Message regarding recent student incident

April 23, 2021

Dear Baylor Students:

I am writing to provide you with an update on a reported incident of a physical assault on one of our Asian American students early Sunday morning that included the use of racial slurs. The University became aware of a social media post describing the incident on April 21, and it was immediately reported to the Equity Office for investigation.

Since that time, staff in the Equity Office and Dean of Students Office have been working to learn more about this hurtful act so that those responsible can be held accountable. If you have information about this incident or any other acts of harm to members of our community, please report this information immediately. You can do so online through Report It, which allows students and others to ensure their report gets to the right office and into the right investigative process or through Ethics Point, which provides an anonymous reporting mechanism. If any student experiences a hurtful act, the University provides resources through the Equity Office and Baylor University Police Department (BUPD), as well as additional support through Spiritual Life, the Counseling Center and Multicultural Affairs.

Here at Baylor, we refer to our University as a Family — the Baylor Family. We are comprised of vibrant diversity and have the amazing opportunity and immense responsibility to model for ourselves and the world what it means to care deeply for one another as an expression of our Christian mission. Racism has no place in our Family. We must recommit ourselves to the work we are doing to acknowledge and right the injustices many of our students, faculty and staff of color continue to experience. We must each renew our commitment to love our neighbors and to stand against racism and injustice. We must continue to listen and learn from one another and to be proactive participants in positive change.

It is only when all of us commit ourselves to confronting the insidious nature of racism that each of us will truly feel at home in the Baylor Family.

Let’s be the light that drives out darkness.

Kevin P. Jackson, Ph.D.
Vice President for Student Life