Amid the robes, the maces and medallions of authority on the stage of the UT-Austin Bass Auditorium, Dr. Greg Fenves was inaugurated the 29th President of the University of Texas at Austin, a tremendous honor and achievement.

From President Fenves’ address, what is of greatest interest to the Central Texas business community?

Fenves - “I will be a President who listens."

• Faculty Excellence - UT excellence is based upon the preeminence of its faculty. Fenves fully committed to excellence and diversity in our faculty. He will compete for the best graduate students and innovate how graduates prepare for careers outside academia.
• Research - Fenves will initiate a process to assess the emerging research landscape, especially as it relates to multi-disciplinary approaches. He will ensure pursuit of scholarship which crosses disciplines to create the next generation of insight and technologies.
• Undergraduate Experience - Fenves will continue education change powered by faculty deans over the last decade. He will continue signature undergraduate courses with renowned faculty. He will encourage use of new technologies to improve student learning and success.
• Learning - Fenves asked how to leverage new approaches to pedagogy. New instructional budget system will help these new pedagogical and multi-disciplinary approaches. He will launch a "faculty innovation center" to accelerate transformation of teaching and curriculum design. He believed steadily improved 4 year graduation rates will provide funds to invest in these initiatives.
• New Ways to Take UT - Fenves also said he will continue extended campuses –on-line and hybrid courses -- for life-long learners in high school and for alumni. High school courses will enable new mechanisms to cultivate relationships before these students step onto campus and extend decades after commencement.
• Dell Medical School - Fenves said many of these approaches are built into the design of the UT-Austin Dell Medical School, the first medical school affiliated with AAU in nearly 50 years. Dell Medical School will welcome its first class of medical students this summer. Fenves said UT will rethink health care, to include the role of information technology.
• Efficiency – He said UT must pursue efficiency in all avenues.
• Athletics – Fenves said athletics can be the front door to UT for many people. I will make it a welcoming front door.

University of Texas at Austin is an enormous asset to Central Texas. Many of our most prominent business leaders trace their initial involvement in Austin beginning at that university. Annually, 13,000 graduates cross the stage each year. And the university researchers attract hundreds of million of basic research dollars to invent new technologies and companies.

In warmly introducing President Fenves, UT System Chancellor McRaven said, “As president, the buck stops with him.”

Contributed by Austin Chamber Senior Vice President Drew Scheberle.