Spring Break
Those articles of incorporation: An Inconvenient Truth
Susanne Johnson, susannej@smu.edu
Issue date: 3/20/07 Section: Opinion
When Stanford was approached by the Reagan library site selection committee with a similar proposal for an all-in-one package, faculty and administrators said an enthusiastic "yes" to the library and museum, but an emphatic "no" to the partisan institute. The university did not thereby "automatically" lose the library. Negotiations for the presidential library and museum proceeded forward. We can summon forth similar courage and expect similar results. Though proceedings later fell apart, it clearly was not because administrators and faculty members initially drew and maintained clear boundaries.
But to put things even more to the point here. The "inconvenient Truth" is that SMU's articles of incorporation prohibit a politically partisan institute from being built on church-owned campus property in the first place!
According to Article 13, real estate of the corporation "may be sold or leased only by the consent of the South Central Jurisdictional Conference," and then "only for religious or educational purposes." As defined in Article 4, the meaning of "educational purposes" cannot be stretched far enough to include a politically partisan institute such as that conceived and articulated by George W. Bush.
Whether we agree or disagree with the policy initiatives of President Bush, and whether we admire him as a leader and fellow human being, is all quite beside the point, and has no bearing on these matters whatsoever. What does matter is that President Bush himself makes no bones that he wants his institute to be politically partisan in nature.
In a statement published on the SMU website, President Turner himself acknowledges that the institute will seek to enunciate and defend the political philosophies of President Bush, and in the July 7, 2005 cover letter of the Call for Proposals (CFP), Marvin Bush and Donald Evans say that part of the institute's mission "will be to further the domestic and international goals of the Bush administration." That the institute will serve as one among other venues from which George W. Bush will continue his public and political life after he leaves the White House is plain to see in the CFP.
But to put things even more to the point here. The "inconvenient Truth" is that SMU's articles of incorporation prohibit a politically partisan institute from being built on church-owned campus property in the first place!
According to Article 13, real estate of the corporation "may be sold or leased only by the consent of the South Central Jurisdictional Conference," and then "only for religious or educational purposes." As defined in Article 4, the meaning of "educational purposes" cannot be stretched far enough to include a politically partisan institute such as that conceived and articulated by George W. Bush.
Whether we agree or disagree with the policy initiatives of President Bush, and whether we admire him as a leader and fellow human being, is all quite beside the point, and has no bearing on these matters whatsoever. What does matter is that President Bush himself makes no bones that he wants his institute to be politically partisan in nature.
In a statement published on the SMU website, President Turner himself acknowledges that the institute will seek to enunciate and defend the political philosophies of President Bush, and in the July 7, 2005 cover letter of the Call for Proposals (CFP), Marvin Bush and Donald Evans say that part of the institute's mission "will be to further the domestic and international goals of the Bush administration." That the institute will serve as one among other venues from which George W. Bush will continue his public and political life after he leaves the White House is plain to see in the CFP.
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