(May 21, 2007)—Baylor University Monday posted online some of the details of its proposal for the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

Details of the bid had been a closely kept secret and the full 200-page proposal is not part of the material posted Monday.

The material online does include the proposal video sent to the White House in September 2005.

Click Here For Bush Library Proposal Materials

Tommye Lou Davis, who has spearheaded Baylor’s efforts to land the library, said officials felt the time had come to share at least a glimpse of what the university proposed to the first couple.

“We felt like we had waited long enough out of respect to the White House and SMU,” Davis said Monday.

The video Baylor posted online was just a small part of the total proposal package, Davis said, but the university does eventually plan to release the full proposal.

The posting appeared as the president and first lady hosted NATO’s secretary general at their ranch outside of Crawford.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Bush have indicated that Southern Methodist University in Dallas is the likely site for the library, but no official announcement has been made.

National archivist Allen Weinstein was tightlipped last week on whether the potential placement of the library at SMU is a "done deal."

In an appearance at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Weinstein said, "It'll be a done deal when the president and those he's designated to find a location tell me it's a done deal."

SMU announced in December it was entering exclusive talks with the committee charged with recommending the site for the library and both the president and first lady have indicated that SMU, which is Mrs. Bush’s alma mater, was the likely choice for the library and an associated think tank.

The University of Dallas withdrew its bid in January, technically leaving only Baylor as the only other institution still in the running for the complex.

SMU’s hopes of landing the library moved forward over the weekend when voters in the Dallas suburb of University Park approved a proposal to sell land to the university for possible use for the library.

In March the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church met in Dallas and endorsed SMU’s proposal to lease land for the presidential library on the Dallas campus.

The group must approve leasing any land already in use by the school, and the proposed 36-acre site on the southeast side of campus contains some dorms and a parking lot.

SMU President Gerald Turner said the library, museum and Bush institute may be built on one of two sites in the area.

No formal announcement has yet been made about the site for the library, but one is expected as early as this month.

Click Here For Baylor Web Site

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