SMU's $350 million gamble

D Magazine, Jan 01, 1998

"Usually those speeches are short and platitudinous," says Turner. "But the pace we were on with the strategic plan, and with the capital campaign coming around the corner-I didn't have that luxury."

For example, Turner noted Dallas' importance in telecommunications and computing and the dozens of such companies that are headquartered here. "It is, therefore, important that SMU have absolutely first-rate telecommunication and communication programs to educate professionals to succeed in these rapidly changing companies." He mentioned the school's proximity to UT Southwestern and suggested that "SMU should be a (if not the) major premedical and pre-health care educator in the area."

Turner described general trends in higher education but with specific goals for SMU, outlining the future in concrete terms and identifying four themes: globalization, information revolution, health care, and ethics--sign posts for anyone wondering which direction Turner intended to take SMU.

Pye's death could have postponed, if not permanently derailed, some of the most important initiatives in SMU's history, namely the completion of its strategic plan and the beginning of its capital campaign. The board had asked Pye to chart a plan for SMU's future, outlined with specific goals. To accomplish those goals, it planned a major gifts campaign. When Pye suddenly became ill, the board feared such planning would fall into administrative limbo. Apparently Pye feared the same thing.

The ailing president called dean of Perkins School of Theology James Kirby at his house to ask a favor. Kirby knew Pye had had health problems, but the news that night was as much a shock to him as it was to everyone. "As we spoke, I thought he was going to ask me to be on the search committee," Kirby remembers, "which I didn't want to do." Pye instead asked a surprised Kirby if he would serve as interim president, and the dean reluctantly accepted. "To tell you the honest truth," he says, "I did it because Ken Pye asked me to."

Fortunately for SMU, Jim Kirby isn't the sort who regards "interim" as a synonym for "seat-warming." He asked for--and got--a meeting with key board members. He felt that there were legitimate things he could accomplish in a year, and, as it turns out, things he did accomplish.

Kirby met with the deans of the schools and with the vice presidents, people he knew well and had worked with before. By the end of his year as acting president, Kirby had done the preliminary organization for the capital campaign, launched the strategic plan, and approved the hiring of one of the best athletic directors in the country. While Kirby's service as president was temporary, his actions laid a launching pad for the president about to come.

When that president arrived, he hit the ground running. Turner was delighted to find a timetable in place, but its clock was already ticking. Under Kirby's prodding, the schools had submitted their wish lists for the strategic plan. Now all these myriad objectives had to be unified in theme and united in purpose.