Student at SMU decry racism through the hashtag #BlackatSMU.

Jeffrey Beall

To the outrage of some alumni, Southern Methodist University has proposed relocating its esteemed Dedman School of Law from the historic law quad to a mid-rise building the school owns on the other side of U.S. 75. 

The news first broke in the school’s paper, the Daily Campus, where reporting unveiled the sneaky proposal, which had not been officially announced to students or faculty. According to university officials, a statement was scheduled to be released following the end-of-semester exams to preserve morale. 

The plans largely remained under wraps until the school’s Faculty Senate was briefed on a large-scale expansion plan, which included renderings of a future law school.

“We weren’t involved in the process at all,” Carliss Chatman, a professor of law, said to the Dallas Morning News. “We’re just as surprised as everyone else is and we think, at the very least, we should talk about it more. It just changes the culture of the law school to be so isolated from campus.”

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For the most part, news of the move spread through word of mouth, from faculty, through the grapevine to students and eventually alumni, all of whom are disappointed by the prospective change. 

“There’s a real sense of loss associated with this move. We live in a world that is so often transactional, and it can be easy to overlook the value of beauty, history and spirit,” Leah Powers, a 2021 graduate of Dedman, said to the Observer.

Like many students, Powers relished the closeness of Dedman to the rest of the student body and valued her time as a graduate student on the SMU campus. She even got engaged in the law quad. Aside from the 100-year-old campus’s beauty, many of the resources that students pay over $50,000 a year for are isolated to the west side of 75.

“I think much of the opposition stems from concerns that the spirit and community of the law school would not translate to a new, off-site location and that the relocation would disconnect the law school from the history and tradition of the main campus,” she said.

The relocation and demolition news is not being taken lightly by those who spent years walking between the iconic Dallas Hall and Dedman.

“I cannot understate how much of a personal and communal wound [Dedman’s] demolition would leave in our hearts,” wrote three-time alum Patrick Norwood on social media. “I’m still not over the loss of Peggy Sue’s Barbecue, and I’m not sure my heart can take much more.” 

To be fair, the school has been planning to renovate for several years, but critics say they didn’t know renovation plans had been upgraded to demolition. 

“When I first started law school, we knew renovations were going to be underway. They were doing surveys, so we were well aware of that,” third-year student Aruni Ellepola said to the Morning News. “But to see that it’s just going to be demolished and that they’re creating a whole new campus, and there was no formal announcement … We don’t have a lot of answers.”

SMU President Jay Hartzell, who began his first year at the university this summer, inherited the relocation plans. The new president highlighted that the move, which is a hop across the highway, is a small part of a much larger plan that includes six new buildings, including a law school. 

“Our goal is to have a top 20 law school, and that’s going to involve everything from recruiting great faculty and students to the right mix of programmatic offerings,” Hartzell said. “The facility is a big piece of the puzzle, and I think having a custom-built building … is going to be pretty powerful.”

Details about the budget for advanced developments and a timeline have not been disclosed. 

But that hasn’t quelled the outrage. Nineteen tenured professors wrote to the school’s board of trustees, requesting that the relocation be reviewed. 

“The claim that the move will ultimately benefit the Law School through a higher ranking is unsupported by any concrete details,” the letter read. “… The plan should be put on hold until an appropriate process that involves all relevant stakeholders takes place.”