Changing the World (Nov-Dec 2012)

what your investment in ut makes possible

nov/dec 2012

INSIDE: The power of education • Turning $1M sinto e p t e m$3M b e r | o c tat o b eMcCombs r 2 0 1 1 | 55 •

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changing the world What your investment in UT makes possible

Contents THE POWER OF EDUCATION And what it means to Houston’s Suzan and Julius Glickman

Cover: Nature brings another shade of burnt orange

to campus as autumn settles in. credit: Christina Murrey

Above: Thanks Day, observed this year on Nov. 7, marks the point at which the academic year would end if the University operated on tuition and fees alone. credit: Callie Richmond

THANKS Y’ALL Raising student awareness of UT’s funding

TURNING $1M INTO $3M AT MCCOMBS Ensuring the long-term success of a dynamic learning experience

FUNDING THE UNIVERSITY: THEN AND NOW ‘Budget Bevo’ shows how state support has fallen over the years reprinted from nov/dec 2012 s e p t e m b e r | o c t o b e r 2011

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changing the world What your investment in UT makes possible

THE POWER OF EDUCATION

And what it means to Houston’s Suzan and Julius Glickman

Above: Julius and Suzan

Glickman at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center.

Opposite, from bottom:

The Glickmans’ bequest will support ethics and leadership programming in the School of Undergraduate Studies; Thanks Day is a chance for UT students to express their gratitude to those who have helped them get where they are.

Credits: Clockwise from

above: Brian Birzer, Callie Richmond (2), Marsha Miller

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B

y S uzan G lickman ’ s count , there are four generations of L onghorns

in her family—her mother, herself, her son, and her grandson. Austin Glickman is 11. “He’s been dressed in burnt orange since birth,” says her husband, Julius. “We’re thoroughly indoctrinating our grandchildren

shamelessly on UT.” School spirit aside, there’s an important subtext in play.

“We try to do that as a way to just say how important education is to living—not just getting a vocation but getting a life to go with the vocation,” Julius says.

The Glickmans’ belief in the power of education doesn’t stop with family. Already prolific UT donors, the Houston pair, both Texas Exes Life Members, recently added a sweeping bequest that benefits myriad causes across the Forty Acres. Primary beneficiaries are the colleges where the Glickmans received their degrees: Education and Liberal Arts. Suzan, BS ’64, majored in elementary education while former student body president Julius, BA ’62, LLB ’66, spent his undergraduate years in Plan

II before tackling law school. The Texas Exes just named him a Distinguished Alumnus.

“UT is one of the best educational institutions in the country and by far the best in the state of Texas,” says Julius. “We can hopefully give people greater opportunities by giving to UT than we could anywhere else. We think that’s where the money can make the most impact.”

And the impact of education on society, says Suzan, is huge. “You can educate or you can incarcerate,” she says, but either way, “you’re going to spend the dollars.”

Through the decades the Glickmans have worked for the University in numerous volunteer capacities, serving on advisory councils and

advocating for important initiatives. And Julius has spoken twice at commencement ceremonies—in 2004 for Plan II and 2010 for the entire College of Liberal Arts. “The leadership contributions of the Glickmans, which have already had a profound effect on this campus, are going to continue to help us build excellence in the decades ahead,” says Dean Randy Diehl of the College of Liberal Arts.

Nor is it mere coincidence that Suzan led the College of Education Advisory Council during the college’s ascent to the top of the public school rankings, where U.S. News & World Report has placed it for the past two years. “She helped us build the momentum to get there,” says Education Dean Manuel Justiz. “Suzan has a very strong sense of what needs to be done, and she’s right in terms of the issues that we need to address.”

The bulk of the Glickmans’ bequest will support the Forty Acres Scholars Program, UT’s prestigious new full-ride scholarship, which is designed to bring the nation’s most talented students to Texas.

The bequest will fund 10 Forty Acres scholarships, including three in the “We can give people College of Education and three for Plan II students in the College of greater opportunities Liberal Arts.

“Getting the best and the brightest by giving to UT than we students is one of the names of the game, and that’s the way to do it,” could anywhere else.”

Suzan says. “If we’re going to be in competition with Yale and Harvard, – Julius Glickman then that’s who we want to go after— the cream of the crop.”

The couple’s bequest will also create the Julius Glickman Conference Center in the new College of Liberal Arts Building and will support ethics and leadership programming in the School of Undergraduate Studies.

“I think it’s a very important, very valuable gift,” says Paul Woodruff, who as the former Undergraduate Studies dean spent the past several years fulfilling the Commission of 125’s mandate to enhance the first-year experience for UT students. He is now working on a concept for a new center at the school that will research and teach practical ethics. “A large tangle of ethical questions awaits our graduates in real life,” Woodruff says, “and our university should be preparing students to deal with those questions.”

The Glickmans’ UT philanthropy has always reflected their wide-ranging interests. They have given to the Blanton Museum of Art and have created fellowships and lectureships across campus. The two-year Julius Glickman Public Interest Fellowship in the School of Law provides an annual stipend to a recent law graduate to work with a public-interest legal organization on behalf of underrepresented individuals or groups.

“You give back in part as a debt to those who helped you,” Julius says.

“We want to make it possible for others to have the same opportunities that we had.”

THANKS y’all: Raising Student awareness of UT’s Funding If the University operated on tuition and fees alone, classes would end in early November, a mere 25 percent into the school year. That is why Nov. 7 has been set aside this year as Thanks Day. An initiative of Students Hooked on Texas, Thanks Day is an opportunity to say a simple “thank you” to individuals who support UT. As they pass through Gregory Gym Plaza, students are encouraged to consider the family members, alumni, donors, faculty and staff, taxpayers, state legislators, and everyone else who has helped them along their path to a higher education. There’s even a Texas-size thank-you card to sign. This is one November tradition that doesn’t involve football or a big meal—just thanks.

s e p t e m b e r | o c t o b e r 2011

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changing the world What your investment in UT makes possible

TURNING one MILLION INTO three MILLION AT MCCOMBS A challenge to ensure the long-term success of a dynamic learning experience in one of America’s top business schools

C

hallenging times are nothing new in business — or , for that

matter, in public higher education. Recognizing this, El Paso native Woody Hunt, BBA ’66, MBA ’70, Life Member, has issued a challenge of his own to his fellow McCombs School of Business

alumni and friends. Hunt intends to give $1 million to McCombs’ Business Honors Program (BHP). The challenge? In order to receive the gift, the school must raise an additional $2 million in the next five years.

Above: Students in the Business Honors Program meet prospective employers at an internship and career fair.

Credits: McCombs

School photos

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The funding will support the new Woody L. Hunt Endowed Excellence Fund for the expansion of BHP student programs, as well as a scholarship aimed at recruiting top students from the Paso del Norte area, comprising El Paso, southern New Mexico, and northern Mexico.

“The Business Honors Program is certainly a significant asset for The University of Texas, McCombs, and the state of Texas,” says Hunt, who is involved in investment, real estate development, and construction as chairman and CEO of

Hunt Companies Inc. “I was one of the early participants and have always connected my success going forward with that educational experience.”

Begun in 1960, BHP is both a program and a major at McCombs. The curriculum is modeled after that of the MBA program, giving its 500 students access to smaller classes taught using the case-based model of instruction. About 120 students graduate each year. Program participant Jasmine Bell, who will graduate with an MPA in 2013, says her BHP classes prepared

her well for the multiple corporate internships she has landed since her sophomore year. “BHP professors really stand out,” she says. “They don’t focus on memorization—they teach you how to think. They shaped the way I process information and enhanced my desire to learn.”

As a former vice chairman of the UT System Board of Regents and having also chaired the board of directors of the UT Investment Management Company (UTIMCO), Hunt knows that programs like BHP cannot thrive on state support alone. He hopes his challenge and the gifts it elicits will have a lasting impact on the program. “I think it is appropriate, particularly given changes to funding for higher education, to ask alumni who have reaped the rewards of going through such a high-quality program— and have the capacity to give—to help,” he says.

“UT Austin is becoming more state-assisted, and less state-supported, so I think the time is certainly right.”

Hunt would like his Woody Hunt gift to fund scholarships to students from El Paso and the surrounding area. “My hope here is to try to improve the competitiveness of our region,” he says. “The expectations would be that some of those students will come back and contribute to the community.”

BHP alumni are known for doing just that, as well as giving back to the program that gave so much to them. “The thing about BHP alums is that you never have to ask them to give. They know it matters,” says Robert Prentice, the program’s faculty director. “They know that we wouldn’t be what we are if it wasn’t for their help.

We are so grateful for the generosity of Mr. Hunt and the Hunt Family Foundation. These funds and those that we will be raising from alumni and friends of the program will be crucial to the long-term growth and success of the program.”

Two of those friends are Shari and Stuart Schwartz, parents of Jeffrey Schwartz, BBA ’07, Life Member. Knowing that students from their region often find it impossible to attend McCombs due to financial obstacles, the El Paso couple has wholeheartedly accepted Hunt’s challenge, pledging $10,000.

“Words really cannot express the gratitude we feel for McCombs and BHP in providing a world-class education to our son,” Shari says.

“BHP was a phenomenal educational experience and opened unparalleled career choices for him.”

Thanks to Hunt, she says, “more students from El Paso and southern New Mexico will have the opportunity to succeed and achieve their dreams as well.”

Learn more the Business Honors Program and how to support it at mccombs.utexas.edu/bhp/give.

FUNDING the university: THEN AND NOW

I

f The University of Texas at Austin is A&M and UT Systems. The University’s share a public institution, why does it seek (the Available University Fund or AUF) for private support? Because the state fiscal 2012-13 is $199 million out of its $2.35 share of the University’s budget is shrink- billion budget. That’s 8 percent, compared ing—even as UT pursues its most ambitious with 12 percent in 1984-85. goal yet, to be the best public university in the nation. In 1984-85 the state of Texas contributed 47 percent of the Change the world this holiday University’s budget. Today, as the graphic below illustrates, that share season—make a year-end gift is only 13 percent.

Another part of UT’s funding at giving.utexas.edu. structure is the often-misunderstood Permanent University Fund, or PUF. If you’ve heard that the University is At the same time, the University’s tuition “rich” from oil money, you’ve heard about the PUF. But—no matter how romantic the and fees are far lower than many of its peers. notion of UT as oil baron and wealthy institu- Resident tuition and fees at UT rank fourth tion may be—the facts tell a different story. lowest out of a peer group of nine state Texas does use some oil revenue to help universities, accounting for just 25 percent fund higher education, just as other states of the University’s 2012-13 budget.

State funding alone is not what makes draw upon their industries to support public services. The PUF isn’t “extra” money; it’s UT a university of the first class. In fact, part of the state’s higher-education funding the majority of its funding comes from other Funding andButNow with the help of private support, structure. PUF assets include more than Then 2 sources. million acres of oil- and mineral-producing the University drives economic, social, and land in West Texas. However, the revenue cultural progress as one of the world’s most Funding Then and centers Now of learning, research, powerful from these acres does not go exclusively to UT, but rather to 17 institutions in the Texas and creativity.

1984—1985 UT Austin Budget: $503 million

1984—1985 UT Austin Budget: $503 million

33%

47%

Research grants and other areas

State general revenue

33%

47%

5%

Research State AUF grants 12% general and other 3% revenue areas Gifts and endowments

3%

Tuition and fees

5%

12% AUF

Tuition and fees

Gifts and endowments

2012—2013 UT Austin Budget: $2.35 billion 2012—2013 UT Austin13% Budget: $2.35 billion

45%

State general revenue

Research grants and other areas

13% 8% State

45%

AUF general Research revenue grants and other 9% areas Gifts and 8% endowmentsAUF

9%

25% Tuition and fees

25% Tuition and fees

Available University Fund (AUF) includes income from Permanent University Fund (PUF). Source: UT Budget Office.

Gifts and endowments

Changing the World is produced by the University Development Office. Please send your feedback and suggestions to editor Jamey Smith at jjsmith@austin.utexas.edu.

Available University Fund (AUF) includes income from Permanent University Fund (PUF). Source: UT Budget Office.

For more news and information about giving to UT, visit giving.utexas.edu.

Learn more: giving.utexas.edu/why-give/why-we-need-your-support. Graphic by University Marketing and Creative Services.

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Available University Fund (AUF) includes income from|Permanent University Fund (PUF). Source: UT Budget Office. s e p t e m b e r o c t o b e r 2011 Learn more: giving.utexas.edu/why-give/why-we-need-your-support. Graphic by University Marketing and Creative Services.