I am a freshman at Baylor University. I have been in love with this school since I was a little girl. My dad is an alumnus, so we would frequent the campus often before I came to school here, especially during football season. I applied to Baylor in the Fall of 2015, was accepted to Baylor, and choose Baylor as the school I would be attending in the Fall of 2016 all within six months. Senior year came and went, my excitement for stepping foot on the Baylor campus as a student growing stronger every day.
Then, in early Spring of 2016, something dark, something scary, came to light on the Baylor campus. Since 2014, several students had come forward with complaints of sexual assault; however, rape victims and others claimed their repeated warnings about the football team’s star athletes being sexual predators were being ignored by the school’s administration. They said Baylor had provided little support for them, and it seemed that the school was dragging its feet when it came to hiring someone to coordinate the handling of complaints like these. Baylor’s President Ken Starr and the head football coach Art Briles drew most of the criticism.
On February 7th of 2016, Ken Starr released a letter addressed to the “Baylor Nation” in which he said: “Let me be clear: Sexual violence emphatically has no place whatsoever at Baylor University…Such despicable violations of our basic humanity contradict every value Baylor lifts up as a caring Christian community. Our hearts break for those whose lives are impacted by execrable acts of sexual violence. No one should have to endure the trauma of these terrible acts of wrongdoing.” Baylor University then hired a law firm from Philadelphia named Pepper Hamilton to review how the school handles sexual assault complaints, both in policy and in procedure.
Pepper Hamilton briefed Baylor’s Board of Regents with its findings on May 13th of 2016. On May 26 of 2016, the Board of Regents announced that Starr was being demoted to chancellor and that Briles was indefinitely suspended “with intent to terminate.” Four days later, Ian McCaw, Baylor’s athletic director, resigned. Two days after McCaw's resignation, Starr resigned as chancellor.
When I would tell people I’d be attending Baylor in the Fall, I would often receive this uncomfortable, “Oh…okay,” as if the person I was talking to couldn’t believe I’d want to attend that school. Maybe they felt sorry for me, or confused as to why my parents hadn’t pulled me out of that environment. Maybe they were adding my name to their prayer list. A few people even asked me if I was still comfortable with attending Baylor.
My answer? “Absolutely.”
Yes, Baylor has had a tough summer, but I'm not turning around and running the other way. There is sexual assault and violence on every campus in every city in every state. It is such a harsh and upsetting reality, but it’s unfortunately true. That doesn’t mean that all hope is lost though. Baylor University has taken great steps to improve itself as a university truly devoted to its students’ health, safety, and education. We have an excellent counseling center with a walk-in clinic that is convenient for students. Our Title IX office is working tirelessly to make sure Baylor students know how to and where they need to go to learn their rights, report any sort of sexual harassment, assault, or violence, and to find the resources the university offers to students who need help.
While some may see Baylor’s “summer of truth” as unfortunate for the University, I see it as a time for growth and change—change for the better. If things hadn’t come to light, then they would still be the same. I also hope that not only Baylor continues to change, but I hope other universities around the country have seen what has happened here and have thought about what lies behind their own closed doors; I hope they have thought about those students whose lives were radically changed by sexual assault and violence and they are reaching out to those students now more than they ever have.
Baylor still has a ways to go, but it has already come so far. I am more than proud to be a part of this university. We are so much more than what happened this summer. We are innovators. We are doctors. We are artists. We are engineers. We are writers. We are Baylor.
Sexual assault and violence may not be eradicated completely for a very long time, but we can all do our part to put an end to it. Remember, if you see something, say something. You could change someone’s life for the better.
