Ben Manthey, a junior from Dallas majoring in history with minors in Chinese and business, has spent Spring 2008 in Beijing at the Capital University of Economics and Business. He shares his perspective on life and learning in the People's Republic - including the deadly Sichuan earthquake that has devastated the nation - at his Student Adventures blog. (Right, Ben's photo of night life in Central Beijing's Houhai district.)

The SMU Athletic Department, in conjunction with the SMU Lettermen's Association, inducted the 2008 inaugural class of the SMU Athletics Hall of Fame during ceremonies May 2. Forrest Gregg, Lamar Hunt, Martina Moravcova and Payne Stewart were honored, with Don Meredith serving as honorary chair. See Athletics Hall of Fame video online.

Ruth P. Morgan, political science professor emerita and former SMU provost, will appear on "Sharing the Power: A Voter's Voice Special" to air on KERA TV (Channel 13) at 8 p.m. May 28 and on KERA Public Radio 90.1 at 6 p.m. May 29.

The program, hosted by Sam Baker, will examine the filing of the lawsuit in Dallas that led to single-member district government and how this concept is becoming increasingly important in the North Texas area.

Morgan also will be interviewed by Baker on the KERA Morning Edition news casts through May 29.

Listen to the radio broadcast via streaming audio at the KERA website.

SMU will play a featured role in the 4th season of the FOX Network's "So You Think You Can Dance." Several SMU students auditioned for the program during a segment shot in McFarlin Auditorium. The next episode airs at 7 p.m. Central time May 26.

See photos and video at FOX's "So You Think You Can Dance" website. (Right, dancers warm up in a McFarlin hallway as they wait to audition.)

Volkan Otugen, Mechanical Engineering Chair, talked about the effects of North Texas' high winds on gas mileage with Ken Kalthoff of NBC 5 News. See the video broadcast May 1, 2008.

Her Favorite year: In April, Gwen Beauchamp (center right), an information support specialist in the Cox School of Business, won $5,000 for her Toffee-Banana Brownies recipe in the Pillsbury Bake-Off's "America's Favorite Recipe" competition. Now, as nominated by her children, she's been chosen as one of three semi-finalists in the "Chairman of Everything Mom" category of "America's Favorite Mom," presented by Teleflora. The semi-finalists were selected from over 20,000 nominations by a panel of parenting experts, and one each from five categories will be chosen by online voting to appear in a Mother's Day special hosted by Donny and Marie Osmond.

Watch Gwen on "The Today Show" during the 9 a.m. hour on Friday, May 9 - then vote for her at the America's Favorite Mom website. Meanwhile, watch Gwen's nomination video at the NBC Television website.

Van Kemper, Anthropology, was interviewed and served as a principal consultant for a 5-part radio documentary, "A Village Away From Home: Seattle's Purepecha Community," produced by KUOW 94.9 FM in Seattle. Listen online.

First Lady and SMU trustee Laura Bush ('68, right, with Meadows Dean José Bowen) received the 2008 Robert S. Folsom Leadership Award for community service, presented annually by the Methodist Health System Foundation. Meadows students provided entertainment at the April ceremonies. See a slide show.

The Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery, former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, presented SMU's 14th annual Robert O. Cooper Peace and Justice Fellowship Lecture on April 20, outlining the history and future of the civil rights movement and its importance to America. See the event in streaming video.

Natalie Kashefi and Sara Gingrich, both SMU undergraduates majoring in biology, spent a day introducing third graders at Dallas' Lipscomb Elementary School to the life cycle of sea urchins as part of their school science class. Accompanying them was SMU Provost Paul Ludden, who has facilitated such volunteer efforts at local schools for 18 years, since his own daughter was in third grade. See a slide show from SMU News.

Brian Frehner, a former Fellow in SMU's Clements Center for Southwest Studies, will interview with Krys Boyd on her popular talk show, "Think," 1-2 p.m. today (April 9 ). Listen live online at KERA-FM 90.1.

Frehner, assistant professor of history at Oklahoma State University, is co-organizer of the 2008 Clements Center Symposium, "Indians and Energy: Exploitation and Opportunity in the American Southwest," which takes place April 12. He will discuss the upcoming symposium and its mission to tell the complicated and ongoing story of Native Americans and energy development in the Southwest. The symposium will offer a variety of perspectives from senior and junior historians and Native American activists, with implications that loom large for the future of energy tribes and the nation as a whole.

Find more symposium information and register online at the Clements Center website.

The Honorable Roy Huffington endowed SMU's Department of Earth Sciences with a $10 million gift March 27, 2008. Watch a streaming video of the announcement from the SMU Video Library.

SMU theatre major Bryan Lewis (right) has snagged the grand prize in Paramount Pictures' "Into the Wild" competition with a short film that follows him on a weekend escape into the wilderness. Read more from SMU News and watch his winning video online.

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard spoke at the Tower Center Forum March 12. The event was held in the Harlan Crow Library at the home of Kathy and Harlan Crow. Mr. Howard also visited the SMU campus the following day for meetings with SMU President R. Gerald Turner and the faculty of the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies. See a slide show.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited SMU March 5-6 to receive the Medal of Freedom - and took time to speak with local high school students in the 2008 Hart Global Leaders Forum (right). Read more and see a slide show about Blair's visit.

SMU students answered the call to do something rewarding with their spring break - and they blogged their experiences, too. Find these stories at SMU's popular Student Adventures site:

• Human rights pilgrimage in the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany
• Habitat for Humanity project in Taos

Fourteen talented Meadows singing actors performed selections from the Broadway stage March 7 in the Owen Arts Center. The showcase was the culmination of a two-week workshop with acclaimed Broadway conductor Kimberly Grigsby ('91), music director for Spring Awakening, the 2007 Tony Award winner for Best Musical. As an additional bonus for Meadows students, Grigsby brought her Broadway colleague Adam Guettel, the Tony-winning composer and lyricist of The Light in the Piazza, to help provide finishing touches to the performance. See a slide show.

Eleanor Clift (left), contributing editor for Newsweek and co-author of Madam President: Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling, was the keynote speaker at SMU's 43rd annual Women's Symposium Feb. 28, 2008. Watch streaming video from the Symposium at the SMU Video Library.

Take another look at the Bush Presidential Library signing ceremony with video and a slide show assembled by SMU News. (Right, George W. Bush Foundation Chair Donald Evans and SMU President R. Gerald Turner; photo by Hillsman S. Jackson.)

• Watch the video.
• See the slideshow.

The SMU Economics Club hosted Elizabeth Wheaton, Economics, and Al Armendariz, Environmental Engineering, for a discussion of North Texas air quality issues. Listen to their podcast: "Hazed and Confused: Making Sense of Our Air Quality Problems," at SMU's iTunesU site. Launch iTunes U from SMU's portal page and click to the Dedman College > Economics Club - Events section. You will need to install iTunes if you don't have it already - it's fast and free at apple.com/itunes.

Watch student-created videos like this one - featuring a scene from Puccini's La Bohème - from the Meadows Opera Gala Feb. 8 at YouTube. Then, read about the production from a student's perspective at Student Adventures.

Cal Jillson, Political Science, talked about the Mar. 4 Texas primary for 2008 - and what it will take to win - in KERA Public Radio's Voters' Voice Special, "Texas and the Presidential Election." Listen online to the Feb. 6 broadcast.

KERA also came to campus Feb. 12 to discuss the election with SMU students. Read more and listen online.

Podcast of the Week: SMU's Spring 2008 Career Fair is Feb. 13. Meanwhile, students can listen up for expert advice with the Hegi Family Career Development Center's podcast at SMU's iTunes U site. Launch iTunes U from SMU's portal page and click to the Campus Life > Student Activities section. You will need to install iTunes if you don't have it already - it's fast and free at apple.com/itunes.

Religious Studies Chair Mark Chancey (left) was the featured speaker for Temple Emanu-El's annual adult education course, this year titled "The New Testament: First Century Jews, First Century Christians." Now, Temple Emanu-El has graciously provided audio files of Chancey's lectures for online listening and downloading. Click here for more.

Men's Basketball Coach Matt Doherty will appear in the opening-week broadcast of ABC's "Road to March Madness," which airs at 2 p.m. CT Feb. 2. Doherty will appear in the network's New York studio with Bonnie Bernstein and Tom Brennan. Part of the feature was also shot on campus inside Moody Coliseum and during practice at the new Crum Basketball Center. The show will air each Saturday before ABC's coverage of NCAA basketball. Read more.

Fox Broadcasting's "So You Think You Can Dance" held its first round of auditions in SMU's McFarlin Auditorium Jan. 17-19, 2008. More than 400 contestants lined up at 5 a.m. for their chance to strut their stuff in front of Judges Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy and Adam Shankman, and show host Cat Deeley. You'll have to wait until later this spring to see who made the cut for the show's fourth season, but in the meantime check out this slideshow.

As SMU celebrates 2008 MLK Week, SMU News has made available online, for the first time ever, the speech Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made in McFarlin Auditorium. Gene Halaburt of Dallas, who was near the front of a standing-room-only crowd of students and faculty members, taped the Mar. 17, 1966 speech with a hand-held recorder and has graciously provided a copy to the University. (There is a brief gap in the recording at about 40 minutes, possibly caused when the cassette was turned over.) Listen here.

Student journalists from SMU covered the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary as part of a partnership with Fox TV to report on the race for the White House. The team covered the process from the perspective of college students in tandem with KDFW/Fox 4 in Dallas-Fort Worth. Visit links to their blog posts and video news clips. (Left, Mark Norris [black coat] and Ann Wyatt Little [red coat] interview a candidate supporter.)

Legendary producer and SMU alumnus Bob Banner talked about his adventures working with Perry Como, Dinah Shore and Carol Burnett during the Golden Age of Television at SMU Dec. 5, 2007. Watch the two-part video online.

About 705 graduates received their degrees in SMU's December graduation ceremony Dec. 15, 2007. Watch the highlights in Flash video.

SMU remembers Martin Luther King Jr. during 2008 MLK Week Jan. 21-26 (see Calendar Highlights for details). And now, for the first time ever, the speech Dr. King made in SMU's McFarlin Auditorium is available online. Gene Halaburt of Dallas taped the Mar. 17, 1966 speech with a hand-held recorder and has graciously provided a copy to SMU. (There is a brief gap in the recording at about 40 minutes, possibly caused when the cassette was turned over.) Listen here.

Take another look at SMU's 30th annual Celebration of Lights - and take it with you on your video iPod:

• See a slide show
• Watch a video
• Download a video to your iPod

SMU's 30th annual Celebration of Lights took place Dec. 2, 2007, on the University's Main Quad. It featured more than 100,000 decorative lights and luminarias, caroling and a reading of the Christmas story from the New Testament by SMU President R. Gerald Turner.

• See a slide show
• Watch a video
• Download a video to your iPod

International and civic leaders, a former athlete turned dentist and an emerging theatre star received the University's Distinguished Alumni Award (DAA) during formal ceremonies on Nov. 8, 2007. See the ceremony as it was rebroadcast on SMU-TV Channel 19 in the Park Cities.

Three important new Meadows Museum exhibitions opened Nov. 30, 2007. "Coming of Age: American Art, 1850s to 1950s" runs through Feb. 24, 2008; "Jerry Bywaters, Interpreter of the Southwest" and "Lone Star Printmaker" run through Mar. 2, 2008.

• Hear an interview with co-curators Sam Ratcliffe and Ellen Buie Niewyk by Laurel Ornish of ClassicalTexas.com, with remarks by Meadows Museum Director Mark Roglán
• See a gallery of some of the paintings on exhibit

The Guildhall at SMU is part of an interactive exhibit on the history of video games being hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's Economic Adventure Gallery. "Video Games Evolve: A Brief History from Spacewar! to MMORPGs" examines the video-game industry's roots, which are firmly planted in New England. Watch Guildhall Art Creation Instructor Chris Adams (right) explain motion capture in this video.

Rita Kirk, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, discussed the points the Dallas Cowboys score when they make a difference in their community with WFAA-TV (ABC Channel 8) Nov. 25, 2007. Watch the news video.

Junior President's Scholar Timothy Roy has made a big impression at one of Dallas' biggest institutions. For Neiman Marcus' 100th anniversary, the music composition major wrote three different pieces that were played in the flagship store in downtown Dallas in October and November. Read more and listen to Roy's compositions.

Podcast of the Week: Get the scoop on campus events with the Friday Update from Student Life. The Office of Student Life's Michael Hogan hosts the weekly rundown at SMU's iTunes U site. Launch iTunes U from SMU's portal page and click to the Campus Life section. You will need to install iTunes if you don't have it already - it's fast and free at apple.com/itunes.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport gives away about $125,000 a year in free parking - much of it to politicians and their spouses who aren't always doing the people's business. Robin Lovin (left), SMU's Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics, discussed the ethical dimensions of using and extending such privileges with WFAA-TV (ABC Channel 8).

Podcast of the week: The SMU Student Filmmakers Association shows its work with the Student Short Films vodcast (video podcast) at iTunes U. To find all SMU's iTunes U presentations, visit smu.edu/itunes and click "Take me to SMU on iTunes U." You will need to install iTunes if you don't have it already - it's fast and free at apple.com/itunes.

Kim Edwards - author of the biggest-selling book of 2006, The Memory Keeper's Daughter - visited SMU Oct. 25 to talk about life as a best-selling author and the re-release of her 1997 short story collection, The Secrets of a Fire King. See the video at SMU News.

Dedman Law Dean John Attanasio discussed privacy issues involved when attorneys market their services to recipients of traffic citations through public information requests. The segment aired on NBC Nightly News.

Robert Krout (right), Music Therapy, demonstrated the phenomenon of "ringxiety" - the sensation that you hear or feel your cell phone ringing when it's not - for KXAS-TV (NBC Channel 5).

Jessica DuBois, Hegi Family Career Development Center, talked about the impact Facebook entries can have on future employment in a news segment produced by WFAA-TV (ABC Channel 8).

To succeed in today's workplace, employees must have very clear ideas about their own strengths and weaknesses, said pioneering researcher and best-selling author Marcus Buckingham during the Turner Construction Student Forum Oct. 16. Unfortunately, he continued, "Most of us are just rubbish at it. The most popular answer in job interviews to the question 'What are your strengths?' is 'I like working with people,' or 'I'm a people person' - with no mention of which people or what you're doing with these people." Read the Q&A and watch the video.

Award-winning Teach For America founder and CEO Wendy Kopp (left) gave SMU's 10th annual Louise B. Raggio Lecture in Women's Studies Oct. 4. Listen to a podcast from the event.

Award-winning journalist Frank Sesno gave SMU's 8th annual Rosine Smith Sammons Lecture in Media Ethics Oct. 10. Hear his Oct. 8 interview on KERA 90.1 FM's Think! program.

Journalists Jim Lehrer, George Stephanopoulos and David Gergen (left) discussed the long campaign and hard choices involved in Election 2008 at the Turner Construction Student Forum Sept. 18. The complete Forum is now available as online video at SMU News.

SMU political scientist Dennis Simon discussed the presidential candidacy of Texas Congressman Ron Paul with FOX News' Brit Hume on Sept. 11, 2007. Watch the video at the SMU News site.

SMU's Perkins School of Theology launched a major expansion of its facilities with a groundbreaking ceremony Sept. 7. Watch the video from SMU News.

The next election is still more than a year away, but the permanent campaign already is in full swing. Keep up with the issues (and non-issues) with University experts at SMU's Election 2008 Web site.

SMU Magazine is now online! Read and comment on the Spring/Summer 2007 issue at smu.edu/smumagazine.

SMU hosts the U.S. premiere of the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival hit Truth in Translation for four performances Sept. 6-8 in the Bob Hope Theatre. Learn more in our Calendar Highlights section, and check out a video preview.

Cal Jillson, Political Science, discusses the controversial tenure of outgoing U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales with USA Today and on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight."

Jim Hollifield (left), director of the Tower Center for Political Studies, joined former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich in a discussion of ideology and politics on KERA Channel 13's "McCuistion."

Patricia Mathes, director of SMU's Institute for Reading Research, is featured in the PBS series "Reading Rockets" in an episode to air on Dallas' KERA Channel 13 at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 2. Mathes appears in the "Untapped Potential" segment discussing the progress children are making in several Fort Worth Independent School District elementary schools using an SMU-developed curriculum. Read more.

Katherine Browne (center), who received her SMU English degree in 1976 and a Ph.D. in anthropology in 1993, tells the story of a large St. Bernard Parish family fractured by Hurricane Katrina in "Still Waiting: Life After Katrina." The documentary will air on KERA Channel 13 Aug. 28, the eve of the second anniversary of the killer storm's landfall. Read more from SMU News, and visit the film's official Web site.