Dear Baylor Faculty and Staff,

On behalf of my fellow members of Baylor University’s Board of Regents, I wish to express my deep and abiding gratitude to each of you for your selfless service during this most challenging of times. The fall semester has been a period of tremendous opportunity in the midst of hardship — an opportunity to come together as the Baylor Family to lift one another up in Christian love while adapting and learning new technology to meet the needs of the moment.

From my conversations with our students and their parents over the past few months, I know that your efforts to provide a transformational education to this generation of “that good old Baylor Line” have been widely recognized and greatly appreciated. There continues to be great momentum in our institutional growth as articulated in Illuminate, our strategic plan, and the support for our aspiration to become the preeminent Christian research university remains widespread and strong among both longtime and new members of the Baylor community.

Baylor’s mission calls us to excellence, and this fall you have risen to the challenge of answering this call. In fact, our institutional response to the COVID-19 pandemic has established Baylor as a nationwide model for robustly creating policies and programs to protect the health and well-being of our students while providing a continuity of in-person instruction and developing new strengths in other teaching modalities. At the heart of our administrative work has been a tremendous compassion for our Baylor students and their families as well as for you — our dedicated faculty and staff — and your loved ones.

The tradition of Thanksgiving, joyously celebrated over many generations in America, is a celebration of many beloved things — the bonds of family and friends and the important practice of gratitude, among others. In our various roles as members of Baylor’s faculty, staff, administration, and governing board, we should never cease expressing our gratitude to God for the opportunity to transform the lives of the young men and women studying at this wonderful Christian institution of higher education. As the psalmist said, “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord” (Ps. 92:1).

Today, I give thanks to the Lord for you! The members of Baylor’s Board of Regents are profoundly grateful to you for your service to Baylor University and the students who have entrusted us with their education. May the Thanksgiving holiday be a time of rest and renewal for you.

Sincerely,

Mark Rountree
Chair, Board of Regents
Baylor University