Presidential Perspective - February 29, 2024

Baylor Students, Faculty, Staff and Parents:

In addition to being a leap year, today is a special day as Baylor will host the 2024 Collegiate Day of Prayer live from Waco Hall. Although the event is “sold out” with nearly every seat occupied by a Baylor student, you will be able to join viewers worldwide for the global broadcast of the worship and prayer service at 7:00 p.m. CT on our Collegiate Day of Prayer webpage, Baylor's YouTube channel, Baylor’s official Facebook page and via other broadcast partners. I want to extend a special thanks to the many Waco-area churches who have bound together in love, prayer and financial support to make this historic event possible, and I hope you will join me in prayer for our Baylor students and for this generation of college students.

Some updates for this week:

• SETTING THE STANDARD: Although many of you will be away from campus next week, I encourage you to take the spirit of Baylor’s caring community with you by looking out for your friends and peers. Typically, after Spring Break through the end of the semester, colleges and universities across the country experience an increase in Title IX reporting. With that in mind, please know that there are many resources on campus should you need help, such as Baylor’s Title IX Office, the Baylor Counseling Center and the University Chaplain. Let us continue to “set the standard” at Baylor.
• SPRING BREAK MISSIONS: More than 70 students and faculty and staff leaders will serve on six Baylor mission trips in five countries over Spring Break to support the ongoing efforts of our global partners. These trips allow students to integrate their academic disciplines and skills with service to show Christ’s love, including working on an integrated approach to fighting human trafficking in Europe, researching food insecurity in Japan, teaching English, assisting local ministries and providing health education in Costa Rica, leading a pilot accounting project with a global missions organization in Amsterdam and serving women and children in healthcare settings in the Dominican Republic. May the Lord bless and keep you as you faithfully serve others.
• NEW COMPUTER ENGINEERING DEGREE: Beginning this fall, Baylor’s rapidly expanding School of Engineering and Computer Science will offer the University’s first new undergraduate degree since 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering (B.S.C.E.). As you might imagine, computer engineering is a high-demand profession in Texas and around the United States, as it fills the critical space between electrical engineering and computer science by focusing on the design of digital hardware and the necessary software to run it. With more companies moving to Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth, Baylor – as an R1 institution – is in the center, placing our graduates in a uniquely advantageous market. We are excited for ECS to offer this new degree.
• ANSWERING THE CALL: Last week, we honored the recipients of the 2024 Baylor Alumni Awards, including Baylor basketball legend and 2024 Founders Medal recipient Tommy Bowman, B.B.A. ’71. Tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the Mayborn Museum, you can hear from Tommy himself as he sits down with sports journalist and author Chad Conine for a conversation about the Baylor University Press book, “Tommy Bowman: Answering the Call.” Tommy was Baylor’s first Black scholarship student-athlete, and the book shares the story of his impact not only on Baylor basketball but on the University as a whole. The Baylor Libraries Author Series event is free and open to the public, but if you can’t be there in person, it will livestreamed via Zoom webinar.
• NEW VICE PRESIDENTS: Please join me in welcoming two new vice presidents to our leadership team who will officially join the Baylor Family tomorrow. Vice President of Advancement Jason Diffenderfer comes to Baylor from the University at Buffalo, while Curtis Reynolds, our new Vice President of Business and Finance and Chief Financial Officer, previously served in a similar capacity at the University of Florida. Both bring extensive experience to Baylor after serving at R1 universities that were also members of the prestigious Association of American Universities.

Presidential Perspective will also be on Spring Break next week! Please be safe, have fun and we’ll see everyone back on campus beginning Monday, March 11.

Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D.
President

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Our top-ranked Baylor Acrobatics & Tumbling team downed No. 2 Oregon 183.335 to 175.835 at the Ferrell Center as the Bears continue their quest for yet another national championship.