Category: op-ed

Universities need to rethink their approach to student mental health

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May 15, Peyton Webb, an SMU Senior (who was graduated in May 2023), for an op-ed noting a spike in student mental health issues and advocating that universities re-evaluate their approach to providing treatment and promoting awareness on campuses. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Universities need to rethink their approach to student mental health: https://tinyurl.com/29n2rfay

​With graduation for the class of 2023 upon us, students who should be leaving their universities with diplomas and full-time job offers are also walking away with chronic impacts on their mental health.

Last year, a nationwide TimelyMD survey of college students revealed concerning data that exposes a much-ignored epidemic of mental health issues and ongoing stress in college students.

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Presidential center’s 10 years of impact

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April 29, SMU President R. Gerald Turner and co-author Ken Hersh, president and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, for a commentary on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Center’s decade of partnership after opening in 2013 on the SMU campus. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Presidential center’s 10 years of impact: Bush Center brings a world of ideas and opportunity to Dallas: https://tinyurl.com/mt9exk4j

It’s been a full decade since the George W. Bush Presidential Center launched to great fanfare on the Southern Methodist University campus. To this day, the recalled image of five living presidents from differing political parties celebrating together demonstrates the spirit of optimism that has been the hallmark of the Bush Center.

President George W. Bush planned for a strong but independent partnership between SMU and the Bush Center that would benefit the university, Dallas, the United States and the world. Ten years down the road, we are grateful for the opportunity and our achievements.

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Despite Popular Opposition, The Death Penalty Marches on Unabated

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April 23, Rick Halperin, director of the SMU Dallas Human Rights Program, for a commentary about the history of the death penalty in the U.S. Published in History News Network under the heading Despite Popular Opposition, The Death Penalty Marches on Unabated: https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/185486

Twenty five years ago, on a beautiful day in late April, 1998, I witnessed a lethal injection execution in the death chamber in Huntsville, Texas. At that time, Frank McFarland was the 458th condemned inmate to be put to death in the United States after executions resumed in January, 1977.  McFarland was the 150th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas, which resumed state killings of inmates on December 7, 1982.

The world in general, and this country in particular, were very different in many ways. But one of the pathetic constants still in effect in America today is the barbaric practice of executing condemned inmates across the nation.

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Free nurse practitioners

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April 15, Dean Stansel, an economics professor at the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom in the Cox Schooll of Business at SMU Dallas and co-author David Mitchell (Ball State University professor), for an op-ed that warning Texas leaders that strict guidelines for nurse practitioners frustrate their ability to care for Texans. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Free nurse practitioners: https://tinyurl.com/hf3dwmbn

​Many Texans believe they live in the most economically free state in the country. Having no state income tax certainly provides more freedom to keep and make use of their money more than residents in almost every other state.

However, when it comes to using that money for something as necessary as affordable routine medical care, Texans are less free than residents of over half of the other states. As of this year, 30 states and the District of Columbia allow patients to receive routine medical care from a nurse practitioner without undue restrictions on that patient-provider relationship. Texas does not.

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Holy Scriptures and Dead Sea Scrolls Proclaim a Messiah Who Conquered Death for Himself, Others

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April 5,  Jack Levison,  Professor of Old Testament Interpretation and Biblical Hebrew in the Perkins School of Theology at SMU Dallas, for a commentary examining biblical and extra-biblical excerpts about Jesus’ ability to overcome death. Published in People Newspapers under the heading: Holy Scriptures and Dead Sea Scrolls Proclaim a Messiah Who Conquered Death for Himself, Others: https://tinyurl.com/57uyb35j  This piece was later published in The Dallas morning News under the heading: Did ancients expect resurrection from the Messiah? https://tinyurl.com/23rynp4u

​You may have heard someone, maybe a preacher, ask on Palm Sunday, “What did the crowds waving palm branches expect when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey?” And you may have heard a dozen different answers. What, in fact, did the crowds expect?

Well, one answer occurs in the Dead Sea Scrolls, an amazing cache of scrolls that a Bedouin boy discovered in 1947 in caves along the edge of the Dead Sea, about 20 miles east of where Jesus rode that donkey into Jerusalem. It’s quite an ancient Jewish library, written in the centuries before Jesus’ birth, containing some of the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible — the Christian Old Testament — ever found. It also contains scrolls documenting the beliefs of a small community of people clustered in a football-field-sized site known as Khirbet Qumran.

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The herd heads for Texas; is economic freedom why?

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March 29, Robert Lawson, the Jerome M. Fullinwider Chair in Economic Freedom and director of the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom in the Cox School of Business at SMU Dallas, for a piece that supports a premise that domestic in-migration to Texas is most often coming from highly taxed and regulated states like California and New York. Published in the Austin American-Statesman under the heading: The herd heads for Texas; is economic freedom why? https://tinyurl.com/4hbswhcw

I just checked the U-Haul website to see how much it would cost to rent a small truck one way from Dallas to San Francisco: $1,462 was the price. Not bad. Next, I wondered what the price would be if I was going from San Francisco to Dallas. U-Haul will rent me a truck one way from San Francisco to Dallas for a whopping $2,599 — that’s 77% more expensive than in the other direction. This can’t be because of wear and tear on the truck, the distance, 1,732 miles, is the same. Other city pairs I checked show the same pattern. For instance, the rental price from Dallas to New York City is $1,130, but from New York City to Dallas is 89% higher, $2,138.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has more than once taken to Twitter to claim these truck rental price differentials show that, “The nation could stand to learn a thing or two from the way we do things in Texas!” Sen. Cruz no doubt believes California is pushing people out due to its higher taxes with more costly regulations compared to states like Texas, and these price differentials are all the evidence he needs to prove his point. Now, I have nothing against Sen. Cruz, but I’ve noticed politicians have a way of cherry-picking data to fit their political points. As an academic economist, I’m trained to get large samples of data to see if the patterns we see in the “big data” conform with our anecdotal evidence.

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TikTok is targeted in the US for being Chinese, not for what it has or has not done

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March 26, Leo Yu, clinical professor of legal writing, advocacy and research at the SMU Dallas Dedman School of Law, for a piece about TikTok that explores to what extent anti-Chinese bias has contributed to the platform’s negative reputation in Congress. Published in the South China Morning Post under the heading: TikTok is targeted in the US for being Chinese, not for what it has or has not done: https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3214395/tiktok-targeted-us-being-chinese-not-what-it-has-or-has-not-done
https://tinyurl.com/yc8k8pch

What is the problem with TikTok? The US Congress unequivocally answered this question through a five-hour grilling on Thursday: it is China.

Let’s face it, the national security concern about TikTok appears to be tenuous at best. At the hearing where TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi was questioned by US lawmakers, the only incident raised that can remotely support this concern is one in which some employees at TikTok’s parent company, the Beijing-based ByteDance, inappropriately obtained the data of American TikTok users, including two reporters. ByteDance acknowledged the wrongdoing and swiftly fired the responsible employees.

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Strategic Business Decisions — Not the Luck of Ancestors — Created a Modern, Burgeoning Irish Economy

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March 17, Michael Davis, economics professor at the Cox School of Business, SMU Dallas, for a commentary about how Ireland turned a struggling economy into one that thrives by embracing high tech. Published in Inside Sources under the heading Strategic Business Decisions — Not the Luck of Ancestors — Created a Modern, Burgeoning Irish Economy: https://tinyurl.com/y6kek6b2

Planning a St. Patrick’s Day party? Why not whip up some corned beef and cabbage tacos? Seriously. They’re not bad.

Of course, if you want to stick with the traditional sides, that’s fine too. You can’t go wrong with a buttery colcannon dish and a pint of Guinness. Either way, though, let me tell you how a plate of corned beef tacos helped me better understand that country’s special place in the world.

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Seeking peace in Greece: SMU assistant dean’s trip kindles hope for a scarred world

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March 4, Anthony Elia, director of the Bridwell Library and associate dean for Special Collections and Academic Publishing at SMU Dallas, for a commentary about how congregations of the Eastern Orthodox Church worldwide cope with a range of crises. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Seeking peace in Greece: An SMU assistant dean’s trip kindles hope for a scarred world: https://tinyurl.com/2kdptxcc 

Halfway between Athens and Thessaloniki, on the shores of the Pagasetic Gulf, is a mountainside city that graduates into Homer’s wine-dark sea, a place called Volos, home of the mythic characters Jason and the Argonauts, who, as the ancients believed, set sail from here in search of the Golden Fleece. Today, it is a vibrant town with an abundance of lethargic dogs, political graffiti and some of the world’s best coffee on every corner. I went recently to meet with more than 400 attendees of the International Orthodox Theological Association. The outcomes were both refreshing and profound, each contending with real world issues.

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ChatGPT isn’t going to make us slaves; uninspired education might

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Feb. 4, Robert Hunt, director of Global Theological Education at the Perkins School of Theology at SMU Dallas and coauthor graduate student Drew Dickens, for a commentary about how the new ChatGPT online technology could impact higher education. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading ChatGPT isn’t going to make us slaves; uninspired education might:  https://tinyurl.com/3yr753fj 

The new open artificial intelligence chatbot called ChatGPT is either the most helpful tool to come to academia in decades or a threat to human learning and higher education. Many schools aren’t waiting for this to play out and are outright banning it from classrooms while hurriedly retooling assignments and exams to prevent its use.

ChatGPT is a new online technology that could revolutionize communication with machines. It offers the potential for faster and more accurate conversations, with the ability to handle more complex tasks.

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