“I stand with Baylor.”
This phrase was uttered by forty-five Baylor students in a video entitled “The Baylor We Know” by Amy Zukoski.
The video is composed mainly of student testimony regarding how they each see Baylor. Statements such as “Everyone is so welcoming,” “Baylor is a loving community that accepts me for who I am,” and “Everyone has values,” were common throughout the video.
While not directly stated, it can be inferred that this video was made in response to Stephen A. Smith, a popular sports correspondent for ESPN, who encouraged parents to persuade their daughters against going to Baylor, citing recent Title IX violations and sexual assault scandals.
“The Baylor We Know” emphasizes the Christian values, inclusiveness, and what is claimed to be overall happiness experienced by Baylor students.
We all know about the firing of Art Briles and Ken Starr, the 52 alleged rapes by 31 football players over four years, the physical evidence of Art Briles’ and other coaching staffs’ cover up of athlete misconduct, but you may not know that the Big XII Board has officially withheld 25% of Baylor’s future revenue distribution awaiting independent verification of “proper institutional controls” or that Baylor has just received a one year accreditation warning. While it is not likely, we are at risk of losing our accreditation.
Baylor has given me a lot of opportunities. I came to Baylor specifically for the Professional Writing & Rhetoric major, and I think that I am a better writer for it. I have been honored to serve as editor of The Mug, and I have grown through my participation in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core (BIC) and the Honors Program. I have learned a great deal at Baylor and have made friends with whom I will be in contact for the rest of my life.
This does not mean that there are two Baylor Universities to understand: a good one and a bad one. There is one Baylor University. Baylor University is the place where I am writing my honors thesis overseen by outstanding faculty and where women were raped and were actively prevented from getting the justice they deserve. Baylor University is the place where at least a fourth of my classes had a stated Christian focus and where Title IX standards were actively ignored. Baylor University is the place where I ran across a football field in a bright yellow jersey alongside the chancellor as the football coach waved from the sidelines and where that same chancellor and football coach protected guilty parties from punishment.
Am I proud to be a Baylor Bear today? No. No I am not. In fact, it is my duty, as a Baylor Bear, to be disappointed in a school that I have placed so much of my faith in, that I have invested so much time in, that I will be paying off for the next twenty years, that, in future job interviews, I will have to defend. I will not say that I stand with Baylor. I will not applaud Baylor for trying to rectify its actions, as these violations of national policy, of human decency, should never have occurred in the first place. No matter how much I have enjoyed my time at Baylor, this “Baylor that I know” is the same Baylor that rape victims know. They are one in the same.
Saying “I stand with the Baylor I know” would be fine if that were all that Baylor is – chapel and sorority functions and small class sizes and coffee. But this is not the case. The joy that you have experienced is not a more legitimate Baylor experience than that of the women who have been assaulted and systematically prevented from achieving justice. There is more to Baylor. Thus, to say you “support the Baylor you know” is indicative of a willing ignorance of the horrors that some Baylor students have experienced and, furthermore, to delegitimize their struggles all for the sake of wearing green and gold, of drinking coffee at Common Grounds, of shouting “Sic ‘em” – without feeling guilty.
I will not be ignorant.
I will stand with Baylor when their standards meet national standards. I will stand with Baylor when all those who were raped or assaulted or threatened and were denied justice under Baylor’s watch receive what is their due. I will stand with Baylor when students who have been assaulted can come to know the joys that Baylor has to offer – as I have. I will stand with Baylor when athletes are held to the same standards as their fellow students. I will stand with Baylor when “no” does not mean “Go Bears,” but “no.”
Until that day and long after, I will support those who have been harassed and assaulted, I will watch and encourage Baylor’s attempts to rectify their mistakes, and I will remain a Baylor Bear. Yet it will be a while before I am proud to say so.
Lee Shaw is a junior majoring in professional writing and rhetoric.
This is a very well written and poignant article. The terrible acts committed by some Baylor Bears has robbed the innocent of so much, and will for a very long time. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
We have one child who is a Baylor alumni and a son who is a senior. I am angry that athletes and Baylor staff who have received so much money in the manner of scholarships and donations and the use of wonderfully expensive facilities have behaved so badly at a Christian institute.
The rest of the students and their families are left footing the bill for ever increasing tuition and the tarnishing of the Baylor diploma they are or have worked so hard to receive.