Debate sparked in Belmont’s faculty senate Monday over two proposed course evaluation questions which would seek student perspectives on diverse communities and marginalized voices at the university. The two proposed prompts for response on the Likert scale are: — The instructor created an environment of belonging and inclusion in the classroom. —– The course addressed diverse perspectives that included marginalized voices. “This language was not chosen willy-nilly. There was

ILCs may soon be restructured to better suit the needs of Belmont students. “Clearly there needs to be changes. It’s a bottleneck for students trying to get through their gen-ed requirements because there’s not enough available ILCs and it gets postponed,” said music business professor Dr. Clyde Rolston, a senate representative from Curb College. Interdisciplinary Learning Communities link two classes which are taught concurrently and required for all Belmont University stude

Belmont’s faculty senate voted in an executive session to allow its president, Dr. Nathan Griffith, to withdraw the contentious proposed academic freedom statement Monday. Senators discussed the original intent of the statement after it received widespread uproar from faculty. An open letter by philosophy professor Dr. Ronnie Littlejohn criticized the document for potentially stripping faculty of academic freedoms. Dr. Mark Volker said debate stemmed from a misunderstanding o

Faculty at Belmont say they have been blindsided by a proposed academic freedom statement that uses religious language to potentially limit what can be taught in the classroom. “There is nothing in this document that states categorically that Belmont faculty have a right to academic freedom,” said Dr. Ronnie Littlejohn, director of Belmont’s Asian Studies program, about the statement, which was presented at a faculty senate meeting. “Academic freedom is the most fundamental f