Sports betting and prediction markets take real people and events and turn them into numbers on a screen, dehumanizing them and turning them into vehicles for profit. The harms of sports betting are well documented and researched; you can’t step foot into a Las Vegas casino without seeing a “When the Fun Stops” brochure prominently displayed on an ATM.
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It seems as though each year the importance of election season grows, with 2026 being no exception. With the ever-growing political tension and scrutiny between parties, the responsibility to build bridges falls on us — those with the power to vote. If you’re struggling with where to begin, here are five questions to help get you on the right path.
In classrooms across Baylor, an epidemic has gone silently unnoticed: a lack of motivation to learn. While this seems to be addressed in the conversation about literacy rates and artificial intelligence, it has yet to be discussed that students would rather do homework or respond to emails than sit attentively in class.
We live in a time and country with no shortage of things worth caring about. Yet too often, an issue does not seem to matter until its consequences are relevant, immediate, visible or catastrophic. A war thousands of miles away is an easy headline to scroll past; a local decision can happen without most of the people it affects ever knowing; an injustice can continue quietly for years if it never becomes dramatic enough to command national attention.
Joking about mental health is easy. Actually facing mental health issues head-on is not.
We seem to have forgotten the meaning of “What Would Jesus Do?” Instead, it has become a familiar saying that is slapped on bracelets, T-shirts or bumper stickers and fails to make it into our daily life. And, often, the way we live is not more than this.
Baylor’s student body has had the opportunity to react to various political events on campus over the past year. Tables add color to Fountain Mall day in and day out, and may or may not be political in nature. One constant remains, however: Baylor University is not, and ought not to be, directly political.
Marketed as license plate readers, cameras like Flock and other similar brands have impacts that extend far beyond helping hand out speeding tickets and traffic fines. They create an environment of mass surveillance where not only our privacy is threatened, but our constitutional rights.
A lot has happened since we left campus last spring: America turned 250 years old, Europeans discovered Buc-ee’s during the FIFA World Cup and the largest known outbreak of Cyclospora ever was recorded in the U.S., leading to over 15,000 confirmed cases from May 1 to Aug. 17.
Welcome back to campus, Bears. We are so glad you are here. Whether today is your first day at Baylor or you’ve done this a few times, we hope your first day of classes goes well. The Baylor Lariat’s editorial board is made up of a group of Lariat editors who meet each week to discuss the issues, events and conversations shaping the Baylor community and beyond. Our goal is to write on issues and events we believe are relevant to our readers.
Baylor’s fiscal issues are affecting far more than the dollar amount you see in BearWeb. It is fundamentally changing our university and what makes Baylor, Baylor. It’s hitting departments, retirement and, on a personal level, The Lariat’s newsroom.
Just blocks from campus, Wacoans live without a place to stay, asking for money on the corner of every popular grease pit location. All the while, one of the state’s largest universities hasn’t done much to drive change.
If the majority of your principles as a voter align more closely with one side or the other, failing to vote with that party is not only throwing away one of our most important rights as Americans, but it is also helping the people you disagree with win.
What might it look like if students attended All Are Neighbors, then walked together to the Quadrangle for prayer and, from there, continued on to the Turning Point USA event? What conversations might emerge not in isolation, but in movement — in the shared experience of listening, reflecting and then listening again?
Our media is designed for distraction; as a result, you can’t have productive conversations because they want intellectual diversions. The result is a kind of intellectual echo chamber masquerading as informed discourse. We mistake familiarity for accuracy and repetition for truth, echoing headlines we have absorbed rather than arguments we have examined.
Basing your diet on the advice of online influencers is a dangerous route to take, as it often lacks critical information that allows consumers to make healthy, responsible choices on their own.
In a world that is all over the place and constantly changing, cozy games help. Games like The Sims 4 and Animal Crossing offer low-stakes, calm gameplay. These games allow players to tend gardens, fish and decorate their dream homes at their own pace. There aren’t any fast-paced, quick time events or frustrating levels to complete, which helps promote relaxation.
Now more than ever, the confirmation of alien life is exactly what the world needs to bridge its divide. With economically and emotionally devastating wars and polarized thinking, something big could mend fences — and finding extraterrestrials would do just that.
We don’t need to reject technology or social media completely, but we do need to relearn where the line is and start acting as if it exists again. If everything becomes content, we all lose control of our own lives at some point.
If you’re worried about what a draft or what the Iran war might mean for you personally, listen to foreign policy experts, research your eligibility and — above all — stay engaged. Apathy and misinformation kill as bullets and bombs do, without us even setting foot on the battlefield.
Next month, TPUSA’s “This is the Turning Point Tour” will arrive on Baylor’s campus. What does it mean for Baylor — not simply as a university, but as a Christian academic community — to host an organization so closely associated with ideological aggravation?
While political leaders frame the population change as evidence of successful policy, they ignore the broader changes happening. The fading image of the American Dream is a direct result of shifts within the nation itself; changes that directly affect, or will affect, your household.
Technology is prohibiting the human connection that college is built on, and unfortunately, change doesn’t start until professors and other students engage in conversations outside the class block. Some professors are already doing this by having lunch with students or simply opening the door to discussion about a passion in common with a student right after class ends.
It is not uncommon to hear someone say, half-laughing, that they didn’t even last a week. The remark is meant to be humorous, but it reveals something deeper. Failure in Lent has become social embarrassment rather than spiritual reflection. Success has become a badge of religious credibility. The language of repentance has been replaced by the language of achievement.
Two things can be true at once. You can love Sing because of its exciting production and fabulous dance numbers and criticize it for its shortcomings. If you didn’t get tickets this year, for whatever reason, that’s OK. You aren’t any less green and gold for missing the Greeks shake and belt one out.
Even when it seemed like all hope was lost for Lindsey Vonn, she affirmed in her post that the act of standing at the gate, starting her run and competing was victory enough. So chase your dreams, work hard and most importantly, don’t let small hurdles stop you from taking risks and excelling. Life is hard sometimes, but the courage to stand at that starting gate is all it takes to start your next adventure.
We would argue that the egregious spending is not the result of increased love this year — it’s a crutch. It’s less effort (though not for your wallet) to lavish someone with gifts to make up for where you’ve fallen short than to simply change your behavior. But, as many a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband and wife will learn come Feb. 14, conversation hearts don’t equate to real conversations, and a dozen roses still come with thorns.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as an agency, exists within the bounds of federal law. Acknowledging that fact does not require ignoring how its power is used. We are not trying to debate whether the U.S. has the right to enforce immigration law; we are concerned whether enforcement is carried out in a way that aligns with our democratic values, constitutional protections and moral obligations.
Somewhere between lectures, homework, quizzes and deadlines, it seems that actually engaging with the people sitting next to us becomes optional — or something we actively avoid. By the end of the semester, we leave with a hopefully passing grade and a handful of half-remembered faces, but few real connections, if any at all.
In a world full of success and hustle culture, watching the friends you grew up with pack their bags to move to their dream city might spark feelings of insecurity. Despite this, it’s important to remember that everyone is on their own path, on their own time. It might not sound as glamorous as a packed U-Haul barreling its way to a new city, but returning to your hometown post-grad is just as fulfilling.
