By Rory Dulock | Staff Writer
When Dean Larry Lyon first became dean of the Baylor Graduate School in 1998, only a little over 10% of students were graduate students.
Today, one in every four students at Baylor is a graduate student.
Lyon is a Baylor alumnus and has been part of the faculty at Baylor since 1975, starting out as a professor of sociology until 1998, when he became dean of the Graduate School.
When Lyon retires at the end of this academic year, he will have completed 50 years at Baylor. During his tenure as dean, he said he has witnessed the transformation and contributed to the growth of the Graduate School.
“[My] job has changed considerably over time because the graduate school has changed considerably over time,” Lyon said. “As we began to focus more and more on research and graduate education [it’s] led to many more graduate students.”
Lyon also said the Graduate School’s growth is due to the increase of graduate programs that are now being offered. When Lyon became the dean of the school, there were 10 Ph.D. programs at Baylor. Now, Lyon said it has grown to 35 programs.
“Not only has the number of graduate students grown, but the proportion of graduate students has grown,” Lyon said. “We have over a thousand Ph.D. students on campus helping us bring in lots of research dollars, teach science labs for our students and help out with undergraduate education.”
Provost Nancy Brickhouse said it would be hard to underestimate the impact of Lyon on campus.
The R1 status that Baylor gained was not only due to research expenditures, but also to the growth of the graduate programs, which was largely due to him.
“He was John the Baptist, arguing for graduate and research long before anybody else was coming along,” Brickhouse said. “He’s just had tremendous influence. He will be sorely missed, but he’ll always be dearly loved.”
President Linda Livingstone said that ever since she came to Baylor, Lyon has pushed for Baylor’s growth as an institution.
Lyon was one of the first people that met with her after she came to campus in 2017. He had a presentation planning Baylor’s arrival at R1 status.
“He has been really, really critical in building that foundation that allowed us to accomplish that sooner than anticipated.”
Some of the recent accomplishments of the Graduate School include the Summer 2024 Commencement marking a record-breaking 134 students earning a research doctorate. This increase of graduate students allowed for the first ever Doctoral Commencement Ceremony.
Lyon said that the number of research doctorates is an indication of just how competitive Baylor is.
“I couldn’t be more proud of Baylor and how Baylor has— in the long, long time I’ve been here— transformed itself from a very good regional undergraduate college into a full, complex university with quality undergraduate education, quality graduate education and substantial research opportunities,” Lyon said. “Baylor is a real player in higher education now.”