DALLAS—After a nearly two-year losing battle, some Methodist ministers and professors Wednesday mounted their final, all-out fight to try to stop George W. Bush’s think tank from being built as part of the presidential library complex at Southern Methodist University.

They pleaded their case to some of the 290 delegates in the church’s South Central Jurisdiction, because the group is to discuss the matter Thursday and may vote on it.

“We have faculty and research fellows who represent a wide diversity of ideological and political views; that’s what strengthens a university. That’s what builds its academic reputation. That is undermined when you have on the campus an institute that actually promotes one particular ideology,” Valerie Karras, associate professor of church history at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology, told media before addressing delegates.

They don’t oppose the Bush presidential library and museum, but SMU officials say the public policy institute cannot be separated from the project.

Opponents say the think tank would not meet SMU or church rules because it would not be used for educational or religious purposes and would be outside the university’s control.

They also say its goal of promoting the Bush administration’s policies—such as the Iraq war and harsh interrogation techniques of military prisoners—conflicts with church teachings.

But SMU officials say the library complex is a done deal. In March 2007, the Methodist church’s mission council—a smaller body that votes on important issues cropping up between the jurisdiction’s meetings every four years—gave its blessing for SMU to lease the land for 99 years to the Bush Foundation.

The agreement has already been signed, and SMU continues working with the Bush Foundation, which will manage construction and raise money for the project. SMU was officially named the site for the library complex in February, more than a year after it was chosen as the lone finalist.

“The Methodist community continues to be true to its tradition of having many views ... and we respect all points of view,” Brad Cheves, SMU’s vice president for external affairs and development, said Wednesday. “The mission council spoke, and the process was followed. The real winners of this are the students, faculty and community of SMU and Dallas. We continue to be honored that SMU was chosen.”

Bishop Scott Jones, an SMU board of trustees member who supports the library project, said the mission council’s decision was final and that the jurisdiction does not need to vote whether to approve it.

But opponents are placing their hope in the jurisdiction’s delegates, meeting this week in Dallas, who may vote on the matter Thursday through at least one resolution after it is brought to the conference floor.

If delegates are denied a vote on the matter, they may be able to appeal to the judicial council, the church’s highest lawmaking body that could decide whether the proper procedures were followed—not on the library issue itself. That body likely would not make a decision until its fall meeting.