can intersect in service to help meet the medical needs of our community and our world.”
Designed by Earl Swensson Associates with construction to be done by R.C. Mathews, the 90,000-square-foot building will continue the innovation for which Belmont University has become known, containing top-notch laboratories for both student and faculty research. In addition, the facility will emphasize integrated, “hands on” experiential learning components through medical simulation spaces and a licensed, state-of-the-art pharmacy. The building will also include a four-level underground parking garage to provide additional spaces for Belmont’s growing student body.
Dean of the College of Health Sciences and Nursing Dr. Jack Williams said, “I’m convinced this new building will become known as a major birthplace of this country’s next generation of top pharmacists. By completing and enhancing our health sciences complex, Belmont is providing inter-professional education opportunities for all of our health science students and preparing them to be both competent and compassionate practitioners.”
Speech/Debate Team Brings Home More Awards
The speech/debate team traveled to Berea College last weekend for one of its largest tournament this year with 24 colleges and universities in attendance in areas spreading from Pennsylvania to Florida. Despite the size and difficulty of the tournament, Belmont’s debate team represented well with several great awards, including:
Debate
Sara Page & Tyler Kimbro” Debate Champions, novice division
Sara Page: first place novice division speaker
Tyler Kimbro: fourth place novice division speaker
Melanie Bengtson & Wesley Rainer: semi-finalists, open division
Melanie Bengtson: third place open division speaker
Individual Events
Impromptu Speaking: Eric Schoen, semi-finalist
Extemporaneous Speaking: Melanie Bengtson, sixth place
After Dinner Speaking: Meredith Day, fifth place
Team Awards
Debate: Second place small school division and third place overall team
Individual Events: Third place small school division
Cornwall Selected as USASBE 2009 President-Elect
The United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), the leading non-profit national organization dedicated to training the next generation of entrepreneurs and supporting the vital entrepreneur sector of our nation’s economy, announced that Dr. Jeffrey Cornwall from Belmont University has been elected as USASBE’s President-Elect for 2009.
Dr. Cornwall is the first recipient of the Jack C. Massey Chair in Entrepreneurship at Belmont where he also serves as Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. He holds a DBA and MBA from the University of Kentucky. He has published six books and numerous articles in leading business journals. His professional blog, “The Entrepreneurial Mind,” is part of the Forbes blog network and has been named by the magazine as a “Best of the Web.”
“It is a great privilege to work with USASBE,” said Cornwall. “Working with our members, public policy makers and the entrepreneurship community, we can continue to advance and shape the future of entrepreneurship in America.” Dr. Cornwall has been active in USASBE for many years. Previously, he served as an executive officer, a member of the Board of Directors and was Chair of the International Council of Small Business 2005 International Conference. In 2006, Dr. Cornwall was inducted as a Fellow of USASBE in recognition of his outstanding achievements in the field of entrepreneurship.
Professors Give Perspective on Faith-Informed Political Science
The Belmont political science department discussed the idea of faith-informed political science Wednesday in a convocation for students. Dr. Vaughn May (chair), Dr. Susan Jellissen and Dr. Nathan Griffith said that while their faith does impact their teaching and research, it is important to translate empirical evidence into a way others can understand. The professors agreed that they encourage the discussion of a wide range of perspectives in the classroom and the importance of students themselves searching for their own meaningful truths.
WorldCom Whistleblower Cooper Addresses Ethics
Cynthia Cooper, author of 2007 book Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower, spoke on campus this week, offering her personal insights on ethics in business. In 2001, Cooper discovered and reported that her company, WorldCom, had used phony bookkeeping to hide billions of dollars in losses, what was then the largest fraud in corporate history. The following year she and two other whistleblowers were named Time magazine’s 2002 Persons of the Year for their courageous actions.
In her talks Tuesday night and Wednesday morning at Belmont, Cooper addressed “WorldCom: What Went Wrong and What Lessons Can We Learn?,” noting that misguided loyalty, pressure from supervisors and fear of losing a job are a few of the many factors that can lead regular citizens to participate in fraud. In fact, several of the people involved in the cover-up at WorldCom were individuals Cooper knew well and respected, people who later said that once the first false accounting entry was made, it was difficult to stop.
“We need to know what we stand for–there is a true north,” Cooper said. “[WorldCom] is really a story about people and choices… Every one of us has a tremendous opportunity, a tremendous obligation, to instill values.”
Cooper serves now as the chairperson of the Louisiana State University Center for Internal Auditing Advisory Board and speaks frequently across the country to students and professionals on ethical and moral leadership.
Debate08 Shines International Spotlight on Belmont
Town Hall Debate scores highest viewership, more than 5,200 media hits
While the physical signs that Belmont University hosted the 2008 Town Hall Presidential Debate disappeared last week, the impact of the international spotlight continues to be overwhelmingly positive. According to Nielsen Media Ratings, more than 63.2 million homes nationwide tuned in to view the Town Hall debate on Tues., Oct. 7, the largest television audience of the three presidential debates held this fall. In addition, the university received more than 5,200 media hits Oct. 3-10, the days leading up to and following the debate. Television broadcast coverage alone brought in an estimated $21 million of publicity value for Belmont University, according to media tracker NewsPowerOnline.com.
Belmont University President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “I am thrilled that Debate viewers were able to see— and visitors to our campus were able to experience—the capability, dedication and spirit that Belmont students, faculty, staff and alumni possess. The public perception and reputation of Belmont has risen to a new level, and now the world knows the kinds of things to expect from Belmont University. We were honored to have this opportunity to participate so directly in such a vital element of our nation’s governing process, and we know that the benefits to the university of hosting the 2008 Town Hall Presidential Debate will be both immediate and long-lasting.”
The smallest university to host a presidential or vice presidential debate this year, Belmont is currently celebrating a record enrollment of 5,023 students this fall as compared to the more than 11,000 at Ole Miss, Washington University in St. Louis or Hofstra University, the other debate sites. USA Today political writer Chuck Raasch noted, “Belmont University in Nashville proved that small places with big ambitions could be world-class stages.”
Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, who served as an honorary chair for the debate’s host committee, said, “Belmont served as a perfect venue for the 2008 Town Hall Presidential Debate, and the university’s army of volunteers gave the candidates, campaign guests and visiting media a glimpse into the best of what Tennessee has to offer.”
Also serving as an honorary chair for the debate’s host committee, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean said, “The debate was a great success for Belmont and our city. It gave us an opportunity to send a letter to the rest of the world about how Nashville is a vibrant, diverse city. I think I can speak for all of Nashville in expressing gratitude to Belmont University for doing such an excellent job in hosting this event and bringing so much positive attention to Nashville. Credit is also due to the Metro employees who worked on the day of the debate and the months leading up to it to ensure the debate and all the surrounding events went smoothly.”
