Life is nearly back to normal at Baylor University, a week and a half after allegations of three racially charged acts in the wake of Barack Obama’s election sparked campus turmoil, confusion and calls for ethnic healing.

We’re glad much of the turmoil and confusion appear past. As for calls for ethnic healing and meaningful dialogue — that’s never a bad idea in any venue, especially in the wake of a historic election and a grueling campaign that brought out the best and worst in Americans.

Some of the allegations are now beginning to look like a bad campus comedy. According to an in-depth Page One piece in The Lariat, one of four Baylor students was trying to assemble an old-fashioned rope swing from a lasso, only to grow frustrated at the exercise before finally abandoning the lasso in a tree by Morrison Hall.

In a world where perception is everything, the botched rope swing was seen by others as a noose, an ugly Election Night statement concerning the nation’s first, newly elected black president, playing off the region’s lynching past.

Skeptics can be excused for wondering if the new account is really true, but, day by day, evidence concerning the three reported incidents seems to be crumbling. A report about some Baylor students burning Obama/Biden campaign signs now appears to involve no more than some old cardboard boxes.

As for a supposed shouting match over the election’s outcome between white and black students, that remains under campus investigation.

Members of the Baylor family and Greater Waco can at least take heart that so many things worked well in all this, beginning with the university’s leadership. Instead of seeking to hide or ignore the incidents, Baylor’s interim president, David Garland, took charge of the matter, calling for dialogue on a Baptist campus that, in so many ways, constantly spotlights and champions its rich diversity.

Some might have wondered about the need for Friday’s racial awareness march on campus. We think it only ended things on a high note.