Distinguished academic leader takes the reigns June 1

On April 18, Baylor University announced the selection of Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D., current dean and professor of management at The George Washington University School of Business, to become the institution’s 15th president. That same day, she answered questions from several media outlets via a teleconference. A sampling of the conversation follows.

What do you see as your biggest challenge in moving Baylor forward?

It has been a difficult time for Baylor, given all that has gone on in the last year or so. And I look forward to working with the members of the Baylor Family, the Baylor community. I think one of the things that is so special about Baylor is the tremendous passion that people have for the University and the love they have for the University. In spite of some of the challenges that we have to work through, I think that foundational sense of commitment to Baylor and love for Baylor is really critical, and we have to build on that.

I believe we also must continue to build on the many exciting initiatives that are going on at the University. And if we can do that and bring people together around the good that is going on at Baylor, about the changes that are taking place, we can work through any differences, and we can bring people together. We certainly need to do that to take full advantage of the opportunities that Baylor has ahead of her.

What part did your faith have in this decision, and how did you know this was the right move for you and your family?

My personal faith commitment and my commitment to Jesus Christ is really important in this process. My family and I spent a lot of time in prayer and reflection as we looked at this opportunity as it played out and our faith certainly was important in that.

I started my academic career at Baylor in part because it was a Christian university. I had not been involved in Christian higher education up to that point in time, but I really thought it would be a unique and special experience. That was my experience in the 11 years that I was at Baylor.

I left Baylor to go to another faith-based institution at Pepperdine, and in both of those places I came to appreciate quite deeply the value of Christian higher education. It plays a role in deeply transforming student lives in ways that are different than you could do at a secular institution because we are focusing on the academic life of students, the social development of students, the physical development of students. But we can also look at their spiritual and faith development as well.

When I had the opportunity to come back after being away for several years I felt like this was really where God was calling me — he was calling our family back to provide leadership to Baylor at this particular point in time.

What did you need to know in order to feel comfortable taking this position?

I had some really in-depth conversations with both the search committee and then certainly with the Board of Regents, as well as with some individual Regents along the way and then even more recently with some of the administration at the University. I wanted to understand the issues that had been addressed, how they felt they were making progress on those, what issues need to continue to be worked on in that process. We talked quite a bit about some of the investigations and lawsuits that Baylor is facing. So, I go into this with eyes wide open about some of those continuing challenges that we have to work through.

I asked some questions about the commitment of the Regents to continue to work through these issues and ensure we get to the right place as a university. Beyond that, we talked about the commitment of the University to move to tier-one academic status, to really focus on excelling as an outstanding academic institution. How are we going to do that? How are we going to continue to support faculty to ensure their success? How do we move forward with regard to student life to ensure that we’re doing the right things to support students both inside and outside of the classroom?

So we certainly talked a lot about the specific issues that have gone on in the last 18 months, but we talked much, much more broadly about the mission of Baylor University and how we grow that — the academic trajectory of Baylor and how we ensure we continue to move forward to advance Baylor even beyond what it’s doing now that is making a huge difference in Texas and around the world.