Dean's Update - January 16, 2026

Dear Colleagues:

The last three weeks, I taught again in our wintermester Great Texts in Italy program. A gem in our itinerary was a visit to the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, in Pavia. In this church are the relics of two of the Church’s prized intellectual lights: St. Augustine and St. Boethius.

I first read Augustine’s Confessions in high school. In it, I discovered an inspiring example of earnest desire for rest, for “our heart is restless until it rests in you, O Lord.” That the rest Augustine extols isn’t complacent got my interest. His embrace of Christ’s grace goes hand in hand with deepest questions and hardest answers. His relinquishing of too-paltry desire frees his mind to know and his heart to desire what alone can fulfill. He shows us that rest in God doesn’t diminish or silence life’s joys; it perfects, deepens, and enlarges our happiness.

Far later in life, I came to Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy. How did I not know this seminal text—more widely read than any other book but the Bible for 1,000 years—until out of graduate school? Here, too, I found a venerable teacher and kindred spirit, the one Dante calls “the blessed soul who exposes the deceptive world to anyone who gives ear.” In warning of fortune’s caprice, decrying the allure of false goods, and naming the summit of human happiness, Boethius is a fount of wisdom. In Victor Watts’ soaring translation, book 2 ends with the poetic line: “O happy race of men / If Love who rules the sky / Could rule your hearts as well.”

San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro put me alongside saints whose lives and lessons I’ve spent years trying to understand. In that quiet church, I enjoyed a singular moment of thanksgiving.

I also had occasion for humble reckoning. Students in my course read Petrarch’s Secretum, a Renaissance book that sticks its nose into every reader’s business. Written as a dialogue between Petrarch and Augustine, the latter at one point asks questions that hit close to home: “What use was all that reading? How much of the many things that you have read has remained implanted in your mind, has taken root, has borne timely fruits?” The honest answer for me is “not enough!” This, friends, is why, 30 years and more since graduating from college, I’ve never left.

May this new year bless us with good books and teachers, and useful reading and learning.

Here are some items of news and matters of interest within the HC:

• Next week, we start fast with the first day of class, Getterman Scholars weekend, and this year’s first Invitation to Excellence. Thanks to the many colleagues and students whose hospitality make the latter two recruitment programs perennially successful. (Each year, more than half of the HC’s entering class is recruited through I2E. It’s as important as anything we do.)
• To assist our work under Baylor in Deeds’ third commitment (Building a Vibrant, Caring and Global Community), we are hosting a special student-facing program on Tuesday, February 3 from 4-5 p.m. in the Willett Family Reading Room (Alexander Hall). Why Global Education Matters: A Conversation with President Livingstone will highlight the importance of global learning within the Baylor experience and help students understand the breadth of faculty-led study abroad opportunities available across the Honors College. Join us and bring your students with you. (And thank you, President Livingstone!)
• Congratulations to Darren Middleton, director of the BIC, on his appointment as a professor in the College of Arts & Sciences’ religion department! Darren has shared his desire to use the next chapter of his life to inspire, teach, and mentor PhD students—heretofore not part of his long career at Rhodes, TCU, and Baylor. Following the spring semester, Darren will thus transition to the religion department. I’m excited for his future and grateful for his four years of leading the BIC. We’ll begin a search for the next BIC director in due course, anticipating that, as Robert Browning penned, “the best is yet to be.”
• On the heels of completing a $1.5 million Lilly Endowment grant, the Soundings Project, Darin Davis, clinical professor of moral philosophy in the honors program, is adding a new role as distinguished senior fellow in Baylor’s Institute for Global Human Flourishing. In addition to his teaching and research duties, Darin will support this recently inaugurated institute’s work through grant writing and development of additional congregational and community initiatives. Keep up the great work, Darin!

• Last fall, I shared information and (maybe) buoyed spirits in connection with this year’s comprehensive budget assessment and operational efficiency study (see here). My December meeting with senior university leaders was positive. They expressed gratitude for the HC’s valued contributions. They also recognize our sound financial stewardship. Although I don’t yet know what may be asked of us, I remain confident of our present and future resources.

  On that note, here are a few ways we might continue to excel, with measurable savings.

  One idea is to extend our postdoctoral teaching fellowship terms from two years to three. Lengthening terms would give search committees a breather between cycles. It would pare, by 50 percent, the cost of candidate visits to campus. Odds are that it would also strengthen postdocs’ teaching excellence and professional growth.

  Another option is to shift the balance of tenure- and lecturer-line faculty a bit, adding to the latter. Our lecturers and senior lecturers serve us well; the combination of their effective pedagogy and full-time teaching workloads makes them an indispensable part of the HC.

  As advising caseloads and other assignments allow, we may also look for additional ways to use our PhD-holding professional staff in teaching roles. In limited ways, we already do this to good effect. Perhaps we can further build on such solid records of contribution.

Other things will be needed, and I promise to share more as I’m able. Advice and questions are always welcome. I’ll always do my best to help us be our best. Hence my sign-off:

All the best,

Douglas V. Henry, Ph.D. |  Dean
Honors College | Baylor University
baylor.edu/honorscollege
254.710.7689