News
The challenges of last week’s Winter Storm Uri placed a tremendous burden on our state, city and campus. Loss of power and water, property damages because of burst pipes, families bunkering down in warming shelters and interruptions to the food supply chain added to the collective traumas we continue to endure as a community in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This has certainly been a week like no other I can recall with record-setting cold and snow for the second time in a year – in Waco! Nearly half of homes in and around our city are without power, both from lines that have fallen and rolling outages to ensure the stability of the state’s power grid.
You have likely been following news about the historic winter storms that have impacted much of Texas and battered Waco. In fact, many of you also are experiencing the closures and outages caused by the continuing storms.
It is with great sadness that I share with you the news that one of our dedicated Aramark team members recently lost his life in a battle with COVID-19. We grieve with the family of Mr. Soto and with our Aramark family who so wonderfully add to the beauty of our campus and support our students, faculty and staff. Please join me in praying for the Soto family during this difficult time, and commit with me to do everything we can to protect one another against COVID-19. Our fight against this terrible virus is not yet over.
As we shared via Baylor Alert earlier today, due to winter weather conditions, we closed our Waco campus at 2 p.m. through all-day tomorrow. Classes for the rest of today and tomorrow will shift to remote instruction. Please take every precaution and be safe as you travel around campus and home today.
Baylor University places a strategic priority on enhancing equity across our campus and throughout our academic and operational divisions. In order to better share achievements and initiatives related to this effort, we have created this newsletter which will be distributed every other month as a source of information for you and the greater Baylor Family.
As we all continue navigating what remains a difficult and stressful time for our country and Baylor University — amid the uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing political and social justice tensions — I am reminded of the following passage in Hebrews: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together (even virtually, due to COVID-19), as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
It’s “birthday season” here on campus this week!
Thank you for your selfless service and many contributions to another successful start of a semester in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s so wonderful to see our students out and about – even in the rain early this week – as they make their way across our beautiful campus to their classes. Our spirit is renewed as we delight in the promise of a new semester and look forward with great hope in our new beginnings.
Thank you for a fantastic start to the Spring semester. We are grateful to everyone for completing their back-to-campus testing and for continuing to follow the safety measures that help us protect one another.
WACO, Texas (Jan. 17, 2020) - Baylor University is mourning the death of Alicia Martinez, a 2020 graduate of the Diana Garland School of Social Work and current social work graduate student who passed away today in Waco from complications from COVID-19.
I am looking forward to Tuesday and welcoming all of you back for the spring semester! First Gent Brad and I (and our dog BU!) have missed the energy and enthusiasm all of you bring to campus. Please know that we are praying for you as you make your way safely home to Baylor.
The start of the spring semester cannot come soon enough for your Baylor Family. We miss you!
Happy New Year! I trust that your holidays were relaxing and restful as we celebrated the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Romans 15:13 -
I don’t want the Christmas season to pass without pausing a moment to thank you for your commitment to our students, to each other and to the mission of Baylor University.
It’s hard to believe that the fall semester has come to a close, which means this will be my last Presidential Perspective until the New Year! I want to express my deepest appreciation to all of you for your hard work and commitment to following our COVID-19 protocols and preventive health measures during the fall.
We are so blessed at Baylor to join together in celebration of Christmas and this season of Advent as we look toward the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and the promise of Christ’s glorious return. This Advent season has even deeper meaning as I prepare my heart each day by reading and praying over the daily devotionals created by our wonderful faculty, staff, alumni and students.
As the fall semester comes to a close, I want to thank you for your commitment to keeping one another and our community safe and congratulate you for persevering in your academic pursuits.
With Thanksgiving only a week away – and the end of the semester just beyond it – I want to offer my deepest gratitude for the strength of spirit and compassion you have shown to others throughout this fall.
President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D., hosted a panel discussion – “Fall in Review, Anticipating 2021” – on Wednesday, November 18. Joining the President on the panel was Provost Nancy Brickhouse, Ph.D., and Chief Business Officer Brett Dalton, with Cheryl Gochis, Vice President of Human Resources and Chief Human Resources Officer, who served as the host.
President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D., will host a panel discussion – “Fall in Review, Anticipating 2021” – this Wednesday from 11 a.m. until noon via Zoom Webinar.
As we look toward Thanksgiving, positive cases and hospitalizations related to COVID-19 continue to increase dramatically across the country and Texas and within Waco-McLennan County. This is the feared “second spike” that so many medical experts predicted at the onset of the pandemic as the weather turns cooler and people spend more time indoors.
Today I am pleased to announce that this diversity education — developed exclusively by the University in accordance with our Christian mission and reflecting the Baylor experience — is now available to be completed via video accessible through this email.
Election Day has come and gone, but extended vote counting and the expected delay in results have captured the attention of the nation. As elections are decided, we begin to look to the future and how our country can come together amidst today’s polarized political climate. How can we model post-election civil discourse that bridges political, ideological and theological divides?
I am praying for our nation and all of you as Election Day nears, and we make critical decisions for our country and our communities.
Everyone continues to do an incredible job complying with Baylor’s COVID-19 prevention and mitigation initiatives. Just like you, I am weary of all the testing, mask wearing and social distancing, but we must continue to press on for the health not just of ourselves, but of our neighbors and community.
It’s that time of year when many of you feel the weight of the semester, which certainly has been exacerbated by the ongoing effects of COVID-19. Stress and anxiety are felt by all people at varying levels of severity, and each of us reacts differently. Baylor has many resources available to you, and we all should employ helpful ways to manage our health and well-being, such as:
As we celebrated a “different” Homecoming last week, I reflected on what an unusual year this has been for each member of the Baylor Family – especially all of you. The COVID-19 pandemic has touched all of us in some way, requiring tremendous flexibility and resilience not only in the workplace, but also in our personal lives.
Earlier this week we announced to students that Baylor would be partnering with the City of Waco and McLennan County for COVID-19 surge testing over the next two weeks. This announcement has generated many questions from students and parents alike, so I reached out to two Baylor faculty experts who serve on the University’s COVID-19 Health Management Team to explain the importance of this surge testing effort:
At the recommendation of the University, the Baylor Board of Regents today approved the purchase of three downtown properties that will help Baylor advance our Illuminate strategic plan, pursue our goal to reach Tier 1/Research 1 status and bolster our relationship with our hometown of Waco.
The Department of Education has recently notified the University that it has completed its review of Baylor’s Clery program, which aims to provide transparency around campus crime policy and statistics.
Like so many other things this fall, COVID-19 has brought many changes to Baylor Homecoming – the oldest collegiate homecoming in the nation – which we will celebrate next week, Oct. 15-17.
This month Baylor joins 179 of our fellow members of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities in the celebration of Christian Higher Education Month, which was established by the U.S. Congress in 2003.
Our Illuminate vision – for Baylor to be recognized as a Tier 1/Research 1 university while holding firm to our Christian mission and Baptist heritage –requires a team effort to achieve. Tomorrow is National Research Administrator Day, a day set aside to celebrate the dedicated individuals who advance research in universities across the country.
As Baylor’s Virtual Family Weekend approaches in just a few days, I write with gratitude for your partnership and support. Although the COVID-19 pandemic requires that we present this year’s events quite differently than we have in the past, our goal is the same as it has been since the first Family Weekend in 1960: to help families of Baylor students become better acquainted with the University and its beloved traditions.
As we finish up our fourth week of the fall semester, I’d like to thank you all – students, faculty and staff – for your diligence and perseverance as we launched into a time of many unknowns. Because of your hard work, I am excited to share three noteworthy updates.
Please be assured that Baylor stands strong in support of our country, the American flag and in remembering the lives lost through such an impactful display.
Baylor is currently experiencing a decrease in the number of active COVID-19 cases.
Let me extend my sincerest appreciation for all of your efforts to date in the prevention and mitigation of COVID-19 on our campus.
As we reach the end of the second week of the fall semester, I want to commend all of you for your continued wearing of facemasks, practicing social distancing and following University guidelines and policies during this unique time of COVID-19.
As I wrap up the week here in my office in Pat Neff Hall – while watching back-packed students walk across our beautiful campus – several of you have reached out and asked: "How did the first week of the fall semester go?"
On behalf of the Baylor Family, I thank you for the innumerable ways your congregation nurtures and challenges students during this formative season in their lives.
I truly appreciate your efforts as we have all come together as the Baylor Family in the prevention and mitigation of COVID-19 at the start of the semester. I am pleased to see so many facemasks – some are quite creative and fashionable – as well as your efforts to practice social distancing across the campus.
The first day of our fall semester has finally arrived! We are excited to begin what is going to be a truly remarkable year.
From my early career as an assistant professor at Baylor to now as the University’s President, the start of a new semester always brings much joy and excitement as I reflect on our students and the promise of the future. Of course, this fall semester brings added significance as Monday culminates hours upon hours of planning and preparation by our administration, faculty and staff to welcome students back to campus in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Baylor University has extensively planned and
prepared for the arrival of your students this fall with the goal of providing a safe and healthy on-campus educational experience in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In only a few days, we will have the great joy of welcoming back to our campus the thousands of men and women who call Baylor University home as students. This Monday, the first official day of class for the fall semester, is a day for which all of us have been yearning and diligently preparing for months.
While many of the fall preparations I have discussed over the past few weeks may seem mostly technical or operational in nature, I want to take a moment to call our collective attention to a core tenet of the mission of Baylor University, especially in the midst of a pandemic -- creating a caring Christian community.
Welcome home! As you move into residence halls and off-campus housing this week in preparation for classes to begin in 7 short days, know that your faculty and staff couldn’t be more excited to have you home.
Today I want to focus on the importance of creating a plan for yourself – including changes to your daily routine, creating an action plan in the event of suspected exposure or a positive test result and precautions we can all take to mitigate risks to ourselves and others around us.
With yesterday’s announcement of decisions related to the upcoming football season – including a revised schedule and McLane Stadium at 25% capacity for the season – we have begun to update Baylor’s plans for other beloved campus traditions this fall. New dates have been set for Family Weekend (Sept. 25-26) and Homecoming (Oct. 16-17).
Today, I’d like to detail several components of our health services strategy, with information on daily health checks, identifying symptoms of COVID-19, what to do if a student feels sick this fall and changes in our typical health-related operations.
Today, I’d like to discuss our Family First campaign to help mitigate the risk of COVID-19 to our campus and the Waco community. With some 18,000 members of the Baylor Family arriving in Waco over the next two weeks, this campaign will help ground our choices in a commitment to putting others before ourselves and keeping Family First.
Today, I’d like to offer some details of what on-campus living will be like for our students residing in any of the University’s numerous housing options.
I am continually inspired by the creativity, resourcefulness and innovation of Baylor’s dedicated faculty. While these qualities are always evident in our faculty teaching and scholarship, I’ve seen them emerge in fresh and exciting ways as Baylor faculty have worked over the summer to enhance our ability to teach online with excellence in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Each day through next week, I am crafting an email that spotlights a major area of our University-wide planning efforts in response to COVID-19 as we look toward the start of the fall semester on Aug. 24.
Today, I’d like to offer you a glimpse of what you can expect when you enter any of our numerous dining establishments – an essential aspect of the traditional, on-campus Baylor experience that students will encounter this fall.
Today, I’d like to share an extraordinary addition to our campus-wide effort to maintain social distancing while creating safe opportunities for our students to have a Baylor-quality educational experience this fall.
Today, I’d like to share with you more details of the extensive planning and precautionary measures – particularly relating to cleaning and sanitization – we are implementing across our campus to both prepare for your arrival and provide the best opportunity to keep all of our Baylor Family healthy and well once we are all back together.
Thank you for your attention to last Thursday’s announcement and this week’s follow-up instructions regarding Baylor’s mandatory COVID-19 testing program in preparation for the fall semester.
Ensuring every student confirms a negative test before returning to our campus is a key strategy in allowing a successful in-person start and completion of our fall semester.
Be sure to check your mailboxes as we get closer to the fall semester. In the weeks ahead, we will start mailing mandatory COVID-19 test kits to all students, faculty and staff.
WACO, Texas (July 17, 2020) – The Baylor University Board of Regents gathered virtually Thursday and Friday for its quarterly regular meeting to discuss and receive updates on numerous items, including the University’s plans for the fall semester in light of COVID-19 and the launch of the Commission on Historic Campus Representations.
For the next two days, Baylor’s Board of Regents will host its quarterly meeting via Zoom. Since mid-March, the Board has been conducting periodic meetings virtually due to COVID-19, and through this technology, we’ve been able to participate in rich, productive conversations regarding Baylor’s mitigation efforts related to the virus, as well as our plans for the fall semester.
Baylor University today announced the cancellation of in-person graduation ceremonies honoring August 2020 graduates Aug. 14-15 due to a surge in cases and hospitalizations related to COVID-19 across Texas and the nation. In its place, the University will host a virtual ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 15, to honor its May and August graduates.
Starting off with some good news this week: You may recall that in December, one of our beloved black bears, Lady, underwent a first-of-its-kind treatment, called Tomotherapy, for a thymoma in her chest. Last month, Lady underwent a check-up from her veterinary team who came to visit her in Waco. The team took images of Lady’s chest and have reported that the Tomotherapy treatment is successfully managing the size of the mass – it has not grown.
What will Baylor University’s fall semester look like?
Many years ago, Baylor University made a strong commitment to reflect the racial diversity of God’s creation among our students, faculty and staff. Through various task forces, the President's Diversity Council and other initiatives, significant progress has been made in several areas, including admissions, faculty hiring and our campus climate, to name a few. Yet we recognize we must do more as Baylor strives to be a caring Christian community for all of our students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends.
We continue to closely monitor the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases in the Greater Waco area. In conversations with our local public health and government officials, there is a strong collective commitment to taking appropriate mitigating measures and keeping our community safe during this pandemic.
Thank you for your resilience and support during the past few months as Baylor University joined higher education institutions and communities around the world in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the spring semester behind us and our online Summer of Discovery academic sessions in full swing, we now turn our eyes to the fall.
Thank you for your resilience and support during the past few months as Baylor University joined higher education institutions and communities around the world in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the spring semester behind us and our online Summer of Discovery academic sessions in full swing, we now turn our eyes to the fall.
I want to open this week’s email by recognizing and celebrating our faculty. As I’ve mentioned previously, our faculty stepped up significantly in the spring as we quickly switched to online course delivery due to COVID-19.
Please join Baylor University President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D.
for a webinar-style Baylor Conversation Series event - "Our Responsibility as Christians to Elevate Conversations on Race, Peacemaking and Conciliation."
Now is not the time for us to become complacent regarding COVID-19. We are starting to see an uptick in the number of positive cases in the Greater Waco area coupled with a growing percentage of positive tests, in addition to increasing hospitalizations related to COVID-19 across the state.
I can certainly sense the enthusiasm and anticipation for the beginning of the fall semester on our campus Aug. 24. At the same time, I also understand the frustration and angst many of you have experienced regarding fall schedules.
I am so excited to welcome you back to campus this fall as we return to on-campus educational instruction. I have missed our students so much.
As we all know, COVID-19 has caused many disruptions to our normal lives. In fact, I’ve said on many occasions that we are planning for a “new normal” as we look ahead toward the fall semester. Today I am excited to announce that we plan to hold our August commencement ceremonies in-person at McLane Stadium.
The events of the past few weeks have filled me with great sorrow over the senseless and inexcusable killing of George Floyd and in remembrance of the terrible deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and too many other black men, women and children. We have once again seen our country’s deep divide over race, justice and inequality come to light.
My heart is broken as I join with our Baylor students, faculty, staff and alumni in deep grief and prayer over the pain, fear, anger and injustice caused by disturbing events of racism and violence in our nation.
Baylor’s new Summer of Discovery is in full swing, as we’ve completed the May minimester and the Summer I session begins on Tuesday, June 2, through July 7. All told, we are expecting Baylor’s largest summer enrollment in at least 20 years as we continue course instruction via online delivery due to COVID-19.
As the state of Texas continues to re-open more and more businesses and other community services each week, we are receiving an increasing number of questions as to how these decisions affect the University.
I hope you have enjoyed Senior Week! We have loved focusing on you this week, and we are not finished yet.
In these days leading up to Baylor University’s graduation weekend, you and your master’s and doctoral candidate colleagues have been especially on my mind and my heart.
At the conclusion of the Baylor Board of Regents regular spring meeting today, we will release full details of the 2020-2021 budgetary actions encompassing cost avoidances, cost reductions and one-time funding reallocations in response to COVID-19.
As we look to the fall semester and a resumption of our on-campus educational environment, our Project 8.24 team is working through many planning scenarios related to class sizes, methods of course delivery, instructional hours, residential life, dining, and on-campus events and experiences.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott asked me to forward this special message for all of you.
As we conclude the spring semester at Baylor – amid some of the most challenging and heartbreaking circumstances we have experienced as an institution and a country – I want to express my profound appreciation for your many demonstrations of compassion and resilience, as well as for your uplifting expressions of support for the University during the past few months.
As we conclude the spring semester, I want to provide an update on the campus-wide efforts that have been underway regarding Baylor University’s financial outlook in response to COVID-19.
From day one, the Class of 2020 was destined to be history-makers. This distinctive group of students will graduate in the year of the University’s 175th anniversary, joining the long legacy of the Baylor Line that has carried our Christian mission and values into every corner of business, government and education as well as throughout the world.
Our President’s Council – in close consultation with our COVID-19 Task Force, the deans and academic leadership, and local government and public health officials – has been working through various scenarios to revive the Baylor campus and resume normal operations.
As the Texas economy begins to open back up, many of our faculty and staff have inquired about returning to work on campus. Our COVID-19 Task Force has been working on a five-phase strategic reopening of campus that would begin with those involved with infrastructure and research support, for example, and ultimately conclude with students near the start of the fall semester.
It seems as if good news has been hard to come by for the past month or so, but I have some great news for our undergraduate students with tomorrow’s launch of Baylor’s new Summer of Discovery program.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to touch every aspect of our daily lives, from our families, churches and schools to healthcare, government and the economy. COVID-19’s impact on higher education and at Baylor University is apparent, as we have transitioned the spring and summer semesters online, moved faculty and staff to telework status and canceled events campus-wide.
As we approach Easter during this unprecedented time in our country and our world, I have found myself thinking about the apostles in those first hours following the crucifixion of Jesus.
As we continue our journey with Jesus to the cross, let us remember that it is He who brings us the hope of something new and beautiful to emerge even in the midst of our hardest days, doubts and suffering. We can be confident in our faith that Jesus will be with us, day after day, to the end of the age.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have heard of people hijacking the Wikipedia pages of several prominent universities, indicating they were a “private online university based in …”. I am happy to report that no one has commandeered our Wikipedia page so far. Baylor continues to be “a private Baptist Christian university in Waco, Texas.”
President Livingstone joined Matt Mosely, ESPN1660, on Friday to discuss the University's response to the coronavirus.
I am glad to be writing again to you on a Thursday afternoon for our weekly Presidential Perspective. Like me, I hope you see this as a sign of a return to normalcy, although it is indeed a new normal for Baylor.