After a Backlash, Nashville’s Belmont University Says It Will Let Non-Christian Art Professors Teach After All

Last week, students and alumni
of Watkins College of Art in Nashville, Tennessee were sent into a
furor after learning that their school would merge
with Belmont University, an ecumenical Christian institution in
the same city. Among other concerns, the Watkins community voiced
questions about the future job status of non-Christian staff
members. In a townhall meeting, Belmont’s provost initially
stressed that teachers
“who are not Christian will not be eligible to work at
Belmont.”

Now, after facing a wave of
outrage from students, alumni, staff, and observers, Belmont has
seemingly changed course. The university has announced plans to
grant “special consideration” to non-Christians from Watkins’s
staff.

“Because we recognize current
Watkins employees could not control nor anticipate merging with a
faith-based institution, it has been determined that special
consideration will be given to current Watkins employees regardless
of their position of faith,” the school said in a statement sent to
Watkins faculty and staff on Saturday. “This exception to Belmont’s
hiring policy is only being made due to the nature of merging
institutions and out of Belmont’s commitment to care for the
Watkins community.”

The statement explained that
Watkins faculty and staff will be prioritized in filling “new
positions of need” at Belmont, which acquired the art school to
expand its course offerings. Nevertheless, many who have been vocally opposed to the merger
remain unconvinced. 

“Belmont’s communications team
is doing damage control,” says Quinn Dukes, a Watkins alum who
authored an open
letter to Watkins
leadership raising concerns over the move. (As of now, the petition
has over 3,600 signatories.) “[The] announcement from Belmont noted
that Watkins faculty would be given ‘special consideration’ but
this does not guarantee employment and really only equals a firm
‘maybe.’”

Dukes also expresses skepticism
over the phrase “new
positions of need” in Belmont’s statement. She notes that, at this
point, “no faculty member has been given any inclination that their
position would still exist.”
Dukes and other critics of the merger are still waiting for answers
on this point, as well as several other questions raised by the
open letter.  

Given the lack of transparency
in the process, the sense of suspicion is understandable. A
representative for Belmont tells Artnet News that the “exception to
[the university’s] hiring policy… was one of many details still
being discussed and considered in the days following the merger
announcement. It was communicated to Watkins faculty and staff as
soon as it had been confirmed.” 

That message came three days
after the Wednesday, January 29 townhall meeting with
Watkins students in which Belmont’s provost, Thomas Burns, declared
firmly, “We do not hire people who are not Christian.”

In its communication with Artnet
News, Belmont said that the question of whether teachers who aren’t
hired by the university will be offered severance is still being
evaluated. The university noted that the process “will likely take
several months.”  

Once a small Baptist school,
Belmont now identifies as a Christian institution with no
denominational focus. It counts over 8,400 people and 800 faculty
members across its four campuses, and is known for its College of
Visual and Performing Arts, which enrolls over 30 percent of
students. 

The school’s history with
faculty members who do not conform to conservative Christian
values, including the forced resignation
of a lesbian soccer coach in 2010 after she announced that she was
having a child with her partner, has left many fearing the sense of
inclusivity cultivated by Watkins’s own student body might be
jeopardized. Watkins boasts a large LGBTQ
population. 

Belmont, for its part, says that
it is currently inviting Watkins students to information sessions
where they can voice their concerns, and promises that “Belmont’s
identity and culture can be properly shared with them.”

A university representative
added that the school remained optimistic about the merger’s
possibilities, despite the uproar: “Belmont University seeks to be
a welcoming and inclusive community for all students. We believe
this time together will reveal more similarities than differences,
and confirm that both institutions only want a positive outcome for
students.”

Watkins is much smaller than
Belmont, with just 14 full-time faculty members and an
undergraduate student body of roughly 180. The ardent response to
the merger, however, suggests that what the alumni pool lacks in
size, it makes up for in school pride. 

“When I launched the petition, I
couldn’t imagine the intense, emotional response from so many,”
says Dukes. “The growing support of the petition proves that
Watkins College of Art is an integral part of Nashville’s culture,
that its identity and history as an institution has significant
value to people all over the country.” 

Representative from Watkins College of Art did not respond to
Artnet News’s request for comment.

The post After a Backlash, Nashville’s Belmont University
Says It Will Let Non-Christian Art Professors Teach After All
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