Browsing: The Lariat

Nearly 75 years ago, Baylor’s All-University Sing had little the pomp and circumstance it does today. On a rainy spring night in April 1953, a meager 13 souls gathered into Waco Hall to watch just eight groups perform after the weather had relocated them from their original location at the SUB Bowl.

The Baylor Lariat, the voice for the student body for the past 80 years, was silent. An empty newsroom was echoed only by the fateful last stand of the Feb. 22, 1980, editorial. But in the spring of 1980, the lights went out in the newsroom. Students still went to class, and Fountain Mall still hummed with springtime chatter — but the newsstands remained empty.

Serving as the editor-in-chief of The Lariat has been the greatest privilege of my college career. I never could have imagined how bittersweet it would be to unpin my prints from the board, design my last staff meeting presentation and pass my final story on Camayak. But here I am, shedding a tear or two writing this letter.

To ban the use of an emerging technology simply out of fear will result in unfamiliarity with a tool of the future. Generative AI programs will not just disappear because educational institutions don’t like their capability for dishonesty.