Academics « Baylor Proud

Points of Pride — Academics

Nov

2012

Baylor alum inducted into Texas Literary Hall of Fame

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

Robert Flynn The short list of inductees into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame includes such names as Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove), Katherine Anne Porter (Ship of Fools) and Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird screenplay). The list also now includes Baylor alumnus Robert Flynn, BA ’54, MA ’57.

The Texas Literary Hall of Fame inducted Flynn as part of the Class of 2012 during a ceremony last month. Founded by the Friends of the Fort Worth Library, the hall biennially votes to honor writers “whose body of work enhances Texas’ literary heritage, is original and first published in this country, and has already been recognized for its literary significance.”

Flynn has written 13 books, including nine novels (most notably, the national bestseller North to Yesterday), three short-story collections and an oral history of the Vietnam War. He came to Baylor from Chillicothe, Texas, and taught drama at Baylor for several years after graduating before heading to Trinity University, where he is now an emeritus professor. He credits former Baylor professors Paul Baker and Eugene McKinney, BA ’48, MA ’50, for helping him become a writer.

Sic ’em, Robert!

[We learned of this story from a Bear who shared his Baylor pride. Do you know of an inspiring story, news item, or just a fun link that makes you proud of Baylor and the Baylor family? Let us know! Click here to submit your point of pride!]

Nov

2012

Mental Floss names Armstrong Browning Library one of the nation’s 10 most beautiful libraries

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

Armstrong Browning Library at Baylor No less an authority than Mental Floss — a popular magazine dedicated to facts and trivia — recently named Baylor’s Armstrong Browning Library one of “The 10 Most Beautiful Libraries in the United States.”

If you’ve ever been inside, you know why. (And if you haven’t visited, you should.) Mental Floss describes it as “a 3-story, Italian Renaissance-styled masterpiece adorned with 62 stained glass windows, massive marble columns, intricate ceiling designs and other wonderful details.” (This photo gallery might give you some idea of the library’s look and feel.)

Rumor has it that the ballroom so beautifully depicted in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was modeled after Armstrong Browning. (The connection? Jim Hillin, a 1979 Baylor grad who oversaw CGI artistic direction for Walt Disney Animation in the late ’80s and early ’90s and was responsible for the movie’s groundbreaking CGI.)

Sic ’em, ABL!

You might also like:
* Baylor’s Texas Collection named among world’s top 20 university special collections (Sept. 2012)
* Armstrong Browning Library named one of the 50 most beautiful college libraries in the world (Jan. 2012)

Oct

2012

Baylor junior wins one of 40 EPA fellowships nationwide

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

Junior David Dreier’s experience in Baylor’s environmental health science program — one of only 30 such accredited programs nationwide — played a large part in the North Texas native earning a prestigious Greater Research Opportunities (GRO) fellowship from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Only about 40 students from all over the country earned the competitive EPA honor, which provides scholarship support up to nearly $50,000 over the next two years as the recipients complete their degrees. Dreier, an environmental health science major in Baylor’s Honors Program, also will be offered a paid internship at an EPA facility next summer.

Dreier credited his professors, “whose support and guidance were essential to this accomplishment,” but those mentors deflected the praise toward the university as a whole.

“We share David’s excitement because the EPA GRO Undergraduate Fellowship represents one of the premiere research awards for undergraduate students,” said Dr. Bryan Brooks, Dreier’s honors thesis advisor. “Such an outstanding honor provides gold-standard evidence of fruit from Baylor’s commitment to undergraduate research training and integration of undergraduates in active research teams.”

Sic ’em, David!

Oct

2012

Baylor recognized among nation’s most well-rounded curriculums for third straight year

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Honors

Baylor students Looking for a well-rounded education? An independent study found that, once again, Baylor is one of the best universities in the nation.

For the third straight year, Baylor is among the fewer than 2% of colleges and universities nationwide to be recognized with an “A” for its well-rounded, high-quality core curriculum from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.

The group looked at which schools require students to study core subjects such as composition, literature, foreign language at an intermediate level, U.S. government or history, economics, mathematics, and natural or physical science. Only three colleges in the entire nation require all seven subjects; Baylor is among 18 institutions that requires six of the seven.

Other schools on the “A” list include Georgia, Pepperdine, and the U.S. Air Force and Military academies. No other Big 12 school made the list, and only three other schools in Texas (University of Dallas, TAMU-CC and UTSA) qualified.

Sic ’em, Baylor!

Oct

2012

Baylor philosophy prof’s book wins prestigious C.S. Lewis prize

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

Natural Signs and Knowledge of God It’s saying a lot to say a book is the best in its field of the past five years. But that’s exactly what judges named a 2010 effort by Dr. C. Stephen Evans, a philosophy and humanities professor in Baylor’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Evans’ work, Natural Signs and the Knowledge of God: A New Look at Theistic Arguments, was named the best published book of the last five years in the fields of philosophy of religion or philosophical theology by the folks behind the C.S. Lewis Book Prize Competition. Natural Signs is a sequel of sorts to one of Evans’ previous books, Why Believe? Reason and Mystery as Pointers to God.

Along with the honor, given by the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., Evans received a cash award of $15,000 (funded by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation).

Evans came to Baylor in 2001 as a professor in the Department of Philosophy. He is an internationally recognized scholar whose main intellectual interest has been the work of the Danish philosopher and theologian, Soren Kierkegaard.

Sic ’em, Dr. Evans!

Oct

2012

Partnership between business school, provost’s office will help BRIC discoveries reach market faster

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Research

Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC)

You could develop the greatest product in the world — a better mousetrap, a cure for cancer, etc. — but if it never gets to market, it will never do anyone any good.

Companies utilizing the university’s upcoming discovery park, the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC), won’t have to worry about that. That’s because when BRIC opens in January, one of its tenants will be the Innovative Business Accelerator (IBA), to be led by Dr. Gregory Leman.

The IBA is a joint venture of the Hankamer School of Business and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. It exists to help new technology companies grow their business more rapidly by taking advantage of Baylor’s research and intellectual resources and will provide a broad range of business, science, legal and technical services, some of which will come from Baylor students.

“The IBA is built on a solid foundation of our successful collaboration with global industry,” says Leman. “It will become a single point of access to university and community expertise by providing a critical link between technology companies and Baylor business, science, engineering and law faculty.”

Leman, a Clinical Professor at the Hankamer School of Business and director of university entrepreneurial initiatives, had a very successful career as a chemical engineer before coming to Baylor in 2005. He is also the founding director of Baylor’s Technology Entrepreneurship Initiative (TEI), which offers courses in technology entrepreneurship and is followed by a real-world consulting engagement called i5 in either the U.S. or China.

Sic ’em, Dr. Leman!

(By the way, that’s the BRIC facility pictured above — not a rendering, but an actual, recent photo. The former General Tire plant sure cleans up nicely!)

Oct

2012

Engineering students take on new challenge in Baja SAE competition

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Research

Mechanical engineering professor Dr. Lesley Wright and several staff took a team of engineering students from Baylor – for the first time – to participate in the Baja SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) competition in Burlington, Wisc., over the summer.

The competition consisted of three regional competitions designed to simulate real-world engineering design projects and related challenges. Participants were asked to design and build an off-road vehicle that would survive rough terrain, then pitch possible production to a fictitious firm to gain real-world experience.

“I was fortunate to have been able to attend the event and was most impressed as to how the various teams worked with one another offering ideas, loaning tools and equipment, asking for help and learning from one another,” said Steve Colburn, who accompanied the Baylor team as the father of one of the students entered in the competition.

More than 100 teams participated in the competition, including several of our Big 12 brethren and even some international teams. Baylor’s car passed all technical, safety and design inspections and was very competitive against teams that have been involved in Baja SAE for years. The BU car also finished in the top 25% of two of the five events — pretty impressive for an inaugural outing!

Sic ’em, Baylor Baja Team!

Sep

2012

Baylor’s Texas Collection named among world’s top 20 university special collections

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

Baylor University's Texas Collection A new list of “The 20 Most Impressive University Special Collections” includes some of the most prestigious institutions in the world: Cambridge. Oxford. Yale. Duke. And Baylor.

OEDb.org, which covers all aspects of higher education, compiled the list and recognized Baylor’s Texas Collection for its offerings related to our state’s history. “More than most states, Texas’ history definitely exists as a particularly colorful splotch on the American canvas,” explains the writer. “At Baylor University, this colorful splotch swells to an entire painting, with a collection of thousands of artifacts about how the Lone Star State eventually shaped itself.”

Established in 1923, the Texas Collection includes hundreds of thousands of books, periodicals, photographs and other documents and files, all dealing with Texas and Texans, making it the largest Texana collection at any private university. Except for a short span from 1939-55, the Texas Collection has been housed in historic Carroll Library in the heart of the Baylor campus since its inception. (Read an interesting history of the Texas Collection here.)

The write-up on Baylor also gives special mention the Armstrong Browning Library for its collection of manuscripts and other items related to Victorian poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning.

Sic ’em, Baylor libraries!

You might also like:
* Armstrong Browning Library named one of the 50 most beautiful college libraries in the world (Jan. 2012)
* Texas Historical Commission honors Baylor’s part in preserving the state’s history (April 2011)
* KWBU-FM program shares Treasures of the Texas Collection (Feb. 2010)
* Historical markers to honor Texas Collection and Carroll Library (Oct. 2008)

Sep

2012

Baylor entrepreneurship program ranked No. 2 in the country

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Honors

Entrepreneurship magazine No less an authority than The Princeton Review has named Baylor the No. 2 university in the nation for undergraduate entrepreneurship.

The new rankings, published in the latest issue of Entrepreneurship Magazine, placed Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business second out of more than 2,000 colleges and universities for undergraduate entrepreneurship majors. [See the full top-25 list here.]

The survey considered such factors as the percentage of faculty who are entrepreneurs themselves (100% at BU), the amount of scholarship money available just for students in the program ($260,000 at Baylor), and the percentage of recent graduates who had started their own business (67% of BU program alums).

The honor marks Baylor’s fourth straight year among the top five in the country after ranking No. 4 in 2009, No. 2 in 2010 and No. 3 in 2011.

Sic ’em, Baylor entrepreneurship students and faculty!

Sep

2012

Baylor celebrates 225th anniversary of Constitution’s signing with ‘On Topic’ conversation

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

Akhil Reed Amar and President Ken Starr

Monday was the 225th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, an event annually celebrated as Constitution Day in the United States. The day has taken on added importance at Baylor since the hiring of Ken Starr as president, given Judge Starr’s status as one of the nation’s top constitutional scholars.

To celebrate the occasion, Judge Starr welcomed to campus Yale professor Akhil Reed Amar, another of the country’s leading experts on the Constitution, for the latest in the President’s series of “On Topic” public conversations. The pair of scholars discussed not only the document as it exists today, but also “America’s unwritten Constitution,” rights that are sometimes assumed or taken for granted that are not, in fact, delineated in our governing documents.

[LINKS: Watch the entire "On Topic" conversation || Photos from the event || Judge Starr's guest column on the importance of the Constitution]

Amar is just one of many top scholars brought to Waco and the Baylor campus each year for free public lectures. This event was the fourth in Judge Starr’s ongoing “On Topic” series, following T. Boone Pickens, Condoleezza Rice and Sandra Day O’Connor, and departments across campus are constantly featuring guest lectures. To stay on top of all the offerings, bookmark baylor.edu/calendar.

Sic ’em, guest speakers, for sharing your knowledge so freely!

[And while we're talking anniversaries... Wednesday marked the 125th anniversary of Baylor's first day of class in Waco (after 41 years in Independence, Texas). Those first Waco classes were held in Old Main, still the heart of the Baylor campus.]

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