EDITORIAL: BELL Core Approved, Access Denied
One of the most impactful decisions for Belmont – for every Belmont student, every Belmont parent and every Belmont professor – was made on Monday. And the Vision wasn’t given access to report on it.
The new BELL Core curriculum was approved by Faculty Senate, Belmont’s governing body, at its meeting on Monday.
The Vision asked to be there for the discussion and vote.
As student journalists, we aim to tell stories that impact the Belmont community. It is our duty to you – the students, faculty and staff.
We were denied access.
One of the reasons given was that Faculty Senate did not plan to actually vote until the Sept. 28 meeting.
Well, so much for that.
At the meeting, the Senate voted to “call the question” on the BELL Core curriculum – to vote immediately, rather than waiting for the next meeting like we thought they would. Turns out we can’t predict the future.
Dr. Andrew Miller, head of Faculty Senate and Belmont professor, emailed us on Tuesday with the news.
“The Faculty Senate voted to officially approve the new Belmont Foundations curriculum at yesterday's meeting. I was not expecting this! I regret that you were not there to report on the actual vote,” he wrote.
We regret it, too. And so should you.
We sent an email to Miller on Sept. 1 and asked to attend the Faculty Senate meeting on Sept. 14.
On Sept. 10, Miller said he would discuss the matter the next day with the executive committee.
The committee denied our request.
“For one reason,” said Miller in the email explaining the denial, “the votes we take on Monday are largely procedural—the actual approval vote in Senate for the new curriculum is planned to take place on Sept 28.”
Miller also defended this decision by saying, "We expect to go into closed session for part of the meeting on Monday, and at that time all guests would be asked to leave, so we didn’t want to invite you to the meeting only to ask you to leave when we got to business."
As journalists, we understand how meetings work. We've been to meetings before. But we need to be there when the discussions happen, when the votes are taken.
Because that's how we can tell the whole story.
“For a second reason,” Miller said in the Friday, Sept. 11 email. “We have experience that the presence of Vision reporters can unfortunately make some Senators uncomfortable engaging in frank and open debate.”
This was also the reason originally given to the Vision in October 2025 when Faculty Senate changed its bylaws to restrict public access to its meetings. Now, recording or photographing meetings is prohibited, and media must ask to attend. And senators can't be quoted by name.
To attach your name to your words brings inherent risk. But to be a member of a governing body and wish to remain anonymous, to remain closed, is even riskier – not just for you but for the entire community you govern.
And the very fact that Faculty Senate restricted its meetings, the fact senators don't want their names attached to their words, means they comprehend the consequences that words can have.
For good or for ill, every word that is spoken behind closed doors of a governing body's meeting affects those they govern.
After those reasons justifying keeping the Vision out of the Sept. 14 meeting, Miller invited us to the Sept. 28 meeting instead.
We still can’t record the meeting or quote anyone.
We will be at the meeting.
But we cannot tell you everything that happens.
We want to tell you.
But they don’t want you to know.
Written by Olivia Abernathy
Comments