Fall 2020 Newsletter

A Message from RPAP

Baylor University is settling into the rhythm of another, albeit different, school year. We are remaining vigilant for the health and safety of our faculty, staff and students, but we are also grateful to return to the familiar beat and pace of the fall.

Some things have changed completely, though, and we hope the day will come soon when we can gather in person again for fellowship with our Retired Professors and Administrators Program. We hope that this newsletter will help you feel connected still to campus and that it will give you some insight into the impact these times are having on the Baylor Experience of our students. This is truly a different season, but we are grateful for the technology and resources that are allowing us to connect in new ways and the grace with which so many in our Baylor Family are receiving these new changes.

We look forward to the day we can all meet together and fellowship again. Until then, we hope you are well and healthy.

Sic 'Em

RPAP Fall Inductee Ceremony

It was an honor to celebrate the commitment to Baylor University and welcome our newest class of Retired Professors and Administrators. Thank you for helping to shape Baylor into the strong University it is today.

• DURWOOD RAY BAGBY, PH.D.: Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship, served Baylor for 32 years in the Hankamer School of Business
• SHARON ANN CONRY: Senior Lecturer and Lab Coordinator, served Baylor for 35 years in the Honors College
• C. ALTON HASSELL, PH.D.: Senior Lecturer, Chemistry and Biochemistry, served Baylor for 38 years in the College of Arts & Sciences
• DAVID W. HENDON, PH.D.: Professor of History, served Baylor for 43 years in the College of Arts & Sciences
• GREGORY W. LEMAN, PH.D.: Clinical Professor and Innovative Business Accelerator Director, served Baylor for 15 years in the Hankamer School of Business
• MARTIN J. MEDHURST, PH.D.: Distinguished Professor of Rhetoric & Communication and Professor of Political Science, served Baylor for 17 years in the College of Arts & Sciences
• PATRICIA MAYER MILLIGAN, PH.D.: Associate Professor, Information Systems, served Baylor for 37 years in the Hankamer School of Business
• DAVID W. MUSIC, D.M.A.: Professor Emeritus of Academic Studies, served Baylor for 18 years in the School of Music
• STUART E. ROSENBAUM, PH.D.: Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, served Baylor for 39 years in the College of Arts & Sciences
• JOAN E. SUPPLEE, PH.D.: Professor Emeritus of History, Director of the Model Organization of American States Program & Director of BU in Argentina, served Baylor for 28 years in the College of Arts & Sciences, holder of the Ralph L. and Bessie Mae Lynn Chair in History (2008-2020)
• CHARLES WILLIAM THOMAS, PH.D.: Professor Emeritus of Accounting and Business Law & Holder of The J.E. Bush Professorship in Accounting & Master Teacher, served Baylor for 43 years in the Hankamer School of Business
• JANELLE MARSHALL WALTER, PH.D.: Professor Emeritus of Family and Consumer Sciences, served Baylor for 41 years in Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences
• JEFFREY L. WALTER: Assistant Director for Campus Recreation, served Baylor for 21 years in the Division of Student Life
• KATHY M. WHIPPLE, PH.D.: Professor Emeritus of Communication Sciences and Disorders, served Baylor for 34 years in Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences
• DARRYN S. WILLOUGHBY, PH.D.: Professor Emeritus of Health, Human Performance and Recreation & Director of the Exercise Biochemical & Nutrition Lab, served Baylor for 16 years in Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences
• ANN KATHARINE WISWALL: Financial and Grants Manager, served Baylor for 20 years in the School of Education

Please click the link below to view the ceremony.

Fall Inductee Ceremony

The Trailblazer Scholars Program

Baylor University has faced many challenges in 2020. From mobilizing systems and faculty to quickly address the health and safety concerns of the novel coronavirus, Baylor, and other institutions of higher education, strengthened its ability to meet students’ educational needs within an electronic learning environment on a scale never before seen in higher education.

As an institution, Baylor University has begun to have conversations around racial conciliation on our campus and has responded quickly as its students, faculty and staff joined national conversations regarding racial awareness, conciliation and healing. The Baylor Trailblazer Scholars Program was created in July in response to these conversations to provide the University with actionable steps to help students create a supportive environment where diversity and mutual respect flourish on campus.

Establishing the Trailblazer Scholars Program is a meaningful and tangible step in supporting, encouraging and equipping our students of color. Baylor University made a pledge to lean into opportunities to listen, learn and grow alongside our students, and this innovative new program is another step forward in fulfilling that promise,” Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D., said. “The scholarship support generated through this program will be invaluable to Baylor students as they follow their callings and complete their degrees. Through this program, students will be prepared as leaders who deeply enhance our campus community and are ready to impact their communities and professions upon graduation.

The Trailblazer Scholars Program is a scholarship program designed to recognize the importance of fostering diversity and mutual respect at Baylor University. Launching the program with $5 million in scholarship support, the University will actively engage alumni and donors to support growth in the program, with a goal of providing a cohort of 80 or more students scholarship support through Trailblazer Scholarships.

The Trailblazer Scholars will help Baylor honor the good work of our students and foster a welcoming, inclusive and supportive environment in which they will grow as leaders,” Kevin Jackson, Ph.D., vice president for Student Life said. “Baylor’s students are called to be lights in this world and are charged with graduating from this University to lead, serve and improve the communities in which they will live. But a life of service and such important community building must be developed during their time as students. We have had many inspiring examples throughout Baylor’s history of the impact our students can have at Baylor, and I look forward to witnessing how the recipients of the Trailblazer Scholarships will honor that legacy.

Students in the Trailblazer Scholars Program will participate in leadership and service opportunities through Baylor’s Multicultural Affairs Department and through other groups and programs on Baylor’s campus. Trailblazer Scholarships honoring donors and trailblazers throughout Baylor’s history will be established to support these scholars. Scholarship funds will be awarded annually and are renewable to students for eight academic semesters. Scholars are expected to maintain a specific GPA and remain actively committed to conversations and initiatives advancing racial conciliation on Baylor’s campus and throughout the nation.

Baylor Academic Challenge Creates Two Chairs in Business

Since May 2019, the Baylor Academic Challenge has garnered excitement and inspired the Baylor Family to step forward in transformational ways to support the faculty of Baylor University.

The matching gift program has resulted in the creation of new endowed faculty positions, with the most recent two chairs announced in September. A gift from Ed and Denise Crenshaw, of Lakeland, Florida, the two William E. Crenshaw Chairs in Business will provide dedicated endowed support for faculty researchers. Additional endowed positions include: The Jackson Family Chair for Baylor in Latin America, the Mearse Endowed Chair in Biological and Biomedical Engineering, the W. Grady Rosier Endowed Chair in Free Enterprise and the James Robert Parker Endowed Chair in Health Science and Leadership.

“We are grateful and proud to count Ed as an alumnus of the Hankamer School of Business, and we give thanks for his and Denise’s continued support of excellence in business higher education,” said Terry S. Maness, D.B.A., dean of the Hankamer School of Business. “Their transformational gift will create sustaining support that will inspire growth and innovation through new faculty positions and research opportunities. Ed continues to be a vital and valued voice for Baylor Business, and we are grateful for the inspiration his career and philanthropy as a Christian business leader have provided for generations of our Baylor Business students.”

One of the hallmarks of a Baylor education is the transformational role faculty play in the lives of their students. Every Baylor alum carries with him a story of a faculty members intentional, personal mentorship. Every student fondly recalls her professor's inspired teaching that ignited a love of learning.

This transformational experience – this Baylor Experience – is one of the founding pillars for Illuminate, Baylor’s strategic plan. Baylor faculty are critical to the aspirations within Illuminate. Their dedication to students and their commitment to mentoring and coming alongside students in research and teaching endures as the most vivid and transformational components of our students’ time at the University.

The Give Light campaign was created to undergird the aspirations of Illuminate, and faculty support features prominently within its goals. As a response to Illuminate, an anonymous Baylor family established the Baylor Academic Challenge with the purpose of increasing support for faculty. The Challenge was created as part of a $100 million gift to support the Campaign.

The Challenge Is a dollar-for-dollar matching fund with a purpose to create new endowed faculty positions that will support the aspirations of Illuminate. In its first year, the Challenge helped create seven faculty endowments to support transformational research and teaching within such areas as biological and biomedical engineering, business and free enterprise, health sciences and leadership and to support the Baylor in Latin America initiative.

Baylor's mission to educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service will continue, thanks to the generosity of Baylor Families like Ed and Denise Crenshaw. Because of them, Baylor’s faculty can continue to inspire students for generations to come.

White House COVID-19 official Birx: Baylor is a model for reducing risk

Baylor University’s efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and alleviate its mental toll on isolated students will help other colleges and universities that plan to open in the spring put together “a playbook” of their own, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said during a visit to the university.

Birx made a brief stop at the university after Baylor President Linda Livingstone wrote the White House about its successful reduction in the rate of students and staff members testing positive for COVID-19.

WacoTrib: Baylor is a model for reducing risk

With Heartfelt Sympathy