After the announcement of the Transition Agreement over the summer, various people have expressed their approval or concerns. While this matter is complicated, these opinions can be sorted into those that support a ‘yes’ vote on Sept. 7 and those that don’t.
Baylor’s administration and the Baylor Alumni Association’s leadership support the Transition Agreement.
Baylor President Ken Starr said the purpose of the agreement is to move the university forward.
If The Baylor Line magazine is to continue with the word Baylor in its title, the Transition Agreement between the Baylor Alumni Association and Baylor Board of Regents must receive a ‘yes’ vote from at least two thirds of the BAA member present at the meeting on Sept. 7.
The Baylor Line magazine began in 1946, and since then, it has been published by the self-regulating Baylor Alumni Association.
The Line’s mission statement says the magazine’s purpose is “to examine, from a wide range of perspectives, Baylor’s history, culture, institutional practices, aspirations, and identity as a private, Baptist university and to enable alumni to maintain their emotional, intellectual, and social bonds with the university and each other.”
As Baylor students hit the fitness center of the McLane Student Life Center this semester, they can expect to break a sweat on the newest workout equipment on campus.
Every summer, machines in the fitness center are assessed and replaced by the newest technology available. This summer, the SLC welcomed 10 new cardiovascular machines, including four treadmills with personal viewing screens, two ellipticals, two adaptive motion trainers, one recumbent bike and one upright bike.
The campus bookstore now features a repair service for students and faculty plagued by computer viruses, software bugs and other computer-related issues.
The Baylor Bookstore expanded its range of services to the Baylor community with the introduction of the Computer Repair Center.
The Computer Repair Center can be found near the technology department of the Baylor Bookstore.
The tire of a black Ford Ranger pickup truck blew out at 6:46 p.m. and caused the vehicle to turn on its side near the 2100 block of University Parks Drive.
The driver, Baylor employee Pablo Oliverez, said the truck flipped onto its side as he tried to avoid a light pole. He said he was wearing his seatbelt and felt fine when the truck finally came to a stop.
Dozens of water bottles were left trashed outside Floyd-Casey Stadium on Saturday despite a new policy allowing outside water bottles into the stadium.
“I had water, but I threw it away,” Coppell freshman Victoria Clark said. “I didn’t know we were allowed to bring it inside.”
Some students, such as Lubbock senior Hayden Murphy, witnessed game attendees not being allowed to take in their own hard plastic water bottles. Murphy said he took two bottles in, but they were disposable.
The fraternity Phi Gamma Delta, also known as “Fiji,” has been banned from taking part in any university activities this year.
“Phi Gamma Delta is not participating in all university events this semester due to a violation of university policy,” said Lori Fogleman, assistant vice president of media communications.
Fogleman added that Phi Gamma Delta will not be a part of Interfraternity Council recruitment, also known as Rush, this year.
A drug ring distributing $30,000 to $40,000 of high-grade marijuana monthly near Baylor campus HAS resulted in four arrests and an investigation of more than 50 Baylor students.
McGregor, Lorena and Baylor Police departments, in cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration, served two warrants less than one mile from campus on Aug. 28. Marijuana, prescription pills, packaging materials, weapons and more than $12,000 were found in the two residences, according to the McGregor Police Department. The customer base of the suspected distributors is the Baylor student body, said McGregor Police Department’s Criminal Investigator Lt. Joe Coy.
Wasting less by feeding more is the name of the game for the folks at Baylor’s Campus Kitchen.
Tuesday afternoon, members of Campus Kitchen met at the Mary Gibbs Jones Family and Consumer Sciences Building to begin the first daily food collection of the semester. Memorial, Penland and Collins dining halls kept leftover food hot for the pickup after 3:30 p.m.
Campus Kitchen is a national service organization that helps students relieve hunger in their communities by working through universities and high schools.
OneSearch is all it takes to use the Baylor libraries’ new search engine. The search engine is part of the Baylor libraries’ new website.
The old search tool, BearCat, has been replaced as the primary library search engine by a more modern system called OneSearch. OneSearch can go through hundreds of online databases, giving students access to a much wider range of materials, whereas BearCat was limited to materials only at Baylor.
Members of a former Baptist church in Houston donated $1 million to Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary for scholarships.
First Baptist Church Spring Branch of Houston presented Truett Theological Seminary with the gift Aug. 26, establishing the First Baptist Church Spring Branch of Houston, George W. Truett Theological Seminary Endowed Scholarship Fund.
As part of Baylor’s annual Oso Safe Campus Safety and Awareness Day, students will have the chance to enjoy a Dr Pepper float, and then watch as a dorm room is set on fire.
The Waco Fire Department will place at 4:15 p.m. Today in a mock dorm room in front of the Bill Daniel Student Center on Fifth Street and,., intentionally set it on fire as part of this year’s fire safety lesson.
The entire Campus Safety and Awareness Day event will begin at 3 p.m. in the Barfield Drawing room. This “live burn” is the third one in a row on Baylor’s campus which started in the fall of 2011.
Local police arrested four men Wednesday near Baylor campus after searching two homes in connection to an extensive marijuana drug ring.
After three months of following leads and working with Drug Enforcement Administration officers, McGregor Police and Lorena Police served two warrants with the cooperation of the Baylor Police Department. While McGregor and DEA officers handled the the first search warrant Wednesday morning, Baylor police officers handled the second search warrant later that day, said Baylor Police Chief Jim Doak.
Getting in shape can be an intimidating task, which is why Baylor Bearobics instructors try to make fitness fun and stress-free.
Bearobics offers a variety of classes such as Yoga, Zumba, Boxing, Pilates and more. From Tuesday to Sunday, Bearobics classes will be offered to students free of charge. This gives students the chance to meet instructors and see what different classes will be like throughout the semester.
To continue taking Bearobics classes after the first trial week, students must have a Group X membership, which also includes Bear Cycle, an indoor studio cycling class. Students must show their student ID to the McLane Student Living Center front desk to register.
Paul L. Foster is deferring his service on Baylor’s Board of Regents to serve in a position of leadership at the University of Texas System Board of Regents.
The decision was announced earlier today by Baylor University Board of Regents Chair Richard Willis.
Baylor University took part in a nationwide event, remembering both the 1963 march on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s historical “I Have a Dream” speech.
More than 20 students, faculty and staff gathered in front of Pat Neff Hall at 2 p.m. Wednesday, the approximate time King delivered his speech 50 years ago, and listened to the Baylor McLane Carillon bells. Baylor’s carillonneur Lynnette Geary performed, “We Shall Overcome,” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” to commemorate the day.
Baylor Alumni Association members who joined the association after 12:30 p.m. today will not be allowed to vote at the BAA meeting Sept. 7, BAA President Collin Cox said.
The decision came after a unanimous vote during a conference-call BAA board meeting.
Members will be voting on the Transition Agreement, which was proposed by both the BAA and Baylor on May 31. The agreement would dissolve the BAA and allow Baylor to take over alumni relations and operations.
International students got a taste of Texas Tuesday at a welcome dinner.
Over 175 international students from all over the world sat down to a Western themed dinner Tuesday in the Cashion Banquet room. Cow noises played on a CD player in the doorway, a giant light up cowboy boot stood in the corner, and Texas Barbecue was served for dinner.
Vice President Dr. Karla Leeper welcomed the new students to Baylor on Judge Ken Starr’s behalf.
Between 8:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Baylor and Waco police responded to an automobile accident on South University Parks Drive. Multiple squad cars blocked two lanes of the road at the scene of the accident.
A Waco police officer said it’s possible the driver of the vehicle, who was identified as male, had a medical problem while driving, causing him to veer across the road, hit a sign and crash into a ditch.
Every new semester brings with it new things—new books, new courses, new fashion trends, new classmates, and this fall, new food.
The completion of the East Village Residential Community brings new dining options to campus, giving students and faculty the opportunity to broaden their appetite. The assorted food outlets are now open and ready to feed customers.
It wasn’t quite a Cinderella story. Sure, I was running around at midnight. It’s true, I’d just seen fireworks at a party. But instead of dropping a glass slipper, I’d left something a little more valuable behind.
The trip up to this point had been like a fairy tale. This past summer, I spent a month in Italy studying writing and photography through Baylor’s study abroad program. We’d been in Italy for a few weeks, had already seen Rome and were now starting classes in Florence.
After months of construction on Third Street and $73 million dollars, East Village Residential Community has opened its doors to about 700 students of all classifications.
“Most of our residence halls pre-1960s were not built in such a way that our upper-division students say, ‘Yeah, I want to live here,’” Dr. Kevin Jackson, Vice President for Student Life, said.
The living areas are styled with cove units that contain four double bedrooms as well as semi-suites and apartment-style living. Semi-suites have two rooms joined in the middle by a bathroom. The apartment-style rooms have a varying number of rooms including a bathroom and living room. In addition, there are study rooms, lounges and game rooms for students to use.
The study abroad trip wasn’t going as she’d hoped.
Austin junior Rachel Clark watched as one American student after another left for the Cairo International Airport.
On June 1, a little more than a month before Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was deposed, Clark arrived in Cairo to take two six-week classes, Egyptian Polictics and Government and Arab Society. Originally, she was supposed to stay for eight weeks. Because of the turmoil of Morsi being removed from office, Clark was forced to leave three weeks early.
As Baylor students begin returning to campus this semester, they may notice several things missing – like 200 student parking spaces.
This year, Parking and Transportation Services has reallocated parking spaces and limited decal choices to the $300 all-access decal. Lori Fogleman, assistant vice president for media communications, said that 100 former student parking spaces have been allotted to faculty and staff. The remaining 100 former student spaces are either temporarily blocked by construction or will no longer be spaces in lieu of greenery.
During the months following the April 17 fertilizer plant explosion in West that destroyed 100 homes and killed 15 people, the Baylor community has continued to offer support through a physical presence and large monetary donations.
The university created a West Relief Fund the week the explosion happened and by July 10, the fund had raised more than $290,000, the entirety of which was donated to the First Baptist Church of West.
The first experiences a student has at Baylor are some of the most memorable. The Traditions Rally and Late Night are annual events that start the semester off strong, but unlike previous years, a sentimental factor accompanies this year’s events.
On Thursday, the rally will be held at Floyd Casey Stadium for the last time. Come fall 2014, the Traditions Rally will take place at the new football stadium.
Baylor Student Activities plans the Traditions Rally and Late Night to introduce new students to Baylor’s unique culture.
College is a time for new experiences. However, new experiences can also mean new mistakes.
With a never-before-had freedom, fun can quickly turn into foolishness—especially when alcohol is involved.
A Minor in Consumption (MIC) can be issued to anyone caught drinking under the legal age of 21. It is classified by Texas law as a Class C misdemeanor.
Baylor Police Chief Jim Doak said MICs are issued constantly throughout the school year. In some cases, students are arrested before school even begins.
For the first time in Baylor history, all course evaluations will be online.
The transition from paper to electronic evaluations began in the fall semester of 2011. By the fall of 2012, approximately 40 percent of all courses were using this method.
“Anything you do to improve instruction and to provide feedback helps Baylor and, at the end of the day, makes your degree worth more,” Dr. Wesley Null, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, said. “Things like athletics matter, but in the end it’s not winning football games that makes a degree worth more; it’s the academic reputation of the institution.”
Baylor is set to make advances in online learning beginning the spring semester of 2014 with the piloting of virtual classrooms for students.
The university announced June 19 that Baylor will join Semester Online, a consortium of prestigious universities interested in the online version of higher education.
The Baylor University Board of Regents met today and approved names for buildings in East Village as well as spending measures for a new business school building and a new track facility.
The Gordon Teal Residential College, the north building, will be housing for engineering and computer science students. The south building has been named Hallie Earle Hall and will house the Science and Health Living and Learning Community. The middle building will serve as dining and administrative space and will be called East Village Dining Commons.
