Council OKs land talks for Bush library
SMU trustees receive
authority to negotiate
lease for building siteUnited Methodist News Service
Talks to establish a George W. Bush presidential library on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas can now proceed.
The South Central Jurisdiction Mission Council authorized university trustees March 14 to lease up to 36 acres on the southeast side of the campus for a presidential library.
The vote was 10 to 4, with one abstention. Southwest Texas Conference representatives Austin Frederick Jr. and Barbara Gardner, both of San Antonio, voted for the authorization.
The mission council had to get involved because SMU bylaws require consent from the South Central Jurisdictional Conference before any campus land may be sold or leased. The jurisdiction owns the school.
The vote followed a presentation in favor of establishing the library by SMU President Gerald Turner and statements read by several critics. They questioned the appropriateness of linking the Bush presidency with SMU, an 11,000-student school founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Reactions to the vote ranged from expressions of gratitude to sadness.
“It’s a significant approval,” said Brad Cheves, SMU vice president for external affairs and development. “… While the precise location of the library complex has not been finalized, it gives the sanction of the South Central Jurisdiction and authorizes SMU and its trustees to work with the presidential site selection committee” to move forward with negotiations.
“It’s a sad day for The United Methodist Church,” said the Rev. Andrew Weaver, an SMU alumnus who started a petition against the proposed library. “This is a partisan institute to promote the values of George W. Bush’s presidency, and it’s going to sit on one of our campuses … and use the good name of The United Methodist Church. John Wesley would be ashamed.”
SMU is a finalist for the complex, and the library’s site selection committee is expected to make
a final recommendation this spring to Bush.
“We hope this process will conclude in a matter of weeks rather than months,” Cheves said.
The project is to be financed with a private fund drive conducted by the George W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation. Cost estimates have ranged from $200 million to $500 million.
The SMU board of trustees passed a resolution in 2001 endorsing the school’s quest to attract the library. SMU emerged as a frontrunner in December, when the site selection committee announced it would enter into discussions with the school.
First lady Laura Bush is an SMU graduate and sits on the board of trustees. The president and Mrs. Bush are members of Highland Park UMC, which stands at the edge of the Dallas campus.
Another petition drive—this one supporting a Bush library at SMU—was launched by the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a group that describes itself as working for scripture-based reform in the mainline denominations.
Most library opponents cite Bush’s foreign policy, particularly the war in Iraq. In recent weeks, critics have stressed concerns that SMU would have no control over the Bush institute, a partisan think tank that would further his administration’s views.
“The policy institute would report to the Bush Foundation and not to SMU,” said the Rev. William McElvaney, a professor emeritus at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology. “It would be unprecedented in American higher education.”
Speaking earlier to the council, McElvaney said the core question remains unanswered: “Why would SMU accept a policy institute at odds with so much Methodist social theory and practice? Is it one more step toward weakening our Wesleyan and Methodist heritage? … In short, what does SMU stand for?”
McElvaney concluded: “The future soul of SMU is at stake.”
The Rev. William Lawrence, dean of the theology school, spoke in favor of the library.
“This is an opportunity for a historic treasure at our university to be the repository for materials for scholarly
research,” he told the council.
Stephen Drachler, council spokesman, said the meeting “was part of the necessary steps toward the
foundation making a final decision.”
“It signifies that the land needed for the library, museum and institute is available,” he said. “… Now the ball is in the court of SMU and the Bush Foundation.”
The proposed 36-acre site is bounded by SMU Boulevard to the north, Central Expressway to the east, Mockingbird Lane to the south, and Airline Road and Dublin Street to the west. The site now contains dormitories, a parking lot and vacant land.
Turner said the Bush library, museum and institute wouldn’t occupy the whole area. The facility could be built on one of two sites. The site selection committee wanted options.
Before a 40-minute closed-door session to deliberate and vote, the Rev. Eddie Allsup of Lubbock asked Turner if the library and museum had to include the controversial institute.
“It’s a package deal,” Turner replied.
