Spring Break
Faculty meeting focuses on Bush Institute
Mark Norris, Editor In Chief, mnorris@smu.edu
Issue date: 1/25/07 Section: News
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The third faculty meeting in as many weeks about the George W. Bush Presidential Library was filled with tough, respectful questions for SMU President R. Gerald Turner.
That's according to the faculty members who streamed out of the Hughes-Trigg Ballroom Wednesday afternoon following a nearly two-hour meeting that was an open discussion about the controversial project.
The meeting was closed to the media, but multiple faculty members stopped on their way out to share impressions of the most wide-ranging discussion yet on what the complex could mean to SMU.
According to those interviewed, no faculty member spoke against the entire complex. The largest concern is the institute/think tank. Faculty asked about the need for it and how it would fall under SMU's control.
The session opened and closed with Turner making a brief statement, but the rest of the time was filled with questions addressed to the president that alternated between faculty senate representatives and regular faculty members.
Afterward, Turner said the library complex is an all or nothing venture. The institute cannot be cut from the deal if SMU is to receive the Bush library complex.
"Does the asset outweigh what you consider to be some of the liability?" he asked.
The role of the Bush Foundation and its oversight of the institute is the remaining question for some faculty members. That is one of the items to be discussed in the final meetings between SMU and the Bush Library Committee, which are set to begin in a matter of days.
"My hope is that it will be a negotiation [over the institute], but my impression is they will be holding all the cards," said art history professor Janis Bergman-Carton.
The news that it is all or nothing complicates the efforts of theology professor Susanne Johnson, who was pushing a drive to accept the library and reject the institute. She said that the all-or-nothing choice puts the faculty in a difficult spot.
That's according to the faculty members who streamed out of the Hughes-Trigg Ballroom Wednesday afternoon following a nearly two-hour meeting that was an open discussion about the controversial project.
The meeting was closed to the media, but multiple faculty members stopped on their way out to share impressions of the most wide-ranging discussion yet on what the complex could mean to SMU.
According to those interviewed, no faculty member spoke against the entire complex. The largest concern is the institute/think tank. Faculty asked about the need for it and how it would fall under SMU's control.
The session opened and closed with Turner making a brief statement, but the rest of the time was filled with questions addressed to the president that alternated between faculty senate representatives and regular faculty members.
Afterward, Turner said the library complex is an all or nothing venture. The institute cannot be cut from the deal if SMU is to receive the Bush library complex.
"Does the asset outweigh what you consider to be some of the liability?" he asked.
The role of the Bush Foundation and its oversight of the institute is the remaining question for some faculty members. That is one of the items to be discussed in the final meetings between SMU and the Bush Library Committee, which are set to begin in a matter of days.
"My hope is that it will be a negotiation [over the institute], but my impression is they will be holding all the cards," said art history professor Janis Bergman-Carton.
The news that it is all or nothing complicates the efforts of theology professor Susanne Johnson, who was pushing a drive to accept the library and reject the institute. She said that the all-or-nothing choice puts the faculty in a difficult spot.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Dave Winnipeg
posted 2/01/07 @ 8:50 AM CST
Bush is the biggest moron to ever become leader of a democratic country. It would be a huge disgrace to be the academic institution to boast any kind of research forum or library in his name. (Continued…)
John Hamilton
posted 2/01/07 @ 1:38 PM CST
I spent a couple of summers of my youth in Dallas (read about it here: http://whilewestillhavetime.blogspot.com/2005/08/great-dunk-tank.html), staying with relatives in Highland Park, not far from SMU. (Continued…)
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