When walking through Foster and reviewing for an exam, students don’t always stop to wonder whether their professor or classmates are veterans. Yet for some professors and students, Veterans Day isn’t simply a holiday, but a memory of time spent in service.

Alumni and current students are mourning the passing of Baylor Communication Professor Dr. David Schlueter, remembered for his kindness and gracious spirit. In a social media post made by the Baylor Department of Communication, they described a professor who made time for everyone, whether they met him once at an event or were mentored by him over the years.

While some professors teach with slideshows and worksheets, history lecturer Dr. Anthony Gaspar teaches material in a unique way — through impressions.

Despite coming from a vast range of backgrounds and interests, the roads of 10 Baylor professors converged this year in the Baylor Fellows Program.

Baylor history professor Dr. Robert Elder is the first Baylor faculty member to be awarded the Public Scholars grant from the NEH to help his future book project about the nullification crisis, a conflict between South Carolina and the federal government in the 1830s.

Baylor professor Dr. Saralyn McKinnon-Crowley brought her love of trivia to the national stage last week when she competed on “Jeopardy!”, fulfilling a dream years in the making.

Baylor announced Thursday that Dr. Jon Singletary, dean of the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, will step down effective October 15. According to Provost Nancy Brickhouse, Singletary plans to return to the faculty to “focus on interdisciplinary research.”

Baylor professors Dr. Benjamin Rose and Dr. Peter James both work with NASA and conduct research for upcoming projects, including the Roman Space Telescope and SPARX lunar mission.

Baylor held its annual Faculty and Staff of Color Reception Thursday afternoon to welcome new staff for this school year and celebrate plans for the new year, one being the new memorial on Founder’s Mall.

“We tell our managers and our leaders all the time — we can have the best policies in the world, but if a manager doesn’t really understand it or support it, that can minimize the support,” Gochis said.

Baylor University began rolling out digital IDs in the spring of 2023. Now the university is transitioning away from physical cards altogether. This year, the incoming freshman class did not even receive a physical ID, only a digital one.

Szymanski, a marketing professor by trade, plans to use his background to make sure employers, colleges and alumni understand the value of Baylor Business. He also announced plans to enhance student experiences through continued growth of international education, a focus on internships, the implementation of AI in all classes and more combined graduate degree programs.

Along with a completely revised core curriculum and new electives, the total credit hours required to complete a major or secondary major has dropped from 36 to 30. Many prerequisites, which often barred non-majors from enrolling in a course, have also been stripped.

Mazumder, 42, joined Baylor in the 2021-2022 academic year. After four years in Waco at the Hankamer School of Business, Mazumder and his family will relocate to northern Georgia as the soon-to-be former dean begins his tenure as the ninth president of the sprawling, rural 2,000-student Berry College.

“The fact that our faculty are among the most cited of people across their disciplines says that the contributions that we’re making in those areas are meaningful and impactful, not just on our campus, but beyond our university and to the larger community.”

“It started when I was about 9 years old,” Little said. “I was one of those nerdy little kids who spent her lunchtime in the library reading real ghost stories.”

Other than diversity, Baylor was recognized in seven different categories this year: job satisfaction and support, mission and pride, faculty and staff wellbeing, compensation and benefits, supervisor effectiveness, confidence in senior leadership and professional development.

“We’re very excited about the success of our academic programs over the last year. We’re even more excited about what’s to come under Baylor in Deeds,” Brickhouse said.

“Everyone saw the value in being here, even though they came from so many other places and backgrounds.”

“I really, really appreciated that the university took the initiative to allow us to have an official voice and an official presence,” Jortner said. “There’s a big difference between one professor in the theater program arguing for something and an organization of faculty saying, ‘We speak as one, and this is a concern.’”

Lyon is a Baylor alumnus and has been part of the faculty at Baylor since 1975, starting out as a professor of sociology up until 1998 when he became dean of the Graduate School and has been in that position since. When he retires at the end of this academic year, he will have completed 50 years at Baylor. During his tenure as dean, he has witnessed the transformation and contributed to the growth of the graduate school.

Even though Prater has not yet crossed paths with Foli, her impact on the graduate program is already present. Prater, who is currently reading Foli’s book on psychological trauma in nurses, said Foli’s arrival “reinforces [her] excitement to be at Baylor and in the program.”

Students are invited to nominate a faculty or staff member who has made an impact on them both in and out of the classroom for Phi Kappa Chi’s Light Your World Award Banquet. The nomination form closes at midnight on April 15.

In 2008, the university implemented the Academy for Teaching and Learning. The institution exists for the sole purpose of ensuring faculty have every resource at their disposal to create a good educational experience.

According to a Baylor email announcement sent to all faculty and staff on March 26, the cost of student meal plans has increased steadily with inflation, allowing for institutional subsidies on faculty and staff dining to remain the same for nearly two decades. However, due to inflation, the university has decided to raise faculty and staff dining rates.

It can be easy to forget faculty and staff have lives outside of Baylor. However, they enjoy doing many of the same activities that students do, and they are far more human than they may initially seem.

One Thursday every month, Black women at Baylor meet at My Sister, Myself — a support group dedicated to building community and providing a safe space for vulnerability.

Since the introduction of Baylor’s new digital ID card at the beginning of the spring semester, 60% of on-campus students have signed up for and begun taking advantage of the service. However, off-campus students, faculty and staff will have to wait for it to be extended to them.

The Baylor Kendo Club took home first place at the Houston Kendo Kyokai’s 10th Anniversary Taikai on Oct. 26. After seven rounds of competition as one of the only college-based teams at the tournament, the Baylor Kendo Club defeated over 100 competitors from various clubs across Central Texas.

“I’m a firm believer, and I think many are, of [having] a good process and then [trusting] the process, and I think we have a really good process here,” Villegas said. “So I think in trusting the process, the good process that we have, I think, what will emerge are the things that people genuinely care about.”