Capital Campaign
Once completed, the Belo Center for New Media will be the first step in the College of Communication’s ambitious plan to transform the educational experience and to revolutionize communication education. The College’s capital campaign, which is part of the University’s Campaign for Texas, will help allow us to strengthen our foundation of outstanding faculty and students, renovate our existing facilities and fund and embrace innovation.
Campaign Initiatives
The College of Communication is already the largest, the highest ranked and most comprehensive communication programs in the United States. Our campaign initiatives will allow us to complete our core mission of educating and training the most critically aware, technically skilled and socially motivated graduates in the United States.
Our Foundation – our faculty and students
As state support to the University has dwindled, one of our biggest challenges is recruiting and retaining faculty. Compared to our peers, our permanent endowment is modest. Competition among leading research universities for faculty talent is fierce, and we are particularly susceptible to losing our most talented younger faculty. We must increase support to both junior and senior faculty members to maintain and grow the culture of excellence at the College.
As tuition and expenses continue to rise, it is equally critical that the college provide more scholarship support to undergraduate students. Many of our students graduate with crushing debt, and many are unable to take part in the study-abroad programs and internship programs that are so vital to a communication education. At the graduate level- we must be able to compete for the best and brightest by providing fellowships to fund tuition, graduate research, and graduate travel.
Campaign goals:
Faculty……………………………………………………………………………….$10,000,000
Attract and retain world-class faculty (professorships and chairs)
Students……………………………………………………………………………….$5,000,000
Undergraduate scholarships
Graduate Fellowships
Renovation – transforming the campus environment
Although the college is constructing a new state-of-the-art building – the Belo Center for New Media – much work remains to bring our existing buildings into the 21st century. Jesse Jones Complex Building A (CMA), which was originally designed to accommodate about 1,000 students, requires an upgrade and retrofit, including conference rooms, faculty offices, departmental research space and classroom space. Our production and teaching facilities in Jesse Jones Complex Building B (CMB) need a complete upgrade to electrical, lighting, and structure, as well as technology for digital sound, digital recording and projection and post-production facilities for student and faculty filmmakers.
Campaign Goals:
Renovate and retrofit CMA………………………………………………………..$5,000,000
Upgrade and retrofit CMB……………………….…………………………………$5,000,000
Innovation – Fund cutting-edge teaching, research and outreach projects
Examining – and understanding – how new technologies and new processes affect our world will require a paradigm shift in how we study communication. We will fund that paradigm shift by creating an Innovation Fund – a venture capital fund for ideas. From the psychology of advertising to the physiology of speech to the art of film, this fun will enable the pursuit of ideas that can shape behaviors.
The fund will give faculty and students the start-up money to cutting-edge programs, curriculum, and research and will allow the college to attract and match external gifts and grants. Both short and long-term projects will be funded on a competitive basis.
Campaign Goals:
Cutting-edge research, teaching, and outreach programs…………………… $25,000,000
(Proposed initiatives: Alternative Media Laboratory,
Aural Rehabilitation Laboratory, Cap-Link Newsroom,
Convergent Media Teaching Laboratory, UT Documentary Center,
Center for Childhood Communication)
To become involved in the College of Communication Capital Campaign or to discuss naming opportunities in the Belo Center for New Media please contact the Director of Development at 512-475-9165.
