Wednesday, June 03, 2009
While being elected by one’s peers to serve as chairman of Baylor University’s Presidential Search Committee is a daunting responsibility, for one who truly loves his alma mater, it’s also a privilege.
Baylor and Waco have long been special to me. I was born in Waco’s Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center; grew up at First Baptist Church in Decatur, where Baylor was always spoken of with the greatest of affection and respect; earned two degrees from Baylor; and met my wife of 23 years during Welcome Week.
Mine could be considered a typical Baylor story.
- 07-19-09 David Brooks, guest column: Second-guessers misrepresent '2012' designs
- 06-24-09 Charles S. Madden, guest column: 'Baylor 2012' painted as something it never was
- 06-03-09 Joseph Armes, guest column: Opportunities endless for next Baylor president
- 05-30-09 Rufus Spain, guest column: Root of Baylor's rift: Vision 2012
- 05-27-09 Kenneth L. Hall, guest column: Baylor's next president needs a Christian, global view
- 05-20-09 Henry Walbesser, guest column: BU regents should reconsider their goals carefully
- 05-13-09 Clifton Robinson, guest column: Waco's wellbeing key to next Baylor president
- 05-06-09 James G. Vaughan, guest column: Next Baylor president must be immersed in city
- 04-29-09 Patricia Pack, guest column: Our next boss at Baylor should be approachable, a listener
- 04-22-09 David Lacy, guest column: Entire Baylor family must agree on the next president
- 04-15-09 Robert C. Cloud, guest column: Baylor faculty seek 'first among equals' for top spot
- 04-08-09 Bryan Fonville, guest column: Trust issue crucial in Baylor's next president
- 04-05-09 Carlos Sanchez: We're asking: What qualities should Baylor's next president possess?
One benefit of my service as chairman has been the opportunity to discuss Baylor’s rich heritage, its mission and its lofty aspirations with various constituencies and interested persons. I have interviewed several of the nation’s top executive search firms specializing in higher education and listened carefully to faculty, students, staff, alumni, deans, administrators, community and denominational leaders, and other key stakeholders.
As a result of these meetings and conversations, I have reached two conclusions:
First, the Baylor family is overwhelmingly ready to fix our faces to the future and rally around our next president. The wounds of misunderstanding are healing, and we have found a way to engage and explore our differences energetically, within the bond of civility and respect.
Secondly, the possibilities available to Baylor’s next president are unprecedented in American higher education. Baylor’s goal to be a leading, comprehensive national research university committed to both a Christian view of the world and to modern learning is truly achievable.
Nationally and internationally, Baylor University is uniquely positioned to exert a profound influence on the future of Christian higher education. Baylor’s next president will be asked to build upon the foundational assumptions and core convictions of Baylor 2012, our 10-year vision to catapult Baylor into the upper echelons of higher education.
These core convictions include a commitment to integrating Christian faith and the intellectual life, pursuing excellence in all things, facilitating the discovery of new knowledge to the glory of God and the betterment of humanity, equipping individuals to understand life as a divine calling and, thus, serve society and the world in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
However, because of the providential timing of this appointment, a new president will enjoy the freedom to conceive, build a consensus around and implement his or her own strategy for the actualization of Baylor’s ambitions over the next decade.
Baylor can and must provide leadership to hundreds of other Christian colleges and universities seeking to resist what church historian Mark Noll has called the tug of secularism from one side and long-entrenched denominational shibboleths from the other.
With a firm and comprehensive understanding of the Christian intellectual tradition, Baylor has the opportunity and, in my opinion, the responsibility to demonstrate a different and better way to cultivate the life of the mind.
As the de facto leader of Protestant Christian higher education in America, Baylor’s 14th president will have the unique opportunity to shape, challenge and, where appropriate, redirect the nation’s dominant intellectual discourse.
I’m persuaded the opportunity to lead Baylor’s effort to define and implement what it means to take the life of faith seriously in higher education can and will capture the imagination of a brilliant, articulate leader for Baylor.
My hope and prayer is that the Baylor family will wholeheartedly unite around this person as he or she emerges from the search process.
Joseph Armes, a Baylor regent and chairman of Baylor’s Presidential Search Committee, is chief operating officer of Dallas-based Hicks Holdings.
