Sunday, February 25, 2007
Baylor History, Part Eleven
The new century at Baylor brought many new challenges. One great crisis was averted in 1910 when an extremist religious group attempted to take over the governing body of BU, the Board of Intenders. By Baylor’s original charter, the school was to be governed by a board consisting of 107 members of the First Baptist Church of Baylor County, or such lesser numbers as are members of that congregation at any given time. It was, of course, highly unorthodox for a major University to be governed entirely by the members of a fairly small rural church, and problems abounded. The large size of the group hindered consensus, and several meetings of the Board ended in an exchange of gunfire and the establishment of defensive positions around the church, a deadlock which most often resolved itself at suppertime as the militias got hungry. However, in late 1909, a new and charismatic member came into the Congregation of First Baptist Baylor, a Bostonian named Pemberton Lloyd Stewart IV. He espoused a radical brand of Unitarianism which emphasized getting along and not bothering with insignificant matters, while placing a lesser emphasis on either liturgy or Bible study, which he referred to as “Bibolatory.” Quickly, through a series of potluck suppers at his home, Stewart seduced the Baylorites with his theories, and by the dawning of 1910 the church officially allied with the Unitarian faith, purchased a series of stained-glass windows displaying “Heroes of Good Sportsmanship,” and began to shift the serving of wine from the Eucharist to the social hour and most other church functions including several involving youth.
Needless to say, the changes at the First Baptist Church of Baylor County augured troubling changes at Baylor University. The church congregation, sitting as the Board of Intenders, instituted several startling changes at the school, including the establishment of a new school of “Cognition and Cooperation,” the lifting of the bans on student drinking, dancing, fornication, and the worship of idols, and a new rule linking faculty pay to their “empathy rating” from students. Needless to say, bedlam followed. President Brooks was aware that rapid action was needed to save the institution from liberalization. He quickly swung into action, with the aid of law professor David Guinn.
Brooks’ plan was radical, to say the least. First, he identified seven dissidents from the Board of Intenders and brought them to Waco in the dark of night. Declaring that these seven were a quorum, he then had them approve a motion to reverse the new changes and to shift the way members were selected for the Board of Intenders. This latter change was perhaps a bit rushed, as it provided for a 36-member Board of Intenders which would be selected according to a somewhat bizarre formula: 12 of the members would be selected by the President of the University, 10 of the members would be named by the governors of the first 10 states (in alphabetical order), 5 would be chosen by Baylor’s official live bear mascots, and 5 were to be picked at random from those traveling on the public roads in and around Waco. Once implemented, this plan led to some very unusual results—for example, the live bear mascots often placed themselves on the Board, then demanded food and other gifts. Nevertheless, this plan did divest the wayward church in Baylor County from active control of the University, and opened the door to a more modern era in which Baylor was to be ruled by a bizarre inbred cabal designed to ratify almost anything the President of the University chose to do.
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You know what was really awkward about this time period, Prof. Osler? A small group on the Board of Intenders actually believed that the many forests surrounding Waco and Baylor County had been blessed by Christ himself and refused to allow any of the trees to be cut down. Very few survivors can recall with any clarity why they believed this, but President Brooks adhered to this prohibition...well, very religiously.
At the same time, though, Brooks announced-- in his own single-minded way-- that Baylor University would construct a grand pier along the Brazos River that would rival the Fish Pier in Boston as well as other great piers found in the northeast. And because no other university had thought to construct such a pier, it would be the first pier among American Universities.
The trouble with this grand plan was that wood was quite necessary in order to accomplish this goal, but the university budget could not handle the great cost of the wood that was needed. And so Brooks mandated that all faculty write letters to various venders and public officials, begging for donations of wood that could be used to construct this pier. When that proved to be less fruitful than expected, the faculty members were asked to write letters to citizens in towns known to have large chipmunk congregations. (Remember that I am a simple reporter of the tale...).
Faculty members were paid by the word, and so the letters of some opportunistic faculty members became rather lengthy and more theoretical than necessary, especially given that they were merely asking for wood donations. But when these faculty members were given relatively large raises for the lengths of their letters, other faculty started doing the same. This led to a very ugly period of about three or four years where Baylor faculty members spent all of their time writing letters about the need for wood and spent almost no time teaching or doing anything else. And to make matters even worse, some faculty recruited students to join in this letter-writing campaign.
Well, as it turns out, Baylor never accomplished the goal of a first pier among American Universities. One obvious problem was that the Brazos has never quite had the same function as Boston Harbor, but it took President Brooks nearly five years to figure this out. The other problem was that paper suppliers had become very upset by the fact that they could not use the wood surrounding Waco and Baylor County to make paper, and so they blocked all paper shipments to central Texas. Fortunately, though, by the time that Baylor had given up on its first pier aspirations, those Board members had come to realize that the cross itself had been made of wood, so the Waco wood prohibition ended.
At the same time, though, Brooks announced-- in his own single-minded way-- that Baylor University would construct a grand pier along the Brazos River that would rival the Fish Pier in Boston as well as other great piers found in the northeast. And because no other university had thought to construct such a pier, it would be the first pier among American Universities.
The trouble with this grand plan was that wood was quite necessary in order to accomplish this goal, but the university budget could not handle the great cost of the wood that was needed. And so Brooks mandated that all faculty write letters to various venders and public officials, begging for donations of wood that could be used to construct this pier. When that proved to be less fruitful than expected, the faculty members were asked to write letters to citizens in towns known to have large chipmunk congregations. (Remember that I am a simple reporter of the tale...).
Faculty members were paid by the word, and so the letters of some opportunistic faculty members became rather lengthy and more theoretical than necessary, especially given that they were merely asking for wood donations. But when these faculty members were given relatively large raises for the lengths of their letters, other faculty started doing the same. This led to a very ugly period of about three or four years where Baylor faculty members spent all of their time writing letters about the need for wood and spent almost no time teaching or doing anything else. And to make matters even worse, some faculty recruited students to join in this letter-writing campaign.
Well, as it turns out, Baylor never accomplished the goal of a first pier among American Universities. One obvious problem was that the Brazos has never quite had the same function as Boston Harbor, but it took President Brooks nearly five years to figure this out. The other problem was that paper suppliers had become very upset by the fact that they could not use the wood surrounding Waco and Baylor County to make paper, and so they blocked all paper shipments to central Texas. Fortunately, though, by the time that Baylor had given up on its first pier aspirations, those Board members had come to realize that the cross itself had been made of wood, so the Waco wood prohibition ended.
# posted by 
: 3:09 PM
: 3:09 PM 
If you're talking about the fiasco at the big bear funeral with the transplated Sakhalin Ainu tribe, Prof. Osler, I'd rather you tell that story. It's kind of sad.
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# posted by : 3:55 PM
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