EDUCATION HOW NEW IS SMU’S NEW BOARD?

The new forty-one-member Board of Trustees at SMU gained official sanction in July, signaling a new era at the embattled university-we hope. The selection of trustees was the result of a search process headed by the Rev. Leighton Farrell of Highland Park Methodist Church, whose committee slashed the board’s size and worked hard to move it beyond its image as a bastion for white male businessmen.

Of course, statistics tell only part of the story, and the real test will come over the next year. But the percentages suggest that changes have been for the better in terms of the newly stated goals of ethnic, gender, and vocational diversity.