Commitment IV

Demonstrating Christian Stewardship

Baylor belongs first and foremost to God, as we are instruments for God’s work around the world. As such, we are stewards of what God has entrusted to our care, including every part of the University that makes life at Baylor distinct. Faithful and wise stewardship of Baylor involves caring for our campus and community in ways that honor God. Such stewardship involves taking care of all that God has bestowed, from finances to furnaces. The incarnate God makes Himself known through ordinary things – faithful and wise stewardship can make those ordinary things extraordinary.

With the construction of new buildings, increasing enrollments and rapid growth of the University’s research enterprise, Baylor’s physical infrastructure has become stressed and will limit future renovation and expansion of the campus. Great care must be taken to address these infrastructure concerns to achieve the strategies outlined in this plan, as well as to prepare the University to meet the needs of students, faculty and staff in the years to come.

While significant uncertainty surrounds the current model of collegiate athletics, it is important to note that high quality athletic competition is intricately woven into the Baylor experience and provides a significant point of pride and connection for Baylor Alumni worldwide. Careful stewardship of Baylor’s athletics heritage and continued leadership in the future of the NCAA and Big 12 Conference will prepare the University for this uncertain future.

Commitment IV offers Strategies to bolster our recognition that stewardship at Baylor is a responsibility of our faith and a commitment to those who entrust their time, talents and resources to the University.

Strategies

1. Expand existing and develop new expertise to support our responsibility to stewardship of the natural world.
   1. Develop academic-industry partnerships locally, regionally, nationally and internationally that help Baylor contribute to sustainability solutions through research and implementation.
   2. Address the University’s outdated energy plant, underground energy distribution network, and infrastructure to increase efficiency, improve resiliency and reliability, and to add capacity for future campus growth, while sustaining the environment through evolving technologies that reduce carbon emissions.
2. Implement the capital project priorities identified through the capital planning process.
   1. Build an interdisciplinary physical space that supports the proposed educational and research growth in the areas of health and engineering.
   2. Renovate existing classroom space to improve the overall learning experience, layout flexibility and technology usage.
   3. Renovate and expand student spaces that energize the heart of campus and serve the needs of our more than 400 student organizations through facilitating connections, fellowship, intercultural understanding and meaningful engagement across the student body.
   4. Enhance the physical facilities for creative arts to meet the needs of increasingly talented faculty, staff and students and their audiences.
3. Develop a comprehensive philanthropic campaign to financially support the work outlined in this plan with a particular emphasis on endowment growth.
4. Elevate current continuous improvement efforts and integrate emerging technologies to ensure the University is a good steward of finances and operations.
   1. Identify and actively pursue new sources of revenue to lessen the dependence on tuition dollars for operational funding.
   2. Evaluate undergraduate enrollment across academic programs, building capacity to align with student demand and financial considerations.
   3. Utilize new technologies as well as international and domestic partnerships to develop new pipelines of prospective students.
   4. Develop a campuswide technology plan that supports the infrastructure needed for continued research growth and security.
5. Steward effectively Baylor’s commitment to nationally recognized programs in collegiate athletics.
   1. Continue providing leadership regarding the future direction of collegiate athletics at the campus, conference and national levels.
   2. Develop an intentional and forward-looking financial model that supports both a national level of competitive success and quality of student-athlete experience and champions athletics’ unique ability to grow the University brand and its Christian witness.
   3. Support the people, programs and processes of athletics to operate effectively and at the speed of competition amid the unprecedented scale of industry change into the foreseeable future.