SMU celebrates the high achievements of students, faculty and staff members with two ceremonies that take place every third Monday of April. This year’s Honors Day Convocation and Awards Extravaganza take place on the afternoon and evening of Monday, April 15, 2013.

> 2013 Honors Day Convocation award recipients

Paige Ware, associate professor of teaching and learning in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, will deliver the address during the 16th Honors Day Convocation at 5:30 p.m. in McFarlin Auditorium. The ceremony celebrates academic achievement at the University and department levels. 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.

> Watch Honors Day Convocation via live streaming April 15 on the Registrar’s website

Later, the University presents several awards for excellence – including its highest honor, the “M” Award – during the 2013 Awards Extravaganza at 7:30 p.m. in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center Ballrooms.

> Find more information on Honors Day Convocation at the Registrar’s website
> Learn more about the Awards Extravaganza from SMU Student Life

-Kathleen Tibbetts

During the spring enrollment period, students will be meeting with their academic advisers and discussing course options, including for the May and Summer terms. With more than 250 courses available through SMU Summer Studies, students can choose to advance progress on their degrees, change or add majors, or take additional courses.

New this year is the 2013 May Term in Dallas, which will offer 17 courses May 16-31, allowing students to earn three hours of credit in less than three weeks. Courses include introduction to statistics and philosophy, calculus for business/social studies and a new nonprofit organization course. Find the full May Term in Dallas schedule here, as well as information about financial assistance.

The May Term allows students “to make room for Engaged Learning projects, for study abroad, for internships and other endeavors that enhance their college experience,” says Kathy Rowe, director of Summer Studies. “More and more, they need the ability to take required courses at different times of the year.”

Before enrolling for May Term in Dallas, students must meet with their academic adviser. Enrollment forms are available at smu.edu/summer. The deadline to enroll for 2013 May Term in Dallas is noon May 1.

The new May Term in Dallas will offer the same discounted tuition as other non-Fall and Spring terms. With no general student fees attached, these classes cost about 33 percent less than a regular-term course.

The full Summer Term runs June 3-August 6; Summer I courses are June 3 to July 2; Summer II courses are July 5 to August 5. Financial aid, campus housing and meal plans are available. Find course information online here.

Other opportunities for summer learning include:

SMU-in-Taos: Northern New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo mountains provide a spectacular backdrop for classes in art, archaeology, biology, business, history, marketing and much more. The May Term at SMU-in-Taos is May 15-June 1; the June Term is June 4-July 3, and the August Term is August 5-22  (priority application deadline is April 26). SMU-in-Taos also is offering a full fall term (priority application deadline is May 1).

SMU Abroad:  SMU offers a number of summer learning, service and internship opportunities in locales ranging from Paris to Bali.

Relay For Life comes back to the Boulevard for its 10th year on Friday, April 12, 2013. This year’s event theme, “Cheers to 100 Years of More Birthdays,” recognizes the centennials being celebrated by both SMU and the American Cancer Society. Together they will celebrate the lives saved during those 100 years and set a goal to finish the fight and find a cure in the next 100 years.

SMU student and Relay for Life Director of Communications Taylor Lack says she relays because “come this October, I will be 13 years cancer-free. I look forward to celebrating many more healthy birthdays in my life.”

Friday activities kick off at 5 p.m., with the opening ceremony scheduled for 6 p.m., including both a survivors and caregivers lap at 6:30 p.m. The traditional luminaria ceremony is at 9 p.m., in which lanterns are lit in memory or honor of a person with cancer. (Luminarias can be purchased prior to the event.) Each is personalized with a name, photo, message or drawing. A Fight Back ceremony at midnight recognizes the emotional commitment the fight against cancer entails, not only for the patients but also loved ones and communities.

The 24-hour relay comes to a close at 5 a.m. It’s a time to celebrate and remember the commitment participants made to continue the fight all year long.

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The free campus screenings of two popular environmental documentaries April 4-5 will begin a series of sustainability-themed SMU events throughout the month that will underscore the celebration of Earth Day 2013 on April 22.

Living With the Trinity, showing at 7 p.m. Thursday,  April 4, in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center Forum, focuses on the political history surrounding management of the Trinity River and will feature an introduction by writer, producer and director Rob Tranchin.   Find out more at www.trinityrivertexas.org/.

YERT, Your Environmental Road Trip, showing at 7 p.m. Friday, April 5, in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center Theater, takes a humorous cross-country look at environmental issues through the eyes of three friends travelling together.  Check out the trailer at www.yert.com.

SMU’s Sustainability Committee and the Friends of the SMU Libraries sponsor the film festival.

The SMU student-organized “Barefoot on the Boulevard” sustainability and music festival runs from noon to 5 p.m. April 6 on the Bishop Boulevard lawn, just south of the landmark SMU flagpole.  Also free and open to the public, “Barefoot” will feature a short talk and concert at 4:30 p.m. by former Sudanese child soldier and hip-hop humanitarian Emmanuel Jal, whose appearance is being made possible by the organizers of Engineering & Humanity Week.

Sponsored by Students For a Better Society and the SMU Sustainability Committee, “Barefoot on the Boulevard” also will feature student bands, economically priced food, and booths featuring environmental organizations and vendors.  The student bands, in order, will be the Southern Gentlemen, JSpear, Sean Hadeler, Adam the Bard, Chris Escarfullery, Sudie and Dan Howard.

Engineering & Humanity Week is April 6-12, bringing global solution seekers to Dallas and SMU around this year’s theme of Water: Ripple Effects. Most of the program is scheduled for the SMU campus and is free and open to the public – such as the outdoor, interactive water distribution camp that mimics sites in refugee camps.  Continue reading →

From left: Basma Raza, Alex Zier, a debater from Minnesota, and Lila Friedlander.

SMU Meadows School of the Arts students Basma Raza ’14, Alex Zier ’14 and Lila Friedlander ’15 took first place honors in the novice division of the Mid-America National Junior Division Debate Tournament of the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA), held recently in Kansas City.

In addition, Raza was named top speaker for the tournament. CEDA is the largest college policy debate organization in the United States.

• Read about SMU debaters in The Dallas Morning News.

The Meadows students dominated the competition with a combined record of 10 wins and only 2 losses. It was the best finish for an SMU team in the four years they have competed in the event, which drew participants from Minnesota, Kansas, Texas, Missouri and Iowa. Held annually in Kansas City, the Mid-America CEDA Tournament is the oldest and most prestigious novice and junior varsity national tournament in the nation.

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During spring break 2013, SMU students, faculty and staff took advantage of their time off by focusing on civil rights, research projects, service trips and more. Their experiences included:

SMU Civil Rights Pilgrimage

Student pilgrims with Professor Dennis Simon

During this nine-day bus ride, students, faculty and staff visited the American South’s civil rights landmarks and leaders in the movement. Political Science Professor Dennis Simon leads the pilgrimage with the SMU Chaplain’s Office.

The group’s stops included the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama; Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. served as pastor; Tuskegee University; the campus of Ole Miss in Oxford; and the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Dr. King was assassinated. Their first visit was to Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas, where in 1957 nine African-American students faced angry mobs protesting integration.

“The first thing I noticed about this was just how long that street is in front of the high school,” wrote Michelle Anderson, a sophomore human rights and anthropology major, on the SMU Adventures blog. “I can’t imagine having to walk down that, head held high, while hundreds of people told you how they did not want you there, solely based on the color of your skin.”

• Professor Dennis Simon, Reverend Ray Jordan and junior Emily Mankowski discussed the 2013 Civil Rights Pilgrimage during Think on KERA-FM.
• Read more about the students’ experiences on the SMU Adventures blog.

Research at the Library of Congress

Thirteen students spent six days in Washington, D.C., conducting research on the papers of former Supreme Court Justices housed in the Library of Congress. As part of the University Honors Program seminar “Law, Politics, and the Supreme Court,” the students developed independent research projects, including on student rights, libel and national security.

After the students’ second day in the Manuscript Reading Room, sophomore Alexander Hoskins, a sophomore psychology and political science major, wrote on the blog: “The second we enter that reading room, everything else just gets checked at the front door. Our brains are nothing but case law and Justice dynamics. Each new box brims with clues and facts that give us better insight into what influences and sustains the judicial decision-making process. … Everything is so real that it’s like each Justice is sitting there with you, annotating each opinion. Privilege is an understatement.”

Political science Professor Joe Kobylka led the trip, which was supported by the Richter Foundation and the University Honors Program.

• Read more about the students’ experiences on the SMU Adventures blog.

Student researchers with Professor Joe Kobylka at the Library of Congress

From left: Students Tyrone Davis, Chanesia Johnson and Nayelly Dominguez at the state Capitol

Several SMU students are meeting with state legislators at the Texas Capitol on Wednesday, February 27, to express their support of increasing funding to the Texas Tuition Equalization Grant program.

Funding for the TEG program, which provides financial aid to low- and middle-income students attending 39 private Texas colleges and universities, was reduced by 20 percent during the last Legislative session. The program now serves 5,000 fewer students than it did in 2009 and meets less than half of demonstrated student need for the grants.

During fiscal year 2012 the program awarded grants averaging $3,309 to 25,474 Texans, more than half of whom are minorities. Nearly 65 percent are Pell grant recipients, the state’s neediest students.

“Tuition Equalization Grants directly help students at SMU and at other private institutions of higher learning in Texas achieve their academic and professional goals,” says SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “The grants also help private institutions meet Texas’ growing need for an educated workforce in today’s competitive economy, while reducing taxpayer costs for higher education. We urge the Legislature to restore funding and increase the number of students who benefit from Tuition Equalization Grants.”

The TEG program saves taxpayers money every year by reducing the state funds appropriated for public university students to pay costs not covered by state tuition. The average grant received by a TEG student this year was less than half the subsidy provided students at state universities.

At SMU, nearly 1,500 students are TEG recipients. Those visiting Austin include Chanesia Johnson of Dallas, a junior biology and psychology major; Tyrone Davis of Dallas, a junior chemistry and biology major; and Nayelly Dominguez of Fort Worth, a sophomore majoring in economics, French and engineering management, information and systems.

“TEG has helped me attend SMU and focus on the many opportunities here,” Dominguez says. “I’m able to triple-major, have an internship and be involved on campus, including with the Hegi Family Career Development Center Ambassadors and Crain Leadership Conference. Education opens the doors to everything, and this grant is helping make education possible for me and thousands of students.”

SMU is a member of the nonprofit association Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas (ICUT), which serves as a voice in government for 39 private institutions. Students attending other ICUT institutions also are visiting Austin to meet with their legislators and express support for TEG.

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