Garrett King, assistant vice president of Institutional Advancement at SWOSU, said all of his great passions in life begin with a “B.”
King said his greatest passion is “the blondes” – his wife Carissa and their two daughters, Margaret and Julia.
King also has a special fondness for his hometown of Binger and beautiful northern Caddo County, where his family has farmed since 1890.
“It was there I learned to love books,” King said. “Books are a big part of my life. I read voraciously.”
King said it was during a literary symposium in Louisville, Kentucky, where he was able to tour a distillery which produced his favorite bourbon. It also was during that symposium King got the call his oldest daughter was on the way.
King’s girls love to play on the hilltop, which is home to another one of his greatest passions – the Bulldogs.
King is a second-generation Bulldog. He was preceded by his mother, who was the first in her family to obtain a college education.
“Education is a silver bullet. That isn’t just a platitude,” King said. “My mother’s mother had an eighth-grade education. My mother retired as the superintendent of the public school her mother attended.”
King said the American Dream would not be possible without two things: the U.S. military and public education.
King said his time at SWOSU taught him critical thinking skills, which help him answer the fundamental question “is it the truth?”
“I can do that because I went here (SWOSU),” he said. “I went here on a Pell grant. I went here as an ‘Oklahoma Promise’ student. So when we talk about people who pay it forward, this is a place which produces people who pay it forward.”
Another thing King said he learned while at SWOSU is he “drank from wells I didn’t dig and enjoyed the shade of trees I didn’t plant.”
According to King, institutions of higher education like SWOSU shape society for the better, but they are under attack.
“Institutions will remind you that you are standing on the shoulders of those who came before you and people will come after you,” he said “So for me, it was a great joy to come back in 2014 and take up this role.”
As part of his role as assistant vice president of Institutional Advancement, King also is head of the SWOSU Foundation, Inc. The foundation raises, stewards and spends money on behalf of the university.
The foundation was incorporated in 1977 with $500 in donated funds. As of the first quarter of 2021, the organization has $29.6 million. It oversees more than 450 funds, which benefit the four colleges, while complying with more than 200 donor restrictions. King said the foundation has grown nearly $10 million since he became head of the organization in 2014 and has grown about $2 million just in the last year.
“Every donation, no matter how small, is stewarded responsibly and in compliance with what the donor intends,” he said.
One of the funds managed by the SWOSU Foundation is the Bulldog Angels Fund which helps students in crisis. He said many of these students who benefit from the fund are working multiple jobs and still unable to get by.
“When we talk about the human costs of cutting public investment in private education, you see it every day when you are the one writing checks for the student crisis fund. And, I write one a week, minimum,” King said.
These funds support students who otherwise would have to leave the university and most likely never would return. King said the tuition cost per credit hour in the early 1970s was $11. Today, the median cost is $250 per credit hour.
“Let no one tell you they are saving anyone any money when they cut funding to higher education,” King said. “They are passing it on to us. They are passing it on to families.”
He also said the Bulldog Angels Fund is used at a higher rate than many of the other endowments. The foundation’s goal is to spend about 5 percent of any endowment a year. However, King said the Bulldog Angels Fund gets used at a rate of about 20 percent a year out of necessity.
In addition to student crisis funds, the foundation manages several other endowments such as the Single Parents Network and other various scholarships.
About 80 percent of the SWOSU Foundation’s assets are scholarship funds. In 2014, the foundation paid out $364,755 in scholarships. This year, the foundation paid out more than $860,000 in scholarships.
The average scholarship value for the 2015-16 school year was $783.36 while the value this last school year was $1,233.68.
King said the foundation is on its way to sustainably giving $1 million in scholarships every year. He also is pleased with the average scholarship value. He said $1,000 really is the minimum they want to give due to the cost of higher education for the student.
In addition to managing the incoming funds, the foundation also has several fundraising efforts.
Nationally, about 20 cents of every dollar donated to any organization goes toward fundraising expenses. King said the foundation brought in about $18.57 for every 5 cents spent fundraising last year.