Baylor Line Magazine | Winter 2024

2024 | c o v e r a g e b e y o n d c a m p u s

M A G A Z I N E

F E AT U R ED S T ORIES F RO M 202 4 A Family’s Legacy Begins With A Ring

THE BIG PICT URE 2024

Let’s Talk About The True Cost Of College Her Name Was Cindy Campbell Brown Disrupting the Spirits One Bottle At A Time 1

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2024 | Vol. 88 No. 1

02 EDITOR’S NOTE When trying to understand new beginnings, tough endings, and everything in the middle it’s important to look at the big picture. Editor-in-chief Kourtney David explains how the pieces of this issue make up the puzzle.

features The Baylor Line Staff LIBBY CLAASSEN (’25) OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

KOURTNEY DAVID (’22) EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

HOPE DAUGHTRY (’24) EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

LAURYN EDWARDS (‘25) SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

JONATHON PLATT (’16, MA ’19) CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

RACHEL TATE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT MANAGER

SAPHIANA ZAMORA (’22) CHIEF OF STAFF

ROBERT F. DARDEN (‘76) EDITOR EMERITUS

03 IT BEGINS WITH A RING From the wreckage in London to a family’s legacy in Waco, it all began with a ring.

09 DISRUPTING THE SPIRITS: 1953 TEQUILA A Baylor grad and her team are on a mission to revolutionize the world of tequila – one bottle at a time.

13 WHAT A KICKER’S LIFE TAUGHT HIM From childhood summers with the Chicago Bears to now managing the Saints, former kicker Jeff Ireland gives lessons from a life lived around football.

17 LOSING FAITH IN COLLEGE | THE COST OF COLLEGE: TUITION As college tuition continues to rise and enrollment at some institutions of higher education drops, the ongoing debate over the value of a college degree rages.

21 HER NAME WAS CINDY CAMPBELL BROWN.

SHE DIED IN 1995. AND IT’S TIME YOU KNEW HER STORY. On April 19, 1995, at 9:02 a.m., Timothy McVeigh set off a truck bomb in front of the building where Cindy worked.

27 THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE Baylor students’ excitement about faith drives spiritual connection, on and off campus.

31 BAYLOR BUILDINGS The Georgian-style buildings spread throughout Baylor’s campus tell stories of years gone by.

35 A COMMITMENT TO INCLUSION: EMPOWERING WACO’S MINORITY AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESSES

Business is booming in Waco thanks in part to the Cen-Tex African American Chamber of Commerce.

39 A MARRIAGE OF TRUE MINDS A collection of thousands of letters chronicling a historic love story found its home in Baylor’s Armstrong Browning Library.

Fro n t an d back c o v e rs pho t o g ra phe d by C u rt i s W. C al l a w ay

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The Baylor Line

EDITOR’S NOTE

Friends:

To be candid, I was truly lost for words when writing this editor’s note to you.

After all, this is my first time writing one and my prayers for beginner’s luck were left unanswered on the night of my deadline.

I was led to read what former Editor-in-chief (now CEO) Jonathon Platt wrote before me, and what Craig Cunningham and Sherry Castello wrote before him, about braveness, courageousness, and fear. I read the first-ever issue of The Baylor Line, a few sprinkled across time, and the most recents, and considered the passage of time since our last release, how The Baylor Line has marched through the years, and how the heck I fit into that.

Through my scribbles and drafts, iteration after iteration of the same note, I challenged myself to read between the lines and see the common thread between these 10 stories you hold in your hands.

Finally, my predicament became my answer: just like myself, this magazine full of The Baylor Line’s best of 2024 is riddled with new beginnings, a few endings, and all the little things that make up the middle — The Big Picture.

A family’s story began with a ring. A poetry collection was born. A grad’s life tragically ended, but her story lives on.

Thank you for allowing me to embark on this new beginning with you as editorin-chief. I hope one day this glimpse into our coverage of 2024 serves as a peek into the past for someone re-reading old Line magazines, as those before were for me as I prepared for today.

Yours, K ourtney D avid (‘22) Editor-in-chief, The Baylor Line

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I

EGI NS W I TH A B T

RING 3

The Baylor Line

From the wreckage in London to a family’s legacy in Waco, it all began with a ring.

By Robert F. Darden, Editor emeritus

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alter Davis Gernand was born February 15, 1917, in Beaumont, Texas, the youngest of the three sons of Clarence A. and Catherine Perthuis Gernand.

Julius “Julie” William (February 4, 1913) and Clarence “Bubba” James (October 17, 1914) rounded out the household at 1575 Emile St.

All three Gernand brothers enrolled at Baylor University in the mid-1930s and excelled in athletics – Bubba was the last Bear to earn letters in five different sports (baseball, basketball, football, golf, and track) – and their exploits filled the pages of The Lariat. Walter, a business major, was president of the Jefferson County Club, lettered in football and basketball, and served as a yell leader. He was well known enough on campus that when he proposed to Shirley McMurray over the Christmas holidays in 1938, it was even reported in The Lariat.

As graduation neared for Winter Quarter 1940, Walter bought a second ring, a Baylor class ring from the Balfour Company. He chose one with a distinctive ruby-red stone and had his initials “WDG BA 40” engraved on the inner band.

Shortly after Clarence and Catherine drove from Beaumont to attend his Baylor graduation, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in early 1941.

After completing flight training at Gardner Field, he was sent to the Air Corps Advanced Flying School in Arizona. According to the research of Frank Jasek – Baylor alum and author of Soldiers of the Wooden Cross: Military Memorials of Baylor University – Walter was commissioned a second lieutenant and received his “wings” on December 12, 1941, just five days after Pearl Harbor. Within a few months, he was flying P-38 Lightnings with the 50th Fighter Squadron in Iceland. Walter saw combat in Europe – a military photograph shows Gernand receiving an Air Medal and he is listed as also receiving a Purple Heart.

In February 1944, Walter transferred to the 8th Reconnaissance Photo Squadron, part of the 325th Photographic Wing, preparing the way for the Allied invasion of Normandy.

On June 8, 1944, two days after D-Day, Walter and 8th Combat Camera Unit photographer Sgt. Elbert Lynch left from Watton Air Force Base, west of Norwich. Their DeHavilland Mosquito, powered by two Rolls Royce engines, documented remaining German coastal defenses and enemy troop positions in the battle-scarred terrain of Northern France, then returned to England. After refueling at a base near Middle Wallop, Walter guided the aircraft toward Watton.

But as witnesses later told Army Air Corps investigators, the Mosquito suddenly struggled above High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, just northwest of London. The plane broke through the low overcast and plummeted toward a field next to a park. At the last second, Walter apparently saw children playing in the field and violently

Right: Walter Davis Gernand. | Courtesy of Texas Collection 2024

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veered away. The Mosquito made a half-turn and crashed into a nearby railroad embankment, instantly killing both Gernand and Lynch.

Both men were interred with full military honors in the Cambridge War Cemetery and Memorial, near Cambridge, U.K. “Gernand was a local hero because he avoided landing on a nearby park where some children were playing,” one resident later told The Baylor Line.

A bronze plaque honoring Gernand’s sacrifice is displayed on a lamppost in the parking lot behind Sid Richardson Building.

In a landscape pockmarked with the blackened wreckages of American, British, and German aircraft, what remained of the Mosquito NS555 was left undisturbed for nearly 30 years.

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In February 1973, a group of children playing on the railroad embankment uncovered one of the airplane’s Rolls Royce Merlin engines. Soon, a small group of citizens of High Wycombe, augmented by members of the Chiltern Aircraft Preservation Group, worked to reveal the wreckage, buried nearly 15 feet in the ground.

In the shattered cockpit they discovered a ring in remarkably good condition, save for the shattered red stone, with the inscription “WDG BA 40” still legible inside the band.

At the scene that day was Alan Hunt, who was both a reporter for the High Wycombe newspaper, the Bucks Free Press, as well as a member of the Preservation Group. The crash site had been just a few blocks from the newspaper’s offices and Alan wrote an article about the discovery of the wreckage and the unusual ring. Wartime news restrictions had meant that local people never knew the name of the pilot who sacrificed himself to save their children. But with those restrictions lifted, Alan began searching for additional information on the airplane and its crew.

A historian by nature, he later said that it would be “extremely difficult for me to explain the terrific emotion we all felt” at the discovery that day.

Alan’s article was picked up by several English newspapers and intrigued townspeople placed advertisements in various publications, all asking for any information on the class ring, which also featured the words “Baylor University” and engravings of a bear and a single spire.

A man named R.D. Barfoot saw one of the 5

Above: Gernand received an Air Medal, an honor reserved for those who committed acts of heroism worth merit in aerial flight. | Courtesy of Texas Collection advertisements in a London newspaper and suggested that they contact officials at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Baylor officials responded quickly and their research on the class ring soon led them to Walter’s elder brother Julius. Julius arranged a meeting in September 1973 in Waco with his 84-year-old mother, Thomas Turner from President Abner McCall’s office, and Baylor trustee Ed Streetman from Beaumont to present the ring.

At the meeting, Julius said that the family had originally been told that Walter’s crash had occurred in France and that they were grateful for updated information.

“I tried to forget but you can’t forget a thing like that,” Catherine told the Houston Chronicle. Catherine had originally asked for the ring to add to her small collection of objects related to Walter, but ultimately gave it to Baylor. The precious ring was then placed in a locked glass display box surrounded by articles detailing its strange journey and placed in the Baylor Lettermen’s Lounge at Floyd Casey Stadium.

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Born on Aug. 19, 1938, Bucks Free Press Deputy Chief Reporter Alan Hunt had grown up in the village of Downley, 30 miles west of London. As a small child during World War II, he watched the Nazi terror bombing of London. By age 6, he could distinguish between Allied and German aircraft by the sounds of their engines.

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From an early age, Alan was obsessed with all things American – especially their automobiles.

He apprenticed in journalism around 1953 and worked his way to reporter, photographer, and editor on a staff that at one time included a young Terry Pratchett, who would become a legendary writer of fantasy novels. Save for his compulsory two-year stint in the British army from 1957-1959 as a military policeman in Germany, Alan had spent his entire career in newspapers.

The discovery of the ring and the kind reception of Baylor and Waco officials to the Gernands, coupled with his lifelong fascination with the United States, made a powerful impression, Alan said in an interview a few years later. He was 35, with a wife ( Jacqueline) and three small children

“

Alan was the very essence of a British gentleman, so kindly with a wry sense of humor. He was incredibly talented – writing, editing, photography, cars – and it was always amazing to watch him hammer out a story in record time using just three fingers as he typed away.”

(David, Julia, and Geoff). What would it be like to live in the United States? Turner introduced Alan to Woody Barron, managing editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald. Alan then boldly wrote Barron inquiring about openings for an experienced reporter with a shorthand speed of 180 words per minute. Alan also enclosed a copy of his story on Capt. Gernand’s class ring. Barron was impressed, enlisted the support of Congressman W.R. Poage for immigration purposes, and Alan was hired for the next available opening on the staff. He arrived in Waco in April 1975, two years after the original article was first published, followed two months later by the rest of his family.

Alan quickly adapted to life in his new home, though he admitted that he sometimes missed “that good strong cup of hot English tea with my

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breakfast” and confessed that he “would dearly love a pint of English best bitter.” As a reporter and photographer, Alan’s insightful, beautifully written articles soon appeared on the front pages and throughout The Waco Tribune-Herald. He said in another interview that he especially enjoyed his two large American-made automobiles, both purchased shortly after his arrival – a battered 1960 Buick and a 1969 Chevy Caprice. Alan was a generous and patient mentor to young reporters at the TribuneHerald, including me, when I arrived fresh out of graduate school in August 1978 and essentially clueless about the realities of daily newspapers.

Alan moved to the Baylor public relations office in 1980 as Associate Director of Media Relations, primarily covering the business and law schools and libraries, along with general news articles and photography, as needed. Among those who worked with the courtly Englishman from High Wycombe was Lori W. Fogleman, now Assistant Vice President of Media & Public Relations. “I adored Alan and loved working with him,” Lori said. “Alan was the very essence of a British gentleman, so kindly with a wry sense of humor.

He was incredibly talented – writing, editing, photography, cars – and it was always amazing to watch him hammer out a story in record time using just three fingers as he typed away.”

Lori’s favorite story of Alan involves the wartime rationing of certain foods and, of course, sugar.

“Alan said that to make up for the rationing, he and his childhood friends would cut out pictures of ice cream cones from magazines,” she recalled, “just so they could pretend to have the treat. From that moment on, I thought about that childhood, what Alan had lived through, how frightening that time must have been – but also how he emerged resilient, purposeful, remarkably creative, and kind to everyone.”

At Alan’s Baylor retirement in 2006, Lori gave him a Baskin-Robbins gift card, though she suspects he used it to “splurge” with his grandchildren.

“That would be very much Alan,” Lori said.

“His friendship was so meaningful, and his stories touched me deeply.”

After his 2006 retirement from Baylor, Alan actively engaged in his beloved hobbies of photography, visiting flea markets, collecting automobile memorabilia, spending more time with his three children and three grandchildren, and – naturally – happily working on big, muscular Detroit-made cars.

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Above: Geoff Hunt – son of Alan Hunt, the reporter who moved to Waco after writing about the ring’s discovery – stands next to the plaque on campus honoring Gernand’s sacrifice. | Courtesy of Geoff Hunt

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Alan and Jacqueline’s youngest son, Geoff, was only four when the family moved to Waco and Geoff inherited his father’s love of history and automobiles. “He amassed quite an archive of automobile literature,” Geoff recalled, “which he gave to me as a kid. I continued and added to his collection and discovered what ‘archiving’ was.”

Following graduation from Waco High School, Geoff worked in retail before joining the U.S. Navy in January 1996, where he served in naval aviation and enjoyed several deployments to Japan.

After his military service ended, Geoff returned to Waco and enrolled first in McLennan Community College, then Baylor, earning his bachelor’s degree in history in August 2005. His first position out of school in February 2006 was with the Texas Collection, working under Thomas Charlton and Ellen Brown as an archives assistant.

“My younger days as a collector of automobile literature and photographs introduced me to the 2024

world of preservation – and how important it is to save things,” Geoff said.

Eighteen years later, now with the title of Audio and Visual Curator for the Texas Collection, thousands of Baylor stories and pictures have crossed his desk, but Geoff said that he has never forgotten the story – or, perhaps, stories – of Walter Gernand’s Baylor class ring.

“Like most people, I think about it,” Geoff said.

“What if Walter David Gernand had not crashed in High Wycombe, where would I be today? My father knew nothing of Baylor University before reporting on this story. My family didn’t come to Waco, we didn’t come to Baylor – Waco and Baylor came to us. It literally fell from the sky on June 8th of 1944.

“I can’t think of a better way that Gernand could have left his legacy. He gave his life for his country. He saved countless school children. And his legacy lives on through my father, who retired from Baylor after 27 years.”

Geoff’s office is in the Texas Collection, which is housed in one of Baylor’s oldest buildings, Carroll Library. Geoff noted that Carroll also served as Baylor’s library when Walter was a student.

“I’ve got a strong connection to Gernand and obviously Baylor,” Geoff said. “But it’s something that’s very hard to explain to people because it sounds like something out of a novel.

“And when I tell people I’m from England, they ask, ‘Well, how did you get here?’ I say, ‘It’s very much a long story – and it’s hard to make this long story short.’

“But it begins with a ring.”

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But it doesn’t end there. The story of Walter Gernand and his Baylor class ring, of Alan Hunt’s journey, and of Geoff Hunt’s deep Baylor connections has a poignant coda.

Sometime between 1973 and 1975, someone broke into the locked glass display case in the Letterman’s Lounge at Floyd Casey and stole the 1940 class ring with the shattered red stone.

Years later, the display case, with its yellowed clippings chronicling the ring’s strange journey, was about to be discarded when Geoff retrieved it from the trash and stashed it away in a Texas Collection storage room, adding what Geoff calls a “terrible twist” to the story.

But today he still has the case … because this particular ring has been lost – and found – before.

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19 53 DISRUPTI NG the SPIR ITS:

TEQUILA

A Baylor grad and her team are on a mission to revolutionize the world of tequila – one bottle at a time.

By Leslie George

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The Baylor Line

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amed after the historic year Mexican women were given the Right to Vote, the 1953 Tequila company keeps social justice at its core and empowers women at every level: from the Jaliscan Highlands agave farm that sources its ultra-premium Añejo Tequila, to the unionized Mexican distillery that makes it and beyond.

But, starting a premium liquor company was not necessarily in the career playbook for any of the 1953 Tequila company’s three founders.

Lindsey Davis Stover (’99, MPP ’02), a Baylor and Harvard Kennedy School graduate who once developed STEM programs for girls in Houston-area schools, served as U.S. Congressman Chet Edward’s chief of staff, where she worked for pay equity and better healthcare for veterans and was a senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs during the Obama Administration. In 2017, she ran for congress in Northern Virginia’s 10th district against Alison Kiehl Friedman, a former CEO of the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable and a social justice supply chain management expert.

“On the campaign trail, we were fierce 1953’s elegant custom design is meant to be easy to pour and stand out on a shelf, with master distiller Rocio Rodriguez’s signature on every bottle.

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competitors, but we also became good friends,” Davis Stover said. “We often joked, saying, ‘When this is over, let’s sit down and talk over a glass of tequila.’”

For years afterward, they met for breakfast every month. Before one meeting in 2021, Davis Stover happened to read a slew of articles about the men behind tequila brands and thought, “Why aren’t women doing this?”

That night, she stayed awake and wrote out a business plan.

“I knew Alison would be the one person who would tell me if I was crazy,” Davis Stover said.

When Davis Stover presented the plan to her friend, Friedman responded, “That’s my kind of crazy.”

Friedman brought in Shivam Malick Shah as a partner, another woman committed to solving social issues through business with a wide-ranging resume. Founder of Summit Advisors, a boutique advisory firm that specializes in strategy and innovation, Shah also founded and ran a pre-K to 12 school, served as a senior advisor in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation, and held multiple leadership roles on the start-up teams of two of the world’s largest philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“We all had the same vision,” Davis Stover said, noting that Friedman had already helped reform one of the world’s largest supply chains to protect workers. “Our goal was always to elevate women – to build a company with women leading at every single level — and to protect workers while creating an excellent premium product. We wanted to show it could be done.”

Not that it was easy.

“For two years, all we heard were no’s,”

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she said. “But we used the no’s to help us find our yeses.” It finally “all came together,” Davis Stover notes, when they met Mexican distillery owner Adriana Lopez. “Adriana shared our vision of creating opportunities for women and treating workers fairly.”

Lopez’s distillery was unionized and offered employees fair wages and comprehensive healthcare. Traditionally, agave farms in Mexico are passed down from father to son.

Lopez introduced the 1953 team to an agave farmer without sons who was planning to sell his farm. Why the introduction?

“The farmer had four daughters . . . this is probably my favorite part of our whole story,” Davis Stover adds. “These four women knew everything any four men could know about agave farming. They grew up on the farm and loved it. They knew how to grow it, the traditional production process, the business, everything, inside and out.” It never occurred to the father that his daughters could take over, Davis Stover said. “We told him if he passed his business to his daughters, we would guarantee the purchase of their agave.”

Chemical engineer Rocio Rodriguez, 1953’s master distiller, is another woman making inroads in the male-dominated field.

From left: 1953 Tequila founding partners Adriana Lopez, Lindsay Davis Stover, Shivam Mallick Shah, and Alison Kiehl Friedman.

Stover said Rodriguez is the genius behind the smooth taste of the premiere tequila and is so important to the brand that when she had a baby, the distillery built a nursery for her to use. The 1953 Añejo Tequila, made from 100 percent Blue Weber agave, contains no additives. Its distinctive flavor, with hints of caramel, vanilla, and maple (and, for some, chocolate and citrus notes), comes from being aged 15 months in American oak bourbon barrels that have been used to age bourbon whiskey.

“Rocio’s brilliance in the chemistry of distillery is unique. She has taught us how every ingredient, every part, every step matters for the good flavor we get, from the soil in the highlands where the agave is grown to how it is handled in the traditional harvesting, the roasting, the yeast, the water.

She is so vital to the brand that we put her signature on every bottle,” Davis Stover said.

When it came to creating the bottle, the company’s commitment to female input and intuition led them to interview women at the end

“

Our advice to women starting a business is to believe in the power of your ideas and never give up.

Expect it to be hard. Expect to blaze your own trail.”

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The Baylor Line

We hosted 1953 Tequila founding partners Lindsey Davis Stover, Shivam Mallick Shah, and Adriana Lopez for a panel on 1953 Tequila, the women-owned brand sweeping the tequila world, moderated by CEO Jonathon Platt. Nearly 100 Baylor Line members and 1953 fanatics gathered for an evening of tastings, conversation, and fellowship on July 27, 2024, at the Baylor Club. And Lindsey, you still owe us an answer on if 1953 is “brat.”

Attendees at our tequila tasting event raise a toast to good company and even better spirits. of the tequila supply chain: female bartenders.

“They told us that typically tequila bottles are short and fat,” Davis Stover said, “which makes them difficult to pour.”

1953’s tall, white bottle was designed to stand out on a bar with its pleated texture and smooth neck and to be easy to pour. As an added flourish, its copper stopper can be re-used.

The company launched its first offering online on October 17, 2023, the 70th anniversary of the day women got the right to vote in Mexico. Today, 1953’s Añejo Tequila is available in bars and restaurants in Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, and Texas, as well as in government stores in Virginia.

“We chose the name 1953 because we wanted to recognize and celebrate the power of women and what women accomplish when they come together and organize,” Davis Stover said. “That’s what we’re about from beginning to end. When we met with the four women who now grow the agave for 1953,” she continued, “we asked them why they would be willing to take this on. They told us there was a high school down the street from their farm and that they wanted every girl in that school to know that she could do whatever

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she wanted, even if she had never seen it done before.”

That desire resonates with the three partners behind 1953 to this day, Davis Stover said, as they hope sharing 1953’s story will inspire other women to disrupt old ways of doing things. “Our advice to women starting a business is to believe in the power of your ideas and never give up. Expect it to be hard.

Expect to blaze your own trail.”

Davis Stover said her grandfather taught her never to give up on herself. The youngest of 10, he grew up on a farm in Belle Meade.

“He was brilliant and lived in the shadow of Baylor University but could never afford to go to college,” Davis Stover said, adding that all of his siblings dropped out of school to work on the farm. “My grandfather was the first to get a high school diploma because his high school principal would not let my grandfather drop out. If necessary, the principal would drive to Belle Meade to get my grandfather’s homework. That story has always stayed with me.

“To any woman with her own business – especially those working in male-dominated fields — I say the same: Never give up on yourself. Never give up on your ideas. You may get told ‘no’ a lot. Keep going until you get a ‘yes.’ And just know that you will get a yes.”

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What A Kicker’s Life Taught Him

By Mike Craven, Senior Writer Dave Campbell’s Texas Football

Assistant General Manager and College Scouting Director for the New Orleans Saints and Baylor grad Jeff Ireland traded a soccer ball for a football.

And that has made all the difference…

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eff Ireland spent his childhood summers in Chicago with his grandad, Jim Parmer, who was the director of college scouting for the Chicago Bears. Ireland, who became a ball boy in 1982 at the age of 12, hung out with the kickers during training camps, helping them warm up by kicking a soccer ball around with players such as John Roveto and Bob Thomas.

Ireland was a soccer player as a kid and had never played football by that summer of 1982, but that all changed when Bears General Manager Jim Finks rolled up on Ireland and those soccerplaying kickers in a golf cart with his grandfather in tow. Finks wasn’t happy about the type of ball being kicked on his football field.

“He said, ‘Parmer, I love having your grandson around here, but if he wants to kick something, have him kick a football. Get that damn soccer ball off the field,’” Ireland remembered. “That ended the loosening up with the soccer ball, so

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the kickers taught me how to kick a football. By the end of the summer, I was kicking 45-yard field goals and fell in love with it.”

Ireland was born in Lubbock and played high school ball at Abilene Christian, where he became an All-State wide receiver and kicker. He entered his senior season with interest from TCU, Texas Tech, Baylor, and Oklahoma State. Texas Tech and Oklahoma State found kickers in the previous recruiting cycle and TCU dropped the offer, so that left Baylor as Ireland’s ticket to college athletics.

The only problem? Head Coach Grant Teaff

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had never offered a kicker a scholarship before stepping foot on campus, and Ireland couldn’t afford to walk on. The good news is that he had a family connection. At the time, Baylor’s wide receiver coach was a former NFL player named Cotton Davidson, who himself played at Baylor as a multiple-position star at quarterback and kicker. Davidson played in the NFL with Ireland’s stepfather, E.J. Holub.

Davidson liked Ireland’s tape at wide receiver and the Bears found a scholarship for him ahead of the 1988 season. Ireland arrived in Waco for camp and worked out with the wide receivers for the first week of practice. In the second week, he earned the starting kicker job as a freshman.

That ended his wide receiver days.

“At the end of the day, Baylor was my only Southwest Conference offer, and I really wanted to play in the SWC or the Big 8,” Ireland said.

“Houston came in late, but I had already made my decision. I really enjoyed coach Teaff and coach Davidson.”

Ireland was the starting place kicker for the Bears from 1988-91. He finished third on the school’s all-time scoring list with 213 points and a

program-record 45 field goals. His career began with a four-field goal performance against UNLV in 1988 and was capped by a gamewinner as a senior against Colorado. In the 1992 Senior Bowl with all of the top seniors in football, he started as the South’s kicker.

A kicker’s life is never easy. To most fans, you’re only as good as your last attempt. Ireland went through plenty of ups and downs during his time in Waco. He missed a 62-yarder against Texas A&M as a sophomore that he still thinks about more than 30 years later. He missed multiple field goals against Rice as a senior that caused noticeable backlash from the Baylor fan base.

Ireland said his favorite thing about Baylor was the close-knit community of a private school, because everyone knew who you were. The inverse was true, as well. The bad part about being at a smaller university was that there was

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no place to hide during the low moments.

“The great thing about that time was that there was no social media,” Ireland joked.

“We had fans and students that weren’t shy about letting you know when you messed up.”

Ireland decided that he wanted to stay around football and chose the coaching profession when his playing days were done at Baylor. He became a graduate assistant at North Texas for two years before the staff was fired. Without a job, he turned to his dad’s oil business, trading a whistle for a suit and tie. He lasted six months.

“It turns out that I wasn’t really good at coldcalling millionaires to invest in my dad’s wildcat venture,” Ireland said. “So, I called my grandad and asked for help getting into scouting in the NFL. He told me, ‘I can help you get into the business, but your work ethic will determine if you stay in it.’”

As it turns out, Ireland was much better at his grandad’s trade than his father’s. Ireland began working in the scouting industry 30 years ago for National Football Scouting. He became a scout for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1997, and the vice president of college and pro scouting for the Dallas Cowboys in 2005.

Ireland became the general manager for the Miami Dolphins in 2008 and is currently the assistant general manager and college scouting director for the New Orleans Saints, a position he’s held since 2015.

Working in a front office of an NFL team 15

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“

He said, ‘Parmer, I love having your grandson around here, but if he wants to kick something, have him kick a football. Get that damn soccer ball off the field.’” requires the ability to block out outside noise. Ireland inadvertently trained for that his entire kicking career. He admits that he wasn’t as good as he should’ve been at blocking out the criticism when he was a kicker at Baylor, but that those lessons pay off daily in his professional life. He credits Baylor and the people in Waco for teaching him how to become a man. His youngest daughter, Annie, became a freshman at Baylor earlier this year.

“I had a love-hate relationship with the school when I left Baylor because I didn’t finish on the best note,” Ireland said. “It took me a couple of years to get back on campus and start enjoying my time there again. That is part of growing up. I was probably too sensitive back then, but I love Baylor and I’m proud to be a Bear.”

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LOSING FAITH IN COLLEGE The Cost of College:

TUITION

As college tuition continues to rise and enrollment at some institutions of higher education drops, the ongoing debate over the value of a college degree rages.

By Roger Munford

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oing to college in the United States is a fraught topic for pundits and politicians, who continually raise doubts about the value and purpose of a higher education. It’s too expensive, it’s for elites, it doesn’t deliver needed job skills, and students and families can end up saddled with crushing debt — whether or not the student actually graduates.

But recent polls reveal that graduates still value a diploma. A Harris Poll survey conducted among 2023 college grads revealed that nine out of 10 were glad they went to college. They also agreed that a degree is the best way to secure their futures.

According to a report released in June by the Institution for Higher Education Policy, a college degree still has value for about 93 percent of students.

And surveys continually reveal that those with college degrees still earn more than others.

According to the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, based on the analysis of more than 30 million students during the third quarter of 2023, holders of bachelor’s degrees enjoy median earnings of $36,000 or 84 percent higher than those who only have a high school diploma.

That earnings gap continues to widen, especially as all net job growth over the past decade has gone to workers with bachelor’s degrees or graduate degrees per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Regardless of whether a student pursues a degree at a public or a private institution, prospective students continue to face rising costs of attaining their degree goals.

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Tuition Going Up

If you look at attending college as an investment in your future, then expect the cost of that investment to continually rise — especially if you attend a private institution.

U.S. News & World Report recently noted that for 2023-2024, the average in-state cost of annual tuition and fees is nearly 75 percent less to attend a ranked public college, at $10,662, as compared to the average sticker price at a private college, at $42,162.

A 2023 report published by Trends in College Pricing noted that over the decade between 2013-14 and 2023-24, the average cost of tuition and fees, adjusted for inflation, has declined by 4 percent for public four-year institutions and increased by 5 percent at private nonprofit four-year institutions.

But perhaps sticker prices don’t tell the entire story.

From a big-picture standpoint, it’s important to keep in mind that Baylor is a private institution, and it operates differently from the public institutions here in Texas.

“Public institutions get a portion of their budget, which has continued to decline over the last couple of decades, from the state of Texas. As a private institution, we don’t

The Baylor Line

receive those state appropriations,” said Jason Cook, vice president for marketing and communications and chief marketing officer.

“Our primary funding mechanism is through tuition and fees. It’s a very competitive marketplace in which we find ourselves as we’re trying to recruit and retain faculty, and that’s been a key driver to some of our tuition increases in the past.”

The flat tuition rate to attend the University is $54,844 for 2023-2024, a 6 percent increase over 2022-2023 rates. (Baylor previously combined tuition with the general student fee into a single tuition rate.)

When the new tuition was announced in February 2023, President Linda Livingstone was quoted to have said, “We have worked hard to keep tuition increases small and measured during my tenure as President – increasing on average 3.8 percent in my five-plus years, when in the five years before, Baylor’s average annual tuition increase was more than 5 percent.”

Mary Herridge, assistant vice president of enrollment management, noted that because private and public schools have different cost structures — in-state tuition versus out-ofstate tuition — it is difficult to make direct comparisons. This is especially true when private schools like Baylor offer many services that public schools are unable to offer, such as more individualized instruction, more comprehensive health and counseling services, and more residential staffing support.

As the price of a college degree climbs, more and more students are losing faith in what all it costs to gain a degree.

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“Most students are not paying the ‘sticker price,’” Herridge said. “There’s a lot of money available for college education at the federal level as well as the state level. Our students may be receiving a Pell grant from the U.S. government or a specific grant from the state of Texas. If they’re a high-merit student, they may be receiving a scholarship at Baylor that recognizes their academic achievements.

Additionally, we’ve got some need-based grants. A student may have five or six different funding sources that are coming together that take that sticker price down substantially.”

Of course, tuition and fees are just part of the cost of attending college. This year’s cost of attendance — a figure that also includes, room and board, cost of travel, books and supplies, and living allowance — has increased 30.22 percent over the past decade, according to the website CollegeTuitionCompare.com.

Finding The Money to Make it Happen

Like many private colleges, Baylor provides a robust financial aid counseling team.

“It’s important to Baylor that students are educated about all of those different funding sources,” Herridge said. “We believe it’s our responsibility to make sure that students know what they’re getting into. We will assess students’ eligibility for need-based aid. Just this last year, we launched a new affordability measure called the Baylor Benefit, a grant aimed at students who have the most financial need.”

The Baylor Benefit program is benefiting the incoming freshman class of 2023 for the most financially disadvantaged students, covering their full tuition. The program is expected to have a significant impact on retention and graduation rates, and the University is hoping to expand the benefits to additional income groups in the future.

“Students can qualify for federal loans and alternative loans, although Baylor does not have its own loan program,” Herridge said.

“But they can lock in a guaranteed tuition rate at the beginning of their time at Baylor, they can use an installment plan, work on campus, and they can use 529 savings.”

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student borrowers who graduated in 2023 accumulated on average more than $37,000 in undergraduate debt. At Baylor, some 48 percent of undergraduates borrowed via loans, graduating in 2023 with an average debt of $46,992. (Efforts by the U.S. Department of Education to provide student loan debt relief to these borrowers have been stalled in the courts as of this writing.)

With the increase in tuition, some prospective students are left wondering “Y” pay so much for a private school, like Baylor.

A 529 plan is a tax-advantaged savings plan to encourage students and their families to build funds for future education costs.

They are legally known as “qualified tuition plans” sponsored by states, state agencies, or educational institutions, and are authorized

by Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Just to add some perspective to the question of whether students should rely on loans to afford college, the current amount of student loan debt in the U.S. has grown to more than $1.7 trillion, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data. This debt is carried by 44 million Americans. An online survey carried out by Fidelity Investments in May 2023 reported that 67 percent of recent graduates with student loan debt said it was preventing them from participating in major life milestones like buying a home, getting married, or saving for retirement.

A state program established in 1972, the Tuition Equalization Grant (TEG) program has helped lower-income and first-generation students in Texas afford higher education at private universities like Baylor. Students with the greatest need receive up to $5,000 per year. These grants go to more than 27,000 students statewide, of which 2,541 are currently pursuing degrees at Baylor.

More than 90 percent of Baylor students receive financial aid and 86 percent receive merit-based scholarships, as reported on the University’s website.

According to College Transitions,

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Providing Everything for Everyone

Promoting Baylor’s diversity is key to attracting students.

“We believe that diversity is part of the beautiful mosaic that the Lord created so we’re trying to create a diverse student body, a diverse faculty and staff that reflects our community, the state of Texas, and our country as well,” Cook said.

The popular trope in the media over the past decade is that fewer males are attending college and, indeed, that higher education is not as important as it was once considered.

Over the past academic year, the gender distribution at Baylor was 60 percent female students to 40 percent male students. The ratio at Baylor is a mirror of all universities and colleges in the United States.

“We have had some special initiatives As Baylor expands, so do its growing pains. But it’s not the only university threading the needle between excellence and cost.

The Baylor Line

over the last few years to try to encourage male students while obviously still engaging and recruiting female students,” Herridge said. “We have been fortunate that our percentages have not declined year over year like some other institutions and our applicant pool has continued to grow.”

Support for students whose families have not gone to college before is another way Baylor has distinguished its attraction for incoming freshmen.

Called the First in Line Success Academy (FILSA), the program “assists students who are unfamiliar with the higher education system to get them acclimated to Baylor their first year,” Herridge said. “It gives them access to additional academic support programs, social programs and it also has scholarship money that’s tied to it.”

As a measure of Baylor’s success, it was announced in February 2023 that a record 14 students were selected from Baylor for the highly competitive Fulbright awards. With 14 Fulbright grants, Baylor is tied for 16th in the nation among research universities and second in Texas.

From High School Hopefuls to Long-Term Career Success

Perhaps the most important advice Baylor preaches to high school students is when to start thinking about their higher education.

“It’s never too early to start getting exposure to college,” Herridge said. “Students should look for a school that matches their academic interests, their values, and their outside interests.

“We’ve tried to be intentional over the last few years to engage high school students at a younger age,” she continued. “Our admissions counselors travel all over the country and the world, visiting high schools in person and hosting events in cities. Of course, we love nothing more than a student to come for a campus tour and see what it’s like.”

Knowing the direction of your academic path is equally important to ensure a career.

Baylor offers career fairs each year, as well as fairs specifically targeted toward internships.

“We provide students who come here with

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Still, Baylor graduates are embracing the cost and stepping across the stage to go out and shape the future of the world. multiple options to transfer to the major of choice,” Cook said. “As higher ed has evolved, the return on investment is important. You need to know what you’re going to do before you get here.”

Baylor reported that 75.87 percent of students find jobs or start graduate school within 180 days of graduation. That’s higher than the national average.

Looking beyond securing a job and landing a steady income, students should also consider their health. Studies indicate that holders of bachelor’s degrees are 47 percent more likely to have their health insurance paid by their employers and can expect a life expectancy of seven years longer than peers with no postsecondary education.

As inflation continues to rise and higher education institutions battle to overcome enrollment challenges, the good news for students and their families is that college remains a buyer’s market.

If you’ve enjoyed reading about the cost of college in 2024, head to baylorline.com to read about the cost of housing in part two and other future additions to the series.

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Her Name Was Cindy Campbell Brown.

She Died In 1995.

And It’s Time You Knew Her Story.

On April 19, 1995, at 9:02 a.m., Timothy McVeigh set off a truck bomb in front of the building where Cindy worked.

By Jeanne Bishop

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The Baylor Line

T

he photo on the website of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, under “Those Who Were Killed,” shows a photo of a fresh-faced young woman in a white lace wedding dress, a gauzy veil resting in her curly hair. She looks directly into the camera, smiling and holding a single red rose in her right hand.

Her name was Cindy Campbell Brown (’91).

Her age was 26. She was a Secret Service agent whose office was on the top floor of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. On April 19, 1995, at 9:02 a.m., Timothy McVeigh, 26, a U.S. Army veteran poisoned with anti-government hate, set off a truck bomb in front of the building where Cindy worked. McVeigh had designed and built the bomb by hand along with his coconspirator Terry Nichols. The blast sheared off the front of the nine-story, glass front federal building, reducing it to rubble. The ensuing devastation killed 168 people, including Cindy.

It was the most lethal strike on American soil since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor more than 50 years earlier. The Oklahoma City bombing remains the deadliest single act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.

Cindy was the only Baylor graduate in the attack.

The photo of Cindy as a bride was the perfect choice to capture her at that moment in her life.

Cindy had been married only weeks before to fellow Secret Service agent Ron Brown. They had gotten their wedding pictures back and liked them so much that Cindy called Garner Brothers photographers in Bells, Texas, about 15 minutes before the bomb went off. She left a voicemail telling them she wanted to order more prints. It was Cindy’s last known phone call before the explosion that took her life.

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Cindy was in the federal building that day because of something she had done all her adult life: public service. She majored in political science at Baylor. One of her professors said Cindy talked about the Gulf War a lot and was concerned about it. Cindy’s brother was serving in Operation Desert Storm — ironically, the same operation a young Army soldier named Timothy McVeigh served in as well.

Her first job after graduating in 1991 was one she was made for, working with kids as a juvenile probation officer for Grayson County, Texas. Bill Bristow, who was director of Grayson County Juvenile Services in 2005 told North Texas e-News then that protecting and serving children was “where her heart was.”

Bristow said that a decade after her murder, his department was still getting calls from former juvenile probationers asking to talk with her.

“They call back because they are doing well and they want to tell her,” Bristow said.

Years after Cindy’s death, one child probationer of hers did just that — told her he was doing well and thanked her. On the website Officer Down Memorial Page, on April 23, 2023, Justin Brown wrote, “One of Her Below: Cindy Campbell Brown’s photo in the Roundup. She was a political science major who graduated in 1991. She is the sole Baylor graduate to perish in the OKC bombing.

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“

…protecting and serving children was “where her heart was.”

Juvenile probation clients in the early 1990s.

She was one of the most caring and still stern people I have met. 32 years later and I have still never forgotten Her. Rest easy, Cindy…

Also…I MADE IT.” Another man on the site wrote in tribute to her simply this: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Cindy was hands-on with the teens she counseled, trying to improve their home life with family interventions and bringing up their schoolwork by going to class with some kids and driving others to school and back.

“She’d do it,” a former colleague told Oklahoma Today, “If that school official would give them another chance, because she knew if

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that child dropped out, it was over.”

It was Cindy’s work with federal agents on a case involving one of her juvenile probationers that led the Secret Service to recruit her as an agent herself. Cindy’s probationer had allegedly sent threatening letters to the president. Cindy was unsure about taking the job but was convinced after visiting the Secret Service office in Dallas. Later, she told her father that standing out in front of a hotel all night in the rain protecting the president didn’t sound great, but to her, it was exciting.

Her first assignment was Oklahoma City, where she worked for 14 months before her murder. She was one of 8 federal agents killed in the Murrah building bombing.

The man Cindy had married only 40 days before her death, Ron Brown, was a Secret Service agent working in the Phoenix office Left: The immediate aftermath of the OKC bombing attack. Right: Rescue workers search through the wreckage. Cindy Campbell Brown was found in the rubble on April 20, 1995 — the day after the bombing.

The Baylor Line

when he and Cindy met. He retired from that job a few years ago and now works in Portland, Oregon, as a private investigator.

Ron remembers getting the horrific news of the attack on the building where his wife worked. He flew to Oklahoma City as soon as he could and immediately headed to the site of the bombed-out building.

Search and rescue operations were ongoing as first responders combed through the debris looking for survivors, and the dead. A photo of a firefighter carrying out the limp, bloodied body of a dead infant, one of 19 children murdered in the explosion, captured the horror of the carnage. There had been a daycare on the Murrah building’s second floor.

Law enforcement had blocked off the streets in a large perimeter around the building to keep

“

I have still never forgotten Her. Rest easy, Cindy…

Also…I MADE IT!” –reformed child probationer of Cindy Campbell Brown’s in 2023

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Outside the Oklahoma City Memorial includes a reflecting pool and a field of empty chairs for each victim. Cindy Campbell Brown’s is near the middle of the back row.

unauthorized people away. Ron, undaunted, managed to talk his way past the barricades and onto the huge mountain of debris where the ruins of the federal building stood. He climbed onto the pile and started digging through it, searching for his wife. It was only at the end of a long, fruitless day that the awful truth sunk in: he would not be able to find her.

Search and rescue teams discovered Cindy’s body in the rubble the next day.

They notified Ron; he went to view her.

There was a small grace in that viewing. Many people killed in the bombing were so damaged that only parts of their bodies were located: a child’s finger, a leg. Cindy’s body was intact, with severe internal injuries. Her funeral took place in the same place where she and Ron had just been married: Grace United Methodist Church in her hometown of Sherman, Texas.

Cindy Campbell Brown’s beautiful, consequential life and tragic death resonate deeply with me, for two reasons.

First, I grew up in Oklahoma City. My family–mother, father, two sisters and me– moved there when I was 10 years old. I lived

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Above: Nancy Bishop Langert, the younger sister of the article’s author, and her husband Richard were murdered when Nancy was almost the same age as Cindy Campbell Brown. there until I left for college at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

I loved Oklahoma City: its warm-hearted people, its prairie heritage of concern for neighbors, its modesty, its love of God and country. The attack on this place that had embraced me and my family shocked me. The

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death of so many innocents, including Cindy Campbell Brown, was unfathomable in its callousness and cruelty. Tim McVeigh is said to have called them “collateral damage.” But of course, Cindy and the 167 other souls who died with her were not at all collateral. McVeigh picked the federal building in Oklahoma City rather than Waco, Texas — one of the targets he considered — because it was so much bigger and contained so many more federal employees.

I think of Cindy Campbell Brown’s last moments and am haunted by this fact: some of the dead from the 9th floor where she worked were found where people from the 1st floor lay in the debris. Witnesses said that when the bomb went off, they saw people on the 9th floor with both arms up in the air, as if they were doing the Wave at a football game.

In fact, they were dropping through empty space to the ground far below.

I am haunted, too, by this. Cindy was almost exactly the same age as another young woman who was newly married when she was murdered: my younger sister Nancy Bishop Langert.

Nancy was the youngest of the three girls in our family. She grew up in Oklahoma City, where we moved when she was five years old.

The day we moved into our house there, amid all the chaos of movers bringing in furniture and unpacking boxes, Nancy went missing. She was nowhere to be found in the house, in the yard.

She was just… gone. Desperate to find her, I searched the neighborhood, knocking on doors to see if anyone had seen this little girl with light brown hair. To my relief, all of them had.

Nancy had been going door to door up the street, ringing doorbells and introducing herself to her new neighbors who answered the bell. “Hi! I’m Nancy Bishop! I just moved here,” the small child would announce to the startled but enchanted folks at the door. I finally found my little sister at a big white house at the end of

The Baylor Line

“

Tim McVeigh is said to have called them ‘collateral damage.’

But of course, Cindy and the 167 other souls who died with her were not at all collateral.”

our street, where she was inside with the kindly elderly couple who lived there, sitting in their big white kitchen eating an apple.

I found Nancy that day; in the end, though, I did lose her. In 1990, just a year after she and the man she loved, Richard Langert, were married and she was pregnant with what would have been their first child, Nancy and her husband and unborn baby were shot to death in their home. After a six-month investigation into the crime, a young man turned in their killer; it was a teenage boy who lived only a few blocks away. His reason for killing them was as senseless and incomprehensible as Timothy McVeigh’s was for setting off his handmade truck bomb.

When I saw the photo of Cindy Brown on the Memorial Museum site — her wedding dress, her smiling, upturned face, her curly hair — I was speechless. It was as if I was looking into the face of my sister, another young woman in the early bloom of her life as an adult, full of promise and joy.

I asked Ron Brown about his wife’s murderer, Timothy McVeigh. Brown said his reaction when McVeigh was sentenced to death was, “Let him go.” Let him go, because what Ron Brown and others would do to McVeigh if they got their hands on him would be far worse than his execution by lethal injection in federal custody.

Brown and other family members of those killed in the Oklahoma City bombing are invited each year on April 19 to attend commemorations of that tragic event. Brown goes, but he does so quietly, unannounced.

He brings flowers; he lays them by the chair, sitting among 167 others, that honors his dead wife and bears her name. He neither listens to nor makes any speeches. He just remembers the woman he loved and lost.

Cindy Campbell Brown is buried in her hometown in Sherman, Texas, but she has not stopped doing good in this world. Each May, the high school she attended, Sherman High School, gives one of its students a scholarship in Brown’s name. Cindy’s father told a reporter that the scholarship “has kept her memory alive by helping someone else, which is the way she would want it to be.”

The coach of Cindy’s church softball and volleyball teams, David Matthews, called her “an All-American girl” who was a role model to his two daughters. Cindy’s mother Linda said around the time of the 10th anniversary of Cindy’s death that she “takes every opportunity to tell people who she was…Cindy was such a great girl; she was so happy. She had everything going for her. She was the typical girl next door who blossomed and did well. She was beautiful inside and out. I often wonder how she would be doing now.”

“

Cindy Campbell Brown is buried in her hometown in Sherman, Texas, but she has not stopped doing good in this world.”

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The

PURPOSE DRIVEN Life Baylor students’ excitement about faith drives spiritual connection, on and off campus.

By Marianne Dougherty

W

hy am I here? What was I made to do? These are the existential questions that many students grapple with during their college years. In his experience as assistant director for pastoral care, Tyler Conway has found that students at Baylor have “a desire to connect with God or a community of people to find a

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sense of meaning and belonging.” And as an unapologetically Christian university, Baylor strives to help them make those connections.

“There is a beautiful tapestry of ministers, staff, and students whose dedication enhances the spiritual environment at Baylor and that ultimately has resulted in increasing numbers of church attendance,” said Charles Ramsey, The Baylor Line

associate chaplain and director of campus ministries and church connections. “Can we track the numbers of students in church? Not yet.

But from what we see and hear, there is a vibrancy of faith in our Baylor community, and this is translating into increased Christian commitment and church participation.”

Austin Murray, the college pastor at Antioch Community Church in Waco, sees a “fresh hunger for God” among the 300 to 350 college students who attend church on Sunday and take part in the college service, which welcomes anyone 18 to 25 from 7 to 9 p.m. each Wednesday evening.

“I think they come for a variety of peripheral reasons — community, good worship, good Bible teaching — but they’re also hungry for God himself,” he said. “They’re coming to be with their brothers and sisters in Christ and because we prioritize the Word of God and a true encounter with God.” The students who attend Antioch have not been enticed to do so by auxiliary methods. “The days of being popular instead of potent are over,” Murray said. “If we have to offer all kinds of extras to get them here, then we’ll have to do more of that to keep them.” Instead, he strives to offer an authentic experience of Jesus in an authentic space.

While his fear is that young people have almost become desensitized to the mass shootings, bombings, and natural disasters in the news every day, he is convinced that the church has a role to play in their lives, which may be to offer hope.

“Ultimately, the local church is the hope of the world,” he said. What’s important to remember is that “as the darkness in the world gets even darker, the light is going to get a lot brighter.”

Ramsey has observed an excitement about faith among Baylor students, faculty, and staff that he

finds to be reflective of the “big tent Christianity” that Baylor seeks to cultivate. “Though our largest groupings continue to be Baptist, Catholic, and non-denominational,” he said, “Baylor has students from many different Christian traditions and faith commitments.”

Indeed, since the 1970s when most of the student body was from Texas and Baylor was 61 percent Baptist, demographics have shifted considerably.

Burt Burleson, university chaplain and dean of spiritual life, points out that as a world-class university, Baylor attracts students from all over the world, about 18 percent of which are Baptist, 17 percent Catholic, 10 percent mainline Protestant, a little over 20 percent non-denominational, about six percent that doesn’t identify with any particular religion, and another four percent that identifies as Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, or Buddhist.

Historically, the two largest non-Christian groups of students have been Hindus and Muslims.

The hub of spiritual activity at Baylor is the Bobo Spiritual Life Center, which has been described as a place where the couches are comfortable, the coffee is free, and the conversations are lifechanging. It’s home to the Office of Spiritual Life, which offers programs and resources to nurture theological depth and spiritual wholeness.

“It is important to remember that the Office of Spiritual Life at Baylor has grown dramatically over the past decade,” said Ramsey, who remembers being an undergraduate himself in the mid to late 1990s when there was basically a chaplain, an administrative assistant, and the Baptist Student Union staff. “Now there are about 50 individuals who are directly engaged in providing spiritually formative opportunities for Baylor students, including about 60 different chapel opportunities

“

Studies show that people who attend Baylor and are part of a Christian community thrive while they’re here. ...

They feel like they belong, and they keep that going after they graduate.”

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“

Ultimately, the local church is the hope of the world ... as the darkness in the world gets even darker, the light is going to get a lot brighter.”

that go from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.”

A long-standing tradition at Baylor, chapel began as a daily prayer service for faculty, staff, and students but has evolved over the years to meet the needs of 20,000 students who are at different steps along their faith journey. The ideal chapel — and there are dozens of them — is a combination of content and experience that takes students beyond the classroom. Some chapels require attendance as well as other activities or assignments, and each of them offers a different experience. University Chapel Worship, for example, is a multicultural service that brings in top preachers and musicians.

Wilderness Spirituality Chapel explores how nature and creation can enhance your spiritual life.

Last spring, the first Catholic Chapel opportunity at Baylor was inaugurated, and the section of 40 slots not only filled up immediately but also pushed daily mass attendance to well over 100 students.

Aside from chapel, there are 39 campus ministries (chartered student organizations) that collaborate with 61 local churches to nurture and support the student body. “We know that two-thirds of our students come here because of our Christian mission,” said Burleson. “So from the get-go they’re likely to be involved with a campus ministry.”

They certainly have plenty of options. Baylor Cru, for example, leads some excellent small 29

group Bible studies and hosts lots of great events, retreats, conferences, and summer mission opportunities. Established in 1988, Heavenly Voices is Baylor’s very own gospel choir.

Members travel throughout the state performing and doing community service. Asian Ministry InterVarsity desires to see Asian Americans transformed as they explore what it means to follow Jesus together, gathering in groups both large and small and participating in intramurals to foster community and fellowship. Vertical Ministries, which meets on Monday nights, exists to ignite a passion in college students for Jesus, his church, and his mission around the world. With so many options, students are sure to find one that’s a good fit for their denomination and interests.

The Office of Spiritual Life offers plenty of resources to help students find a local church that’s a good fit for them. To help discern where they belong, they are encouraged to consider church size, denomination, theological tradition, worship style, preaching, and pastoral leadership.

They may want to look around and learn from and about other traditions. Or, they might look for an experience that is more intergenerational instead of choosing a church because it’s easier to go there with a group of other students.

“One way we explore the spiritual climate

The Baylor Line

at Baylor,” said Ramsey, “is through the Faith and Character study.” In August, 2018, an interdisciplinary research team began collecting data to track changes in religious belongings, beliefs, and behaviors in order to measure outcomes of

93%

of new Baylor students and seniors identify with a religious tradition.

50%

of Baylor students attend religious services at least once per week compared to

30%

of the U.S. population.

New students and seniors also reported high levels of being spiritually moved by nature, talking with others about their faith, and their commitment to God, applying their faith to political and social issues and seeking opportunities to grow spiritually.

On average,

new students attended religious services about weekly but read the Bible less than once a month, while

seniors and alumni read the Bible two to three times a month.

“Every being is a spiritual being,” said Conway, who defines spirituality as “making meaning and finding purpose in our lives.” In that respect, Baylor provides an academic environment that creates self-awareness and builds character.

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faith and character. Using surveys and interviews, researchers gathered data at three points in time: a student’s first semester at Baylor, a student’s final semester at Baylor, and 10 years after degree completion. The findings from 2020 revealed: New students are

lower

on Bible belief and reading than seniors or alumni.

74% 69% 61% of alumni,

of seniors and

of new students agreed that the Bible is inspired by God.

“Studies show that people who attend Baylor and are part of a Christian community thrive while they’re here,” said Burleson. “Perhaps more importantly, they feel like they belong, and they keep that going after they graduate.”

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Baylor BU I L DI NG S Campus probably looks a lot different than when you first saw it — regardless of if you graduated 30 years ago or in 2018.

By Sophia Alejandro

N

ew buildings like the Baylor Science Building and Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation show the growth of campus. Renovations to existing buildings exude change in what was once a stability on campus. Even discussions about names of buildings and removing statues may come to mind. So what is the same?

We can find this stability in the normality of the older side of campus. As we move away from the newest side of campus, by East Village, the first semblance of this familiarity for most alumni is Moody Memorial Library.

Dr. Stephen Sloan, director of the Institute for Oral History and history professor, has been around Baylor’s campus for most of his life, coming for camps and to visit as a young boy. His knowledge and love of Baylor shines through stories of swimming in the pool that used to be at the marina, the ever-changing Bear Pit, and remembering his time as a student. Now, he works at Baylor, still learning more.

“Moody has become much more of a gathering place now ... You can think about what is the center of student life. I think it used to be more the SUB, but now it has shifted. Probably Moody would be the center of campus that people operate around,” Sloan said.

Walking through Moody, there may be more students than in the past. Whether it’s talking with friends, snacking on their Starbucks purchases, or studying, students are spread throughout the levels of the library.

“I love using Moody to study with friends and work on any group projects. I like that there’s different atmospheres on each floor.

The bottom floor is perfect for studying with friends because you can sit together and talk

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aloud, but whenever I need to concentrate alone, I like being able to go to the second floor for a quieter experience. ... Even when I am not studying, I love meeting up with friends to get coffee and chat. I definitely take advantage of the Starbucks to keep me going throughout Top: The Baylor Lariat circa 1962.

Bottom: Football was played on Carroll Field.

The Baylor Line

the day,” alumna Sophie Acebo (‘21) said.

Moody was built with the intention of being a research library. While the connotation of “going to Moody” has changed from researching and checking out books to being a study zone, the building has remained the same architecturally.

Today, however, instead of those steep stairs and echoed halls leading to wide bookshelves, it can lead to groups working on a project, people in study rooms, or even the IT desk helping with a 3D printer.

As Moody has grown in resources and changing uses, the halls are still filled with Baylor alumni memorabilia. This homage to the past reminds us of one thing: we make up one Baylor story.

Exiting the library and heading toward Fountain Mall – once known as University Mall – the Bill Daniel Student Center comes into sight.

“In the early 1900s, Baylor’s first athletic field was Lee Carroll Field. It was a simple dirt and grass field located behind Carroll Science Hall where Vara Martin Daniel Plaza and the Bill Daniel Student Center now stand … In 1940, groundbreaking for the Bill Daniel Student Center — also known as the SUB — began, replacing the field and moving sporting events to Waco Municipal Stadium,” a BaylorProud article reads.

Through the years, this spot on campus has been home to many gathering students.

From when it hosted sporting events to the groundbreaking of the SUB building itself, to now.

“When I was a student, they had just opened up the first parking garage that Baylor had. And that is the parking garage that the Bookstore is in, so I can remember the bookstore being in the SUB when it was on the first floor. That whole side where Common Grounds is was the bookstore area,” Sloan said.

The bookstore now has its own building, no longer occupying the first floor of the SUB. Where there was once a barber shop and a beauty parlor now sits storage rooms and offices. While the barber shop pole still hangs on the wall, there are some places that

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The Carroll Field sign is now displayed on a wall inside the SUB. left without a trace – such as the shooting range that used to be in the attic that allowed students to have indoor target practice.

“A lot of things have come and gone in the SUB subject to what the students’ needs are.

Depending on how those change through time, they would of course change what is in the SUB,” Texas Collection archivist Paul Fisher said.

One space that fit this need at the time was a room called the Colonial Dining Room.

At the dining room on the first floor students could get lunch for 85 cents or dinner for $1.00 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. While the dining room may not be there anymore, the SUB is still known for its dining options, from Panda Express to Chick-fil-A. Moving upstairs, things look familiar again. Barfield Drawing Room and many others are still intact and true to their original architecture and sometimes decor.

“I was in a fraternity that I am the sponsor for now, and the meeting room is the exact same now as it was then. “It is funny how little the second floor and third floor have changed, even down to some of the furniture,” Sloan said.

Then in the basement is one of the student favorites on campus: the Baylor Gameroom.

“My favorite part of the SUB is the game room. Freshman year, I made so many memories there. Bowling was the best part.

We would go downstairs an hour before it was free to students and put our names on the list,” Acebo said.

The next stop is Burleson Quadrangle.

Within the quad, there are many important buildings that help create Baylor’s history.

The Baylor Historical Marker project was

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started by Dr. Thomas Charlton, director of the Texas Collection at the time. With the help of history professor Dr. Michael Parrish and a group of graduate students, they were able to create the markers we see in front of these buildings.

The quad is like a portal to the past – the buildings that stand on this half of fountain mall are some of the oldest on campus. Old Main, Burleson Hall, and Draper Academic Building are the first buildings that catch our eyes.

Old Main was built in 1887 and currently houses our modern languages and cultures department. Although Old Main has been home to many subjects, classes, and departments over the years, it is also the home of a campus revolution, according to the Baylor Historical Marker project: “Early in Baylor’s history, when the third floor still housed a chapel, Old Main established itself in campus lore and legacy with a shocking incident in 1902 resulting in a student uprising led by J. Frank Norris and the forced resignation and public apology of President Cooper.

According to J.M. Dawson’s account in the Baylor Lariat: ‘Some prankish students sneaked a howling dog into the small upstairs chapel on the lofty third floor of Main. When the perverse little animal disturbed the worship the president became enraged. Cooper leaped down from the platform, seized the dog and hurled it through a window to the ground below. The act appalled everyone, because it showed a lack of control deemed inexcusable, although under the most exasperating circumstances.’”

Next to Old Main is Burleson Hall, known as the largest all-girl residential hall in the nation in 1888. Now, it mainly houses faculty offices and conference rooms, but the building looks the same from the outside.

When the Waco Tornado hit in 1953, the towers on top of Old Main and Burleson Hall were removed. While it may be strange to imagine these iconic buildings without their tall spires, they actually remained absent

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Moody Library has stayed architecturally the same over the years, with a cozy, retro interior. for several years until the buildings’ next renovation.

Draper kept with the Georgian-style architecture, though it was built much later than other members of the quad in 1976.

Today, it houses our sociology and political science departments.

Also in this quadrangle is Carroll Science Hall, which currently houses our English department.

However, true to its name, it did not start this way. A Baylor Historical Marker Project narrative reads: “Conceived as ‘…one of the finest science halls in the South,’ Carroll Science boasted three stories and a basement, with the second story, consisting of eleven rooms, devoted entirely to the study of chemistry.

This layout ensured the availability of ample resources and space for the instruction of regular chemistry classes as well as the

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training of professional chemists. While the second floor remained dedicated to chemistry, other floors housed classrooms suited for other sciences such as biology, geology, and astronomy, with the basement serving as the university’s museum.

Along with the physics department, the first floor held several administrative offices, including the registrar and even the president of the time, Samuel Palmer Brooks. Completely state of the art for its time and one of the first buildings on campus, Carroll Science Hall contained numerous laboratories, lecture halls, and offices devoted to the study of science, establishing a foundation not only for future structures at the university, but for the future of education at Baylor as well.”

Across the quad from Carroll Science is

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While life as we know it is being turned upside down, we can look for stability in Baylor’s campus.”

Carroll Library, completed in 1903 as the F. L. Carroll Chapel and Library. According to the 1904-1905 academic year student handbook, the first floor contained an art room, theological lecture room, the library, and space for students. A chapel was on the second floor, “one of the finest college assembly rooms in the South.”

“The delicate colorings and soft curves of the walls, the magnificent marble columns with their ornate capitals, the polished mahogany seats, the artistically-constructed [sic] pipe organ, the exquisite stained glass skylight, contribute to the perfect symmetry, grace, and harmony of the whole. The acoustics are unusually excellent for a room capable of seating 2,700 people.”

Then, in 1922, F.L. Carroll Chapel and

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Moody’s status on campus has morphed, becoming a study zone and safe haven for today’s students.

Library caught fire. The fire spread from the roof and destroyed the entire building, including 1,800 new seats, six pianos, a pipe organ, and the chapel’s dome.

Although the chapel and dome were never rebuilt, Carroll Library was reconstructed the way it looks today. Miraculously, all of the Browning Collection housed there was saved.

Finally, we come to Tidwell Bible Building: the symbol of Baylor’s teachings as an unapologetically Christian university. Most students at some time have walked through this campus to encounter our theology and history building, inside finding theological teachings as well as loving professors.

“My favorite memory in Tidwell actually happened when I was a prospective student at Baylor. I came to visit campus, and I walked into Tidwell just to see if there was someone I could talk to. One of the professors in Tidwell immediately walked up to me because I’m sure I looked pretty lost. She directed me over to the ministry guidance office where they talked to me for over an hour answering all my questions and addressing any concerns ... everyone was so kind and generous with their time,” alumna Emily Grantham (‘21) said.

Before it was built, Tidwell had many different architectural plans, one idea involving making one wall completely out of stained glass. Instead, 68 limestone panels make up the building and tell the story of the Bible.

While life as we know it is being turned upside down, we can look for stability in Baylor’s campus. Though as we remember how Baylor is the same, sometimes we cannot help but notice the differences too.

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A COMMITMENT to INCLUSION:

Empowering Waco’s Minority- and Women-Owned Small Businesses Business is booming in Waco thanks in part to the Cen-Tex African American Chamber of Commerce.

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By Leslie George

nroads have been made in recent years to support diversity in Waco, even though the challenges for small business owners everywhere are significant: Inflation, supply chain issues, renovation costs, and demands for a quick return by lenders plague the market.

“The beauty of living in a community where small businesses thrive,” said Oh My Juice owner Denitia Blount, “is that it sets a place apart.

Whenever I go to a town or city, I want the local flair. I want to feel like I’m somewhere different.

When you go to a chain, you aren’t seeing what makes a place great. You aren’t tapping into the people. In Waco, people are drawn by what’s homegrown and the diversity of our small businesses.”

The Bureau of Labor reports a third of new businesses close within their first two years – a 35

statistic that worsens for minority- and womenowned businesses. Blount couldn’t secure a loan to start her business in 2013 unless her husband, who has a successful nationally recognized business, co-signed. People of color face even more discrimination and other inequities. According to a recent Bloomberg Report, eight out of 10 Blackowned businesses fail within the first 18 months.

“The opportunities are here,” said Andreas Zaloumis, who launched his coffee roasting business, Thrst Coffee, in 2018 in the predominantly Black neighborhood of East Waco. “Business is based on relationships, and access to those relationships Above: Thrst Coffee is multifaceted – a charming coffee shop by day and cool community hub by night. | Courtesy of Andreas Zaloumis The Baylor Line

helps. Mentoring helps. Access to capital with employment searches, marketing support, and flexible terms helps. Investors who are willing to go-to classes that support opening a small not only put in money but put in their knowledge of business.” Additionally, Esther’s Closet, a free business helps,” he said. resource where women can pick out a week’s A longtime member of the Cen-Tex African worth of donated clothes for a new job and get American Chamber of Commerce (CTAACC), interview training, will receive about a third of Zaloumis opened his first physical coffee shop the space at the center. at 1500 Colcord Ave., in January 2023. That “Most small business owners join the Chamber year he received a $5,000 grant from the looking for help finding capital, learning Cen-Tex Minority Business (CTMB) Equity marketing strategies, and networking with Fund – a Chamber program designed to lend other small business owners,” Bible said. Every help to McLennan County’s minority-owned year, the Chamber holds the BOSS Conference, businesses – which he used for general operating offering panels of experts to discuss these topics, expenses. Along with selling drinks, Thrst sells and hosts a separate awards banquet celebrating beans at its retail store and online, provides beans Black excellence in Waco. The 2024 award wholesale to other small Waco businesses, caters recipients included Deputy City Manager Deidra coffee services for up to 600 people, and rents out Emerson as Public Servant of the Year. The its space, including barista services. Passionate Corner Stop, Waco’s home-grown champion of about creating community, he holds monthly fried ribs at 2524 Colonial Ave., was recognized events in the store featuring live music and poetry as this year’s Business Pillar. The Chamber also readings from local artists. “I’m a community helps direct businesses to local, county, state, and organizer,” he said. “I want to bring things into federal financial opportunities, and connects the Black community that need to exist.” members to training and certification programs So does the Waco-based CTAACC, which at McLennan Community College and Texas president John Bible says is constantly evolving. State Technical College.

“Since COVID, we’ve seen more awareness “Our purpose is to focus on small Black-owned of the inequities around business ownership in businesses, but anyone can join the Chamber,” underserved communities than ever before,” Bible said. “All women are welcome at Esther’s Bible said.

In 2020, the Chamber created the equity fund to help minority-owned businesses bridge Cha Community co-owners Devin Li, left, and Jaja the financial hardships of the pandemic. Baylor Chen share boba tea at their Franklin Avenue location. | University and TFNB Your Bank for Life Courtesy of Jaja Chen contributed to the fund and helped raise money. Since 2020, the Fund has given out $175,000, Bible said earlier this year. “When major corporations and educational institutions contribute, it helps individual businesses grow stronger, positively impacting the city and county,” he said.

In May 2023, the CTAACC moved back to its original home on the historic, newly redeveloped Elm Avenue in East Waco, where it plans to build a 15,000-squarefoot resurrected Center of Business Excellence beginning in 2025. “With the updated Center,” Bible said, “people won’t have to leave their community to receive computer access, job training,

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You have to learn to face your fears and be determined. You have to be resilient and keep going.”

Closet. And we work closely with the Cen-Tex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Waco Chamber of Commerce, and every organization.

We want a vigorous economy for everyone. It takes everyone. Everyone has something to give.”

Dytrun Thirkill, vice president of the Cen-Tex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (CTHCC), says two of the most important things minority business owners can do are become certified in the statewide Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) program and to be aware of the We all Win grant program, a federally funded program created and overseen by the city of Waco.

“It feels like now more than ever, there are more

The Cen-Tex African American Chamber of Commerce team resides at 715 Elm Ave., historically where the organization got its start. | Courtesy of CTAACC

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opportunities for a minority to start a business in Waco and be successful,” Thirkill said. “More people are aware of the available resources.”

To help CTHCC members network and bring in new customers, the the Chamber holds a gathering called Café y Pan Dulce at a member business every month that’s open to the public. It also added Office Hours, a once-a-month chance to meet with Chamber representatives to ask questions or discuss issues, also held at a different member business each month.

Devin Li and Jaja Chen opened their bubble tea business at the Waco Downtown Farmers Market under a 10-foot-by-10-foot tent in 2018.

Before then, Baylor alumni Li and Chen used to drive to Austin, Dallas, or Houston for the food they grew up with: Li immigrated from China at 13 and Chen is Taiwanese. “Waco is only about two percent Asian,” said Chen. “Now I’m happy to say that Asian food is flourishing here. Back then, we had difficulty feeling like we belonged, particularly around food and culture.”

“It was a passion project at first,” she said.

“We wanted to share our food and culture here because it felt joyful.” The tapioca pearls in what Americans call bubble tea, or boba tea, came from the city in Taiwan where Chen went to high school in the 1980s, she said. In Taiwan, boba is served with tea, shaved ice, and brown sugar syrup. “Taiwan has a lot of mountainous regions with premium tea farms and tea gardens. There is so much access to great quality tea, and that bred innovation.”

Similarly, Chen says she believes it’s the diversity of Waco’s small businesses that breeds creativity and innovation.

“Texas is growing a lot and, with Baylor becoming categorized as R1, there will be even more diversity among the student population.” [Edit note: R1 denotes a doctoral institution with “very high research activity;” the R1 recognition came in 2021.]

They opened their first store in 2020 (Waco Cha, now called Cha Community) using premium looseleaf tea, real milk, fresh ingredients, house-made syrups, and fruit purees, and added handcrafted dumplings to their menu. Last spring, they opened their second storefront nearby in Temple.

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“We changed our name to Cha Community because we feel very strongly that by sharing our culture and being influenced by the local culture, we are part of this community,” Chen said. She points to menu items that bridge cultures, like horchata boba and pan-fried turkey dumplings around Thanksgiving. “We are very intentional in the ways we source items – both for our ingredients in our food and drinks and for our retail shops – from sustainable and/or Black, Indigenous, and people of color vendors because of our commitment to diversity and equity,” Chen said. “Ninety-five percent of our team identifies with a historically marginalized or underrepresented community. We believe this commitment to inclusion also leads to extremely low team turnover rates. Our team members stay on average for three to four years.”

Building community is also key for Kattie Jones, who launched her custom T-shirt and hat embroidery business, The Hatstand, with her husband Charles in December 2021 in East Waco. “We knew we wanted to be in East Waco where my husband grew up, and we wanted to be part of the community,” Jones said.

The Hatstand donates T-shirts for local fundraisers, sponsors baseball teams, donates urban wear clothing from their store to high school families for their school clothes, and does embroidery for the Waco police chaplain’s shirts. The core of their business, Jones says, is small orders. “Larger T-shirt and embroidery companies have minimum orders. We can do one to 1,000 items. Many small businesses here, like barbershops or small roofing companies or restaurants, come to us for shirts and hats for their employees because they don’t need a lot.”

The couple is looking for another embroidery machine to take on more business and would like to investigate whether student groups at Baylor might be interested in custom-made T-shirts and hats.

Working with local small businesses is very important to Baylor, says Jeremy Vickers, associate vice president of external affairs. “We believe a strong business community in Waco is good for Baylor. We also see that minority- and womenowned businesses don’t get their fair share, and as a Christian institution, we believe we should empower and support organizations and people who are not always given the opportunity to grow.

And,” he adds, “we want our base to look like 2024

Guests gather to celebrate Cha Community’s rebrand in 2021. | Courtesy of Jaja Chen our students and faculty and staff, which is very diverse.”

“Baylor invites ethnic and small food vendors from Waco into the student union on a rotating basis throughout the year in a program called Revolve,” Vickers said. “Baylor also features a list of 55 to 70 businesses on its website that offer discounts to Baylor Students, called Waco Perks, to encourage students to frequent local businesses and for the last year-and-a-half, Baylor has put on fairs for Waco business owners who want to learn about procurement practices and processes at the university to educate and train folks on how to do business with Baylor.”

“Everything helps,” added Oh My Juice owner Blount, who had an eight-week slot in the Revolve rotation at Baylor. “It’s always a struggle to run a small business. You’re going to run out of money.

You’re going to make mistakes. Not everyone will face the same adversities,” she adds, noting that in 2021 her store flooded and was closed for six months after the shock freeze in Texas. “But I can guarantee you will have adversities,” she said. “It just comes with the territory. You have to learn to face your fears and be determined. You have to be resilient and keep going.”

With that comes a side benefit, she adds: “A common struggle brings people together,” Blount said. “The thing about the small businesses in Waco is that there is this unique camaraderie.

There is a dynamic of camaraderie among small business owners here. It’s a camaraderie I had never felt before opening my business. It’s a unique inner-working that customers and tourists can feel. It makes Waco special.”

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A Marriage of

TRUE MINDS

By Marianne Dougherty

The Armstrong Browning Library is home to the world’s largest collection of books, letters, manuscripts, and memorabilia pertaining to Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It’s not only a place of learning but a place of beauty, and the environment transports you.

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heirs was a love story for the ages with all the passion and intrigue of a Victorian-era romance — a courtship that included 573 love letters and a secret marriage on Sept. 12, 1846, at St. Marylebone Church in London over her tyrannical father’s objections. He later disinherited her, and she never saw him again after she and her husband started a new life in Italy, where their son was born three years later. His given name was Robert Wiedeman Barrett Browning, but they called him Pen. Though inseparable during their lifetimes, the lovers are buried nearly a thousand miles apart: Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the Protestant Cemetery in Florence and Robert Browning in Poets’ Corner in Westminster

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Abbey, London. Six years his senior, Elizabeth was just 55 when she died in her husband’s arms at their home in Florence of chronic lung disease. Father and son moved back to London where Robert established himself as a leading literary figure. He never married again, nor did he visit Florence after his wife’s death. Then in 1889 while visiting Pen at his home in Venice, Browning died of natural causes. He was 77 years old.

So, how did Baylor come into possession of such an impressive collection of Browning material in the first place? “Dr. A.J. Armstrong was chair of the English department from 1912 to 1952, and he greatly admired the poetry of Robert Browning,” said Jennifer Borderud, director of the Armstrong Browning Library.

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“He gave his modest personal collection of Browning materials to the university in 1918, and that’s how it started.”

On his first visit to Italy in 1909, Armstrong met Browning’s son Pen, who invited him to be his guest for the next several days. That encounter strengthened Armstrong’s resolve to acquire everything he could associated with Browning, and he spent the rest of his life raising funds to expand the collection.

One of the rarest items is a handwritten working draft of “Sonnet V” from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, which her husband called “the finest sonnets written in any language since Shakespeare.” By reading a draft of the sonnet, researchers get a glimpse into her thought process as she writes about her new love for Robert while struggling with her grief over her brother’s recent death. “It is the only known draft of any of the Sonnets from the Portuguese,” said Borderud. “You can see that she’s changing things, scratching things out.”

As for what are arguably the most famous love letters of all time, all 573 of them are owned by Wellesley College in Massachusetts. If he’d had the

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money, Dr. Armstrong would have bought them himself when they came up for sale. The good news is that in 2012, Baylor Libraries, which had the infrastructure in place to create and maintain digital collections, partnered with Wellesley’s Margaret Chapp Library to digitize the entire collection. Darryl Stuhr, Baylor’s director of digitization and digital collection preservation services, calls the digitized letters “as authentic online as if you pulled them out of a sleeve.”

The Brownings were nothing if not prolific letter writers, and the library has about 3,000 of the approximately 11,000 letters that were written to or received from other people — family members, literary figures, artists, friends, acquaintances inviting them to meals. “We can learn a lot about their daily lives from these letters, from social issues of the day to what they thought about other artists and writers,” said Borderud. “A Browning scholar could follow their movements, see who they knew and interacted with, or learn about the Letters by Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray

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publication history of some of their works.”

The library’s collection of stained-glass windows is notable. While many of them illustrate Robert and Elizabeth’s poetry, there are three large stained-glass windows in the Foyer of Meditation that are tinted to look like a sunrise or sunset when you enter the room. You’ll also find a few pieces of art from the 19th century and some that date back to the Italian Renaissance, as well as a bronze casting of Robert and Elizabeth’s interlocked hands. “That piece was done by American artist and sculptor Harriet Hosmer, who was a friend of theirs,” said Borderud.

Letter from Robert Browning to Julia Wedgwood, dated 4 November 1864, regarding Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese Aside from the Browning materials, the library also has works by Charles Dickens, Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin, and others that support research on 19th century literature and culture.

Among the Dickens memorabilia are a few of his letters, a couple of photos of the author and a copy of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s masterpiece, “Aurora Lee,” with Dickens’ bookplate inside. “We

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Everyone who walks through the door is surprised by what they find here because it’s nothing like they imagined.”

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have some of his books in their original serialized form,” said Borderud, who admits that she screamed the first time she saw them, though she allows that almost everyone has the same reaction.

Graduate students from all over the United States and as far away as the United Kingdom and China visit the library to conduct research, but anyone can visit during regular hours: Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except on major holidays or when the University is closed.

A self-guided tour packet is available at the front desk, but it’s best to make an appointment if you want a guided tour. “We encourage anyone who

Right: McLean Foyer of Meditation Bottom: A fair copy in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s hand of her “Sonnet 43 (How Do I Love Thee?)” from Sonnets from the Portuguese

wants to do research to call ahead so we can have the materials pulled and ready for them when they arrive,” said Borderud. The only caveats when working with rare books and manuscripts, she says, is that your hands are clean and dry and that you take notes in pencil or on your laptop.

Over the years, the library has undergone a few major renovations and improvements, which were made possible by endowment funds. Still, gifts in any amount are always welcome to support internship programs for Baylor undergraduates or graduate students, stipends for visiting scholars, and public lectures. “We usually bring in a faculty member or someone outside of the university who has done research on the Brownings or another literary figure represented in our collection,” said Borderud, who is justifiably proud of the Armstrong Browning Library, one of Baylor’s six special collections. “Everyone who walks through the door is surprised by what they find here because it’s nothing like they imagined.”

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THERE’S A STORY FOR EVERY BAYLOR GRAD...

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