From the President

As SMU welcomes a new class of students to the University this fall, we also celebrate the continued generosity of our donors. SMU Ignited is making an impact across the Hilltop and beyond. Through the new Frances Anne Moody Hall, a gift from the O’Donnell Foundation, and much more, our University will support groundbreaking student research and innovation that creates lasting change in our local communities and across the globe.

Moody Hall is now home to our eighth degree-granting school, the Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, and provides a wide range of support services to our graduate students. The support of the Moody Foundation – the largest gift in SMU’s history – brings doctoral and other graduate programs in several schools under one institutional umbrella and supports graduate students with competitive fellowships.

A new $30 million gift from the O’Donnell Foundation champions data science and engineering. The foundation, created by the late Peter O’Donnell, Jr. and the late Edith Jones O’Donnell, will name and endow SMU’s data science institute and will create the Initiative for Digital Innovation in Engineering and Computer Science.

In this update, you can also read about several other SMU Ignited donors fueling initiatives across campus, including gifts from the late Mary Frances Burleson ’57, the Phillips Foundation and our Golden Mustangs from the Class of 1973, who raised $6 million toward our campaign goal.

Just weeks ago, we announced that next year, SMU will join the Atlantic Coast Conference, with fellow members like Stanford University, Duke University and the University of Virginia. This will both increase our athletic competitiveness and profoundly influence every aspect of our growth. Thanks to an unprecedented financial commitment by a group of 30 donors in only seven days, SMU raised an astounding $100 million to bolster our transition to the ACC. These early commitments will empower SMU to compete among the elite national institutions of the ACC and usher in this new era of athletic and academic excellence.

Inside this issue, you can read the related thoughts of Jennifer Gelety Flanagan ’82 and Martin L. Flanagan ’82, who also share their journey as Mustang alumni and dedicated supporters of SMU Athletics.  We hope you will join them in supporting our expanded drive to complete fundraising for the Garry Weber End Zone Complex at Gerald J. Ford Stadium.

Pony Up! 

R. Gerald Turner
SMU President