Former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison receives honorary degree from SMU President R. Gerald Turner.

Former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison delivered the commencement address and received an honorary degree at SMU’s Spring 2013 Commencement Convocation on Saturday.

Hutchison spoke about entrepreneurial spirit and a “can-do” attitude as important legacies from the graduates’ time at SMU: “Class of 2013, the best of your life is yet to come, and you are ready!”

President R. Gerald Turner conferred approximately 1,500 undergraduate and graduate degrees upon students from all of SMU’s schools and professional programs. This year’s spring ceremony fell midway through the University’s centennial celebration, which marks the university’s founding in 1911 and its opening in 1915.

The ceremony was staged in front of SMU’s first building – Dallas Hall – on the historic Main Quad. Against a campus backdrop of oak trees and red brick buildings, students and faculty marched to the quad in their academic regalia, accompanied by processional music.

“Commencement allows us to celebrate our SMU graduates’ achievements and look forward with them to the future. By awarding honorary degrees, we also recognize individuals who have made important contributions to academia and society,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner.

In addition to  Hutchison, a technology entrepreneur, a former U.S. ambassador, a distinguished scholar and a criminal justice reform activist also received honorary degrees for distinguished contributions in their fields.

Read more from SMU News.

The entire SMU community is preparing for Commencement 2013. Here is a look at some of the big events:

• May 17-18: Class of 1963 Reunion. The newest Golden Mustangs celebrate 50 years.
• May 17: Baccalaureate Service and Rotunda Recessional, 8 p.m., McFarlin Auditorium (ceremony simulcast online and in Hughes-Trigg Theater).
• May 18: May Graduation Ceremony, 9 a.m., Main Quad, with Commencement speech by former U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.
• May 18: Commencement Luncheon, 11:00 a.m., Umphrey Lee Center.
• May 18: Diploma Presentation Ceremonies, times vary by school and department.

Read more about Commencement from SMU News.

The Baccalaureate Service and Commencement Service will be broadcast live online here. Additional information:

• More information about Commencement 2013
• Information for families and other guests
• Order a Commencement 2013 DVD
• More information on the Commencement 2013 speaker, Kay Bailey Hutchison 

SMU is preparing to celebrate the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center and welcome the worldwide visitors who will attend dedication events on campus April 24-26. The Bush Center, located on a 23-acre site on the east side of campus, houses the Presidential Library and Museum and the George W. Bush Institute. The Library and Museum will open to the public May 1.

• Information about parking, road closures and campus events April 24-26 is available at smu.edu/BushCenter.
• Answers to frequently asked questions about the Bush Center dedication and opening.

Due to space limitations, attendance at the dedication ceremony planned by the Bush Center April 25 is by invitation only. The invited guests expected to attend include President Barack Obama and former presidents George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, along with other government officials from the administration of George W. Bush.

The ceremony will be streamed at BushCenter.org. Residents of University Park and Highland Park also can view the ceremonies on SMU-TV, Channel 19.

Although dedication events will bring a large number of special visitors to campus, SMU will remain open so that teaching will continue uninterrupted. To accommodate class attendance, alternative transportation and parking plans are available at smu.edu/wheretopark. Students with parking questions may email parking@smu.edu or call 214-768-7275.

“While classes will continue as normal, the entire SMU family should expect that our routines will be altered temporarily,” said Brad Cheves, vice president for development and external affairs. “We are honored to be serving in a hospitality role for this once-in-a-lifetime event and to welcoming visitors to campus who ordinarily would not become familiar with SMU. We are looking forward to showing what makes our University special and a fitting location for the historical resources of the Bush Presidential Center.”

Events for students, faculty and staff include:

April 25: Watch a simulcast of the Dedication Ceremony
The SMU community will have the opportunity to watch a simulcast of the formal dedication ceremony at McFarlin Auditorium (SMU ID required). Doors open at 9 a.m. Students should register here. An outdoor jumbotron north of University Boulevard, near the Dedman Life Sciences Building and the Late Fountain also will show the proceedings. Students also may watch the dedication at 9 a.m. CDT online at bushcenter.org or on Park Cities Cable Channel 19.

April 25: SMU Boulevard Block Party
During the evening of April 25, students, faculty and staff have been invited to attend the SMU Boulevard Block Party and Lighting of Freedom Hall. If you registered for the block party, you must pick up your tickets in advance at the Hughes-Trigg Mane Desk at any of the times noted below. The first 500 students to pick up their tickets will receive commemorative Croakies; the first 1,000 people to pick up their tickets will receive a commemorative T-shirt.

• Monday, April 22: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.
• Tuesday, April 23: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.
• Wednesday, April 24: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.
• Thursday, April 25: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

April 29: SMU Day at the Bush Presidential Center
April 29 is a special preview day at the Bush Presidential Library and Museum for SMU faculty, staff and students. All available spaces have been taken. Visit smu.edu/smuday for more information.

Please note that SMU IDs are needed for SMU students, faculty and staff to enter events during the week of the Bush Center dedication.

Please send parking questions to parking@smu.edu and other questions to bushdedication@smu.edu.

SMU professors  Mark Fontenot, Robert Krout and Tom Tunks have been chosen to be the first Faculty in Residence (FiRs) for SMU’s Residential Commons experience.

All three of the first Faculty in Residence – informally dubbed “the Founding FiRs” by Residence Life and Student Housing staff members – have had formative roles in the early stages of the program, says Jeff Grim, assistant director of residence life.

Thomas Tunks

Fontenot has spent three non-continuous years since 2009-10 living in a student residence hall as part of SMU’s Engineering Learning Community. Much of Tunks’ service as associate provost from 1998-2006 and from 2007-2011 focused on how to integrate students’ academic and social lives more closely, from which the Residential Commons program took root. (He returned to full-time teaching as a professor of music in Meadows School of the Arts in 2012.) Krout helped design the Faculty in Residence position and has served on several subcommittees for the new program; he will move into the renovated Mary Hay Hall this summer.

“It is an incredibly exciting time to be at SMU as the new Residential Commons begin to take shape both physically and philosophically,” says Krout, professor of music therapy in Meadows School of the Arts. “SMU is a very special place for students, staff and faculty, and I feel that the University’s vision, mission, and goals will all come together in a unique and synergistic way through this initiative.”

> The Washington Post: Colleges’ newest dorm dwellers: Professors and their families

Robert Krout

Each commons will represent in a microcosm the diversity of the entire SMU community, Krout says. “It will be a positive challenge for each FiR to work with students and staff in their Residential Commons to embrace diversity of all kinds. These will be truly integrated academic and residential communities – environments that can become dynamic forces in student academic achievement, personal development, engagement and social life.”

Fontenot, Krout and Tunks will focus on identifying opportunities for students and faculty to interact outside the classroom. The FiRs’ goal will be to “emphasize a culture of mentorship, intellectual discourse, and community that is cultivated in all aspects of the collegiate experience inside and outside of the classroom,” according to the Residential Commons website.

> Learn more about the Faculty in Residence selection process and timeline

Mark Fontenot

“Supporting students through the formative college years is very important to me,” says Fontenot, senior lecturer in the Computer Science and Engineering Department, Lyle School of Engineering. “The barriers that exist between faculty and students are too high, and any activity that can break them down gets my attention. In my opinion, being a Faculty in Residence is one of the most important and significant ways to break down these walls.”

During his years as a self-described “guinea pig” for the Faculty in Residence concept, Fontenot has had the opportunity “to more fully understand the life of an SMU undergraduate, the multitude of directions in which they are pulled, and the amazing amount of drive, passion and dedication they bring to this campus,” he says.

“Good teaching is as much about knowing who you are teaching as it is about what you are teaching,” Fontenot adds. “An awareness of life outside the classroom has made me a better teacher inside the classroom. My hope is that by continuing to participate as a Faculty in Residence, I can help more students recognize the benefit of reaching out to their professors on a regular basis.”

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SMU students, faculty, staff and administrators were recognized with teaching awards, service honors and the University’s highest commendation, the “M” Award, at the 2013 Awards Extravaganza Monday, April 15.

On the same day, the University honored its best students at the 16th annual Honors Day Convocation. The address was delivered by Paige Ware, associate professor of teaching and learning in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. Ware, a Ford Research Fellow, is an expert on the use of multimedia technologies for fostering language and literacy growth among adolescents, as well as on the use of internet-based communication for promoting intercultural awareness.

> Find a list of University, school and departmental awards from Honors Convocation 2013

Find the the Awards Extravaganza 2013 winners list after the jump.

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SMU President R. Gerald Turner sent the following information to students, faculty and staff regarding SMU Founders’ Day and the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center:

April 2013 is a month for history-making at SMU, as the George W. Bush Presidential Center is dedicated.  Although the dedication will bring an unprecedented influx of special visitors to campus, the University will remain open on dedication day, Thursday, April 25, so that the core function of teaching will continue uninterrupted.

• Parking information for students during Bush Center dedication, April 24-26.
• Learn more from SMU News.

On SMU’s Founders’ Day, Friday, April 19, students, faculty and staff are invited to a mid-day celebration on the Quad serving as our official welcome to the George W. Bush Presidential Center. That afternoon we also will welcome several hundred SMU alumni and parents who will be attending “Inside SMU,” a program of short classes with faculty, and other events. Watch a live webcast of the Founders’ Day Welcome Ceremony.

From Wednesday, April 24, through Friday, April 26, the George W. Bush Presidential Center will be dedicated with a series of events planned by the Bush Foundation. Dedication events are by invitation only, primarily for officials who served in the Bush administration, dignitaries and partners of the Bush Center. However, students, faculty and staff are invited to watch a simulcast of the dedication in McFarlin Auditorium, April 25, starting at 9 a.m. for check-in and ending at noon. In addition, as with the groundbreaking of the Bush Center, SMU will erect an outdoor screen for another viewing opportunity.  In the afternoon, several University libraries and the Meadows Museum will hold open houses that students, faculty and staff are welcome to attend. We hope that Bush Center visitors will stroll around the campus to enjoy our welcoming environment and special resources.

The SMU Boulevard Block Party and Lighting of Freedom Hall, April 25, for faculty, staff and students, on the intramural field, starting at 5 p.m., co-sponsored by the Bush Center and the University. This will be a festive, entertainment-filled event with special guests and surprises and will culminate with the lighting of Freedom Hall atop the Bush Center.

A special SMU Day at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. On Monday, April 29, this historic facility will be open just to SMU students, faculty and staff, in advance of the public opening May 1. In addition, while general visitors to the Library and Museum must purchase tickets, admission will remain free for faculty, staff and students with valid campus IDs. It’s just one way that the SMU community is being thanked for our partnership with the Bush Center in supporting its construction, dedication and ongoing operations. Students should watch their email for more information on these opportunities.