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January 22, 2007

Southern Methodist University in quandary over Bush library  

by Cheryl Heckler
Ecumenical News International  

OXFORD, OH — Southern Methodist University in Texas, which holds itself to its denomination’s standards for leadership and public service, has become embroiled in a controversy over linking itself permanently to the husband of one of its most famous alumni, Laura Bush.

Representatives of her husband, President George W. Bush, have selected SMU to be the location of his presidential library, and many members of the university faculty are protesting that the Bush Library would harm the university’s mission.  
 
SMU President R. Gerald Turner told his staff on Jan. 17 that the project would increase the institution’s visibility and that, “Over time, the political components of the library complex will fade and the historical aspects will ascend.”  
 
A few days before Turner addressed them, however, 68 current and former faculty members at the private university with 11,000 students sent him a letter opposing the move.   
 
And a group of Methodist bishops in different parts of the United States on Jan. 18 launched an online petition to protest SMU’s plans. Located at www.protectsmu.org, the petition states: “as United Methodists, we believe that the linking of his presidency with a university bearing the Methodist name is utterly inappropriate.”  
 
Brad Cheves, SMU’s vice president for external affairs and development, told The Associated Press that the Methodist church is diverse in its membership and opinions and that those involved with the petition reflect only one view. “We believe the vast majority of the Methodist membership, university and community support the library and that it will benefit the faculty, students and community for generations to come,” Cheves said.  
 
Some staff have called the Bush Library an embarrassment, questioning the impact the presidential library might have on the university’s overall mission as an educational institution.  
 
The project will be financed with a private fund drive aimed at raising at least $200 million. The president and his wife are Methodists.  
 
The Daily Campus, the student newspaper, editorialized during the week that it “does not like the idea of a permanent spin-control office for the Bush presidency.”