August 8, 2009

Dear Members of College,

It is with great pleasure and much anticipation that I welcome you to the 2009-10 academic year. Some of you have already made the Honors Residential College your home at Baylor; others are joining us for the first time. To all, I bid a heartfelt welcome!

The Spring '09 term ended much as the school year had begun™with stormy weather. It seems almost fitting that we had to reorganize our annual Garden Party inside, since we had battled to squeeze in the Chapel dedication and first Master's High Tea before the hurricane hit Baylor's campus. The spring also marked an important milestone in my own academic career: as of August 1, 2009, I return to campus as a tenured Associate Professor in the Honors College. Allow me to take this opportunity to thank the many members who supported me and helped in so many ways (from walking Hendrix, to running important documents between Alexander and Morrison halls) during my tenure review year.

I hope the summer has brought you rest, peace, excitement, adventure, and growth. Last year, I wrote to you from the high speed train in Switzerland. Today, I am once again on a train-the North East Amtrak-making my way from Princeton (New Jersey) to Annapolis (Maryland). For the past two months I have been working as a visiting scholar between the Marquand and Firestone libraries at Princeton University and the Pierpont Morgan museum in New York City, thanks to a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. All of this has allowed me to make significant progress on my new book project, a study of the fourteenth-century Ovide moralisé. I was also excited to finish an article on liturgical time in Chrétien de Troyes's Perceval as well as a study of biblical imagery in Marie de France's Equitan, co-authored with one of our student trustees, Preston Yancey. (Several of you will read this "great text" with me this fall term, in our very own Alexander classroom.)

But the summer is not only for catching up on my academic writing™I was determined to take advantage of the wonderful theatre opportunities in New York City and the surrounding area. I attended performances of Schiller's Mary Stuart, and laughed exceedingly hard at James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels, and Hope Davis in God of Carnage. I thoroughly enjoyed Angela Lansbury and Rupert Everett in Noel Coward's Blythe Spirit, and managed to get a ticket to see Wicked and Avenue Q (with Jason Milam '09, Benny Barrett '08, and Marianna Stell '10) on Broadway. Spring Awakening at the Kennedy Center was phenomenal, as was Princeton's production of No Time for Comedy (that I attended with Jennifer Boulanger, '06) and the off-broadway hit Altar Boys (that I saw with Megan Rizos, '09). The stage version of Zola's Thérèse Raquin at Atlantic Stage down in the West Village was deeply disturbing™those of you who have read the novel will know what I mean. I had nightmares for a good week.

Some of my favorite memories of this summer have involved members of the Honors Residential College or other students of the Honors College. Benny Barrett ('08) and Jason Milam ('09) caught a ride with me to visit Jamie Gianoutsos ('06) in Baltimore; Marianna Stell ('10) joined us in New York City and stayed with me Princeton; I saw the DC fireworks on July 4 with Andrew Brown ('07) and Ashley Killough ('09); Megan Rizos ('09) came to stay with me in Washington, Annapolis, Princeton, and New York; Jennifer Boulanger ('06) worked with me at the Marquand Library; and Julie Hamilton ('09) came to stay just this past week. Julie and I were fortunate to arrange a private viewing of a Rouault painting she is studying for her senior thesis in the vaults of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. We also examined several of Rouault's undisplayed other works (including the Miserere cycle, to be exhibited at Baylor in 2010) in the curatorial study rooms. Quite a treat! I was struck, through all of these meetings and adventures, by just how much the friendships and mentoring relationships that we establish as members of the Honors Residential College, and in the Honors College as a whole, last well beyond the years we spend on Baylor's campus. Who knows what surprises the future holds? Where will you meet up with your classmates or the friends from your hall-or, even, with me-over the next five, ten, fifteen, twenty years?

As we begin the new school year, it is fitting, I think, for each of us to ponder what we aspire to bring to this community: how will we, as individuals and as a collectivity, help shape it and steer its course so that we leave it even better than when we found it? A residential college is not just a room, nor the activities scheduled within its walls, nor even, the wonderful opportunities we have to meet and get to know professors and other university leaders outside of class. It is a home, a place of spiritual and intellectual nourishment, and also-thanks to the beautiful Memorial Chapel-a place of peace and rest in the midst of the challenges that every student inevitably faces during their undergraduate career. The Honors Residential College is now officially one year old, and thanks to the labors of our student leaders, members will soon sign the college charter. We will laugh together, frown together, work together, and rest together. We will break bread together at our evening dinners, and, I hope, pray together in the chapel, where we will hold daily services as well as a special candle-lit Lessons and Carols prior to examinations period in December. I look forward to seeing you all at the second annual Master's High Tea very soon, and to meeting you individually during our hall teas, college coffees, and other scheduled events. When you need a break from studying (and I know you will!) don't forget that I walk Hendrix every day and you are always welcome to join us on such occasions. (And if you get stressed out, Hendrix would like to remind you that petting animals is clinically proven to lower your blood pressure. He is eager to oblige. Lenie-kitty, however, does not like to be touched.) In addition, I can always be tempted to discuss a book, a painting, or life over a good espresso, so don't hesitate to request a meeting with me or with other members of the college leadership team.

It is hard to believe that this is the third annual welcome letter I have written, first as Faculty Mentor, and now as Faculty Master, of the Honors Residential College. At the same time, it is hard to imagine a time when the Honors Residential College did not yet exist. This year marks again an important period of transition for our community. Please join me, as well as our Assistant Masters, Anna Shaw and Megan Witherspoon, and Dean Thomas Hibbs in welcoming our new college Chaplain, Mr. Bill Walker and his wife, Whitney. Rest assured that Brett and Christina Gibson (and Ellia), whose contributions to our college life have been innumerable, will not be far away; as fellows of the college, we will continue to see them throughout the year.

Let us give thanks in anticipation of the many adventures that lie ahead of us this year. May our minds be sharpened, our souls filled with peace and a sense of purpose, and our spirit lifted as we build fellowship together. May we support each other through challenging and difficult times, and may we celebrate together our successes. May we work together to establish a community that rightly reflects our college creed, borrowed from St. Anselm of Canterbury: "Fides Quaerens Intellectum." Let us seek faithfully and give our all, for this year, too, will pass more quickly than any of us dare to imagine. Who will we be this time next year? What events this year will shape the course of our lives for decades to come? What opportunities will we pass by? What others will we seize on to so steadfastly that we never let go? Only one thing is certain: with faith, and together, we will go further than any of us can possibly go alone. To all of us "coming up" for the new school year, I extend a hearty welcome. Let us challenge ourselves to make this year the most profitable one yet.

Sincerely,