Dedication of the Presidential Library

[Water Pony]

A great concluding remark:

""I dedicate this library with an unshakable faith in the future of our country." - Pres Bush

A congratulations to my 1968 Classmate, Laura Welch Bush.

[soccermom]

I'm glad I got to watch it on t.v....very impressive.

[smustatesman]

Gerry got mentioned but, no mention of June Jay in all of the speeches !!!

[StallionsModelT]

What an unbelievable moment for SMU and the city of Dallas. We were front and center for the entire world to see and we came across AMAZING.

[sail420s]

I like when W said " the student body at SMU was awesome" and you could hear the distant cheer in the background. Apparently, the student section was elsewhere on the grounds watching via TV.

[SMU Pony Mom]

I like when W said " the student body at SMU was awesome" and you could hear the distant cheer in the background. Apparently, the student section was elsewhere on the grounds watching via TV.

Yes, my daughter said she was watching it on a jumbotron on campus.

[gostangs]

pretty interesting to think about the numbers of this thing. IN Dallas this library will get 500k a year in attendance. If even 10% of them decide to go take a look at campus there will be 50,000 more people with positive impressions of SMU going back to their home town and raving about it - which is without question end up increasing our applicant pool. I will guess our 14k applicants goes up to 20 within 2 yrs. That will get us a much higher student quality level.

[StallionsModelT]

Turner said that general interest in SMU has been through the roof in the months building up the library opening. I agree that applications will shoot through the roof in the next few years. Hopefully SMU will have some sort of joint program for those that are visiting the presidential library and want to tour the campus as well.

[StallionsModelT]

I also wonder if SMU should seriously consider getting the undergraduate enrollment near the 10,000 student mark. I believe we are at a point now where the quality of applicants is so high that we really shouldn't be turning away a lot of these kids. If we are able to get the application numbers around 20,000 then we should also increase enrollment. Is 9 or 10K undergrad enrollment a viability at SMU?

[friarwolf]

10,000 isn't doable but they are planning on upping the enrollment once the new housing comes online.............

[StallionsModelT]

Are we talking 8,000 undergrad I guess?

[friarwolf]

7200'ish.......Another 200 students per year give or take to settle in around 1800 students per year..........

[gostangs]

I think you are a bit on the high side. Our current class size is 1450. I see us maybe getting to 1600. We are trying to get up the rankings and it is very tough to do that and grow at the same time. If we can get to 20,000 applications for 1600 spots - we will close to where we want to be be.