Baylor News
While first-generation students make up an estimated 16% of Baylor’s student body, Frisco senior Liberty Ferguson said significantly fewer take advantage of the available scholarships and programming, making student engagement a key success factor.
As a Spring senior in Baylor’s Air Force ROTC program, Alissa Zenero earned the Distinguished Graduate designation, awarded to the top 10% of ROTC cadets across the country, while also securing a coveted reserve pilot slot to fly the C-5M Super Galaxy out of Dover, Del.
Last year, two Baylor business students formed a nonprofit to collect dorm items during move-out and donate them to charities in need. Now after Bear-ly Used’s first year of operations, which donated over 13 storage pods worth of appliances, furniture and other goods, the team is back with bigger plans.
Baylor’s Laparoscopy Lab, known across campus simply as Laparo, gives freshmen hands-on surgical training and a full year of guided research experience before they ever apply to medical school.
Waco News
Families filled the Mayborn Museum on Saturday afternoon and for the fourth year in a row, hosted the Community Offering or “Ofrenda” in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, featuring an array of artwork, activities and performances.
Urban renewal has since demolished many homes and buildings in Calle Dos and Sandtown, another Hispanic neighborhood, but the inaugural Hispanic History Month Walking Tour aimed to bring them back through storytelling.
With 11 different off-campus apartment complexes and dozens of individual homes in its real estate portfolio, Baylor houses far more than the 39% of students who live on campus, and the number is growing.
Armstrong Browning Library & Museum invited students to celebrate Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 179th wedding anniversary on Friday from 2-4 p.m. The event offered food and displayed items from the Brownings’ collection.
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
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.
