Becoming a “Modern University”

The idea that Baylor could rise to national prominence would have seemed far-fetched in 1990. For much of the higher education world, the university seemed to be stuck in the dark ages.

One of the oldest private universities in the country, Baylor is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, which has tightened its grip over the institution at various times during its history. For example, in the 1980s, the convention’s fundamentalist wing required Baylor professors to sign a “statement of faith,” in which they pledged to adhere to fundamentalist beliefs on issues such as creationism and homosexuality in their teaching.¹

At the time, Baylor was probably most widely known and mocked for prohibiting dancing on campus. In 1990, an effort to overturn the then-145-year-long ban failed, even though Baylor’s president and the university’s board chairman had both signaled their support for ending it.² Baylor’s leaders said that they maintained the ban to honor the university’s “unique Christian atmosphere.” But behind the scenes, Baylor officials acknowledged that they were afraid that ending the prohibition would provoke the fundamentalist faction to try to wrest control of the institution by taking over the Baptist convention. “These guys are after power,” one Baylor trustee told The New York Times. “In time, they will outnumber us.”³

Baylor was now “a modern university,” as one student said, and it was going places.

University officials knew that if they wanted to move Baylor forward and improve its reputation, they would have to keep the fundamentalists at bay. Otherwise, they feared that Baylor would become “an Oral Roberts University, or a dying West Texas Bible School,” as one conservative Baptist preacher, who believed the university’s fears were unfounded, told The Chronicle of Higher Education.⁴

To avoid such a fate, Baylor’s leaders did an end run around the Baptist General Convention in the fall of 1990, secretly changing the university’s charter to create a largely independent governing board.⁵ When the news got out, the convention considered suing Baylor for acting unilaterally and defying its authority. However, the convention’s moderate majority ultimately approved the changes in 1991.⁶ Baylor officials saw this victory as a crucial first step to achieving higher ambitions. “We can now devote 100 percent of our efforts to making Baylor again the greatest Christian [higher education] institution on the face of the Earth,” declared Randall H. Fields, who was the president of the Baylor Alumni Association at the time.⁷

Five years later, Baylor lifted the much-reviled dancing ban. With this move, the university’s leaders hoped to send a message to the rest of the higher education world: Baylor was now “a modern university,” as one student said, and it was going places.⁸