STATEMENT FROM BAYLOR UNIVERSITY:

September 3, 2020

A key tenet of Baylor University’s mission is to promote a caring community within a Christian
environment in which all can thrive. Each member of the Baylor Family plays an important role
in our daily living out of this commitment. As such, we take any claim that the University has
not met this standard very seriously.

Baylor is committed to treating all students, faculty and staff with respect and dignity,
promoting equal opportunities and prohibiting discriminatory practices, including unlawful
discrimination. The University has an active, robust civil rights policy and reporting procedures.
Complaints of discrimination are thoroughly investigated by either internal staff or external
firms with specific expertise in civil rights and discriminatory practices.

Over the past three months, in response to the many unfortunate race-related events across the
country, Baylor has undertaken a number of significant actionable steps – with formative input
from diverse perspectives – to address issues of equity and racial justice on our campus. These
initiatives address a broad scope of the Baylor community ranging from students, faculty and
alumni to institutional accountability and include, for example:

 Passing a Board of Regents resolution on Racial Healing and Justice;

 Creating the Commission on Historic Campus Representations;
 Developing mandatory diversity training for all students, faculty and staff to occur this
fall;
 Naming a special advisor to the president for equity and campus engagement;
 Establishing the Trailblazers Scholars program with an initial $5 million to encourage
diversity across the campus through a cohort of 80 students;
 Embedding issues of diversity into designated “common courses” for all freshman
students; and
 Outlining the resources provided by the Office of Equity and Title IX, as well as reporting
information and links to the University’s Civil Rights Policy on the syllabi for all courses.

We are all a part of God's beautiful mosaic. Racial justice is not ancillary to the
University’s mission; rather, it is a vital element of the mission as we equip our students
for worldwide leadership and service following their time at Baylor. As a Christian
institution of higher education, Baylor is unwaveringly committed to fostering an
inclusive, equitable and welcoming campus community. To that end, Baylor welcomes
feedback from any student, faculty or staff member as we work toward this goal.

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