Lady Bears claim 4th straight Big 12 title

Tuesday night was a good night for Baylor basketball. In Waco, the men won their home finale over No. 16 Iowa State for their sixth win in seven tries, polishing their NCAA tournament resume. An hour later, the Lady Bears beat the Cyclones in Ames to clinch their fourth straight regular season Big 12 title.

For head coach Kim Mulkey's squad, it was same old, same old, despite a starting lineup that featured four new faces compared to this time a year ago. And while senior Odyssey Sims has been arguably the nation's best player this season, it was National Freshman of the Year candidate Nina Davis who stepped up big Tuesday night, scoring 26 points and pulling down nine rebounds to help the No. 9-ranked Lady Bears lock down a 70-54 win.

Baylor is the first Big 12 team ever to claim four straight women's basketball regular season titles; that the Lady Bears were up to the task despite so much turnover from last year suggests this might be Mulkey's finest coaching job yet. Sims (the nation's leading scorer at nearly 30 points a game) and Davis (averaging 14 points and 9.0 rebounds) are the team's only double-digit scorers, and yet here is Baylor: 26-4, 18-2 in the Big 12, with their 11th straight 25-win season and 10th Big 12 title in program history.

The Lady Bears will enter this weekend's Big 12 Championship as the No. 1 overall seed; after a first-round bye, they will face the winner of Kansas/Kansas State Saturday at 1:3o p.m. on FSN. The Baylor men, meanwhile, are headed to Manhattan, Kan., for the regular-season finale against Kansas State; that game will tip at 12:30 p.m. Saturday on the Big 12 Network.

Sic 'em, Baylor basketball!

You might also like:
* Lady Bears sweep Big 12 regular season, tournament titles for third straight year (March 2013)
* Back to back: Lady Bear basketball claims second straight Big 12 Conference title (Feb. 2012)
* Lady Bears claim 2011 Big 12 Conference championship (March 2011)

Scenes from Sing 2014

The sixth and final night of All University Sing for 2014 concluded Saturday, and for the second year in a row, Kappa Omega Tau came away as the year's top group.

[PHOTOS: Gallery featuring more than 100 photos from this year's performances]

The Baylor Lariat described KOT's act, "The Battle Within," as "the most compelling concept of the night," "the epitome of effective storytelling," and "precisely why people keep coming back to Sing year after year." Apparently, the judges agreed; KOT was followed by Delta Delta Delta (second place) and Alpha Tau Omega (third place).

Those three groups will be joined at this fall's Pigskin Revue by Alpha Chi Omega, Kappa Sigma, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Pi Beta Phi/Phi Kappa Chi. Pigskin is, as always, slated for Homecoming weekend; this year's Homecoming is the weekend of Oct. 30-Nov. 2.

(For the uninitiated, All University Sing is a Baylor tradition dating back to 1953. This year's event featured 17 seven-minute Broadway-style acts from 19 student organizations, all competing in front of judges, family and friends.)

Sic 'em, Sing stars!

You might also like:
* Scenes from Sing 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008

Two Baylor profs named among '100 inspiring nursing professors to watch'

When a nursing education website recently put together a list of "100 inspiring nursing professors to watch in 2014," it was no surprise to find two professors from Baylor's Louise Herrington School of Nursing made the cut.

Dr. Shelley F. Conroy (pictured), dean of the school, and Dr. Claudia Calle Beal, an assistant professor, represented Baylor on the list. Only six schools -- with such names as Columbia, Duke and Yale -- had more educators named to the list than Baylor.

Conroy came to Baylor as dean in January 2012. With more than 35 years of experience in higher ed, health care administration, and health care research, Conroy is a veteran administrator and educator in the field. As the list's editor notes, "From leading study abroad trips to working on research endeavors, her experience is hard to match in nursing higher education."

Beal teaches research, translation science and ethics in the nursing school's graduate program. Much of her own research has centered on women and strokes; she is currently studying stroke health literacy among African American women.

Sic 'em, Baylor nursing!

New Foster business campus designed with community in mind

Since the university announced plans for the Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation last summer, I've heard two questions over and over: Why does the business school need a new building, and what is a "campus for business and innovation?"

The answers to both questions really go hand in hand, and they come down to two things: space and community. The Hankamer School of Business has really maxed out its current space; Hankamer opened in 1960, followed by Cashion in 1985, when the business school was much smaller. The new facility will provide 40% more square footage -- space that will provide not only additional classrooms and offices, but meeting rooms and other gathering places for students and faculty.

[READ MORE: "Building for the Future," from the Winter 2014 issue of Baylor Magazine]

Hankamer's dean, Dr. Terry Maness, BA '71, MS '72, explains: "So much of education today is accomplished outside the classroom. ... We envisioned a campus environment which would bring students together for class, bring them back to work in small groups, and keep them returning in order to interact with faculty."

Even the design elements subtly communicate that this isn't just another classroom building. For instance, the exterior mixes the traditional Baylor red brick and limestone with large windows and glass doors.

"The design vision was 'out of the history of Baylor comes newness and innovation,'" Maness says. "We're not interested in students reading a textbook and regurgitating the information. We want them to have places where they can create new solutions to case studies, and not only create their own business plans, but launch them as well."

The 275,000-square-foot Foster business campus is under construction on the east side of campus, along Bagby Avenue between Third and Fourth streets. The facility is expected to be completed in time for the fall 2015 semester.

Sic 'em, Baylor business!

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