Summer and fall 2012 courses at SMU’s 300-acre campus near Taos, New Mexico, are now open.

• Click here for summer and fall 2012 applications to SMU-in-Taos.

“No other university has a campus like SMU-in-Taos,” says Mike Adler, professor of archaeology and SMU-in-Taos executive director. “It is special in a number of ways. The place infuses everyone with a sense of calm and beauty. We have carefully preserved the natural beauty of the mountains, a place where students and faculty can work together unencumbered by distractions.”

SMU-in-Taos has offered summer education programs tailored to the region’s unique cultural and natural resources since 1973. In 2009, the campus launched a fall term thanks to new and renovated casitas and other improvements that made the facilities usable in all seasons.

The three summer programs are May 9-27, May 31-June 29, and July 31-August 17. The fall program is Aug. 21 through Dec. 12. Click here for summer and fall course offerings.

Students in the fall program will take 15 to 18 hours of courses that meet core undergraduate requirements in the arts, sciences, business and other disciplines. The fall program is open to students with a minimum 2.70 G.P.A. who have completed a full year at SMU.

The courses place a unique emphasis on experiential learning and hands-on interaction with their subject matter, Adler says. “As I tell our faculty, if you can only talk about it, don’t teach it in Taos. If you can see it, visit it, feel it, or hike it … that is how we teach our classes here.”

Additionally, the faculty and their families live on campus, so “students get to see them as individuals with outside lives, interests and hobbies, and faculty interact with students both in and out of the classroom,” he says.

And the location creates its own educational context. “Taos is a fascinating community of artists, activists, tourists, Native American tribal members and a number of other interesting groups and identities,” Adler says. “The diversity of the community makes for a very interesting mix of attitudes, political leanings and belief systems.”

For most students, a fall term in Taos costs the same as one taken on the main campus. Existing financial aid applies to study at the New Mexico campus, and SMU-in-Taos offers its own scholarships to students.  Learn more at the Taos financial aid site.

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SMU will celebrate its second annual Founders’ Day Weekend April 20-21, 2012, with a variety of events for parents, alumni and friends.

Founders’ Day recognizes the University’s founding in 1911. Held each year on the third Friday in April, this commemoration is an important part of SMU’s centennial. Join us as we celebrate the University’s achievements and future.

The weekend begins Friday, April 20, with a historic, midday groundbreaking of the new Residential Commons complex, a series of five buildings and a new dining hall. This complex is the cornerstone of a new phase of development along the south side of campus near Mockingbird Lane.

Beginning at 2 p.m., Inside SMU offers stimulating classes by professors for parents, alumni and friends. That evening, President R. Gerald Turner will present the President’s Briefing, his annual report on the major events and achievements of the previous year and announcement of plans for future progress. Stay tuned for more details.

You can take part in SMU’s Second Century Celebration:

• Order SMU: Unbridled Vision: A stunning new picture book showcases the beauty of campus.
• Leave your mark: Honor your student’s time on the Hilltop in the new SMU Centennial Promenade. With a $100 gift your student or family will be recognized with an etched paver on the Centennial Promenade, to be constructed for the 100th anniversary of SMU’s opening in 2015.
• Visit Centennial Hall: The interactive exhibition is in Hughes-Trigg Student Center.

After its recent impressive win in the BBVA Compass Bowl, SMU celebrated its milestone move into the BIG EAST Conference on Thursday, January 19, at Hughes-Trigg Student Center Commons.

SMU President R. Gerald Turner, Director of Athletics Steve Orsini, Vice President for Development and External Affairs Brad Cheves and Student Body President Austin Prentice were joined at the event by BIG EAST Commissioner John M. Marinatto, as well as SMU coaches, student-athletes and numerous supporters.

• See a slideshow of the Big East celebration, and watch a video below. 
• Update: SMU lands stellar recruiting class of 20 student athletes.
• SMU sets 2012 football schedule.

SMU accepted the invitation to join the BIG EAST Conference in all sports in December, fulfilling the University’s goal to join a Bowl Championship Series Automatic Qualifier conference, a standard of excellence in college athletics today.

At the celebration Thursday, President Turner said SMU’s move to the BIG EAST presents a great new series of athletic competitions and new opportunities for the University and Dallas area. “It’s going to be a great opportunity for us to not only sell our University and show the competitiveness of our teams,” he said, “but it also will be good to bring people to Dallas and to take Dallas to the Northeast.”

Commissioner Marinatto said the addition of SMU and four other schools to the BIG EAST represents a significant step toward becoming the NCAA’s “first truly national conference.” Houston and the University of Central Florida also accepted full membership into the BIG EAST, while Boise State and San Diego State will compete as members in the sport of football.

“After a third straight season of appearing in a bowl game, we believe we have seen just the beginning of the resurgence of the SMU football program,” Marinatto said. “Joining the BIG EAST Conference will be a perfect next step toward helping SMU return as a nationally prominent program in the very near future.”

He added that SMU shares the conference goal of making the BIG EAST the best basketball conference in the country. “With great facilities and a talent-rich area such as Dallas, Texas, to recruit from — and now the BIG EAST Conference to play in — I fully expect SMU’s men’s and women’s basketball programs to regularly compete for an NCAA tournament berth in the very near future,” Marinatto said.

Athletics Director Orsini described the move as a huge step for SMU.

“The BIG EAST, under Conference Commissioner Marinatto’s leadership, represents the highest standard of excellence in college athletics today both on and off the field, in courts of competition, for all 17 of our sports and over 430 student athletes,” Orsini said. “SMU is back. We are ready, willing and able to continue our ascent to top 25 in everything we do in the BIG EAST.”

Learn more about the Mustangs’ win in the BBVA Compass Bowl. 

As part of her year abroad with SMU-in-Spain, junior Ashley Duncan has toured the ancient city of Toledo, the Alhambra palace of Granada and the Roman aqueducts of Segovia. In her home base of Madrid, she takes courses at the highly regarded Spanish institution La Fundación Ortega-Marañón and meets weekly at the Prado Museum for art history class. She wrote about her experiences on the SMU Adventures blog.

“It was so cool to see paintings that I’ve studied in school, like Velazquez’s Las Meninas,” says Duncan, who is majoring in Spanish and psychology in Dedman College. “And I could understand (almost) everything that our professor was telling us. It was such an awesome feeling to approach a painting and not understand it, then have it explained to me in Spanish and be able to understand what was going on. I felt so accomplished.”

With 148 programs in 50 countries, SMU Abroad is taking students more places than ever before. Students have opportunities for study, internships and service in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Oceania. Summer programs – including Bali, China, Germany, India, Italy, London, Moscow, Oxford and France – are led by SMU faculty and staff.

• The application deadline for summer and fall SMU Abroad programs is Thursday, March 1.

“Students, parents, business leaders and government officials increasingly recognize the value of developing international perspectives and skills,” says Michael Clarke, executive director of the International Center, which oversees education abroad and supports international students and scholars at SMU, among other services.

More than 600 SMU students go abroad each year on SMU-approved programs. For most programs, the cost of spending an academic year or semester abroad is similar to tuition, room and board on the Dallas campus. Students receive academic credit for their courses abroad if they participate in SMU-approved programs and have applied through SMU Abroad.

• Follow students and faculty members abroad on the SMU Adventures blog.
• Learn more from SMU Abroad.

Below, SMU Abroad advisers offer answers to common questions from parents:

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Students begin every term with the potential to earn a 4.0 grade point average, says Patricia Feldman, associate director of SMU’s Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center (or A-LEC). “When we see students acting like 4.0 students, we see them reaching their academic goals,” she says.

She adds that one high-achieving senior recommends getting one assignment ahead of the syllabus. “That way, you will always know what’s coming up next in class, allowing you to take better notes, clarify confusing points and more easily master the material,” she says.

Here are more tips from Feldman for students as they begin the spring term:

• Go to every class. Arrive on time. Sit in front.
• Complete reading or homework assignments before class so you are fully prepared to learn.
• Go to each professor’s office hours to get acquainted and to ask for advice on how to excel in the course.
• After each class, edit and review your notes.
• Every week, review all reading and notes in your hardest course or two.

A-LEC offers workshops throughout the term to support students, including on textbook study reading, taking notes and preparing for the first round of tests and test anxiety. Find the workshop schedule here.
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SMU won the 2012 BBVA Compass Bowl 28-6 over Pitt on January 7 at historic Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala.

The game was the SMU football team‘s third bowl game in three years, tying the school record for consecutive bowls, and its 14th bowl appearance overall. The win marked the 100th collegiate win for Head Coach June Jones.

SMU now leads the series with Pitt at 3-2-1 all-time, with the 1983 Cotton Bowl their previous meeting. The two schools faced off four times between 1938 and 1948.

Follow fans, the Spirit Squad and Peruna in Birmingham on the SMU Bowl Bound blog.