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Showing supportBAA plays a vital role in the life of our alma mater
Jeff Kilgore, Executive director and CEO, Baylor Alumni Association
I believe it's without question that each of you, as a member of the Baylor Alumni Association, thinks that providing support to Baylor is a vital role of this alumni association. Your involvement, prayers, shared opinions, financial gifts, and good words spread about our alma mater are all evidence that our support of Baylor is something taken very seriously by the BAA. None of us would undertake such efforts if we didn't love and support our alma mater.
It's interesting to note that if you look up the word "support" in Webster's Dictionary, you will find a variety of meanings.
 I point this out because sometimes we get caught up in restricting the concept of "support" to match our preferred definition and, as a consequence, lose sight of the fact that Baylor is big enough for us all and needs all the support she can get. Here are a few of Webster's definitions of "support":
• to carry or bear the weight of; keep from falling, slipping, or sinking; hold up;
• to give courage, faith, or confidence to; help or comfort;
• to give approval to or be in favor of;
• to maintain or provide for (a person, institution, etc.) with money, or subsistence.
The BAA takes a "both/and" approach--as opposed to an "either/or" approach--to supporting Baylor. We spend the vast majority of our time and resources celebrating Baylor's achievements and the dynamic education that students receive on our campus. In that way, we act as cheerleaders and certainly embrace those who do the same.
The alumni association also embraces those who encourage our alma mater and the greater Baylor community to ask the hard questions that invariably confront an institution of higher learning. At times we may even move from asking questions to expressing a difference of opinion about a particular aspect of the university's direction. This is also a form of support--a means of keeping Baylor from falling and slipping away from its heritage while helping it to reach toward widely shared aspirations.
A willingness to confront challenges and explore options for resolving it is of a piece with the culture of an academic institution like Baylor, where academic freedom is championed and practiced. And we are committed to playing this role as well and preserving such a culture within our Christian identity and Baptist heritage. Supporting a university is, in many ways, much different from supporting a corporation or your favorite sports franchise--and more like supporting your own family.
Our university's and alumni association's former leaders had the foresight and confidence (in the BAA's foundational license agreements) to establish the freedom to celebrate as well as the BAA's right to dissent.
Because our Baylor is such a unique institution, we may be tempted to think that the Baylor Alumni Association is similarly unique in its empowerment to both celebrate and speak freely about concerns. However, other alumni associations across the country--from those at Kansas State and Purdue to UC-Berkeley and the University of Virginia--also believe in the appropriateness of an alumni organization speaking as a voice for the alumni and possessing the ability to speak out in dissent if necessary.
The bottom line is this: We are here to support Baylor in every sense of the word. And we are here to speak on behalf of you, our members and proud Baylor alums.
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