Belmont University

Belmont University is a private Christian university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Descended from Belmont Women's College, founded in 1890 by schoolteachers Ida Hood and Susan Heron, the institution was incorporated in 1951 as Belmont College.<ref name="ReferenceA">Template:Cite web</ref> It became Belmont University in 1991. As of 2025, Belmont reports its enrollment as "nearly 9,000 students from every state and more than 30 countries." The university cut official ties with the Tennessee Baptist Convention in 2007, but still calls itself a "Christ-centered, student-focused community".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

The Belmont Tower and Carillon

The university originated with the founding of the Belmont Women's College in 1890 by Susan Ledley Heron and Ida Emily Hood,<ref>George Thomas Kurian, World Encyclopedia of Cities, ABC-CLIO, 1994, p. 625</ref> on the site of the Belmont Mansion, built by Joseph Acklen and Adelicia (Hayes) Acklen.

Upon the retirement of Heron and Hood, Belmont Women's College merged with Ward Seminary in 1913 and was known as Ward—Belmont College, which included both a junior college and college-prep (or high) school for women.<ref>Ward-Belmont Alumnae Gather for Reunion. forum.belmont.edu</ref><ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The Belmont Mansion is owned by Belmont University but maintained by the Belmont Mansion Association, a non-profit group. The mansion is open for tours. It features Victorian art and furnishings. The water tower, gardens, with surviving gazebos and outdoor statuary from the Acklen era, are part of the college campus.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1991, the school became Belmont University.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The university was awarded the Japanese Foreign Minister's Commendation for their contributions to the promotion of mutual understanding between Japan and the US on December 1, 2020.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Nashville's first radio station

Nashville's first radio station

The first radio station in Nashville went on air in May 1922 when John "Jack" DeWitt Jr., a high school student, installed a transmitter at Belmont. The station, WDAA, was born when Dr. C. E. Crosland, Associate President, realized the potential advertising value to the college of a radio station. The WDAA program on April 18, 1922, marked the first time a music program was broadcast in Nashville. The broadcast could be heard 150 to Template:Convert from the school.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Ties to the Tennessee Baptist Convention

In 1951, the Tennessee Baptist Convention bought Ward–Belmont College, the finishing school operated in Nashville by Ward–Belmont, Inc., which was facing severe financial difficulties.Template:Citation needed The convention established the co-educational Belmont College in March 1951, selecting R. Kelly White as president.Template:Citation needed In 1959, Herbert Gabhart succeeded White and Belmont was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.Template:Citation needed Enrollment rose from 365 students to 2,000, and the college launched a music business program.Template:Citation needed He was succeeded by Bill Troutt in 1982, who, at 32, was the youngest college president in the nation.Template:Citation needed In 1991, it changed its name to Belmont University.Template:Citation needed

In 2005 Belmont's board of trustees sought to remove Belmont University from the control of the Tennessee Baptist Convention while remaining in a "fraternal relationship" with it.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Advocates of this plan presented a blueprint for change in which all board members would be Christians, but only 60 percent would be Baptists to affirm a Christian affinity while acknowledging the diversity of both the faculty and the student body.Template:Citation needed The head of the TBC would continue to be an ex officio board member.Template:Citation needed The TBC rejected this plan. In November 2005, TBC said it wanted to shift its financial support to two other institutions, Union University and Carson-Newman College. Belmont would replace the three percent of its budget that was funded by the TBC.Template:Citation needed However, on April 7, 2006, TBC sought to oust the existing board and replace it with one consisting entirely of Southern Baptists and amenable to ongoing TBC control.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After settlement talks failed, the Tennessee Baptist Convention Executive Board filed a lawsuit on September 29, 2006, against Belmont seeking the return of approximately $58 million.<ref>Jane R. Porter, Tennessee Baptist Group Sues Belmont U. for Return of Contributions, chronicle.com, USA, October 4, 2006</ref>

Belmont severed its ties with the Tennessee Baptist Convention in 2007, with the announcement that it would be a Christian university without any denominational affiliations. Under its terms, the TBC and Belmont would disaffiliate amicably, with Belmont agreeing to pay $1 million to the convention immediately and $250,000 annually for the next forty years, for a total cost of $11 million.<ref>Tom Bartlett, Belmont U. Agrees to Pay $11-Million to Tennessee Baptist Convention, Settling Lawsuit and Severing Ties, chronicle.com, USA, November 14, 2007</ref> The university has stated its intent to maintain a Christian identity but no longer a specifically Baptist one.<ref>Belmont, Tennessee Baptists, Settle Lawsuit, End Relationship. Ethicsdaily.com. Retrieved on May 9, 2012.</ref>

21st century

Belmont University became a catalyst for anti-discrimination protests in December 2010, when women's soccer coach Lisa Howe allegedly lost her job at the university on December 2 after announcing that she was having three children with her same-sex partner.<ref name="LexisNexis Academic1">Template:Cite news</ref> Howe's dismissal sparked protests from students and local and national gay-rights advocates. These events led to a citywide anti-discrimination ordinance being passed by the Nashville City Council in January 2011.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On January 26, 2011, President Bob Fisher announced that Belmont has added sexual orientation to the university's non-discrimination policies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Belmont is a Christian university that was widely regarded for its progressive ideals until the controversy broke out over Howe's departure.<ref name="LexisNexis Academic2">Template:Cite news</ref> The college was criticized for not allowing a group with a mission to support gay students and explore the intersection of Christianity and homosexuality called Bridge Builders to officially form as a student group. At a news conference, Fisher stated that they had resubmitted the application.<ref name="LexisNexis Academic2"/> On February 27, 2011, Belmont University officially recognized the gay student organization for the first time. Belmont Provost Thomas Burns and Bridge Builders President Robbie Maris announced the decision to recognize the student group in a joint statement.<ref name="LexisNexis Academic3">Template:Cite news</ref>

In February 2018, Belmont University took ownership of the O'More College of Design.<ref name= "insidehigheredbelmontacquires">Template:Cite news</ref> On March 6, 2019, Belmont University announced that its current College of Visual and Performing Arts will be separated into two distinct colleges with defined areas of focus: the College of Music and Performing Arts will include all music, theatre and dance programs while the O'More College of Architecture, Art and Design will house architecture, art, fashion, interior design and design communications.<ref name= "belmontformstwocolleges">Template:Cite news</ref>

Two years later, Belmont University announced that they would merge with Watkins College of Art, Design & Film, located in Nashville.<ref name= "ArtNet">Template:Cite web</ref> Belmont and Watkins planned to evaluate employment needs based on the number of students transferring, existing capacities, and related considerations. As a long-standing Christian institution, Belmont's policy intention was to hire faculty and staff who support the Christian institution's mission, vision, and values; however, due to the nature of merging institutions, the university announced special consideration will be given to current Watkins employees regardless of their position of faith.<ref name="ArtNet" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In May 2021, Belmont sold the former Watkins College campus for $22.5 million, funds which the university states will underwrite scholarships for students of the visual arts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In July 2020, a group of Belmont University students and alumni began to draw attention to the university's longstanding relationship with CoreCivic (formerly the Corrections Corporation of America), asking the school to divest from any financial ties to CoreCivic and for-profit prisons.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The relationship between CoreCivic and the university extends to the early 1980s. In 1983, notable Tennessee businessman Jack C. Massey, provided a portion of the initial funding to begin Corrections Corporation of America, along with Thomas Beasley.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Discussed as early as 1966, Belmont's Massey Graduate School of Business was founded shortly after in 1986.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Beasley has also funded major programs at the school, including a free enterprise institute at the Massey Business School.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2018, Damon Hininger, CEO of CoreCivic, joined the Belmont University Board of Trustees.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Shortly after students and alumni began a petition asking for his removal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Hininger is not the first board member with ties to CoreCivic. The current board includes Andrea Overby (donor to CoreCivic PAC in 2018 and wife of Charles Overby, former CCA board member)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as John Ferguson (former CCA president).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As of April 2021, Damon Hininger was no longer a member of the board, having completed his allowed number of terms.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Presidents

• L. Gregory Jones (2021–present)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Robert Fisher (2000–2021)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Bill Troutt (1982–2000)<ref name= "ReferenceA"/>
• Herbert Gabhart (1959–1982)<ref name= "ReferenceA"/>
• R. Kelly White (1951–1959)

Academics

Belmont University offers bachelor's degrees in over 130 academic majors in twelve colleges with 29 master's and eight doctoral programs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Belmont and HCA created a health sciences consortium with local universities to alleviate the shortage of nurses and health care professionals in the local community,<ref>Blake Farmer Belmont nurses will get HCA training. Nashville City Paper, June 12, 2006</ref> and provides students with shared office space and mentoring from faculty, local entrepreneurs, and attorneys.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Journalism students have gained work experience at The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Daily Show, CBS Evening News, and the British Broadcasting Corp.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rankings

In the 2025 U.S. News & World Report college rankings, Belmont was tied for 220 out of 394 in the category of National Universities.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Music and music business programs

Belmont's Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business (CEMB) consists of current/former authors, performers, expert witnesses (for industry lawsuits), artist managers, lawyers, record label executives, songwriters, and others. Mike Curb is the CEO of Curb Records. He was a producer, songwriter, and company executive and one of the most successful record men of the sixties and seventies. He is the department's namesake. The former dean of the CEMB, Jim Van Hook, is a legendary Nashville label head, especially as part of the Christian music industry. One of the hallmarks of the program is its internship program, which sends hundreds of students annually out into the Nashville, New York, and Los Angeles music industries to intern for record labels, management companies, publishing companies, booking agencies, publicists, recording studios, law firms, and other businesses.

Besides having three professional-quality recording studios on campus, Belmont owns the Belmont Studios (including Ocean Way Nashville), part of which is operated for-profit (used by such artists as Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow, and Bob Seger), and part of which is used by students. Ocean Way Nashville, purchased by Belmont in 2001, has recorded thousands of tracks including the score for The Last of Us, a top-selling game that won Best Audio in the global GANG (Game Audio Network Guild) Awards.<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref>

Schools and colleges

• College of Education
• College of Law
• College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
• College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences
• College of Sciences & Mathematics
• College of Music & Performing Arts
• Gordon E. Inman College of Nursing
• Interdisciplinary Studies & Global Education
• Jack C. Massey College of Business
• Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business (CEMB)
• O'More College of Architecture & Design
• Thomas F. Frist Jr., College of Medicine
• Watkins College of Art

Campuses

Main campus (Nashville)

The Belmont Mansion

Belmont is located in an urban setting near Nashville's Midtown district, with the campus sandwiched by the Hillsboro-West End, Music Row, Edgehill, and Belmont-Hillsboro neighborhoods. Within a reasonable walk of the university are commercial areas 12South and Hillsboro Village.

In June 2006, Belmont opened the $18 million Gordon E. Inman Center that houses the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences and Nursing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The building has three stories of classroom space that contain learning labs equipped with Sim Man mannequins that respond to the actions of the nursing students. There are classrooms for adult and pediatric occupational therapy, maternity and neonatal care complete with Sim Man babies and a birthing Sim Woman, an orthopedics lab, and many classrooms of various sizes.

Belmont houses the Curb Event Center, a 5000-seat multi-purpose arena, which is used for basketball games, concerts, and other events like the 2006, 2007<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and 2008 CMT Awards,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the 2008 Presidential Debate.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The facility is connected to the Beaman Student Life Center and Maddox Grand Atrium—collectively, a $52 million development.

In 2015, the university opened its R. Milton and Denice Johnson Center, home to Belmont's Curb College, Department of Media Studies, Motion Pictures and Harrington Place Dining.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Regional campus

"Williamson Center" in suburban Franklin, Tennessee, opened in January 2015. This center for professional education and corporate meetings includes classrooms for Belmont's adult degree, professional, and continuing education programs. It also provides space for area businesses to lease for events and meetings. This facility replaced the university's first center in Cool Springs, which had opened in 2002 on Seaboard Lane.

National campuses

• Los Angeles (Belmont West)
• New York City (Belmont East)

Student life

Belmont has over 190 student organizations. These include the Student Government Association (SGA), The Student Activities Programming Board (SAPB), Greek organizations, as well as other special interest organizations.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The largest student organization on campus is Service Corps, which focuses on volunteer work inside the music industry and is open only to students enrolled in the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Belmont's Greek community consists of five sororities and four fraternities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the spring of 2025, approximately 13% of full-time undergraduate students at Belmont were members of fraternities and sororities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Belmont has a large music program, and a variety of musical ensembles exist on the campus. There are currently 15 vocal ensembles and 23 instrumental ensembles.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In addition, there are three student-run a cappella groups: The Beltones (mixed ensemble), Prismatics (mixed), and Pitchmen (TTBB). All three a cappella groups compete in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) regularly. The Beltones have advanced to ICCA finals three times and placed 4th at the event in 2014. The Pitchmen qualified for ICCA finals in 2020 but the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2023, The Pitchmen won 1st place at the ICCA Finals, taking home their first championship. In 2020, The A Cappella Archive ranked The Beltones at #8 amongst all ICCA-competing groups since 1996.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Belmont operates one student newspaper called The Belmont Vision.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Points of interest

Main campus attractions

• Belmont Mansion
• The Bell Tower – The first carillon in Tennessee and among the first 25 installed in North America.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Curb Event Center

Off-campus facilities

• E.S. Rose Park – Metro Nashville Parks owned property in partnership with Belmont University – hosts NCAA Div.I baseball, soccer, softball, and track.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Athletics

Belmont is a member of the NCAA Division I and is a member of the Missouri Valley Conference in all of Belmont's sports except men's soccer, which its previous conference, the Ohio Valley, does not sponsor. On September 28, 2021, Belmont announced that it would become a member of the Missouri Valley Conference, beginning in the Fall of 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Until July 1, 2012, Belmont had been a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference, a non-football conference.<ref>Bruins' new conference Template:Webarchive. Belmontvision.com (May 13, 2011). Retrieved on 2012-05-09.</ref> The men's soccer team was most recently an independent before joining the Horizon League effective with the 2014 season.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

In the mid-1990s, Belmont changed its nickname to the "Bruins", replacing the earlier mascot of Rebels due to its association with the Confederacy. Bruin is Middle English forbear from the Dutch fable "History of Reynard the Fox", translated by William Caxton.

In 2011 Belmont student-athletes won the Atlantic Sun Conference Academic Trophy for the eighth time in ten years with 76.32 percent of the student-athletes achieving at least a 3.0 grade-point average.<ref>Bruins Win Trophy Template:Webarchive. Atlanticsun.org. Retrieved on May 9, 2012.</ref>

In 2012 Belmont student-athletes won the Ohio Valley Conference Institutional Academic Achievement Award for the first time after joining the conference the previous year.<ref>Belmont University Claims OVC Academic Award Template:Webarchive. belmontbruins.com. Retrieved on July 26, 2013.</ref>

In 2015, Belmont received the OVC's Institutional Academic Achievement Award, presented each year to the member institution with the greatest percentage of its eligible student-athletes that earn a 3.25 GPA or higher. This award marked the 4th straight year for Belmont, who joined the OVC only 4 years prior.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Presidential debates

One of the on-campus advertisements for the Presidential Debate at Belmont

On November 19, 2007, The Commission on Presidential Debates chose Belmont University from sixteen finalists to host one of three Presidential election debates on October 7, 2008.<ref>Belmont University Prepares for Presidential Debate Template:Webarchive. Newschannel5.com. Retrieved on May 9, 2012.</ref> In 2019, the Commission on Presidential Debates selected Belmont to host the final presidential debate<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in the 2020 election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Notable faculty

• Alberto Gonzales, former United States Attorney General, is the Doyle Rogers Distinguished Chair of Law.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Mark Volman, a founding member of the Turtles, is an associate professor of entertainment industry studies.
• Alan Shacklock, music producer, is a professor of audio engineering technology.

External links

• Template:Official website
• Belmont University Athletics website