A Season of Hope

As we have navigated this most unusual fall semester together as the Baylor Family, facing extraordinary conditions and unprecedented challenges, I have relied upon Holy Scripture as a steadying and uplifting source of strength. From week to week, I have found various verses speaking to me with special relevance and guiding my path forward. Most recently, Psalm 51:10 has been particularly close to my heart: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”

The initial months of this academic year at Baylor University have been ones of profound renewal. We have renewed our bonds of friendship and Christian community as we returned to campus and had the joy of looking into one another’s eyes again in person. A sense of renewal has prevailed throughout our academic enterprise, inspiring our faculty in their teaching and scholarly endeavors and reinforcing the utmost importance of succeeding in our mission of educating men and women for worldwide leadership and service.

As reflected in the words of Psalm 51:10, God calls us to actively seek out what is best within us through His grace. With clean hearts and right spirits, we are called to spread hope throughout the world, both individually and as a community.

At Baylor, we are spreading hope in many ways.

Having learned a host of organizational and pedagogical lessons during the spring and summer, we have mastered new ways of teaching to ensure that this fall semester’s class offerings are of a quality that reflects Baylor’s tradition of excellence in Christian higher education.

Our students are, of course, a remarkable and enduring source of hope. Baylor remains a place where students’ well-being is fostered in a holistic manner — intellectually, spiritually, socially and physically. Illuminate, the University’s Strategic Plan, is continuing to impact every aspect of campus life that surrounds our students — academics, athletics, student life and service learning — while also serving as a foundation for financial support for students and the campus community. Your support through Give Light, our $1.1 billion philanthropic campaign, is making this possible.

On our historic campus in Waco and at our academic programs in other parts of the state and online, Baylor continues putting hands and feet to our vision of becoming a top research university, built on our historic Christian mission. In striving toward our goal of elevating Baylor University to the top level of institutional achievement, we do so with our students’ best interests at heart. As Baylor rises as an institution, so do our students’ academic achievements and their prospects for changing the world as they follow their callings after graduation.

In this season of hope amid ongoing challenges, I am certain that Baylor University will remain strong — lifted up in prayer and support by the Baylor Family. I also believe that Baylor will continue to demonstrate compassion, flexibility and determination as we move forward together in our mission to change lives. Cleansed by God’s grace and renewed in Christ’s love, we truly are capable of greatness.

Sincerely, 

Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D.
President