UT launches $6B fundraising campaign
As Austin rapidly grows, university sets goal of state’s largest drive for higher education
The University of Texas at Austin on Friday publicly launched a $6 billion fundraising campaign, setting the largest goal for a philanthropic drive in the history of Texas higher education.
The “What Starts Here” campaign comes as Austin undergoes rapid population growth, which university officials say expands UT’s potential for influence in the capital city, state and beyond. The push, they said, aims to move the university toward its aim of becoming the “highest-impact public research university in the world.”
“We’re really at a moment where we believe UT Austin has truly special opportunities,” said Jay Hartzell, the campus’ president. “If you look at all the ways the state is growing or developing … there’s just such momentum.
“The university is in a very fortunate place with a really bright future. … How do we seize it?” he added. “This campaign is that fuel that will help us get there.
Campus leaders hope to support a $1 billion allotment for scholarships and student programs, as well as faculty recruiting and retention efforts, philanthropy, health care research, and new and renovated facilities. The fundraising goal is also believed to be one of the largest of any public university in the country, university leaders said.
The scholarships will help UT attract the “best and brightest students,” Hartzell said, especially as more and more top-tier universities recruit with merit-based aid. That push, in turn, should convert to better graduation rates, he said.
UT Austin already provides a level of income-based aid. The UT System board of regents in 2019 established a $167 million endowment that covers tuition and fees for students whose families earn up to $65,000 a year. The school also provides financial aid to students whose family incomes are below $125,000 and have demonstrated financial need, the Texas Tribune reported.
Faculty recruiting is also increasingly competitive across the
country, and the “What Starts Here” campaign will provide resources to attract faculty despite the higher cost of living in Austin, the president said. Some of those resources include gifts to establish endowed faculty chairs and more professorships and fellowships.
Friday’s announcement came two weeks after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick proposed to eliminate tenure eligibility for new hires at public universities, citing concerns about professors who “indoctrinate” their students in “critical race theory.” Academics widely decried Patrick’s proposal, arguing that political attempts to interfere with tenure would seriously harm the state’s public universities. Revoking tenure would deviate both from the norm and from industry best practices, potentially driving both students and potential faculty elsewhere, they say.
Health care research will additionally expand as a result of the campaign, through work led by Dell Medical School. More philanthropic investments stemming from the campaign will help fund energy solutions and biodiversity research.
The “quiet” phase of the campaign began in September 2016, garnering $3.3 billion from more than 240,000 donors, according to the university. That amount already exceeds contributions to UT’s previous fundraising campaign, which lasted from 2006 to 2014.
Mindy Hildebrand, a volunteer on the campaign, urged other UT alumni to fund the campaign.
“We benefited from the donors who came before us, and now it’s our turn,” Hildebrand, of Houston, said in a news release. “By supporting UT students and faculty, we are investing in the future of Texas and beyond. Every gift really does matter.”
UT’s goal stands higher than Texas universities’ previous, similar campaigns. The University of Houston closed a campaign in 2020 with $1.2 billion. Rice University last year announced a $2 billion campaign. And Texas A&M University ended a nine-year fundraising effort with $4.25 billion.