While campus has been cheering news of a $50 million gift from the Moody Foundation to the College of Communication since October, tonight brings the official celebration.
In recognition of the historic endowment, which renamed the college as the Moody College of Communication, the university is hosting a public reception and ceremony today, Thursday, Nov. 7 at 5 p.m. on the Walter Cronkite Plaza, on Whitis Avenue, between Dean Keeton Street and 25th Street. The ceremony will also be watchable online via live stream.
Scheduled speakers include President Bill Powers; Moody College of Communication Dean Roderick P. Hart; Moody Foundation Trustee and UT Austin alumnus Ross Moody; Communication Council President Ashley Bingham; and Advisory Council Chairman John R. Fleming.
The gift, among the largest ever awarded by the Moody Foundation, created the largest endowment for the study of communication of any public university in the nation. The Moody College is already a national leader, with five top-10 programs, including number-one ranked advertising and rhetoric and cultural studies.
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“By making this gift, the Moody Foundation seeks to increase the presence of the university on a national and international basis and improve the quality of its education by recruiting the best professors, the best administration and, in turn, having the best students coming out of the Moody College of Communication,” said Moody. “It’s a huge honor to have the Moody name attached to a college that is so well known around the state and nation.”
The gift will support initiatives including an “idea fund” to invest in new curricula, courses, research and student activities; departmental endowments; graduate student recruitment; the creation of the Moody Scholars honors program; and classroom space and facilities, including a pedestrian bridge connecting the Belo Center for New Media and the Jesse H. Jones Complex.
Faculty, students and alumni have already been buzzing about the gift and what it means for the future of the college. Below, a roundup of tweets after the news broke in October:
