UT Austin fires KUT leader Debbie Hiott after dispute over KUT Festival safety plans, appointing interim chief Gerald Johnson amid ongoing questions about event security.
KUT – KVUE YouTube account
The University of Texas at Austin has fired KUT Public Media general manager Debbie Hiott after she publicly disputed the university’s claim that security and safety planning for the inaugural KUT Festival was insufficient.
In a statement Tuesday, UT Austin confirmed that Hiott was removed from her post and that Gerald Johnson has been appointed interim general manager of KUT Public Media, which includes news station KUT and music station KUTX.
The move came one day after Hiott’s dismissal and followed weeks of tension over how the university handled safety concerns surrounding the KUT Festival, a new event intended to showcase newsmakers, live music and community programming, according to KVUE.
Hiott said the termination letter from the university cited “planning problems with the KUT Festival and security issues” as grounds for her firing.
She has maintained that KUT and its outside production partners followed all safety, security and health requirements requested by UT officials and university police throughout months of planning.
The dispute emerged in late April, when UT leadership ordered major last‑minute changes to the festival days before its scheduled start on campus.
Interim Moody College of Communication dean Anita L. Vangelisti told attendees and staff in an email that university analysis had identified “insufficient planning for safety measures, including security, health, fire, and emergency services,” Axios reported.
In an April 29 letter, UT vice president for legal affairs and general counsel Amanda Cochran-McCall detailed what the university described as gaps in KUT’s safety plan, including a shortfall of about 10 police officers, lack of formal youth protection protocols and inadequate emergency medical response planning with EMS and ambulance transport.
The letter also cited missing crowd-control staffing plans, an incomplete bad-weather shelter strategy and organizers’ rejection of recommendations for unmanned aerial vehicle surveillance at the large outdoor event.
KUT leaders, including Hiott, pushed back on those assertions in internal and public messages, saying they had agreed to every health and security request presented by UT and its police department.
Outside producers said they hired a state-licensed EMS provider, expanded bag checks, added security staff and provided documentation of those measures to university police after an on-site walkthrough.
After UT ordered the outdoor portions of the KUT Festival off campus, the station relocated most activities to Central Machine Works and the nearby East End Ballroom in East Austin, compressing programming into a single day.
The university has said moving and scaling back the festival was necessary to ensure “the appropriate level of safety and logistical support,” as per the Austin Chronicle.