Center for Entrepreneurship assists in Buzzy’s grand opening
Belmont’s Center for Entrepreneurship and sweets lovers everywhere celebrated today the grand opening of Buzzy’s candy shop, a new student-operated business on Belmont Blvd. Located in the Curb Event Center across from Bongo Java, Buzzy’s Candy will sell gummis, chocolates, old fashioned candy, popular wrapped candies and jelly beans. The students behind the Buzzy’s venture are Areej Rabie, a finance and entrepreneurship major, entrepreneurship major Julia Cecere and marketing major Mandy Strader, all of whom were smiling from ear to ear at the long line of customers inside their store for opening day.
“The story of Buzzy’s is a great example of the entrepreneurial spirit of the students coming to Belmont,” said Dr. Jeff Cornwall, Massey Chair in Entrepreneurship at Belmont University. “The proposal for Buzzy’s was developed and pitched by a freshman, and the start-up team includes another freshman and a sophomore. Like so many of our students, they came here not only ready to learn in the classroom, but ready to get their hands dirty and learn through experience.”
Three student-run businesses–Boulevard Studios, Buzzy’s and Feedback Clothing Co.–are currently operating in the Curb Event Center space which has been set aside by Belmont University. This program gives students the opportunity to gain first-hand experience in operating a small business. When a space in the Curb Center opens, a Call for Proposals goes out to students across Belmont’s campus. Students submit plans to the faculty and staff of the Center for Entrepreneurship, and those selected are interviewed. Selections are made based on viability, sustainability, research and fit for the university. Click here for photos from the Buzzy’s Grand Opening.
New Student-Run Candy Business Opens on Campus
Sociologist Shares Perspective on Modern Manhood
Renowned sociologist and bestselling author Dr. Michael Kimmel (The Gendered Society, Manhood in America) spoke at Belmont today on “Mars and Venus, or Planet Earth: Women and Men in a New Millennium” as part of the Living Sociology Speaker Series.
Kimmel opened his talk by describing that the biggest changes seen in men in the past 50-plus years aren’t really “changes” at all. Rather, due to the countless ways women’s lives have changed, the perspective on men has changed. For example, as schools and workplaces have become gender-integrated, women have come to expect more from men. Most women and men expect to have full-time employment after college which raises issues of work/life balance since, historically, women have done the “second shift” (i.e., been primary childcare providers, homemakers). As women do more outside the home, men must do more inside the home to make help create that balance.
“My father went to an all male college, served in an all male military and worked in an all male office,” Kimmel said. “That world has changed.”
Although men’s and women’s lives have changed dramatically in the last 50 years, according to Kimmel, the model for masculinity has not. Men are expected to abide by the same four rules of masculinity that were evident in the 1950s, as noted by social scientists Deborah David and Robert Brannon: No sissy stuff, be a big wheel (manhood being measured by the size of a paycheck), be a sturdy oak (be reliable but emotionless) and “give ’em hell” (be daring).
Kimmel emphasized that by creating more equality between women and men–in schools, in workplaces and in families–both genders will benefit and be able to live fuller, happier and healthier lives.
Belmont ‘Tops Out’ New Residence Hall
Structure to put freshman students in heart of campus
Belmont University held a topping out ceremony today for a new 103,000 square foot residence hall in the center of campus. The as-yet-unnamed six-story building will provide housing for approximately 400 freshmen when it is completed this summer, prior to the start of the fall 2010 semester. The new residence hall will be connected via an underground tunnel to Maple Hall, another freshman residence which opened last year. All of the new residential space is needed to accommodate Belmont’s rapidly growing enrollment which has increased by more than 80 percent since 2000. In addition to offering more housing space, the new facility will provide a unique living-learning community lifestyle by putting all first-year students in the heart of campus.
“Belmont University continues to grow at a remarkable rate,” Fisher said. “It’s important that Belmont remains student-centered, placing our students’ needs first even as we experience significant enrollment increases. This new residence facility guarantees that Belmont will provide a unique and innovative space to welcome incoming classes into the heart of campus.”
Belmont’s enrollment has increased by more than 80 percent since 2000, with the fall 2009 enrollment topping 5,400 students. The structure will complete the university’s vision to house all first-time students in the center of Belmont’s 75-acre campus. The close proximity to one another and to all academic buildings will provide an ideal learning community for incoming freshman classes. In fact, the new structure will include classroom space on the bottom level to accommodate First Year Seminar courses.
Provost Dr. Marcia McDonald added, “Creating a community for our freshmen at the core of campus will enable us to enhance our living-learning experiences. We anticipate opportunities for extended student-faculty dialogues and exchanges around our innovative First Year Seminars, most of which will be taught in classrooms in these residence halls.”
Nashville-based architect Earl Swensson Associates—the same company that designed Belmont’s Curb Event Center and the Gordon E. Inman Center—is overseeing building plans. R.C. Mathews is the contractor on the year-long project.
Writing in the Community Class Presents Work
Last fall’s Writing in the Community class led by Dr. Amy Hodges Hamilton, assistant professor of English, recently presented from their work with various community partners. The event was held Dec. 15 in the Leu Art Gallery in Bunch Library.
Alumna Nurse Deploys on U.S.N.S Comfort to Aid Haiti Victims
Lieutenant Junior Grade Lauren Hudson, a 2007 Belmont School of Nursing graduate, left for Haiti this week as part of the deployment of state-of-the-art hospital ship U.S.N.S. Comfort. The group will be providing care to quake victims.The 1,000-bed ship carries more than 500 staff membersClick here to view the story as reported by Pensacola, Fla. ABC affiliate WEAR-TV.
Gray Challenges Audience to Continue Fight for ‘Equal Justice’
Legendary Civil Rights attorney Fred Gray appeared on campus this week, sharing with wisdom and candor stories about his never-ending efforts to “destroy everything segregated I could find.” In a special morning-long forum and lecture, Gray—the former attorney for Rosa Parks, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study victims—spoke to an audience in the Massey Performing Arts Center consisting of Belmont students, faculty and staff along with members of the community and students from Meharry Medical College, Tennessee State University and 85 eighth graders from nearby Rose Park Middle School.
The opening panel discussion featured Gray along with special guests Dr. Henry Foster, Jr., professor emeritus and former dean of the Meharry College School of Medicine and nominee for U.S. Surgeon General under President Bill Clinton; Dwight Lewis, columnist and member of the editorial board for The Tennessean ; and John Seigenthaler, founding editorial director of USA Today, founder of the First Amendment Center and award-winning journalist who briefly left his career in the 1960s to work in the civil rights field. The panel was moderated by Harry Chapman, Belmont’s director of development and major gifts.
The session opened with a timely conversation on healthcare, a subject close to Gray’s heart given his work representing the victims in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Gray said, “When you use human beings as subject of research, they have certain rights, and those rights should be of paramount concern.”
The bulk of the day’s conversation, however, revolved around the Civil Rights movement and Gray’s determination to make a difference, even from a young age. Throughout the morning he shared details of the Montgomery bus boycott and the role he played along with other early Civil Rights pioneers. In fact, at a dinner event Tuesday night, Gray was given the first Belmont College of Law “Champions of Justice” award. Seigenthaler said, “I admire Belmont University so much for having [Fred Gray] here… We must never forget what he did to try to end segregation.”
“There were many unsung heroes who gave the moral courage that made it possible to have a Civil Rights movement and elect the 44th president of the United States,” Gray noted. “I want to challenge you all that the Civil Rights movement is not over. The struggle for equal justice has not been achieved.”
Presented by Belmont’s Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences and Nursing “Diagnosing Our Future” speaker series, Gray’s appearance was also co-sponsored by Belmont’s College of Law, the Office of Spiritual Development and the Center for Community Health and Health Equity.
PBS ‘History Detectives’ Host Elyse Luray to Visit Belmont
Visit Comes as Part of ‘American Experience’ Exhibit
Elyse Luray, a host on the PBS show “History Detectives,” will give a presentation on collecting art and antiques on Wed., Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Belmont University’s Massey Concert Hall. Luray’s visit comes in conjunction with the opening reception for The American Experience: Art and Decorative Arts from the Collections of Belmont University Alumni, a collection that will be displayed in Belmont’s Leu Art Gallery from January 26 through May 14. The reception and presentation are free and open to the public.
The exhibit reception will take place in the gallery on Wed., Feb. 3 from 5-7 p.m. with Guest Curator Mark Brown, Belmont Mansion executive director, who has pulled together an exhibit that explores a wide range of American fine and decorative art objects from the collections of Belmont University alumni. Luray’s talk will follow the reception.
The items on display—including furniture, silver, glass, textiles, paintings and prints—reflect American culture from the Colonial period to the end of the nineteenth century. Selected items include coin silver by the son-in-law of Paul Revere, Tiffany silver tongs, Tennessee made furniture and a quilt made by a slave. Pieces were selected to illustrate some interesting topics from the American decorating past such as the crossover between American literature and the decorative arts or how home items deified George Washington. Other items illustrate how the 1876 American Centennial influenced items displayed in the home. The exhibit will also explore the roles of women and African Americans in the decorative arts.
Adams, Baker to Present at AAHPERD
Drs. Sarah Adams and Amy Baker (Sport Science) will be presenting at the 2010 American Association for Physical Education Recreation And Dance (AAHPERD) Convention, March 16-20, in Indianapolis. The title of the presentation is “Applying Problem-Based Learning to Sport Management Curriculums: In’s & Out’s.”
Sport Administration Charters Alumni Chapter
The Sport Administration graduate program is being presented as an alumni charter during Belmont’s Homecoming 2010 celebration on Sat., Feb. 27. Sport Administration is only the third alumni chapter to be chartered.
Holt, Coker to Present at Conference
Linda E. Holt, associate professor of English, and Jeff Coker, professor of history and assistant provost, will conduct a presentation titled “General Education in the Third Year: Assessing the ‘Intangibles’ of Problem-Based Learning” at the conference of American Association of Colleges and Universities: General Education and Assessment, being held Feb. 17-20 in Seattle, Washington.
