On January 7, 2025, Hartzell announced he will leave the role to become president of Southern Methodist University, effective June 1.

Its founders followed the system established at the University of Virginia and gave control to the faculty, under a board of regents, through a chairman of their choosing.

Leslie Waggener received the position in 1884 and served for ten years; Thomas Scott Miller took the role in 1894.

[8] Tensions with the Board of Regents led to the removals of Homer P. Rainey in 1944 and Stephen H. Spurr in 1974; Rainey's firing over academic freedom and interference from regents particularly harmed the university's reputation for several years after and earned censure from the American Association of University Professors.

[9][10][11] In 1950, a separate chancellor position for the University of Texas System was established; that office assumed the responsibilities of the UT Austin president from 1963 to 1967.