Baylor Going Forward

Neither Baylor University nor its new president is a stranger to controversy. In this capacity, some would argue, Baylor is as much Texan as it is Baptist. Baylor not only sits in the geographic center of the state (or the Republic, as some might prefer in those parts), but is also the state’s oldest institution of higher learning. Adding to this heritage is Baylor’s place as the crown jewel in the Southern Baptist Convention’s previously assembled system of colleges and universities. If being a proud citizen of the Lone Star State is not enough to inspire a fighting spirit, try also being Southern Baptist.

More recent expressions of this fighting spirit date back to 1979, and the debates that emerged between fundamentalist and moderate segments in Southern Baptist life. About 20 years later President Robert Sloan announced Vision 2012, an ambitious plan to transform Baylor into “one of the top [research] universities in the United States (and the world).” Some faculty aggressively resisted the plan’s emphasis on the integration of faith and learning. Others resisted the plan’s emphasis on the increased expectations for research productivity. After Sloan resigned in 2005, William Underwood (now president of Mercer University) served as interim until John Lilley was installed as president in 2006. Unable to mend these divisions, Lilley was fired in 2008, with David Garland then agreeing to serve as interim. As the search process for a new president began, members of Baylor’s Board of Regents knew the stakes were high.

The board announced the results of their efforts on February 6, 2010, with the unanimous election of Judge Kenneth Winston Starr. Formerly the Dean of the Law School at Pepperdine University, Starr’s legal résumé includes serving six years as a United States Circuit Court of Appeals Judge for the District of Columbia and four years as Solicitor General of the United States. Although Starr argued more than 25 cases before the United States Supreme Court during his time as Solicitor General, he is most widely known for the time he spent as Independent Counsel assigned to the Whitewater investigation.

In the early days of his administration at Baylor, Starr has been a bridging figure. Faculty members on both sides of the previously identified divide have embraced him. Todd Ream talked with Starr in the McMullen-Connally Faculty Center on the Baylor campus shortly before Starr’s 100th day in office.

A number of recent books on higher education have framed the subject in apocalyptic terms. What do you think of such assessments? And from your vantage point, what are the most critical issues facing higher education as a whole today?

Higher education is under very exacting scrutiny. The critiques continue to flow both from within the educational community and from the people it serves. There are deep concerns about the cost of higher education, and some widely circulated characterizations of higher education are very unflattering. I am not in a position to judge the merit of those criticisms because I’m so new to higher education. My limited experience at a professional school at Pepperdine does not qualify me to be a commentator on the general state of higher education, but I’m keenly aware of, and sensitive to, the profound and serious criticisms. I do think that this particular moment provides a golden opportunity for Christian higher education, because we know who we are; we have within our diverse communities of Christian higher ed a coherent vision of what it is we are about. That, I believe, is one of the foundational challenges for American higher education generally. Who are we? What is it that we’re seeking to achieve?

Here at Baylor there have been literally years of conversation about those fundamental questions, and the upshot is we are moving into a period of strategic planning. Of course, there’s always strategic planning under way. But what we’re doing is stepping back as a university as a whole and reflecting on who we are and what we then aspire to be. We appear to have—this may be risky to say!—a consensus on what we call foundational assumptions, core convictions (those are all out there on the website), and around unifying academic themes. We have six unifying academic themes, and so when the provost and I are meeting with the council deans, when we were both speaking at the fall faculty convocation, when the provost spoke at length at the convocation of students, we were able to draw from that rich reservoir of foundational assumptions, core convictions, and unifying academic themes. And the unifying academic themes start with the assumption that man has a purpose. We believe that nature is God’s creation, and this recognition leads to unity at a deep level, even with all the diverse opinions on various and sundry issues that you will find in a very robust academic community.

A year ago you lived in Malibu. And possibly had an office with a view of the Pacific Ocean?

I did.

What brought you to Waco?

I loved being at Pepperdine. I was fulfilled by it. I was not seeking to leave, but the more I was in conversation with the Baylor community, the more I read of the rich history of the university, the more I was drawn to it. There was not one single overarching factor, but an overall sense of a strong and caring community that had ripened into a national research university that was still quite intentional about its Christian mission and honoring its Baptist heritage. That entire combination of characteristics and qualities was very attractive.

Every university claims to serve a particular segment or segments of society. Who are Baylor’s primary constituents?

Our mission statement says it, and I embrace it: For the church and for the world. By “the church,” I understand the church universal, while honoring the Baptist heritage. Thirty-one percent of our entering class are Baptist—but that means almost seventy percent are not Baptist. The second largest community of faith among our students is Roman Catholic, and then evangelical, generally non-denominational. We recently had a very interesting article in the local newspaper about how Muslim students feel welcome here. Everyone’s welcome to the conversation, and we need to expand on that.

Roughly half of our undergraduates, when they enter Baylor University, are interested in health care. We see that as serving in a very direct way the needs of the least of these throughout the world. Some of these young men and women are destined to become medical missionaries. There’s a great tradition of that at Baylor. On another front, we are excited about the cancer research underway here.

At the same time Baylor has become a wonderful gathering place of some of the most renowned Christian scholars: the Philip Jenkinses, the Peter Bergers, whose engaged scholarship is another way of serving the world.

Let’s go back to the first days of your presidency. One of the first issues you faced here on campus was the future of the Big 12 athletic conference. In your opinion, why is it important for Baylor to maintain its position in major, Divison I athletics?

Baylor has the blessing and the burden of being a city on a hill. Division I athletics provide a window through which much of the world sees Baylor University. And so, when people hear our student athletes speak of mission trips, see their conduct on the playing field or in the gymnasium, the light is shining, the beacon is shining.

In what ways do the Christian convictions of the university drive or define the athletic program?

An unrelenting search for excellence. The parable of the talents. You have been given this great gift, this athletic gift. And now, use it for the glory of God and the furtherance of the kingdom. I love Eric Liddell’s immortal comment: “When I run I feel God’s pleasure.” And you sense that with these great athletes. They know they have a gift to compete at this level—in one of the great conferences in the nation, watched around the country and beyond. They are representing a small private university, a Christian university, in the midst of academic behemoths, and yet they are highly competitive in literally all sports. Over the past seven years, Baylor ranks third in the Big 12 in the number of championships. That’s just extraordinary. So it’s excellence in all things, using the talents that God has given you. And through a coaching staff that’s very committed holistically to the welfare of the student athletes.

Baylor 2012 provoked a wide range of responses among members of the Baylor family. And in particular much of the controversy revolved around expectations being placed on university faculty members. What are some of the critical qualities you’ll be looking for in faculty members as you move forward here as president?

First, great teaching is non-negotiable. Because I was not here when this conversation unfolded, I’m ill-equipped to opine on where and why some of the disagreements occurred. But it is my impression that there was a concern that Baylor’s time-honored tradition of great teaching was going to be compromised. That’s not going to happen. What we are called upon to do is to be great teachers and great scholars. We are not simply to serve as transmission belts for knowledge, as vitally important as that is; we’re also to be discoverers. And this is not unique to Baylor. Many institutions wrestle with these great questions. How do you achieve balance? That’s the goal, to have the balance achieved so that while great teaching is non-negotiable there is increased emphasis on scholarly inquiry, discovery, and thus research. And it can be done. It is done. I know it. I’ve seen it.

In my own experience, many of the greatest scholars are among the greatest teachers. As we increase the emphasis on research in the sciences here at Baylor, we’re actually serving the best interest of our undergraduates in a very practical way. Baylor, as I said earlier, is a great training ground for future doctors and health care providers more generally. Medical schools now want proof that you as an undergraduate engaged in serious research. That’s relatively new, as I understand it. Well, guess what? At Baylor, professors engaged in serious scientific research want undergraduates to come alongside them. These scholars were drawn to Baylor in part because, as a university, we want to empower undergraduates to do their very best. I think there’s a consensus here that to be a great scholar is not to neglect the teaching enterprise.

Todd C. Ream is associate professor of humanities and Senior Scholar for Faith and Scholarship in the John Wesley Honors College at Indiana Wesleyan University. His most recent book, with Timothy W. Herrmann and C. Skip Trudeau, is A Parent’s Guide to the Christian College: Supporting Your Child’s Heart, Mind, and Soul During the College Years (Abilene Christian Univ. Press).