August Kenneth Pye (August 21, 1931 – July 11, 1994)[1] was an American legal scholar who served as dean of the Duke University School of Law from 1968 to 1970 and again from 1973 to 1976, and as president of Southern Methodist University from 1987 to 1994.
The university was in disarray in the wake of a football scandal and struggled with a budget deficit, uneven quality in its colleges, and a national reputation for mediocre academics.
[6] Pye put together a taskforce which developed a proposal it called Toward the 21st Century: Excellence and Responsibility, that would, among other things, require all SMU students to have a liberal arts major or minor.
[6] Pye proved capable of standing up to the school's powerful alumni and boosters.
[2] D Magazine wrote that his death "left a gaping hole" at the university.