AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas president Greg Fenves is leaving to become the president of Emory University, sources close to the situation told Horns247.com.

The Texas Board of Regents is tentatively planning to meet next week to name an interim president. McCombs School of Business dean Jay Hartzell is expected to be a leading candidate for that position, sources told Horns247.

Fenves has served as president at Texas since June 3, 2015, after serving as UT's executive vice president and provost for two years as well as the dean of UT's Cockrell School of Engineering from 2008-13. The news of Fenves' departure caught many in the UT community by surprise Monday night.

Late last year, the Emory University Board of Trustees initiated a presidential selection process to identify the successor to president Claire E. Sterk, who announced in November 2019 that she will retire as president at the end of August 2020. One source said Emory, a private research university in Atlanta, made a financial offer to Fenves he couldn't refuse. Fenves' annual salary at Texas is $945,000.

Under Fenves the past five years, the leadership at Texas finally seemed to stabilize after a whirlwind of change that included turnover in the chancellor's office (twice) in addition to Fenves firing former athletic director Steve Patterson in September of 2015 and ultimately bringing in popular athletic director Chris Del Conte from TCU in December 2017.

Under Del Conte, Texas athletics has embarked on roughly $760 million in athletic facility upgrades, including a $200 million renovation to the south end of Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium as well as the $388 million Moody Center basketball arena (due to open in January 2022), which is being built by the Oak View Group, a private group of investors that includes music booking giant Live Nation as well as UT alum and Academy Award winning actor Matthew McConaughey, who has deemed himself UT's "Minister of Culture."

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In 2018, Fenves introduced the Texas Advance Commitment to increase affordability with assured financial aid for low- and middle-income UT students.

In 2019, the UT System Board of Regents approved funding to expand the commitment, which now ensures full tuition coverage at Texas for in-state students with need from families earning up to $65,000 per year. To further improve access and affordability, Fenves announced plans to increase university housing, with the eventual goal of being able to offer housing to all first-year students.

While serving as UT provost from 2013-15, Fenves was involved in the development of UT’s Dell Medical School — the first medical school in nearly 50 years to be built from the ground up at a top-tier public research university.

Fenves earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley, all in civil engineering. He began his career in 1984 as an assistant professor in UT’s department of civil engineering. He then served more than 20 years on the faculty of Cal-Berkeley, where he became an internationally renowned expert on structural engineering for earthquakes and chair of its top-ranked department of civil and environmental engineering.

Fenves served as the dean of UT's Cockrell School of Engineering from 2008-13 before becoming UT's executive vice president and provost in 2013.

Horns247 publisher Bobby Burton contributed to this report.