Rise and Shine, Park Cities (5-18-11)
1. Remember how SMU had plans to build a dorm complex north of Mockingbird? Well, those plans are about to become a reality, thanks to a $5 million gift two Denver-living former Mustangs. From the rendering, it looks like the new complex will abut Ford Stadium and the Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports, and perhaps push south to Potomac Avenue. Also, the incoming SMU class of 2017 will have to live on campus for both their freshman and sophomore year. Is this good/bad? Discuss.
2. The numbers are in: The Junior League of Dallas raised more than $17,000 through its Rummage Roundup. The April 29 to May 1 event at Dallas Market Hall featured thousands of donated trinkets at deep discounts. Congrats, ladies!
3. Today is the big day for University Park Elementary fourth-grade moms. For those performing a skit, I salute your humility. Also, I want pictures. Video is better.
Yes – Living on campus is good. SMU’s long-term goal is to have everyone live on campus for all four years like other highly ranked universities such as Vanderbilt. There is a direct correlation between loyalty to the school and living on campus. Students become members of SMU instead of citizens of Dallas. Also, those to spend all four years on campus give much more back to the school through out there lifetime.
The SMU dorms (or as it is referenced “Residential Commons”) will house not just sophomores but willing faculty as well. It’s supposed to be a hybrid of sorts where the student can continue to learn “at home” from the resident faculty. I’ve heard they have had similar living quarters at universities in Oklahoma, California and DC. It’s an interesting concept and I’m sure there will have to be some incentive for a faculty member, especially someone with children, to agree to live among sophomores…maybe free room and board. And I’m sure the faculty will be selected on some sort of personality trait test or such to make sure they will function well in that environment.
As far as is it a good idea? I would think so. I think SMU is trying to alleviate the parking issues on campus. They’ve built a few new garages but maybe requiring on-campus living for sophomores will lessen the amount of vehicles the students will have on campus. I’ve heard/read about the other schools having nothing but positive things to say about the faculty/student combined living arrangement. SMU also will benefit from another year’s worth of committed income from students’ living fees.
I’m sure there are some negatives but I think the positives outweigh them…for now.
Living on campus is good for almost any incoming freshman and most sophomores, IMO. As an SMU neighbor, I’d like to see them adopt another rule many major colleges enforce–no car on campus until you’ve completed your sophomore year. With a campus as physically small as SMU’s, there’s no need for a car, and a car can indeed distract from studies, something that certainly incoming freshmen at least need.
But as I say, I’m saying that more as a neighbor, as I see a lot of near-accidents from students going too fast on our narrow residential streets and treating stop signs as optional.
I don’t see any parking lots in that rendering, just one new garage. Will that be enough, especially since they are eliminating the parking lot on the south side of the rec center? Not that it matters. The community will continue to stupidly obsess over the latest iteration of the Chase building to the exclusion of everything else.
Don’t believe me? Go have a look at the Hotel Lumen at Hillcrest and Binkley, which is in the process of doubling its size. For the record, I live nearby and think this is great, but I never heard about it before construction started. Strange, because the residential density in the immediate area of the hotel is much heavier than around the Chase building, and there is a preschool about 20 feet away from the hotel. I must have slept through the decade of drama and community-wide meltdown from opponents of the expansion while the Lumen’s owners struggled to get their project approved. Because surely the years and years of posturing and hysteria we saw from the Chase building opponents must have happened with the Lumen expansion, right? No? Ok, good. My faith in my neighbors is partly restored.