CONTENTS Brian Wilson: Recovery After 2010 Flood
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www.belmontvision.com The student newspaper of Belmont University Vol. 60, No. 9 April 28, 2011 Erin Carson: In parting, a final request .......6 ‘Where We’ve Been’ at the Leu ................12 CONTENTS Brian Wilson: Recovery after 2010 flood .....6 Sean Giddings rekindles passion ..............12 125 law students in Class of 2014 ............2 Moovers & Shakers ...................................7 Beat’n’track: Jordan Hull .........................13 Economy affects applications, job outlook ...2 New SGA leaders share plans ....................7 Like a little? Like a lot? ...........................14 Charter law class eager, optimistic .............3 Food trucks .............................................8 Rain at Rites ..........................................14 New police precinct near BU .....................3 Cheryl LuQuire releases EP ......................10 Softball inaugurates Rose Park field .........15 Get your veggies—in the Beaman ...............3 New music website: StereoGarden ...........10 Pierce Greenberg: To be a fan again .........15 President Fisher talks about issues .............4 Fake Dates: Tayst ...................................11 Nate Woods eyes the majors ....................16 Towering Tradition makes changes .............5 ‘The Happy Prince’ in Troutt May 3 ..........11 Alexander becomes Stetson head coach ....16 Page 2 The Belmont Vision, April 28, 2011 125 law students in Class of 2014 By Brian Wilson Managing Editor parking garage. Opening is projected for fall 2012. were rumors of Lipscomb’s potential interest in opening a Randall Baskin, the founder and former owner of Conti- law school before Belmont’s announcement. When Dr. Bob Fisher introduced Belmont’s plan to open nental Life Insurance Co., and his wife gave $7 million Belmont’s market study also included figures showing a law school in October 2009, many details were still up in toward the building’s construction costs. where new Tennessee lawyers are coming from. In 2008, the air, including its location and leadership. “Sadie and I take great joy in supporting those efforts,” more than half of the people who took the bar exam in Now, a year and a half after Fisher announced the city’s he said at the groundbreaking in October. “We believe this Tennessee came from out of state, the study showed. Kinsler first new law school in more than a century, final prepa- law school can provide many dedicated students a chance to said he believes Belmont’s law school will change those rations are under way for the Belmont College of Law’s not only build better lives for themselves, but to also impact numbers. inaugural class to arrive in fall 2011. their community for years to come.” “There will come a point in 30 years where there will be The application window is open until July. The law The Baskins’ generosity is a significant gift, but the more Belmont lawyers in the Nashville area than any other school has received 125 commitments from around 400 expected cost of the building will be close to $30 million. A school because we’ll be putting in more than anybody else,” applicants, said College of Law Dean Jeff Kinsler. Faculty fundraising committee is in place; Belmont will use reserve he said. “We will become Middle Tennessee’s law school.” for the first two years of the three-year program is in place. money or loans to cover any remaining costs, Rogers said. The school will also encourage its students to work in “From everything that I’ve heard, the admissions process The university is also confident the law school will be rural communities as opposed to urban or suburban areas. has exceeded expectations, both in the level of interest and financially self-sustainable in three years, Rogers said. “We’re really trying,” Kinsler said. “Even at the open the academic quality of applicants,” said Dr. Jason Rogers, In addition to self-sustainability, the College of Law house we had, I was telling students that if you’re from vice president of administration and university counsel. also has to try to find its niche in Nashville, a market that Cookeville or Columbia or Clarksville, don’t think you have For 2011-12, classes will initially be held at Belmont’s includes the Vanderbilt School of Law, consistently ranked to go to Nashville.” former physical therapy building at 15th and Delmar while in the Top 20 nationally, and the Nashville School of Law, To accomplish these goals with the national recognition construction continues on the Randall and Sadie Baskin established 100 years ago to provide law school classes at Belmont desires, the school will attempt to gain accredita- Center, which will house the law school, its library and a night for students unable to attend daytime classes. tion by the American Bar Association (ABA) This accredi- Kinsley said Belmont wants to have the tation allows Belmont law graduates to sit for a bar exam strength of both of the city’s current law in any state. Belmont will be eligible to apply for the first, schools, while also offering concentrations in provisional level of ABA accreditation in fall 2012. the law of Nashville-specific areas like enter- “To get that first level of ABA approval, you have to be tainment, music business and health care. in substantial compliance with their rules,” Kinsler said. “There’s a big gap in the market here; “Their rules are pretty detailed, more so than you would see there’s no question,” he said. “We think we can with a college accreditor. do a little bit of what both do well. ... We’re “They’ll sit in classes, they’ll talk to everybody, they’ll going to try to combine the thinking like a meet with students, they’ll meet with faculty, they’ll look lawyer with acting like a lawyer, and that’s not at exams and syllabi, they’ll look at admission files. The only in the skills that a lawyer needs but the provost at Elon [Kinsler’s former school] said it was like no professionalism that lawyers need.” other accreditation process he had seen.” According to a recent market study At this point, Kinsler is optimistic about the law school’s Belmont conducted, Nashville and the state of accreditation chances. When two longtime ABA accredita- Tennessee are prime for a new law school and tion officials evaluated the school for Tennessee approval, more lawyers. Kinsler said they had no negative comments. “It was probably right for a long period of “Not one. That was the first time I’d ever seen that,” he time,” Kinsley said about establishing a law said. school at Belmont. “It was probably overright The law school will try to honor Belmont’s Christian by the time we got to it.” roots while trying to stay away from mixing faith, law and Kinsler said he also believed if Belmont politics. Photo by autuMn allison did not open a law school, another Nashville “Belmont made it clear they did not want that kind of Until its permanent, $30-million home opens in 2012, Belmont’s new school likely would have announced a law message,” Kinsler said. “They didn’t want religion to turn College of Law will offer classes in the former physical therapy building. school. Both Kinsler and Rogers said there into politics.” Economy affects applications, job outlook By Brian Wilson Managing Editor In fact, Vanderbilt’s law school had the they advertise. employment numbers for its annual, closely- After one of the worst recessions in largest number of applicants in its history— For years, law schools have provided watched rankings for “best law schools.” American history, new law school gradu- 4,885—for the class of 2013 that entered a employment data that was optimistic and The American Bar Association and the ates are entering a legal landscape quite year ago. Only 195, our about 3.9 percent of perhaps even inaccurate. Under the current National Association of Legal Professionals, different from the one they started in three applicants, were admitted. guidelines, schools can claim their students the organizations primarily responsible for years earlier. Despite the recent employment slow- are “employed after graduation” if they reporting these numbers, are working on a Law firms have eliminated about down, Belmont College of Law Dean Jeff have any job—lawyer, paralegal, —after reformed and more accurate system. 15,000 jobs since 2008, and the American Kinsler said he, too, is confident that law they walk across the stage with diploma Having more accurate figures would Bar Association has recently addressed schools will be able to move forward and in hand. At this point, schools are also not definitely be an improvement over the status concerns that law schools have often used jobs will on the horizon for new graduates. required to report these numbers, leaving quo, Kinsler said. inflated figures to report graduates’ rate of Belmont’s fact- “The NALP data was not worth the employment. law school gathering paper it was written on,” he said. “They Both are likely contributing to the 11.5 will have a Kinsler said there is always groups to asked vague questions (about employment),” percent drop in law school applications for capacity of going to be a demand for scramble for he said. entry in fall 2011, according to the Law about 350 likely less The data, Kinsler said, has never School Admission Council. students. educated professionals, even accurate been completely accurate for projections, The recession, after years of what some Vanderbilt data. considering students make decisions about considered the strongest market for lawyers keeps its though there are rough patches While entering law school by using information in recent memory, drastically hurt the hiring law school in the economy. “Colleges and many from years earlier. power of the legal industry, said Elizabeth student schools Using those numbers to project future Workman, assistant dean at Vanderbilt population at universities have survived much release employment is unrealistic, Kinsler said.