Senior leadership decided this summer to convert the Hitch and Massey Performing Arts Center parking lot on 17th Avenue into a visitors-only lot this summer–thus closing its 43 spots to the students and faculty the lot once served. And many of them are not happy about it. “It’s a slap in the face to staff in particular,” said art professor Jim Meaders. Meaders teaches in the Leu Center for Visual Arts, one of the buildings affected by this decision; the others include the MPA

UPDATED AT 8 p.m.: Hours after announcing the construction a new cafeteria and new residence hall, Belmont president Bob Fisher said blasting for both buildings should begin as soon as possible. “We feel we have to begin immediately to get it done by the fall [2015],” Fisher said in a conversation with the Vision Thursday afternoon. Much like the Wedgewood Academic Center, most of the development of the building by 15th and Caldwell avenues will happen after the university an

UPDATE: Campus Security received updated parking decals Wednesday. They will distribute the new throughout the next week on campus. Residents in Pembroke, Patton, Heron and Hail halls who have registered for decals can pick them up at Patton Hall on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Residents in Wright/Maddox and Potter halls can pick up their passes at the same time in the Wright/Maddox lobby, and students who live at Kennedy, Hillside, Bruin Hills, Dickens and Belmont Commons

While the Belmont community may have different opinions on anything from faith, politics or music, there is one thing that unites most students, faculty and staff: They are indignant about the lack of campus parking. Drive into any parking area at Belmont at certain times, and you are in for a nightmare. If you get back to campus too late at night, your car joins a line of others as drivers roam the parking lot hoping miraculously for an open spot that others have missed. If

Dr. Bob Fisher’s opened the second “Ask Dr. Fisher” convo of the semester by noting what he saw as a small crowd at the Curb Café Wednesday. “We’ve got a small audience, which means either everybody’s perfectly happy or they’ve given up,” he said. He then addressed the crowd with an overview of what he knew would be major points of discussion: construction and parking. He noted the law school is on schedule to open in fall 2012, as is the new residence hall near Bruin Hills.

In a recent study by the CEOs for Cities, Nashville was named the worst city in the United States for commute time because of suburban sprawl, the expansion of cities and their suburbs to lower-density outskirts. The average Nashville driver spends 164 hours in traffic every year because of commuting. Of those, 120 are due to sprawl. Large commute times can cause businesses to be less efficient with workers arriving late and stressed, and they can also affect students and sch