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University of Texas at Austin President Jay Hartzell is leaving the UT System’s flagship school to become the next president of Southern Methodist University, he announced Tuesday.

Hartzell said in a press release that this was an opportunity “I could not pass up.”

“I look forward to building upon the university’s remarkable momentum and leading SMU into its next era,” he said.

SMU’s current president, R. Gerald Turner, will transition this summer to the role of president emeritus. He has led the university for three decades.

Hartzell’s formal installation as president of SMU is tentatively scheduled for next fall.

It was immediately unclear who will lead UT-Austin in the interim or when the university will have a new president.

Hartzell has been president of UT-Austin since 2020. He previously served as dean of the McCombs School of Business and has been a UT-Austin faculty member since 2001.

Last year, his request for armed state troopers to respond to pro-Palestinian protests on campus received a vote of no confidence from faculty and praise from the GOP.

This is a developing story; check back for details.

Disclosure: Southern Methodist University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Austin – McCombs School of Business and University of Texas at Austin – Texas Enterprise – McCombs School of Business have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Editor’s note: As the year comes to a close, we look back at the 10 most-read real estate stories in Dallas for 2024 — including new honors for several local suburbs, market trends, and a sports star who razed his mansion. These are the 10 hottest real estate headlines of 2024 in Dallas:

1. 3 Dallas suburbs shine on new list of best small cities in America. Living in the big city isn’t for everyone, which is why many are flocking to the suburbs and less-populated cities around Dallas. To demonstrate the popularity of suburban and rural communities, a new study by WalletHub has singled out three of Dallas’ top suburbs on their 2024 list of the “Best Small Cities in America,” released October 1. Leading the pack as the best small city in Texas was Rockwall, followed by Allen and Flower Mound.

2. Texas tree group issues dire warning to Dallas owners of oak trees. In January, a nonprofit dedicated to trees issued a warning to Dallas citizens who own oak trees: Put down the pruning shears. Homeowners and landscaping types may have been tempted to do some spring pruning, but when it came to oak trees, then was not the time. The reason: oak wilt, a devastating, incurable fungus that had been slowly spreading over a large part of the U.S.

3. Laid-back Dallas suburb named 5th best in U.S. by Travel + Leisure. The Dallas-Fort Worth city of Coppell had new bragging rights in July: It was declared the No. 5 best American suburb to live in by a recent Travel + Leisure report. The report analyzed feedback from Realtors and data from “recent livability rankings” to determine the 10 best U.S. suburbs with the most “affordable housing, top-rated schools, and excellent job opportunities.”

Coppell is the No. 2 best suburb to live in Texas, and No. 5 nationwide.
City of Coppell, TX Municipal Government / Facebook

4. Dallas landlord must pay $48 million for charging bogus fees to tenants. A Dallas-based company that rents out single-family homes was ordered to pay $48 million to settle claims by the Federal Trade Commission that it reaped millions of dollars via deceptive business practices — including forcing tenants to pay undisclosed fees on top of their monthly rent. Invitation Homes, based in Dallas, is the nation’s largest owner of single-family homes for rent.

5. 2 Dallas-area ZIP codes make list of hottest U.S. housing markets in 2023. Despite higher mortgage rates, Dallas’ housing market continued to attract more people in 2023, according to a report by Opendoor released in January 2024. Two Dallas-area ZIP codes in particular – in Forney and Aubrey – earned top 10 status on the list of “hottest ZIP codes in the U.S.”

6. Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott razes his mansion in Prosper. In 2019, Dak Prescott acquired a 9,000 square-foot mansion built on seven acres of land for the sum of $3.3 million. In October 2024, he razed it to the ground. According to TMZ Sports, the Dallas Cowboys quarterback mowed down his Prosper mansion “to nothing more than a pile of rubble” while watching its destruction from feet away.

Dak Prescott’s home was razed in Prosper.
Redfin

7. 2 Dallas-area ZIP codes rank as hottest U.S. housing markets in 2024. The Dallas-Fort Worth housing market is growing hotter by the day, and two ZIP codes in particular were listed in Realtor.com’s new survey of the hottest housing markets in America, released in August: 76021 in Bedford, and 75028 in Flower Mound.

8. Custom ’50s house with rare metal kitchen cabinets is for sale in Dallas. In February, a ’50s home in original condition was for sale in Dallas with a rare feature: a set of original metal kitchen cabinets rendered in a breathtaking pastel pink. The home was in Lakewood, just a few blocks west of White Rock Lake at 6946 Delrose Dr, where it was listed for $1,100,000 by Simone Jeanes with Allie Beth Allman.

6946 Delrose Dr. facade.
Courtesy

9. Dallas makes new list of easiest U.S. cities to pay off a mortgage. Whether a homeowner’s mortgage is for 15 or 30 years, paying off such a large debt can be an arduous process. But luckily for homeowners living in Dallas-Fort Worth, paying off a mortgage is much easier than in most other metropolitan areas in the country, according to a new report by SmartAsset. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington earned a ranking of No. 13 in SmartAsset’s September study analyzing the top 40 large U.S. metros where it’s easiest to pay off a mortgage.

10. 2 Dallas neighbors top the list of best real estate markets in America. For those looking to rent an apartment or buy their first home, Dallas-Fort Worth is the place to be: According to an August report by WalletHub, DFW towns McKinney and Frisco were crowned the No. 1 and No. 2 best real estate markets in America, and two more in the area — Denton and Allen — also ranked among the top 10.

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Justice Jimmy Blacklock, a conservative ally of Gov. Greg Abbott, has been named the new chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court. He replaces Nathan Hecht, the court’s longest serving justice, who stepped down at the end of December due to the mandatory judicial retirement age.

Abbott appointed his general counsel, James P. Sullivan, to take the seat vacated by Blacklock’s promotion.

“The Supreme Court of Texas plays a crucial role to shape the future of our great state, and Jimmy Blacklock and James Sullivan will be unwavering guardians of the Texas Constitution serving on our state’s highest judicial court,” Abbott said in a statement.

As chief justice, Blacklock will take on a larger role in the administration of the court. During his tenure, Hecht helped reform the rules of civil procedure and was a fierce advocate for legal aid and other programs to help low-income Texans access the justice system. But, as he told The Texas Tribune in December, when it comes to rulings, “the chief is just one voice of nine.”

Adding Sullivan to the court will further secure the court’s conservative stronghold. While Hecht came up in an era when state courts were less politically relevant, Blacklock and Sullivan are both young proteges of an increasingly active conservative legal movement.

Blacklock attended Yale Law School and clerked on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and after a stint in private practice, he joined the Texas Office of the Attorney General under Abbott. He helped lead Texas’ aggressive litigation strategy against the Obama administration, defending the state’s restrictive abortion and voter identification laws, gay marriage restrictions and crusade against the Affordable Care Act.

When Abbott became governor, Blacklock became his general counsel. Abbott appointed him to the bench in December 2017, when he was just 38 years old.

The Texas Supreme Court has transformed over the last few decades from a plaintiff-friendly venue dominated by Democrats to the exclusive domain of increasingly conservative Republicans. Abbott, a former justice himself, has played a huge role in this shift, appointing six of the nine current justices, including Sullivan.

Sullivan graduated from Harvard Law School and clerked for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. He spent four years as Texas assistant solicitor general during Abbott’s tenure as attorney general, and in 2018, became Abbott’s deputy general counsel. In 2021, he became the governor’s general counsel.

“As General Counsel for the Office of the Governor, James Sullivan has provided superior legal advice and rendered opinions on some of the most consequential legal issues in Texas,” Abbott said in a statement. “He has the integrity, temperament, and experience Texas needs as a Texas Supreme Court Justice.”

It’s now seen as one of the most conservative high courts in the country, issuing consequential rulings on abortion, COVID restrictions, health care for trans minors and local control in just the last few years. While Democrats have tried to pin these often unpopular rulings on the justices during election years, incumbents tend to easily win reelection in these relatively low-awareness down-ballot races.

Blacklock defeated Harris County District Judge DaSean Jones in November by more than 16 points. In a statement Monday, he thanked Hecht for his “extraordinary legacy of service.”

“The Supreme Court of Texas belongs to the People of Texas, not to the judges or the lawyers,” he said. “Our job at the Court is to apply the law fairly and impartially to every case that comes before us. My colleagues and I are committed to defending the rule of law and to preserving our Texas and United States Constitutions.”