SMU News Feed

SMU prepares for mosquito season

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:47:00 GMT

Summary: Because mosquitoes are especially active in North Texas from May to September, the City of University Park has been spraying for mosquitoes to diminish the threat of West Nile virus. SMU is working with area authorities in addressing the mosquito problem.

Severe Weather Forecasted for North Texas

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:38:00 GMT

Summary: The SMU area is currently under a tornado watch, which means conditions exist for the formation of tornadoes. In the event of a tornado warning, you will be told to immediately seek shelter inside the nearest building and remain there until notified to resume normal activities.

The SMU area is currently under a tornado watch, which means conditions exist for the formation of tornadoes. Severe weather with the possibility of hail is expected to move into the North Texas area in the early afternoon. Please be aware of your surroundings and the location of the nearest campus buildings.

If the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning for our area, which means a tornado has been spotted, SMU will notify students, faculty and staff by text, email, social media and a posting at the top of the SMU homepage.

In the event of a tornado warning, students, faculty, staff and visitors will be told to immediately seek shelter inside the nearest building and remain there until notified to resume normal activities. Go to the lowest level of the building and stay in interior hallways away from glass doors and windows. If possible, monitor TV and website news. SMU will endeavor to keep you updated on the situation with regular postings to Twitter, Facebook, email and the SMU homepage.

Congrats to the Grads

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:01:00 GMT

Summary: Former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison received an honorary degree during commencement Saturday.

DALLAS (SMU) – Former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison delivered the commencement address and received an honorary degree at SMU’s Spring 2013 Commencement Convocation on Saturday.

Hutchison spoke about entrepreneurial spirit and a "can-do" attitude as important legacies from the graduates' time at SMU: "Class of 2013, the best of your life is yet to come, and you are ready!"

President R. Gerald Turner conferred approximately 1,500 undergraduate and graduate degrees upon students from all of SMU’s schools and professional programs. This year’s spring ceremony fell midway through the University’s centennial celebration, which marks the university’s founding in 1911 and its opening in 1915.

The ceremony was staged in front of SMU’s first building - Dallas Hall - on the historic Main Quad. Against a campus backdrop of oak trees and red brick buildings, students and faculty marched to the quad in their academic regalia, accompanied by processional music.

“Commencement allows us to celebrate our SMU graduates’ achievements and look forward with them to the future. By awarding honorary degrees, we also recognize individuals who have made important contributions to academia and society,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “Commencement is one of our most cherished Hilltop traditions, and this year’s outdoor ceremony will be particularly memorable.”

In addition to Hutchison, a technology entrepreneur, a former U.S. ambassador, a distinguished scholar and a criminal justice reform activist also received honorary degrees for distinguished contributions in their fields. The honorary degree recipients were:

James Robert (Bob) Biard received the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, for his outstanding contributions in the field of optoelectronics. Biard received the world’s first patent for the light emitting diode (LED), now ubiquitous in devices ranging from digital clocks and remote controls to television screens and traffic lights. He holds more than 75 patents for his inventions. Biard is an adjunct professor of electrical engineering at Texas A&M.
Swanee Hunt received the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, for her efforts toward world peace and gender parity. Hunt was ambassador to Austria during the Balkan War and helped host programs aimed at stabilizing the neighboring Balkan states. She is founder and president of the Institute for Inclusive Security, which trains women peace builders around the globe. She also is a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Kay Bailey Hutchison received the degree of Doctor of Engineering, honoris causa, for her distinguished career in public service and support of higher education. Hutchison is the first woman to represent Texas in the United States Senate, serving from 1993 to 2012. During her years in the Senate, she expanded higher education opportunities for thousands of Texans and championed advancements in science, technology, engineering and math education. Hutchison helped bring to SMU more than $20 million in federal research funds.
Francis Christopher Oakley received the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, for his distinguished contributions to higher education as a scholar and administrator. Oakley is the Edward Dorr Griffin Professor of the History of Ideas and president emeritus of Williams College, where he led establishment of the tutorial form of instruction. He has written 13 books and served as president of the American Council of Learned Societies.
Bryan A. Stevenson received the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, for his efforts to achieve social equity through criminal justice reform. Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, which provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair treatment in the legal system. Stevenson also is a professor of clinical law at New York University School of Law.

In addition, nine retiring faculty members were recognized during Saturday's Commencement Convocation:

William Beauchamp, Associate Professor of French in Dedman College
David Blackwell, the William B. Hamilton Chair in Earth Sciences in Dedman College
Robert C. Davis, Associate Professor of Mathematics in Dedman College
Margaret (Maggie) H. Dunham is Professor of Computer Science and Engineering in Lyle School of Engineering
Charles (Charley) Helfert, Associate Professor of Theatre in Meadows School of the Arts
Robin W. Lovin, the Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics and former dean of Perkins School of Theology
Bijan Mohraz, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Lyle School of Engineering.
Laurence (Larry) Scholder, Professor of Art in Meadows School of the Arts
Linda Brewster Stearns, Professor of Sociology in Dedman College

The Rotunda Recessional was held Friday evening and followed the Baccalaureate Service, where United Methodist Bishop Michael McKee was the speaker. Undergraduate candidates, led by faculty and alumni marshals, marched through the front doors of Dallas Hall, through the Rotunda and around to the University's main quad. This tradition welcomes graduates into their new phase of membership of the SMU community - their life as alumni.

Click here for more information about May Commencement Weekend.

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SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools.

Shareholders care about executive pay

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:27:00 GMT

Summary: Mel Fugate, management professor at SMU's Cox School of Business, talks about shareholder's concerns over executive pay.

By Len Boselovic

Shareholder votes on executive pay mandated by the sweeping Dodd-Frank financial markets overhaul legislation enacted in 2010 are changing how public companies compensate their top executives.

Even though the votes are advisory and most companies pass the nonbinding tests with flying colors, more companies are listening to shareholder concerns over pay, as well as reaching out to large investors and the influential proxy advisory firms that provide guidance to shareholders on how to vote.

"Compensation committees and boards are definitely listening," said Southern Methodist University business professor Mel Fugate.

The pay referendums have put two perquisites that were on the decline even more out of favor: free use of the corporate jet and gross ups, which are reimbursements for taxes that executives pay on compensation....

Medical care obstacles

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:07:00 GMT

Summary: Eric Bing, professor of global health at SMU's Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, writes about overcoming obstacles of distributing medical care in developing countries.

By Eric G. Bing and Marc J. Epstein

Angelina Jolie’s recent decision to have a prophylactic double mastectomy has helped reduce her risk of getting breast cancer from 87% to 5%. Her courage to speak openly about the treatment has raised awareness and may save many other women as well. For her heroism, we should be grateful – and we should also look, as Ms. Jolie herself has, beyond America and the developed world.

“We cannot close ourselves off to information and ignore the fact that millions of people are out there suffering,” she has said. Few women have access to BRCA1 gene testing or advanced surgical care, and many women in developing countries don’t even have access to basic medical care, sanitation, or clean water and suffer deadly consequences as a result.

Every year, more than a quarter of a million women die during childbirth and almost 7 million children under five die as well. Why? Because, even though we have the medical solutions that people around the world need, we just can’t get it to them. They are dying not because we can’t solve a medical problem, but because we can’t solve a distribution problem. Saving these lives does not need to be costly, and it can be done now....

Eric G. Bing, MD, PhD, MBA is Senior Fellow and Director of Global Health at the George W. Bush Institute and Professor at Southern Methodist University. Marc J. Epstein, PhD is Distinguished Research Professor of Management at Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. Bing and Epstein are co-authors of Pharmacy on a Bicycle, a new book about saving lives by using proven business approaches to get medical care to those who need it most – including African women at risk for cervical and breast cancer, the main focus of the George W. Bush Institutes’ global health efforts.

Women scientists overlooked

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:55:00 GMT

Summary: Anne Lincloln, sociologist at SMU's Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, talks about women scientists who were snubbed due to sexism.

By Jane J. Lee

In April, National Geographic News published a story about the letter in which scientist Francis Crick described DNA to his 12-year-old son. In 1962, Crick was awarded a Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA, along with fellow scientists James Watson and Maurice Wilkins.

Several people posted comments about our story that noted one name was missing from the Nobel roster: Rosalind Franklin, a British biophysicist who also studied DNA. Her data were critical to Crick and Watson's work. But it turns out that Franklin would not have been eligible for the prize—she had passed away four years before Watson, Crick, and Wilkins received the prize, and the Nobel is never awarded posthumously.

But even if she had been alive, she may still have been overlooked. Like many women scientists, Franklin was robbed of recognition throughout her career (See her section below for details.)

She was not the first woman to have endured indignities in the male-dominated world of science, but Franklin's case is especially egregious, said Ruth Lewin Sime, a retired chemistry professor at Sacramento City College who has written on women in science.

Over the centuries, female researchers have had to work as "volunteer" faculty members, seen credit for significant discoveries they've made assigned to male colleagues, and been written out of textbooks.

They typically had paltry resources and fought uphill battles to achieve what they did, only "to have the credit attributed to their husbands or male colleagues," said Anne Lincoln, a sociologist at Southern Methodist University in Texas, who studies biases against women in the sciences....

'A Life in Letters'

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:41:00 GMT

Summary: Author and alumnus Joe Coomer's donated papers are featured in a DeGolyer Library exhibit that runs through May 24.

The career and achievements of acclaimed author and SMU alumnus Joe Coomer is being celebrated in a retrospective exhibition at SMU’s DeGolyer Library through May 24.

“Joe Coomer: A Life in Letters” explores Coomer’s creative process using handwritten drafts, manuscripts, galleys, letters, first editions, translations and other materials drawn from the literary archive he recently donated to DeGolyer Library. The gift of more than 20 boxes of materials includes essays and stories, tests, a transcript and other papers from his time as an undergraduate in SMU’s creative writing program. He graduated in 1981.

Known for his graceful prose and memorable characters, Coomer has published eight works of fiction, two non-fiction books and one collection of poetry. His writing has been praised by The Boston Globe as “fresh and authentic” and as “compelling” and a “genuine pleasure” by The New York Times.

“Joe Coomer is one of the great voices to emerge from SMU’s English department and creative writing program,” says Russell L. Martin III ’78, ’86, DeGolyer director. “We are honored and delighted to have his papers, where they will join our growing collection of the archives of other contemporary writers. It is also fitting, during SMU’s centennial, that we recognize our own.”

A 30th anniversary edition of Coomer’s debut novel, The Decatur Road: A Novel of the Appalachian Hill Country, was published by DeGolyer Library in conjunction with the exhibit. Click here to order a copy of the book.

First published in 1983, the book won the Jesse A. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Arts and Letters in 1984. He started writing the book as an SMU student. “I wrote three of the short segments for an independent study with Marsh [Terry]. He liked them, so after I graduated, I wrote 55 more,” Coomer says.

Terry ’53, ’54, who retired in 2007 as the E. A. Lilly Professor of English, founded the creative writing program and the SMU Literary Festival and became Coomer’s mentor and friend.

“Joe Coomer transferred into SMU and came to my office in Dallas Hall and asked, ‘Are you the writing teacher?’ I nodded my head and did my best, and Joe turned out to be the leader of our nationally celebrated SMU Literary Festival. John Updike and Raymond Carver heard him read at the festival and were impressed,” Terry recalls.

“I am happy his collection of books and papers will be part of the permanent collection,” says Terry. “Much will be learned as we study those unique ledgers in which Joe brings to life his wonderful characters.”

By his own account, Coomer first arrived on the Hilltop as a rough draft of the successful writer he would become. In the essay “He Sang at Me: Marshall Terry, the SMU English Department, and One Writer’s Beginnings,” he describes a life-changing University experience and the indelible impact of a professor who urged him to find his voice as a writer, to “become himself”:

“Some say it’s impossible for one person to teach another to write. I know I fell in love with writing during my stay at the SMU English department, wanting to be like the people who worked there. Marsh took the time to encourage me. As far as I’m concerned, he used his whole life to encourage me.”

Copies of the essay, a version of which was published in SMU Magazine in fall 2006, are available at the exhibit.

The Joe Coomer retrospective is among several significant library exhibits and events planned this year to showcase the University’s special collections. In 2013, as part of its Second Century Celebration, SMU is commemorating the Year of the Library — celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the University’s first library, the appointment of its first librarian and the acquisition of its first books.

“Joe Coomer: A Life in Letters”, March 21-May 24, is free and open to the public. DeGolyer Library hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. It is located at 6404 Robert S. Hyer Lane (formerly known as Hilltop Lane) on the SMU campus. For more information, please contact DeGolyer Library at 214-768-0829.

Mrs. Shipley keeps first no-fly list

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:36:00 GMT

Summary: "Mrs. Shipley's Ghost: The Right to Travel and Terrorist Watch Lists" by Jeffrey Kahn, law professor at SMU's Dedman School of Law, is nicely reviewed.

By Nina C. Ayoub

She looks harmless enough. A photograph shows an elderly woman at a desk in what appears to be paisley and pearls. Her hair is in a matronly updo, her glasses—pince-nez?—frame her gaze downward as she studies a small booklet. It isn't immediately obvious it's a passport.

Mrs. Ruth Bielaski Shipley was chief of the U.S. State Department's Passport Office from 1928 to 1955 after having started as a clerk in 1914. Her power is difficult to overstate. "A wonderful ogre," she was called by one appreciative boss, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. While much of her bureau's business was conducted without issue, she single-handedly delayed, thwarted, or otherwise constrained the travel plans of thousands of Americans. Among them were household names—Paul Robeson, Linus Pauling, Arthur Miller, Lillian Hellman—whose battles with Mrs. Shipley warrant a page or three in their biographies.

Others were unknowns. During the cold war, what many of her targets had in common were their politics. If you were a Communist Party member, or a fellow traveler, or just too pink for the lady, you could be refused a passport. But there was a vaguer category of those who might offend. As Readers' Digest put it in a 1951 profile of Mrs. Shipley: "No American can go abroad without her authorization. She decides whether the applicant is entitled to a passport and also whether he would be a hazard to Uncle Sam's security or create prejudice against the United States by unbecoming conduct." On Mrs. Shipley's watch, embarrassment to the United States could be grounds for grounding.

Despite her once modest fame, Mrs. Shipley has long been lost to history. But readers can newly make her acquaintance in a book in which "Red Scare" meets "war on terror" and neither appears to pass constitutional muster.

For Jeffrey Kahn, author of Mrs. Shipley's Ghost: The Right to Travel and Terrorist Watch Lists (University of Michigan Press), "this extraordinary civil servant is the intellectual ancestor of the No Fly List," a shadowy roster that has been in effect and expanding since the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The scholar, an associate professor of law at Southern Methodist University, came to his topic in 2006 by happenstance, reading The New York Times. ...

One family, one weekend, six degrees

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:51:00 GMT

Summary: Rosa Essaw '13, graduated this week with Bachelor's degrees in political science, human rights and communications. But those are only three of the six degrees received by her family this weekend.

By Jason Wheeler

UNIVERSITY PARK — At an SMU commencement ceremony this weekend, Roza Essaw looked and sounded like a typical graduate.

"I just graduated. It’s exciting! It’s a wonderful feeling!" she said.

But her story is pretty remarkable. Essaw picked up bachelor’s degrees in political science, human rights and communications.

Three degrees. That’s impressive on its own. But it’s just half the story, as told by the announcer on the graduation stage.

"Her mother and father are both graduating with MBAs from Amberton University, and her sister is graduating today with a BS in nursing from Midwestern State University."

One family. Six degrees. In one week.

Higher education is clearly a family affair in Essaw's household....

Biofuel mandate a 'terrible idea'

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:21:00 GMT

Summary: Bernard Weinstein, an economist and associate director of SMU's Maguire Energy Institute, opines against a biofuel mandate.

By Bernard Weinstein

The Renewable Fuels Standard, commonly known as the “ethanol mandate,” is perhaps the most egregious example of resource misallocation resulting from flawed public policies.

Though proposals have been made to reform the mandate, the public interest will be best served if the RFS section of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act is repealed. In the first place, the biofuels mandate has done little or nothing to enhance America’s energy independence or security. Oil imports have dropped dramatically over the past five years, from 60 percent of consumption to around 35 percent; but the credit goes to the shale revolution that has greatly boosted domestic production.

What’s more, the potential contribution of ethanol to the energy mix has been oversold. Processing the entire U.S. corn crop into ethanol would yield energy equal to just...

Bernard L. Weinstein is associate director of the Maguire Energy Institute in the Cox School of Business at SMU and a fellow with the George W. Bush Institute.