SMU Moves a Little Earth, Begins Graduate School Construction
SMU’s eighth degree-granting school, which began operations in 2020, doesn’t have its fancy new home yet, but December dirt piles signal one is coming.
The school’s dean, James Quick, along with SMU Provost Elizabeth Loboa, President R. Gerald Turner, trustee Frances Anne “Francie” Moody-Dahlberg, board chair Robert Dedman Jr., and Vice President for Academic Affairs Brad Cheves did the dirty work with the ceremonial shovels at the groundbreaking.
The new Frances Anne Moody Hall, expected to open in the summer of 2023, is named for Frances Anne Moody-Dalberg.
The class of 1992 graduate serves as executive director of the Moody Foundation, which contributed the $100 million gift – the largest in SMU history – to create the Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies.
“We’re announcing the next stage in SMU’s development — a significant and unprecedented investment in the university’s graduate and doctoral programs and faculty research programs, which will propel SMU to even greater heights of national prominence,” Turner said at the time of the Moody Foundation gift.
The Moody School brings doctoral and master’s degrees in four schools under one institutional umbrella and already supports more than 75 Ph.D. students across these schools with competitive fellowships.
The investment in the Moody School and Frances Anne Moody Hall supports the SMU’s research mission by attracting outstanding graduate students who are the workforce behind the University’s doctoral and research ecosystem university officials announced.
The expansion of research is a strategic priority that fuels the steady ascent toward achieving the Carnegie R1 status awarded to only the nation’s highest-level research institutions.
