For thousands of people around America, Monday was a day full of pink and red balloons and bears, with flowers and vases and chocolate-covered sweet things. Laughter, hugging and excitement hovered around the millions of people experiencing “love”’ But the sweetest sound for many wasn’t a serenade or love song – it was the day Spring Training began.

The ability to go to a museum and enjoy the exhibits, being able to walk into an emergency room and explain an illness or injury, going to a movie for pleasure, the safety net of an emergency phone in an elevator — these are all things most people are able to do with ease, and often take for granted.

With the Egyptian Revolution leading to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year authoritarian rule and seeming unrest sweeping across Iran, Algeria, Bahrain and much of the rest the Middle East, democracy is becoming a cultural buzz word.

Last week, Baylor University regents met in Dallas to consider a variety of issues of importance to the continued growth, prosperity, impact and influence of Baylor University. Amid reports from university President Ken Starr and other administrators on a variety of topics, including Baylor’s popularity as measured by the strength of its expected incoming freshman class, and the vitality of our endowment during the first half of the current fiscal year, regents voted to retain the services of an architectural firm to help us begin to consider our next campus residential community.