Baylor University Strikes A Calm Blow For Sanity

The administration did not give in to the hysteria, and didn't allow itself to be bullied by a few undergraduates.

The news story opens, as news stories so often do, with a 'mean old administration vx. the bright-eyed, idealistic, and obviously virtuous students'. Blah, blah, blah.

BAYLOR - For weeks, they've met unofficially on Baylor campus, but so far their efforts to be officially recognized by Baylor University have been unsuccessful.

Students with the Sexual Identity Forum say it's time the historic Texas institution finally confronts its tenuous history with homosexuality.

It's been a constant source of friction between students, faculty and staff. In September of 2010, a national tragedy sparked a turning point for Baylor senior Samantha Jones.

Jones, who is openly gay, says the bullying and suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi served as a wake-up call to gay students around the nation. Jones says Baylor's reaction to the tragedy left much to be desired.

"We didn't get an e-mail saying, 'This is someone who you can approach if you're struggling with this,' ...nothing," Jones says. "And that hurt even more."

Jones decided what Baylor needed was a Sexual Identity Forum, a student group where the topics of homophobia, hate crimes and suicide could be discussed among fellow students. In November of 2010, Jones filed her first request to create an officially recognized student group.

What MizzzzzJones does not understand is: Baylor University didn't owe her that. It's a university, founded to prepare eligible students for professional adult lives. It is not is not is not a therapy group.

And as for its 'tenuous history'--this doesn't sound tenuous:

"Baylor University welcomes all students into a safe and supportive environment in which to discuss and learn about a variety of issues, including those of human sexuality. The University affirms the biblical understanding of sexuality as a gift from God. Christian churches across the ages and around the world have affirmed purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm. Temptations to deviate from this norm include both heterosexual sex outside of marriage and homosexual behavior. It is thus expected that Baylor students will not participate in advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching."

Texas has any number of really great universities from which MizzzzzzJones could have chosen. She chose Baylor, which has been Baptist-To-The-Bone from the day it was founded. If she's uncomfortable, it's not Baylor's job to transform itself into an institution that will make her comfortable.

MizzzzJones is also welcome to announce her discussion group is meeting at any time and place in the world, apart from Baylor University. She can seek the sponsorhip and sheltering wing of any institution in the world, apart from Baylor University.

What she can't have is the fulfillment of her narcissistic fantasy that she is entitled to Baylor's blessing for a course of action that Baylor has clearly stated it will not endorse.

Kudos to Baylor's board and administration. Universities, and the world in general, function better with the grownups in charge.