Baylor Proud

May

2013

Commencement 2013 continues a Baylor tradition older than most in Texas

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Photo Galleries, Student life

At Baylor, commencement honors every individual, as each graduate walks the stage and hears her or her name called, one by one. (How many universities of Baylor’s size still provide such recognition?) But the event itself means something more to the collective.

“By assembling together, you affirm your membership in the Baylor family through cap and gown, through music, through singing ‘That Good Old Baylor Line,’” said President Ken Starr in his commencement address. “You remember by gathering here with those who encouraged and supported you on your Baylor journey, your dear family and loved ones. But even more than family and loved ones, you made this journey — which we celebrate today — with friends.” [Click here to read the entire speech, and here to see photos from graduation.]

Yes, the Baylor experience is about gaining knowledge that will help you in your career. But it’s also about growing as a person, gaining insight that will help you in life, and about forming friendships with people who will walk with you not just for four years in Waco, but for the rest of your life.

Stay in touch, Baylor graduates — with your friends, with the professors who mentored you, and with your alma mater. Share the good news of your life — new jobs, weddings, kids, etc. — with your now-former classmates (perhaps by submitting a class note to Baylor Magazine). And don’t forget to update your contact information as you move along so you can continue to be kept up-to-date on what’s going on here at Baylor and among your new fellow alumni as you all march “forever down the years.”

Wherever life may take you, Class of 2013 — sic ’em, as new Baylor graduates!

May

2013

Baylor professors of the year represent business, English and religion

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Honors

Baylor Professors of the Year: Thomasson, Garrett and Bellinger

Each year, Baylor honors three professors with major awards based on slightly varying criteria.

The senior class annually votes to determine the Collins Outstanding Professor Award. For the seventh time in the last 10 years, the Collins Award winner is also a Baylor graduate; this year’s recipient is Tim Thomasson, BBA ’91, MBA ’92, a professor of accounting and business law in the Hankamer School of Business. Thomasson spent 17 years in the field before coming back to Baylor in 2006.

Dr. Greg Garrett, a Baylor English professor in the College of Arts & Sciences since 1989, was named the 2013 Baylor Centennial Professor. Funded by the Centennial Class of 1945, each year the award provides financial support to aide one professor with a specific project. Garrett, a prolific writer, will use the award to further work on his next book, Entertaining Judgment: The Afterlife in Literature and Culture, which will examine our culture’s views of life after death over the centuries.

Another longtime Baylor professor, Dr. William Bellinger Jr., is the 2013 Cornelia Marschall Smith Professor of the Year. The award honors a professor who “who makes a superlative contribution to the learning environment at Baylor,” based on teaching, research and service. Bellinger has taught religion at Baylor since 1984 and served as department chair since 2006. Known for his sense of humor and robust laugh, Bellinger’s academic focus is on the worship texts of the Old Testament.

Sic ’em, Baylor professors!

May

2013

Baylor alum concludes nine seasons on ‘The Office’ with series finale tonight

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Alumni, Just for Fun

Angela Kinsey

Eight years ago this spring — while this fall’s incoming college freshmen were finishing up fourth grade — NBC debuted a new sitcom based on a British hit. Tonight, The Office signs off with its series finale, finishing its run as one of the signature comedies of the last decade.

With it, we say goodbye to Angela Martin, portrayed for all nine seasons of The Office by 1993 Baylor graduate Angela Kinsey. Her character’s relationship with Rainn Wilson’s Dwight Schrute was a central storyline for much of the show’s run, and tonight’s finale reportedly covers their long-awaited wedding. But don’t get the impression that Angela Martin and Angela Kinsey are the same person.

“She’s nothing like that,” says Baylor professor Robert Darden, BSED ’76, who taught Kinsey as a student. “Angela was a perky, outgoing, spontaneous person, not a grim control freak. Her nickname was ‘Junior Mint,’ and her screenplay characters were always funny and irrepressible.”

Back in 2007, Kinsey was the subject of a Baylor Magazine cover story in which she told the writer she still gets “real excited” to meet Baylor folks. As a student at Baylor, Kinsey was a member of Chi Omega, took theater classes and performed in All-University Sing. Her memories of Baylor include “the millions of squirrels” and Carroll Science Hall, her home as an English major. “I love the beautiful wooden staircase in it. And the professors’ offices are like little rooms tucked away in a big mansion.”

What’s next for Kinsey? She’s shot a couple of pilots for new shows, including one called The Gabriels with Saturday Night Live veterans Rob Riggle and Tim Meadows, but for now, it’s wait and see.

Sic ’em, Angela!

May

2013

Happy 10th anniversary, North Village! A look at what’s next for residence halls at Baylor

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Student life

North Village

Ten years ago this week, Baylor broke ground on what would become the North Village Residential Community, the first new residential community at Baylor in nearly 40 years.

Three years later, the university unveiled Brooks Village (which includes both Brooks Residential College and Brooks Flats). This fall, another new residential community, East Village, will open to students at the intersection of Bagby and 3rd Street (about a block from the Baylor Sciences Building and McLane Student Life Center).

With 700 new beds available this fall in East Village, Baylor will begin a decade-long process of renovating eight residence halls: Martin, Penland, Collins, North and South Russell, Alexander, Allen-Dawson, and Memorial. South Russell will be the first to be refurbished, closing for the 2013-14 school year to be updated with new furniture and fixtures as well as new study, social and spiritual spaces, including a classroom, fitness area, game room and lounge, and a faculty-in-residence apartment.

Even with South Russell out of commission, approximately 5,000 Baylor students will live on campus this fall — almost 40% of the undergraduate student body, and up from about 3,500 campus residents when shovels hit the dirt along University Parks 10 years ago.

The time spent living on a university campus is a unique stage of life; so glad that more Baylor students are getting to experience it (and for a larger percentage of their time in college).

Sic ’em, Baylor campus residents!

May

2013

Men’s tennis reaches 12th straight Sweet 16 to headline spring sports’ success

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Athletics, Honors

The spring semester is rapidly drawing to a close, which means it’s postseason time for Baylor’s spring sports.

After winning the Big 12 Conference regular season title (the program’s 11th in 14 years) and advancing to the finals of the Big 12 tournament, Baylor men’s tennis won its first- and second-round NCAA tournament matches over the weekend to advance to the Sweet 16 for the 12th straight season. The 13th-ranked Bears now face No. 4 USC Thursday at the NCAA final site in Urbana, Ill.

Baylor women’s tennis also won the Big 12 regular season title, the program’s ninth in 11 years, led by Big 12 Coach of the Year Joey Scrivano and Big 12 Player of the Year Ema Burgic. When the postseason began, however, the 19th-ranked Lady Bears were sent on the road as a No. 2 seed, however, and lost to No. 11 Northwestern in the NCAA tournament’s second round.

Both Baylor track teams placed fourth at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in February, and the women improved on that finish at the Outdoor Championships earlier this month in Waco, finishing third. (The men came in seventh.) At the NCAA Indoor Championships in March, the women tied for 25th and the men tied for 32nd; they’ll look to improve on those finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Championships June 5-8.

Freshman Lauren Taylor won the Big 12 Women’s Golf Championship individual title in April and led the Lady Bears to a ninth-place finish at the NCAA West Regional last weekend, one stroke shy of advancing to the NCAA Championship. Men’s golf is headed to an NCAA Regional for the 16th straight year and will compete in Pullman, Wash., Thursday through Saturday.

After finishing third in the Big 12, Baylor softball is headed to the NCAA tournament for the eighth time in 10 years. The Lady Bears will play in College Station this weekend, beginning against Arizona Friday at 2:30 p.m. (ESPN2). Baseball has one more week of regular season play before the Big 12 tournament May 22-26 in Oklahoma City.

Outside the NCAA, acrobatics and tumbling claimed two individual national titles at the NCATA National Championship last month, and equestrian lost in the hunter seat semifinals of the NCEA National Championship.

Sic ’em, Baylor athletics!

May

2013

Baylor sophomore among the final 12 on NBC’s ‘The Voice’

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Honors, Just for Fun, Student life, Videos

Holly Tucker

Baylor sophomore Holly Tucker wasn’t content just making an appearance on The Voice, NBC’s singing competition; she came to win.

So far, so good. Out of almost 75 performers who have appeared on the show this season, the 19-year-old native of Lorena (a Waco suburb) has made it into the final 12. All four judges wanted Tucker after her initial blind audition; she chose to join country superstar Blake Shelton’s team, and has since made it through three more rounds of judge’s decisions and fan voting.

[HOLLY PERFORMS: "To Make You Feel My Love," blind audition || "Blown Away," battle round || "Live Like You Were Dying," knockout round || "How Do I Live," top 16 live playoffs || iTunes link for all four songs]

From here on out, Tucker’s survival on The Voice will depend largely on viewer voting (via online polls at NBC.com, phone calls and text messages to specified numbers, and iTunes single sales). For at least the next two weeks, Holly and the other competitors will perform on Monday nights (NBC, 7 p.m. CT); voting will then take place overnight, with results announced live on the show Tuesday nights.

A Baylor legacy, Holly’s father, Johnny, mother, Cheryl, and brother, Travis, are all Baylor graduates, and Cheryl now works in the Engineering and Computer Science dean’s office. When Holly was first introduced on the show, her Baylor connections (including her role in the Golden Wave Band) were highlighted frequently, and even six weeks into the show, she is still frequently introduced as “Baylor University marching band performer Holly Tucker.”

You can follow along with her journey via Facebook, Twitter (@hollytmusic), YouTube and at HollyTucker.com. Then tune in and vote to help a fellow Baylor Bear keep on shining on this national spotlight!

Sic ’em, Holly!

May

2013

Baylor names finalists for 2014 Cherry Award, the nation’s largest teaching award

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Honors

Cherry Award Finalists 2014 More than two decades after its creation, Baylor University’s Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching remains the only national award (and the single largest monetary award) presented by a college or university to an individual for great teaching. Every two years, it brings one of the nation’s top college professors to teach at Baylor for a semester.

The most recent Cherry Award winner, Dr. Brian Coppola, is just wrapping up his tenure at Baylor after having spent the spring teaching organic chemistry in residence here. Last month, the finalists for the 2014 Cherry Award were announced:

Dr. Meera Chandrasekhar, Curator’s Teaching Professor of Physics, University of Missouri. A native of India, Chandrasekhar has taught at Missouri since 1978, earning recognition for her teaching from groups such as the National Science Foundation and the Missouri Governor’s office. Her hands-on physics programs for students in grades 5-12 and summer institutes for K-12 teachers have received several awards.
Dr. Joan Breton Connelly, Professor of Classics and Art History, New York University. Since 1990, Connelly has directed NYU’s Yeronisos Island Excavations and Field School in Cyprus; in 2002, she was honored by the Cyprus government for her contribution to the exploration and preservation of Cypriot cultural heritage. She also was appointed by President George W. Bush to a U.S. Department of State advisory committee, serving from 2003-11.
Dr. Michael K. Salemi, Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Salemi has taught at UNC since 1976, earning multiple awards for economics education from such groups as the Southern Economic Association, the National Council on Economic Education and the Association of Economic Educators. He chaired the American Economic Association’s Committee on Economics Education from 1994-2000 and served as president of the Society of Economics Educators in 2004.

Each finalist will lecture at Baylor this fall as well as a Cherry Award lecture on their own campuses sometime in the next year. The winning professor will be announced next spring and will teach in residence at Baylor during the fall 2014 or spring 2015 semesters.

Sic ’em, Cherry Award finalists, and to Robert Cherry Foster, whose estate gift has made this award possible!

May

2013

Baylor student appears on Jeopardy, gets Alex Trebek to do ‘sic ‘em’

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Just for Fun, Student life

Alex Trebek and Taylor Roth on Jeopardy

As a freshman at Baylor two years ago, Taylor Roth started having some health issues. Eventually, she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and told she probably had less than a year to live. Thankfully, a later diagnosis found that she has decades, not months, to live.

[Read Roth's story in depth: Waco Tribune-Herald || Dallas Morning News || Baylor Lariat]

Now a junior psychology major, Roth’s health hasn’t stopped her from pursuing her goals. One is to use her psychology degree to help cancer patients deal with their diagnosis. Another? To appear on Jeopardy!

The Plano, Texas, native can now cross that one off the list; Roth appeared on the show yesterday during Jeopardy!‘s college championship (in a green-and-gold Baylor sweatshirt, of course). Though she didn’t win, she did get a consolation prize of sorts: the photo above with host Alex Trebek as the pair do a “sic ‘em!”

Sic ’em, Taylor!

May

2013

Baylor Stadium celebrates milestones in advance of bringing football back to campus

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Athletics, Videos

Baylor Stadium construction

How big a deal is Baylor Stadium for the university and the football program? A media tour of the construction site yesterday drew dozens of reporters and news crews from Waco and beyond who wanted to see how the Bears’ new home is progressing.

[MEDIA REPORTS: Video and story from the Waco Tribune-Herald || WFAA Dallas/Fort Worth video || BaylorBears.com video || Baylor Photography photos || Baylor Lariat story || KCEN video || KXXV video || Fox44 Waco video || YNN video]

Construction company representatives and Baylor officials agreed: Work is coming along quite nicely, thank you. The outer shell of the stadium (which you can easily see while driving down I-35) should be complete by August or September, with the larger pieces inside cast and in place by the end of the year. Construction of the Umphrey pedestrian bridge across the Brazos River will begin later this summer, and the project is on track to be ready for the Bears’ 2014 home opener less than 500 days from now.

Visting the construction site, my first impression was just how close Baylor Stadium felt to campus. The law school right across the river feels practically next door — as close as, say, Moody Library to the SUB. (Check out this 360-degree video of the stadium and campus, taken from about where the new scoreboard will be, to get a feel for yourself.) I can’t wait until we get to experience game day on campus.

A few other notes from Tuesday’s event: President Ken Starr announced that $100 million has now been raised in private support for the stadium, and that number will continue to rise as club seats go on sale June 1 and additional gifts come in. All premium seating so far (Founders Suites, Premium Suites and Loge Boxes) have sold out, and a waiting list is growing, while 1,500 new season tickets have been sold for 2013 in anticipation of the new stadium a year later. More than 1,400 Stadium Bricks have also been sold to adorn a plaza outside the stadium.

(Click the image at right for an interesting comparison of Floyd Casey Stadium and Baylor Stadium.)

Sic ’em, Baylor Stadium!

May

2013

Road trip takes Baylor seniors back to Independence, where it all began

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Photo Galleries, Student life

Independence, Texas, symbolizes a lot of things to folks around Baylor. It was where the university began, back in 1845, and today is the place where many students begin their time as Bears, with a visit during Baylor Line Camp. So it’s fitting that many seniors choose to close their time at Baylor with a visit back to Independence.

Each year, as the spring semester closes, the Baylor Alumni Network organizes a senior trip to the university’s original home, where participants enjoy dinner on the grounds, photos at sunset by the historic columns from Baylor’s old campus, and a pre-graduation ceremony set amongst our university’s rich history.

[Click here to see more photos from the Senior Road Trip to Independence.]

In less than two weeks, this students will be Baylor’s newest alumni. Four years ago, many received their Baylor Line jerseys in Independence. Soon, they will be a permanent part of the Baylor Line that stretches back almost 170 years.

Sic ’em, Baylor seniors!