Baylor News
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.”
Waco locals Chip and Joanna Gaines will be lighting up television screens across the nation this coming March 2014 with their new HGTV show, “Fixer Upper,” as they renovate homes in the Waco/Dallas area needing tender loving care.
“The first rule of real estate is location, location, location, but what happens when a buyer’s only option in the right location is a house with dreadful design and a clunky layout?” HGTV asks in its description of the new show on its website, www.hgtv.com.
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 wheels are in motion to develop a part of Waco that Baylor students and Waco citizens alike will be able to enjoy.
The Brazos Riverfront project has been proposed by the city of Waco and taken up by developers Rick Sheldon and Joe Beard. The project would bring in business to the Brazos riverfront area and the Waco economy.
Waco News
State News
Texas voters turned out in historic numbers Tuesday, delivering victories for State Rep. James Talarico and forcing a runoff between Attorney General Ken Paxton and incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the state’s U.S. Senate contest that claimed national attention. The total early-voting turnout of more than 2.5 million marks the highest ever for a midterm primary election. The results also kicked off the 2026 midterm cycle.
National
Politics
INTERNATIONAL
The Iran war is now in its 46th day. Iran responded by restricting access to Hormuz, which carries about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil, and moving to toll vessels transiting the strait. Waco drivers are already feeling it. The local average hit $3.38 a gallon last week, up 21 cents in seven days and 75 cents year-over-year, according to AAA data.
Gas prices in Texas have surged more than 70 cents per gallon since the U.S. went to war with Iran three weeks ago. The near-total shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz has driven oil prices up more than 40%, pushing the national average to its highest point since 2023 and sending diesel past $5 for the first time in three years.
The largest U.S. military operation in the Middle East in decades unfolded as American and Israeli forces struck Iran Saturday, killing its supreme leader and triggering retaliatory strikes from the Gulf to Israel. The White House said the campaign is aimed at dismantling Iran’s military and toppling its government.
Dr. Joshua Alley, assistant professor of political science, said part of the Trump administration’s interest in Greenland has to do with America’s national security strategy.
