Baylor Regents Approve $220 Million Operating Budget

April 30, 1999

by Larry D. Brumley

WACO, Texas -- Baylor University regents today adopted a $219.8 million operating budget for 1999-2000, elected officers and named three new regents to the board.
Next year's budget, which takes effect June 1, is a $26. 2 million, or 14 percent, increase over the current budget of $193.5 million. The new budget includes an additional $3.8 million for student scholarships and funds 18 new full-time tenure-track faculty positions to accommodate Baylor's growing enrollment.
W. Fred Cameron, partner in the Houston law firm of Fulbright and Jaworski, was re-elected chairman of the board. Elected as vice chairs were Hal Wingo, retired assistant managing editor and international editor of People magazine, Richmond, Va.; Will Davis, partner in the Austin law firm of Heath, Davis and McCalla; and John G. Wilkerson Jr., chairman of the board of Wilkerson Storage Co., Lubbock.
Elected to three-year terms on the board of regents were Dr. James Bowden, an orthopedic surgeon at the Waco Bone and Joint Clinic and team physician for the Baylor athletic department; Miles Jay Allison, president and chief executive officer of Comstock Resources Inc. in Dallas; and Minette Williams Drumwright, a self-employed speaker from Fort Worth.
These three regents will take office June 1 along with Randy Ferguson, president of RWF Investments in Austin, who was elected to the board by the Baptist General Convention of Texas last November.
Rotating off the board after nine years of service are Dr. R.W. Covington, Waco physician; Eleazar "Charles" Maciel, Abilene pastor; Randall H. Fields, San Antonio attorney; and Louis Satterfield, Liberty attorney.

Chairman Cameron announced at the Thursday evening regents dinner that board members had contributed $300,000 to fund and name the teaching chapel at the new George W. Truett Theological Seminary campus in honor of President Robert B. Sloan Jr. The campaign for the new seminary facility has raised approximately $11 million toward its estimated $15 million cost.