SMU In Dallas Gets Bush Library

By ANGELA K. BROWN / Associated Press

DALLAS — Southern Methodist University will be home to George W. Bush’s presidential library, officials announced Friday after more than a year of exclusive negotiations.

The only surprise was when – not if – the deal would be announced.

It finally happened after SMU’s board of trustees on Friday approved the official agreement with the Bush Foundation, which will manage construction and raise money for the project, expected to cost more than $200 million.

The library, museum and public policy institute – called the presidential center – will be on the east part of the 11,000-student, private university in one of Dallas’s wealthiest neighborhoods. The library and museum will be run by the National Archives and Records Administration, while the institute will be run by the foundation.

The Bush Foundation and institute will have separate boards of directors elected every year, but each will have at least one member from SMU. The university and institute also will create an academic advisory committee with representatives from SMU and the foundation to examine joint ventures.

Many considered it as all but a done deal for some time: Bush said last year that he was leaning toward SMU, which is his wife’s alma mater, and the couple are expected to live in Dallas when he leaves office in January. But the process was bumpy at times.

Last spring semester the issue dominated many SMU Faculty Senate meetings as some members voiced their opposition, mostly to the partisan think tank that will promote the Bush administration’s views and will not be under SMU’s control. Some said the library wouldn’t provide true access for historians because not all documents would be there.

In one of its most interesting votes on the matter, the faculty group asked the school to request that Bush rescind his order allowing former presidents to keep White House documents secret forever.

Some Methodist ministers also joined the fray, launching an online petition drive that garnered about 11,000 signatures from those opposed to SMU hosting the library, museum and institute. The group said some Bush administration policies – going to war with Iraq, torturing foreign prisoners – conflict with church teachings.

Despite Friday’s announcement, one of the petition organizers said the fight is still not over.

The Rev. Andrew Weaver said that although a Methodist mission council gave SMU permission last year to lease land for the project, delegates from a larger church body must vote on that decision. The church’s South Central Jurisdiction meets in July.

Although some have called such ratifying votes “a technicality,” Weaver said the jurisdiction’s delegates should be allowed to have their say in the SMU issue. If they don’t vote or choose to ratify the council’s actions, Weaver said he and others are considering a civil lawsuit.

“It’s David vs. Goliath, but the first time that fight went on, David did win,” said Weaver, a New York research psychologist who graduated from SMU’s Perkins School of Theology.

SMU was named the lone finalist in December 2006, edging out the University of Dallas – which withdrew a month later – and Baylor University in Waco near the Bushes’ Crawford ranch, which still held out hope for hosting the library until recently.

Texas also has the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station and Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin.