Schwab heads development effort

To lead this effort, the School appointed Carlton Schwab (LBJ Class of '83) as its new Director of Development in January. Since his appointment, Schwab has been interviewing faculty members, School administrators, and others to evaluate the problem and develop a fundraising plan. So far, he has identified four broad areas that need funding--faculty support, scholarship money for Ph.D. students, scholarship money for master's program students, and facility improvements. He noted, however, that until the inventory of activities is complete, priorities cannot be determined.

"The Dean and I will be developing a long-term plan to raise money," he said. "Right now we are trying to gain an understanding of where the gaps are so that we can determine where to utilize our resources."

According to Schwab, the amount of money that the university gets from the state has plummeted over the last decade. Because of this, university officials have asked all colleges to increase their development efforts.

"As President (Robert) Berdahl likes to say, we are not a state-supported institution; we are a state-assisted institution," Schwab said. "We only get 35 percent of our budget from the state."

Schwab--who serves as development director for both the LBJ School and the UT Austin Graduate School of Library and Information Science--said that the fundraising plan will probably target foundations, corporations, and not-for-profit resources. He added that the LBJ School will also need alumni participation in terms of ideas, networks, and other support.

For now, Schwab is working on two memorial projects. He is consulting with representatives of Barbara Jordan's estate to determine how much the School will receive from memorial contributions and how the money will be used. He is also working on a memorial fund that will be established at the LBJ School for Steven Lowell Spinner (LBJ Class of '84), who died last September.

Before coming to the LBJ School in January, Schwab served as a management consultant for PHH Fantus Consulting for six years and as vice president of the Lubbock Board of City Development for three years.

Before that he served as legislative analyst for the Texas State Treasury, research analyst for the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, and legislative aide to Texas State Senator Hugh Parmer. Schwab has also been an economic development instructor for a number of special university programs in Indiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas.