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| President of the University of Texas at Austin | |
|---|---|
| Inaugural holder | Leslie Waggener |
| Formation | 1895 |
| Salary | US$1,250,000 (2020)[2] |
| Website | president.utexas.edu |
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) is a public university in Austin, Texas, and the flagship university of the University of Texas System. The university has been led by 30 presidents[a] since the office of the president was founded in 1895.
The position did not exist when UT Austin was established in 1883. The founders of the university had decided to follow the example of the University of Virginia,[3] where Thomas Jefferson, a skeptic of central authority and bureaucracy, had prevented the establishment of such an office years before. The faculty would retain control, under the regents, through an annually selected chairman.
John William Mallet, a professor of physics, served as the first chairman of the faculty for one year, starting in 1883. Mallet was followed by William LeRoy Broun, who served only briefly. Leslie Waggener received the position in 1884, and served until 1894. Waggener subsequently served as president ad interim until his death in 1896.[4]
President Logan Wilson concurrently served as acting chancellor in 1954, until the chancellorship was abolished in September of that year. The position was re-instated in 1960, upon which Wilson left the presidency to become chancellor. In 1963, the office of the president itself was abolished. The chancellor of the University of Texas System, Harry Ransom, assumed the duties of the presidency until the position's re-establishment in 1967.[5] The 30th and current president is Jay Hartzell, having served in the position since 2020.
Several buildings on the UT Austin campus have been named for past presidents, including Battle, Benedict, Calhoun, Mezes, Rainey, Painter, and Waggener Halls; the Larry R. Faulkner Nano Science and Technology Building; the Peter T. Flawn Academic Center; and the Norman Hackerman Building.[6]







| No. | Name | Term start[b] | Term end[b] | Notes[c] | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leslie Waggener | September 7, 1895 | June 30, 1896 | Interim president; president of Bethel College (1877–1883);[8] chairman of the faculty (1884–1894)[9] | [10][11] |
| 2 | George Tayloe Winston | July 1, 1896 | September 15, 1899 | President of the University of North Carolina (1891–1896);[12] president of North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (1899–1908)[13] | [14][15] |
| 3 | William Lambdin Prather | November 4, 1899 | July 24, 1905 | President of the Texas Bar Association (1895–1896);[16] chairman of the Board of Regents (1899–1900)[17] | [18][19] |
| – | Thomas Stalworth Henderson | July 24, 1905 | September 1, 1905 | Acting president; member of the Texas House of Representatives (1893–1895);[20] chairman of the Board of Regents (1900–1903, 1904–1911)[21] | [22] |
| 4 | David Franklin Houston | September 1, 1905 | September 1, 1908 | President of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (1902–1905);[23] chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis (1908–1913);[23] United States Secretary of Agriculture (1913–1920);[24] United States Secretary of the Treasury (1920–1921)[24] | [25][26] |
| 5 | Sidney Edward Mezes | September 1, 1908 | December 15, 1914 | Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1902–1908);[27] president of the College of the City of New York (1914–1927)[27] | [28][29] |
| 6 | William James Battle | November 16, 1914 | June 30, 1916 | Acting president | |
| 7 | Robert Ernest Vinson | July 1, 1916 | June 30, 1923 | ||
| 8 | William Seneca Sutton | July 1, 1923 | July 31, 1924 | Interim president | |
| 9 | Walter Marshall William Splawn | August 1, 1924 | September 1, 1927 | ||
| 10 | Harry Yandell Benedict | September 1, 1927 | May 10, 1937 | Earned BS and MA from the university (1892, 1893);[30] dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1911–1927)[30] | [31][32] |
| 11 | John William Calhoun | June 1, 1937 | May 31, 1939 | Interim president | |
| 12 | Homer Price Rainey | June 1, 1939 | November 1, 1944 | Fired by the Board of Regents over a dispute regarding academic freedom | |
| 13 | Theophilus Shickel Painter | November 2, 1944 | August 31, 1952 | Acting president from November 1944 to May 1946 | |
| 14 | James Clay Dolley | September 1, 1952 | January 31, 1953 | Acting president | |
| 15 | Logan Wilson | February 1, 1953 | August 31, 1960 | Served concurrently as acting chancellor in 1954 until the office was abolished on September 30 | |
| 16 | Harry Huntt Ransom | September 1, 1960 | May 31, 1961 | Interim president | |
| 17 | Joseph Royall Smiley | June 1, 1961 | June 30, 1963 | Dean of the University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (1954–1958);[33] president of Texas Western College / the University of Texas at El Paso (1958–1960; 1969–1972);[34] vice president and provost (1960–1961);[35] president of the University of Colorado (1963–1969)[35] | [36][37] |
| – | — | July 1, 1963 | November 1, 1967 | Office abolished; duties assumed by chancellor Harry Ransom | [38] |
| 18 | Norman Hackerman | November 1, 1967 | September 1, 1970 | Acting president; vice president and provost (1961–1963);[39] vice chancellor for academic affairs (1963–1967);[39] president of Rice University (1970–1985)[39] | [40][41] |
| 19 | Bryce Jordan | July 1, 1970 | July 1, 1971 | Interim president | |
| 20 | Stephen Hopkins Spurr | July 9, 1971 | September 24, 1974 | Dean of the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources (1962–1964);[42] dean of the University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School (1964–1971);[42] fired by the Board of Regents and chancellor Charles LeMaistre[43][44] | [45][46] |
| 21 | Lorene Lane Rogers | September 25, 1974 | August 31, 1979 | Interim president from September 1974 to September 1975; earned MA and PhD from the university (1946, 1948);[47] vice president (1971–1974)[48] | [49][50] |
| 22 | Peter Tyrrell Flawn | September 1, 1979 | August 31, 1985 | Vice president for academic affairs (1970–1972);[51] executive vice president (1972);[52] president of the University of Texas at San Antonio (1973–1977)[51] | [53][54] |
| 23 | William H. Cunningham | September 1, 1985 | August 31, 1992 | Dean of the College and Graduate School of Business (1983–1985);[55] chancellor of the University of Texas System (1992–2000)[55] | [56][57] |
| 24 | William S. Livingston | September 1, 1992 | December 31, 1992 | Acting president; vice president and dean of Graduate Studies (1979–1995);[58] senior vice president (1995–2007)[59] | [60][61] |
| 25 | Robert M. Berdahl | January 1, 1993 | June 30, 1997 | Dean of the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences (1981–1986);[62] chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley (1997–2004);[63] president of the Association of American Universities (2006–2011);[64] interim president of the University of Oregon (2011–2012)[65] | [66][67] |
| 26 | Peter Tyrrell Flawn | July 1, 1997 | April 12, 1998 | Interim president; second term as president | [53][54] |
| 27 | Larry R. Faulkner | April 13, 1998 | January 31, 2006 | Earned PhD from the university (1969);[68] dean of the University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (1989–1994);[68] interim chancellor of the University of Texas System (2018)[69] | [70][71] |
| 28 | William C. Powers Jr. | February 1, 2006 | June 2, 2015 | Dean of the School of Law (2000–2006);[72] chair of the Association of American Universities (2013–2014)[72] | [73][74] |
| 29 | Gregory L. Fenves | June 3, 2015 | May 31, 2020 | Dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering (2008–2013);[75] executive vice president and provost (2013–2015);[75] president of Emory University (2020–present)[76] | [77][78] |
| 30 | Jay Hartzell | June 1, 2020 | – | Interim president from June to September 2020; earned PhD from the university (1998);[79] dean of the McCombs School of Business (2016–2020)[79] | [80][81] |