Billy Henry has been appointed interim head coach for men’s golf, announced Belmont Director of Athletics Mike Strickland. “Billy’s credentials speak for themselves, and we are honored to have him join our athletic department staff,” Strickland said. “His experience, integrity and good nature will enhance our golf program.”
Henry has more than four decades of distinguished service in intercollegiate athletics, both as a coach and administrator, including his recent 20-year post as assistant athletic director at the University of Tennessee before retiring in 2005. Belmont men’s golf returns to action Oct. 15-16 when it hosts the Belmont Fall Shootout at Nashville Golf & Athletic Club. For more on this story, click here.
Henry Named Interim Head Coach for Men’s Golf
Faculty/Staff Quoted in Tennessee Newspapers
This past weekend found several Belmont staff and faculty featured in regional news outlets:
• Dr. Pat Raines, dean of the Massey Graduate School of Business, was quoted in the Memphis Business Journal in an article on the rise of delinquent home loans.
• Provost Dr. Dan McAlexander was quoted in a Tennessean article on Hispanic student recruitment.
West Graduates Leadership Middle Tennessee Program
Dr. Susah H. West, vice president for presidential affairs, recently graduated from the year-long Leadership Middle Tennessee program along with 27 other community and business leaders from the region, according to Jack Turner, chair of the group’s board of directors. Leadership Middle Tennessee is a regional leadership institute encompassing the 10-county area in Middle Tennessee which includes Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Maury, Montgomery, Robertson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson and Wilson counties.
New Theater Opens with Gala Celebration
Belmont University opened its new theater complex this past weekend with an invitation-only, black-tie Gala Celebration. The inaugural production in the 350-seat Troutt Theater featured William Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing, a collaboration between the Belmont Theater Department and the Nashville-based Actors Bridge Ensemble. Actors Bridge has a long history with Belmont as the ensemble was founded in 1995 as a training program in the university’s Little Theatre.
Belmont Provost Dr. Dan McAlexander said, “We are proud to open this extraordinary new theater complex with this collaborative production. It serves as a perfect example of both Belmont’s distinctive brand of education—which connects rigorous learning on campus with real world experience in the professional communities of Nashville—and our commitment to serve this city. Of course, these new venues are tremendous assets for Belmont students. But, because they will be shared with a wide variety of local professional theater and dance companies, they are also outstanding new additions to the cultural life of Nashville.”
Much Ado About Nothing Director Bill Feehely, a former Belmont theater professor, founded Actors Bridge and now serves as the group’s artistic director. “It was a great honor to be given the opportunity to direct the very first production at the Bill and Carole Troutt Theater,” Feehely said. “I have the chance to do the thing I love with two organizations dear to my heart, Belmont University and Actors Bridge. I am also thrilled to be able to add to my career highlights premiering a wonderful cast and crew in this beautiful facility.”
Moore Speaks at Conference; Featured in Publication
Dr. Alison Moore, assistant professor in the Chemistry and Physics Department, was an invited speaker at the National Meeting of the ACS (American Chemical Society) that was held recently in Boston, Mass. Her presentation was about incorporating liberal arts into chemistry through the linked cohort course. Dr. Moore was also featured in an article in this week’s Chemical & Engineering News. The article summarizes the session in which Dr. Moore gave her presentation. The two photos that appear in the article are of Belmont students. To read the article, click here.
Curb College Partners with Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Mike Curb Family Foundation to ‘Celebrate the Songwriter’
Three major Nashville organizations—Belmont University, the Mike Curb Family Foundation and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame—announced today an exciting new partnership focused on the foundation of the music industry: songwriting. Intended to create visibility and understanding of the songwriting craft, the partnership includes the establishment of a new songwriting major in Belmont’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business and a permanent location for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, both of which will be housed in historic 34 Music Square East on Music Row.
With a mantra to “Celebrate the Songwriter,” the event opened with Hall of Fame member Dolly Parton offering her thoughts. “When I first came to Nashville, all of us would just get in a huddle to try to write together, folks like me and Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson,” Parton said. “Most of us barely got through high school, much less college. Belmont has done a wonderful thing as a university and with the music program, and I think it’s great how they are embracing songwriting.”
The building at 34 Music Square East—which is the former home of the legendary Quonset Hut, Columbia Studio A, Columbia and Epic Records, and Sony Music Nashville—joins Ocean Way and RCA Studio B as yet another valuable Music Row extension of the Curb College. Mike Curb said, “Belmont students can now further enrich their education of this industry’s history in Nashville in the historic Columbia Records Building and the historic Quonset Hut Recording Studio, the first recording studio on Music Row where great artists such as Marty Robbins, Sonny James, Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee recorded numerous hit records.”
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher, who tried to convince Parton to forego her “day job” to join the Curb College faculty, noted the immense opportunities the new partnership would offer. “It’s going to be a great learning environment for our students to come and learn and grow… [Though the students are young], like we saw with Josh Turner, they can turn their ideas into great songs.”
Deans’ Convo Focuses on Faith-Informed Academics
In a special convocation yesterday on Faith-Informed Academics, three Belmont Deans—Dr. Phil Johnston, Pharmacy; Dr. Kathy Baugher, Enrollment Services; and Dr. Jack Williams, Health Sciences and Nursing—shared a bit of their personal background and the lessons they learned as they approached their careers.
Speaking in a panel format to a full house at the Bunch Library Multimedia Hall, Dr. Johnston opened the session with his early memories of wanting to be a garbage man. Though he loved the sounds of the huge garbage trucks rumbling down his street, his career desires ultimately changed as a teenager when the longing for a car set him on an unexpected path. “At age 15, I decided to get a job, and at that time my choices were either working at a grocery store or the local drug store. That set my fate. I found out at the pharmacy what I needed to be—someone who would help people.”
Baugher, on the other hand, admits that her career only makes sense in hindsight. Growing up, she felt drawn to teaching and majored in elementary education before attending seminary, assuming her life would be spent in mission education. What she discovered, however, was that her personality was a better fit elsewhere. “What I didn’t know then was that I am a bossy girl, and we bossy girls like to take charge and get things done. I really didn’t need to be an elementary school teacher because I would kill somebody… Administration became interesting to me, though. I’ve learned a lot about pairing ministry and vocation. In admissions, I get to interact with young people and talk about God’s purpose in their life.”
Though Williams grew up in church, he discussed reaching a point in his 20s in which he struggled with what to think about Jesus. He acknowledged that he went into science to get something he could wrap his arms around, something that would offer answers he wasn’t finding in religion. But a significant turning point occurred for Williams following an accident in which he barely escaped death from a falling tree. “For the next three or four months after that, I had a connection with God that I still can’t explain. It opened up my eyes to the idea that not everything is rational. I started opening up my heart to other ways of listening besides just my head.”
Peer Audit Team to Assess Belmont’s ‘Green’ Status
As part of the ongoing Belmont Goes Green program, members of a peer-auditing committee will be on campus Sept. 25-27 to help assess and improve the university’s environmental efforts.
The Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association (TICUA) launched an initiative with 30 of its member campuses to provide training and other resources to aid affiliated schools in their efforts to be good environmental stewards. An initial piece of the TICUA project was to create a formal relationship with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which led to the agreement for “peer-audits.” The peer-audit environmental component allows participating universities to voluntarily collaborate and help one another in assessing and improving their campuses. The two main objectives of this program are to identify non-compliant practices and to develop a culture to keep potential violations from re-occurring.
Belmont Goes Green was implemented at Belmont earlier this spring to encourage our community to create a more environmentally sustainable campus
Center for Entrepreneurship Brings Ephren Taylor to Campus
Ephren W. Taylor II, founder of Amoro Corporation, spoke Tuesday in the Maddox Grand Atrium as part of the Center for Entrepreneurship’s 2007 Moench Entrepreneurship Lecture Series.
At 24, Taylor is already recognized as one of America’s top young entrepreneurs and is the youngest African-American CEO of any publicly traded company. According to press materials, Taylor, who was described as “walking black history” by popular radio show host Tom Joyner, started his first business venture at age 12, when he began making videogames. By age 17, he built a multi-million dollar technology company: GoFerretGo.com.
Now at City Capital Corporation, Taylor oversees over $150 million in assets, serving a diverse client list ranging from Wall Street investors, top executives, professional athletes and even entertainment icons. He has an extensive background in startup firms and has helped start and fund seven companies, raising millions in investment capital.
Prior to his lecture last night, Belmont Vision interviewed Taylor. To read the full story, click here.
Webster Published in Pharmaceutical Journal
Dr. Andrew A. Webster, professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, started his first day in Belmont’s new School of Pharmacy with great news. His article “Isoniazid Release from Suppositories Compounded with Selected Bases” appeared in the Sept/Oct issue of International Journal of Pharmaceutical Compounding, which arrived Monday, Dr. Webster’s first day on campus. Written with collaborators from Samford University, the purpose of the study was to optimize the formulation of Isoniazid suppositories for use in the prevention of tuberculosis infections in infants.
