Academics « Baylor Proud

Points of Pride — Academics

Nov

2009

Law students win moot court competition for fourth straight year

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Honors, Student life

Jennifer Salim and Wes LeRouax If practice makes perfect, then Baylor Law students are clearly well on their way to starting excellent careers.

For the fourth straight year (and the seventh time in 12 years), a team of Baylor Law School students won first place at the annual Mack Kidd Administrative Law Moot Court Competition. The team of Jennifer Salim and Wes LeRouax (pictured) claimed top honors at the event, in which students take place in simulated court proceedings.

In addition to winning the event, Salim and LeRouax were each recognized among the competition’s top speakers, finishing second and third, respectively. Their brief also won second place honors. Two other Baylor teams also performed well, with one pair reaching the semifinals and another reaching the quarterfinals.

Sic ’em, Baylor Law!

Nov

2009

English prof honored for new look at Mark Twain’s thinking

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Honors, Research

Work that began three years ago as a potential journal article by English professor Dr. Joe Fulton has evolved into not just a complete book, but one worthy of the prestigious Landry Award, given annually to the best book on Southern studies published by LSU Press.

Fulton’s book, The Reconstruction of Mark Twain, takes an in-depth look at the famed writer’s evolving political allegiances, actions and writings during and after the Civil War. Unlike previous Twain scholars, Fulton found that Twain remained a Southern who opposed Lincoln and and the North for years after the Civil War ended, until he very gradually recognized the tragedy of racism and slavery.

Previous Landry Award winners include Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Penn Warren, current Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust, and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner John Hope Franklin. The Reconstruction of Mark Twain will be released next fall, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Twain’s death.

Sic ’em, Dr. Fulton!

Nov

2009

Longtime professor lived his life “Bold as a Bear”

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Alumni

Battles family Longtime Baylor professor Burnie Battles, BA ‘65, MS ‘66, died in June in an automobile accident. After earning two degrees from Baylor, he served on the School of Education’s faculty for 42 years. At the time, I read plenty of memories from his former colleagues and students, but none of them hit me like this recent narrative from a woman who just happened to live across the street from Battles and his wife, Mary Helen.

Battles was honored posthumously as this year’s Outstanding Professor during Baylor’s Homecoming game last weekend. His wife, children and grandchildren accepted the honor on his behalf, all wearing a shirt specially made for the occasion that read “Bold as a Bear” — the English translation for the German name Burnie.

“There are so many things I could say about Burnie,” writes the author, photographer Elizabeth Marquess, who captured some special shots of the family to remember the day. “He always had a smile on his face and had the greatest laugh. He laughed with his whole body. He loved the Baylor Bears… He was a Baylor Bear… He had an undeniable love for his family. He had a deep faith in God. And the one thing I admired him most for, is that he had to be the best granddad I had ever witnessed.” The author’s list goes on and on, and is definitely worth reading. Battles was truly a man who “ran in such a way as to get the prize,” as the family’s t-shirts read, quoting 1 Corinthians.

Sic ‘em, Prof. Battles, for representing Baylor so boldly in a life well led!

Oct

2009

Blood drive honors nursing school’s 100th birthday

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Student life

100 Pints For 100 Years

As part of the 100th birthday celebration for Baylor’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing, pre-nursing students in the National Student Nurses’ Association partnered with Alpha Phi Omega in a blood drive earlier this month. Their goal: to raise 100 pints of blood in honor of the nursing school’s 100-year history.

Faculty, staff, students and other volunteers came through in a big way; together, the effort collected 614 pints of blood — six times the group’s goal! What a tremendous boost to local blood banks — a great gift to the Waco community.

Sic ’em, Baylor student nurses!

Oct

2009

BRIC to improve research efforts at Baylor and bring economic boost to Central Texas

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Research

Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative

For 40 years, the General Tire & Rubber Co. was one of the largest employers in Waco — up until industry changes led to the plant’s closing in 1985. For most of the past 25 years, the company’s 2 million-square-foot facility sat dormant just up I-35 from Baylor.

Friday, plans were announced to turn the long-shuttered manufacturing plant into a 21st-century research collaborative, as Baylor officials were joined by Texas State Technical College administrators as well as state, county and city leaders in introducing the creation of the Central Texas Research and Technology Park. The park’s first project will be the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC), which will be housed in General Tire’s former main building; Waco leader Clifton Robinson donated the facility to Baylor for this project. (See renderings of the building here.)

Baylor engineering will benefit greatly from the additional opportunities BRIC affords; most notably, the expanded research capabilities will allow the University to offer the program’s first doctoral degree. Faculty and students will be able to partner with both high-profile and start-up companies on researching new ideas. In the process, Central Texas stands to gain hundreds of white-collar jobs in the short term and thousands more jobs in the long term. Waco economist Ray Perryman, BS ‘74, forecasts the park will generate $1.5 to 4.2 billion in economic impact in the first 15 years, while creating between 8,000 and 22,000 jobs.

As seen in projects like BRIC and the Waco Mammoth Site, it’s amazing what can be accomplished when Baylor and the local community get together. I can’t wait to see what new ideas and opportunities Baylor students receive from this initiative!

Sic ’em, BRIC!

Oct

2009

Geologists map Waco suburb to help find stable places to build

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Research

Woodway, Texas The natural features that make the Waco suburb of Woodway so scenic can also cause problems for home builders, as some of the city’s slopes are prone to landslides — a situation clearly unsafe for a home’s foundation. However, while these conditions affect only a fraction of the city, the danger has caused some homebuilders to shy away from building anywhere in the area.

To help builders know where it’s safe to build and where it’s not, a team of Baylor geologists headed by Dr. Joe Yelderman have mapped the geological makeup of the area, giving residents, builders and developers the information they need to make smart decisions on where to place not only homes but businesses, streets and utilities. Professors and students worked together to develop the map, dividing Woodway into five zones based on geological makeup. The team then put the map online (click here to view) for easy access, linking each zone to building ordinances about what can and can’t be built in each area. Woodway is one of only two cities in Texas to have such a map.

Sic ’em, Baylor geologists, for using your knowledge to help our neighbors!

Oct

2009

Student’s work recognized by Menlo Park research institute

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Honors, Research, Student life

Apple introduced the computer mouse to the masses in 1984 with the introduction of the Macintosh computer, but the invention was first demonstrated nearly 20 years earlier at a conference in San Francisco by its inventor, Dr. Douglas Engelbart. His presentation — which also introduced such features as hyperlinks, e-mail and video conferencing — has come to be known as “the Mother of All Demos.”

Today, the Doug Engelbart Institute (DEI) continues to bring together researchers “to explore how we can dramatically boost our ability to solve complex, urgent problems on a global scale collectively.” Baylor sophomore Philip Heinrich, a University Scholar from Kansas, was recently recognized by the DEI for a project he put together as a freshman last spring on Engelbart’s famous presentation for a class at Baylor.

Heinrich took audio from the speech and created animated video to match, using the video to briefly demonstrate the progress of computer screen interfaces since 1968 and to emphasize not just the technology presented but also Engelbart’s vision of collaborative progress through technology. The DEI was impressed enough to feature Heinrich’s work on their website this summer, even creating a new section of the site to feature student works in line with the institute’s mission.

Sic ’em, Philip!

Oct

2009

Happy 100th birthday, Baylor nursing!

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Alumni, Photo Galleries

A century ago, Baylor began training nurses in Dallas to serve in the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ new Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium (which would later become Baylor Hospital and now lives as the Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas). Today, that school — now Baylor’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing — has more than 300 students pursuing a bachelor of science or master of science in nursing. (For more history, check out the Mayborn Museum’s exhibit.)

Baylor has always produced excellent servant leaders, perhaps being most recognized over the years for its pastors and teachers. But nurses should not be left out of that group, as the nursing school’s 4,000-plus graduates can attest, having spent their lives in service that includes two world wars and countless hospitals over the past 100 years.

As part of the LHSON’s year-long centennial celebration, alumni from across the years gathered in Dallas last weekend. Participants enjoyed dinners, breakout sessions on some of the issues facing today’s nurses, and a tour of the school’s facilities, including the new simulation labs. (Click here for a photo gallery from the weekend’s events.)

Sic ’em, Baylor nursing and Baylor nurses!

Oct

2009

Baylor debate ranked 5th nationally

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Honors

Baylor debaters John Cook and Alex McVey The reason we trumpet rankings on this blog is that they give some outside validation of where Baylor programs stand compared to others across the nation. Thus, we’re always excited to see Bears grab top-25 rankings, whether they’re academic or athletic.

Baylor’s debate team is the latest to grab headlines, coming in at No. 5 in the country after a pair of fall tournaments. We’ve talked about Baylor debate’s illustrious history before, but I think this paragraph sums things up nicely:

“Established in 1851, the Baylor debate team is one of the oldest extra-curricular organizations on campus. Since the beginning of the modern era of intercollegiate debate in 1947, Baylor has won three national championships, appeared in nine Final Fours, and qualified for the national tournament a stunning 50 times.”

Sic ’em, Baylor debate!

Oct

2009

British Consul General speaks at Baylor, learns to ’sic ‘em’

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

Joy with Paul Lynch “Her Majesty’s Consul General of the British Consulate in Houston” is quite a title; Paul Lynch, the man who holds that honor, is one of the 10 British Consul Generals in the U.S. who report to the British Ambassador to the United States. Lynch spoke on Baylor’s campus last week about what the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office does around the world to provide global leadership on global issues as part of the Global Issues Lecture Series, presented by Baylor’s Center for International Education.

During his stay in Waco, he also met with key Waco leaders, including Baylor Interim President Dr. David Garland and Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy (BA ‘56, MA ‘62). Last but not least, he learned what “Sic ’em, Bears!” means from none other than Baylor mascot Joy (pictured).

Sic ’em, Consul General Lynch!

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