Bush Library Redux

Southern Methodist University agreed on Friday to a unique arrangement that would make it the home of the George W. Bush presidential library and also of an independent institute that would promote President Bush's views and not be controlled by SMU. Inside Higher Ed has the story, and here is the press release from SMU. Some "experts--at SMU and beyond--think the university has agreed to terms that undercut the ideal of presidential library centers as places to promote scholarship."

From the very beginning, the proposed library has been controversial. Faculty concerns focused not on the library, but on the institute which will have an explicitly partisan agenda not usually associated with presidential libraries. As today's article points out, the institute will be "independent of academic governance of the university [and] 'celebrate' the president and his tenure in office." Frankly, it's hard to imagine what there will be to celebrate at the end of this presidency except the departure from Washington of Bush, Cheney, and their cronies.