Dean, College of Liberal Arts

By virtue of its public mission, culture of innovation, location, size and rich history, UT Austin is one of the highest-impact universities in the world. As the top public university in Texas and the flagship of The University of Texas System, UT Austin is an influential catalyst for scientific, economic and societal progress.

Founded in 1883, the University’s main campus spans 431 acres with a community of almost 54,000 students, 3,500 faculty members and 15,000 staff members. In addition to its main campus, UT Austin extends to the J.J. Pickle Research Campus, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the McDonald Observatory in West Texas, the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, and several cultural and historic sites across the state.

The University is a leader in energy, AI, entrepreneurship and national security, and its graduate programs in accounting, petroleum engineering, geology, Latin American history and sociology of population rank No. 1 in the United States. UT Austin is among the top producers of doctoral degrees in the nation, and its alumni and faculty include Nobel laureates. In total, UT Austin offers more than 150 undergraduate degree programs and 230 graduate programs across 19 colleges and schools in the sciences, arts, humanities and professions:

A globally recognized research leader, UT Austin attracted more than $1 billion for research in 2023-24. The University is home to the fastest supercomputers for open research in the world. The Department of Defense designated UT’s Applied Research Laboratories as one of five University Affiliated Research Centers for the Navy, and the University is a major collaborator with the Army Futures Command, among many other government agencies and organizations. The lab of Jason McLellan, a faculty member in the Department of Molecular Biosciences, was critical to the development of COVID-19 vaccines.

RANKINGS AND RESEARCH: BY THE NUMBERS

• 7 among American public universities, U.S. News & World Report
• 6 among U.S. universities in research financed by the National Science Foundation
• 3 in the world for most patents granted (UT System-wide), National Academy of Inventors
• 18 for scientific research, Nature Index
• 19 most innovative school, U.S. News & World Report
• 55 graduate programs ranked among the top 10, U.S. News & World Report
• $1.04 billion in research expenditures
• 7,000+ peer-reviewed articles published
• 116 patents issued, U.S & foreign
• 194 invention disclosures filed

The University’s holdings comprise more than 170 million objects, including a Gutenberg Bible and other rare books, manuscripts, photographs, artworks and artifacts from natural history to pop culture in eight museums and 12 libraries. The Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library was the first presidential library to be located on a college campus.

Over the past decade, the campus has undergone a significant modernization and expansion of its research, academic and community spaces. Recent projects added new state-of-the-art facilities, high-tech labs and dynamic collaboration spaces that are transforming the student and faculty experience. The University’s large and diverse student body, storied history, strong and supportive community and rich tradition have given rise to a proud alumni base of more than 500,000. Among UT’s many well-known alumni are Michael Dell, Laura Bush, Jenna Bush Hager, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Matthew McConaughey, Kevin Durant, Wes Anderson, Robert Rodriguez, Renee Zellweger, Owen Wilson, Marcia Gay Harden, Sanya Richards Ross, Sam Rayburn, James Baker, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Brené Brown, Jim Allison, Rex Tillerson, Bill Moyers and Walter Cronkite, as well as current Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

The College of Liberal Arts (COLA) is a national leader in research and education in the humanities, languages and social sciences. It is the largest college in the University, with a Fall 2024 enrollment of 12,024 undergraduate students and 1,138 graduate students (956 Ph.D. and 182 master’s students). With over 800 total faculty members, COLA offers 37 undergraduate and 36 graduate programs, with additional degree programs soon to launch in history and computer science, linguistics and computer science, and digital humanities and data science.

The college boasts $546 million in endowments, including 211 endowed chairs and professorships. External research funding supports over $40 million in annual expenditures.

COLA consists of 26 independent departments: African and African Diaspora Studies; Air and Space Force Science; American Studies; Anthropology; Asian Studies; Classics; Economics; English; French and Italian; Geography and the Environment; Germanic Studies; Government; History; Linguistics; Mexican American and Latina/o Studies; Middle Eastern Studies; Military Science; Naval Science; Philosophy; Psychology; Religious Studies; Rhetoric and Writing; Slavic and Eurasian Studies; Sociology; Spanish and Portuguese; and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

In addition, there are 22 centers: Américo Paredes Center for Cultural Studies; Center for Archaeological and Tropical Studies; Center for Asian American Studies; Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies; Center for East Asian Studies; Center for European Studies; Center for Mexican American Studies; Center for Middle Eastern Studies; Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning; Center for Perceptual Systems; Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies; Center for Taiwan Studies; Center for Women’s and Gender Studies; Center on Aging and Population Science; John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies; Linguistics Research Center; Population Research Center; Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies; Texas Aging and Longevity Consortium; Texas Language Center; Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas; and the University Writing Center.

The college also boasts 12 faculty-led social science research labs: the Children’s Research Center; the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab; the Daily Activity Lab; the Language Development Lab; the Evolution and Ontogeny of Cognition and Culture Laboratory; the Preston Lab; the Austin Thought Lab; the Imagination and Cognition Lab; the Adolescent Development Research Group; and the Developmental Intelligence Lab, along with 10 institutes: the France-University of Texas Institute; the Humanities Institute; the Institute for Historical Studies; the Institute for Mental Health Research; the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis; the Institute of Classical Archaeology; the Irma Rangel Public Policy Institute; the Latino Research Institute; the South Asia Institute; and the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies.

The college is home to two outstanding undergraduate honors programs — the Liberal Arts Honors Program and the Plan II Honors Program — and has strong interdisciplinary areas of study. Other unique opportunities for students at the college include UTeach-Liberal Arts, Shakespeare at Winedale and the Normandy Scholars Program.

The 10 most popular undergraduate majors as of Spring 2024 are:

In addition, the college is nationally recognized for the quality of its graduate programs, with U.S. News and World Report ranking 14 of the college’s graduate programs among the top 20 in the country and two programs at number one:

Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services (LAITS), the college’s IT and facilities unit, is the largest organization dedicated to instructional technology on campus. LAITS provides high-quality online courses, event support, lecture capture, technology integration, software development and support for classrooms, research, facilities and computers for faculty and staff.

The University of Texas at Austin seeks a Dean for the College of Liberal Arts who understands the intrinsic value of a liberal arts education and can articulate the value of the social sciences and humanities and its wide-reaching influence and impact. The Dean must be able to communicate authentically and broadly, within and beyond the University, the centrality of liberal arts education and research in realizing the full potential of a highly research- intensive, globally competitive university.

Reporting to the Executive Vice President and Provost, the Dean is the chief academic and administrative officer of the college and serves as a member of University leadership. The Dean will set the vision and implement the strategic direction and goals for the college. The next Dean will be responsible for advancing its mission and operations through thoughtful personnel and management decisions, retention and enhancement of faculty talent, aligning budget decisions with strategy, academic program oversight, and fundraising and donor development. The Dean will make thoughtful decisions and be adaptable to change to capitalize on existing opportunities and create new ones. The Dean will guide a robust scholarship and research agenda, seek to expand sponsored research and promote excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, including the development of collaborative and innovative academic programs designed to meet existing and emerging student needs and demands.

The next Dean will foster collaborative (internal and external) relationships that heighten the impact and extend the reach of the college. The successful candidate must be committed to recruiting and developing highly talented faculty and students and have experience in academic administration. The Dean will possess demonstrated scholarly excellence in a field represented in one of the college’s 26 departments.

The College of Liberal Arts, independently and in partnership with the Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Endeavors, has made significant progress in recent years to elevate its already high-profile in research and scholarship. Key areas for continued progress include increasing funding opportunities, strengthening foundation relations efforts, strategically investing in research development, broadening both pre-and post-award services, and supporting several large federally funded centers in the social and behavioral sciences (Population Research Center, Center for Perceptual Systems, Center for Aging and Population Sciences), redesigning and expanding a center for interdisciplinary scholarship in the humanities (Humanities Institute), and scaffolding the continued success of four Department of Education Title VI Area Resource Center grants that provide outreach and student support in languages and area studies. The college also has aggressively invested in efforts to recruit and retain top faculty, modernize and expand space and facilities for research, and increase the visibility and impact of faculty scholarship.

This activity has resulted in a seven-year average of $40.7 million in annual sponsored awards in the college (and $285 million total), including a 40% increase in federal social science and behavioral research funding, a 30% increase in active Mellon funding and the largest-ever grants portfolio of the Population Research Center ($139 million). The funds are part of a substantial amount of external recognition of the research conducted in the college, including a Macarthur Foundation Fellowship (“Genius Grant”), a Carnegie Foundation Fellowship, a Pulitzer Prize, multiple Guggenheim Fellowships, the Kingsley Tufts and Griffin Prizes for Poetry, the largest number of NIH K Awards and NSF Career Awards in the college’s history, the election of five new members to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a lifetime fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The college has made significant investments in fundraising, with the mission of supporting groundbreaking research of faculty and students and providing the resources necessary for students to reach their potential. With a large and active development team of 18 staff members, COLA has raised funds at record levels over the past five years, enabling strategic and transformative investments in career services, research support, and student support. This includes achieving the highest fundraising years in COLA history, raising $70.4 million in 2022-2023 and $53 million in 2023-2024. COLA has exceeded its campaign goal of $300 million with two years remaining in the campaign, leading the college to increase its goal to $350 million, of which $340 million has already been raised.

Key priorities:

• Establish a clear vision that defines liberal arts in the 21^st century, sets achievable goals and articulates the value of the humanities and social sciences to society, the state of Texas and the UT Austin community.
• Recruit, nurture and retain outstanding faculty.
• Support and develop the college’s excellent staff.
• Elevate the college’s visibility, accomplishments and profile to internal and external constituents.
• Find creative ways to support scholarship, increase research capacity and grow extramural funding; increase the exposure of faculty publications and scholarly contributions.
• Accelerate efforts to advance the number of top-ranked programs.
• Enhance the college’s curriculum.
• Invest in programs and research that align with UT’s strategic areas of focus including, among others, health and well-being, technology and society, and energy and the environment.
• Support the college’s strengths in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary departments and centers, including its area, ethnic and gender studies units.
• Strengthen student support and outcomes by enhancing career preparation, expanding external networks and increasing financial support.
• Maintain the college’s fiscal health and enhance the financial resources by building donor and alumni relationships through development activities.
• Increase engagement across the University and build external partnerships with alumni, the surrounding community and national and international organizations.

Personal Characteristics and Qualifications

Leadership

• A visionary with a demonstrated record of effective, strong and collaborative
• A thoughtful advocate who can represent the college effectively with senior leadership and collaborate with other college and unit leaders.
• Experience leading in an interdisciplinary environment; able to flex and adapt to navigate the many needs and unique dynamics of the college.
• A consultative leader and strong communicator who can listen and communicate clearly and persuasively to a variety of constituents.
• Viewed by others as having a high degree of integrity and forethought in their approach to making decisions and the ability to act in a transparent and consistent manner.
• Highest standards of personal, professional and academic

Setting and Executing Strategy

• The ability to translate ideas to strategies, align people and resources to execute ambitious initiatives and realize desired outcomes.
• A commitment to data-informed decision-making and to aligning others with overall strategy and
• Demonstrated experience overseeing and launching successful large-scale strategic projects, including managing change, setting and implementing strategy and facilitating stakeholder engagement.
• Expertise in rethinking and developing processes that are transparent, fair and

Relationships and Influence

• Naturally connects and builds strong relationships with others, demonstrating strong emotional
• People-centered and approachable leader with strong interpersonal
• Authentic, relatable and An ability to inspire trust and followership in others through compelling influence, powerful charisma, passion in their beliefs and active drive.
• Encourages others to share the spotlight and visibly celebrates and supports the success of the

Academic Background

• Outstanding academic credentials and a passion for academic
• National presence and recognition through scholarly accomplishments and/or extraordinary
• Credentials consistent with an appointment at a tenured full professor
• Demonstrated excellence in teaching and mentoring students at all

Student Focus

• Experience leading a unit to meet its teaching mission to provide undergraduate and graduate students with the highest-quality educational experience.
• Genuine investment in the student experience, including recruitment, admission, curricular development, retention, experiential learning and career support.
• Has played a pivotal role in fostering a supportive environment that prioritizes student mental health and well-
• The ability to connect with students and be visible as a leader, educator, role model and

Engaging Faculty and Staff

• Experienced leader with skills in managing, recruiting, retaining and developing faculty and
• Demonstrated capacity to work alongside faculty, staff and peers to make difficult and thoughtful decisions, with an understanding of shared governance and collective decision-making.
• Extensive experience with appointment, promotion and tenure

Financial Management Experience and Development

• Record of operational leadership and fiscal management demonstrating excellence, growth and financial
• Strong financial acumen and entrepreneurial
• Genuine appetite and aptitude to engage in development, ideally with experience in strengthening philanthropic support.