Presidential Perspective - October 10, 2019

Baylor Students, Faculty and Staff:

Homecoming Week is off to a great start, as 2,200 students joined the First Gent and me on our front lawn for Dinner with the Livingstones Tuesday evening. The entire campus is decked out in green and gold and certainly abuzz with a full slate of Homecoming activities – and our annual fall invasion of Texas field crickets!

I am still finalizing my Homecoming “must-do” list, but here are a few of my early calendar entries:

• Singspiration, Friday at 7 p.m., Seventh & James Baptist Church
• Extravaganza and Pep Rally/Bonfire, Friday beginning at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively, Fountain Mall
• Parade, Saturday, 8-10:30 a.m., Downtown Waco and 5th Street on campus
• Football Game vs. Texas Tech, Saturday at 3 p.m., McLane Stadium.

And, of course, I plan to visit with several groups of Baylor Alumni who are returning to campus for their reunion years. I’ve enjoyed scrolling through the #BaylorHomecoming excitement on Twitter. Some of the highlights include:

Another Homecoming tradition to pencil in is the annual Pat Neff Hall recital by University Carillonneur Lynnette Geary. If you are on campus at 5 p.m. today, stop and listen as Ms. Geary plays 11 compositions over 25 minutes on the McLane Carillon, concluding with “Baylor Fight” and “That Good Old Baylor Line.”

Be sure to “Know Before You Go” this weekend as traffic will be heavy in conjunction with Homecoming activities and the I-35 reconstruction project. Real-time traffic information will be available at Waco4bmap.org or via the Waze app.

Two other items to spotlight this week:

• Congratulations to Dr. Mia Moody-Ramirez, who was recognized by the Office of Media & Public Relations as Baylor’s 2018-19 Newsmaker of the Year. Over the past year, more than 200 stories featuring Dr. Moody-Ramirez’s research and scholarship were published across a wide range of national, state and local media outlets. As we continue to move forward on Illuminate and our aspirations to be a Research 1/Tier 1 university, media engagement is important as it allows us to share the innovative and impactful research conducted by Baylor faculty.

• A Baylor researcher’s prototype smartphone app — designed to help parents detect early signs of various eye diseases in their children such as retinoblastoma, an aggressive pediatric eye cancer — has passed its first big test, according to a study whose first author was senior University Scholar Micheal Munson. He is a prime example of Baylor’s focus on meaningful undergraduate research that takes place alongside Baylor faculty. In the spring, Munson received the Goldwater Scholarship, a top undergraduate award given in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics. He has conducted research with Dr. Bryan F. Shaw, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, who developed the prototype app with Dr. Greg Hamerly, associate professor of computer science.

The last time I checked, Baylor is the only school that remains undefeated in volleyball and football! Let’s fling our green and gold tomorrow for Spirit Friday and again on Saturday for Homecoming. I am proud to be a Baylor Bear!

Sincerely,

Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D.
President