Naming the world around us sparks curiosity and causes us to make many connections.  Poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil says that naming is the beginning of “tenderness and a turn to kindness.”  She explains, “Maybe if you know that pipevine swallowtail butterflies nibble swamp milkweed leaves you wouldn’t be so quick to mow it on the side of the highway.  Or maybe if you knew that indigo buntings (which are bluer than a Mississippi summer sky), and not just ‘some birds’ hang around a place called Sky Lake, you wouldn’t dump garbage in their home.”

Knowing the miraculous, created world is a privilege.  Naming shows care, and it also causes us to care more. 

Our work as teachers of Baylor’s unified core curriculum is, of course, the work of naming.  Working within our distinct disciplines, we discover and share new ways of understanding our world with a sense of the important work we are doing.  Even so, it is sometimes harder to name the ways our various disciplines, taken together, add up to something new and valuable precisely because they are offered together.  How do our Core classes alchemize?  What is the transformation that happens for a person as they study and learn several different but connected things all at once?  Discovering and articulating these outcomes is the work of all of us who teach in the Core. 

Now more than in any recent time, students and families, prospective students, college administrators, lawmakers, voters, and even we as faculty members, need to hear how our distinct classes, studied together, expand what is possible for individuals and for whole societies.  The more we can articulate this, the stronger our Core will be and the stronger our individual departments and programs will be.  It is our work to care for the indigo buntings, and to care for the programs doing important work across campus from us—it is our work to protect them once we recognize their inherent value.

Baylor’s Office of the Core is committed to bringing Core faculty together to find new ways of naming our collective offerings.  Some of these opportunities are described in this newsletter.  If you would like to share other ideas, we would love to hear them.  Please send any thoughts or suggestions to Ginger_Hanchey@baylor.edu. 

Pipevine Swallowtail feeding on milkweed by the South Llano River. Photo by William Vann.

Julie King

Dan Watkins

Jerolyn Morrison

Sharon Gripp

Holly Collins

Mona Choucair

Jamey Fulton

This May, the Office of the Core recognized seven outstanding faculty members, who we brought together for a one-week think tank.  We considered the following questions: 

We also completed three projects, including a design for “Walk and Talks” across Baylor.  Walk and Talks tie 20-40 minute presentations to the Baylor landscape, providing an excerpt of what students get to hear in one of their Core classes and connecting that material to some part of our beautiful campus.  Our Core Walk and Talks can be used for prospective student visits, Dean’s Advisory Committee meetings, and more.

Dr. Dan Hanchey (not a Core Fellow, but offered example). From Pat Neff to the Burleson Quadrangle.
Learn about how humans have written themselves into their landscapes, from Roman History to Baylor's campus today.

Dr. Jerolyn Morrison. From the Hooper Schafer Fine Arts Center to the McLane Stadium Statues.
Cross over from the Baylor campus into the world of athletic competition, and consider how statues and art remind us of our highest ideals.

Dr. Dan Watkins. From the Baylor Science Building Clock Tower to Tidwell Bible Building.
Think like a historian and solue mysteries from the Science building to the History building.

Dr. Ginger Hanchey. From Waco Creek to Carroll Science Hall.
Hear some poems and think about how humans make art from their
surroundings.

Dr. Holly Collins. From the Burleson Quadragle to a Burleson Classroom.
Learn how the things you love and Baylor's ProMundo vision are what French class is all about.

Dr. Mona Choucair. From the Armstrong Browning Library Garden of Contentment to the ABL Cox Reception Hall.
Hear one of Baylor's most beloued teachers talk about the ways her own English professor, Master Teacher Ann Miller, changed her life, and how teachers at Baylor create exceptional experiences for students.

Dr. James Fulton. From Carroll Science Hall to the Baylor Science Building.
Spot cyanobacteria wherever you go, and learn why it matters to you. The tour ends in a Baylor lab, where you can see firsthand how scientists study these organisms.

The Office of the Core is hosting a book conversation this fall.  We will be reading and talking about Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein.  It's a fascinating book that will help us talk across disciplines about why we want our students to have a liberal arts education.  

At our first meeting (Oct. 28 and Oct. 29--your choice), we will provide boxed lunches from Jersey Mike's and Magnolia cupcakes.  We will also make sure registered participants receive a free book.  We have room for 20 participants, and we warmly invite any faculty members who teach Core classes to join us!

Syllabus Self Assessments will resume in Spring 2026.  All instructors teaching a Core class next spring will be asked to fill out a 5-10 minute questionnaire.  The goal of these quick and easy assessments is to ensure that all faculty align class goals with the goals named on our Distribution List documents and on our Common Courses documents.  Please update your Spring syllabi if you haven’t recently, making sure your class follows these guidelines.

72% of our Core classes (sections) in 2024-5 had fewer than 30 students--small enough to know each student by name.

We are collecting very short essays (~500) from Core instructors across all disciplines that address real ways our Core faculty are preserving critical thinking in our new AI era.  We hope to launch the full website on November 17, but we have a few up already.  Visit “Teaching in the AI Era” to read them.  If you would like to submit an essay to be considered, please email Ginger_Hanchey@baylor.edu.

Courses on this list will teach students how to reason formally either via mathematics, statistics, or logic and critical thinking.

Available classes:

A democracy is dependent upon an informed and articulate citizenry. Effective oral and written communication consistently appears on polls showing desired attributes and core competencies of prospective employees. Students who are competent communicators and who understand the presence and influence of media in their lives and the lives of others will flourish in our world. This distribution list will ensure students understand both media and human behavior. These courses in this list will highlight the importance of not only the message, but also the messenger. They will help students use communication media more effectively and to control better the media’s impact on themselves and others.

Thank you for the work you do teaching Baylor students!  Have a great fall semester.

Copyright © Baylor® University. All rights reserved. Legal Disclosures.
Baylor University  Waco, Texas 76798  1-800-229-5678