George W. Bush Presidential Library

Supporters of George W. Bush are aiming to raise $500 million to establish the George W. Bush Presidential Library at the Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas.

While presidential libraries are run by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, establishment costs are have to be raised privately. Part of Bush's plan is to also establish a think tank, which has the working title of Institute for Democracy, to promote "compassionate conservatism, the spread of freedom and democracy throughout the world and defeating terrorism."

According to one Bush supporter, the think tank, which will be modelled on the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, aims to financially support conservative scholars "money to write papers and books favorable to the President's policies." The proposal that SMU host a think tank promoting Bush's agenda has encountered opposition from staff which, Inside Higher Ed noted, "strikes many professors as antithetical to a university's academic values."