There’s a suffocating pressure at our university, not always shouted out loud but whispered through glances, side-eyes and subtle exclusions. It tells you that if you’re not wearing the right outfit, worshipping at the right church or saying the right things, you don’t belong. The phrase “Love thy neighbor” gets thrown around, but only if that neighbor blends in.

It is not a good precedent to appropriate work from other creators, even if you think more art will be created through AI. Intellectual property is protected in every field and service; however, for some reason, AI large language models have been able to use intellectual property for their own benefit, because it hasn’t been properly regulated yet. Many argue that ChatGPT isn’t “creating” anything; it is simply plagiarizing it and calling it their own.

I don’t find SAAM “triggering” at all. It warms my heart and inspires me to do things like what I’m doing right now — going beyond my comfort zone to bring light to an issue that affects our Baylor community and beyond. I hope to help others who have experienced it to understand it better and feel less alone.

If you had told me freshman year after saying “I’m gonna transfer” one too many times, that I was graduating from that very institution in May, I wouldn’t believe you. My experience at Baylor has ultimately changed me in so many ways. I have never had experiences with humans who have altered my life; basically, I’ve been humbled, shattered, loved, etc. Everything you need to experience in your young adulthood is right here.

What’s beautiful is that you don’t need the aesthetic to be Christian. I have been to churches with beautiful stained-glass walls, and I’ve been to churches with no walls at all. I’ve experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit in a small worship service with less than a dozen people singing in a dialect I barely understand, and I have experienced the Holy Spirit in a gathering of hundreds.

The argument could be made that since Texas’ minimum wage is $7.25 per hour — which is the same as the federal minimum wage which was set in 2009 — Baylor is paying its student employees a reasonable amount. Except we’re no longer in 2009. It’s 2025, meaning Baylor students are dealing with over a decade-long inflation rise. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.48% per year between 2009 and now, producing a cumulative price increase of 48.07%. This means today’s prices are 1.48 times as high as average prices since 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index.