Baylor News
Residential chaplains are seminary students at George W. Truett Theological Seminary who choose to live alongside undergraduate students, dedicating 20 hours a week to providing spiritual support for the challenges of daily life.
Senior apparel design and product development majors showcased their work at the annual runway show and luncheon Thursday afternoon to commemorate their time at Baylor coming to a close. Hosted by Baylor Round Table, the event gave aspiring fashion designers and models a taste of the industry while highlighting students’ work.
That gap in understanding of the collaboration of patient care is what San Jose, Calif., sophomore Ananya Bharathapudi and Tulsa, Okla., junior Enzo Henry hope to address. Baylor’s Interprofessional Events, a series created in partnership with the Office of Prehealth Studies, aims to help students see healthcare as a team‑based, interconnected field.
Students submit course evaluations at the end of every semester, but faculty and administrators say the feedback is only one piece of a much larger system used to assess teaching. While some professors say evaluations lead to real course changes, others emphasize that responses are filtered for patterns — not isolated complaints.
Waco News
“We take for granted the stability we have,” Ashley said. “CASA gives kids a constant figure in their lives when everything else is changing.”
The project looks to build up the riverside between Mary and Waco Avenues by constructing parks and public spaces, building a new city hall, adding a sports entertainment district with a ballpark, creating a performing arts district and convention center and significantly improving overall walkability around the city.
Lilia Gonzalez, director of nurses, said Health Services would remain available to monitor potential measles outbreaks and help students. Though the Texas measles outbreak has ended, Health Services continues providing preventative measures for other potential outbreaks.
More than 500 attended the luncheon hosted by the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday. In a room of some of Central Texas’s biggest donors and sponsors, Abbott shared some of the highlights from his February State of the State Address and the 89th Legislative Session. Abbott announced legislative wins on issues like housing affordability, small business success and education reform to an applauding audience.
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.
