At its Friday meeting, the Board of Trustees established the Second Century Celebration to commemorate the 100th anniversary of  SMU’s foundation and opening. The celebration will begin Jan. 1, 2011 and run through 2015, mirroring SMU’s establishment in 1911 and opening in 1915.

At the meeting, the Board also established SMU’s Founders’ Day, to be held on every third Friday of April.

This will commemorate the institutions, organizations and individuals that established the University April 17, 1911. The next Founders’ Day will be celebrated April 15, 2011.

“We are going to try and make it sort of a spring homecoming,” said President R. Gerald Turner, who noted that trustees Carl Sewell and Ruth Altshuler are co-chairing the volunteer planning committee for Founders’ Day, while Provost Paul Ludden and Vice President for Development and External Affairs Brad Cheves are co-chairing the campus-wide committee.

The event will include several programs, including “Inside SMU,” a day of classes opened for alumni, parents and friends of students.

Exhibits chronicling the history of SMU’s development and contributions to the surrounding Dallas community will also be displayed. Other plans call for a commemorative picture book and academic symposia to be planned by the committees.

 “SMU’s founding arose from a vision of excellence in education, shared by leaders of Dallas and what is now the United Methodist Church,” Turner said.

“A century of distinguished academic programs has contributed far beyond this community and region. Celebrating this milestone honors the scholars, leaders and others who have shaped SMU. It also enables us to focus on current achievements and the potential for even greater impact in SMU’s Second Century,” he said.

The Board also reviewed the initial layout of the five new residence halls, which was originally planned to be built where Mrs. Baird’s Bakery previously stood. The residence halls will now be constructed on the main campus just behind Park Cities Plaza, near Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports. The Mrs. Baird’s property will contain tennis courts, a data center and an electrical substation. 

Turner said that there will be “a lot of changes” to the original schematics for the dormitories, and the Board will work with the architectural firm to ensure that they are made.

The Board also changed the name of two majors.

The division of cinema-television is now the division of film and media arts, and corporate communications and public affairs will now be called the division of communication studies.

The Board also approved a new master’s degree of music in theory pedagogy, effective fall 2011.

Two new master’s program specializations in the Simmons School for Education were approved, including a specialization in higher education to begin next fall and a specialization in urban school leadership which will begin this coming summer.