Provost David Gregory spoke on the recent lawsuit against Belmont University at the last faculty senate meeting of the year.
Belmont student Jillian Ludwig was shot in the Edgehill community Memorial Gardens Park last November and died.
Recently, her family filed suit against Metro Nashville, Belmont University, and other defendants for $50 million.
“Both the president and myself and others had been communicating with the family,” said Gregory. “We have not been served, as of noon, with the case. We’ve read it in the media, just like you have. We can’t communicate with the family any longer and we don’t know anything more than that.”
The lawsuit stated that Belmont had a duty to ensure Ludwig’s safety and failed this.
“I know we responded in the right way,” said Gregory. “There is nothing going on from our end.”
Additionally, Gregory discussed altering financial aid packages to make Belmont more appealing to incoming students.
According to Gregory, the combined average tuition discount rate at Belmont is 38%.
“If you look at the colleges around this area, some of their discounts were up to 62%,” said Gregory. “What can we do differently to discount our own tuition and still allow moderate growth?”
Gregory met with the deans of each college last week to discuss the idea of creating dean-specific scholarships.
Each dean would be given a specific sum of money to give to a promising student to entice them to enroll.
“That is being enacted within a week,” said Gregory. “It really will give the colleges some more options to help land students again.”
The faculty senate will resume in the spring semester.
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This article was written by Anna Blubaugh
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