Baylor Proud

One of the things I love about Baylor is that it doesn’t just work to get you to enroll and then leave it up to you to succeed; the University goes to great lengths to ensure that students have the tools they need and learn the skills they need to complete their college degree and then succeed in the workplace. (If you need an example, look no further than the Paul L. Foster Success Center.)

Those efforts show up in the most recent spring enrollment numbers released by the University. For the sixth straight year, Baylor’s undergraduate retention rate has increased. That means that rather than dropping out or transferring after the fall semester, a greater percentage of Baylor students than ever are continuing to work towards their Baylor degree. This year, 95.2% of the Baylor undergraduates enrolled last fall returned this spring, up from 93.5% in 2004. This, despite a difficult economy that across the nation has hindered some students’ abilities to afford higher education.

As one Baylor administrator noted, “The strength of our enrollments testifies to the perceived value among students and their families of a Baylor University education and degree.”

Sic ’em, returning Baylor students!

Baylor has turned out plenty of musicians in recent years, many of whom we’ve mentioned on this blog — groups like Addison Road and solo artists like Erin McCarley. Then there are the more well-known alums who have hit it big in Christian music, such as the David Crowder Band, Shaun Groves and David Phelps.

But those artists aren’t the only Bears producing music. On the heels of the Women’s Choir’s CD of lullabyes, several School of Music professors have gotten in the act, releasing a pair of albums for those with even more classical tastes.

Professors Jeff Powers and Vincent De Vries released “In a Lyrical Way: Music for Horn and Piano by Flemish Composers,” published by MSR Music LLC on their MSR Classics label.

The Baylor Woodwind Quintet (comprised of professors Helen Ann Shanley, Doris DeLoach, Matt Morris, Richard Shanley, and Jeff Powers with Todd Meehan, percussion) also released a CD, “The Baylor Woodwind Quintet: Music by Richard Willis, Scott McAllister, Paul Richards, and Charles Rochester Young,” published by Centaur Records. All the selections on this CD were written by Baylor composers (faculty and students, past and present) expressly for the Baylor Woodwind Quintet.

Sic ’em, School of Music professors!