September 30, 2011

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Campus Connects with Community Organizations
Belmont students and employees networked with Nashville nonprofit organizations Wednesday during the Community Connections Fair.  The fair is designed to flood Belmont’s campus with information and people from community organizations to share volunteer opportunities.

“We host this fair annually because a lot of students want to know about opportunities to volunteer in the community, to encourage faculty to find partners for service learning and to give the entire campus an opportunity to learn about where their charitable contributions go in the community,” said Tim Stewart, director of service learning. “And the organizations here benefit so much from the opportunity to meet and network with other nonprofits in the community.”

More than 60 nonprofit organizations throughout Middle Tennessee set up booths in Neely Hall, including Monroe Harding, Nashville CARES, Conexion Americas and Sports 4 All Foundation. Read more.

BELMONT NEWS

Belmont Garden Shares Fresh Foods with Community
Sophomore Bryan Yates interned this summer to provide Dismas House residents with produce from the Belmont Community Garden.

A few months ago, sophomore Bryan Yates had never before seen or tasted okra.

By the end of summer, he was an expert not only on okra but also in organic gardening, harvesting produce and using it to prepare meals.

Yates became the first Belmont Community Garden intern this year as part of an effort to strengthen ties between the University and the Dismas House, a nonprofit organization that provides transitional housing and support to former convicts. He worked in Belmont’s garden daily and took its organic tomatoes, onions, okra, kale, squash, zucchini and cucumbers to Dismas House in exchange for room and board there.

“What we have built on is the idea of community sharing and partnership and for students to learn about food production, sustainability and in a creative learning environment that is interactive,” said Adjunct Professor Charmion Gustke. Students in Gustke’s first-year service learning class must spend at least five hours in the garden and students in her English 1010 class prepare meals at the Dismas House using harvest produce from Belmont’s garden. Read more.

CAS, Law Provide Volunteers for Hands on Nashville Day
The 20th anniversary for Hands On Nashville Day, a fund-raising and community service event for Hands On Nashville (HON), took place on Sept. 24. Forty-eight College of Arts and Sciences faculty, staff, students and family members worked side by side with ten other Belmont students to create two Belmont teams for HON Day. In addition, three CAS faculty members donated funds to cover the HON donation request for students who couldn’t afford to make a donation. This was the largest Hands On Nashville Day on record.

One Belmont team worked at Smithson-Craighead Middle School, where Education Assistant Professor Myron Oglesby-Pitts is principal, and the other team worked at Haywood Elementary School along with some teachers and students of that school. The volunteers had a great time getting to know the teachers and children they were servicing.

The groups spent the morning spreading mulch, trimming bushes, painting hallways, door frames, window frames, doors, classrooms, portable classrooms, playground equipment and a storage shed. Belmont representatives worked hard taping, painting, raking and moving mulch, but everyone was full of smiles and laughter, having a great time enjoying good company and knowing the work they were doing would have a positive impact on the school’s learning environment. Read more.

Convocation Lecture Brings Dr. Al Gini to Belmont
“In work, we create both the product and the person,” noted speaker Al Gini said during his convocation lecture Wednesday titled “Work, Identity and Self.” A professor of business ethics and the Chair of the Department of Management at Loyola University in Chicago, Dr. Gini spoke on the impact of work on the human spirit, not just the impact on the wallet.

He said that as a society, we rarely invite reflections on the nature of the work we do; rather, we’re only trained to work and expected to perform. Dr. Gini said in that routine we lose the most important aspect of work, creating ourselves.

He said he believes there is a direct correlation between our quality of life on the job and off. Since individuals spend so much time working, if the work is not enjoyed then chances are day-to-day life won’t be either. Dr. Gini concluded his lecture noting, “Don’t give up on your integrity… don’t let that happen to you.”

Belmont Co-Hosts Nashville’s First Annual Fringe Festival
Nashville’s Actors Bridge Ensemble, a professional theatre company in full time residence at Belmont, is hosting the first annual Sideshow Fringe Festival: Music City’s Progressive Performing Arts Event Sept. 29-Oct. 2. The first of its kind in Nashville, the festival joins the National Association of Fringe Festivals and is part of the city-wide Artober celebration.

Organized and led by three Belmont theatre alumni–Jessika Malone, Mitch Massaro and Jackie Johnson–the festival’s 41 events will be held at Belmont’s Troutt and Black Box Theaters, as well as at Bongo Java’s After Hours Theatre and on a Belmont-Hillsboro neighborhood stage. Over 50 percent of the actors and volunteers for the weekend are current Belmont students.

According to the Nashville Scene, “Actors Bridge Ensemble paves the way for Music City’s entry into the genre, providing a forum for aerial dancers, jugglers, fire eaters, magicians and puppeteers, plus Caffeinated Theatre (a live-theater version of the 48 Hour Film Project), stand-up comedy, original scripts and storytelling, and one-woman shows from singer Annie Sellick and writer-choreographer Gabrielle Saliba. Music, visual art and workshops are also part of the celebration.”

Passes can be purchased online for the entirety of the four-day weekend, and individual tickets for performances can be purchased at the door. The outdoor festival activities are free to the public. For more information about the festival or to see a complete schedule, click here.

Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn Kicks Off Copyright Forum
U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn presented a briefing on the Commerce Committee’s anti-piracy efforts to Belmont University students, faculty and administrators sitting alongside Nashville songwriters Thursday at the Quonset Hut Studio on Music Row.

“It is imperative that we look for ways to give you some certainty that you are going to have some protection under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and some consistency and for you to know what those enforcement mechanisms are going to be,” Blackburn said.

In updating industry insiders and educators on music piracy and other copyright issues, she directed their attention to the Protect IP Act moving through the U.S. Senate and soon to be introduced in the House of Representatives chamber.

The legislation, also known as the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011, aims at disrupting the business model of rogue websites, especially those registered outside the country.

“We need to send the message loud and clear that the United States is going to stand with protecting our creators and protecting the product that they create and that they are compensated for that creation,” Blackburn said. Read more.

Simulation Event Exposes Belmont Students to Realities of Poverty
On Monday, student leaders from throughout the Belmont community participated in a poverty simulation event co-hosted by the Honors Program’s Leadership Studies program and Catholic Charities. The highly interactive simulation was intended to give students a small taste of what life is like on an extremely limited income. For one hour, participants were asked to join the nearly 40 million U.S. citizens who live with incomes below the poverty line, and through role-playing they faced some of the many challenges that confront real low-income families.

The simulation opened with representatives from Metro Social Services and Catholic Charities sharing statistics on poverty throughout the world as well as locally. Students were then assigned “roles” and “families” and spent the next hour—broken into four 15-minute weeks—attempting to go to work, pay bills, send children to school and deal with unexpected hardships.

Metro Social Services Dinah Gregory explained, “This simulation is intended to help students identify with the poor. Poverty can happen to any of us at any time.” Read more.

Debt Slavery Continues Cycle of Poverty
Modern circumstances of poverty emulate debt slavery structures from Biblical times, Dr. Mark McEntire told students during a Monday morning convocation using the Old Testament to examine the University’s 2011-2012 theme of Wealth and Poverty.

“Although many of you do community service, that (work) deals with the pain and poverty caused by this system (of debt slavery),” said McEntire, who teaches Old Testament and Hebrew in Belmont’s School of Religion. Instead, students should go beyond volunteerism and find solutions to eliminate the cycle of debt and poverty.

His lecture began with an examination of Hammurabi’s Law Code, which is one of the oldest legal texts and the first text to regulate poverty more than 3,800 years ago. Law No. 117 defines debt slavery as a means for the poor to work to pay back what they owe. Read more.

ACHIEVERS

Click here for stories on the recent accomplishments of Belmont’s students, faculty, staff and alumni. This week highlights include Susan Barnes, Cathy Hinton, Clinton Forbis and Melanie Walton.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

New Bus Route Improves Access between Belmont and West End
Improvements to the Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) system begin Sunday  with expanded service along the busy West End corridor. Buses will operate along the West End corridor from Music City Central to West End and 31st Avenue every 10 to 20 minutes on weekdays and every 20 to 40 minutes on weekends. The new Route 11 West End/Belmont provides additional service to Belmont University. Service operates every 30 to 45 minutes weekdays and every 80 minutes on weekends and holidays. The new schedules are on MTA’s website. For more information, customers may call Customer Care at (615) 862-5950.

Thistle Farms, Breast Cancer Discounts at Campus Bookstore
The women of Thistle Farms will be at the Belmont University Campus Bookstore 8:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. Oct. 1 offering a 15 percent discount on their handmade candles, bath salts and natural bath products. Thistle Farms is an enterprise run by residents and graduates of Magdalene, a residential program in Nashville for women who have survived lives of violence, prostitution and addiction. Belmont University SIFE provided crucial computer and financial training to the women and financial guidance to the organization. For the month of October, bookstore staff also will take 20 percent off anything pink, excluding textbooks and software, to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

‘THE ROAD TO 30-5’ Commemorative DVDs Available
Copies of The Road to 30-5 – a full length commemorative DVD highlighting the historic 2010-11 Belmont men’s basketball season – are on campus and available for purchase for $14.95 plus tax plus $4.99 shipping & handling when applicable.

From preseason practices and the dawn of the 12-man rotation to the bright lights of the NCAA Tournament, The Road to 30-5 captures each and every thrilling moment. The roughly hour-long documentary includes special features, such as exclusive sit-down interviews with players, coaches and guests, behind-the-scenes video, Bruin Sports Network broadcast highlights, and never-before-seen game action.

Click here to order or contact Bruin Club Director Wes Burtner at (615) 460-5668. Don’t miss out on your piece of Belmont Basketball history.

Belmont-Hillsboro Neighbors Home Tour & Fringe Festival
The Belmont-Hillsboro neighbors will host their annual Tour of Homes 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 1. Among the architectural styles on the 12-home tour is the 1850 Belmont Mansion and its Italianate style, American Foursquares and Tudor Revivals. Tickets are $10 for adults and free for children under 12. Advanced tickets can also be purchased at www.belmont-hillsboro.org/toh or at Helios Artglassworks and Hillsboro Hardware. All proceeds benefit neighborhood initiatives which in the past have included local scholarship foundations, community enhancement projects and the ongoing restoration of the Belmont Mansion. The Metro Arts Commission is sponsoring the Fringe Festival Sept. 29 – Oct. 2. The arts event will host about 50 artists along Belmont Boulevard between the Troutt Theater and Bongo Java. Among the performances is  Belmont University theatre’s production of Dancing at Lughnasa.

COMING UP

Friday, Sept. 30 – Sunday, Oct. 2
Parent and Family Weekend

Friday, Sept. 30, 7:30 p.m.
Dancing at Lughnasa
Troutt Theater
Dancing at Lughnasa is a 1990 play by dramatist Brian Friel set in Ireland’s County Donegal in August 1936 in the fictional town of Ballybeg. It is a memory play told from the point of view of the adult Michael Evans, the narrator. Tickets are $5 for faculty and staff. Additional performances will be held Oct. 1, 2, 6, 7 and 8.

Wednesday, Oct. 5,  9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Health Fair
Inman Lobby
All day health fair to offer wellness and preventive health resources to employees and students.

Wednesday, Oct. 5,  10 a.m.
Maximizing the Patient-Provider Relationship
McWhorter Hall Room 109
How to get the most from your clinic appointment.

Wednesday, Oct. 5,  10 a.m.
Jenell Williams Paris: Sex and the Soul
Neely Dining Room
Professor of sociology and anthropology at Messiah College and author of The End of Sexual Identity: Why Sex is Too Important to Define Who We Are, Paris earned a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from American University and serves as social sciences editor for the Christian Scholar’s Review. Her most recent book is Introducing Cultural Anthropology: A Christian Perspective.

Wednesday, Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m.
New Music Ensemble
Massey Concert Hall (MPAC)
Performing works by Belmont students and faculty, along with the music of other established modern composers.

Thursday, Oct. 6, 7:30 p.m.
University Symphony Orchestra & Wind Ensemble
Massey Concert Hall (MPAC)
Featuring works by Liszt with piano soloist Kristian Klefstad, Brahms, Bernstein and Maslanka.

Check the University calendar for other upcoming community and convocation events.
Visit the Belmont Athletics website for information about upcoming athletic events.

IN OUR THOUGHTS & PRAYERS

Belmont is a Christian community of learning and service that strives to support its members through prayer. The following concerns have come to our attention recently:

Moncrief “Monty” Jordan, father-in-law of Vice President of Spiritual Development Todd Lake, passed away Sept. 29.

Al Jones, father of Leslie Higgins in the School of Nursing, passed away Sept. 27.

Betty McLain Tallmadge, mother of Bluegrass Ensemble Director Michael McLain, passed away Sept. 25 in her home in Berea, Ky.

Claudine Simpler, mother of religion Professor Steve Simpler and mother-in-law of Social Work professor Debbie Simpler, passed away Sept. 19.  Services were held Sept. 21 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Please keep Todd Lake, Leslie Higgins, Michael McLain, the Simplers and their families in your thoughts and prayers.

BIRTHDAYS

If you notice an incorrect or missing birthday, please e-mail the update to communication@belmont.edu.

Sept. 30
David Sneed, Sophomore Transition Center

Oct. 1
Renee Brown, Physical Therapy

Oct. 2
Judy Bullington, Art

Oct. 3
Julie Thomas, Alumni Relations
Jennifer Kiev, University College

Oct. 4
Sue Heflin, President’s Office

Oct. 5
Cynthia Cox, English

Oct. 7
Lonnie Yandell, Psychological Science

SPECIAL PROMOTION

Disney on Ice Discount
Feld Entertainment Presents:  Disney on Ice, 100 Years of Magic! from Oct. 6 to 9 at the Bridgestone Arena. Belmont students, faculty and staff are offered $3 off the ticket price. Visit disneyonice.com or feldentertainment.com or contact  Joseph Lloyd for more information at jlloyd@feldgroupsales.com or 1-866-248-8740 ext. 102.

Discounted Predators Tickets
Visit www.NashvillePredators.com/DChadwell for savings on individual Nashville Predators game tickets. Find the game you want to attend and click “Find Tickets.” You will then enter special offer code “preds.” Once you have entered the special offer code, you will then need to “Create a New Account.” You will then be directed to the purchase page. Each time you access the website after you have created a new account, you will again select the game you want to attend, enter the special offer code preds, and then enter your information in the area where it reads “Access the Offer.” You will not need to create a new account each time unless your information has changed.