RGT - the D Magazine interview

[skyscraper]

http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d ... -on-campus

There is way too much for me to try and TL;DR this, so click the link and read the lengthy article that just came out about RGT and the money he's raised since arriving and how far SMU has come in the past two decades and where the school is headed.

One nugget I did find interesting was toward the end:

Turner has no plans to leave SMU anytime soon. He wants to be there to see that the university climbs into the top tier. “Twenty years ago, we started with a commitment to improve the academic quality of the institution and its national visibility,” Turner says. “That’s still the No. 1 goal.”

[StallionsModelT]

Terrific article and outlines the truly remarkable transformation that has happened at SMU while RGT has been here. We aren't where we want to be yet (Top 40 USNWR and $2B endowment) but we are getting there in a hurry. I graduated from SMU in 2006 and I can hardly recognize the university as I remembered it. That's a testament to our BoT and RGT's vision. The next decade will be huge also. The momentum from our $1B fundraising campaign must carry over.

[coloradoStang]

Thanks for posting. I learned a lot. I shared it with my fraternity buddies. Very good article

[gostangs]

I think the endowment is the next big push. Need to get over 2B quickly and add some distance between us and a few lesser schools who have drawn closer in endowment while we have built about 20 buildings.

I also wish we could align with someone to create a boutique med school. Med schools drive research - and research drives academic reputation among the egg heads. We could align with Methodist hospital which seems like a natural.

[blackoutpony]

Here's hoping the two buildings we don't own east of 75 are barley house and milos.

[SoCal_Pony]

Didn't particularly care for the mentions of Baylor & TCU as our peers.

Also, for the record, we have hovered around 53-60 in the USNews rankings for over 30 years now. We have to do better.

[gostangs]

I have seen our list of peer schools. Neither Baylor nor TCU is on it. They are both over 150 pts below us in average sat scores. That is a huge canyon.

[Pony^]

Didn't particularly care for the mentions of Baylor & TCU as our peers.

Also, for the record, we have hovered around 53-60 in the USNews rankings for over 30 years now. We have to do better.

Well, SMU selects its peer schools.

[Pony^]

I have seen our list of peer schools. Neither Baylor nor TCU is on it. They are both over 150 pts below us in average sat scores. That is a huge canyon.

Here is the list:
http://www.smu.edu/Provost/IR/Resources/PeerUniversities

Both Baylor and TCU are considered "Cohort Peer Universities"-- defined as "operationally comparative."

In all fairness, neither Baylor nor TCU are over 150 points below us. For 2014, the schools reported the following average SAT scores: SMU 1308, Baylor 1231 and TCU 1181.

Now Syracuse, a peer school with whom we are tied in the US News rankings, probably is over 150 points below us in average SAT scores. Go figure.

The key, as the article indicates, is getting our peer assessment up. This factor carries a lot of weight in the US News rankings. Perhaps those rating us at other universities have not kept up with SMU's progress. Apparently, Baylor, Syracuse and Marquette receive higher peer assessment scores than SMU.

[PonyKai]

I have competing worries between stale leadership at the top (going on 20 years is a long time) and replacing him with some rube, or someone who doesn't share my vision of what the University can and should be.

[leopold]

I don't mind saying I've long felt that Turner has done a great job. He seems to be very numbers driven but has not only risen the endowment and number of buildings on campus but also done his best to raise the profile by backing athletics and selling the heck out of the school for the GWB library. I think he knows darn well what the school needs and is the man for it for the next decade.

[PonySnob]

Isn't he leaving when the current campaign is over?

[gostangs]

Well I stands corrected, although I say there is no way Baylor or TCU are our peers. Why wouldn't we change our peer group as our position changes? I know they may be operationally similar but not academically. And TCU's sat average is approximately 150 pts below ours.

I also think our aspirational school list should alter. We are too skewed toward smaller lower profile liberal arts schools. We are Not really targeting those schools and honestly never have been. Vanderbilt and USC are the target.

[StallionsModelT]

Well I stands corrected, although I say there is no way Baylor or TCU are our peers. Why wouldn't we change our peer group as our position changes? I know they may be operationally similar but not academically. And TCU's sat average is approximately 150 pts below ours.

I also think our aspirational school list should alter. We are too skewed toward smaller lower profile liberal arts schools. We are Not really targeting those schools and honestly never have been. Vanderbilt and USC are the target.

Here is the vision for SMU moving forward. North Texas is the fastest growing region in the country. Companies continue to move here bringing a talented, diverse workforce. The population of North Texas is expected to nearly double over the next twenty years. The centerpiece of that growth will be Dallas. SMU needs to mirror that growth.

Eventually our undergraduate enrollment will get to 9,000 plus students with the majority living on campus. This will require more housing. SMU has been feverishly buying up land and properties east of Central Expressway for years in anticipation of this growth. I could even see SMU adding another school such as the addition of Simmons. I'm not sure what it could be but I do know that we have those aspirations.

The reality is that SMU will benefit greatly from the explosive growth in our area more than our neighbors in FW and Denton. TCU will always be a regional private that has very little appeal on a national scale. UNT is well....UNT. UTD will continue to be one of the best bang for your buck undergraduate universities with some great technical prowess due to its ties with TI. All that said SMU will be the school that will see a quantum leap forward in national perception and prestige. We have the infrastructure, alumni support, and ties to the Dallas business community that those other institutions simply do not and never will have.

I could envision SMU being a Vanderbilt-esque university in the next 10-15 years. There is much work to be done but we have that potential. Growing the endowment, continued focus on research, visible and successful athletic programs, Bush Library, etc. will all be key. It is not unrealistic to expect SMU to be one in the low 40's or high 30's of the USNWR by 2025.

[friarwolf]

Isn't he leaving when the current campaign is over?

Nope, gonna stay as long as he feels up to it. Board is just fine with that....