Baylor News
Coming all the way from Yale University, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience Dr. Francesca Penner joined the department this fall and is bringing research about parent-child relationships and mental health to Baylor.
“Their faith and friendship is just as compelling and real and attractive as anyone else’s,” Dr. Erik Carter said. “The way we gather in communities separates people — because of fear, because of attitudes, because of whatever. So that is now the running theme through all of the research I do: It’s how do you get people to be in community with one another in our schools, in our workplaces, in our churches, on our college campuses?”
From wings to waffles, the Penland Crossroads offers a wide variety of options as the largest dining hall on campus — but freshmen seem to favor its milk. A student-run milk-drinking competition known as “Milk Monday” has taken campus by storm, with over 150 students in attendance this week.
Baylor Multicultural Affairs is offering students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the history of the civil rights movement with a trip across the U.S. in January. The deadline to apply is Oct. 11.
Waco News
Student government is collecting box tops to benefit J.H. Hines Elementary School for the second year, this time to raise money for the school’s library.
Theologian Frederich Buechner said that vocation “is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” For two Baylor alumni, this has proven to be all too true.
The Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce is involved in a development effort to revitalize economic activity in Waco. The plans for economic development include a five-year plan and a 20- to 40-year redevelopment plan.
He said difficult days lay ahead. But from the mountaintop, he could see the Promised Land. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke these words the day before his assassination. According to Rev. Dr. Kenyatta Gilbert, the son of the first black Baylor student, he was right. As a student at Baylor from 1963-1967 and as a civil rights leader and pastor in Waco, Gilbert’s father, Robert Gilbert, suffered severe discrimination and resistance to change.
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.
INTERNATIONAL
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.
The abduction of a foreign leader was not on most students’ bingo cards for winter break. Once news headlines began appearing about Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and how his wife were removed from Venezuela, most people scratched their heads in confusion, wondering where the news came from and why it happened.