...unless LU decides to integrate some of its philosophies, principles and amibitious goals.
I would imagine that the LU decision-makers are all over this development, but, if not, my .02 is that LU would be well-served to pore over that plan and integrate many of the goals laid out in it.
Could also be a boon to LU as it seeks to continue to establish its academic credibility and strengthen its brand in higher education. LU would also be well-served to actually try to get some of those faculty who bought into the Baylor 2012 program to come to LU to work alongside many of LU's distinguished faculty, potentially creating a win-win for both parties.
The Baylor 2012 Vision was discussed here a couple years ago. Now LU can co-opt elements of Baylor's clearly-and-objectively-defined-yet-now-possibly-abandoned-plan since LU has spoken in lofty terms about its own general direction in the past but nothing approaching a strategy put to paper and packaged as a marketing campaign to students, alumni and recruits.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/200 ... /5.62.html Circa 2002
Baylor, which already bills itself as the largest Baptist university in the world, has even bigger ambitions. In the words of the school's president, Baylor aspires to be "the finest Christian institution of higher learning on this planet." This is Texas, after all, so nothing is quite so important as scale. And Baylor has a plan—specifically, a 42-page document that articulates a vision and outlines a strategy to achieve it by 2012. "Within the course of a decade, Baylor intends to enter the top tier of American universities while reaffirming and deepening its distinctive Christian mission," reads the plan, called Baylor 2012. It rejects the notion that "intellectual excellence" and "intense faithfulness to the Christian tradition" are mutually exclusive, although it notes that not many universities have been able to do both effectively.
Some at Baylor want the university to become a "Protestant Notre Dame." The connection is not coincidental. Although there are no official ties between Waco and South Bend, faculty at the two schools (particularly the philosophy departments) have met for a number of structured conversations. Michael Beaty, a philosopher and director of the Baylor Institute of Faith and Learning, did his doctorate at Notre Dame. Both Baylor's president and his chief faculty recruiter acknowledge their intellectual indebtedness to Notre Dame's George Marsden—who warned about the secularization of U.S. higher education—and to the Notre Dame model.
"There are a lot of Protestants who want to see a university take its religious identity seriously," Beaty says.
Baylor has embarked on what one faculty member calls a "huge building spree" of athletic facilities, and the university plans to construct a new residence hall every two years until 2012.
[exit stage right]
--Fumble (1961-2009), RIP
- By LU Armchair coach
- By TH Spangler