More than four decades ago, the Graduate Research Center of The Southwest was housed on SMU’s campus. Dr. Lloyd Berkner, an internationally respected scientist, was president of the center. Dr. Berkner had plans for extensive expansion. A group of faculty members opposed Berkner’s plans: some because they objected to the conservative viewpoints attributed to Eric Jonsson and his colleagues who founded the center, others because they thought that the presence of a well-funded center initially directed toward the physical sciences and engineering would upset the academic balance at SMU.

The university administration must have been greatly influenced by these objections, because Berkner’s plans were rejected. The Center moved to Richardson where it grew and prospered, eventually becoming The University of Texas at Dallas.

Today SMU has a good chance to be the home of the George W. Bush Library, Museum and Institute. Some of our faculty are objecting to the Bush complex coming here because they dislike the Bush administration or because they believe that a well-funded, conservative institute could upset the academic balance at SMU.

I hope that our current university administration, while considering these concerns, will aggressively pursue the establishment of the Bush complex on our campus. SMU cannot afford to let another significant opportunity slip away.

-Eugene Herrin

Shuler-Foscue Professor of Geological Sciences