TCU’s Pullin formally inaugurated as chancellor at campus ceremony
Faculty, staff, students, alumni and school leaders formally welcomed Daniel Pullin as TCU’s 11th chancellor on Thursday at an inauguration ceremony at the Van Cliburn Concert Hall inside the university’s Megan and Victor Boschini Music Center.
Pullin was named chancellor on June 1 after serving as TCU’s president since 2023. He took over for Victor Boschini, who stepped down as chancellor after more than two decades in the role. Boschini continues to serve as chancellor emeritus.
Before assuming the presidency, Pullin was the dean of TCU’s business school, a role he’d previously held at the University of Oklahoma. Pullin holds an undergraduate degree and a law degree from Oklahoma and an MBA from Harvard.
“It is an unmistakable honor to stand before you today as the 11th Chancellor of Texas Christian University,” Pullin said in his remarks. “We, thankfully, build on the foundation of those who came before us: our teachers, our scholars, our leaders and our daring visionaries whose faith, service and excellence built this extraordinary institution.”
Nike President and CEO Elliott Hill, a TCU grad and university trustee, attended the inauguration. At the reception afterward, Hill said he was proud of how far TCU has come as an institution since he was a student in the 1980s, and he’s looking forward to TCU’s stature continuing to grow under Pullin’s leadership.
“I think he has a really great vision of the future and where we can take TCU,” said Hill. “The goal here at the university is to be a nationally and internationally recognized institution.”
TCU history professor and Faculty Senate Chair Rebecca Sharpless called Pullin a man of integrity in her inauguration remarks, and she implored Pullin to “lead us onward toward a future where teaching is transformative and learning is lifelong.”
Boschini said that “the future is in excellent hands” during his remarks, and E. Gordon Gee, who has served as president of Ohio State University, Brown University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Colorado and the University of West Virginia, said TCU’s strategic growth plan, which is taking shape under Pullin, is one of the best at any school in the nation.
As chancellor, Pullin will preside over an ambitious plan to grow TCU’s campus and its student body and achieve the coveted R1 status, which is awarded to the top research institutions in the country.
At the reception, TCU Athletic Director Mike Buddie, who was one of Pullin’s first big hires as university president, spoke of the new chancellor as a man with all the characteristics needed to help usher TCU into its next era.
“What I like about him is he’s extremely approachable and humble,” Buddie said. “I think that’s the educator in him. Educators have just an open sense of inclusion. They suck you in; they want you to ask questions in a way that you don’t feel stupid for asking questions. I really like that about him, and I like that he brings that to this role.”
Before concluding his remarks, Pullin gave a nod to Addison and Randolph Clark, the brothers and Disciples of Christ ministers who founded the college that would become TCU in 1873.
“For over a century and a half, our values have lived in our classrooms, our laboratories, our performance halls and across our athletic fields and up chapel steps,” said Pullin. “These same values of integrity, excellence, community and engagement remind us of the importance of learning, which lifts the human spirit and fosters the shared connection that sustains us.”
Throughout his speech, Pullin talked of looking to the future in terms of growing the university and preparing students for the challenges of tomorrow, but he also spoke of holding onto the values that have defined TCU and holding onto the human connections that are forged on campus.
“Dream big. Be bold. Lead on,” Pullin said in closing. “Go Frogs!”
This story was originally published November 6, 2025 at 8:16 PM.