It hasn’t been all that long since I was a student at Baylor, but when I walk the campus these days, I marvel at how many of the facilities students benefit from today have gone up since I graduated.
The one that stands out the most is the Baylor Sciences Building (pictured; click on image for larger version) — perhaps because it’s far and away the largest building ever built on our campus, and one you’ve probably driven by on your way down University Parks Drive to a Baylor sporting event. Opened in 2004, the BSB (as it’s known around campus) gives students and professors more than 500,000 square feet of classroom, lab and office space — almost four times the size of the law school, which was previously the largest building on campus.
The facility is home to the departments of biology, chemistry and biochemistry, environmental science, geology, physics, psychology and neuroscience, as well as offices for the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core (BIC), biomedical studies, medical humanities, pre-health programs and pre-nursing. It also houses Baylor centers for analytical spectroscopy, spatial research, drug discovery, mass spectometry, molecular biosciences, and reservoir and aquatic systems research. (Got all that?)
And the BSB is far from the only new academic space Baylor students enjoy. The Paul L. Foster Success Center, housed in a drastically remodeled Sid Richardson Building, brought the university’s academic advisement and support offices as well as career counseling and services under one roof. Museum studies students and the Waco community at large enjoy the Mayborn Museum Complex. Graduate students have received new homes in the Baugh-Reynolds Campus of Truett Seminary and the Umphrey Law Center. And that doesn’t even begin to include unique classroom space in the newer residence halls.
Imperative VII of Baylor’s Vision 2012 called for the provision of outstanding academic facilities. With those mentioned above and other possible additions being discussed (including a new quadrangle and new business school), I look forward to what the Baylor campus of tomorrow holds for students of the future.
Sic ’em, BSB and all who have helped provide Baylor’s world-class facilities!
