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Asking QuestionsLine's editorial plans revolve around exploring core values
Todd Copeland, Editor, Baylor Line
As an institution of higher education, Baylor University is a place where serious questions are not only welcomed--they are strongly encouraged. From classrooms and faculty offices to residence halls across campus, questions of meaning, mission, truth, and, yes, love are daily posed, entertained, and answered.
Granted, some of the answers are provisional. Perhaps some questions are ultimately unanswerable. But we still keep seeking. You could say that questions are Baylor's lifeblood. Without them, the process of education would weaken and ultimately fail. The body would die.
As an organization that embodies Baylor, the Baylor Alumni Association is also a place of questioning and inquiry--a forum where the voices of the Baylor family interact, sometimes blending together and other times simply agreeing to disagree.
The places where this conversation has most often--and, perhaps, most visibly--taken place has been the Baylor Line magazine, published by the Baylor Alumni Association since 1946, and the BAA's monthly online newsletter, Between the Lines. We also recently expanded the scope of this conversation by adding a blog and a message board to our now-independently hosted website at bayloralumni.com.
The Baylor Alumni Association believes that one of the best ways to keep you connected to Baylor is to keep you fully informed and engaged in conversation. With these online tools and an ongoing commitment to candid reporting in the Line, the Baylor Alumni Association is striving to enhance the Baylor family's ability to join in a celebration of our alma mater's achievements as well as an exploration of the significant issues facing Baylor.
Last December, we published a special issue of the Line featuring the phrase "What We Believe" on the cover. That issue carried a presentation of the Baylor Alumni Association's core values, and in doing so it laid the foundation for several issues of the magazine. In essence, it set the stage for the in-depth exploration of a number of big questions facing Baylor and the Baylor family.
We started building on that foundation a few months ago, when the spring issue of the Line carried a cover story on the rising price of higher education. That story was based on the BAA's core value, "We believe in keeping a Baylor education accessible for the leaders of tomorrow."
From the question, "Why is college so expensive?" we now turn to two more questions in this issue--questions that are big and bold on the cover. These questions arise from the BAA's core value, "We believe in the strength of a community based on transparency, open communication, shared governance, and the free marketplace of ideas."
As the editor of the Baylor Line, I hope you will find these two feature stories to be informative and constructive. I also hope you will let us know what you think about these stories, and the role that the Baylor Alumni Association plays in the life of our alma mater, by sending an e-mail to us at baylorline@bayloralumni.com. We welcome your voices and perspectives.
As an employee of the Baylor Alumni Association, I hope you will continue to demonstrate your support as an annual member--or as a life member who also chooses to provide an annual gift--so that we can continue providing such services as this magazine to our membership and the Baylor community.
Each member really is important to the strength of this organization, and membership revenue directly underwrites the costs of publishing the Line.
Finally, as a fellow Baylor grad, I hope you will continue to keep Baylor University in your thoughts, prayers, and plans.
By staying involved and being a notable presence on campus and at university-related events around the state and beyond, we can keep "that good old Baylor line" standing strong in support of the oldest institution of higher learning in Texas.
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