Belmont history professor Dr. Jeff Coker visited Macedonia October 16-20 as part of the U.S. State Department’s International Informational Program. Coker held presentations and discussions with faculty and administrators at universities throughout the country. He addressed a range of topics on U.S. History and U.S. Foreign Policy with a focus on university administration and development.
Belmont Sorority Receives National Awards
Belmont’s Delta Eta chapter of Alpha Sigma Tau received numerous awards at the sorority’s national convention at Walt Disney World. Five delegates from Belmont’s chapter attended the convention. The chapter won 2nd place for its Chapter Excellence reports and were awarded the 1st place Scholarship Award for having the highest cumulative chapter GPA (3.4) of all chapters in the nation. Additionally, the chapter won the Founder’s Award which is given to the over-all best chapter in the nation and is the highest award a chapter can achieve.
Student to Present at Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting
This year, Belmont students and faculty will attend the Annual Meeting of The Society for Neuroscience. Students from several majors will present thier findings at this meeting. Students include biology majors Stacey Apple, Ananta Bhatt, Trisha Siewnarine and Corey Winfree, biochemistry and molecular biology major Adam Militana and psychology major Eileen Marks.
Belmont Volunteers for El Dia de los Muertos
Belmont students and faculty volunteered at the annual Cheekwood celebration of El Dia de los Muertos. They organized a scavenger hunt, gave bilingual tours of the art museum in the Cheekwood Mansion, led the Dia de los Muertos Bingo game and helped hundreds of people make their own paper cuttings.
Belmont University First Nashville Employer to Offer Free Train Transportation
Belmont University has partnered with the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) to offer free train transportation to all university employees and students, becoming the first and only school and employer in Nashville to offer this benefit. Any Belmont student or employee is eligible to ride the new Music City Star, Nashville’s commuter rail system, and Belmont will pick up the cost.
“The Regional Transportation Authority is thrilled to work with Belmont University to provide transportation on the Music City Star to the school’s employees and students,” Teresa McKissick, RTA marketing director, said. “Belmont has always been a leader in our community and the fact that the institution is the first to come aboard and provide rides on the state’s first commuter rail for their employees and students is phenomenal, and also shows a real commitment not only to transportation but also to the people who work and attend school at Belmont.”
Belmont’s partnership with RTA follows an already successful partnership with the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). The university partnered with MTA last year to offer students and staff free transportation to campus and became the only university in Nashville to offer free transportation to students. During the last school year, the total boarding number of Belmont employees and students on MTA buses totaled nearly 12,000.
“We’re pleased to be not only the first university but also the first employer in Nashville to extend our commuter benefits to include the Music City Star rail system,” Belmont University President Robert Fisher said. “The commuter benefits program helps lower students’ out-of-pocket expenses associated with attending Belmont and provides a significant new tax-free benefit to our employees. In addition, this partnership will continue to reduce the number of cars coming to campus and help the surrounding neighborhood and our environment.”
Belmont University’s commuter benefits program gives Belmont students, faculty and staff an opportunity to save on gasoline, help reduce traffic congestion and improve the environment, while also providing relief for campus parking. Belmont was named one of “Nashville’s Best Commuter-Friendly Workplaces” by MTA after offering free transportation to campus for the 2005-06 school year.
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“Belmont to pay for Music City Star rides” – The Tennessean, October 31, 2006
Belmont Nursing In the News
The Tennessean ran a story in Saturday’s paper about Belmont and other area colleges and universities making efforts to decrease the nursing shortage in Tennessee. Click here to read the article.
Belmont’s Business Schools Boasts Four Top Honors
This fall, Belmont University’s College of Business Administration has earned four major honors, establishing the school as a definitive leader among academic business programs. In September, Belmont’s Dr. Jane Finley was one of only two women in the Southeast, and one of 40 nationally, to be named Deloitte & Touche’s Professor in Accounting. In October, Belmont’s Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business was selected as one of the best in the world by the Princeton Review, (in its 2007 edition of the Best 282 Business Schools); while Belmont undergraduate finance students the same month swept a stock-trading double-header at Fifth Third Bank’s Stock Market Challenge. To top it off, Belmont’s MBA program was also voted best in Nashville in 2006 over Vanderbilt University and others by Nashville Scene readers.
“The school has a commitment not only to the development of business knowledge but also to the development of a business mentality and the nonacademic skills required for career success,” quotes a Belmont student in the Princeton Review, a New York-based education services company known for its college rankings based on how students rate their schools. That commitment is evidenced by the fact that Belmont professors, both in the graduate and undergraduate programs, go beyond the classroom in their efforts to create an ideal learning environment for their students, says Dr. Pat Raines, dean of Belmont’s College of Business Administration.
Deloitte & Touche Funds Professorship in Accounting – Finley Honored
“Case in point is Dr. Jane Finley,” Raines says. “As the inaugural Deloitte & Touche Professor in Accounting at Belmont University, she has been instrumental in two significant areas: increasing the value of our graduates’ diplomas and leading our master’s of accountancy (MACC) program to becoming the second largest in the state, right behind the University of Tennessee. She brings extraordinary strengths to our accounting program through her extensive professional experience and achievement in the field.”
Finley led the efforts at Belmont to gain accreditation for the university’s MACC program through The Association to Accredit Collegiate School’s of Business (AACSB International), the highest standard of achievement for business schools, worldwide.
Princeton Review Names Belmont “One of the Best”
Another recent achievement for Belmont’s school of business includes its ranking in the Princeton Review’s 2007 edition of the Best 282 Business Schools. Princeton Review editors described Belmont’s MBA program as providing “practical curriculum [that] places a strong emphasis on learning through practical applications, case studies and teamwork.” In a two-page profile on Belmont, the publication lists “the school’s greatest strength [being] the faculty” while one student notes, “the overall academic experience at Belmont is challenging, although not so challenging that it’s intimidating. Everyone wants to succeed, but [here] I have never encountered the cutthroats that you hear about when MBA programs are mentioned.”
The Princeton Review compiled the ranking lists based on its surveys of 18,000 students attending the 282 business schools profiled in the book, and on institutional data from the schools. The survey asked students 80 questions about themselves, their career plans and their school’s academics, student body and campus life.
“It is extremely gratifying to have our students praise our programs for their challenging academic experience and the emphasis on teamwork and developing a business mentality,” Raines says. “The growing enrollments in our MBA and MACC programs affirm that we are responding to the needs of the . . . business community.”
According to Robert Franek, vice president of publishing at Princeton Review, being recognized among the 282 “best” is quite significant. “We choose schools for this book based on our high regard for their academic programs and offerings, institutional data we collect from the schools and the candid opinions of students attending them who rate and report on their campus experiences at the schools,” Franek says. “We are pleased to recommend Belmont University . . . as one of the best institutions they could attend to earn an MBA.”
Belmont’s Business School Blows Away Competition in Stock Market Challenge
Belmont University’s undergraduate business school also scored on top in a recent mock competition to build the largest stock portfolio over a simulated 60-day trading period. A team of finance students from Belmont claimed victory twice at the stock-trading doubleheader during Fifth Third Bank’s second annual Stock Market Challenge in Nashville.
Sponsored by Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee, the event entailed two competitions— morning and afternoon—during which Belmont students invested a $500,000 fictitious portfolio of stocks over a period of 60 trading sessions (“days”) that lasted 60 seconds each. Belmont’s winning team increased the value of their portfolio to $4.2 million in the morning contest for a return of over 700 percent, earning them a sponsorship for the evening competition against local professional firms.
In the evening contest, during an intense two hours of trading, Belmont’s team pulled ahead of 23 local firms by increasing the value of their $500,000 portfolio to more than $10.9 million—enough to gain the victory—with the total return for the Belmont team exceeding 2,000 percent. “The students were armed with the skills they have acquired in our state-of-the-art financial information center located on Belmont’s campus,” Raines said.
Massey Graduate School of Business Beats Out Vanderbilt and MTSU as Top MBA Program in Area
Topping off the accolades was the Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business’ recent designation as the best MBA program in the area in 2006 by a prominent Nashville publication—the Nashville Scene—with Belmont beating out Vanderbilt University and Middle Tennessee State University.
“The Best MBA category was new this year,” Chris Ferrell, publisher of the Scene, says. “Winning the ‘Best of Nashville’ vote from our readers the first year of the category is certainly a feather in your cap.”
The “Best of Nashville” annual edition of the Nashville Scene is in its 20th year of polling thousands of readers from eight counties in a variety of categories, including colleges and universities, food, entertainment, media, goods and services, arts and music, people and places to name a few. Readers are required to “write in” their ballot either online or by mail to vote as opposed to a multiple choice survey format.
Top employers of Massey MBA’s include: Bridgestone/Firestone, Caterpillar Financial, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and Hospital Corporation of America.
Fisher Quoted in USA Today
Belmont University President Dr. Robert Fisher was quoted in USA Today in a story concerning the NCAA allowing Canadian college and universities to become members. Fisher is heading the NCAA panel examining the issue.
Click here to read the article.
Belmont Receives Grant From Christy-Houston Foundation
Belmont University recently received a grant of $194,555 from the Christy-Houston Foundation for Physical Therapy (PT) and Occupational Therapy (OT) equipment. The equipment will have positive impacts on all students in the PT and OT programs at Belmont as well as patients, both in clinical education and after graduation for practice in health care.
Belmont University has the only private doctorate level physical therapy degree and the only doctorate level occupational therapy degree in Tennessee. In the past year, approximately 4,654 Rutherford County residents were served by Belmont PT and OT students. Well over 1,000 Middle Tennessee residents are served daily by Belmont University PT and OT students and alumni.
One piece of equipment that will be purchased through the grant for physical therapy is the SMART Equitest, by Neurocom International, Inc. The Equitest provides objective assessment of balance control and postural stability under dynamic test conditions to reflect the challenges of daily life. The system provides assessment and retraining capabilities with visual biofeedback on either a stable or unstable support surface and in a stable or dynamic visual environment. It is an evaluative tool for patients with balance problems and is also being used to evaluate Parkinson’s patients’ appropriateness for the cutting edge technology of deep brain stimulation. While the deep brain stimulation is performed by the Neurological Surgery Team at Vanderbilt University, an evaluation done before and after the surgery can be a key component to assessing clinical effectiveness. The Vanderbilt regional center of excellence for deep brain stimulation is working to educate physicians in out-lying areas on which patients are most appropriate for this surgical approach. It is hoped that over time, and with additional research, that this service will be provided to more patients and physicians in Middle Tennessee.
The equipment grant will also be used to purchase other items for physical therapy and occupational therapy, including a driving simulator that is instrumental for research pertaining to driving needs for an aging population. In addition, low vision equipment will be used for classroom training. Sewing machines will enable students to learn how to fabricate orthotics, slings and other adaptive equipment to restore function. With an impending shortage of physical therapists and occupational therapists, Belmont University is actively recruiting more students interested in allied health. The new equipment will provide essential tools for educating highly-competent, doctoral prepared PTs and master or doctoral prepared OTs.
MORE
“Belmont receives grant for therapy” – The Daily News Journal, October 28, 2006
Physical Therapy Student Attends National Conference
Megan Stinson, Doctorate of Physical Therapy student, attended the American Physical Therapy Association National Government Affairs Forum September 17-19 in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. She attended because of an interest in the advancement and future of the Physical Therapy profession through the legislative process, political strategy and government affairs.
