By Zach Babajanof-Rustrian | Intern
During its November meeting on Friday, the Baylor Board of Regents gave updates on the university’s new strategic planning process, approved four new graduate degree programs and gave updates on the Memorial to Enslaved Persons.
With Baylor’s first phase of the strategic plan, Illuminate, coming to an end in May 2024, President Linda Livingstone said the board is focusing on how Baylor can help impact the community based on the feedback received by faculty, staff and students.
“This fall has been about listening to the Baylor community and hearing them talk to us about what we’re doing really well at Baylor and what we could be doing better at Baylor,” Livingstone said. “In my inaugural address in fall of 2017, I said that the world needs a Baylor, the world needs a Christian research university. So in this new plan, we’re really focusing on what does the world most need Baylor to do?”
The board received the white papers — feedback from faculty and staff — on Oct. 31 and is starting to review them. Livingstone said the plan is to have a final version of the strategic plan for the board to affirm in May.
In addition, Chair William Mearse said the board approved four new graduate degrees to continue to prepare the best of the next generation. They include a master’s in education — learning and organizational change, a master’s in film and digital media, a Ph.D. in educational leadership and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering.
“It’s really exciting to watch new master’s degrees in fine arts and education be implemented and continue to grow in those areas,” Mearse said. “On the doctoral area, educational leadership and material science and engineering are high-demand fields, and now Baylor will be able to graduate students for those industries as well.”
In February, Baylor also announced its plan for the construction of the Memorial to Unknown Enslaved. Located on Founders Mall, the memorial will recognize the enslaved men and women who were instrumental in building Baylor’s original campus in Independence.
However, since then, the university has learned the names of some of the enslaved persons and has thus renamed the memorial the Memorial to Enslaved Persons.
“At the time that the recommendation was made, we did not know the names of any of the enslaved persons,” Livingstone said. “Since then, we have identified a small number of those individuals. So we felt like we needed to kind of adapt the name accordingly because we do actually have the names of those.”
Livingstone said Baylor is looking to start the project in February 2024 and have it completed by February 2025.
Lastly, Mearse said the Big 12 has made it a requirement for schools to be able to broadcast two events at the same time, so Baylor has allocated $24.25 million to build a broadcast production center in McLane Stadium.
“We do not have the capabilities to do two [sporting events] at the same time, so we’re going to take some space that we have available at McLane Stadium,” Mearse said. “McLane is now 10 years old. Technology changes a little bit in 10 years, and so we’re now needing to upgrade that technology and just make sure we’re staying current.”
