When the SMU Class of 2025 graduates this month, they’ll also be celebrating the longest-serving president in school history.
온라인카지노사이트 5’s Katy Blakey sat down with Dr. R. Gerald Turner to look back on a 30-year career that’s reshaped SMU and Dallas.
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WATCH HEREWalk the treelined campus of SMU and the signs of Turner’s tenure are everywhere.
“There are just so many things that I look and see -- something that’s wonderful and remember that it wasn’t there,” said Turner.
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SIGN UP Ongoing construction on new schools and facilities has marked his three decades on the Hilltop.
The East Texas native was chancellor at the University of Mississippi when he was hired in 1995.
He walked onto a campus still reeling from the football recruiting scandal of the 1980s.
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“The city of Dallas really wanted SMU to get back in gear,” reflects Turner.
During a 1995 interview, Turner told 온라인카지노사이트 5:
“I self-identify myself as a program developer and if that means fundraising, fine, whatever it means, but the idea is to try and make something good, which SMU is, even better.”
There’s no question the university is in a better position now.
Turner is credited with transforming SMU from a small, regional school into a nationally recognized university.
He’s raised $3 billion during his tenure, expanded the campus, boosted academics and most recently celebrated R1 designation, joining the nation’s top research institutions.
He also secured the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
“It was a battle,” Turner said. “We had so many places wanting it.”
Facing fierce competition from other Texas universities and resistance from SMU faculty, the Bush Library opened in 2013. It’s welcomed 2 million visitors and world leaders.
“I always knew once the politics got out of it that it would be a great asset for the university and it really has been.”
He’s also focused on increasing minority enrollment, launching multiple scholarship programs. Incoming first-year tuition tops $90,000.
“If we’re going to train the leaders of Dallas, then we got to get into those communities where those leaders are going to come from,” Turner said.
“It’s beyond SMU. I think it’s something that’s important to Dallas and Texas and anything important to Dallas and Texas is important to the country by definition.”
The SMU Board of Trustees announced this week that a scholarship program started 5 years ago to help first-generation college students will be renamed in his honor.
Yet, despite the expanded campus and elevated profile, progress always came with an asterisk as the SMU football program struggled in the wake of the "death penalty."
That changed last year when the Mustangs entered the Atlantic Coast Conference and took fans on a remarkable ride during their first year in a Power 5 conference.
“Who would have thought that we would go through the ACC undefeated in our first year? And now everybody says ‘You going to do it again this year?’” laughed Turner.
Turner says he’s most proud of being lockstep with a board of trustees that’s elevated SMU and Dallas.
“We all knew what our goals were. We all knew where we were headed and so, as a result, it’s been a wonderful place to work and lead for 30 years because I had 42 people that were right there with me.”
The 79-year-old will step down later this month as president emeritus.
He’ll maintain an office in the new Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies to continue fundraising efforts and do what he does best – sell SMU.
“Right now we have about as much momentum as we’ve ever had at this university and so my hope is it just keeps going and I think it will.”
Turner said he frequently speaks with his successor Jay Hartzell, to ensure a smooth transition.
Hartzell announced earlier this year that he was leaving UT Austin to come to SMU. He’ll start June 1.
