Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a private university in University Park, Texas, a city located within the Dallas city limits. (The campus has a Dallas mailing address.) SMU was founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, one of the churches that would later merge into the United Methodist Church (UMC). In 2019, SMU filed with the state of Texas to split from the UMC due to ongoing conflicts within that church. The university won a lawsuit filed by the UMC that tried to prevent its split from the church.
