Two alumni who lived on campus as SMU students are now making it possible for greater numbers of future students to enjoy the residential experience with new enhancements.

Elisabeth Martin Armstrong ’82 and William D. Armstrong ’82 (right), of Denver, have committed a $5 million gift toward the construction of SMU’s new Residential Commons complex, a grouping of five residential facilities and a dining hall, designed to expand learning outside the classroom.

The Residential Commons model represents a new direction in SMU student housing. Each Residential Commons will include faculty in residence, expanding opportunities for learning, informal interactions and mentoring, says Paul Ludden, provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Construction of the Residential Commons (rendering at bottom right) will begin in early 2012. The complex will be located north of Mockingbird Lane near the Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports and Gerald J. Ford Stadium on the main campus. Expected to open in fall 2014, it will provide housing for 1,250 students, along with a dining facility for residents of the complex. Each Commons building also will include classrooms, seminar space and faculty accommodations. Currently existing residence halls will also be renovated to achieve the Residential Commons model by 2014.

In addition to private gifts, revenue from room and board will help to fund each Residential Commons.

“The Armstrong family’s gift to SMU will help ensure that future students will benefit from a close-knit, living and learning community that will enhance their SMU experience,” says SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “We are grateful to the Armstrongs for funding the first Residential Commons, and we are pleased to name it in their honor.”

Supporting SMU is a family tradition for the Armstrongs, 1982 graduates who are among three generations of family members who have attended or are attending SMU. Bill and Liz Armstrong met as geology students in Dedman College during their first year at SMU. They serve as co-chairs of the University’s Second Century Campaign Steering Committee for Denver, served from 2008 through 2011 as chairs of the Parent Leadership Council and were members of the committee for their 25-year class reunion. They hosted a Denver campaign kickoff and several summer send-off parties for Denver-area students attending SMU.

In addition, they contributed support for construction of the Armstrong Casita student residence at SMU’s Taos campus, where as students they attended geology field camp. They are consistent givers to the University’s Annual Fund, and they contributed toward the rebuilding of the new Pi Beta Phi house, where Liz and her daughter, Leigh, were both active members.

> Liz Armstrong discusses her family’s special connection with the Taos campus

At most SMU home football games, they tailgate on The Boulevard with their extended family. Daughter Leigh, the 11th member of their family to attend SMU, graduated May 14 from Meadows School of the Arts, and in 2010 daughter Lindsey earned a Master’s degree in education from the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

The Armstrongs’ gift counts toward SMU Unbridled: The Second Century Campaign, which has raised $538 million to date toward its goal of $750 million to support student quality, faculty and academic excellence and the campus experience.

> Read more from SMU News

During Engineering & Humanity Week in April, Lyle School of Engineering students built and lived in shelters designed to house the poor or those displaced by war and natural disasters.

“People at a school like SMU have no concept of what it means to live on one dollar or two dollars a day,” Lyle School Dean Geoffrey Orsak said. “The Living Village will help provide a window into the lives of 3 billion people in the world.”

Engineering students and volunteers spent one weekend constructing nine different structures on campus. The entire village was “off the grid,” with no wired electricity, running water or modern technology.

During the week, 25 students stayed in the Living Village. The students lived, cooked and slept in the temporary shelters designed for refugees.

“I’m really excited about living here,” first-year student Samuel Beyer said. “I’m looking forward to showing people around the village and raising awareness for problems at emergency sites.”

The Hunter & Stephanie Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity sponsored the program.

Read student blogs about the experience »

Source: SMU Daily Campus

The SMU Archives is looking for “a few good Rotundas.” To prepare for the SMU centennial, the archives department will need to deconstruct one copy from each class year.  “It breaks our heart to do this,” says University Archivist Joan Gosnell, “but this small sacrifice is for the greater good.”

The Archives is in need of SMU Rotundas from the following years: 1956, 1966, 1971, 1978, 1979, 1992 and 1996.

These yearbooks will not be returned, as they will be taken apart during the archiving process. If you own a Rotunda from one of these class years and would like to donate it to SMU Archives, please contact Joan Gosnell, University Archivist, at 214-768-2261 or jgosne@smu.edu. Yearbooks can be shipped to:

DeGolyer Library
c/o Joan Gosnell
Southern Methodist University
PO Box 750396
Dallas, TX  75275-0396

More information about accessing the archived yearbooks will be available later this year.

Remember ordering pizza with your freshmen floor roommates or planning events with your fellow student organization members? Whatever favorite memories you may have of the Hilltop, there were groups of people who helped make those experiences special. Gather them up and reconnect at a Mustang Mini Reunion during Homecoming weekend, November 3-6!

SMU’s new Mustang Mini Reunions aim to reunite alumni with shared SMU connections. These alumni-driven gatherings are limited only to your imagination – round up the Mademoiselles from the 60s, the Frisbee Foundation members from the 70s, former lacrosse players or spirit squads and experience the excitement of Homecoming together this fall.

Planning a Mustang Mini is easy. Simply decide which group of friends you’d like to reconnect, contact SMU’s Office of Reunion Programs for a toolkit, and you’re on your way. We’ll post information about your Mustang Mini online, help with registration and even provide you with a list of venue options excited about hosting your group.

Mustang Minis are taking shape all over campus! A few examples include:

• Beta Theta Pi
• Delta Gamma
• Delta Sigma Theta
• Former Homecoming court members
• Meadows alumni
• Residence Halls
• Sigma Alpha Epsilon
• Sigma Lambda Gamma

Other Mustang Minis are also in the works. Interested in organizing a Mustang Mini for your special group of friends? Click here for more information.

Representatives of the Moody Foundation and SMU announce the Foundation's $20 million commitment.

David B. Miller '72, '73 and Carolyn Lacy Miller

Two lead gifts – a $20 million gift from the Moody Foundation and a $10 million commitment from SMU trustee David B. Miller ’72, ’73 and his wife Carolyn Lacy Miller – will help provide an extensive expansion and renovation of Moody Coliseum.

Moody Coliseum is a campus and Dallas landmark that is home to the pageantry of SMU Commencement as well as numerous speaking, athletics and community events such as concerts and high school graduations.

The project will feature new premium seating as well as courtside retractable seating designated for students and renovation of the entry lobby and concourses. Technology improvements will include new video boards, scoreboards, sound system, broadcast capabilities and heating and cooling systems. In addition, office suites, restrooms and locker rooms will be upgraded. Additional donors will be sought for the $40 million project.

Project planning and design will begin immediately. The construction start date has not yet been determined.

• Read more about the gift from the Moody Foundation »
• Read more about the gift from David and Carolyn Miller »

SMU is answering students’ calls for learning opportunities outside the classroom with a new program that will provide both structure and funding for their endeavors.

The University’s Quality Enhancement Plan – “Unbridled Learning: Engaged Learning Beyond the Classroom” – will allow SMU undergraduate students to participate in at least one extensive experiential learning activity before graduation, according to the plan released by SMU’s QEP Committee. It also meets requirements for the University’s upcoming reaccreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

The program will allow undergraduates to “build on their formal classroom education through participation in structured experiential learning beyond the classroom, which will help them to develop a significant and sophisticated understanding of the ways in which the context of the world community intersects with disciplinary knowledge,” according to the committee’s executive summary.

A survey of SMU students conducted by the Meadows School of the Arts’ Temerlin Advertising Institute found that more than 80 percent of them find that it is important to experience life outside the classroom.

The QEP will provide opportunities – and University support, including funding – for undergraduate students to choose an out-of-classroom experiential learning activity in the community focus area of their choice:

• Research
• Creative
• Civic
• Professional

Each student will be in charge of identifying, defining, completing and reporting on his or her work, with approval by an advisory committee and overseen by SMU faculty and mentors.

To support the QEP, SMU is creating a grant program, advisory board and staff director to help students through the process.

Learn more about SMU’s Quality Enhancement Plan.

As SMU turns 100, we honor our heritage and look to our future. On Friday, April 15, SMU will celebrate its first annual Founders’ Day – a full complement of festivities recognizing those who founded the University and their vision for its future as a beacon of world-class academia. Founders’ Day will include Inside SMU, featuring a day of classes by SMU faculty for alumni, parents and friends, as well as Golden Mustangs Day, a reunion for all alumni from the classes of 1960 and earlier.

Register for the Founders’ Day activities here.

In anticipation of the inaugural Founders’ Day celebration, we’ve put together a quiz designed to test your knowledge of your beloved alma mater. After you take the quiz, use the Facebook button to share your score and challenge the fellow Mustangs on your friends list to beat you!

Are you ready to test your SMU IQ?

DALLAS (SMU) — The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has raised SMU's classification among institutions of higher education, reflecting dramatic growth in the University's research activity since it was last measured in 2005.

SMU is now categorized as a research university with "high research activity," a significant step up from its last assessment in 2005 as a doctoral/research university. The Carnegie Foundation assigns doctorate-granting institutions to categories based on a measure of research activity occurring at a particular period in time, basing these latest classifications on data from 2008-2009.

"SMU's rise in the Carnegie classification system is further evidence of the growing quality and research productivity of our faculty. We are building a community of scholars asking and answering important research questions and making an impact on societal issues with their findings," said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. "In addition to our dedication to outstanding teaching, SMU is becoming increasingly recognized as a vital resource for research in a variety of fields."

Read the full story.

SMU paleobotanist Bonnie F. Jacobs is sharing with the public her scientific field work in Ethiopia as it happens, in real time, through posts filed to The New York Times’ “Scientist at Work” blog.

Jacobs, one of a handful of the world’s experts on the fossil plants of ancient Africa, is part of a team of paleontologists hunting plant and animal fossils in Ethiopia’s prolific Mush Valley. Jacobs is an associate professor in SMU’s Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences.

The Times’ “Scientist at Work” blog features scientists’ first-person accounts of their field work as it unfolds day by day. Jacobs filed her first post on Dec. 27 as the scientific team she is part of arrived in Ethiopia. Her fourth — and final — post of the current field season, “A Last Look at Mush Valley,” was published January 21.

As part of the new communication studies course “Environmental Communication: Lessons Learned from the BP Oil Spill,” 12 students traveled to the Gulf Coast in January to meet communication leaders involved in the crisis, as well as coastal business owners and environmental scholars and scientists. The speakers included public affairs officers for the Coast Guard and Louisiana governor's office, Sun Herald editors, the president of the Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce and spokespersons for the seafood and travel industries.

Nina Flournoy, senior lecturer of communication studies in Meadows School of the Arts, said the speakers recounted the convoluted flurry of information and misinformation during the moments and months after the spill. "My students learned that a transparent, honest approach to media, marketing and advertising is the only way to gain public trust in today's multitiered communications climate of 24/7 news coverage, blogs, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter," she says.

She says her students also gained a respect and deep concern for what residents said is the larger story — the vanishing coastline. Because of decades of dredging and offshore drilling, Louisiana loses the equivalent of one football field of wetlands every 38 minutes, leaving its cities more vulnerable to hurricanes. "So the question becomes, how do you get that information across to the rest of the country in a way that is meaningful?" she says. "For communication students, I can’t think of a better lesson to learn."

Read the students’ blog entries about their trip.