SMU features a Tate Lecture Series every year, where students are given the chance to listen to honored and celebrated guest speakers. Past guests have been Julie Andrews, Tony Blair, Tom Brokaw, Dick Cheney, Wade Davis, Bob Dole, Jane Goodall, Al Gore, John Irving, Nicholas D. Kristof, Bill O’Reilly, Sidney Poitier, Martin Sheen, Stephen Stephanopoulos, Ted Turner, Barbara Walters, and many more.
The Meadows Museum is home to the largest and most inclusive collection of Spanish art outside of Spain. Some of the original works by El Greco, Velázquez, Ribera, Murillo, Goya, Miró, and Picasso are all showcased here.
The “Campaign for SMU: A Time to Lead” raised over $532 million for educational needs, campus construction, and renovations over a period of five years. In September of 2005, the first phase of renovations to the Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports was completed and features two basketball courts, an extended track, a climbing wall, swimming facilities, indoor soccer, and much more. Also, in 2005, construction of a new business education building was completed. SMU has a substantial amount of funding to maintain the beauty of its campus.
At a campus rally September 12, the University kicked off the public phase of the campaign and announced the goal of $750 million for "SMU Unbridled: The Second Century Campaign." The campaign already is off to a running start, with 29,488 donors providing $317 million in commitments during the two-year quiet phase of the campaign. This includes 49 donors who have made commitments of $1 million and above. The five-year public phase will coincide with the centennial of the University's founding in 1911; the University opened in 1915.