UMC leaders OK library plan

BY HOLLY K. HACKER
The Dallas Morning News

Regional leaders of the United Methodist Church gave Southern Methodist University permission Wednesday to lease part of campus for the Bush library, in a move that helps SMU secure its chances of officially landing the library complex.

The Mission Council of the UMC’s South Central Jurisdiction voted 10-4 in favor of the plan, with one abstention, at a special meeting held near Love Field that drew a mix of opponents and supporters of the Bush library and a related policy institute. SMU’s bylaws require that it get church permission to lease or sell any campus land.

For the first time, SMU officials described the overall boundaries for where the library would be located: SMU Boulevard to the north, Central Expressway to the east, Mockingbird Lane to the south and Airline Road and Dublin Street to the west.

SMU President Gerald Turner stressed that the library complex would not take up all that land on SMU’s eastern edge, totaling 36 acres - just part of it. SMU officials have declined to name specific sites they’ve proposed, and Dr. Turner said an exact site is still being discussed with the library selection committee.

Dr. Turner said he was grateful for the vote. “It’s a major step toward providing the kinds of opportunities that the site selection committee would obviously want,” he said.

Most of the meeting was open to the public, but the council deliberated and voted behind closed doors. The vote tally was made public, but not how each member voted. Council members - a mix of church laypeople and clergy - declined to comment on their decision and deferred to a church spokesman.

“It was a good exchange. There was no rancor,” spokesman Stephen Drachler said. “I would think it would be a typical United Methodist discussion with a wide range of views.”

Several SMU professors and others came to voice their objection to SMU hosting the library complex, in particular a partisan public policy institute. As proposed by the library selection committee, the institute would not report to SMU. Some professors and others say the institute would push pro-Bush policies and harm SMU’s academic freedom.

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