You observations are certainly logical, but based on popularly-believed assumptions that are incorrect.
- Baylor has never been under the direction or leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention ("SBC"). Baylor was chartered in 1845 by Baptists in the State of Texas. The SBC was organized in the same year in Virginia but has never had an organizational relationship to Baylor.
- Baylor was, indeed, founded by and for Baptists and its historical trajectory evidences that origin through most of the 20th century. The Bapitst organization with direct participation in the election of Baylor's Board of Regents ("BOR") was the Baptist General Convention of Texas ("BGCT") which is a confederation of Baptist churches located in Texas, logically enough. [BGCT had a fraternal relationship with SBC but never anyything more, much less a hierarchical relationship.]
- In 1990 the BOR unilaterally voted to remove itself (along with the Baylor Medical system) from its 145-relationship with BGCT. The BOR became self-perpetuating, nominating/electing 75% of its membership. BGCT was allowed to elect 25% of the BOR's membership.
- From 1845 the Baylor charter called for 100% of its BOR members to be Baptist. In 2011 the BOR changed this requirement, allowing up to 25% of its membership to be non-Baptist.
- Although Baylor was founded by and ostensibly for Baptists, Baylor's Baptist numbers have been consistently dropping for at least a quarter century. In 2011 31% of the freshman class claimed the label "Baptist," be that SBC Baptist or any one of the other 50+ Baptist "denominations" in the USA. The trend is downward, dropping by about 2% per year. Baylor's 2021 freshman class is projected to be no higher than 20% Baptist.
As I acknowledged, your observations and comments certainly make sense, as long as any Baptist group other than Baylor's BOR has significant influence on how Baylor is run. The reality is, they don't. As a 501(c)(3) organization Baylor has no owner; there is no Baptist church or group of Baptist churches that run Baylor, or to whom the BOR is accountable. The BOR is accountable only to itself, at least as far as earthly law is concerned.
Several on this and other forums have wondered "why the Baptist church doesn't do something" about the Baylor scandals. Beyond the local Baptist congregation, which is self-governed and autonomous, there is no "Baptist church." There are, as I mention in point 5 above, over 50 national-scale confederations of independent, autonomous, self-governing Baptist churches in the US (plus regional, state, local and other Baptist groups around the country) but none of them has governance over Baylor. The BOR is as high as that food chain goes, and not all of those individuals are Baptists.
