Charles S. Madden, guest column: 'Baylor 2012' painted as something it never was

Charles S. Madden, guest column: 'Baylor 2012' painted as something it never was

CHARLES S. MADDEN Guest column

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

From 1996 until 2003 I had the privilege of serving as vice president for university relations at Baylor University. In 2001, I proposed to then-Baylor President Robert Sloan that it would be helpful if we had a unifying “vision” from previous documents about the university’s future.

Leading up to that time we had brought in Dr. Tim O’Mera, former provost from the University of Notre Dame, to talk to the executive council of Baylor at a retreat about how his university had improved its national standing.

The Baylor regents had shown significant interest in a plan for improving Baylor. The first step would be to establish a vision for the university’s future. Thus, what now is referred to as “Baylor 2012” started on my kitchen table by merging the recommendations of two documents — Baylor’s then-recent university-wide self-study and the report of a task force convened for Baylor’s 150th anniversary.

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Both documents agreed Baylor needed to improve incrementally in several areas as it went forward while maintaining its historic identity. There was really nothing new in the 2012 document, just a merger of previous recommendations into 12 categories.

Sloan and his chief of staff titled this “Baylor Vision 2012,” later shortened to “Baylor 2012.” Some thought it could serve as the cornerstone of a plan launched in 2002.

The wording of each of the document’s imperatives was supplemented by different Baylor vice presidents in subsequent months. The Baylor regent’s meeting that approved Baylor 2012 came less than a month after Sept. 11, 2001, resulting in second thoughts about approving the document because of doubt about the nation’s economic future.

Despite concerns, approval came for the vision document but no actual planning was undertaken. Only the vision came forward and was widely circulated. It was useful but incomplete. To this day, though many goals have been announced, no comprehensive plan in support of 2012 has ever been initiated.

Faculty were encouraged to submit “strategic initiatives” and the university has reported progress in the various imperatives but no overall plan supporting 2012 was ever developed.

What happened after that still amazes me. Many different stakeholders in the Baylor community began to evoke the 2012 document as justification for their beliefs or favorite projects. Some saw it as validation for borrowing over $200 million to build a new science facility. Others saw it as rationale for hiring more than 60 faculty members in a single year.

Yet others saw it as the reason for restructuring the tuition rate and increasing the price of a semester’s credit hours by over 40 percent.

Some faculty pointed to 2012 as a manifesto for making Baylor “more Christian — less Baptist.” Many of us came to Baylor more than 25 years ago to be a part of a Christian University in the Baptist tradition of free thought and felt that Baylor had remained true to that promise.

Others rejected the 2012 document because it was too research-oriented or teaching-oriented or not enough.

Baylor 2012 has become a mirror reflecting anything a person wants to see. In the beginning 2012 was only meant to be talking points about the future of Baylor. Later it was only meant to be a rough set of 10-year objectives.

Let’s move on. When a new president is chosen, let’s ask him or her to lead us in rethinking a new vision for Baylor. Then let’s actually construct a comprehensive plan calling on all parts of the Baylor community to share their best thoughts about our future.

Charles S. Madden is Baylor’s Ben H. Williams Professor of Marketing and director of the Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Service.