By Julia Vergara | Staff Writer
The “Bring Back the Light at Moody Memorial Library” event brightened up Baylor’s campus with 92 new LED lights in celebration of the building’s 50th anniversary.
Students, faculty and staff came together Wednesday night and watched as Baylor President Dr. Linda Livingstone led the countdown to the relighting of Moody’s exterior.
“It’s so exciting to see such a great group coming together around this opportunity to really highlight the academic excellence of this place and the academic excellence that flows out of our library system,” Livingstone said.
Moody first opened its doors to the Baylor community in 1968, according to a University Libraries press release. The library’s exterior lights created a “lantern-like effect,” serving as a beacon on the northern edge of campus. However, over the years the lights became inoperable and remained that way for decades.
“You can go back generations of alumni and they all remember Moody,” said Beth Farwell, director of Central Libraries. “We have close to a million students that enter this building every year and so it’s already lit up, it’s already a beacon, it’s already a center. This is just another way to make the building really beautiful.”
Bringing back the light at Moody has tied in perfectly with Baylor’s newly launched campaign, “Where Lights Shine Bright,” which is meant to highlight the university’s commitment to its unique academic and Christian mission. Livingstone said Baylor is aspiring to be one of the top-tier research universities in the country while maintaining the integrity of its mission.
“It’s really fortuitous — They had actually started this project before we launched the Lights Shine Bright campaign,” Livingstone said. “And for the timing of being able to relight the library at its 50th anniversary while we’re also talking about the many, many ways at Baylor that our lights shine bright — It’s just a wonderful confluence of events that brought us all here tonight.”
“Bring Back the Light at Moody Memorial Library” served to kick off a year-long celebration of Moody’s 50th anniversary, Farwell said. In addition to a “big birthday party” for the library in September, Baylor Libraries will be hosting contests, social media campaigns, giveaways and more throughout 2018.
One art contest called “Moody Through Your Lens” will be ongoing throughout the Spring semester, encouraging students to submit artwork that showcases what Moody means to them, Farwell said. Submissions will be evaluated on creativity and originality, relevance to the theme and artistic quality. The top three winners will have their artwork displayed in Moody throughout the Fall 2018 semester.
Students, faculty and staff should watch out for Baylor Libraries’ news releases to know about other upcoming events, Farwell said.
