Ayear after celebrating a $20 million gift from Harold and Annette Simmons ’57 for the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, SMU broke ground on the building that will house the new school. Construction is slated to start this summer.
“I see a future filled with new teachers; it’s so much fun to think about that,” said Annette Caldwell Simmons, her voice wavering with emotion as she spoke during the ceremony.
A rendering of Annette Caldwell Simmons Hall.
The gift provides an endowment for the previously unnamed school and serves as the lead gift for the Annette Caldwell Simmons Hall. Mrs. Simmons, a former teacher, is an elementary education graduate of SMU.
“This wonderful new building will be the starting place for new generations of educators and for new research on teaching and learning,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “In many ways, this building will stand in honor of all teachers.
“One of the ways we will complete funding is to ask people to step forward to name every room in this building in honor of a teacher,” he said. To launch this effort, Turner has provided funding to name the reading room in honor of his wife, Gail, a teacher for 13 years.
The new hall, targeted for completion in spring 2010, will consolidate programs that have been housed in a variety of locations. The building will include classrooms; research laboratories, including exercise physiology and biomechanics labs; faculty and administrative offices; and student support areas.
In addition to $10 million in support for the new building, the Simmons’ gift established two endowed funds named in honor of Harold Simmons’ parents, both of whom were educators. His father, Leon Simmons, was superintendent of schools in Golden, Texas, and his mother, Fairess Simmons, was a teacher. The $5 million Fairess Simmons Graduate Fellowship Fund provides a minimum of 10 graduate fellowships for students in the master’s and Ph.D. programs. The remaining $5 million created the Leon Simmons Endowed Deanship and Faculty Recruitment Fund.
“This wonderful new building will be the starting place for new generations of educators and for new research on teaching and learning. In many ways, this building will stand in honor of all teachers. One of the ways we will complete funding is to ask people to step forward to name every room in this building in honor of a teacher.”
“The generous gift of Mr. and Mrs. Simmons has given our school great impetus over the course of a year,” said David J. Chard, the Leon Simmons Endowed Dean of the School. “Already, we’ve added faculty, doubled the size of our doctoral program in educational research, expanded our counseling Master’s program to almost 150 students, and added a Center for Family Counseling in Plano and the Oak Lawn area in Dallas.”</P.
He noted that the school also is making plans to extend its Master’s degree in teaching and learning in collaboration with the Neuhaus Center in West Houston.
The Simmons’ gift counts toward The Second Century Campaign, which seeks $750 million to support student scholarships, faculty and academic programs, and the campus experience.