Daily Campus

Professor Shubert Ogden was the most important and influential teacher in my life. His passion for the truth and fierce integrity is recognized within the church and the academy. He is one of the most influential thinkers in the United Methodist Church in his generation.

Beyond his intellect was an authentic love for God. His piety was not sappy or soft-headed or other-worldly or self-serving. It was a love for God grounded in a loyalty to intellectual truth and a passion for what was right and good in relationship to one's neighbor and world.

I pray that God will give each student at SMU in your time at least one teacher about which you can speak with such warm regard and gratitude 30 years from now.

Peace and Justice
Andrew J. Weaver,Ph.D., SMU Grad M.Th. 1978
www.protectSMU.org

I have never heard anyone argue that the Bush Institute's policies cannot be questioned, or "reflected upon." Any "great gulf" that exists is in the mind of those who are scared of opinions different from their own. Rather than fearing the institute, those opposed to it should welcome the challenge. The diversity of ideas compliments the University atmosphere.

I congratulate the publishing of Schubert M. Ogden's letter. Beautiful! Because a Southern Methodist University education represented/represents innovation and creativity, I, a former Montanan, desired 40 years ago to be a student on the campus of SMU . Its grounding in the Methodist church (Wesley was a pacifist and abolitionist) presupposes integrity, and thus I write the following thoughts:

That the Bush library is likely to reside on SMU campus requires some questions from one who thinks it inappropriate to the reputation of SMU. Would it represent values of SMU, or of the man?

- does he represent truth, process of science, language, or information from research to be used in decisions affecting other lives?

- will his papers which are already being blocked from perusal diminish truth; will truth be found in those allowed for review?

- can SMU embrace his naming as the "worst president" in history - and his low esteem held by the world for his lack of diplomacy? why does he have only 29% approval rating?

- is ignoring the Constitution an embodiment of democracy and integrity?

- "Support our troops"? Preemptive war? Answer: unbridled profit in war; Walter Reed Hospital; troops in combat without proper equipment; veterans' funding cut; death; empire building.

- what value is it to squander efforts of progress made by generations prior to his?

Should accepting money from cronies, benefiting from his policies, appropriately require a name change to be Southern Bush University, since Southern METHODIST will be meaningless?