Jay Hartzell didn’t set out to leave the University of Texas’ flagship campus for a smaller private college in Dallas. But after SMU board members began aggressively recruiting him for their soon-to-be-vacant president job,

University of Texas President Jay Hartzell is leaving UT to become the next president of Southern Methodist University, the private university announced Tuesday.

Texas president Jay Hartzell, one of the key figures in the Longhorns’ move to the Southeastern Conference, will be the president at SMU, the schools announced Tuesday. SMU’s board of trustees unanimously voted Tuesday to name Hartzell as the successor to R.

SMU is hiring University of Texas President Jay Hartzell as its next leader, a major shakeup in higher education that will open a vacuum at one of the state’s most influential public institutions. The Southern Methodist University Board of Trustees unanimously voted to name Hartzell its next president,

Hartzell leaves UT-Austin after four years of tense political battles and legislative efforts to implement a more conservative vision of public higher ed.

The University of Texas will now begin a search for a new president. On Tuesday, university president Jay Hartzell announced that he would be stepping down fro