Regents approve Baylor Benefit program

Baylor University regents at their February board meeting approved the Baylor Benefit program to assist financially disadvantaged students and heard a positive report related to the university’s Faith and Character Study.

The Baylor Benefit program will cover full tuition costs for students from families with an annual household income of less than $50,000.

The university expects the program to increase both the retention rate and graduation rate for some of its students with the greatest financial need, as well as minimizing their student loan debt, President Linda Livingstone said.

At the same time, due to inflation that has led to rising costs for utilities and construction—and the need to retain top faculty by providing proper compensation—regents approved a 6 percent tuition cost increase for the upcoming 2023-24 academic year, Livingstone reported.

“Although we know Baylor is unique in higher education in many ways, we are feeling the widespread impact of inflation like everyone else,” she said.

Even with the increase in the tuition “sticker price,” Baylor will continue to have the lowest tuition in its peer group of national private universities.

Growth in faith and character

Mark Rountree, chair of the Baylor board of regents, reported initial findings from the first cohort of students in the longitudinal Faith and Character Study that seeks to “measure the specific ways in which Baylor University and the Baylor experience shapes the lives of our students.”

Having completed the first four years of the study, Rountree noted, faculty researchers have data to “measure things that are really hard to measure—‘How does Baylor make a difference in the faith development of the students entrusted to us, and how does a Baylor experience manifest itself in shaped character?’”

“We heard a remarkable report out of the findings of that study, which validated objectively what I think we all believe subjectively. That is, Baylor and the Baylor experience makes a transformative difference in the lives of our students,” Rountree said.

The study will track the long-term impact of a Baylor education on students’ faith and character from the time they enter the university until they graduate, as well as 10 years after graduation.

Livingstone noted even before the first phase of the study was complete, preliminary findings already shaped two areas of campus religious life.

First, in part growing out of changes implemented during the COVID pandemic, Baylor reshaped its chapel experience.

“We knew one big chapel did not meet the diverse spiritual needs of our student body,” Livingstone said.

Now, the university provides 48 chapel offerings. Some are tied to academic disciplines, others are directed to student athletes, some are specifically for veterans, and others offer a variety of experiences in prayer and worship.

“They do a much better job of meeting students where they are spiritually and helping them grow from there,” Livingstone said.

Other early findings linked both spiritual growth and academic success to student engagement in a local church, she noted. As a result, Baylor created a position in its office of spiritual life to enhance student connections to local congregations.

“We know our students of color on campus are less engaged in local churches than our majority white students, and we want them to be engaged—both for their spiritual development and because it impacts their success academically and their ability to graduate,” she said. “So, we are working hard on diversifying our connections with churches.”

Other business

Rountree also noted Baylor University and the Baptist General Convention of Texas reviewed their special relationship agreement and agreed to renew it for the next 10 years without any revisions.

“That agreement memorializes the ways we will partner together along mission lines, governance lines and otherwise to do far more together than each of us could do individually,” he said.

Student regent JD McDonald, who is working on a Master of Divinity degree at Truett Theological Seminary, was appointed to a second term on the board and will serve as a voting regent next year. Xavier Dawes, a sophomore electrical and computer engineering major from Wylie, was appointed as a first-term, non-voting student regent.

Lesley McAllister, a professor in the School of Music, was appointed to a three-year term as faculty regent.

The board also received the three finalist candidates who will participate in the alumni-elected regent process. The candidates will be publicly announced in early April, with the election process through an independent third party scheduled May 1-11.

The results of the election of the alumni-elected regent will be announced following the board’s next regular meeting in late May.