Campus divided over Bush library

DALLAS – Negotiations to build George W. Bush’s presidential library at Southern Methodist University have divided the campus, pitting the administration and some alumni against liberal-leaning faculty members who say the project would be an embarrassment to the school.

Some professors have complained that the combined library, museum and think tank would celebrate a presidency that unnecessarily took the country into a war.

The fear is that the library “will continue to espouse the philosophy and practice of the Bush administration, which has seriously divided our nation and has brought the ire of other countries,” said William McElvaney, a retired professor at SMU’s theology school and co-author of a November opinion piece in the campus newspaper titled “The George W. Bush Library: Asset or Albatross?”

SMU emerged as the front-runner in the competition last month when the library site selection committee said it was entering further discussions with the 11,000-student, private university in one of Dallas’s wealthiest neighborhoods. The project will be financed with a private fund drive aimed at raising at least $200 million.

Bush connections to SMU run deep. First lady Laura Bush is a graduate and is on the board of trustees. Vice President Dick Cheney previously served on the board. Presidential adviser Karen Hughes and former White House counsel Harriet Miers are both graduates.

SMU officials said the project is unlikely to be derailed by the faculty opposition, and said the professors opposed to it are in the minority.

Brad Cheves, vice president for external affairs and development, said the library could help recruit students, attract visitors and increase giving. “It raises the profile of SMU no matter how people feel about President Bush,” he said.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to comment. And a spokesman for former Bush administration Commerce Secretary Don Evans, chairman of the library search committee, would not comment on whether the objections from some of the 600 faculty members would affect the panel’s final decision, expected in a few months.

Other faculty say they would welcome the library.

“This takes us to a whole new level,” said Rita Kirk, a politics professor who has done research at other presidential libraries.

As for the students, Luis Arango, a 21-year-old junior and political science major, said on campus Friday: “This school has a very conservative vibe, and most of the students like Bush. The only people who don’t seem to be the faculty. I know for a fact that some are real liberal and I don’t think should be teaching here.”

As for the alumni, many of them are wealthy and conservative. And Mike Boone, who is on SMU’s board of trustees and earned undergraduate and law degrees from SMU, said an overwhelming majority of alumni support the Bush library project.

“It’s prestigious and brings a lot of value to a university,” said Boone, a Dallas lawyer who has known Bush since he was Texas governor.

The other finalists are Baylor University in Waco, near the Bushes’ Crawford ranch, and the University of Dallas.

McElvaney warned that not only could the library hurt SMU’s reputation, it could also become a target for terrorists or others who want to strike back at Bush.

“Dallas is already known as the city in which President Kennedy was assassinated, so does Dallas want a Bush library that could become a prime terrorist target?” McElvaney asked.