Baylor’s choice of Kenneth Starr as the university’s new president further alienates this gay alum, and costs the school donation dollars
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| Kenneth Starr |
As is the case for most, my senior year in high school some 15 years ago was full of excitement. While my primary school years wound to a close, I began to deliberate my next step and consider the numerous universities I had applied to.
Did I want to go to NYU and enjoy the bright lights and glamour of New York City? Head out west to USC? Or did I want to attend Tulane University, in the city of New Orleans where my father grew up?
I instead chose Baylor University, the world’s largest Baptist institution, located in Waco.
It wasn’t the school’s religious affiliation that drew me to the university; in fact, it was far from it. As a Methodist, I was intrigued by the deep history of the school in relation to the founding of the great state of Texas. The roots of Baylor take it back to 1841, when 35 delegates to the Union Baptist Association decided to found a Baptist university in Texas, later chartered by the Republic of Texas in 1845.
Baylor alumni, many of whom I admired for remaining steadfast to their convictions when times were tough, also captivated me: country great Willie Nelson, that spitfire of a Texas governor Ann Richards, famed rancher and oilman and Fort Worth philanthropist Sid W. Richardson, and Mike Singletary, NFL Hall of Famer and current head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.
However, it was my family’s history at Baylor that led me to my final choice. My grandmother and father had attended Baylor. My great-uncle (after whom I was named) had spent a portion of his childhood years at Baylor. And my step-sister attended as well.
I was proud to become one of the few third-generation Baylorites.
Unfortunately, that sense of pride has waned over the years, as I’ve realized Baylor continues to regress and become more discriminatory.
It was only a year ago when I realized I was no longer receiving alumni materials and called Baylor to inquire as to the reason. The perky woman couldn’t have been nicer at the beginning of the call, but returned to the phone after looking up my information to state that they’d learned I "was involved in a gay rights organization, a lifestyle incongruent to the mission of the university, and they would no longer send me information."
So now I — who’d spent all of this money (well, my mother spent it) to attend this private institution — was left out in the cold.
My interaction with the woman I spoke to there further instilled in me the notion that Baylor had lost its focus. It’s a sentiment expressed publicly by many alumni over the past decade, especially this past year, as Baylor sought to eliminate the independent Baylor Alumni Association, in favor of an in-house alumni relations department, whose "message" the university could control.
The school, consistently ranked among the top Tier 1 schools, has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as having the 12th-best engineering program, the 38th-best undergraduate business program, and the 14th-best entrepreneurship program.However, a decade of turmoil, which included the firing of two presidents and the 2003 NCAA scandal involving the death of basketball player Patrick Dennehy, seemed to have overshadowed Baylor’s educational accomplishments.
Then just this week, I awoke to an inbox full of e-mails and Facebook messages from former classmates, each upset that Kenneth Starr was to be appointed the 14th president of Baylor University. This had to be some sort of sick joke.
Surely this man, the current lead counsel in the Proposition 8 defense before the California Supreme Court —the proposition that I along with many of my friends have worked so tirelessly to have repealed — wasn’t going to become the new president of my alma mater, I thought.
But after a brief phone call to a former Baylor regent, the news was confirmed.
Starr, the independent counsel whose investigation of the Whitewater land deal and Monica Lewinsky scandal led to former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, will most likely further divide the already uneasy alumni. These past few months, the Baylor Regents have stated they wish to bring in a president that can calm the recent division and help propel the university forward. Yet they’ve done just the opposite.
More troubling is that the hiring of Starr is indicative of the mindset of the entire Baylor administration, one that seems to condone discrimination. With the hiring of Starr as its new president, Baylor now risks falling into the same category as Liberty University or Oral Roberts University. These two institutions are normally cited for their prejudiced viewpoints instead of their educational endeavors.
As for this Baylorite, my contributions will now go to TCU in honor of my mother, as my sense of loyalty to an institution that has meant so much to my family is mostly gone.Baylor has become an embarrassment, something that I in the past have had to defend during interviews for employment.
The benefits of going to Baylor came from the relationships I formed with individuals I still hold dear today, and the challenges Baylor posed to my beliefs and values. Because of these very challenges, I’m better prepared to promote and defend civil rights, knowing the possible objections upfront from those with narrow-minded viewpoints. •
A. Latham Staples is a North Texas native and the founder and CEO of the Empowering Spirits Foundation, a national LGBT grassroots based civil rights organization based in San Diego. Staples and his husband were one of the first same-sex couples to legally wed in California. After the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which defined marriage to be between only a man and a woman, he sold A. Latham Staples & Associates, a healthcare firm, to focus solely on civil rights issues. Staples has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Political Science from the Honors College at Baylor University in Waco.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 19, 2010.
Changes such as the one you described are already happening in some Christian private high schools that plan to be the feeder schools for universities such as Baylor and Liberty. Some Christian high schools are weeding out the students who are merely suspected of being from families considered socially or politically liberal, and are using various marginalization tactics to let them know that they are unwelcome. I know this first hand from my experience with a private Christian school in central MA, and I’ve noticed that this school isn’t unique in it’s purpose. They are not, in every case, institutions founded on the love of Jesus, but hives of Conservative exclusionism.
I went to Baylor with Latham and am saddened to see how he’s been treated, and the direction of the school. It’s moving backwards, not forwards.
I looked up to Latham during my years at Baylor and after reading all that he’s done see that he’s continued to serve our community well!
I went to Baylor with Latham and am saddened to see how he’s been treated, and the direction of the school. It’s moving backwards, not forwards.
I looked up to Latham during my years at Baylor and after reading all that he’s done see that he’s continued to serve our community well!
Making donations to another university seems spiteful. I understand your opinion and I’d like to know what positive action you are taking to change the situation other than complain and be embarrassed.
As a Baylor Ex, I understand your consternation, however I left Baylor after a counselor told me “perhaps you’d be happier at another school?”
That was some of the best advice I ever got. Packed up and left after that year and never looked back. I do miss the school a bit. Loved hanging with friends in Penland Hall and eating at what was then Pepe’s Pizza.
How is the author’s donating to another university spiteful? I for one am tired of people supporting organizations that denounced the gay community. Good for him for taking a stand!
And from what I understand he tried in the past to make a large donation to BU but it was turned down. So why the heck should he continue to try to support Baylor after all they’ve done?