Current crisis: Who is Belmont?
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ISSUE: 11/08/07 > Opinion > Current crisis: Who is Belmont?
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Staff writer Abby Hollingsworth is a junior English writing major. |
Is it possible for something not quite human to have an identity crisis? This is the question that has plagued my thoughts the past few weeks. I’m more than familiar with the crises people endure in searching for who they really are. I’ve walked with friends through identity crises of all shapes and sizes and fought my way through a few myself. What I’m experiencing for the first time, however, is the identity crisis of a much bigger entity – a university. Our university.
It makes sense that institutions like Belmont must undergo significant redefinitions to keep up with an ever-changing world. It took an identity crisis on the part of Ward-Belmont administration and students to set Belmont on course to where she is today. Every decision our administration makes has an impact on Belmont’s identity. I want to draw a distinction here between identity and image, the heart of the crisis. I’ve witnessed in others and sense in myself a growing uneasiness with the university’s emphasis on her image over her identity.
Who Belmont is has slowly become which of her graduates are making headlines, how many more students she’ll be able to house in the coming years and just how far she can spread herself across our corner of Nashville. The catch here is that all of these image boosters are positive things for a university. National media coverage of superstar alums, a growing student body of ever more qualified and capable freshmen and expansions of beautiful new buildings only add to the chops of a great school like Belmont. The question is whether the school’s identity, what drew us all here in the first place, is being lost in the shuffle.
Ask a senior what Belmont they came to and the answer will be far different from a freshmen response. Is Belmont a Baptist school, an open but Christian environment, or simply an institution with a foundation of faith? Is she a music school with a liberal arts base or has a slew of funding for other programs distracted her from her first love? Would such a distraction be a bad move or a necessary diffusion of all that attention? As other departments sprout wings and fly, are they redefining Belmont’s academic identity or being pushed under the rug even further? Will she be able to remain the small school her students signed up for, or will she just continue building dorms to house more students infinitely? These are the questions at the crux of the crisis. Belmont’s current and future identity depends on the answers.
The trick here is that there are no right or wrong answers to these questions. As a university, Belmont could choose any combination of the aforementioned attributes. She could become a faith-based school of 8,000 with a historically great music program but a growing majority of nursing students. She could gain prestige as a school that chooses to cap her population at 5,000 and become more and more selective in the students she admits. The point is not to predict the future of our school; the point is to discuss and decide what will define her in the coming years of imminent changes.
Who is Belmont? I can’t say that Belmont even knows. I think the only way for our university to truly get a pulse on who she has become and who she should be in the future is to have an open conversation. Students. Faculty. Administration. Who is Belmont to you? Has she changed her tune since you enrolled? Who do you want her to become? Personally, I think the best Belmont would be one that reflects her students well and challenges them to reflect well on the rest of the world. Please take a minute and let me know what you think. On the other side of any identity crisis is a truer self, and that is what I want for Belmont.
