Belmont University occupies a 75-acre campus in southeast Nashville at 16th Avenue South and Wedgewood Avenue. Virtually all traffic skirts the campus and thus allows a quiet, secluded environment. However, the campus is conveniently situated near churches of all faiths, hospitals, restaurants, shopping centers and other universities. Buses of the Metropolitan Transit Authority stop near the campus on their frequent trips to and from the downtown area. Most classes are located in buildings surrounding the campus' main quad with the library and other facilities lying in close proximity. Most buildings are recently constructed or renovated. Major structures include:
ACADEMIC/ADMINISTRATIVE/STUDENT LIFE
Barbara Massey Hall
Barbara Massey Hall, originally known as Founders Hall, provides office space for the Provost and the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business. In addition, numerous convocation sessions and special events are held in spacious rooms on the building's first floor: the Neely Dining Room and the Black and White Dining Room.Connected to the Curb Event Center and the Maddox Grand Atrium, the Beaman Student Life Center is the hub of campus activities. The BSLC includes a fitness center with strength training and cardiovascular equipment, an aerobics and dance area for a wide variety of classes, two racquetball courts, a recreational gym, a rock-climbing wall and student locker rooms. In addition to the recreational and wellness facilities, the center houses the administrative offices of Belmont's Dean of Students and the Office of Student Affairs. The facility also features numerous student services including a convenience store, offices and meeting rooms for student organizations, and ample gathering spaces and inviting seating areas for students to study and interact.
Belmont Heights Baptist Church
Belmont University owns the property and building where Belmont Heights Baptist Church meets, and in the past few years, part of that structure was converted into a performing arts theater, which can be seen in the next stop on the tour. At this point, the university uses the church space primarily for rehearsals for the larger ensembles of the School of Music as well as for occasional concerts and special lectures.
Belmont Mansion and Bell Tower
Listed on the national register of historic landmarks, the 155-year-old Belmont Mansion is the architectural centerpiece of the university's campus. The property, then called Belle Monte, was intended to be a summer home escape for Adelicia and Joseph Acklen, one of the wealthiest families in the South at that time. The Acklens built, furnished, and landscaped Belle Monte as one of the most elaborate antebellum homes in the South, and the estate contained an art gallery, conservatories, lavish gardens, aviary, lake and zoo. The Belmont Mansion now serves the university as a social center and is maintained as a historical museum.
Two hundred yards south of the Belmont Mansion stands the historic Bell Tower, which was used as a water tower on the Acklens' original estate and as a signal tower during the Civil War. The current Bell Tower includes a total of 42 bells weighing more than three tons and is one of only five carillons in the state of Tennessee. The Bell Tower is now captured in Belmont University's logo and is honored as the centerpiece of campus.
The Lila D. Bunch Library is located on the west side of Belmont Boulevard. It houses four floors of resources, seating for approximately 500 students, a circulation lobby, a reference/periodical wing, an information literacy classroom, an instructional technology laboratory, a multimedia presentation hall, an education services center, a music services center, a listening/viewing center, three special collection rooms, four group study rooms, two group listening/viewing rooms, an art gallery, two atriums and wireless Internet capabilities.
Center for Social Entrepreneurship and Service Learning
Belmont's new major in Social Entrepreneurship, the first of its kind in the country, centers on the emerging business field that tackles social problems and unmet community needs via entrepreneurial principles. Housed on the south side of campus, the Center for Social Entrepreneurship "seeks to empower and engage students, faculty, staff and community partners though various programming including training, service-learning, assessment and research activities to impact social change through innovative approaches and projects."
Belmont's Service Learning initiative is also housed in the Center on Compton Avenue. The university's vision statement puts service at the heart of a Belmont education and participating in the Nashville community is a vital element of that service. With Nashville being home to a diverse population that includes refugees, immigrants, disadvantaged families and schoolchildren, students' involvement with local service learning helps them better understand the needs challenges and opportunities of working in a variety of settings.
Home to the 2008 Town Hall Presidential Debate, Belmont University's Curb Event Center (CEC) is a 90,000-square-foot major sport and entertainment complex. The building offers state-of-the-art facilities for athletics, concerts, speakers, tradeshows, meetings, conferences, dinners, receptions and consumer shows. The Belmont Bruins NCAA Division 1 basketball and volleyball teams play in the Curb Event Center, which is maintained and operated by fully digital, computerized systems and represents state-of-the-art production capabilities. The CEC also features a seven-floor parking garage offering spaces for 800 vehicles.
Adjacent to the Curb Event Center is the elegant Maddox Grand Atrium, which is used for receptions, lectures, dinners and concerts. The expansive anteroom is finished with polished terrazzo flooring, rich cherry-stained wood and moldings, ceramic tiles and elegant art works.
Approximately 3,500 square feet of prime retail space has been set aside on the front section of the Curb Event Center for Belmont students to develop retail or service businesses. Bordering Belmont Boulevard, the three student-run businesses provide an opportunity to learn first-hand about entrepreneurship.
Fidelity Hall
Fidelity Hall, which was built in 1905, once served as a residence hall for the Ward Belmont School, a high school and junior college for young women. Alumna Sarah Cannon, who was perhaps best known as her alter ego Minnie Pearl, had a room on the hall's second floor. Fidelity now provides both administrative and academic space for the university. The Department of Philosophy and the School of Religion hold classes in Fidelity, and the building is also home to Belmont's University College Adult Degree Program as well as the Offices of Development, Alumni Relations, Finance and Operations and Human Resources.Freeman Hall
Built in the late 1800s, Freeman Hall reflects both the rich history and modern innovations for which Belmont University is known nationwide. In addition to serving as Belmont's "front door" and the gathering place for prospective students and parents, the building serves as home to the offices of Admissions, Student Financial Services, the President and several Vice Presidents and Senior Leaders.
Freeman also houses Belmont Central, a one-stop shop for almost anything students may need: forms, transcripts, answers to registration and financial aid questions, etc. Belmont Central plays a key role in Belmont's mission to put students' first by providing individual, unparalleled student service in one centralized location.
Gabhart Student Center
The Gabhart Student Center houses a number of departments that are central to the Student Life experience, including the campus Dining Hall, University Ministries, the Department of Media Studies, International Education, Campus Security headquarters, Career Services and Health Services. In addition, located on the lower level of Gabhart is the University Bookstore, where students can purchase textbooks (new and used), school supplies, Belmont logo clothing and gifts, greeting cards and other related campus items.
Gordon E. Inman, a successful Tennessee business leader, donated $10.5 million to the building that now bears his name on Belmont's campus, representing the largest single donor gift to the university to date. The building is home to Belmont's College of Health Sciences and Nursing, consisting of schools in Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Pharmacy and Social Work. The College serves as a national model for educating practitioners in health and social welfare fields. Through integrated, innovative practices, students learn to work across disciplines, becoming better prepared to serve needs both in their own communities and throughout a constantly changing world.
The Inman Center's state-of-the-art labs are equipped with human patient simulators, digitalized video, bedside computer charting, electronic supply scanning and static mannequins. The labs are designed to reproduce realistic practice settings, including the basic hospital unit, critical care, surgical/operating suite, pediatrics, neonatal nursery, maternity, home care, health assessment and diagnostic labs. All lab spaces are also outfitted with tables and chairs for reflective thinking exercises that allow the students time to review their decisions and actions with the instructor and their classmates.
Hitch Science Building
The Hitch Science Building houses offices, classrooms and labs for most of departments in the School of Sciences, including biology, chemistry, computer science, math and physics. The close proximity of class, lab and faculty work space allows students to experience first-hand the connectedness of all sciences.
The Honors Program at Belmont University was created to provide an enrichment opportunity for students who have potential for superior academic performance, and who seek added challenge and breadth in their studies. The program is designed to encourage a range and depth of learning in keeping with the faculty's expectations of excellence for honors students. In addition to creative curriculum and flexibility in the formation of their degree plans, Honors students also have access to the Honors House (a seminar and lounge facility) to allow time and space for smaller group discussions and tutoring. The Belmont Honors Program is a world of ideas, and our students keep reaching for new horizons. The program encourages students to explore the major of their dreams, even if they need to create it.
Jack C. Massey Business Center
Encompassing 115,000 square feet, the Jack C. Massey Business Center was completed in 1990, and houses the College of Business Administration and Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business Administration, class and studio space for the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, study lounges, seminar rooms, conference rooms, dining rooms and a convenience store. A state-of-the-art learning center, the building also includes three computer labs and a financial trading room. The Center is named for Nashville business legend Jack Massey, who became the first person in the history of the New York Stock Exchange to take three unrelated companies from private to public listings.
Ranked in the Top 100 on BusinessWeek's annual report of the Best Undergraduate Business Schools, Belmont offers the only private undergraduate business program in Tennessee accredited by AACSB International, the premier accrediting agency in that arena. The Massey Graduate School of Business has been named the best MBA program in the region. In addition to the top-notch faculty and innovative practices that make these programs so successful, business students can also enjoy access to the Career Development Center, the Center for Business Ethics and the Center for Entrepreneurship during their time in Massey.
Students in Belmont's Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business-hailed by both Rolling Stone and Time magazines as one of the best music business programs in the country-will spend time in both traditional business classrooms as well as state of the art studio spaces. In the basement of the Massey Business Center lies the Center for Music Business, a 9,000 square foot multi-studio complex comprising classroom teaching laboratories and the Robert E. Mulloy Student Studios. This facility includes a full range of state-of-the-art digital and analogue recording equipment along with an exceptional complement of signal processing equipment and microphones, including the personal microphone collection of legendary producer and former MCA and Capitol label head Jimmy Bowen.
Leu Center for the Visual Arts
The 40,000 square foot Leu Center for the Visual Arts houses studios for drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture and photography along with a graphics lab with 20 Apple/Mac workstations. A student gallery provides showcase space for a variety of projects, and a 118-seat audio/visual room plays host to numerous speakers each semester.
The Massey Performing Arts Center, known throughout campus as MPAC, provides an exceptional multi-purpose performance setting with the Massey Concert Hall, which seats approximately 1,000 people. The space is used frequently throughout the academic year for concerts, showcases and lectures as well as annual events like Scholarship Day and Opening Convocation. The building's lower levels feature Harton Recital Hall, practice rooms and studios.
State-of-the-art facilities are just one of the highlights of Belmont's graduate program in Physical Therapy. Currently housed in an 18,000 square foot space, the Physical Therapy program offers students the opportunity for hands-on learning through a Cardiopulmonary Lab, a Health and Wellness Clinic, Motion Analysis Lab, Orthopedic Lab and a Neurology Lab. In August 2010, the physical therapy program and its labs will move into a new 80,000 square foot health sciences building along with the pharmacy and psychology programs. The building is currently under construction and is located directly behind the Gordon E. Inman Center.
In addition to a top-notch educational space, nationally renowned faculty and varied clinical education sites contribute to making Belmont's Doctorate of Physical Therapy one of the premier programs in the country. The rigorous three-year curriculum provides the theoretical, clinical and scientific foundation necessary for success in today's dynamic health care environment. Through the School of Physical Therapy, Belmont students have access to approximately 400 clinical practice sites worldwide, and students are encouraged to participate in an annual medical mission trip to Guatemala.
The Sport Science department at Belmont offers a variety of programs and courses developed to strengthen students mentally, physically and spiritually. Sport Science majors can enter a broad range of fields upon graduation, including Occupational & Physical Therapy, Fitness, Coaching, Personal Training and Sport Administration.
Belmont's elegant theater complex opened in 2007 and includes a 350-seat proscenium theater named for former Belmont President Bill Troutt and his wife Carole. Trout Theater provides state-of-the-art lighting and sound, as well as a stage equipped with 35 fly lines with a full package of stage drapes and moveable lighting electrics. Directly behind the stage house lies the Bill and Sharon Sheriff Scene Shop, a production and teaching facility for all of the stage sets, stage properties and stage lighting for all Department of Theatre and Dance productions. Connected to the scene shop is the Black Box Theater, which is used for smaller, intimate productions involving flexible staging, unique audience seating and student-centered design opportunities. The entire facility also doubles as a classroom for acting, movement, diction and dance classes during the day.
Belmont collaborates with a number of local ensembles on productions throughout the year, including Actors Bridge, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Nashville Children's Theatre and the Nashville Ballet. In addition, the Theater Complex makes an impact beyond the university's borders by providing a venue for showcasing the work of local theaters and performance groups, summer high school student institutes and specialty workshops designed to assist teachers of theatre and dance.
Wheeler Humanities Building
The Wheeler Humanities Building provides offices and classrooms for the Schools of Education and Humanities as well as the departments of History, Political Science and Sociology. In addition, the building allows students to access more intensive help through the Writing Center and the Language Learning Center. The Writing Center exists to provide individual instruction, convocation sessions, outreaches to individual classes and instructional materials. Writing tutors are committed to helping writers as they compose in different genres, for diverse audiences and in all sorts of academic disciplines. Assistance is provided for writers at any part of the writing process-from generating ideas, to pre-writing, to polishing manuscripts. The Language Learning Center has 21 computers that are used for class instruction and for language learning conducted outside of class. Specific language programs and CD-Roms, videos and DVDs provide a visual and listening aid in order to engage the students in listening and speaking practice. Plus, two satellite dishes provide international television programming in Italian, French, Spanish and Russian. Most of the LLC Assistants are native speakers, available for conversation and to tutor students in German, Spanish, French, Italian and Russian.
Wilson Music Building
The Wilson Music Building offers classroom, rehearsal and office space to the School of Music and its diverse array of performing arts majors, including Church Music, Commercial Music, Music Education and Musical Theatre. The three-floor structure also houses practice rooms, a piano lab and two music technology labs.
RESIDENCE HALLS
Belmont Commons is at the south end of campus, provides 30 fully furnished, four-bedroom townhouses each accommodating four residents.Belmont Commons.
Bruin Hills has 88 two bedroom, one bathroom units. Both Bruin Hills and Hillside also include clubhouses for students to relax in larger group settings.
The smallest residence hall on campus, Hail houses approximately 77 freshmen men. Hail is known for its family-like atmosphere and its constantly occupied lobby. Other attractions to Hail residents on the first floor are a lobby with a television, where many residents find it enjoyable to spend time. Beside the lobby is a front desk operation, where opposite sex visitors check in and out, and residents can checkout games, vacuums, etc., or obtain assistance.
The rooms in Hail are set up for the occupancy of two residents. Each room is equipped with a sink, cable hook-up, a voicemail box for each resident and two internet hook-ups. The residents share a community bathroom, one for each floor. Laundry facilities are located on the first floor of Hail.
One of the oldest buildings on Belmont's campus, Heron Hall houses 117 female freshmen. It was named in honor of Susan Heron who, along with Ida Hood, established Belmont College. There are 56 rooms with double or triple occupancy.
The Hillside apartments offer 28 four-bedroom/two-bathroom units and 160 two person, two-bedroom/two-bathroom units. All apartments are fully furnished.
Kennedy Hall houses approximately 200 residents with males living on the first and second floor and females living on the third, fourth and fifth floor. Kennedy rooms, which are suite-style, are double occupancy measuring 16' x 16'. Rooms are furnished with 2 twin beds (height adjustable), 2 dressers, 2 wardrobes, 2 desks and 2 chairs.
Connected to Wright by a central lobby, is Maddox Hall, a suite style male residence hall. Each suite consists of two rooms connected by a full bath (bathtub/shower and toilet). Each room has its own sink with cabinets and drawers underneath, and each room is furnished with two twin beds (with under-bed sets of drawers), two desks and two desk chairs
Modeled after Kennedy and Thrailkill, Maple is Belmont's newest residence hall, opening to students for the first time in fall 2008. It accommodates 200 residents in suite-style living with males living on the first, second and third floors and females living on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors.
Pembroke Hall is a traditional style residence hall for 128 freshman men located on the North Lawn, near the academic center of campus and the Belmont Mansion. It is the fourth oldest building on campus, housing its first residents in 1913. Most rooms house two residents while a small number are reserved for single spaces or triple spaces.
Suite-style residence Thrailkill Hall opened its doors in 2006 and provides living space for 322 students as well as 400 parking spaces in the attached garage. The residence hall is named in honor of Belmont's past chairman Larry Thrailkill and his wife, Jan. Thrailkill served on the university's Board of Trustees since 1980 and led the board as chairman during a period of rapid growth for the university
Wright Hall is traditional residence hall for women with community-style bathroom facilities. Each room has its own sink with cabinets and drawers underneath, and rooms are furnished so that each resident will have one bed, one set of drawers, one desk, and one desk chair.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
New Residence Hall
In summer 2009, Belmont broke ground on a new 103,000 square foot residence hall that will serve more than 400 students when it opens in fall 2010. The new residence hall will be connected via an underground tunnel to Maple Hall, and will continue Belmont's initiatives toward environmental sustainability with water source heat pumps and air conditioning as well as green flooring and paint. The building will also sport a tower stair case near the center of the building, providing an architectural nod to Belmont's signature Bell Tower.
New Pharmacy and Health Sciences Building
Currently under construction, Belmont's new Health Sciences building will house the university's Schools of Pharmacy, Physical Therapy Psychology as well as include expansion space for the Schools of Nursing, Occupational Therapy and Social Work programs. Together with the Inman Center, this new structure will provide a consolidation of all the university's allied health science studies on the campus's northeast corner.
Scheduled to open in fall 2010, the 90,000-square-foot building will continue the innovation for which Belmont University has become known, containing top-notch laboratories for both student and faculty research. In addition, the facility will emphasize integrated, "hands on" experiential learning components through medical simulation spaces and a licensed, state-of-the-art pharmacy. The building will also include a four-level underground parking garage to provide additional spaces for Belmont's growing student body.
