Lipscomb’s neighbor school Belmont University announced in early February its acquisition of the O’More College of Design, currently located in Franklin, Tennessee. The expansion will commence in fall 2018 and will add three new design majors to Belmont’s undergraduate program.
The competition between Lipscomb and Belmont is deeply rooted, and this acquisition has the potential to spark major changes on Lipscomb’s campus.
The almost-50-years-old O’More College will be shutting the doors to its Franklin school, and students will have the choice to commute to Belmont’s campus. Belmont’s Editorial and News Content Director April Hefner gave an official statement regarding the transition.
“Belmont is proud to welcome new programs in interior design, fashion design and fashion merchandising when O’More joins our campus this fall,” Hefner said. “Our design communications major will also see an expansion with the influx of O’More graphic design students.”
O’More was founded with interior design roots and has a fully accredited interior design program while Lipscomb has a minor interior design program that is not popular among students. However, the other design majors Belmont is collecting have yet to be accredited, leaving Lipscomb and its fully-accredited fashion program a major step ahead.
Kathy Bates, the chair of the fashion and design department at Lipscomb, taught a few adjunct classes at the O’More College of Fashion and Design several years ago and shared how she thinks Lipscomb will stand next to Belmont’s addition.
“We have been the only one in Nashville that’s a fully accredited university that has a fully accredited fashion program,” Bates said. “I feel like we have pretty good ground to stand on.”
Despite Bates assurance of Lipscomb’s position, the program at Belmont has the potential to become a bigger competitor, and Lipscomb’s Department of Fashion and Design is undergoing an internal review to help the program thrive.
“I think the fact that we have the attention and interest of the administration is good, and good timing because of Belmont’s merger,” Bates said. “We are in the process of forming an advisory board; we have been working on that all year. We are evaluating what we are doing, how we are doing it and what changes might need to be made.”
Junior fashion merchandising major Abby King agrees that the Belmont expansion happened at an opportune time for Lipscomb’s program.
“I think that Belmont buying O’More couldn’t come at a better time,” King said. “I just want the department to be acknowledged. It would be really nice to get some credit where credit is due because it’s a good program.”
King hopes this competitive move will help spark growth in the department and gain campus attention to the rapidly-growing program.
“We’ve got some phenomenal students, who are doing a lot of work that is beyond what you would expect for college students,” King said.
Among the internal changes, the department is also undergoing location changes as the Physician Assistant Program moves to Hughes. The transition started over spring break, despite the fact the timeline and location for the fashion program’s move is not yet set.
“There’s been a lot of talk about what’s going to happen to the Fashion program, where we are going to move, because it’s such a small program, we have like one classroom,” King said. “We are pushing really hard to not be overlooked and forgotten.”
The fashion and design department is rumored to be moving into the new George Shinn Event Center, opening in the fall, as part of the College of Entertainment and the Arts.
“We are in the process of doing a growth plan and an evaluation of our program, with us being under the umbrella of Entertainment of the Arts,” Bates said. “We have been evaluating how we can do even better at collaborating.”
According to a recent Nashville Lifestyles article, Nashville has the third largest fashion market in the U.S., behind New York and Los Angeles.