HOUSTON — More than a quarter of the faculty at Southern Methodist University on Thursday demanded a referendum on whether the Dallas campus should become the home of the George W. Bush Presidential Library, if that means accepting a conservative think tank as part of the deal.
The petition, which was signed by 170 faculty members -- including professors from all six SMU schools, several department chairs and past presidents of the faculty senate -- is the latest sign of rancor over the proposal to bring Bush's papers and an institute touting his legacy to the university.
SMU is the alma mater of First Lady Laura Bush, who sits on the private school's board of trustees. It was selected as the chief finalist for the library last month by a search committee of Bush loyalists that includes former White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. and former Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans.
University President R. Gerald Turner is among a group of professors and school officials that strongly supports the library. These backers argue that it would yield invaluable insights for future scholars and bring prestige to SMU.
But for months, other professors and some Methodist ministers have been voicing concerns about whether the school should be affiliated with a president whose positions -- including the decision to invade Iraq -- do not, in their view, represent Methodist values. Some also worry that the school's reputation for academic freedom would be compromised by having a partisan Bush Institute on campus.
The search committee has proposed that the institute be controlled by a private Bush foundation, which would appoint its fellows.
The debate took off in November, when the SMU Daily Campus printed an opinion piece titled "The George W. Bush Library: asset or albatross?" The authors -- William K. McElvaney, a professor emeritus, and associate professor Susanne Johnson, both of the Perkins School of Theology -- made clear where they stood.
"Do we want SMU to benefit financially from a legacy of massive violence, destruction, and death brought about by the Bush presidency in dismissal of broad international opinion?" the two wrote. "What moral justification supports SMU's providing a haven for a legacy of environmental predation and denial of global warming, shameful exploitation of gay rights, and the most critical erosion of habeas corpus in memory?"
