Biology department faculty members Dr. Nick Ragsdale, Dr. Jennifer Thomas, Dr. Darlene Panvini and Dr. Chris Barton and communications studies department faculty member Dr. Jimmy Davis, along with 17 biology undergraduate research students, attended the 2014 Association of Southeastern Biologists (ASB) Meeting on April 2 through 5 in Spartanburg, S.C. ASB strives to provide an atmosphere that is collaborative, collegial and open to all disciplines. They welcome scholarly and applied work from the many diverse disciplines of the biological sciences. Subject areas include, but are not limited to, floristic and plant systematics, entomology, invertebrate zoology, community and population ecology, evolutionary biology, conservation biology, microbiology, genetics, cell and molecular biology as well as scientific pedagogy.
There were over 400 posters and presentations at the meeting by undergraduate and graduate students from Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, Ohio, Tennessee and other Southeastern states. Belmont students presented posters and talks at the meeting, attended presentations, symposiums and workshops. They also had the opportunity to see and discuss research with students from many universities in the Southeast area. Haley Ellison received honorable mention in Beta Beta Beta Biological Honor Society paper presentations and John Gossen received third place in the poster presentations.
The Master of Sport Administration program hosted the 10th Southern Sport Management Conference at Bridgestone Arena on March 26 through 28. The conference was the first in the organization’s history to be held outside of its founding institution’s campus at Troy University. There were two primary audiences for this conference: the emerging scholar and the future sport practitioner. It is a premier educational event that aims to provide sport management scholars, practitioners, and students with current knowledge on industry trends and issues via academic and professional presentations. Sport Management faculty Dr. Amy Baker, Dr. Ted Peetz and Dr. Stephen Shin, along with Belmont Master of Sport Administration students, helped to organize and run the three-day event that included presentations from students, practitioners and academics from across the Southeast. 
During the conference, Phil Mosley and Matt Jones, students in the Sport Administration Program, presented research on March 26. The students presentation was entitled “The CrossFit Influence: Persuasion Strategies in the Fitness Industry,” which examined the six basic tendencies of human behavior as outlined by Robert Cialdini’s weapons of influence and how CrossFit gyms use these influencers in their marketing strategies.
The partnership between Belmont University and Rose Park Middle Magnet School culminated Friday with seventh and eighth grade students from the middle school’s journalism club seeking advice from University students, receiving instruction from Belmont instructors and using the Media Studies journalism lab to write articles.
Nicole Vincent, a seventh-grade geography teacher and the newspaper’s adviser, said she hopes the visit to Belmont gave her journalism students “valuable career information” through their exposure to the college campus and Nashville journalists.
Dr. Francis Su, president-elect of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, was on campus April 7 to speak on “Grace in Learning and Teaching” in the University’s chapel service. Due to many requests for the text of this talk, Su created a 
Belmont University hosted Tennessee Titans quarterback Jake Locker on campus April 9 as he stood with students against human trafficking and spoke about issues surrounding its 29.8 million victims as well as how he became involved with the International Justice Mission. Belmont students began a 24-hour stand Tuesday evening and continued Wednesday with an awareness event near the Bell Tower with stations set up to make STAND for Freedom signs, sign a petition and educate their peers on issues regarding human trafficking.
Actor, director and producer Corbin Bernsen spoke to students, faculty and staff about his faith and film career during a convocation event in Neely Dining Hall on Wednesday.
This week the 