Podcast Points: President Livingstone Offers Look at Year Ahead for Baylor

Baylor University President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D., has an expectant heart for what the start of the fall semester will bring to the University. She joined this week’s Baylor Connections podcast for a look ahead to fall, including the implementation of a new strategic plan for Baylor to live out its Christian mission throughout the world.

Podcast Points with President Linda A. Livingstone

A Pro Mundo Motto

• The question asked in this strategic plan is, “What does the world most need Baylor to do?” The hope is that the University would look beyond its campus and address the question globally. 
• This led to the University adding Pro Mundo – for the world – to the University motto Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana (for church, for Texas). “If what we’re really focusing on is what the world most needs from Baylor, it makes sense to embed Pro Mundo, into our motto. The motivation for it is to not just have it in our strategic plan but have it framed in the University motto that we believe will carry on for decades to come,” President Livingstone said.

Civil Discourse and Togetherness

• President Livingstone described a theme in the strategic plan around civil discourse. As a Christian research university, Baylor has the opportunity to bring people together with differing views and perspectives on important issues with a goal to create an atmosphere where students and faculty can have healthy conversations.
• As a Christian University, there is a responsibility to be an example in having hard conversations in respectful ways and ensuring students are prepared with these communications tools when they leave Baylor.

Favorite Baylor Aspects

• President Livingstone points to an intentionally designed and rewarding first-year experience for Baylor students. A focus in the new strategic plan is extending elements of the University’s successful first-year experience into sophomore, junior and senior years as well.
• Another exciting Baylor aspect that President Livingstone discusses is athletics, and specifically, the enthusiasm she feels watching student-athletes perform.

More than anything, she said fall brings “a great opportunity from an educational perspective and from a student development perspective to give students some new and interesting opportunities as we bring them back to campus and continue to watch them grow and develop into who God has designed them to be.”

LISTEN TO THE CONVERSATION

Listen to the full conversation with President Livingstone on the Baylor Connections podcast.

ABOUT BAYLOR CONNECTIONS

Baylor Connections with host Derek Smith goes in depth each week with Baylor leaders, professors and more, discussing important topics in higher education, research and student life. Baylor Connections airs on Fridays at 11 a.m. CT on KWBU 103.3FM in Waco. The podcast also is available online or by subscribing to Baylor Connections on iTunes.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. .