While no one would describe today’s inaugural ceremony for Baylor University’s 14th president as a grand formality, there is no doubt that Ken Starr has already created a solid presence on campus since assuming the post in June. Today’s ceremony, however, confirms the very unity of purpose he has inspired in the Baylor family and among others in just a few critical months.

Let us view today as the formal beginning of a new era at Baylor, even though Starr spent much of the summer laying the foundation for great things, playing off the work of senior administrators, regents and faculty in forging a dynamic vision. No one expects it will be an easy course to chart, but we do agree with Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett: In time, Starr will rank as one of the most significant of Baylor’s presidents.

He’s already dealt with an unexpected crisis — the near-unraveling of the Big 12 during his first weeks on the job — and he with his lieutenants and the Baylor Board of Regents have crafted a scholarship initiative to address student concerns about the skyrocketing cost of higher education. He’s worked to strengthen ties with the city of Waco and will focus on the bright prospects in the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative.

Those goals suggest the coming months and years will be about much more than Ken Starr. Indeed, in our interview with Starr this week — an abbreviated version of which runs in this newspaper on Sunday — he often makes that point, routinely crediting others. For instance, he credits Baylor students, senior administrators and regents with getting the ball rolling with the President’s Scholarship Initiative, giving little notice of his own role in all this (including his quietly donating $100,000 to the cause).

But if Starr sets forth a broadly exciting vision of where Baylor must go, he does so with full appreciation of the past, including a long line of presidents, each with his own set of values and talents. And he knows the importance of ensuring that, even as Baylor pursues its goal of becoming a top-tier research university of national prominence — a tall order in the best of times — it is nothing if it doesn’t maintain its proud culture of nourishing students’ hearts, minds and dreams.

Today we celebrate not only Starr’s arrival on the scene but Baylor itself; not only for a future rich with prospects but for a tradition worth keeping amidst great change and upheaval. It’s a time for Wacoans and members of the extended Baylor family to resolve to work together with a healthy respect for one another’s ideas. This is as much about Waco and Central Texas as it is about Ken Starr and Baylor. Our destinies are linked, fertile and bright.

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