On Wednesday afternoon, SMU faculty and staff gathered for a luncheon Wednesday to hear Dr. Paul W. Ludden, provost and vice president for academic affairs, give his presentation on “The Future as SMU’s New Provost.” The event, sponsored by the Faculty Club, had to be relocated to the Ernst & Young Gallery of the Finch Building because of an overwhelming turnout. The cost to attend was $12 for members and $15 for nonmembers.

During the lecture, Provost Ludden showed a PowerPoint of SMU and its outlook for the future. Ludden listed faculty and their various awards, achievements and contributions to the school. Next, he discussed goals for the upcoming year, which include “implementing the recommendations of the task forces on honors, international study, and drug and alcohol abuse.”

After discussing SMU specifically, Provost Ludden went on to compare SMU to other schools, such as Rice, Notre Dame and TCU. He stated, “To be honest, we’re behind the game compared to other institutions we aspire to be like,” in terms of independent research.

Ludden mentioned, “We need to launch ourselves into a portfolio that will allow for research activity.” He went on to compare budgets and funding of the other schools to that of SMU, and he also distinguished among retention and graduation rates, and SAT scores.

Allen Hughes of Information Technology Services who also has a daughter at SMU, commented, “I thought the statistics comparing the benchmark schools were very telling.”