Teams standings determined by athletes’ academic performance
InsideHigherEd.com—an online source for news, opinion and jobs for all of higher education—released today its own picks for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Bracket and selected Belmont University to make it all the way to the Championship Game. InsideHigherEd.com based its selections in each round by awarding wins to the team with the strongest academic performance using the athletes’ academic standing, enrollment continuity and graduation rates as key factors. Belmont finished this tournament bracket second, behind only Davidson, outscoring such academic power players as Duke, Xavier and Cornell along the way.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “This is what I really love about Belmont’s athletic program: No matter what the scoreboard shows at the end of a competitive contest, we know that we’ve ‘won’ by playing with class, giving our very best, exhibiting good sportsmanship and doing all of this with scholar-athletes who will leave Belmont and make significant contributions to meeting the needs of the world.”
On the heels of its historic third consecutive Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament Championship, Belmont Basketball will face tradition-rich Duke in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The Bruins and Blue Devils are scheduled to play this Thurs., March 20 from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. as part of the West Regional bracket. Tip-off time is 6:10 p.m. Central.
The Bruins are led on the court by Senior Justin Hare who is an ESPN The Magazine First Team Academic All-American. For the Fall 2007 semester, every Belmont team, including men’s basketball, held a team GPA average of 3.0 or higher.
Click here to read the full story of how the NCAA Tournament teams match up academically according to InsideHigherEd.com. Click here to read The Tennessean’s coverage of the news.
InsideHigherEd.com Puts Belmont in Top 2 of Its NCAA Bracket
Psychology Alumnus Wins Research Award
Jessica Niesner, a recent Belmont Psychology major graduate (Dec. 2007), was awarded a Psi Chi Regional Research Award at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association held in Boston on March 13-16. Supervised by Dr. Michael Sullivan, the research was titled “The Effect of Relevant Information on Mindlessness.” In recognition for her work, Niesner received a certificate and check for $300. Out of 180 research posters with Psi Chi members as first authors, Niesner’s research was one of the few recognized with this award.
In addition, eight other Belmont students and recent graduates attended and presented their work at the Eastern Psychological Association meeting. Students presenting research were: Afton Cole, Luke Lancaster, Sarah Lashley, Layne Murphy, Kurt Niesner, Renease Perkins, Shandus Valentine and Ashley Wilkins. Psi Chi is the National Honor Society in Psychology, founded for the purpose of encouraging, stimulating, and maintaining excellence in scholarship, and advancing the science of psychology. The Eastern Region of the organization includes chapters at such schools as Trinity College, Mount St. Mary’s, Colby College, NYU and Yale.
Eric Volz Advises Belmont Students on ‘Media Ethics’
Recently freed from a Nicaraguan prison, former magazine publisher Eric Volz visited Belmont University Thursday to speak to journalism students on the subject of “Media Ethics.” Volz, the stepson of former Belmont Associate Dean of Students Dane Anthony, offered a brief lecture on his experiences and took questions from the students for more than an hour.
Volz was accused of the 2006 murder of ex-girlfriend Doris Jiménez and served more than a year in a maximum security prison in Nicaragua before an appeals court overturned his conviction in December. Due to repeated threats on his life, Volz has remained in hiding since his return to the United States, but in a meeting with local journalists yesterday afternoon, he said, “If you stay in hiding forever, then they’ve won.”
He added that he chose Belmont for his first academic appearance on the subject due to the strong support he and his family received from the university during his imprisonment, especially noting a fundraising concert held last January. Volz’ future plans include the re-launch of his Web site to “generate dialogue around topics that matter and… address cross-cultural misunderstandings.”
For more on this story, visit the media coverage of Volz’ press conference below:
The Tennessean
NewsChannel 5
WSMV Channel 4
Social Work Students Attend National Conference
Eight social work students accompanied professors Dr. Lorraina Scholten and Debbie Simpler to the Baccalaureate Program Director’s annual meeting in Destin, Florida. This was the 25th anniversary conference for the undergraduate social work program meeting, and this year’s theme was “Honoring our Past, Celebrating our Present and Affirming our Future.” More than 800 people from all over the country attended, including Belmont students Stephanie Gregory, Elizabeth Kearse, Alicia McDonald, Alison Peak, Sara Rosenbaum, Lizzie Simpson, Jimmy Smith and January Utermahlen.
Rick Byrd Named Finalist for National Coaching Honor
Belmont University head men’s basketball coach Rick Byrd has been named one of 10 finalists for the inaugural Skip Prosser Man of the Year award. The Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award will be given annually to a Division I head coach who best represents the high standards of the coaching profession: Winning with integrity. The award is named in memory of former Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser who passed away suddenly on July 26, 2007.
The ten finalists were selected from a group of 20 semi-finalists compiled by the 21-member selection panel of coaches, administrators and basketball journalists. In addition to Byrd, the 10 finalists include Mike Brey (Notre Dame), Seth Greenberg (Virginia Tech), Frank Haith (Miami), Trent Johnson (Stanford), Bob McKillop (Davidson), Sean Miller (Xavier), Matt Painter (Purdue), Bo Ryan (Wisconsin) and Gary Waters (Cleveland State). Established by CollegeInsider.com and the Prosser family, the award will be presented at the 2008 Final Four in San Antonio.
Byrd, who with 541 career victories is one of 16 active Division-I men’s basketball coaches with 500 or more career victories, was named Atlantic Sun Conference Coach of the Year Mar. 4. This season, the Knoxville, Tenn. native directed the Bruins to their third consecutive Atlantic Sun Championship – becoming the first program in league history in earn three straight bids to the NCAA Tournament. A 2004 NAIA Hall of Fame inductee for his service in leading the Bruin program, Byrd also received the Dr. James Naismith National Sportsmanship Award in 1994.
Massey Graduate Students Experience Business in Madrid
Students from the Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business at Belmont University, along with Assistant Professor of Marketing and International Business Dr. Jeffrey Overby, recently traveled to Madrid, Spain as part of the requirements for the M.B.A. degree.
While in Madrid, students met with representatives from Deloitte Madrid, who discussed the Spanish economy and other issues related to doing business in Spain. One surprise presenter from Deloitte Madrid turned out to be Belmont alumnus Rodrigo Mota (‘01), a current manager with the firm, who began his presentation by stating he is evidence that Belmont’s slogan, “From Here to Anywhere,” is both accurate and inspirational. Another notable visit included Club Atlético de Madrid, one of the most successful football clubs in Spanish League history. Mr. Miguel Arjona, Retail and Licensing Director, hosted the group to a stadium tour and an interactive discussion.
Overby said, “My hope is to have students return from international field study trips and study abroad trips as changed people, people intrigued, tolerant and respectful of other nationalities and cultures. Also, I believe such experiences help create skilled employees with a broader view of the marketplace and the workplace.”
King Appointed Teaching Center Assistant Director
Dr. Merrie King, Associate Professor of Education, will serve as Assistant Director of the Belmont Teaching Center beginning in August 2008. Since coming to Belmont in 2001, King’s outstanding teaching and dedication have been recognized in the form of several awards including Chaney Distinguished Professor (2005-2006), Peabody Outstanding Educator (2005) and Robert E. Simmons Distinguished Lecturer (Spring 2008). In addition to serving as a Teaching Center Advisory Board member (2003-2006), she has participated in many Teaching Center activities including workshops, lunch discussions and summer reading groups as well as led several faculty retreats sponsored or cosponsored by the Teaching Center.
Pharmacy Faculty Publish Tennessean Editorial
An editorial written by Drs. Phil Johnston and Sal Giorgianni from the School of Pharmacy recently appeared in The Tennessean. The article, which can be read here, provided warning signs for prescription drug abuse.
Belmont Connections Appear in The Tennessee Conservationist
Two articles in the March/April 2008 edition of The Tennessee Conservationist magazine feature Belmont connections. Dr. Steve Murphree, professor of Biology, wrote an article titled “Managing Mosquitoes.” In addition, Jill Neblett, a biology major at Belmont, was featured in the article “Trail Work, Exotic Plant Removal and More Mark Tennessee Youth Conservation Corps First Year.” Jill was a Tennessee Youth Conservation Corps team leader and did work at Montgomery Bell State Park this past summer.
Belmont to Host Gulf-South Summit on Service Learning
More than 400 faculty, students, and community partners from higher education institutions throughout the south and east will gather March 13-15 at Loews Vanderbilt Plaza for the sixth annual Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement in Higher Education. Hosted by Belmont University, the Summit will feature workshops and addresses by national leaders in service-learning. In addition, participants can select from over 110 presentations offered over three days on a wide range of programs and issues related to service-learning. Participants are expected from 33 states, representing over 150 different educational and community institutions.
The Gulf-South Summit is one of the leading national conferences on service-learning, and one of the few actively to include community leaders, students and faculty. Service-learning is one of the leading ways that colleges get their students involved in communities, and that universities and communities forge relationships. In a service-learning class, students engage with the community on projects that meet community needs and are related to the class subject. For example, environmental science students may work with a community garden, or business students with financial literacy programs, or English students with tutoring elementary students.
Marcia McDonald, Associate Provost at Belmont University and Chair of the Executive Committee for the Gulf-South Summit, said, “Service-learning is central to Belmont’s vision, and to the vision of many universities in the Nashville area, for a meaningful university education. Service-learning can be a life-transforming experience for students; it can also be a challenging experience for educators and community partners. The Summit is designed to bring together all the parties in a service-learning program and enable them to exchange best practices, innovative ideas and to learn about new initiatives on the national landscape.”
