News

Fellow designation honors Dr. Gesztesy’s distinguished contributions to the mathematical sciences.

Baylor University faculty are well-represented in a Stanford University database that ranks the world's top 2% of the most-cited researchers.

Max Muncy already held the career records for most MLB home runs, runs scored and RBI by a former Baylor player. Now, he holds the BU record for most World Series rings, too.

Muncy’s Dodgers won their second World Series in his seven seasons in L.A. on Wednesday night, adding the 2024 title to the team’s 2020 championship. Muncy started all five games at third base, batting fifth in all but one game, as Los Angeles won the series over the New York Yankees, four games to one.

The list of schools to make U.S. News’ top 30 for both undergraduate teaching and undergraduate research is a short (and impressive one), filled with schools like Duke, Michigan, Princeton, Stanford, Yale — and Baylor.

For the third year in a row, U.S. News‘ rankings placed Baylor among this prestigious short list, as BU was ranked No. 26 nationally for undergraduate teaching and No. 23 for undergraduate research/creative projects. No other Texas school made the top 30 in both categories; Baylor is also the only school with an explicit, primary identity as a Christian university to make both lists.

Every Saturday at McLane is like a Baylor Family reunion — but Homecoming weekend is THE annual family reunion, the one you don’t want to miss.

Thousands of Bears made their way home to Waco this past weekend for a practically perfect Baylor Homecoming 2024. For those who couldn’t make it — or for those who want to relive it — we bring you a look back at the weekend:

A new partnership with Waco Tours is set to enrich the Campus Tour experience by showcasing the vibrant city of Waco for prospective students and their families.

Baylor University today dedicated the newly renovated Honors Residential College during a morning ribbon-cutting ceremony, marking the official opening of the Honors College’s new home and the grand opening of the Carona Family Commons.

What an awesome time the First Gent and I had welcoming our students to “Dinner with the Livingstones” on Tuesday evening at Allbritton House! It was certainly a fantastic kickoff to Homecoming Week 2024.

The Keston Center for Religion, Politics, and Society presents its fall lecture, a panel conversation, “Baylor in Deeds—Interfaith and Intra-Faith Harmony: Strengthening Leadership for Women Globally through Sports,” on Tuesday, October 29, 2024. A reception catered by Saffron will begin at 2:30 p.m. and the conversation will begin at 3:30 p.m. The event will take place in the Armstrong Browning Library & Museum and online via Zoom Webinar.

Baylor University School of Education (SOE) graduate Ashlyn Bergethon, B.S.Ed. ’24, has continued an impressive string of Baylor SOE student teachers being recognized with national and state honors for their work in the classroom while a Baylor senior.

Several parking lots and roads on and around the Baylor University campus in Waco will be closed Tuesday and Friday-Saturday because of Baylor Homecoming-related activities. Baylor University Shuttle (BUS) services also will be modified.

If you’re looking to learn a little Baylor or Baptist history, Alan Lefever (BA ’84) is your man.

In his day job, Lefever serves as director of the Texas Baptist Historical Collection, leading the BGCT’s efforts to preserve and communicate the history of Baptists in Texas. He’s also the author of The History of Baylor Sports, an excellent coffee table book chronicling the history of varsity sports at BU.

In a recent Baylor Connections interview, Lefever discussed the history of Baylor Homecoming. Here are five tidbits about the tradition’s beginnings that you might not know:

For over a century, Baylor has hosted its annual Homecoming. Alumni from all over the world return to Waco for the weekend — for the bonfire, Pigskin, the parade, the football game, and to celebrate and reunite with those who also bleed green and gold.

At the same time, Waco locals are also prepping for the country’s oldest homecoming celebration. Many are Baylor graduates, but many others (despite connections to other schools) have adopted Baylor as their hometown team.

In 1909, Baylor hosted the first collegiate homecoming celebration in the nation. This week, we again renew that tradition, as the Baylor Family returns to campus to “catch that Baylor spirit again,” as President Samuel Palmer Brooks famously wrote more than a century ago.

At Homecoming, Baylor rolls out the red carpet to welcome you — alumni and friends — home. It’s the biggest Baylor Family reunion of the year — all about seeing old friends, recalling fond memories, sharing those stories with the next generation, and celebrating together as one.

Whether you’re a Homecoming regular or this is your first trip to campus in years, you’ll want to start your Baylor Homecoming experience this year at the Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center.

The Hurd will serve as “Homecoming headquarters” for visitors this week, with Baylor staff on hand Friday and Saturday to answer questions and help you connect with school/college/campus events — plus a host of activities, photo ops, student performances and more for Bears of all ages.

Centered by a call to be salt of the earth and light of the world at the center, Baylor University launched a year-long series of campus-wide conversations, trainings and presentations in January focused on civil discourse, an important topic as Baylor strives to be a marketplace of ideas and extend the love of Christ toward others.

Ivan Korendovych, Ph.D., the inaugural James. R. Schofield Endowed Chair in Biochemistry at Baylor University, has been recognized by the American Chemical Society as the preceptor for this year’s Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry, a national ACS award that recognizes an outstanding graduate student and instructor in chemistry.

Usually a “Where are they now?” feature is prompted only after decades have passed — enough time for life events to accumulate that warrant such an update.

Brooklyn McKnight (BBA ’21) simply has too much going on to wait that long.

McKnight is half of the media wonder duo, Brooklyn & Bailey. The pair took the social media world by storm as teens, amassing a following of over 87 million worldwide. Brooklyn earned her entrepreneurship degree from Baylor a mere three years ago — cum laude, we might add — and already had a litany of accomplishments and life events under her belt before she could hang her diploma.

Homecoming is next week, and I could not be more excited to celebrate with our students and, most importantly, welcome our Baylor alumni back home. 

This year’s inductees into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame include a host of famous names from iconic organizations, such as Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos, ESPN analyst Dick Vitale, and leaders from NBCUniversal, Disney, Fox and Comcast.

Among them is a Baylor graduate: Valari Dobson Staab (MBA ’84), a broadcast innovator whose influence stretches over 40 years, from local television stations to regional sports networks across the nation.

For 70 years now, virtually every Baylor undergraduate student has taken religion and history courses in Tidwell Bible Building. So many students and alumni have fond memories of the building — but how much do you know about its history?

In new research published in the journal Fuel, Baylor University researchers with the Cornerstone Atomization and Combustion Lab (CAC) have unveiled a pioneering method for the efficient combustion of biofuels, using a revolutionary Swirl Burst (SB) injector to burn glycerol/methanol blends with near-zero emissions.

Alyssa Mills, a Ph.D. candidate in geosciences at Baylor University and a graduate affiliate of NASA's Europa Clipper mission science team, is using machine learning to map the seafloor of Europa. 

Baylor University’s Institute for Faith and Learning will welcome more than 240 leading national and international scholars and practitioners for the 2024 Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture, which focuses on the theme Renewing and Reimagining Institutions for the Common Good.

The Readers Meet the Author series kicks off Oct. 22, with Baylor history professor Elesha Coffman, Ph.D., in conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Flowers about Coffman's new book, "Turning Points in American Church History: How Pivotal Events Shaped a Nation and a Faith."

Thousands of Baylor alumni descend upon Waco each fall for Homecoming. Some have returned every year since graduation; others are setting foot on the Baylor campus for the first time in five, 10, even 20 years or longer. Regardless of how long it’s been since you’ve visited Baylor, there’s likely something new you haven’t seen or done before — and at the same time, plenty of old favorites to revisit and traditions to enjoy.

Presenting: 99 things to see and do during #BaylorHomecoming:

In Texas politics, there have been few more influential figures than Baylor’s own Bob Bullock (JD ’58), a longtime elected official and Baylor law graduate. So it stands to reason that the professorship named for him in Baylor’s Department of Political Science would be held by a professor with his own recognized expertise on the influence of politics and public policy on citizens.

Dr. Patrick Flavin came to Baylor in 2010 and now serves as the Bob Bullock Professor of Political Science at Baylor. Over the last 15 years, a wide array of academic journals and popular media outlets have come to Flavin for insights on his key areas of research: political inequality, politics and quality of life, political behavior, and more.

The Office of the Provost and the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Baylor University proudly present AI Week from October 14-16, 2024.

I woke up again this morning to see the tragic devastation of another hurricane making landfall in the southeast. Like with Hurricane Helene, our Care Team Services is reaching out to Baylor students from Florida, checking in to see how they are doing, letting them know we are praying for them, their families and hometowns and that we are here to walk alongside them in any way we can. 

It’s been quite a year for Forrest Frank (BBA ’17):

• Hit No. 1 on iTunes worldwide chart (for all genres)
• Five of iTunes’ top 100 Christian songs for 2024
• Chosen as the soundtrack for Baylor’s 2024-25 commercial (our favorite honor, obviously)

Now, the Baylor grad has been recognized yet again, having won the 2024 Dove Award for New Artist of the Year!

Baylor University’s Corey P. Carbonara, Ph.D., professor of film and digital media, Master Teacher and an innovator in advancing new frontiers in media production technology, has been selected to receive the 2024 Presidential Proclamation from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE).

Baylor welcomes literary legend, social activist and feminist icon Isabel Allende for this year’s Beall-Russell Lecture in the Humanities at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, at the Hurd Welcome Center. 

Microbiome researcher Aaron Wright, Ph.D., has earned a $5.6 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Transformative Research Award that could lead to personalized treatments for gut microbiome diseases like IBS, Crohn’s, Ulcerative Colitis and more. 

An internship in Washington, D.C., offers incredible experience for students seeking careers in a wide variety of fields — but exponentially so during an election year.

The Baylor in Washington program has students in just such a position — earning college credits while interning with U.S. senators and representatives, government offices, think tanks, law firms, lobbyists, and other power players in our nation’s capital.

One of the priority capital projects during the Give Light campaign was a major update to Memorial and Alexander residence halls, home to Baylor’s Honors Residential College. The goal: A complete renovation of both dorms, plus an new addition in between that would connect the two buildings and offer additional academic and community space for the Honors College and its students.

After closing throughout 2023-24 for a year of renovation and construction, the completed project was unveiled at the start of the semester, with Memorial and Alexander reopening to welcome a new class of Bears.

Between tests, Homecoming preparations and the overall busyness of the semester, it sounds like many students are looking forward to a short week and a much-needed fall break next week. 

This year’s pop princess-driven BearAware cybersecurity campaign marks October’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and reminds students, faculty, and staff to make smart and safe choices online. 

Extending Baylor University’s year-long focus on civil discourse, 12 Baylor University faculty members have joined together as the first faculty cohort of Bridgebuilding Fellows.

New research from Baylor University reveals that coyotes, like domestic dogs, have the ability to produce the famous "puppy dog eyes" expression, challenging the hypothesis that this facial feature evolved exclusively in dogs as a result of domestication.

Looking for a great undergraduate experience? You can’t do much better than Baylor.

Once again, BU is among the nation’s top-10 undergraduate experiences, according to U.S. News’ 2025 “Best Colleges” rankings.

Earth’s gravity captures a small asteroid from September to November

Baylor University Libraries will host “Passport to Media Literacy,” an interactive media literacy experience from 2 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 2, in the Garden Level Learning Commons of Moody Memorial Library, sponsored by local NPR affiliate KWBU-FM, Baylor’s Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media and the Baylor Libraries. 

The fall semester is off to a great start, and our official fall enrollment certainly bears that out. As we welcomed an overall student body of 20,626 students, including a high-achieving and diverse freshman class, we also celebrated this number – 90.9% – Baylor’s highest-ever one-year retention rate for first-time freshmen. 

Student Opportunity and Achievement Resources addresses the unique challenges of college food insecurity

The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities has announced that Felipe Hinojosa, Ph.D., professor of history at Baylor University and The John and Nancy Jackson Endowed Chair for Baylor in Latin America, is among the 45 fellows who will make up the sixth cohort of its Leadership Academy/La Academia de Liderazgo.

Did you know that one of the oldest continuously published collegiate literary magazines in the country is run by Baylor undergraduate students? The Phoenix is annually edited, published, and produced by Baylor undergrads from its home in Carroll Science, and has been running since the 1950s.

The Phoenix “represents a unique opportunity for Baylor students both to have their creative work published and to gain experience producing, all on their own, a significant literary review,” says Baylor English professor Arna Hemenway, one of the magazine’s faculty advisors.

Baylor University today is celebrating National Research Administrator Day to highlight top-tier research throughout the University. 

Baylor's Missions, Service & Public Life will host its annual Missions Week from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3, featuring a variety of tabling events, socials and dinner. 

Baylor University set a new high for the one-year retention rate for first-time freshmen – a key indicator of undergraduate students’ successful adjustment to University life – and also announced its official fall enrollment of 20,626 students.

Throughout October, Baylor will host a series of events celebrating the sustainability efforts around campus in honor of Campus Sustainability Month.

Baylor University’s transformational undergraduate academic programs and experiences were Top 10 national highlights in the 2025 Best Colleges rankings, released today by U.S. News & World Report.

Baylor is known (ranked top-5 nationally last year!) for creating an atmosphere in which our students grow and flourish. The atmosphere at BU includes a small student-to-faculty ratio, a strong faith-based environment — and plenty of opportunities for students to find their place among the 400+ student organizations offered on campus.

Baylor Student Activities provides practically limitless opportunities for students to get involved. More than 10,000 events are held on campus each year, hosted by the hundreds of student orgs. These groups offer students a stronger sense of belonging and connection, leadership and service opportunities, academic support, friendship, and spiritual growth.

Baylor University again has attained elite Honor Roll status as one of the best colleges in the nation to work for, according to the Great Colleges to Work For® program. Based on faculty and staff responses to a related annual survey, Baylor was recognized in eight categories, including its first-ever recognition in the Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging category. 

One of the great joys of this exciting time at Baylor is to see the incredible ways our faculty and students demonstrate God-given gifts and passions through research. Their work and its impact exemplify the Baylor mission in action, and they truly are “Baylor in Deeds” to a world in need of solutions to so many great challenges.

A year ago this time, Baylor was celebrating the opening of the brand-new Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center. Since then, the Hurd has become exactly what university leaders hoped it would become: the new “front door to campus,” and an important part of campus life for both current and prospective students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

A quick look back at the Hurd’s first 12 months:

An innovative Baylor University study has shed light on the often-overlooked experiences of women doing “daughtering” in families, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which created immense challenges in their relationships with parents and other family members. 

From the “Meet the Faculty” Welcome Hour on Friday through the last note of “That Good Old Baylor Line” after football’s victory Saturday night, Family Weekend 2024 was a whirlwind of green and gold.

For those who couldn’t make it (or those who just want to relive it), here’s a look back at some of the highlights:

The Baylor Symphonic Band and Baylor Wind Ensemble are proud to welcome prolific guest composer and conductor Frank Ticheli, D.M.A., as a special guest, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, in Jones Concert Hall.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Baylor University found that family caregivers who recognize and cultivate feelings of gratitude adjust to their roles with a greater sense of well-being and enhanced coping.

Baylor University will host a variety of vibrant events in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

During September’s National Preparedness Month, the Baylor University Department of Public Safety (BUDPS) encourages the Baylor Family to enhance their readiness for emergencies by understanding the University’s multi-tiered approach to safety and security. 

Earlier this week we kicked off the fall Baylor Conversation Series on civil discourse with a day-long slate of activities with David Brooks – a New York Times best-selling author, columnist and commentator. 

Baylor’s unofficial Scriptural foundation in recent years has been Matthew 5:14-16, especially: “You are the light of the world… Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Both the terminology and meaning have shaped recent major endeavors, from the “Where Lights Shine Bright” and “Give Light” campaigns through the Illuminate strategic plan. Baylor’s next major efforts will continue the focus on those verses, this time on the reason we let our light shine — “so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Baylor University has been recognized again by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption as one of the nation’s top education institutions offering robust adoption benefits programs.

Baylor's 10th annual Boundary Breaking Women’s Panel to take place from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, on the fifth floor of the Cashion Academic Center. The event features 10 Baylor faculty and staff members in campus leadership roles of leadership to highlighting showcase 10 women boundary-breakers.

For Baylor fans who were there, it may be hard to believe that 50 years have passed since a young head coach named Grant Teaff and a now-legendary group of players led the Bears to their first undisputed conference title in a half century, pulling off the “Miracle on the Brazos” along the way. For fans who weren’t around then, they’re a team every Baylor fan should know.

Lots of events bring people to Waco in the fall: Move2BU, football games, Family Weekend, Premiere, Homecoming, Commencement… You get the idea. And the one thing all those visitors have in common? They’ll all need to eat while here.

For years, we’ve been writing up various guides for visitors to Waco. At last, here they all are, in one place — just for you.

This fall, Baylor University is joining universities and communities around the country to increase public awareness and prevention education about sexual assault and interpersonal violence as the Equity, Civil Rights, & Title IX Office brings awareness to The Red Zone.

Matt Asare, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., CHES, assistant professor in the Department of Public Health at Baylor University, has received a five-year, $2.5 million National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute Cooperative Agreement Award (U01) award in partnership with colleagues at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and the University of Minnesota Medical School to support Asare's continued work promoting cancer screening in Ghana.

Children spend much of their days in school, so it makes sense that a researcher looking to help them thrive might focus on that time in the classroom. Dr. Tonya Davis (BS ’02, MS ’04), a professor of educational psychology in Baylor’s School of Education, does just that.

The Baylor Libraries Author Series will highlight Baylor faculty authors Dr. João Chaves and Dr. Mikeal Parsons and their publication, “Remembering Antônia Teixeira: A Story of Missions, Violence, and Institutional Hypocrisy” (Eerdmans, 2023). This author series session will take place on Tuesday, September 24, at 3:00 p.m. in the Schumacher Flex Commons on the main floor of Moody Memorial Library, as well as online via Zoom Webinar. Dr. Beth Allison Barr, the James Vardaman Endowed Professor of History at Baylor, will interview the authors.

This fall, Baylor University continues its Conversation Series on Civil Discourse with a visit from David Brooks, one of the nation’s leading writers and commentators and author of How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, who will speak to Baylor students, faculty and staff at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10, in Waco Hall.

Baylor’s Institute for Oral History and Texas Collection will join Greater Waco community partners to host a family-friendly scavenger hunt celebrating Waco’s 175th anniversary as a settlement.

The fall semester is certainly off and running at a brisk pace! I hope everyone is settling into new routines and becoming acclimated academically, physically and spiritually. 

It’s now been more than 100 years since the first Baylor alum appeared in an NFL game. That would be Russ Blailock, an offensive lineman who made his debut with the Milwaukee Badgers in 1923 — just three years after the league was founded, and only a year after it changed its name to the National Football League.

This year, there are 14 Bears in the league to start the season: nine on active rosters, one on the injured list, and four more on practice squads. Here are the Bears we’ll be cheering on Sundays (plus the occasional Monday, Thursday and December Saturday):

Ten Baylor University faculty members have been selected by Provost Nancy Brickhouse, Ph.D., to serve as 2024-2025 Baylor Fellows for their excellence in teaching and desire to advance Baylor’s commitment to transformational education.

Waco’s conspicuous growth over the past decade has seen options for fine dining grow and multiply. White linen tablecloths, impeccable service and haute cuisine are no longer an entire day’s investment, but can be found (with free parking and no need to valet) right here in Waco. Take your pick:

***Required Test of the Baylor Alert Emergency Notification System Completed Successfully*** Baylor University will join City of Waco and McLennan County partners – in cooperation with the Waco/McLennan County Office of Emergency Management – to conduct a regular test of its Outdoor Warning System (tornado sirens) at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 6. Along with the siren test, Baylor University will conduct a required test of the multi-tiered Baylor Alert emergency notification system

It’s as much a part of Baylor’s hometown as the ALICO building, Brazos River or Cameron Park, and everyone who enters town on I-35 or walks around downtown sees it somewhere. We’re talking, of course, about the “Flying W” — the “W” logo that adorns the Waco flag, city seal and signage around town. You’ve likely seen it, but did you know it was created by a longtime Baylor professor?

Baylor University researcher Candi Cann, Ph.D., has made it her life’s work to study death and dying, including a "new language of mourning" where people express their grief in more personal, almost "do-it-yourself "ways.

The start of the fall semester is filled with so many signature events, from Move2BU and Welcome Week to the first day of class and #BU28 running across the field at McLane Stadium as part of the Baylor Line this Saturday evening. 

A new school year and a new football season present a new opportunity to share what Baylor is all about. Baylor’s 2024-25 university commercial will debut on television during Baylor football’s season opener Saturday, but BU social media shared the spot earlier today.

The 30-second spot features breakout Christian music singer/songwriter (and 2017 Baylor graduate) Forrest Frank, whose music you’ve likely heard on Christian radio and/or TikTok. The commercial pairs one of Frank’s original songs, “Never Get Used To This,” with shots featuring the vibrancy and joy of the Baylor student experience.

Baylor University officially launched its new institutional television commercial for 2024-2025, which showcases the authentic Baylor experience and supports one of the University’s fastest-rising graduates in the entertainment industry.

The “best hour of the week” – Baylor University’s Dr Pepper Hour – is kicking off year four of its highly lauded Dr Pepper Hour Tour, delivering sweet treats and a VIP Baylor experience this fall to high school students and Baylor Alumni families across the country.

There’s a lot of new for Baylor Football in 2024: a new (but familiar) offensive system, a new starting quarterback, newly redesigned uniforms, and a sparkling new football development center for the Bears to call home. As the Bears look to climb after a challenging 2023 season, signs abound that much has changed since last year.

Baylor Provost Nancy Brickhouse recently announced author selections for this academic year’s “Readers Meet the Author Series.” Selections include faculty publications on American history and religion, contemporary Christian music, the Supreme Court, and the ethics of architecture.

What a week! From Move2BU to Welcome Week and then the first day of classes, Baylor’s campus is once again buzzing with activity!

While a general link between alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease is well known, Baylor University researchers are digging into the “why” behind this detrimental association – especially after a night of binge drinking – in a study published in the American Heart Association’s Hypertension journal.

What a Move2BU! It’s hard to believe, but this was move-in No. 8 for the First Gent and me. Even with the excessive August heat, I never tire of this beautiful expression of who we are as Baylor Family. 

It’s hard to believe, but the 2024 season will be head coach Ryan McGuyre’s 10th at the helm of the program he has built into a national powerhouse. In that time, the Bears have reached eight consecutive NCAA Tournaments (and counting), five Sweet 16s and a Final Four. Last year, he became the program’s all-time winningest coach and guided a young squad back to the tournament.

This year, the Bears look to build on that experience and add to the program’s resume of success. The 2024 Bears will look to two Preseason All-Big 12 selections for leadership when the season begins. Lauren Briseño, a senior libero, and Elise McGhee, a senior outside hitter, bring experience and a league-wide reputation for outstanding play on the defensive and offensive ends, respectively. They’re two of the six returning starters from last year’s postseason matches at the University of Kentucky.

An important part of Baylor’s growth as a Christian research university has been the expansion of doctoral degree programs, which have in turn welcomed increasing numbers of doctoral students. This year, that growth has culminated in a record — and a brand new Commencement ceremony celebrating student accomplishments.

On Monday afternoon, the Baylor network experienced a disruption focused on Microsoft and Google-based resources. As of 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, August 20, all network services were restored.

World Mosquito Day, observed each year on Aug. 20, raises worldwide awareness of the ongoing dangers of vector-borne diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and the ongoing efforts to combat the world’s deadliest creature. 

Baylor faculty experts share practical strategies for fostering stronger holistic well-being for National Wellness Month in August.

Since 2008, each incoming class of new Baylor students has been welcomed with its own unique hymn, capturing an aspect of this moment of excitement, possibility and transition in each new Bear’s life.

This year’s hymn, “In This Day,” was written expressly for the Class of 2028, with lyrics and music by University Chaplain Burt Burleson (BA ’80) and Kathy Johnson (BM ’76). The lyrics are both a welcome and an invitation to our newest Bears as they move through these moments of excitement, transition and possibility. The accompanying music video features snapshot images of this special time (especially Line Camp, when students get to know Baylor and one another):

Allow me to be among the first to congratulate our 979 Summer graduates, which include 350 undergraduate degrees, 395 master’s degrees, 98 professional doctorates and 136 research doctorates. I am proud to welcome you into your new status as Baylor Alumni this Friday and Saturday!

Earlier this year, Pamela Tremont (BA ’90, MA ’92) was sworn in as the United States ambassador to Zimbabwe — the culmination of a road to foreign service that began at Baylor three decades ago.

At Baylor, Tremont earned her bachelor’s in political science and her master’s in international relations, during which time she was also a part of Baylor Ambassadors, the Foreign Affairs Association, and the Golden Key International Honor Society. Upon graduating from Baylor, she embarked on a career that has included stops at U.S. embassies in Turkey, the United Kingdom, Zambia, Cyprus, Ukraine, and Sweden, most recently as deputy chief of mission in Stockholm.

Baylor University will confer degrees on more than 970 graduates during August Commencement, which includes the traditional Saturday ceremony for undergraduate and master’s students and the debut of a new commencement tradition – an exclusive Friday ceremony honoring Baylor’s growing number of research doctoral graduates.

With the 2024 Summer Olympics complete, Baylor Bears are coming home from Paris with a school-record four medals (earned by four different Olympians) — continuing BU’s long history of Olympic excellence.

In celebration of National Book Lovers Day, Baylor University faculty members from across campus share their love of the written word by sharing their favorite books.