UT Fires KUT General Manager Hiott After Festival Dispute

The University of Texas has fired KUT General Manager Debbie Hiott, who has led the station since 2019. The firing comes weeks after a public dispute over the radio station's planning of its inaugural community festival, which university officials claimed had issues related to security. Some worried whether UT's intervention in the event was an attempt to stifle political speech. Hiott was called into a meeting with UT interim dean of the Moody College of Communication, Anita Vangelisti, and university representatives from human resources and legal departments. She was given the option of resigning or facing immediate termination. Hiott said she was given the reasons of "insufficient planning" for the festival, safety concerns and her own public comments about the festival dispute in which she challenged statements by UT officials about security matters. Hiott had led KUT Public Media since 2019, overseeing KUT 90.5 and KUTX 98.9 from within UT's Moody College of Communication.