CNN:
DALLAS, Texas (AP) — Negotiations to build George W. Bush’s presidential library at Southern Methodist University have divided the campus, pitting the administration and some alumni against liberal-leaning faculty members who say the project would be an embarrassment to the school.
Some professors have complained that the combined library, museum and think tank would celebrate a presidency that unnecessarily took the country into a war.
The fear is that the library “will continue to espouse the philosophy and practice of the Bush administration, which has seriously divided our nation and has brought the ire of other countries,” said William McElvaney, a retired professor at SMU’s theology school and co-author a November opinion piece in the campus newspaper titled “The George W. Bush Library: Asset or Albatross?”
SMU emerged as the front-runner in the competition last month when the library site selection committee said it was entering further discussions with the 11,000-student, private university in one of Dallas’s wealthiest neighborhoods. The project will be financed with a private fund drive aimed at raising at least $200 million.
Bush connections to SMU run deep. First lady Laura Bush is a graduate and is on the board of trustees. Vice President Dick Cheney previously served on the board. Presidential adviser Karen Hughes and former White House counsel Harriet Miers are both graduates.
SMU officials said the project is unlikely to be derailed by the faculty opposition, and said the professors opposed to it are in the minority.
Not mentioned in the article is why the President would want his library to be at a college rather than in his own library, like most Presidents. Given Georgie Boys fondness for self aggrandizement and spending taxpayer’s money, you’d think he would build a gold plated Taj Mahal with champagne fountains for his papers. But, Presidential Libraries, by their nature are public institutions. As such, they cannot have any restrictions put on access to the information in their collection, except where that information is classified or sensitive. If you go to the Bill Clinton Library in Arkansas, you can see everything, read all declassified papers and do research on the president’s term, using primary documents. They even have a section on the Lewinski Affair. But, by donating his papers to SMU, W., like his father, who donated his papers to Texas A&M, can put any restrictions on them he wants.
George Bush Senior’s collection has its access restricted indefinitely. Any researcher wanting to so much as read his lunch receipts would have to get written permission form the president.
Just one more example of the Boy Who Would Be King telling all us serfs to stop asking so many damn questions and while were at it, why don’t we just fuck off and die.
Update: see Dr. Andrew in comments.
