Baylor Line Interview with President Lilley

The Baylor Line interviewed President Lilley about the status of Baylor 2012 and other matters. The very interesting article may be found here: Baylor Line interviews President Lilley

Impressive International Business Ethics Studies

Dr. Joseph McKinney, The Ben H. Williams Professor of International Economics, has studied international business for decades. He has recently studied business ethics in the Ukraine as well as the settlement of disputes between the United States and the European Union countries. An interesting article on Baylor's website about Professor McKinney and these studies will be found here: Business Ethics Article

New Baylor School of Education Publication

The Baylor Impact is a new quarterly publication from the Baylor School of Education. A link to the publication will be found in the right column under "Publications," or here: BAYLOR IMPACT

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Immortal Ten Book Available

A reader provided information about a book published on the subject of the Immortal Ten. We have added it as our book of the week, and it also can be found here: From Baylor Press
From Amazon: The Immortal Ten: The Definitive Account of the 1927 Tragedy and Its Legacy at Baylor University

Dr. Eugene Baker, Baylor historian from 1981 to 1995 gave this endorsement for the book: "Todd Copeland has told the story of Baylor's Immortal Ten with a dignity of remembrance justly deserved by the young men who lost their lives. He has made each of the passengers of that ill-fated bus become personal acquaintances to the reader instead of distant shades of memory. The Baylor spirit that is personified in the story of the Immortal Ten has been indelibly enriched by Copeland's masterful treatment of the subject."

Baylor Announces Gift For Brooks Village Chapel

Selected highlights from the News Release:

Baylor University has announced a gift from William and Mary Jo Robbins of Houston, Texas, to construct The Robbins Chapel in Brooks Village. Mr. and Mrs. Robbins are longtime supporters of Baylor. The new Chapel will provide students a place for everyday prayer, meditation and worship.

"Mary Jo and I are happy to make this contribution," Robbins said. "We believe building a place for private prayer and small group worship at the heart of a living-learning community is a meaningful way to encourage faithfulness to Christ in the daily life of students, and is integral to the Baylor 2012 vision."

The Robbins Chapel supports the second imperative of Baylor 2012: to create a truly residential campus, and the sixth imperative: to guide all Baylor students through academic and student life programming to understand life as a stewardship and work as a vocation. FULL NEWS RELEASE HERE

WILLIAM and MARY JO ROBBINS

Student Satisfaction Survey Results

The following is taken from Inside Baylor, President Lilley's weekly online newsletter of December 8, 2006. It includes the following:

"Baylor students are significantly more satisfied with almost every "aspect of their undergraduate experience than students at other private institutions. In fact, Baylor students' scores were significantly higher on approximately 90% of the items as well as 10 of the 12 SSI scales! Baylor students, for example, have much higher levels of satisfaction with such areas as:

* Interaction with faculty, the quality of instruction they receive and the emphasis the campus places on academic excellence.

* The overall quality of campus life, a sense of belonging, high degrees of personal support and concern for them as individuals.

* Academic enrichment and other support services, such as academic advising, that focus on their learning and success.

* The quality of service they receive in various campus offices and the way they are treated by staff and faculty.

* The overall value of their undergraduate experience; that is, Baylor students believe that the tuition they pay is truly a worthwhile investment.

"In addition to the preceding, Baylor students, when compared to students at other private institutions, indicated that their undergraduate experience met their expectations, their overall satisfaction was much higher and, if they had it to do over again, they would definitely enroll at Baylor.

"These results suggest two important aspects about Baylor students. First, they have high expectations about the quality of their academic and social experiences. Secondly, the institution is not only successful in meeting, but also in exceeding, their expectations. That means all of you, and I am grateful."

The entire article is in the newsletter (scroll down for this article): STUDENT SURVEY

Spotlight on Faculty Series

We will begin highlighting some of the excellent faculty members at Baylor in the near future. To begin, we will ask a question to see if any of the readers of this blog know the answer. David Solomon is the W.P. and H.B. White Director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. The question: Who is the person that Professor Solomon has said is the most important Christian educator of the last decade?

Please send your answer to: goodnewsbaylor@gmail.com

Baylor Excels in Community Service: Steppin' Out!

At the recent Steppin' Out biannual day of service over three thousand students, representing more than 80 student organizations, participated in service to the community of Waco. Read about it on Baylor's website: BAYLOR SERVICE

According to this report, "The mission of Steppin' Out is to enhance student involvement in community service with the hopes of attaining community awareness, interaction and collaboration between Baylor and the Waco community."

Another reason to be proud of our Baylor students!

Baylor University Celebrates Fall Commencement

Over 700 will graduate tomorrow. Details from Baylor's website: December 2006 Commencement

Congratulations!

Achieving High Goals: An Analysis of Baylor 2012 Initiatives:Imperative One

Our emphasis is upon the extremely positive results that have been achieved in a relatively short period of time. Our point is that no reasonable person can dispute the genuinely positive results that have been achieved during the first five years of Baylor 2012.

On the sidebar to the right, you will find links to the 2012 Imperatives that set forth the narrative goal and the steps being taken to implement them. As we have time, we will address each one in sequence. We will list the steps being taken as set forth on the web page (underlined here), followed by our analysis of the status of those steps, with the analysis in italics.

Imperative I: Establish an environment where learning can flourish.

Narrative: Imperative One

Steps being taken to implement:

Reduce student-faculty ratio to 13 to 1. As of December 2006, the ratio is 16 to 1, down from 18.6 to 1 in December of 2000. There has been improvement, and the ratio goal of 13 to 1 is within reach in the five remaining years of 2012.

Establish additional courses in new fields, including more endowed chairs and professorships at the undergraduate and graduate levels. New courses are added regularly across the university, but two new areas of work are in medical humanities and great texts. New endowed professorships have been added in social work, the seminary, and the law school. One new distinguished professor has been added in the social sciences, Rodney Stark.

Create a Great Texts Program, as well as an Honors College that incorporates interdisciplinary and University Scholars Programs. The Honors College has been developed and incorporates the Great Texts Program, the University Scholars Program, the Honors Program, and the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core Program. The Honors College has been a great success and has more than 1,300 students in the four programs collectively. The Honors College and its programs are particularly appealing to students who seek a challenging and active learning environment.

Develop additional writing and speaking courses. We have been unable to ascertain the status of this. We will update this as information comes to our attention.

Create facilities that will enable learning, research and teaching, including a new sciences building. The new state of the art sciences building is magnificent and has attracted many top science students to Baylor. Brooks College is currently under construction and is an exciting addition to the campus. More about that will be discussed under the residential campus imperative.

Create an Academic Success Center to improve retention and graduation rates by ten percent. The Paul L. Foster Success Center is operational, and broader in scope than even the 2012 plan envisioned.

Final Examinations Over!

While not of great interest to most of our readers, the Fall final examinations ended yesterday! Have a great Christmas vacation!

Student Organizations and Clubs

In addition to the Big XII athletics program, Baylor is home to over 320 other student organizations and clubs. 83 percent of Baylor students are in one or more such activities. For example, Baylor Magazine highlighted cyclist Matt Googe in the WebExtras section of the online edition this month. The article may be found here: CLICK HERE

Matt competes for the Baylor Cycling Club, which competes in the SCCCC. The club maintains their own website, which may be found here: CLICK HERE

Honoring a Leading Apologist

One of Baylor's most prolific authors is Francis Beckwith. In 2004, he was co-editor of a book of essays in honor of Norman Geisler, one of the leading apologists for the Christian faith. In the forward to the book, Josh McDowell states that the essays contained in the book "come from some of the greatest Christian minds of our time, many of whom have been trained and influenced by Dr. Norman L. Geisler. It is only appropriate, then, that the book is compiled in his honor." Click on the book title for more information: To Everyone an Answer: A Case for the Christian Worldview: Essays in Honor of Norman L. Geisler

New Book from Baylor University Press

Baylor is home to C. Stephen Evans, one of the leading scholars on Søren Kierkegaard. Evans is University Professor of Philosophy and Humanities.

Baylor University Press has published his latest book, Kierkegaard on Faith and the Self. The Baylor University Press site gives this summary of the book:

Kierkegaard on Faith and the Self represents a rich collection of studies that allow Søren Kierkegaard to speak directly to the questions of contemporary readers. Evans analyzes Kierkegaard as a philosopher, his perspectives on faith, reason, and epistemology, ethics, and his view of the self. Evans makes a strong case that Kierkegaard has something crucial to say to the Christian church as a philosopher and something equally crucial to say to the philosophical world as a Christian believer.

The book is now available (click on title): Kierkegaard on Faith And the Self: Collected Essays (Provost)

New Baylor Magazine Available Online

The Winter '07 Baylor Magazine is now available online. The cover story is about the Defining Faith study from the Institute for Studies of Religion which was mentioned in our post on December 1.

In the print edition, there is a great photo of Floyd Casey Stadium taken on the date of the Baylor and Texas A&M game. It can be found on pages 12-13 of the actual magazine.

The online edition may be found here: CLICK HERE

A Return to the Top Ten

The Lady Bears basketball team has been ranked ninth in the country in the latest AP poll. It is the first time this season they have been ranked in the top ten. Baylor's article:
SIC ‘EM BEARS HERE

The Heart of a Regent

In going through the wealth of material at BaylorTV.com, we found that in addition to the four channels previously mentioned, there is a link to many of the chapel services that have been held in the past several years. The index to the chapel services may be found here: CLICK HERE

There is a particularly touching message spoken by one of the Regents of Baylor University, Minette Drumwright Pratt. It shows the heart of one of the dedicated people who sacrifice much of themselves to set the vision for the future of Baylor. We recommend this highly: CLICK HERE

Mrs. Pratt, may our gracious God give you many more years of faithful service for His kingdom!

Sepulveda Earns Second Guy Award

Baylor Punter Daniel Sepulveda earned his second national award as the best punter in America. The Ray Guy Award was presented last night in Georgia. It is the second time he has won the award, the first coming in the 2004 season. Baylor's article on the award is here: CLICK HERE

Sepulveda was also named first team All-America by the Walter Camp Football Foundation and the American Football Coaches Association.

P.S. Sepulveda was named All America by the Football Writers Association, thereby becoming a consensus All America, Baylor's eighth such athlete! Congratulations, Dan!

The Pulse from the Honors College

From the Honors College website: The Pulse is Baylor University's undergraduate scholarly publication. We publish multiple editions each year, including a printed edition in the spring and other online editions in fall and spring. The Pulse is the forum for top-quality student research in the Honors College and the University at large.

The Fall 2006 issue is devoted to Great Texts:
CLICK HERE

Video content available from BaylorTV.com

Yesterday, we added a link to BaylorTV.com to the Important Baylor Sites section of this blog. Anyone with a vital interest in Baylor, from an interest in athletics to philosophy, will find content that will be of interest. You may play the videos in one of many different media players (Windows Media Player, QuickTime and RealPlayer; some are available in iPod also)

There are four channels: Channel 1 - Athletics; Channel 2 - News and Events; Channel 3 - Symposia and Conferences; and Channel 4 - Baylor 2012.

Some selected samples from each of these channels follows:

CHHANNEL ONE: Athletics
Inside Baylor Sports, December 3, 2006: CLICK HERE
New Basketball Practice Facility Dedication: CLICK HERE

CHANNEL TWO: News and Events
2006 Baylor Homecoming Parade (make sure you have a lot of time before you click on this one!): CLICK HERE
Inauguration of John M. Lilley: CLICK HERE

CHANNEL THREE: Symposia and Conferences
Honors College: Ralph Wood lectures on Tolkien: CLICK HERE
Christianity and the Soul of the University: Dr. David Lyle Jeffrey: CLICK HERE

CHANNEL FOUR: Baylor 2012
Baylor Religion Survey Press Conference: CLICK HERE
Business School Video: CLICK HERE

A Quote from Mark Schwehn

On the book jacket of The Baptist & Christian Character of Baylor, (Waco, Baylor University, 2003), edited by Donald D. Schmeltekopf & Dianna M. Vitanza, there is a quote from Mark Schwehn, mentioned in yesterday's Valparaiso connections post, which states the following:

"During the last ten years the national conversation about the character and destiny of church-related higher education has progressed with impressive depth and subtlety. For those aware of this impressive development, the present volume will provide a highly edifying example of it within the context of the premier Protestant research university in the United States. The less informed about the conversation could not ask for a more sharply focused introduction to it, in all of its complexity (emphasis supplied)."

Baylor has a webpage about this book, together with online ordering: LINK HERE

Valuable Valparaiso Connections

Knowledgeable observers will note that there have been two major connections between Baylor and Valparaiso University in the past few years. Academically, the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts, which is resident at Valparaiso, has funded conferences and research at Baylor. Some of these are as follows:

2006 Research Conference - Baylor University
The World and Christian Imagination
Director - Douglas V. Henry

2004 Summer Seminar - Baylor University
Reading Tolkien and Living the Virtues
Director - Ralph Woods, Professor of Theology and Literature

2002 Research Conference - Baylor University
Christianity and Economics
Director - James Henderson, Department of Economics

Lilly also sponsored a 2002 Regional Conference at Baylor.

We are thankful for Mark R. Schwehn, Project Director at Lilly, who has been a real friend of Baylor, and is a thoughtful scholar of the interplay of religion and higher education in America. Dr. Schwehn was Dean of Christ College, the honors college at Valparaiso, from 1990-2003 and remains on at Christ College as Professor of Humanities.

The other major connection was the excellent hire of Scott Drew. Scott was the coach of Valparaiso when hired, and was responsible in no small way for Valparaiso's rise to national prominence when his father Homer Drew coached the Crusaders. When Scott was hired by Baylor, his dad resumed coaching at Valparaiso, a win-win situation if there ever was one.

Scott has returned both honor and excellence to the Baylor Bears basketball program. Here are two links to articles about Scott and the Bears basketball team:

USA Today article: LINK HERE
ESPN article: LINK HERE

More Good News from Accounting

From Baylor's website: "Baylor University students from the Master of Accountancy (MAcc) and Master of Tax (MTax) degree programs had a higher pass rate on the Texas CPA exam than any other graduate program in the state and second nationwide, according to the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy statistics about the 2005 CPA exam results."

The full article may be found here:
LINK HERE

Major Study Published by Institute for Studies of Religion

In September, a study entitled American Piety in the 21st Century, by Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion was released, and quickly was picked up by all of the major media outlets in America. The ISR page for the study is here:
LINK HERE

The ISR site prominently gives thanks to the John M. Templeton Foundation for a major three year grant which funded the research, which is ongoing.

Selective findings from the study are available in pdf format from Baylor's website:
LINK HERE

Distinguished and University Professors

Baylor has been successful in recruiting renowned faculty members by programs in which they can serve as University Professors (interdisciplinary faculty appointments) and Distinguished Professors, a program designed to add 20 top scholars to the faculty.

The current list of such professors can be found at the link following this post. By clicking on their names more information about them will be found.
LINK HERE