The Archer Center

Academics

Federal Policymaking:  a View From Inside the Federal Government

Click here to download the course syllabus.

This course takes students behind what you see and hear about the federal government on television or over the internet, to explain how the government works.  The course provides a view of governance derived directly from the people who make up the government.   Students will meet with officials from Congress, the White House, executive branch agencies, lobbying firms, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, interest groups, and the media. Students will listen to speakers, discuss and analyze what we have heard and seen, and become more familiar with the remarkable processes, institutions, and people who make up our federal government.  This course will supplement the internship component by introducing students to the dynamic, complex, and raucous American policymaking process.  This course will be conducted largely as a seminar, which will require significant student participation.  Much of the course will consist of discussion with representatives from a wide variety of federal agencies as well as representatives of organizations whose work is closely tied to that of the government.  Students will examine a sampling of the extensive literature on federal government dynamics, but our primary focus will be understanding government through face to face interaction with individuals from the major institutions, both governmental and private, that participate in the unruly process of federal governance. 

Archer Center Washington Internship

Click here to download the course syllabus.

This course consists of an approved internship in a governmental or non-governmental organization in Washington, D.C.  Students must arrange for this internship themselves, but will receive continual advice and contacts from the Archer Center.  Students will gain a wide range of experiences from these internships.  They will acquire and utilize the interpersonal skills necessary to function effectively in an office environment; they will become more conversant with the substantive issues on which their office focuses; and they will, by necessity, learn the time-management, priority-setting and other skills necessary to meeting the work and classroom demands of the Graduate Program in Public Policy. 

Professor Biography

Dr. Don Arbuckle

Dr. Arbuckle teaches graduate level courses in public affairs to Masters and PhD candidates at the Archer Center and the University of Texas at Dallas.  His expertise lies in Federal regulatory affairs, administrative practice, and the practice and politics of the Presidency. In the summer of 2006, Dr. Arbuckle retired after surviving 25 years at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). There he was the career executive in charge of the OMB staff responsible for Presidential review of regulations and government efforts to collect information; Executive Branch information and information technology policy; and Federal Government statistical policy.  He worked on a daily basis with White House policy officials from the Office of the Vice President, the Chief of Staff’s Office, the Domestic Policy Counsel, and the Office of Homeland Security, and with agency officials, including both career executives and political appointees. In 1995, Dr. Arbuckle received the Distinguished Service Award, the highest award given by OMB; and in 2001 he was awarded a Meritorious Presidential Rank Achievement Award, one of the highest awards given in the Executive Branch to career executives.  He also served for many years as a recruiter for OMB, and was one of the founders in 1987 of the White House Athletic Center.  

Before joining OMB in 1981 Dr. Arbuckle served as an analyst at the National Transportation Safety Board. Prior to that, in a singularly ill-timed career move, he was a Professor of American Civilization at Pahlavi University in Shiraz, Iran, just as the Iranian Revolution got underway.  Dr. Arbuckle was educated at Harvard College and has Masters and PhD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1968 to 1972.

Don’s wife Carlisle recently retired as a judge at the Commerce Department’s Patent and Trademark Office. He and Carlisle have three children: Jennifer, husband Steve, who is head women's volleyball coach at Northern Florida University and daughters Isabella and Lilly; Ben, wife Erin and daughters Abigail and Claire-- Ben is a Professor of Archeology at Baylor University; and Michael, a recent graduate from the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin, who is working in Austin.