This campus is a growing one with an addiction to change. With rapid development comes a lot of perspectives. Each fall, the new students of the incoming class get acquainted with a school they know to be Belmont, but a graduate of 2005 would not recognize his own college campus today. A freshman this fall only sees the greatness Belmont has to offer today. He thinks Papa John’s Pizza for lunch sounds divine, while a senior craving greasy, fried WOW Chicken Tenders will roll

Belmont’s first ever roundabout was opened for use April 1 as a replacement for the four-way stop at the intersection of 15th and Acklen Avenues. While it may be a new idea for Belmont students, the roundabout has actually been in talks since early 2010, said Dr. Jason Rogers, vice president for administration. “We had a problem with people not always stopping at the four-way stop,” Rogers said. “The roundabout is going to be a lot safer.” The recommendation for the replaceme

Belmont is one of the fastest growing universities in the nation as recognized by The Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac, but the rising enrollment means Belmont’s campus is straining to accommodate growing class sizes. From 2001 to 2011, Belmont’s student population increased 104 percent. And this fall, the university reached 6,915 students with 1,409 graduate students and 5,506 undergraduates. But what many people may not realize is that the line trajectory of student po

Students were welcomed back to orange construction signs and covered walkways with Belmont’s continued construction. Over the summer, several projects were started including a connector road in the Hillside complex and Phase III of the upperclassmen hybrid-suite style buildings. Construction continued on the Wedgewood Acdemic Building, which is slated to be open next fall. In what used to be the tennis courts is currently a pit that will be a new academic and dining facility.

Starting Friday, construction crews will begin destroying the campus’ tennis courts in preparation for the new cafeteria and academic building that will go in its place. An unsigned, campuswide email sent Thursday afternoon detailed the impending changes because of the two major construction projects announced last week by President Bob Fisher. Once construction starts in late March or early April, pedestrians will also not be allowed to walk near 15th and Caldwell avenues, a

The block of 15th Avenue South closest to Wedgewood Avenue will be closed Friday and Saturday as part of construction of the Wedgewood Academic Building. Parts of the road will close Friday morning and reopen the following Sunday so the final parts of a tower crane can be loaded onto the construction site and assembled afterwards. Drivers have been encouraged by the university to use 12th and 14th avenues as detours, and all parking garages will still be accessible, said Jaso

Construction near the Bruin Hills apartments won’t be stopping anytime soon, even after the completion of Dickens Hall this fall. The new Bruin Hills residence hall, phase II of the Bruin Hills construction project, is now slated to open in January 2013, said director of residence life Anthony Donovan. The building will open only months after the recently announced sophomores-only Dickens Hall, its adjacent building, will open for students. Opening the residence hall in the s

For the second time in two months, Belmont president Bob Fisher stood in a construction zone in front of dozens of Belmont officials and students to celebrate the topping out of a building. This time, however, he had more to announce than just the progress of the new residence hall near Bruin Hills. At the Monday morning ceremony, Fisher announced the four- and five- bedroom apartment complex will be called Dickens Hall, named after Chairman of the Board of Trustees Marty Dic

For Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher, topping out the Randall and Sadie Baskin Law Center on Tuesday morning was like a point on Lewis and Clark’s voyage to the Pacific. “We’re on the Yellowstone River,” Fisher said. “We’re still going west and we’re still going upstream.” At this point in the journey, however, Fisher wanted to celebrate the work done on the law building so far, as dozens of administrators, law students, faculty and others toured parts of the law school const

Belmont will pursue the “chance of a lifetime” through the construction of a major academic building on the corner of 15th and Wedgewood avenues by 2014. The planned building is expected to have around 160,000 square feet of space and to cost more than $40 million, President Dr. Bob Fisher said at the State of the University address Wednesday. Construction will probably begin in May 2012, and the goal is for the building to be ready for use by fall 2014. Many other many detai

For the first time in three years, Belmont officials have no new buildings to open at the beginning of the school year. But there’s not even a temporary lull in the sounds of blasting and construction. Building continues on the Randall and Sadie Baskin Center, which will house the College of Law, and an as yet unnamed residence hall, both with underground parking garages and both scheduled to open this time next year. These major projects affect traffic on 15th Avenue, and th

The final stages of construction and the March opening of Rose Park and Sports Complex in the Edgehill community have not stemmed the controversy surrounding the project since its beginning more than five years ago. Feelings are mixed about the renovations of the Rose Park sports facilities in the community a few blocks north of campus. Some in Edegehill opposed the plan, and it moved through legal channels until an appellate court ruled in Belmont’s favor last summer. Joyce

“Boom, boom, boom, boom, I want a double boom,” Belmont students will live with the construction equivalent of the 1990s dance hit by the Vengaboys for a few months. Blasting starts next Monday for the new Randall and Sadie Baskin Center at the corner of Acklen and 15th Avenue. Blasting will occur four times a day Monday, Wednesday and Friday and three times a day on Tuesday and Thursday, according to an e-mail sent to students. For a brief period before and during each blast

The College of Law will be the newest academic addition to Belmont, bringing another professional degree to the university’s growing list of programs. The next step toward the law school came with a groundbreaking ceremony at the site – the corner of 15th and Acklen avenues – and the announcement that it will be called the Randall and Sadie Baskin Center. “This is the single largest commitment that I have ever made in my life,” said Randall Baskin, Brentwood-based founder of