Ashley Bingham started her college career in 2010 as a student at The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Communication. That was before the Moody Foundation gave a $50 million gift that gave it its new name: the Moody College of Communication.

Bingham was the Communication Council president her senior year and the only student in the room at the Dean’s Advisory Council meeting when Rod Hart, who was the dean at the time, learned the college had received the transformational endowment.

“It was a weird day because Dean Hart kept leaving the room,” Bingham said 10 years later. “When he came back in, I don’t think I have ever seen that man so happy. I remember thinking we are now on par with the business school and engineering and all the other colleges on campus that had names. We had a lot of pride.”

Bingham graduated in 2014, after the name change, with a degree in public relations. When asked how she identifies as a UT grad, she said she’s definitely Moody.

The media landscape has changed immensely over the past decade — new social media platforms, the development of immersive media and the expansion of groundbreaking AI tools — and Moody College has met the moment every step of the way, in part as a result of the Moody Foundation’s gift. It has supported faculty and graduate student research, helped provide the most up-to-date technology and collaborative spaces for students, and grown Texas Student Media, which provides experiential learning opportunities to students. It also has helped to establish and support 14 centers, institutes and programs that provide world-class teaching, scholarship and public service, many of which also offer minors that enhance students’ degree plans in areas such as health communication, media engagement, sports communication, immersive technology and more.

Last year, Moody College celebrated the 10^th anniversary of the endowment, which continues to support the college and its growth in perpetuity.

Read more about the foundation’s gift and its impact over the past decade.

Return to the 2023-2024 Digital Impact Report.