7 DECEMBER 18 - 24, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS ment is not doing its fair share of school funding. And if recession comes and we are forced to make even deeper cuts to public education, remember this day.” . SMU ANOTHER OLD BUILDING ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK A PLAN TO RELOCATE SMU’S LAW SCHOOL HAS RILED ALUMNI, FACULTY AND STUDENTS WHO ENJOY THE BEAUTY OF THE HISTORIC LAW QUAD. BY ALYSSA FIELDS T o the outrage of some alumni, South- ern Methodist University has pro- posed relocating its Dedman School of Law from the historic law quad to a mid- rise building the school owns on the other side of U.S. 75. The news first broke in the school’s pa- per, the Daily Campus, where reporting un- veiled the sneaky proposal, which had not been officially announced to students or fac- ulty. According to university officials, a statement was scheduled to be released fol- lowing the end-of-semester exams to pre- serve morale. The plans largely remained under wraps until the school’s Faculty Senate was briefed on a large-scale expansion plan, which in- cluded renderings of a future law school. “We weren’t involved in the process at all,” Carliss Chatman, a professor of law, said to The Dallas Morning News. “We’re just as surprised as everyone else is and we think, at the very least, we should talk about it more. It just changes the culture of the law school to be so isolated from campus.” For the most part, news of the move spread through word of mouth, from faculty, through the grapevine to students and even- tually alumni, all of whom are disappointed by the prospective change. “There’s a real sense of loss associated with this move. We live in a world that is so often transactional, and it can be easy to overlook the value of beauty, history and spirit,” Leah Powers, a 2021 graduate of Dedman, said to the Observer. Like many students, Powers relished the closeness of Dedman to the rest of the stu- dent body and valued her time as a graduate student on the SMU campus. She even got engaged in the law quad. Aside from the 100-year-old campus’s beauty, many of the resources that students pay over $50,000 a year for are isolated on the west side of 75. “I think much of the opposition stems from concerns that the spirit and commu- nity of the law school would not translate to a new, off-site location and that the reloca- tion would disconnect the law school from the history and tradition of the main cam- pus,” she said. The relocation and demolition news is not being taken lightly by those who spent years walking between the iconic Dallas Hall and Dedman. “I cannot understate how much of a per- sonal and communal wound [Dedman’s] de- molition would leave in our hearts,” wrote three-time alum Patrick Norwood on social media. “I’m still not over the loss of Peggy Sue’s Barbecue, and I’m not sure my heart can take much more.” To be fair, the school has been planning to renovate for several years, but critics say they didn’t know renovation plans had been upgraded to demolition. “When I first started law school, we knew renovations were going to be under- way. They were doing surveys, so we were well aware of that,” third-year student Aruni Ellepola said to the Morning News. “But to see that it’s just going to be demolished and that they’re creating a whole new campus, and there was no formal announcement. … We don’t have a lot of answers.” SMU President Jay Hartzell, who began his first year at the university this summer, inherited the relocation plans. The new president highlighted that the move, which is a hop across the highway, is a small part of a much larger plan that includes six new buildings, including a law school. “Our goal is to have a top 20 law school, and that’s going to involve everything from recruiting great faculty and students to the right mix of programmatic offerings,” Hartz- ell said. “The facility is a big piece of the puz- zle, and I think having a custom-built building … is going to be pretty powerful.” Details about the budget for advanced developments and a timeline have not been disclosed. But that hasn’t quelled the outrage. Nine- teen tenured professors wrote to the school’s board of trustees, requesting that the relocation be reviewed. “The claim that the move will ultimately benefit the Law School through a higher ranking is unsupported by any concrete de- tails,” the letter read. “... The plan should be put on hold until an appropriate process that involves all relevant stakeholders takes place.” . LAWSUITS A DIFFERENT DRUG WAR PAXTON LEVELS ‘FIRST-OF-THEIR- KIND’ ACCUSATIONS AGAINST 2 DALLAS PEDIATRICIANS OVER GENDER CARE. BY KELLY DEARMORE L ast week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s battle against a pair of local doctors intensified with new ac- cusations added to lawsuits against both defendants. A statement released by Pax- ton’s office describes the moves as “first-of- their-kind legal actions to hold two North Texas physicians accountable for illegally administering ‘gender transition’ drugs to minors and then fraudulently billing Texas Medicaid. “New evidence gathered by the Office of the Attorney General shows that there were deliberate efforts to conceal illegal activity by falsifying records, altering diagnosis codes, and submitting deceptive billing in- formation, which is conduct that supports new healthcare fraud claims,” the statement reads. “By submitting deceptive billing re- cords, Lau and Cooper were able to conceal the ‘gender transition’ interventions and se- cure Medicaid reimbursement for services that Texas law and Texas Medicaid explic- itly do not allow. The doctors in question, May Lau and M. Brett Cooper, were initially sued by Paxton in 2024. In October, Lau surrendered her medical license in Texas, although her attor- neys stressed the move was not an admis- sion of guilt. Lau relocated her practice to Oregon. “Dr. Lau continues to deny the Texas At- torney general’s politically and ideologically driven allegations,” Lau’s attorney told the Texas Tribune in October. In the suits against Cooper, Paxton al- leged the doctor was “providing cross-sex hormones to children for the purpose of transitioning their biological sex or affirm- ing their belief that their gender identity or sex is inconsistent with their biological sex.” Lau and Cooper were both on staff at UT Southwestern Medical when the 2024 law- suits were filed. Prescribing gender-affirming medica- tion, such as hormones, was outlawed in Texas when Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 14 into law following the 88th Texas Legislature in 2023. Gender-affirming care has been endorsed as safe by almost every major American medical organization. In 2021, the American Medical Associa- tion wrote a letter to the National Governors Association advising against legislation that would prohibit “medically necessary gender transition-related care for minor patients,” stating that such laws would represent “a dangerous intrusion into the practice of medicine.” In light of the billing impropriety alle- gations, Paxton now seeks “three times the amount of improperly paid Medicaid funds and substantial civil penalties for each unlawful act to hold the physicians accountable to Texas law and ensure that Texas is repaid for the evil performed by the doctors.” . WORLD CUP BUY NOW OR PAY LATER NOW IS YOUR BEST CHANCE TO GET 2026 WORLD CUP TICKETS. BY KELLY DEARMORE Thanks to the recent schedule announce- ment, it’s safe to say that World Cup fever has finally hit North Texas. AT&T Stadium will host nine matches of the 2026 FIFA spectacle, with several of them featuring global powerhouses England, Argentina and Croatia. And for the first time, fans can take their shot at securing tickets to specific matches featuring their favorite teams at the World Cup venue of their choice. The random selection draw runs through January 13. To clarify, this is not where you can purchase tickets immedi- ately. Due to the reported highest demand for World Cup tickets in history, fans are now able to enter for the chance to pur- chase tickets. But unlike the previous cou- ple of rounds of ticket availability, shoppers now have important information to target their efforts with. Entering the random selection draw is simple, but as Tom Petty famously sang, the waiting is the hardest part. Although you’ll need to pick which match you want tickets for and slap down your credit card info now, the lucky ones won’t know until early February that their World Cup seats are secured. Tickets for the matches at AT&T Sta- dium are available in the random selection draw, ranging from $220 on the low end to $700 for “Category 1” seats. The historic demand and use of dynamic pricing mean that prices for the 2026 World Cup are sig- nificantly higher than those for the 2022 edition. ESPN reported that soccer sup- porter groups from around the world have expressed outrage over the increased prices. Although we’re not sadists, we found that the average ticket price for the 1994 World Cup, the last time the tournament was held in the U.S., was around $88. Adjusted for in- flation, that’s equal to $193 in 2025 dollars. Of course, people traveling to North Texas for the tournament will need to se- cure more than match tickets. A mad dash for lodging has already begun, with short- term rentals on websites like Airbnb and VRBO already being snapped up in anticipa- tion. Short-term rentals didn’t exist in 1994, at least not in the way they do now, but when the Cotton Bowl hosted a few of the ’94 World Cup matches, surprisingly, the city’s hotels weren’t exactly packed. You must be 18 or older to enter the FIFA 2026 World Cup random selection draw. Adobe Stock AT&T Stadium in Arlington will host nine 2026 World Cup matches.
