SMU president defends plan to host Bush library

[Judi Lynn]

Jan. 17, 2007, 11:04PM
SMU president defends plan to host Bush library
He urges faculty members opposing it to think about research over politics


By THOMAS KOROSEC
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Dallas Bureau

DALLAS — Responding to protests from some faculty members about the prospect of hosting President Bush's library, Southern Methodist University's president said Wednesday that political passions will give way to historical research.

"Over time, the political component of the library center will fade and the historic importance of the issues will ascend," SMU President Gerald Turner told faculty members at a meeting opening the spring term.

He called the library "a significant opportunity for us to attract to SMU and Dallas one of the most important troves of information of one of the most critical decades in the history of our country."

SMU emerged last month as the front-runner to host the proposed library-museum and think tank when Bush's site selection committee said it was entering further discussions with the 11,000-student, private university. It has pursued the library since fall 2000, when Bush was campaigning for a first term.

The faculty members' chief complaint has been that a think tank that will come along with the library will be sharply conservative and undercut the school's nonpartisan traditions. There is also strong political opposition to the president's policies among those leading the faculty protest.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4478816.html

[Frank Cannon]

1. The idea of a Bush "think tank" is too funny for words.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Who makes the final decision about the library? The Board of Trustees,

the President?

[Lasher]

3. You won't recognize history with the half billion dollar stink tank attached

That's what it's for.

[MGKrebs]

4. A library where you are not allowed to read anything?

It will all be redacted or classified.

[tanyev]

5. A shrine to America's descent into fascism.

That's what its historic importance will be. I bet SMU will regret it. George Bush has effed up everything he has ever come into contact with.