Baylor’s advisors gathered to celebrate the Day of the Advisor on Wednesday to recognize the importance of academic advising and to show appreciation for the individuals who serve Baylor students as academic advisors. This year marked the 10th anniversary of the annual Day of the Advisor celebration. This year, the Day of the Advisor added a new element to the celebration by giving Academic Advising Excellence Awards to recognize the achievements of members of Baylor’s advising community. They gave awards for Contributions to the Academic Advising Profession, Contributions to Advising Excellence at Baylor and the 2016 Outstanding Professional Academic Advisor…
Author: Kalyn Story
The Waco Police Department reported that a 19-year-old woman was robbed and slashed with a box cutter Wednesday afternoon at the Valero gas station on 17th Street and I-35. Waco police Sgt. Patrick Swanton said the police determined that the woman was sitting in her car in the parking lot when a man pulled her out of her car and demanded money from her. When she refused, the man pulled out a box cutter and slashed her in the abdomen. The woman dropped her money, which the man grabbed and ran away with. Swanton described the man as, “a Hispanic…
Cameron McCown believes everyone should have access to healthy food. In May 2015, he made his beliefs his practice. The 2010 Baylor graduate opened Bread of Life Deli in Meridian, Idaho. He open this restaurant with an unorthodox philosophy — that everyone should have healthy food, even if they can’t afford it. “We want to create a space where people can dine with dignity,” McCown said. “If that means serving them a healthy meal prepared right in front of them without asking for anything in return, so be it.” The restaurant runs on donations. There is a podium called the…
Nicco Renna has always loved to tell stories. Now the 2012 Baylor graduate is doing something he never thought possible: he is telling stories as his career. After college, Renna worked on the set of “Fixer Upper” for its first season, but independent storytelling was always in the back of his mind. With this goal he created Orature Media. His company is based out of Austin and tells the stories of people from all over the world through documentaries, books and audio pieces. Their website describes the company as,, “driven by a passion to chronicle the stories that shape our…
What do the Louvre, National Geographic, the Travel Channel, Samaritan’s Purse and the Global Poverty Project have in common?They have all featured the work of 2008 Baylor graduate Austin Mann.It was while Mann was at Baylor that his passion for photography and storytelling began, although it wasn’t through academics that he found his passion. When he came to Baylor, he was part of a program called Performance Improvement Technology (PIT), but he eventually switched his major to telecommunications (now known as film and digital media). “I did a complete 180 my sophomore year of college,” Mann said. “I was the…
Laura Scott graduated from Baylor in 1964 but never left. Shortly after graduating with her degree in journalism and French, she decided to apply for a job as a Baylor recruiter and admissions counselor, and she eventually became an academic adviser. Scott has been advising students for over 15 years, and in February was recognized for all her hard work by the Texas Academic Advising Network (TEXAAN) with a lifetime achievement award. According to their website ,TEXAAN “serves as a professional representation of academic advising excellence in Texas by providing professional development, networking, recognition and dissemination of information.” TEXAAN holds…
There are still four spots open for Baylor’s teaching in Thailand program. Students accepted to the program will leave at the end of May to go to Bangkok to teach English to students ranging from first to sixth grade. The program is open to seniors graduating in May. Participants will be teaching at the Chitralada Palace School from the end of May through mid-March and will get a three week break in the fall, which many teachers use to travel to other countries in Asia. Airfare, housing, health insurance and transportation to and from the school will be provided in…
Event aims to get students ready for graduation in May
At the beginning of this school year Baylor Parking Services implemented an online-only ticketing system. Previously, a Baylor students would receive a paper ticket on their car if they were parked illegally. Now students receive an email ticket notification and can go to the Baylor Parking website to appeal the ticket. Students must appeal a ticket within 14 days or have the ticket charged to their Baylor account. Matt Penney, director of parking and transportation services, said the transition was made to allow growth and expand Parking Services capabilities. Moving to an online only system allowed Baylor to offer zoned…
President and Chancellor Ken Starr announced the university’s most recent plans to address sexual assault on campus via an email sent to the Baylor community Tuesday. The $5 million plan includes expansions to the Baylor Title IX Office, Counseling Center, Department of Public Safety and the establishment of an executive level task force to act on the impending results of an independent Pepper Hamilton investigation. “The topic of interpersonal violence on college campuses is of great concern nationally and to us at Baylor,” said Tonya Lewis, assistant director of Baylor Media Communications. “We are proud of the continuing focus and…
Baylor University is considering merging George W. Truett Theological Seminary with the John Leland Center for Theological Studies in Arlington, Va. The proposed plan would allow Truett to take over operations of the Leland Center and allow students admitted to either school to take up to 49 percent of their required classes at the other school. Although the plan is still in its initial stages, the program could begin as early as the fall 2016 semester. Dr. Todd Still, Truett dean and university interim provost, presented a report of the conversations between Leland and Truett to the Baylor Board of…
The Waco Hippodrome Theatre will be hosting Unsilent : Survivors Speak, an evening of poetry and spoken word about interpersonal violence. The event will take place at 9:30 p.m. on today and is free and open to the public. It is hosted by the Waco Poets Society and Kyndall Rothaus, 2011 Truett Seminary graduate and pastor of Lakeshore Baptist Church. Unsilent: Survivors Speak immediately follows Prayers for Survivors: A Time For Anger which begins at 8 p.m. at Elliston Chapel. Rothaus is speaking at Prayers for Survivors and performing at Unsilent. She said she believes these events are important because…
At the time of publication, Bill Flores, running for his fourth congressional term, was leading the district 17 primary election with 74 percent of the vote on Tuesday night. Ralph Patterson finished with 19 percent and Kaleb Sims with 8 percent. Flores will face the Democratic nominee, William Matta, in the general election on Nov. 8. Flores was born on an Air Force base in Cheyenne, Wyo., and grew up in Stratford. He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration in accounting from Texas A&M University and his master’s in business administration from Houston Baptist University. He serves on the…
GRAND PRAIRIE — Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders’ rally drew crowds of more than 7,000 Saturday in Grand Prairie. “It looks like Dallas is ready for a political revolution, and so are a lot of people across the country,” said Sanders (I-VT) said to a crowd at the Verizon Center. Introduced by former Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Jim Hightower, Texas House of Representatives member, Marisa Marquez, and former Texas House of Representatives Member and current immigration lawyer Domingo Garcia, Sanders aimed to appeal to Texas Democrats. Sanders attacked his opponent Hillary Clinton and outlined their differences, saying that unlike Clinton he does…
DALLAS — Following the Republican debate at the University of Houston on Thursday, presidential candidate and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio held a rally in Dallas on Friday. Although the event, which drew approximately 2,000 supporters, was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Rubio did not arrive until about 10 a.m. and finished around 10:30 a.m. Rubio alternated between reassuring his stances on conservative ideals and attacking Republican front runner Donald Trump. Rubio drew a lot of laughs mocking Trump, taking out his phone to read Trump’s tweets from that morning. The first tweet Rubio read accused Rubio of being a…
In Texas’ District 17 primary congressional elections, to be held Tuesday, incumbent Bill Flores is running for his fourth term against Groesbeck businessman Kaleb Sims and Waco businessman Ralph Patterson. The Democratic nominee, William Matta, is running unopposed. Flores, a graduate of Texas A&M University and Houston Baptist University, was elected to Congress in 2010. Since then, Flores has served on the Committee on Energy and Commerce and was elected to the Chairmanship of the House Republican Study Committee in 2014. Flores believes in increasing border security, repealing the Affordable Care Act, protecting the unborn and defining marriage as strictly…
Kevin Reynolds, Baylor graduate and son of former Baylor President Herbert Reynolds, wrote and directed the movie “Risen,” which came out Friday. The film came in third at the box office its opening weekend. “Risen” tells the story of Jesus’ resurrection through the eyes of a Roman solider, Clavius, played by Joseph Fiennes. Clavius is tasked with disproving rumors that Jesus had in fact risen from the dead following his crucifixion. Clavius sets out to find the body of Jesus with his aide, Lucius, played by Tom Felton. “Risen is a new take on the New Testament story of the…
About 60 Baylor students, faculty and alumni gathered to pray for survivors of all types of abuse during A Space for Lament on Tuesday night at Elliston Chapel. Through prayer, songs, responsive reading and quiet time participants shared a time of ament. Houston freshman, Setareh Sharafi, came to the service with a personal background of abuse and domestic violence. “It is so important to have people around that love and care for you.” Sharafi said. “Patience heals, I came here for comfort and to seek patience.” Sharafi plans to attend the remaining three services and is particularly looking forward to…
Students, alumni plan prayer services for grief
Robert Darden has died nine times. His former students, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, kill a character named Darden in every screenplay they write. Darden, journalism, new media and public relations professor, said he knew immediately that his students Brandt and Haas had a gift for writing. He did not know they would go on to write several movies and TV shows or make this little incident a reoccuring theme in their work. Before Brandt got his master’s degree from Baylor, he had a final project; he needed to make a movie. For this movie, he asked Darden to play…
For School of Education professor and daughter of a Baylor graduate, Mary Witte going to Baylor was never a choice. “My dad said, ‘I will pay for you to go to school anywhere you want, as long as it’s Baylor’,” Witte said. “It was the best decision my dad ever made.” Witte, however, is only one of many other Baylor graduates who have come back to campus to teach as professors. During the fall of 1974, Witte’s freshman year, Baylor football won the Southwest Conference Championship, and she said that’s when she knew Baylor was the place for her. Witte…
Starr responds after Monday on-campus demonstration
Survivors’ Stand, candlelight vigil for the survivors of sexual assault, will take place tonight at 9:30 p.m. in front of Albritton House. All Baylor students and staff are invited to attend to stand in support of sexual assault survivors on Baylor’s campus. Organizers want the vigil to be a quiet, prayerful, thoughtful time and expect the vigil to last about 30 minutes. After the vigil there will be a short student led chapel service at the Truett Seminary. The event is organized primarily by Stefanie Mundhenk, a 2015 Baylor graduate and sexual assault survivor. Mundhenk said she hopes this candlelight…
Queen of Kings husband, wife duo to perform in Waco
President and Chancellor Ken Starr addressed Title IX and allegations of mishandling of sexual assault cases at Baylor in an email Wednesday night to students. Sunday night ESPN released its “Outside the Lines” report, which talked about the Tevin Elliott case. Elliott is a forme Baylor football player who was convicted of two counts of sexual assault in 2014. In the video, three additional women talked about how the university handled their sexual assault cases. The email discussed the independent review, a response to the ESPN report, why the university could not say more in the report and Title IX…