Plan to block Bush policy institute at SMU fails at Methodist conference

By LORI STAHL
The Dallas Morning News

Efforts to block construction of a George W. Bush policy institute at Southern Methodist University failed by a narrow margin at a regional Methodist conference Thursday.

But foes of the institute – a planned part of the Bush presidential library complex – said that they may plot another strategy to keep the issue alive before the meeting ends Saturday.

The vote came at a conference of the United Methodist Church's South Central Jurisdiction, which owns SMU. The showdown was the culmination of months of debate among Methodist ministers and church members.

Roughly 275 delegates spent much of the day voting on a series of proposals related to the Bush library. They rejected, by a vote of 158 to 118, a measure that sought to prevent SMU from leasing land for the institute.

"It was a lot closer than I thought it'd be," said the Rev. Danny Gleason of Louisiana, who voted for the measure.

The delegates later approved a resolution saying they expect the institute to protect SMU's integrity, signaling that they don't want the institute's work to affect SMU's academic independence.

SMU maintains that it has already received the church's permission to lease land to the Bush Foundation for the next 250 years. Last year, the church's Mission Council – an executive board that makes decisions between sessions of the regional conference – gave SMU the green light to lease the land.

University officials later signed an agreement with the Bush library foundation committing itself to the project. SMU officials say they had no choice but to accept the institute as part of a planned presidential complex, which also will feature a library and museum.

But a contingent within the denomination has insisted that the full conference should consider the measure.

Opponents of the institute were considering whether to request that the denomination's Judicial Council – its highest court – consider whether church law would be violated by leasing land to what they have characterized as a "partisan, political think thank."

SMU President Gerald Turner, who spent most of the day at the conference, said university officials did what they were told was proper.

"All the advice to us was in good faith," Mr. Turner said in an interview. "I think people recognize that. We followed the process that we were told was appropriate."

Staff writer Sam Hodges contributed to this report.

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