Chaos At Nashville Arts School Among Students & Faculty Over Merger W Christian Inst; LGBTQ Views

'A Nashville Art School Will Purge All Non-Christian Faculty Now That It Has Been Taken Over by a Religious University,' "That’s just part of who we are,” says Belmont University's provost of the firings at the Watkins College of Art. Zachary Small, January 31, 2020.

~ "LGBTQ students like Campbell, who identifies as bisexual and trans, are also worried about how welcoming a campus like Belmont will be for students like them, although the university does have a club for queer students. “The problem with the merger is that we have two different cultures,” a faculty member told Artnet News on the condition of anonymity, for fear of retaliation. “The reality is that there will be restrictions. Our students are taught to be uninhibited and explore subjects and issues that may clash against Belmont’s Christian culture.” ~
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Earlier this week, students, and faculty at the Watkins College of Art in Nashville, Tennessee, were shocked to learn that their school would be absorbed by Belmont University, a local Christian institution that has made national headlines over the last decade for allegedly retaliating against faculty who went against its strict code of faith. “There is rage and there is fear,” Quinn Dukes, an alumna of Watkins College who organized an online petition against the merger, tells Artnet News. “Students and faculty are losing both a history and a school.”

The open letter, which currently has more than 1,600 signatures, calls for academic and financial transparency from university leadership, as well as assurances that students will not experience censorship. Additionally, critics of the merger want to ensure that Watkins staff are provided severance if they are prevented from joining Belmont University, which requires that its faculty adhere to Christianity and does not hire teachers outside the religion.

“We do not hire people who are not Christian,” Thomas Burns, Belmont’s provost, clarified in a response to questions at a town hall on Wednesday. “So the ones who are not Christian will not be eligible to work at Belmont. That’s just part of who we are.”...
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/chaos-unfolds-as-students-and-faculty-at-nashville-arts-school-learn-of-merger-with-christian-university-1767246



- Main entrance of Watkins College of Art and Design. *Watkins is the fourth Tennessee art school to close in the last three years. Others include the Memphis College of Art and the Art Institute of Tennessee, Nashville.