Talk:Southern Methodist University

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[edit] added Honors Program information

I added information relating to the University Honors Program. I am the Honors Program Coordinator, an expert on the subject, and I found that there was no mention of this significant institution on campus. The UHP is the 3rd largest organization on campus (after Residence Life & Student Housing and Panhellenic organizations), at around 1000 participants. It noticeably affects the quality of life on campus - for instance, a large number of non-Honors students read the campus publication Hilltopics, which was founded by an all-Honors editing staff. During any given semester, roughly 1/6 to 1/7 of the undergraduate student body participates in Honors courses. Nearly all Honors students share common learning experiences since they are all required to take Honors Rhetoric I and II, courses that cover a broad array of authors and modern philosophical thinkers. UHP students also attend the Gartner Lecture series and social events together as a group. Thus, for a large portion of the student body at SMU, Honors provides a cohesive, intellectual environment that encourages extra-curricular involvement and a life of the mind. Behemoth101 21 January 2006

[edit] Endowment

The National Association of College and Business Officers reports on endowments every year. The numbers provided are $1,122,477,000 for 2006 and $1,013,713,000 for 2005. http://www.nacubo.org/documents/research/2006NES_Listing.pdf SMU is number 55 on the list. SMU's Website now states: $1,121,360,015 for 2006. http://www.smu.edu/ir/Publications/Fact_Sheet_2006/Financial_2006.asp


Some anonymous user set the endowment to $750 million, with the comment "Again, alumni trying to inflate statistics." See here.

That turd breath's IP maps to 68-113-223-195.dhcp.ftwo.tx.charter.com. Let's see, Ft. Worth? I wonder where that guy is from? Nova SS 02:58, 11 February 2006 (UTC)


[edit] change of 12 February 2006

According to the 2006 usnews college list the endowment for SMU is $908,903,000 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nmpenguin (talk • contribs) 09:40, February 12, 2006 (UTC-6)

The US News College List is not as up to date as news articles. See this USA Today article. I am reverting the endowment figure to be greater than $1 billion. Please do not switch unless you find a current source. Nova SS 22:27, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
here is the link for the above stated endowment number. I would assume usnews has it correct, and this is 2006, right.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/directory/brief/drglance_3613_brief.php

Nmpenguin, stop vandalizing this article. The publication you mention is an annual publication and is not as up to date as the news releases I cited. I changed the citation to directly reference SMU's own figure. DO NOT CHANGE unless you can provide current journalism that shows that SMU is lying about its endowment. Nova SS 02:03, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] replacement for Vanderbilt within the Methodist Church?

I have heard that SMU was built as a replacement of sorts for Vanderbilt University, which was disaffiliating from the Methodist Church about the same time as SMU was founded. Can anyone else substantiate this? --rogerd 17:40, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Actually, Emory and SMU replaced Vanderbilt after the Southern Methodists lost in the Tennessee Supreme Court:

From the beginning the legal relationship between the MECS and Vanderbilt University was not clearly defined. Methodist leaders "assumed" the University was "theirs" and thus "assumed" that it would conform to Methodist understandings and sensibilities in every way. Prominent Southern Methodists, including all the bishops, were appointed to the Board of Trust, and careful attention was given by the University's officers, who themselves were prominent in the denomination, to nurturing Methodist ties. But all suspicion was not erased. Several incidents in the University in the period 1875-1905 led some Methodist leaders to believe that the University was not "thoroughly loyal" to the Methodist tradition. One of those issues was the appointment of several non-Methodists to the faculty. Misgivings reached a climax in 1905 when the Board of Trust voted to seek a new charter for the University giving only five bishops membership on the Board and clearly establishing the autonomy of the Board vis-à-vis the Church.

Bishop Elijah Hoss, a former faculty member, was furious. He led the group claiming that the University belonged to the Church and thus that the Church had final jurisdiction over all University matters, including the Board of Trust. The Board, of course, took the opposite position. The matter came to a crisis in 1910 when the General Conference of the MECS elected three new members to the Board of Trust whom the Board, in turn, refused to seat. To resolve the matter, the Church filed suit in Davidson County Chancery Court to establish its authority over the University. In 1913 that Court ruled in favor of the Church's position. Vanderbilt immediately appealed. On March 21, 1914, the Supreme Court of Tennessee reversed the lower court's decision, declaring that the founder of the University was Cornelius Vanderbilt, that the Board of Trust had authority to name its own trustees, and that the Church did not have veto authority over Board actions. The leadership of the University and cooler heads in the Church hoped that, with the legal situation clarified, the two institutions could continue in the same relationship as before the crisis leading to the lawsuit, but that outcome was not to be. The General Conference of 1914 voted 151 to 140 to sever all ties with Vanderbilt and to establish two new universities. In time the MECS founded Emory University in Atlanta and Southern Methodist University in Dallas to compensate for the loss of Vanderbilt.

http://pages.prodigy.net/nhn.slate/nh00073.html


The history of Emory's founding and early years is important in understanding our current relationship with the UMC. In 1914 Vanderbilt University split with the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (one of the predecessors to the UMC) over the issue of whether the conference had the power to appoint Vanderbilt trustees. The Supreme Court of Tennessee sided with Vanderbilt, giving the UMC the right only to ratify selections made by the board itself. As a result, the UMC set up an educational commission to identify two new universities in the Southeast, ultimately selecting Emory-which moved from Oxford to Atlanta and created Candler-and Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas. In order to prevent a future "loss" of a primary university and theological seminary, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South entered into specific legal relationships with Emory and SMU.

http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_REPORT/erarchive/1997/June/erjune.23/6_23_97MethodistTies.html

[edit] Miscellaneous Link and Other Minor Issues

To repair: 1) The target page for "Micheal Mitchell" points to the Austrailian football player, not the American actor. There is no page for MM the actor, yet. 2) any others? Anjin 19:52, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Guild Hall

I would like to see some information on the Guild Hall program there if anyone has some good information. Anable 06:00, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Seconded. The Guild Hall is a pretty nifty idea and should be addressed. Anjin 19:53, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately the Guild Hall doesn't have a very comprehensive web site.

[edit] Question...

Would it be wrong to create a page for ISEM (Institute for the Study of Earth and Man)? I believe it is noteworthy enough on its own to have a page on Wikipedia.Silver seren 23:22, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Relevance of Article Information

I am questioning the relevance of including information about recent student deaths. While the information is important to current news, I am not sure that it belongs on the wiki article. Is this information that other universities post? How long does the information stay relevant to the article? If this information is included, should recent professor/faculty deaths and retirements be included as well? Peruna2001 14:11, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] References

This article has several series of indexed references that go to an identical source, such as http://www.cox.smu.edu/aboutcox/rankings/. That produced a cluttered References section. One could improve this by using named references, e.g. <ref name=coxranking>[http://www.cox.smu.edu/aboutcox/rankings/]</ref> where it first occurs, and then at each further location in the article simply <ref name=coxranking />. Note that " /" at the end of the repeated links. That gives one same [..] index number for each occurrence (which will no longer annoy the reader who already clicked five times on a different index number to find always the same url) and a single line in the references section (and the article takes less bytes). — SomeHuman 01 Sep 2007 02:20 (UTC)

[edit] Too many links

This article contains too many web links in "Academic Profile" and "Campus Museums and Libraries" section. As per WP:NOT#LINK, they aren't supposed to exist here. Either remove them or use them in inline citation --NAHID 23:33, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Skilling enron.jpg

Image:Skilling enron.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 05:43, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Smu logo.gif

Image:Smu logo.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 05:45, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Bush Library

An anonymous user keeps adding the text saying that "Many alumni, however, are..." worried or something along those lines. Isn't that an NPOV violation? It's not cited, either. Can we remove it? Mr. E. Sánchez Wanna know my story?/ Share yours with me! 22:25, 18 May 2008 (UTC)