Anniversaries
Andy Frye - 22 years

Lorinda Lamb - 20 years

Monica Cordero - 17 years

Pam Fincher - 14 years

Marc Peterson - 13 years

Shannon Grandberry - 11 years

Myriah Garcia - 4 years

Deena Nadig - 1 year

As the U.S. economy fluctuates, concern over debt increases.  The national press reports the challenges faced by college students with educational loan repayment that consumes most of their earnings.

SMU University Bursar, Pat Woods, shares the concerns of students and families as they consider how to finance an SMU education.  Her staff offers any number of payment options to reduce the amount of loan debt.  However, students continue to leave college with the fear of repayment.

Last summer, Ms. Woods was asked if she would work with the Wellness faculty to provide students with a class on Financial Literacy.  Faculty and administrators also were concerned with educational debt.  Woods welcomed the opportunity and initiated a pilot program conducted this academic year.

Bursar staff working with the office of Financial Aid prepared a class to be taught as part of the Wellness I curriculum which was offered 5 times this fall and 7 classes in the spring term.  The class covers Navigating the Financial Aid award process, How to make payments and SMUPay, Hot Topics in Financial Aid, Calculating debit, Rules for repaying Educational Loans, and other related topics.  To bring the statistics home to the students, the presentations includes - Beach Ball Financial Trivia - during which students are asked questions about unemployment, debt repayment, and other things to consider when determining how to finance their education.  Prizes are given to students willing to venture a guess.

The response to these pilot classes has been positive.  Wellness faculty report the students as excited to hear the presentation and report that the information is valuable to the students.  Cindy Castro and Stephany Coleman, staff of the Bursar's office and class teachers, are meeting with the Wellness faculty to receive feedback.  Faculty already want the class expanded to cover budgeting.

Next fall Cindy and Stephany will present to over 30 fall Wellness I classes in the hope of reaching 1200 first year students.  Cindy commented, "The Bursar's staff appreciates this opportunity to help students and families manage the cost of education."

SMU continuously and consistently provides graduates a wonderful memory of their years at the university each graduation.  December 17, 2011 inspired faculty marshal, Patricia Alvey, to write, "Would you convey to the academic ceremonies staff what a wonderful job they do.  No place does ceremonies as elegantly as SMU.  And I feel sure it's because of those who work tirelessly behind the scenes."

December 17, 2011 also brought two unusually special comments.

Proud father of undergraduate student.

"I am a proud parent of SMU from Johannesburg, South Africa.  We are delighted to hear that our daughter shall be graduating on December 17, 2011.  My God bless you and the Southern Methodist University.  It has been a wonderful experience.  [Our daughter] is coming to South Africa to start her Internship at Rothschild in Johannesburg. . . She is keen to go back to SMU to read for Masters Degree in International Economics and I have encouraged her to do so."

President Turner's personal reply stated, "I am delighted that your daughter will graduate with her undergraduate degree. . . It is always good to hear that a student has had a great experience at SMU, particularly an international student so far from home."

A kind gesture shared by a faculty member.

"I wanted to write a quick thank you to all of you who were involved in organizing the awarding of David Freitag's posthumous diploma to his parents during the Commencement ceremony on Saturday.  It was one of the more proud moments of my being part of the SMU family.  While it is perhaps unsurprising that John and Anne Freitag were working hard to stay strong for the rest of the children in their family, there were many indications for them as to how touched they were by the care we extended to them -- from the special diploma we arranged to acknowledge his minor in Sociology, to the awareness that David preferred to use the German pronunciation of his last name (contrary to how the parents themselves pronounce it), and definitely to the standing ovation that spontaneously occurred when they crossed the stage.  A number of students have also already contacted me with appreciation for what was done and the class in which it was handled."

These two stories reflect the spirit of SMU as expressed eloquently by Marshall Terry in his Memoir, Loving U.  Professor Terry restates the view of President Willis Tate that SMU is more than a University, it also is a family.

Question
What were the goals set by the Board of Trustees for SMU's 25th anniversary?

Answer
An endowment of $5,000,000
a library & a chemistry building, 100 endowed scholarships and 10 endowed fellowships.