Author: Josh Siatkowski

When ChatGPT’s release brought large language models to the forefront in 2022, it also sparked a flurry of private-sector breakthroughs. Bigger and better models and the introduction of AI agents have created a challenging disparity between newly relevant skills and what’s taught in the classroom.

Last year, two Baylor business students formed a nonprofit to collect dorm items during move-out and donate them to charities in need. Now after Bear-ly Used’s first year of operations, which donated over 13 storage pods worth of appliances, furniture and other goods, the team is back with bigger plans.

With nearly 120 years of combined experience in Penland Dining Hall, Elaine Battle, Linda Benson and Donna Majors have served thousands — maybe even millions — of meals to the Baylor community. But the three are known for far more than flipping omelets or making pizzas. Their careers are marked by countless relationships and acts of service that go beyond the women’s job descriptions.

As a freshman, I recall planning my weekends around dining hall hours, which, for an unlimited meal plan, seems rather limiting. Two years and one new food supplier later, Penland Hall is still the only spot that stays open past 9 p.m., and it happens only four nights a week. In that time, Baylor also closed Brooks Great Hall without meaningfully changing other facilities’ hours.

Just hours before the event was a final change: thousands of general admission tickets were voided to accommodate a Baylor-only policy that the university claims had always been in place.

Coordinated by Computing for Compassion, the Association of Computing Machinery and Baylor Cyber, the 24-hour Wacode Hackathon challenged contestants to develop software with a positive social impact and a solution to a real humanitarian problem, all in the time-constrained environment of a hackathon.

Since 1932, leaders in the Baylor community have hosted Diadeloso. As Dia 2026 entered the history books, numerous campus groups pat themselves on the back for facilitating a break from school and work for the estimated 2,500 in attendance.

A sprinkler system malfunction flooded the kitchen of Memorial Dining Hall Monday afternoon, closing the cafeteria for about two hours and forcing staff to throw out both hot and unprepared food.

As of Wednesday, Chief Investment Officer David Morehead said he expected the endowment to end the month near $2.5 billion, up from $2.4 billion at the end of September and a further increase from its $2.17 billion balance in May 2025. The endowment contributes 5% of its value back to Baylor each year, so each dollar the endowment makes puts five cents into Baylor’s operating budget.

Shobi Ahmed, the manager of the Exxon station where the Subway was housed, said the restaurant closed Feb. 1 after the lease was not renewed. The reason for Subway’s closure, he said, was slowing business caused by changing landscapes around campus dining. While the company Ahmed works for has managed the property for only about a year, Ahmed said he was told the Subway was busier in the past when students could use their IDs to pay for food.

Baylor students are sandwiched between two factors that compress the value of their education. On one side, a tightening job market is bringing prospects for young graduates back down to COVID-19 lows. On the other side, disproportionate price increases in the already fast-growing industry of higher education continue to push the cost of a degree toward hard-to-believe figures.

Jim Jaska has been the mayor of Ross, Texas, for 40 years. But in four decades at the helm of the 250-person community just north of Waco, he’s never seen a situation like this: plans for a $10 billion data center are underway right in the little town’s backyard, threatening its rural identity — and he wasn’t told anything about it.

The 2.25-mile Bear Trail around campus is mostly concrete, but three-fourths of a mile between the Dutton Garage and the intersection of Second Street and Bagby Avenue is a softer decomposed granite surface that narrows to just a few feet in some spots. Construction Project Manager AJ Mueller said that about two-thirds of that stretch is currently being upgraded to an 8-foot-wide concrete sidewalk, while the remaining third near Dutton Garage is tentatively scheduled for the same work.

Between Valley Mills Drive and Irving Lee Street — home to campus’s closest H-E-B — the southbound I-35 frontage road has been cut down to one lane since mid-2025. Its completion, along with other parts of the project, such as a new intersection at Valley Mills, will improve the driving experience in the area. But for now, traffic has swelled on the street where students make their final right turn into the H-E-B parking lot.

The verdict is good news for Baylor students: The Trompo King serves delicious Mexican food with affordability and availability, making it a great addition to the campus area.

In a time where only the tensest interactions between civilians and law enforcement are being distributed across the internet, Baylor’s Department of Public Safety is doing things differently. Lighthearted informational posts and staff bios fill the department’s social media feed, while donut giveaways and bracelet-making workshops fill the time between patrols.

The Trompo King, run by Jorge Alvarado Jr. and his father, will serve a variety of Mexican dishes, but specializes in trompo. “Trompo,” which roughly translates to “spinning top,” describes al pastor pork roasted on a rotating spit, but it is slightly different from an al pastor taco.

Although the flooding began around the time of the recent winter storm, the pipe burst was an independent event, according to Associate Vice President for Facilities and Operations Patrick Carley.

Writing is not merely hanging on despite repeated attacks by the changing world. It’s progressing in tandem with each breakthrough, acting as a necessary component of our technological and communicative revolution.

The 135-spot parking lot on the corner of 5th Street and Bagby Avenue has been temporarily converted to Baylor’s first daily pass lot. For $5 a day, students can buy a full-day pass to the lot on the southeast corner of campus.

Upon Kokernot Hall’s anticipated completion this July, the university will finish the plans it set back in 2013. With part of the construction budget now freed up for other projects, it opens up the question of what’s coming next for projects across campus. While there is no confirmed plan for a similarly connected string of renovations, Vice President for Student Life Dr. Sharra Hynes alluded to future projects in a September interview.

As of Thursday evening, predictions from The Weather Channel show Friday bringing mostly rain, but as temperatures go below freezing overnight and stay there Saturday, precipitation will go from freezing rain during the day and change into a wintry mix in the evening. Sunday, as of now, is expected to be mostly clear, with the storm ending overnight. But forecasts have been ever-changing as the week goes on, previously predicting multiple inches of snow.

Dr. James Brockmole of Notre Dame will join Baylor as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and he’s bringing his background in psychology, his faith and his love for national parks to his role.

In anticipation of the coming Christmas holiday, Baylor’s advancement office is encouraging alumni with daily Advent devotionals, featuring reflections from 24 Baylor staff, faculty and students, plus an introductory message from President Linda Linvingstone.

Most student-led organizations are lucky to sign up a few new members and get funding for an occasional meal. But one group, led by a network of college students across the country—including a Baylor freshman—has already gotten hundreds of students to sign up and received commitments for over $1 million in charitable donations. And they don’t launch until next month.

With endless blocks of skyscrapers, millions of fast-shuffling feet and only a tiny presence of Baylor alumni, it’s easy for the Bears of New York’s finance scene to feel as out of place as the 1600-mile distance from Waco would suggest. But there’s a world out there where Baylor’s footprint in the Big Apple is just as sizable as the dominant ones in Dallas and Houston.

Once the high-cost event took off, seven student performances commenced, broken up by giveaways and raffles in between. The second half of the show was a premiere screening of “The Celebration of Everlasting Color,” a student-produced feature film written by 2025 Baylor graduate Aaron Rivera.

“We sit under shade trees we did not plant,” Baylor Regent Dr. Michael McFarland said in reference to the forced labor by which Baylor was built. “We drink from wells we did not dig. And we are warmed by fires that we did not light … Baylor’s story, like the story of our great nation, is both complicated and redemptive.”

As diverse as Baylor’s offerings are, though, the academic makeup of the student body is not exactly the intellectual rainbow that the triple-digit number suggests. The palette is probably better described as dozens of thin strips with slightly different shades, sprinkled among a few very wide bands of dominant colors.

The Memorial, which was recommended by the Commission on Historical Campus Representations in 2020, addresses Baylor’s historical relationship with slavery. It recognizes the university’s construction through enslaved labor and Judge R.E.B. Baylor’s own possession of enslaved people, while continuing to acknowledge all parts of Baylor’s story.