News

It was a surprise encounter with another Baylor alumna that led Katie Norris (BSFCS ’08) to begin her nonprofit organization, Fotolanthropy, more than a decade ago. Kara Wilkerson (BA ’05, MSEd ’10) had a son who had been diagnosed with a tumor, and in desperation, contacted Norris — and, in her words, “My world stopped.” […]

For a year now, the coronavirus pandemic has thrown challenges at virtually every aspect of Baylor’s approach to education. Thankfully, countless individuals across campus have worked tirelessly for the past year to ensure Baylor could continue serving and loving its students. After years of doing things a certain way, faculty reworked classes overnight to allow […]

March is Women’s History Month, a time for intentionally celebrating and studying the vital roles women have played in American history. That makes this the perfect time to dive into new books, podcasts and other resources to learn more about this often under-considered side of our country’s past. Dr. Andrea Turpin is an associate professor […]

Last summer, Baylor’s Board of Regents established a Commission on Historic Campus Representations to review the history of the university, its founders, and its early leaders for connections to slavery and the Confederacy. The Commission spent the next six months looking at Baylor’s history and developing a series of recommendations on how the university can […]

Baylor graduates make an impact in virtually any field you can think of; this year’s Baylor Alumni Award winners are no different, with recipients leading the charge in everything from medicine and the arts to community and public service. Congratulations to this year’s honorees (click on each name to learn more): Alumnus of the Year: […]

When the buzzer sounded in the Lady Bears’ last appearance in the NCAA tournament, they celebrated. A dramatic win over Notre Dame in Tampa in 2019 clinched the program’s third national championship under head coach Kim Mulkey. And while COVID-19 has led to plenty of changes since then (including the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA […]

Nine times under head coach Scott Drew, Baylor men’s basketball has heard its name called on Selection Sunday for an NCAA Tournament bid — but for the first time in program history, Baylor will begin March Madness as a No. 1 seed, earning the top slot in the South Region for 2021. Baylor fans don’t […]

The Rev. Dr. Kenyatta Gilbert (BA ’96) — professor of homiletics at Howard University School of Divinity, nationally recognized expert on African American preaching, and a Baylor Bear — has one concrete message he hopes to share in his writing, preaching and teaching. “I want to remind humans that God values us, honors our faith […]

Each week, The New York Times publishes a recommended reading list, featuring books of all shapes, sizes and subjects. This week’s list is quite diverse topic-wise: a romantic comedy, a memoir on race — and a biography written by one of our very own faculty members. Calhoun: American Heretic, written by Baylor history professor Robert […]

Dr. Devan Stahl’s call to bioethics began with her own experience as a patient. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis as a young woman, she recognized aspects of the healthcare system that could be improved — most notably, the ways doctors and decision-makers communicated with (and considered) people with disabilities. Stahl, an assistant professor of religion, joined […]

The stories of “boom to bust” for college and pro athletes after their playing careers end are legion. Vinnie Johnson, Baylor Class of 1980, is not one of those. Johnson — a two-time all-American at Baylor, one of the greatest sixth men in NBA history, and our pick as the greatest Baylor alum in NBA history […]

Shout it from the rafters — Baylor men’s basketball is the 2020-21 Big 12 Conference champion! The Bears beat No. 6-ranked West Virginia on the road Tuesday — in overtime — 94-89 to clinch the program’s first conference title in 71 years. Some stories about the game focused on the rust head coach Scott Drew’s team is […]

It appears there are now three great certainties in life: death, taxes, and Baylor women’s basketball winning the Big 12. Yes, the Lady Bears won their 11th straight regular season Big 12 title this week, extending their decade of dominance over the league. The run is the longest active streak in the nation, and the […]

While sources differ, Baylor was one of the first (perhaps the very first) institution west of the Mississippi River to admit women. And in 1855 — just a year after BU’s first graduating class — Mary Gentry Kavanaugh became the first woman to earn a degree from Baylor University. Though the university was still young, […]

As one Baylor student put it, “Black history is not just for Black people. Black history is American history, so I want to make sure that we’re able to share it, and engage with it.” That effort doesn’t end just because the calendar has rolled from February (and Black History Month) on into March. In […]

February is Black History Month, a time for intentionally learning more about the roles African Americans have played in our nation’s history. One approach is to read up on Black history in the U.S.; Baylor history professor Ronald Johnson put together an excellent list of resources. Another approach is to dive into some of the outstanding […]

With COVID-19 vaccine distribution increasing each day, there’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel — and Baylor nursing students are helping that light shine even brighter. This spring, 120 senior-level, second-semester nursing students (and faculty, too) from the Louise Herrington School of Nursing (LHSON) are helping administer the COVID-19 Moderna vaccine here […]

Thanks to technology, the world is connected in a way and at a speed that has never been possible before. Such progress offers conveniences not even imaginable some 20 years ago — but also a new category of threats. As data breaches and other IT security issues continue to make headlines, Baylor is dedicated to […]

Just off Fountain Mall sits a peaceful garden plot, complete with gorgeous landscaping and bold granite markers. The space is Baylor’s National Pan-Hellenic Garden, a place to recognize historically Black Greek-lettered groups on campus. The markers represent fraternities and sororities within the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), often referred to as the “Divine Nine.” The NPHC […]

The top two indoor pole vault records in NCAA history now belong to a Baylor Bear. KC Lightfoot, a junior on the Baylor track and field team, is off to an incredible start in 2021, setting the NCAA men’s indoor pole vault record — then besting that mark just two weeks later. “It’s been a […]

For so many people, college is the time of life when they first fall in love with coffee. Early morning classes, various student activities, dozens of new friends, and test after project after test… All can quickly lead to coffee being an absolute necessity. Lucky for us, Waco has no shortage of coffee shops — […]

The NBA traces its founding to 1946, when a group of hockey owners decided to start a basketball league. Three years later, that league merged with another entity, and the “National Basketball Association” was born. That same year, 1949, also saw the first Baylor Bear play in the NBA: Red Owens, who debuted that season […]

February is Black History Month, a time for intentionally recognizing the contributions that African Americans have made to our nation’s history. Sure, we learned the basics about Frederick Douglass and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in school — but there are so many other people and stories that aren’t as well known, but deserve to […]

The last time Baylor entrepreneurship WASN’T among the nation’s top 10 programs, today’s freshmen had barely started elementary school. Yes, for the 12th straight year, Baylor’s undergraduate entrepreneurship program is a consensus top-1o national pick in the field. It’s ranked No. 7 in the country by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneurship magazine, and No. 8 […]

Several years ago, Baylor business professor Stacie Petter and then-doctoral candidate Laurie Giddens (MSIS ’02, PhD ’17) bonded in a Baylor classroom over their shared passion to fight human trafficking. They knew their discipline, information systems, could be a tool in that fight, but weren’t sure exactly how to blend their work with their desire […]

While the Baylor Family is understandably focused on Baylor’s two top-10 basketball teams, the No. 2-ranked Bears and No. 8-ranked Lady Bears are far from the only top teams on campus as we head into the spring. Seven of Baylor’s spring sports are ranked in the Top 25 — including a pair sitting at No. […]

In a film career that’s spanned three decades, Baylor alum John Lee Hancock (BA ’79, JD’ 82) has written and/or directed such hit movies as The Blind Side, The Rookie, and Saving Mr. Banks. Now, almost one year after his last release, Hancock is behind the camera once again for his 12th feature film, The […]

Can you believe it? Joy, the elder of our two beloved American black bears, is celebrating her 20th birthday today! Joy — officially Judge Joy Reynolds — was born on Jan. 27, 2001; her sister, Judge Sue Sloan (“Lady”), was born a year and four days later (Jan. 31, 2002), and so turns 19 later this […]

“Stones, bones, and Indiana Jones.” That’s what many people think of when they hear the word “anthropology,” says Baylor anthropology department chair Michael Muehlenbein. But the discipline — better summarized as “the study of humans” is a broad field, as demonstrated by Dr. Muehlenbein’s own expertise in infectious diseases (including COVID-19). Muehlenbein came to Baylor in […]

For the past several years, Baylor alumna Whitney Reynolds (BA ’07) has made it her mission to highlight do-gooders through her talk show, The Whitney Reynolds Show, seen primarily in the Chicago area. Now, the show is going national, thanks to a syndication deal that includes PBS stations in Los Angeles, Denver, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. […]

What impact does urban pollution have on thunderstorm activity? The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) wants to know — and is enlisting the services of two Baylor environmental science professors as part of a massive three-year project to learn more. Drs. Rebecca Sheesley and Sascha Usenko each serve as associate professors of environmental science at […]

While most Baylor students were wrapping up finals and planning their Christmas break last month, two Bears were earning major national awards for their academic accomplishments. Sophia Fulton, a senior in the Business Fellows program at Baylor, was awarded the Charles B. Rangel Graduate Fellowship. Endowed by the U.S. Department of State, this highly competitive […]

For the seventh year in a row, Baylor student-athletes have led the Big 12 Conference in Graduation Success Rate (GSR) — the 12th time in the last 14 years that the Bears have finished either first or second in GSR. But it doesn’t stop there. Not content with simply extending their run of dominance, Baylor […]

Baylor recently announced that, beginning in late January, all faculty, staff and students will be tested for COVID-19 every week. Yes, that’s a lot. And testing fatigue is real. So why is Baylor making this move? The short answer: So that everything else about campus life — from classes to extracurriculars — can be as […]

Sunday morning, it started snowing in Waco — a rare occurrence, but not unheard of. And then it kept coming down, and kept coming, and kept coming — and by 6 p.m., Waco had officially received 4.4 inches of snow, the most since January 1982. As Baylor Bears, we are blessed to have a beautiful […]