Our objective is to be faithful to the original mission of Baylor to be a Christian university “fully susceptible of enlargement and development to meet the needs of all ages to come.” While rankings in national publications and acknowledgements by outside organizations are certainly desirable, they are not the primary objective of Baylor 2012. With that in mind, the criteria in many national publications can be helpful benchmarks, as they are student friendly and aligned with many of our goals related to student-faculty ratios, graduation and retention rates, average class sizes, and instructional expenditures.
Each year, the academic and administrative units within Baylor University review issues, priorities, and goals related to the imperatives of Baylor 2012. In Fall 2007, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness introduced a mid-point assessment of the 10-year vision, taking stock of progress and answering the question of "How is Baylor doing in achieving the ambitious 2012 goals?" Based on positive responses to that mid-point assessment, the University now publishes an annual report of progress on Baylor 2012.