Roderick Hart retires after 46-year career at UT
After almost half a century of service, Roderick Hart announced his retirement in early 2025. The longtime professor, researcher, and the fifth dean of Moody College began his career at UT in the Department of Communications Studies in 1979. He says that working with students of all ages has been his favorite part of the journey.
“I just love these kids and have since the day I got here,” Hart said.
Having served in such diverse roles throughout his career, he says that it’s difficult to pick a single memory that stands out among the many highlights.
“My time here has meant so many things,” he said. “I’ve had multiple careers within a career.”
While serving as dean from 2004 to 2015, Hart oversaw numerous academic and fundraising initiatives, including the construction of the G.B. Dealy Center for New Media, the renovation of the Jesse H. Jones Complex, and the $50 million donation from the Moody Foundation. At the time, it was the largest endowment for the study of communication of any public university in the nation and culminated in naming Moody College of Communication.
Hart’s time at UT has been exceptionally meaningful to all those he’s taught and worked with.
“What Rod does with words is very special,” said Moody College professor, John Daly. “He gets all his students to love words, he is a true teacher.”
Daly says that he and Hart have been friends for many years, first meeting at Purdue University in 1974.
“He was a young faculty member at Purdue, I was a young grad student at Purdue,” Daly said. Once Daly began working at UT and another position opened, he encouraged Hart to join him in Austin.
“He’s been a friend constantly,” Daly said. “Everyone has their challenges, everyone has their crises, but Rod has always been there for me.”
Jennifer Betancourt, the assistant director of administration in Moody College’s Department of Communication Studies, echoes that sentiment.
“He’s been such a mentor to me all through my time here at UT,” Betancourt said. “We’ve worked together for 28 years, and he’s just a breath of fresh air.”
A former student of Hart’s, Mary Dixson, is a current faculty member at UT San Antonio. She recalls working with Hart and the kindness and leadership he demonstrated on a daily basis.
“You would have just gotten through traffic, you would be thinking about your day, and you’d get to the office, and he would have left a Post-It note on your desk just letting you know he was thinking about you and telling you you’re doing a great job,” Dixson said. “I still carry them with me because they remind me that there was someone out there that really cared.”
Dixson continues by describing what Hart’s mentorship meant to her personally and professionally.
“He is the greatest mentor that anyone can possibly have,” she said. “He models the type of teacher and mentor and citizen and person that we all want to be. He demonstrated every day that he had hope and positivity for the future.”
In addition to serving as dean, Hart established the Center for Health Communication, served as founding director of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life from 2000 to 2012 and was founding director of the Moody College Honor’s Program from 1987 to 1995.
Hart says that no matter what may be going on in the world at a given time, it’s always a great time to be a communications major. He recalls overhearing a student tell another that they chose Communication Studies for that exact reason and explaining that someone with great communication skills will always be in demand. Hart agrees.
“Our job is to make people more useful when they speak,” he said.
Though already an accomplished writer, having authored 18 books, Hart says that in retirement he plans to keep writing and that he may still teach a course from time to time.
“You’re going to be a bad example of retirement,” Daly joked in a video message to Hart. “You’re still going to write, you will still show up in the office some days, you’ll still go to conferences, but retiring is a start of doing things different too. It’s something to look forward to, it’s something to explore, and something to learn from and you’ll do well at that.”
To learn more about Hart’s extensive accomplishments and work in the field of communications, his biography can be found on the Moody College website.
