Baylor News
We’re at college to learn. Learning requires struggle and it requires taking the time beyond what’s needed for studying for a test to actually understand how information sits with your current worldviews and be willing to listen to people who disagree with you.
One of the nation’s most iconic Christmas traditions, “The Nutcracker,” will be making its way to Baylor on Dec. 14 for an annual on-campus performance, featuring the Waco Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Frontier and young local Waco performers.
“We’re really trying to foster and create a new community for students to come to that’s more peer-to-peer rather than peer-to quote unquote ‘adult,’ so it’s more of a comfortable connection,” Villalon said.
Former Baylor volleyball player Emily Huston created HomeTeam, which is “the first centralized hub for athlete-centered care and community,” according to its website. HomeTeam was born to combat the loneliness athletes face after leaving their sport.
Waco News
The White House has announced several changes to today’s memorial service that will honor the 10 firefighters killed April 17 in the West fertilizer explosion.
Doors will now open at 11 a.m. and close at 1:45 p.m. or whenever the Ferrell Center reaches capacity, which is 10,284 people. In a statement released Wednesday night, the university said it expects more than 4,000 uniformed first responders to attend and are planning for a capacity crowd.
Several West residents are continuing the search for missing loved ones after last week’s deadly explosion, and for some people those loved ones included four-legged friends.
Following the explosion on April 17 almost 90 animals, mainly dogs and cats, were brought to the Humane Society of Central Texas, according to executive director Don Bland. Chickens, lizards and rabbits were also among those rescued. At the time of publication half of the lost animals have been reclaimed.
Less than a week after the disastrous fertilizer plant explosion, West students returned to school Monday to finish out the year.
Pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade students returned to West Elementary School, a little over a mile away from the West Fertilizer Co. plant that caught fire and exploded Wednesday night.
Baylor will host a memorial service Thursday at the Ferrell Center for the 11 first responders killed in the West explosion.
Doors open at 1 p.m. and the service begins at 2 p.m.. A procession beginning at 11 a.m. will immediately precede the service.
Covid-19
“Since July 1st, Baylor’s campus has had nine positives out of 48 tests,” Stern said. “And in the last month alone, we have had seven positives out of 29 tests, which is almost a 25% positivity rate.”
State News
Trump encouraged voter turnout and touts policy victories, saying, “Pretend I’m on the ballot.” He also announced that if Republicans win the House and Senate, every adult U.S. citizen would receive a $5,000 dividend.

