 McDowell developed a reputation for making decisions privately, being "intensely loyal" to the university and demanding loyalty from others, and being averse to criticism.He was also willing to experiment with new ideas, however, such as the innovative New Center for Learning that was created in 1975.He also supported the creation of the Federation of North Texas Area Universities, a three-university consortium dedicated to sharing faculty, library resources, and computer services with the University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University; MACH III, a program that provided counseling and tutoring to disabled and minority students; Upward Bound, a program to support disadvantaged minority high school students in local schools; and Project MICRO, a federal government-funded program to accept Micronesian students.