Dive Temporary:
- Jay Hartzell, president of the College of Texas at Austin, plans to depart the selective public establishment to guide Southern Methodist College.
- Hartzell will grow to be Southern Methodist’s subsequent president on June 1, the Texas non-public nonprofit mentioned in a information launch. Hartzell has led UT Austin since September 2020 and has been a school member there since 2001.
- Hartzell oversaw enrollment will increase and elevated philanthropic help on the state flagship, however his tenure was additionally marked by campus unrest and polarization.
Dive Perception:
When Hartzell joins Southern Methodist, he’ll be taking up a significantly smaller establishment. The non-public college had 11,842 college students in fall 2023, simply over one-fifth of UT Austin’s 53,082 pupil headcount. Each have grown their enrollment modestly over the previous 5 years, in distinction to many private and non-private universities across the U.S.
UT Austin can be half of a giant and sophisticated state larger training system that boasts the second-largest school endowment within the nation — valued at $45 billion and second solely to Harvard College within the newest knowledge from the Nationwide Affiliation of Faculty and College Enterprise Officers and Commonfund.
In contrast, Southern Methodist’s endowment stood at $2.1 billion in 2024 — on no account small, however dwarfed by the Texas system. The non-public college has a objective to boost $1.5 billion by 2028, and is at the moment 93% of the way in which.
In a message to the UT Austin campus, Hartzell rattled off a listing of accomplishments throughout his time as president. Amongst them had been “all-time highs in purposes, enrollment, commencement charges, analysis expenditures, and philanthropic help.”
He additionally touted two new buildings, the renovation of “our most iconic constructing” (the tower on the middle of campus) and investments in reasonably priced housing for college students, amongst different efforts.
Hartzell’s tenure was additionally marked by social turbulence on the Texas college. It confronted a civil rights criticism filed in 2021 from a bunch of scholars over its anthem, “The Eyes of Texas,” which originated as a minstrel present tune and which plaintiffs mentioned created a hostile surroundings for Black college students.
The tune stayed in place underneath Hartzell, who made the choice as interim president in 2020 to maintain it amid competing calls to take away and preserve the tune. A committee tasked by Hartzell to check the tune and its origins decided that the preliminary intent behind the tune was not “overtly racist” however the cultural context surrounding it was.
Final yr, UT Austin known as in police to interrupt up pro-Palestinian protests on its campus, a transfer that resulted in dozens of arrests and prompted tons of of school to signal a letter of no confidence in Hartzell.
The UT system issued a comparatively brief assertion about Hartzell’s departure thanking him “for his many contributions to UT over the previous 24 years” and saying officers would work intently with him to “guarantee a clean transition.”
The system didn’t launch particulars on plans to seek for a brand new chief for UT Austin.
In a Southern Methodist launch Tuesday, Hartzell praised his future employer’s “stellar — and rising — nationwide status, many years of extraordinary inner and exterior management, sturdy board of trustees, completed alumni, and impressively sturdy and numerous college students and college.”
