LBJ School Professor Kenneth Tolo resigned from his UT Austin post in August 2000 to accept a career executive appointment as the director of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE).

Soon after learning that the LBJ School was losing one of its best teachers, School administration officials announced that Tolo would be named professor emeritus. The title is given by the university in recognition of meritorious service and will enable the School to keep Tolo on its permanent faculty.

The only government program of its kind, FIPSE is part of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1972 with the mandate of promoting the highest quality postsecondary education for all learners.

Through "seed" grants, FIPSE supports innovative educational reform projects that can serve as national models for the improvement of postsecondary education in areas such as access and retention, outcomes assessment, international education, and teacher education and school-college partnerships. FIPSE also administers Learning Anywhere Anytime Partnerships, a grant program for innovative, scalable, nationally significant distance education projects.

Tolo, who had taught at the LBJ School since 1972, said he was saddened to leave but also "excited about taking on new challenges and opportunities" in his first "real" federal government position.

"I will always feel and be a pert of the LBJ School community and its friendships," he said in an e-mail message sent students, faculty, and staff on his last day at the School.

Dean Ed Dorn said the university would miss Tolo because he was a key member of the UT Austin administration as well as an extraordinarily effective teacher at the LBJ School.

From 1979 until 1990 Tolo served as UT Austin's associate vice president for academic affairs and research and then as vice provost. While at the School, Tolo's LBJ School policy research focused primarily on education, employment, and equity issues. In addition, he frequently worked with international and national government agencies and nonprofit groups on civic education, higher education, and education reform.

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May 14, 2001

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