In 1841, 35 delegates to the Union
Baptist Association meeting voted to adopt the suggestion of
William Milton Tryon and
R. E. B. Baylor to establish a Baptist university in Texas, then called the
Republic of Texas (a republic independent of the United States). Baylor, a Texas district
judge and onetime
US Congressman and soldier from
Alabama, became the school's namesake. Some at first wished to name the new university "San Jacinto" to recognize the victory which enabled the Texans to become an independent nation, then before the final vote of the Congress, the petitioners requested the university be named in honor of Baylor. In fall 1844, the Texas Baptist Education Society petitioned the Congress of the
Republic of Texas to charter a Baptist university. Republic President
Anson Jones signed the Act of Congress on February 1, 1845, officially establishing Baylor University. The founders built the original university campus in
Independence, Texas. The
James Huckins, the first Southern Baptist
missionary to Texas, was Baylor's first full-time fundraiser. He is considered the third founding father of the university. Although these three men are credited as being the founders of the university, many others worked to see the university established in Texas and thus they were awarded Baylor's Founders Medal. The noted Texas revolutionary war leader and hero
Sam Houston gave the first $5,000 donation to start the university. In 1854, Houston was also baptized by
Rufus Columbus Burleson, future Baylor president, in the Brazos River. During the 1846 school year Baylor leaders would begin including chapel as part of the Baylor educational experience. The tradition continues today and has been a part of the life of students for over 160 years. In 1849, R. E. B. Baylor and Abner S. Lipscomb of the Texas Supreme Court began teaching classes in the "science of law", making Baylor the first in Texas and the second university west of the Mississippi to teach law. During this time Stephen Decatur Rowe would earn the first degree awarded by Baylor. He would be followed by the first female graduate, Mary Kavanaugh Gentry, in 1855. In 1851, Baylor's second president, Rufus Columbus Burleson, decided to separate the students by sex, making the Baylor Female College an independent and separate institution. Baylor University became an all-male institution. During this time, Baylor thrived as the only university west of the Mississippi offering instruction in law, mathematics, and medicine. At the time a Baylor education cost around $8–15 per term for tuition. And many of the early leaders of the Republic of Texas, such as Sam Houston, would later send their children to Baylor to be educated. Some of those early students were
Temple Lea Houston, son of President
Sam Houston, a famous western gun-fighter and attorney; and
Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross famous Confederate general and later President of
Texas A&M University. For the first half of the
American Civil War, the Baylor president was
George Washington Baines, maternal great-grandfather of the future
US President,
Lyndon B. Johnson. He worked vigorously to sustain the university during the Civil War, when male students left their studies to enlist in the
Confederate Army. Following the war, the city of Independence slowly declined, primarily caused by the rise of neighboring cities being serviced by the
Santa Fe Railroad. Because Independence lacked a railroad line, university fathers began searching for a location to build a new campus. In 1885, Baylor University amended their charter and moved to
Waco, Texas. Where it was absorbed into a local college called Waco University. At the time, Burleson, Baylor's second president, was serving as the local college's president. That same year, the Baylor Female College also was moved to a new location,
Belton, Texas. It later became known as the
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. A Baylor College Park still exists in Independence in memory of the college's history there. Around 1887, Baylor University began readmitting women and became
coeducational again. In the 1890s,
William Cowper Brann published the highly successful
Iconoclast newspaper in Waco. One of his targets was Baylor University. Brann revealed Baylor officials had been importing South American children recruited by missionaries and making house-servants out of them. Brann was shot in the back by Tom Davis, a Baylor supporter. Brann then wheeled, drew his pistol, and killed Davis. Brann was helped home by his friends, and died there of his wounds. In 1900, three physicians founded the University of Dallas Medical Department in
Dallas, although a university by that name did not exist. In 1903, Baylor University acquired the medical school, which became known as the
Baylor College of Medicine, while remaining in Dallas. In 1943, Dallas civic leaders offered to build larger facilities for the university in a new medical center if the College of Medicine would surrender its denominational alliances with the Baptist state convention. The Baylor administration refused the offer and, with funding from the
M. D. Anderson Foundation and others, moved the College of Medicine to
Houston. In 1969, the Baylor College of Medicine became technically independent from Baylor University. The two institutions still maintain strong links and Baylor still elects around 25 percent of the medical school's regents. They also share academic links and combine in research efforts. During World War II, Baylor was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the
V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission. The university first admitted black students in 1964. The first black graduate was Robert Gilbert, of Waco. In 1991, Baylor began appointing the majority of its board, granting it partial independence from the
Baptist General Convention of Texas. In 2015, the Baylor Board of Regents hired law firm
Pepper Hamilton to perform an external review of
Baylor's handling of sexual assaults. The report, summarized by the board in a public "Findings of Facts" document, stated that Baylor failed to implement
Title IX in a timely and effective manner, that Baylor administrators actively discouraged reporting of sexual assaults, and that the athletic department failed to address sexual assaults. In response to the report, the Board of Regents fired
Ken Starr as president of the university but retained him as Chancellor and as a law school professor; he resigned as Chancellor shortly thereafter and resigned as law professor in August 2016. The school also fired head football coach
Art Briles. In 2021, Baylor released an independent historical report acknowledging past slave ownership and support for the Confederacy by R. E. B. Baylor and two founders. These facts were not previously acknowledged by the university. A ban on various forms of sexual conduct including "homosexual acts" was in place until 2015. The university has since modified its Code of Conduct. In a May 1, 2023, letter to the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, Baylor University's President Linda Livingstone requested a formal exemption from provisions of federal Title IX law related to the discrimination and harassment of LGBTQ+ individuals, on the basis that Baylor requires "purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm" and must "regulate conduct that is inconsistent with the religious values and beliefs that are integral to its Christian faith and mission." On July 25, 2023, the Office for Civil Rights responded acknowledging exemption to Title IX for a number of provisions related to the discrimination of LGBTQ+ individuals, including "rules of private organizations" and "sexual harassment". The exemption request, notable for its specific claim of exemption to Title IX's sexual harassment provision specifically in response to three active investigations against Baylor by the Office for Civil Rights, including one investigation into "Baylor's alleged response to notice that students were subjected to harassment based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity," led five US representatives, including Representative Adam Schiff, to write and sign a letter to Miguel Cardona, the Secretary of the US Department of Education, requesting "thorough, timely investigations into the pending sex-based harassment cases against Baylor University and further clarification on the implications of this particular exemption on students' rights to be protected from sex-based harassment." ==Academics==