By Kristy Volmert | Staff Writer, Lauren Holcomb | LTVN Broadcast Reporter
The Board of Administrators announced Baylor University’s 2024-2030 Strategic Plan, “Baylor in Deeds” to further extend the university’s mission worldwide.
LTVN’s Lauren Holcomb clues you in on Baylor’s Strategic Plan.
The goal of this plan is to strengthen the outreach of Baylor’s Christian mission through the works and accomplishments of its students and faculty by a system of strategies that blend together, dedicated towards God’s glory and the betterment of the world.
In February 2023, President Linda Livingstone selected Provost Nancy Brickhouse and Chief of Staff Tiffany Hogue as co-chairs of the strategic planning process. The planning process was then launched in July 2023.
According to Brickhouse, the plan will “provide the direction for the university” through the next five or six years.
“It’s a very ambitious plan, but it’s the right plan for Baylor at this time,” Brickhouse said.
First introduced at a faculty and staff meeting on Sept. 5, the completed plan was publicly released to the Baylor community on Tuesday. The plan includes an overview in respect to the university’s mission statement and foundational pillars, a rundown of its four main commitments, specific strategies for each, four key imperatives across the commitments and the 10 key metric categories that this plan will administer to.
“Within the strategy, we plan to increase the quality and quantity of academic co-curricular activities through high impact practices such as study abroad, research mission and student employment,” Livingstone said.
In May, the university motto received its first addition in over 100 years: “Pro Mundo,” meaning “for the world.” Since 1851, it has read “pro ecclesia, pro Texana,” meaning “for the church, for Texas.” With this addition, the new strategic plan will aid in Baylor’s focus on global outreach, Livingstone said.
“The world needs a Baylor,” Livingstone said. “This addition of ‘for the world’ is a reflection of our growth as a university, our research one status and the ability that we now have to make a global impact through much of what we do.”
According to Livingstone, “Baylor in Deeds” puts emphasis on both the previous developments and accomplishments of the university as well as its goals for future growth.
“It was not just something that developed on its own,” Livingstone said.
The strategic plans that have been implemented in the past few years have played a key role in the development of “Baylor in Deeds,” with the core foundation of the plan based on the scripture Matthew 5:14-16. It reads, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and bring glory to your Father in Heaven.”
The last strategic plan, “Illuminate,” focused on the first portion of that scripture with the slogan “Lights shine bright”. According to Livingstone, “Baylor in Deeds” will focus on the second portion, hoping to use Baylor’s deeds to glorify God.
There are four pillars that serve as driving forces of this plan: ensuring a distinctively Christian environment, providing transformational educational experiences for undergraduates, impactful research scholarships and graduate education and renowned programs in the arts and athletics.
“Those have to remain priorities in this new plan,” Livingstone said.
Four key commitments will set this plan into motion: equipping students to flourish, broadening interdisciplinary research and impact, building a vibrant, caring and global community and demonstrating Christian stewardship.
“We do work in human flourishing that I would describe as both normative as well as empirical,” Brickhouse said.
Brickhouse said that the definition of human flourishing can be “informed by our faith,” and that administration focuses heavily on developing students in this way.
“There’s also a lot in the plan around Christian stewardship, which has to do with Baylor’s resources within the natural world that God has created,” Brickhouse said. “It was given to us to shepherd [and] to take care of.”
Vice President of Student Life Dr. Kevin Jackson said civil discourse is critical when it comes to demonstrating Christian character. With the 2024 election coming up, civil discourse is included in the plan as imperative and will function as important factor in the development of students in their faith and character.
“As a Christian university, how we treat each other is very important, so we’re putting a particular flag on the ground around this idea of civil discourse,” Jackson said.
According to Jackson, practicing civil discourse will help Baylor “bridge deep differences towards common ground.”
The 2024-2025 Baylor Conversation Series, hosted by the Office of the President and Office of the Provost will continue to touch on the idea of civil discourse.
The plan concentrates on the nurturing of well-rounded students that are not only exceptionally educated, but also skilled socially, strong in faith and well-prepared for anything they might encounter in the future.
“As you leave here, you will be a holistically-developed individual that can go out using the skills you developed here, through the giftedness God has given you,” Livingstone said.
Brickhouse said that Baylor will centralize on this vision for students’ future.
“If you look at the future that you all will be entering, your ability to work with technology is likely to be very important to your future success,” Brickhouse said. “We feel like Baylor is the right place for that kind of an education.”
The words that formulate this plan are only the starting point. Administrators said they look forward to seeing it become a reality in the foreseeable future, and encourage all members of the Baylor community to realize their individual role in this mission.
“Anybody can write a plan, but the secret is always in implementing the plan, and that’s what comes next,” Brickhouse said. “The key to strong implementation of the strategic plan is to align all of the divisions, colleges and schools at the university to that plan.”
