Moody College of Communication is a communication college located in Austin, Texas. This college is known for offering top-ranked programs in public relations, advertising, communication sciences and disorders, communication studies, radio-television-film, and journalism. Aside from that, Moody College of Communication is also commended for its research and student media as well as its faculty members. In this article, we are going to learn more about the history of Moody College of Communication.
History
The Department of Public Speaking, which is now known as the Department of Communication Studies, was established in 1899 at the University of Texas in Austin. In 1914, the School of Journalism was established, and in 1952, it was finally moved into its own building. The institution saw that students were interested in broadcasting, so they decided to form the Department of Radio-Television-Film. In 1921, they also established a radio station on campus to help students conduct experimental work in radio communication. Ten years after that, the first-ever television broadcast in Texas came from this campus. The institution’s management saw success with that move, so they decided to offer a degree program in 1939.
In 1941, the program called Communication Sciences and Disorders was established along with the founding of The University of Texas at Austin Speech and Hearing Clinic. And in 1958, KUT-FM Radio or also known as 90.5 FM, was founded. The radio station provides cultural, informational, and educational programs to The University community and throughout Central and West Texas.
In 1965, the University of Texas at Austin decided to form the School of Communication. Along with this, they made the Department of Speech, School of Journalism, and the newly formed Department of Radio-Television-Film three departments of the School of Communication. In 1968, the three-building communication complex for the School of Communication began construction.
The School of Communication later became the College of Communication in 1979. And in 1982, during official ceremonies, the three buildings embracing the communication complex were renamed to Jesse H. Jones Communication Center, as a nod to Mr. Jones, the man who founded the Houston Endowment, which happens to be the benefactor of the College’s first largest donation.
In November 2000, the institution decided to rename the Department of Journalism to the School of Journalism. Twelve years after that, a new building, named the Belo Center for New Media, started its operations. It is located at the northeast corner of Dean Keeton and Guadalupe Streets, and it costs a whopping $54.8 million to build. Belo Center for New Media aims to provide interactive classrooms as well as a meeting space for about 4,600 students in the College. Aside from that, it also houses the adjacent KUT Public Media Studios. The Belo Center for New Media is a 120,000-square-foot building with student offices, lecture halls, auditoria, meeting rooms, and spaces dedicated for film screenings and conferences that all college departments can use.
The College was officially renamed the Moody College of Communication on November 7, 2013. This happened after a whopping $50 million gift from the Moody Foundation was made. The combined donation from Moody College’s previous endowments and the Moody Foundation gift made history because it’s considered to be the most significant donation for the study of communication given to any public university in the United States.
