Welcome Back, Baylor

Show Notes

A new academic year brings new opportunities, new students, and renewed momentum across Baylor University. In the Season 10 premiere of Baylor Connections, President Livingstone shares a wide-ranging conversation about the year ahead.

From record-breaking philanthropy and student support to research growth, campus improvements, and the excitement of a new athletics season, President Livingstone shares what she's anticipating in the 2026-27 school year. Along the way, she reflects on the enduring strength of Baylor's Christian mission, the importance of a caring community, and the experiences that make a Baylor education distinctive for students and families. 

The conversation includes:

• the excitement of welcoming a new class of students and families to Baylor 
• how Baylor's caring community begins before students ever arrive on campus through events like summer Send-off Parties 
• the impact of another record-breaking year of philanthropy and support from the Baylor family 
• Baylor's ongoing efforts to improve affordability through scholarships, efficiency, and student success initiatives 
• how Baylor's Christian mission provides a foundation for navigating the challenges facing higher education 
• the continued impact of Baylor's R1 designation on student opportunities, faculty recruitment, and research growth 
• why Baylor's location in the rapidly growing Texas Triangle creates opportunities for students, faculty, and industry partnerships 
• the completion of a decade-long effort to renovate Baylor's historic residence halls and strengthen student community 
• how Baylor focuses on the holistic development of students academically, professionally, personally, and spiritually 
• a look ahead at the new athletics year, fan-focused initiatives, campus traditions, and the excitement surrounding the start of another Baylor semester 

Transcript

Derek Smith:
Happy New Year, Baylor family. It's the start of a new academic year at Baylor University, and we start a new season of Baylor Connections with President Linda Livingstone. She's with us today on the program from the Foster Campus of Business and Innovation, home of Baylor's Hankamer School of Business, a great place, a great facility as we look at all the new things that are beginning this year. And President Livingstone, I know it's a busy time, but we really appreciate you being with us today.

President Livingstone:
Well, Derek, I am happy to be with you. It's always exciting to get ready to kick off and to begin a new school year.

Derek Smith:
We got a lot to talk about. Always exciting at the beginning of a new year, but I want to look back first because we're here in the Hankamer School of Business where you spent many years as a full-time faculty member. So I'm just curious, in your role as president, how often do you draw back on your time as a full-time faculty member here, particularly with students?

President Livingstone:
Sure. Well, first I do want to clarify, I didn't get to be in this building-

Derek Smith:
Right, yes.

President Livingstone:
... when I was a faculty member, but what a fabulous building for our business school. And I loved my time in the Hankamer School of Business. It was my first faculty position out of my PhD program. And that was when I was teaching students and certainly engaged in research. And that's what really grounds you in what we're doing at an institution like Baylor. It's about our students, about our research, about our faculty. So thankful I had that experience at Baylor, and I certainly draw on that and value that tremendously in the work that I do now.

Derek Smith:
Do you ever miss being in the classroom?

President Livingstone:
Well, I do because in many ways that's the core of what we do on campus. But I do have the opportunity, I get invited sometimes to come speak to classes. And then Brad and I try to find as many ways as we can to engage with our students. So when you can't be in the classroom regularly, I think it's important as a president to find other ways to connect and engage with students. And so I'm thankful for the opportunities when I can, and then certainly look for other ways we can connect with students to stay grounded in the wonderful things that they're doing on our campus.

Derek Smith:
Well, we know you're at certainly athletic events, musical performances, you're at research presentation, all these different things. You get to see the whole depth and breadth of really what our students are doing.

President Livingstone:
Well, we do. And I think that's one of the joys of being on a college campus is we have so many talented students in a wide variety of diverse ways. And getting out to see the many ways students exhibit those talents, whether they're academic or musical or athletic or in so many other ways is just a real joy and really one of the privileges of being on a university campus.

Derek Smith:
Now, were you able to get away at all this summer? Are you and the first gent Brad getting time away from campus?

President Livingstone:
We did. Early in the summer, I had to speak at a conference in New York and then we went to Maine for about 10 days. And my goal was to see a moose in the wild. I had never seen a moose in the wild. And so we even did a moose safari because I said, "I'm not leaving Maine until I see a moose." And we did. So we had a wonderful trip there. And then later in the summer, we got to get out and go to a few of our sendoff parties, which was great fun to welcome some of our new families and our new students as they're preparing to pack up and come to Baylor and are now here, which is so exciting to have them on campus now.

Derek Smith:
Those sendoff parties have to be a lot of fun as you see new families coming in and meeting each other in some far-flung places sometimes. And I don't know, it just feels like a neat organic way Baylor's caring community begins for a lot of people.

President Livingstone:
Well, I think it's really important because it helps those students and those families to connect with local people that most of the time they've not met those folks before so that they have a community at home. And then when those students come to campus, especially if they're from distances, it helps those families know that there's people there to care for them and they feel welcomed and cared for even before they get to our campus.
So I love doing them. They're always a lot of fun and we love kind of giving them a preview of what they're going to experience those first few weeks they're on campus.

Derek Smith:
And they're there here ready for-

President Livingstone:
That's right.

Derek Smith:
... this new year. And it's exciting to have them here for sure. And we have a lot of exciting things that we can talk about about this new school year itself or just things that impact it. And, one, let's talk about the Baylor family's generosity. We celebrated another record-breaking giving year. The Baylor family, nearly $250 million of giving from nearly 25,000 donors. Those are great numbers.

President Livingstone:
Wonderful numbers.

Derek Smith:
Yeah. I mean, it's hard to really encapture all that means for Baylor, but what would you tell us about really what that does mean for the university?

President Livingstone:
Well, it's just transformational for the university that we have so many people that are so willing to walk alongside us to support our students, our faculty and staff and who care so deeply about our mission, to help support us in so many ways. And this last year, we were just thrilled with the level of giving. And it's going to be helpful to us in so many ways. I mean, we had a really great year in giving to our Extend the Line campaign, which is a scholarship campaign that's so critical to affordability and to being able to support our students that want to be at Baylor and should be at Baylor. So we were thrilled to see very generous giving to scholarships.
We of course got to name the Moody School of Education with the Moody Foundation's $30 million gift and really probably one of the biggest gifts to a school of education anywhere in the country and helping support research, scholarships, faculty. We're so excited we're going to dedicate the naming of that school in September. So we're excited about that.
And then we had a record year of giving to our endowment. And a lot of that is scholarship giving, but it also supports endowed chairs and programs. And endowment is so important because it really helps support the university for many years to come. It's one reason universities can sustain quality and excellence over the long run is because they have endowment to support it. So I just can't say enough about the love and care of the Baylor family to support all that we're doing here on campus.

Derek Smith:
Amidst a lot of changes and headwinds, that giving really shines through. And President Livingstone, you mentioned the scholarships. A lot of different areas, but scholarships are one that stood out. That idea of affordability in college, a lot of people are talking about it. Scholarships are one area of that. What does it mean to you to lean into that? And how is Baylor approaching that?

President Livingstone:
Yeah. Well, we think it's really important that students should be at a university, no matter what university is, have that opportunity and can afford to do it. And certainly at private universities, there's an additional burden on us given our tuition level. So scholarship dollars, both current use dollars and endowed dollars are critically important, whether those are for merit or whether they're need-based, really, really important.
But we also at Baylor know we have to own our part of that as well. And so we continue to look at ways we can ensure that we're being as efficient as we can from a cost perspective, that we're looking for ways to increase revenue beyond through student tuition. We're really looking at ways to help students finish their college degree in four years instead of five or six. Finishing in four years is one of the best ways to reduce the cost of a college education.
So there's a lot of levers you can pull to help with affordability. And certainly raising funds for scholarships is one of those, but there's many others that we're working on as well.

Derek Smith:
Holistic approaches here-

President Livingstone:
Exactly.

Derek Smith:
... at Baylor for our students. We mentioned changes and there's a lot of changes taking place and all the factors that lean into higher education that universities are dealing with right now. I'm curious, let's zoom out from that a little bit though. Baylor's mission, Baylor's Christian mission distinctive as a Christian R1 university, how does that broadly position us maybe in a different way as we deal with those headwinds?

President Livingstone:
Well, we believe that we're very uniquely positioned in higher education. I mean, I always say one of the best things about higher ed in the United States is how diverse it is and that there are all different kinds of higher ed institutions. And Baylor is really unique in that as a research university with a distinctive Christian mission that plays Power 4 athletics and is the size that we can still provide an intimate personalized education and still have all of the benefits of athletics, research, student organizations that a really large institution would have positions us very uniquely in the world of higher education. And I think with all the challenges that are out there, the more distinct your mission is, the more focused you are on that mission, the better off you're going to be as we continue to navigate a pretty challenging higher ed environment.

Derek Smith:
I should probably ask you specifically too, President Livingstone. I think everyone here at Baylor is well-versed as we talk about those challenges. A lot of people, a lot of smart people are thinking about this, but what are some of those challenges that all universities are thinking about right now?

President Livingstone:
Well, we certainly don't live in a unique environment at Baylor. So I mean, one that's really putting a lot of pressures on universities is kind of the early stages of what we've been talking about for many years coming, the demographic cliff where the number of college age going students in the United States is beginning to decline. And so for undergraduate institutions, that puts a lot of pressure on enrollment models and increases the competition for those students. And then you layer across that some of the changes in the ability of international students to get visas to come to the United States. That certainly affects our graduate populations, but it also affects undergraduate. At Baylor, we don't have a large percentage of our students that are international, but there are some universities, particularly some of the elite publics and privates that have taken a lot of undergraduate international students. They're typically full pay students. And when you get fewer of those in your pipeline, then you start pulling in more domestic students, which then puts pressure all the way through the admissions pipeline. So that puts pressure on us from an admissions' perspective.
We of course continue to monitor very closely the federal funding for research. We've been pretty well protected from that, but that doesn't mean that will continue. So we've got to be really thoughtful about that, navigate that. And then there've been some changes to federal financial aid, both at the undergraduate and the graduate level that we're navigating.
So I could go on, but that's enough for now. So there's a lot of moving parts. There's a lot of uncertainty. And we're really working hard to be proactive and try to get ahead of some of these things and not be as impacted by them if some of those situations start to put more pressure on us than they have in the past.

Derek Smith:
Amidst so much uncertainty, how much does that mission serve, Baylor's Christian mission serve as, I don't know, a little bit of a rock, a lighthouse, if you will, that you can kind of lean on when you're factoring in these things?

President Livingstone:
Well, I think the fact that our mission is grounded in our Christian faith is critical to us because it is a stake we have in the ground that regardless of how people feel about a lot of different things in our community, because we have a diverse community, at the core is our foundation as a Christian institution. And so I think that gives us a core, it gives us a set of values that are consistent and helps ground what we're doing. We also can use... We use really kind of Biblical foundations to ground us and help guide some of our decisions. And I think that's very, very helpful because you don't really get blown by the wind as much that way. And you can really have a very strong foundational perspective on the work you do and why you do it while making sure you're continuing to innovate, be creative, adapt in a world that is changing very, very rapidly.

Derek Smith:
We know we grow within the framework of that mission and one area we've certainly grown, it's hard to believe so. It's been almost five years now since we were celebrating Baylor becoming R1.

President Livingstone:
That's right.

Derek Smith:
Half a decade, Baylor almost now has been a R1 research institution, the top ranking for a research university from the Carnegie classifications. And really, how have you seen that get baked in, if you will? I mean, it was something that was new, but really now it's just a part of who we are.

President Livingstone:
Well, it is. And I think people want to continue to grow into being a serious research university and continue to grow that enterprise on our campus. And because we were able to get that designation, we know it has influenced students in their selection of Baylor because a lot of certainly graduate students, but also undergraduate students want to be at a place where they can do research and can aspire to do that work that will either help them as they go to graduate school or in their professional career. And so we know it's been important from a recruiting perspective for students, but it's also been huge for faculty recruiting. It has allowed us to recruit some of the most amazing faculty from around the country and frankly from around the world who care deeply about our Christian mission, but want to do research at the highest level.
And before we really became a Research 1 university, one, they might not have known that we would support their research, or two, we might not have had the level of support that they needed. And so it has really helped transform over time the type of faculty that will come to Baylor that support our mission, support our students, and also doing research.
So it's an important part of who we are now. And the fact that has become an ingrained part of the institution and we just sort of own it and know it is a really important thing.

Derek Smith:
Yeah. We see a lot of faculty members getting a lot of great grants, but it's not just about the grants, it's about the work they're doing to fight disease, to build new technologies, to support human flourishing, all these things.

President Livingstone:
Absolutely. And it gives them opportunities. We talk a lot about this, to have a seat at the table or a voice, whether it's in through their research, through their professional organizations that you just don't have the opportunity to have in an academic setting. And then to do that from the foundation of a Christian university is really important because there are just so few of us in that research realm that are speaking into some of these really important issues.

Derek Smith:
In a lot of ways, like we've said, Baylor's one of one as a Christian research university. Now we're not the only university within the Texas Triangle, which has drawn a lot of attention as one of the fastest growing regions in the country. DFW down to Houston and then San Antonio, Austin, really one of those rapidly growing areas in the country. How is that meaningful to Baylor to be a big part of that?

President Livingstone:
Well, it's huge for us to be in Texas and to be a part of that region that is so important in growth. And there's a lot of great universities in that triangle, some of the best public and private universities in the country. And so it does a lot of things. One, it attracts a lot of business. There's growth in businesses in that area, which is wonderful for recruiting certainly students as families move in, but it's great for career services support, internships. It gives opportunities for our faculty from a research perspective.
And then I would say because we have so many really great universities, a lot of our faculty partner with faculty at other universities from a research perspective. And so to have all of them geographically so tight, it's really a valuable thing for us. And there's some industries that are growing rapidly that we'll have wonderful opportunities to take advantage of.

Derek Smith:
Well, it's exciting to see. It's certainly a place that people are coming and many students will want to be a part of as well. One other question I want to ask you, only lightly aligned to the rest of this, but still pretty exciting as we think about growth and changes. We just completed, what, a 10-year plan for our residence halls to renovate, remodel, update Kokernot Hall. We all just got a tour of it recently. It looks beautiful and pretty exciting to see that transition that's taken place over the last 10 years.

President Livingstone:
Well, we were just thrilled to be able to wrap up our remodel of, we kind of call them our classic residence halls. Some of them were done before I even got here, and then we kind of took a pause and got through COVID. And then we started back up with Collins and then we finished up this year with Kokernot.
And the transformation of those residence halls with these recent remodels has been amazing. It's built in more community space for our students. It's built in kind of newer, more modern technology. The restroom facilities are so much nicer than they were. And it just transforms the living experience for students. And especially when they're a freshmen, it is where they spend a lot of their time. It's where they build their first relationships. And the more we can create an environment that is in supporting of them, gives them the opportunity to build community, the better off we are.
And Kokernot is gorgeous. I mean, it's amazing what they've done there. It's beautiful. And I encourage people when they have a chance to wander through the lobby and see the changes that have been made there.

Derek Smith:
As we've been talking, we've talked about obviously just now updated residence halls, beautified residence halls, career center that does such great work, educational, different offices at Baylor that help students find success within their classes. What does it mean to you, to Baylor, and really to a lot of our colleagues across the institution to provide value to students as a part of what they're getting here?

President Livingstone:
Well, I think as we talk about Baylor, what we really want to focus on is the value that we provide to our students through the holistic experience that they have on our campus. I mean, we've talked about the emphasis on affordability. There's also a ton of emphasis right now around the country on preparing students from a career perspective for their jobs, which is important. And we absolutely have to do that.
But at Baylor, we care deeply about the holistic development of our students. We want them to grow and develop academically and do well, but we also want them to grow from a personal perspective, to become more mature, more resilient, more adaptable. We want them to grow spiritually while they're here. And so that holistic formation of our students is so critical to us. And in a world where there's a lot of pressure on higher education, I think it's critical for us at Baylor to maintain the core of our Christian mission that cares so deeply about our students and their broad transformational development, even as we work on how we navigate some of these pressures that are out there on higher ed that sometimes push against some of these transformational ways of thinking about the experience that our students have.
So it's critical to who we are. It's critical that we maintain the integrity of that experience for our students as we move forward.

Derek Smith:
President Livingstone, as we head into the final couple minutes here, I can't let you go without asking about athletics first. A new athletics year is starting. Volleyball, soccer, football, really kind of first out of the gate here at Baylor. It's exciting to see, but let's zoom out to the fans a minute because I think the Fan First Era, certainly with our new athletic director, Doug McNamee has drawn a lot of attention. What does it mean to you to see the fans, I think, feel that how important they are to the institution and to college athletics?

President Livingstone:
I love the Fan First emphasis that Doug has really focused on as he's begun his job and is really in his first year as our athletic director. And the revamping of the tailgate is so important to bring that energy before the game, to get people excited, to bring people together. The concerts that they're adding, I think are going to be a lot of fun to build energy and excitement. Obviously, trying to make it affordable for folks to come and really thinking about what we offer for food. So I think they had a tasting over the summer of some of the new food offerings, which are lots of fun. I'm actually very excited about those bear claws that we're going to be offering in the stadium and just the pricing and everything as well. And then I also really love the new program. We're really trying to support and encourage people from Waco to come that might not have been exposed to our athletic programs before.
So lots of great opportunities. We absolutely are deeply committed to our teams winning and being successful from an athletic perspective, but we also want the fans to have a great experience beyond just winning on the field or on the court. And I think some of the actions that we're taking are going to be really important to that.

Derek Smith:
It's going to be a lot of fun to see that energy-

President Livingstone:
Absolutely.

Derek Smith:
... around our athletic programs for sure this year. But got to mention too, the Baylor family's been stepping up. This show is airing on the 24th. Tomorrow's when we find out if the Baylor Line was voted number one in the USA Today Readers' Choice poll as the top walkout tradition in sports. I think the Baylor family's getting it done.

President Livingstone:
I can't imagine. We absolutely should win that competition because it is such a fabulous tradition and so unique and fun. And we're excited to get to see our students do that this year again.

Derek Smith:
Well, as we close now, President Livingstone, I'll just ask you, we'll do a little rapid fire around here. I want to know your favorites of a few things. So we'll just close with this. Let's just start with what just completed, Welcome Week. What's your favorite Welcome Week moment?

President Livingstone:
Welcome Week. I love the pep rally because it's very exciting, energetic. I'm not picking one thing here. I love the church fair because that helps students get connected with churches early. And I love the worship service on Sunday night that leads us into the school year in a worshipful and prayerful way.

Derek Smith:
That's great. That's great. Favorite part of the first week of a new school year?

President Livingstone:
We give away popsicles or something cold the first day of class from in front of the Allbritton House. We love welcoming our students back, seeing them the first day of class, seeing how their day went. Sometimes we get to talk to their parents because they're talking to their parents as they walk in front of our house. So I love that part of the first week.

Derek Smith:
Okay. You took BU, the first pup on a walk this morning. Favorite place to walk BU on campus.

President Livingstone:
So if we're walking early in the morning, we love to walk the Bear Trail. That's a great joy for us. If it's during the afternoon or evening, we usually walk around Fountain Mall. And Brad loves to walk BU in the day sometimes when I'm not able to. And just wherever there are students, he likes to walk BU around the students and let them love on BU because so many of them leave their dogs and their pets at home and it's real special for them to get to love on BU a little bit.

Derek Smith:
Yeah. BU is well-loved on this campus. Yes.

President Livingstone:
She is the most popular member of our family, I'm pretty sure.

Derek Smith:
Yeah. Favorite athletics tradition?

President Livingstone:
Well, running the Baylor Line, we talked about that. That's a great one. Also, winning is a really great tradition that we love as well.

Derek Smith:
Favorite university tradition on kind of the campus side, if you will.

President Livingstone:
Oh, there's so many good ones. I mean, homecoming's classic and we have such a wonderful homecoming. So I would have to say of all our traditions, that's certainly one of the best.

Derek Smith:
Golden Wave Band song.

President Livingstone:
Well, I'm just going to have to say the Baylor Line. That's such a good one. But we love our band. And as everyone knows, they love Brad too. So we're excited about watching them perform this fall.

Derek Smith:
We're into concert season once again at Baylor. That's a growing area. Has there been a favorite concert for you, either one that's already happened or one you're looking forward to?

President Livingstone:
Oh, I love A Baylor Christmas, the Christmas concert that our combined choirs and orchestra do. It is fabulous. It shows our talent. I'm always deeply moved by that and just by the wonderful talent that our students exhibit and the great job our faculty in the school of music do, preparing for that.

Derek Smith:
Hey, it's another sign of growth of Baylor that when we're talking about concerts, we can either be talking about our Baylor symphonies, our Baylor choirs, or it could be talking about Willie Nelson and Old Dominion. Yeah?

President Livingstone:
Well, Willie Nelson was actually pretty cool. I mean, we've had a lot of really good outside groups on campus and I would have to put Willie Nelson at the top of that one. That was so fun to bring him back and to kill an urban legend that wasn't really true. And he was so gracious and performed for so long. And I think the crowd showed him a lot of love and support. So that was a great way to kind of end the school year last year.

Derek Smith:
It was. Yeah, that was a great moment for sure. Finally, last one for you. What's your favorite thing to tell people who don't know much about Baylor about Baylor?

President Livingstone:
Yeah. Well, I like to make sure they understand that we are a Christian university, a research university, a Power 4 university, and that we are a place that builds great community and really shows care and love and concern for our community. And if they come and visit our campus, they will experience all of that.
So I really tell people, you got to come to campus, you got to meet our people, you got to meet our students, and it will tell you more about our campus than almost anything else that we could do.

Derek Smith:
Our campus is certainly beautiful.

President Livingstone:
Yes.

Derek Smith:
People can see that behind us and there's plenty of examples, but yeah, it is the people who make it-

President Livingstone:
Absolutely.

Derek Smith:
... for sure. And that's fun to see. Well, President Livingstone, we always appreciate you taking the time to speak to the Baylor family, to visit with us. And as we start a new year, we say thanks again and a happy new year to you.

President Livingstone:
Well, thank you. We're excited about the start of the year, and what's ahead.

Derek Smith:
It's exciting to see it all take place. Thank you very much.
President Livingstone, our guest today here on Baylor Connections as we start season 10. We appreciate you being with us and remind you that you can find each and every one of these episodes online, the Baylor University YouTube channel. You can subscribe on iTunes and you can find it all at baylor.edu/connections. I'm Derek Smith. Thanks for joining us here on Baylor Connections.