List of presidents of the University of Texas at Austin

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 since the office of the president was founded in 1895. The current officeholder is Jim Davis, who has served as interim president since 2025.^[2]

President of the University of Texas at Austin
Incumbent Jim Davis (interim) since February 19, 2025 (2025-02-19)[1]
University of Texas at Austin
Inaugural holder	Leslie Waggener
Formation	1895 (1895)
Website	president.utexas.edu

The position did not exist when UT Austin was established in 1883. Its founders followed the system established at the University of Virginia and gave control to the faculty, under a board of regents, through a chairman of their choosing. John William Mallet served as the first chairman of the faculty for most of the 1883–1884 academic year, with William Leroy Broun serving briefly at the end of the year. Leslie Waggener received the position in 1884 and served for ten years; Thomas Scott Miller took the role in 1894. By 1895, due to the need for a full-time executive, Waggener became the university's first president on an interim basis.^[3][4][5][6]

Many presidents early in the university's history had relatively short tenures.^[7] Tensions with the Board of Regents led to the removals of Homer P. Rainey in 1944 and Stephen H. Spurr in 1974; Rainey's firing over academic freedom and interference from regents particularly harmed the university's reputation for several years after and earned censure from the American Association of University Professors.^[8][9][10] In 1950, a separate chancellor position for the University of Texas System was established; that office assumed the responsibilities of the UT Austin president from 1963 to 1967.^[3][5]

Harry Yandell Benedict is the longest-serving president, as well as the first UT Austin alumnus to become president.^[11] Lorene Rogers became the university's first female president and has been called the first woman to lead a major state university.^[12] Peter T. Flawn served two separate terms as president, the only individual to do so.^[13] Several buildings on the UT Austin campus are 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; the Norman Hackerman Building; the William C. Powers Student Activity Center; and the Harry Ransom Center.^[14]

Presidents

Leslie Waggener

George Tayloe Winston

William Lambdin Prather

David Franklin Houston

Sidney Edward Mezes

William James Battle

Robert Ernest Vinson

William Seneca Sutton

Walter Marshall William Splawn

Homer Price Rainey

Norman Hackerman

Bryce Jordan

Larry R. Faulkner

William C. Powers Jr.

Gregory L. Fenves

Jay Hartzell

Presidents of the University of Texas at Austin

No.	Name	Term start[a]	Term end[a]	Notes[b]	Ref.
1	Leslie Waggener	September 7, 1895	June 30, 1896	Interim president; president of Bethel College (1877–1883);[16] chairman of the faculty (1884–1894)[5]	[17][18]
2	George Tayloe Winston	July 1, 1896	September 15, 1899	President of the University of North Carolina (1891–1896);[19] president of North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (1899–1908)[20]	[21][22]
3	William Lambdin Prather	November 4, 1899	July 24, 1905	President of the Texas Bar Association (1895–1896);[23] chairman of the Board of Regents (1899–1900)[24]	[25][26]
4	David Franklin Houston	September 1, 1905	September 1, 1908	President of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (1902–1905);[27] chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis (1908–1913);[27] United States Secretary of Agriculture (1913–1920);[28] United States Secretary of the Treasury (1920–1921)[28]	[29][30]
5	Sidney Edward Mezes	September 1, 1908	December 15, 1914	Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1902–1908);[31] president of the College of the City of New York (1914–1927)[31]	[32][33]
6	William James Battle	November 16, 1914	June 30, 1916	Acting president; dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1908–1911);[34] dean of the faculty (1911–1917)[34]	[35][36]
7	Robert Ernest Vinson	July 1, 1916	June 30, 1923	President of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary (1908–1916);[37] president of Western Reserve University (1923–1933)[37]	[38][39]
8	William Seneca Sutton	July 1, 1923	July 31, 1924	Interim president; dean of the School of Education (1909–1926)[40]	[41][42]
9	Walter Marshall William Splawn	August 1, 1924	September 1, 1927	Dean of the American University Graduate School (1929–1934);[43] member of the Interstate Commerce Commission (1934–1953)[44]	[45][46]
10	Harry Yandell Benedict	September 1, 1927	May 10, 1937	Earned BS and MA from the university (1892, 1893);[47] dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1911–1927)[47]	[48][49]
11	John William Calhoun	June 1, 1937	May 31, 1939	Interim president; earned BA from the university (1905);[50] comptroller (1925–1940)[50]	[51][52]
12	Homer Price Rainey	June 1, 1939	November 1, 1944	President of Franklin College (1927–1931);[53] president of Bucknell University (1931–1935);[53] president of Stephens College (1947–1952);[54] fired by the Board of Regents[53]	[55][56]
13	Theophilus Shickel Painter	November 2, 1944	August 31, 1952	Acting president from November 1944 to May 1946; acting chancellor of the University of Texas System (1950)[57]	[58][59]
14	James Clay Dolley	September 1, 1952	January 31, 1953	Acting president; vice president (1945–1953);[60] vice chancellor for fiscal affairs of the University of Texas System (1955–1966)[61]	[62][63]
15	Logan Wilson	February 1, 1953	August 31, 1960	Earned MA from the university (1927);[64] dean of Newcomb College at Tulane University (1944–1951);[65] vice president and provost of the Consolidated University of North Carolina (1951–1953);[65] chancellor of the University of Texas System (1954, 1960–1961);[66] president of the American Council on Education (1961–1971)[67]	[68][69]
16	Harry Huntt Ransom	September 1, 1960	May 31, 1961	Interim president; dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1954–1957);[70] vice president and provost (1957–1960);[70] chancellor of the University of Texas System (1961–1971)[71]	[72][73]
17	Joseph Royall Smiley	June 1, 1961	June 30, 1963	Dean of the University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (1954–1958);[74] president of Texas Western College / the University of Texas at El Paso (1958–1960, 1969–1972);[75] vice president and provost (1960–1961);[76] president of the University of Colorado (1963–1969)[76]	[77][78]
–	—	July 1, 1963	November 1, 1967	Office abolished; duties assumed by chancellor Harry Ransom	[3]
18	Norman Hackerman	November 1, 1967	September 1, 1970	Acting president; vice president and provost (1961–1963);[79] vice chancellor for academic affairs (1963–1967);[79] president of Rice University (1970–1985)[79]	[80][81]
19	Bryce Jordan	July 1, 1970	July 1, 1971	Interim president; earned BM and MM from the university (1948, 1949);[82] vice president for student affairs (1968–1970);[83] president of the University of Texas at Dallas (1971–1981);[84] president of Pennsylvania State University (1983–1990)[83]	[85][86]
20	Stephen Hopkins Spurr	July 9, 1971	September 24, 1974	Dean of the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources (1962–1964);[87] dean of the University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School (1964–1971);[87] fired by the Board of Regents and chancellor Charles LeMaistre[8][88]	[89][90]
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);[91] vice president (1971–1974)[92]	[93][94]
22	Peter Tyrrell Flawn	September 1, 1979	August 31, 1985	Vice president for academic affairs (1970–1972);[95] executive vice president (1972);[96] president of the University of Texas at San Antonio (1973–1977)[95]	[97][98]
23	William H. Cunningham	September 1, 1985	August 31, 1992	Dean of the College and Graduate School of Business (1983–1985);[99] chancellor of the University of Texas System (1992–2000)[99]	[100][101]
24	William S. Livingston	September 1, 1992	December 31, 1992	Acting president; vice president and dean of Graduate Studies (1979–1995);[102] senior vice president (1995–2007)[103]	[104][105]
25	Robert M. Berdahl	January 1, 1993	June 30, 1997	Dean of the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences (1981–1986);[106] chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley (1997–2004);[107] president of the Association of American Universities (2006–2011);[108] interim president of the University of Oregon (2011–2012)[109]	[110][111]
26	Peter Tyrrell Flawn	July 1, 1997	April 12, 1998	Interim president; second term as president	[97][98]
27	Larry R. Faulkner	April 13, 1998	January 31, 2006	Earned PhD from the university (1969);[112] dean of the University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (1989–1994);[112] interim chancellor of the University of Texas System (2018)[113]	[114][115]
28	William C. Powers Jr.	February 1, 2006	June 2, 2015	Dean of the School of Law (2000–2006);[116] chair of the Association of American Universities (2013–2014)[116]	[117][118]
29	Gregory L. Fenves	June 3, 2015	May 31, 2020	Dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering (2008–2013);[119] executive vice president and provost (2013–2015);[119] president of Emory University (2020–present)[120]	[121][122]
30	Jay Hartzell	June 1, 2020	February 19, 2025	Interim president from June to September 2020; earned PhD from the university (1998);[123] dean of the McCombs School of Business (2016–2020)[123]	[124][125][2]
–	Jim Davis	February 19, 2025	–	Interim president; earned BA from the university (1996);[126] vice president of legal affairs (2018–2023);[2] senior vice president and chief operating officer (2023–present)[2]	[1]

Notes

1. Start and end dates and interim/acting titles are based on the list from the University of Texas System.^[15] The dates and titles listed on the UT Austin website differ slightly.
2. Positions are within UT Austin unless stated.