Baylor University’s Board of Regents passed a resolution June 26 acknowledging the University’s historical connections to slavery and the Confederacy and beginning a process of racial conciliation.

In an email to the Baylor community, the Board noted “an opportunity and an obligation to pursue racial healing as an expression of the Christian faith and adherence to Biblical principles of justice and love.”

The Board’s acknowledgement initiates a process on racial conciliation across the University and calls on the Board and the University to “pursue opportunities to inclusively explore and engage in significant conversations about this aspect of the institution’s past.”

With a mission to “educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service by integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment within a caring community,” the Board stated that the University’s “Christian commitment is inconsistent with racism in any form.”

Read the full statement here.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Lori Fogleman is director of media communications and public relations at Baylor University.)