Date: Sept. 6
AUSTIN, Texas – The Belo Foundation of Dallas, Robert W. and Maureen H. Decherd (BA '73), and the estate of James M. Moroney Jr. (BA '43) and the Jim and Lynn Moroney Family Foundation have pledged $15 million to establish the Belo Center for New Media at The University of Texas at Austin College of Communication.
The center will be named in recognition of the role played in Texas history by Colonel Alfred Horatio Belo, the original owner of The Dallas Morning News and among the first class, with three other industry pioneers, inducted into the Texas Newspaper Foundation Hall of Fame.
The gift is the largest donation ever made by The Belo Foundation and is the first pledge made toward the College of Communication to build the new center.
The current three-building College of Communication complex was completed in 1974 to serve 1,000 students. Today, the college serves more than 4,200 students. The Belo Center for New Media will augment teaching and research space for the college. The two-year construction project should break ground in January 2009. Construction costs for the center, projected to be between 100,000 and 125,000 square feet, are estimated to be $45 million.
The gift was announced today (Sept. 6) at a news conference hosted by University of Texas System Regent John W. Barnhill, University of Texas at Austin President William Powers Jr., and College of Communication Dean Roderick P. Hart.
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