Several voices could be heard singing and echoing throughout the Bill Daniel Student Center on Thursday evening. Shortly after the singing stopped, thunderous applause lasted for several minutes. The building was filled with laughter and cheers as faculty, staff and students gathered around to watch the performances at the Black Student Welcome.

The event is a place for students to meet others and connect with cultural organizations on campus — with the added plus of free food, music and a cultural showcase. Throughout Mosaic Week, each ethnic group represented will have a night to put on a welcome fair and show off their campus coalition.

“I think we’ve really leaned into some of those things that have always been important to Baylor and we’re really seeing it pay off in the number of applications that we’re getting and… the quality of students that are coming to Baylor,” President Linda Livingstone said.

For several years, Baylor’s diversity initiatives have primarily been overseen by the Campus Diversity Committee, which has been tasked with enhancing and promoting diversity. However, since the committee was first created, the university’s diversity initiatives are now overseen by departments across campus.

While The Editorial Board isn’t trying to transform into a morning person or hit the gym, its members are setting goals to improve their work and better serve the Baylor community this semester. Hold us accountable for these New Year’s resolutions.

This is how we are trained as journalists, and I think when we live by these rules — and, most importantly, keep open minds and hearts — it can be a step toward a dependable and trustworthy future.

Based on the core themes of care and belonging, the Graduate Student Association will host its second Diversity Gala from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 29 at George W. Truett Theological Seminary. The gala will include a variety of speakers and panelists, bringing the Baylor and Waco communities together for a conversation about the importance of diversity.

Students and faculty attended the first-ever Global Cultural Fest Thursday at the Hankamer School of Business. The event was dedicated to educating and celebrating the diversity of businesses around the world.

Leaving the Judge Baylor statue in place serves as a hateful reminder of Baylor’s past in a place intended to remember the lives of the enslaved people who built the original Independence campus. Allowing the statue to stand in the heart of campus diminishes the value of Baylor’s efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive campus.

The women’s and gender studies program is hosting “Living in a Barbie World: A Panel Discussion” on Oct. 10. Three Baylor professors will discuss the movie of the year: the glittering phenomenon in pink that is “Barbie.”

All services offered by the Counseling Center are free, including telehealth services, face-to-face counseling and the mental health clinical support line. However, some programs that fall under the health services category — such as general medical care, medical nutrition therapy and psychiatric services — require payment, which is usually covered by insurance.

At a university whose mission centers around leadership, academic excellence and “Christian commitment within a caring community,” it has become normalized to be religious on a more public scale.

“What we’re trying to do is figure out how we can, as a faculty and staff, come together and bring our culture into our workspace so that students can see our culture too and feel seen,” Diaz-Espinoza said.

Dr. Malcolm Foley, special adviser to the president for equity and campus engagement, said numbers may fluctuate from year to year in regard to diverse populations, but they are relatively consistent and growing.

A 20-year-old organization at Baylor, the African Student Association aims to connect students of all races with their cultures, working to overcome the challenges its minority members face on campus and beyond.

Dr. Karynecia Conner, GSA’s diversity chair, said she organized the gala with the intention to shine a light on what Baylor is able to do for diversity in its research. In her speech, she said researchers should seek research topics as a means of ministry.

“Think of a population at risk, a population that’s vulnerable, a population that’s been marginalized — social workers are there,” Singletary said.

A new season of the ‘Good Neighbear’ podcast is promoting understanding and appreciation for a diverse range of identities — racial, religious and more. By sharing “stories of hope and healing,” the podcast creates a space for respectful dialogue and community-building.

“Minorities in Medicine is exactly what some students have been looking for in a student organization,” Klausmeyer said. “As Minorities in Medicine starts to gain momentum, we hope that underrepresented students can find a space to grow professionally and spiritually to achieve their goals, [because] one of the best ways to find inspiration is to see other people that look like you in positions of leadership.”

Following in the footsteps of figures like Plato and Aristotle, the field of philosophy has historically been a male-dominated area of education. At Baylor alone, only three out of the 13 full-time faculty members are women.

While most Bears go off to have their own adventures during spring break, North Russell Residence Hall residents stick together for their travels. This year, Baylor and Beyond, the living learning community at North Russell, will travel to the east coast for a week in New York City.

“Waco ISD does intend to include the AP African American Studies course in possible 2022-2023 high school course offerings later this school year to gauge student interest,” Cornblum said via email.

Baylor University is growing its diversity, and Dr. George Yancey, professor of social sciences, recognizes the importance of fostering an environment of respect to build strong interracial connections.

It only takes a flame to start a fire. For Dr. Heidi Hornik, chair of the department of art and art history, it only takes a painting to start a collection. Hanging on the wall of her office in the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center is the painting that started it all.

Literature can have great ideological and political power, judging from the fact that literature participates in many other sorts of movements that people tend to think as being “uniquely American,” Sharp said.

The admission of students of color proved Baylor was moving forward. It showed a “point of pride” for Baylor to have international and Black American students attend the university.

“Our goal is that this is not something that becomes novel or special,” director Sam Henderson said. “We think this will be successful if this is really just the start of something that is a normal occurrence.”

Baylor’s work toward diversity and inclusion within faculty, staff and students has changed throughout the years. According to reports from Institutional Research and Testing (IRT) from 2002 and 2021, full-time faculty has gone from a 92.4% white demographic to an 80.8% white demographic. Additionally, there is currently a 38.4% minority student population on campus.

“[Better Together] was created out of this need for religious minorities, and also the religious majority here at Baylor, to learn more about their neighbors and to develop that understanding between groups,” The Woodlands junior and civic interfaith leader Noor Saleh said.

“I’ve been the first to do a lot of things,” Palacios said. “Even in the School of Education, I was the only Latina professor for over 10 years. I’ve been the first or the only at basically everything I’ve done. I’ve been excited about that. I love that I was able to leave my footprints and have an impact on different things that we still continue to do.”