George W. Bush Library - Asset or Albatross?

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Bluer White

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DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- Negotiations to build George W. Bush's presidential library at Southern Methodist University have divided the campus, pitting the administration and some alumni against liberal-leaning faculty members who say the project would be an embarrassment to the school.

Some professors have complained that the combined library, museum and think tank would celebrate a presidency that unnecessarily took the country into a war.

The fear is that the library "will continue to espouse the philosophy and practice of the Bush administration, which has seriously divided our nation and has brought the ire of other countries," said William McElvaney, a retired professor at SMU's theology school and co-author a November opinion piece in the campus newspaper titled "The George W. Bush Library: Asset or Albatross?"

SMU emerged as the front-runner in the competition last month when the library site selection committee said it was entering further discussions with the 11,000-student, private university in one of Dallas's wealthiest neighborhoods. The project will be financed with a private fund drive aimed at raising at least $200 million.

Bush connections to SMU run deep. First lady Laura Bush is a graduate and is on the board of trustees. Vice President Dick Cheney previously served on the board. Presidential adviser Karen Hughes and former White House counsel Harriet Miers are both graduates.

SMU officials said the project is unlikely to be derailed by the faculty opposition, and said the professors opposed to it are in the minority.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/01/15/bush.library.ap/index.html

Would you support the 'W' library at your alma mater? And SMU faculty opposition: wise or foolish?
 
It could be worse BVS, you could be in Biloxi where they built the Jefferson Davis Presidential (sic) Library a few years ago with Kirk Fordice and Trent Lott doing the dedication honors... :happy:

It's not just 'lefty' faculty opposed to this, there's a petition by a dozen Methodist bishops and several clergy against it too, and from what I've heard it's in fact the theology school faculty who've been most vocal.

But several Presidential libraries are located on college campuses, and I don't know that any of them were wholly without controversy at the time--as the article mentions, there were large protests when the LBJ library was opened at U Tex Austin, and the Nixon library was originally meant to be located at Duke, but that got scrapped in the face of steep faculty opposition. I don't know if any protests accompanied the construction of the Bush Sr. library (Texas A&M) or the Ford library (U Mich) but it wouldn't surprise me. Part of the issue is that it's often unclear (or perhaps too clear) in advance whether a proposed Presidential library is more aiming to be a center for historical research or a genuflecting tourist attraction; the former would be quite acceptable to most faculty, the latter may well not be. In any case, it's generally the trustees (which at SMU happens to include Laura Bush) who have the real power and final call in these decisions.
 
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I wouldn't support it, however it wouldn't surprise me if one was built here. I'm silly enough to go to the same conservative school for both of my degrees :happy:

Ironically, last night SMU (which I also like to call Southern Millionaire's University) contacted me asking me to interview for a job with them that I most certainly did not apply for. I respectfully declined ;)
 
There was a similar fight at Whittier Law School over the Nixon Library. So my city ended up with it.

To be honest it's a pretty cool thing to have access to. Regardless of the name on the front the exhibits are quite interesting.
 
The Nixon and Reagan Libraries are not at any colleges

I am sure W's supporters / beneficiaries could fund and build a spectacular edifice to the W year's on private property somewhere.
 
perhaps there are a few acres adjacent to Huntsville or Livingston or where ever W did his some of his best work.

In his five years as governor of Texas, the state has executed 131 prisoners -- far more than any other state. Mr. Bush has lately granted a stay of execution for the first time, for a DNA test.

In answer to questions about that record, Governor Bush has repeatedly said that he has no qualms. "I'm confident," he said last February, "that every person that has been put to death in Texas under my watch has been guilty of some crime, and has had full access to the courts."
 
Luckily, my school/employer names all their buildings after whichever rich Dutch patron donates the most money (so we have lots of areas on campus called De Vos this or De Vries that).

Bush spoke at our commencement 2005 and that still is a huge controversy.
 
I think it's a FANTASTIC idea.......

George W. Bush is one of America's most important presidents, and the ONLY one to openly go head-to-head with global terrorists.

His legacy should be studied for many years to come.
 
Think tank? :hmm:

Well every President is entitled to have that, but personally I wouldn't want it at my school *shudder* Couldn't they just name the school gym after him, wouldn't that be more appropriate?
 
my college wouldn't even let George Stienbrenner build a baseball stadium because he's too much of an uncouth embarassment to our genteel New England ways.
 
Bush will be remembered for what he is - as a international terrorist and war criminal.

The only museum to him would be one entitled the museum of George W. Bush - war criminal and international terrorist.
 
AchtungBono said:

His legacy should be studied for many years to come.

In the same way you'd study any disaster.
Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Maybe in the future we'll be able to forget about his legacy.
That is the best case scenario.
I feel the U.S. will be dragging his mistakes around for decades.
 
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AchtungBono said:
I think it's a FANTASTIC idea.......

George W. Bush is one of America's most important presidents, and the ONLY one to openly go head-to-head with global terrorists.

His legacy should be studied for many years to come.
It is a shame that they needed to kick out people out of their home`s for this. It is not even sure if the library will be build there. I guess it is pre emptive kicking out.
 
GW and library in the same sentence is funny enough. I betcha he calls it the "liberry". It'll be the first library with no books.
 
wouldn't it be more appropriate to have a W.Bush DVD store or something? free rentals of "Smokey and the Bandit" on Thursday evenings?
 
Maybe by 'library' they mean a kick arse collection of Sports Illustrated back issues and a couple of comfy bean bags, possibly a pool table.

Surely they have a section in these things to commemorate 'achievements' and such. Is this where there's a looping video of Bush saying "I once caught a bass thiiis big!" and that's about it?
 
As much as he is an uneducated dumbass tool, he is still the president, and therefore is going to get his name on shit all over the usa when he finally fucks off out of the white house.

I can't WAIT for a George W Bush high School, where everyone uses the internets and the google, learn phrases and then fuck them up, and practives sniggering in a way that makes you want to smash their faces in! :happy:
 
MrPryck2U said:
GW and library in the same sentence is funny enough. I betcha he calls it the "liberry". It'll be the first library with no books.

Well...maybe it'll have 'pit-chur' books.
You know nothing with too many words..
 
no matter what, i'm sure there will be a big list of banned books.

like this one:

159420103X.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V51816843_.jpg
 
"premeptive kicking out"--LOL Rono!

Oh yeah, and and dazzlingamy, the library would not admit blacks, Hispanics, Middle Easterners, Koreans (or anyone who looked black, Hispanic, Middle Eastern or Korean), or pregnant women even THINKING about getting an abortion--there'd be a Homeland Security guy at the door with some new kind of "abortion-idea-meter" scanner or something. DOF's newest technology.
 
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