UT Taking Front Row Seat in Innovation in Critical Mineral Resources

bySheldon Munroe

With America facing mounting pressure to reduce its dependence on foreign rare earth minerals, Texas and the University of Texas are seeking a role in rebuilding a domestic supply chain. The University of Texas at Austin has held two educational forums in the past five months, seeking a role in driving innovation and dialogue around […]

Meet the Team Keeping West Campus Clean, Safe and Connected

bySamantha Rubin

Just after sunrise, blue-shirted ambassadors step into the stream of students along Guadalupe Street trading greetings, answering questions and keeping eyes on the stretch long known as The Drag. 
“In a nutshell, what we’re doing here is hospitality-heavy,” Kevin Morris Sr. said during a recent morning walk-along. “That’s why we’re always talking and vibrant. It’s about visibility.”
The West Campus Ambassador Program was created to address the gap between West Campus’ rapid redevelopment and its lagging safety and beautification efforts

New Graduate Workers Union Fights for Better Pay and Protests the College Compact

byRachel N. Madison

or the past two months, the University of Texas’ newly formed Graduate Workers Union has been advocating for better treatment, pay and rights of graduate student employees. And now it is joining other student groups in opposing a deal with the Trump administration that would transform the university’s governance structure.
“A union is a commitment by workers at a workplace to stand together with each other to be treated the way they deserve to be treated in terms of compensation and working conditions,” said Sociology Ph.D. student and union member Noah DiAntonio.

Students Demand Protection of Ethnic and Gender Studies as UT Weighs Trump Compact and Consolidation

bySamantha Rubin

University of Texas students Monday urged administrators to reject the Trump compact on higher education and to stop a possible consolidation plan of the College of Liberal Arts they say could erase ethnic studies, women’s and gender studies and several language departments. “When I arrived at UT as a freshman, our campus looked completely different,” […]

Students Sit In But Are Denied Meeting with UT Provost over Trump Compact

byNatalia Rodriguez

Twelve representatives of Students for a Democratic Society staged a sit-in Friday as part of a protest at the University of Texas Tower to demand the school reject a “compact” offered by the Trump administration. The protesters planned to deliver their demands, which included holding a public meeting regarding the state of the compact, to the office of the UT Provost William Inboden. They planned to stay in the provost’s office until they were able to deliver the list to Inboden personally. The sit-in resulted in threats of arrest from university officials.

UT Students Help to ‘Crush’ $1.5 Million in Medical Debt

byRachel N. Madison

In 2020, Austin resident Zachary Cook was run over by a car while walking down a sidewalk. After several weeks in a hospital for severe injuries, he returned home to find a $78,000 medical bill in the mail. Unable to pay, Cook searched for assistance online and found Dollar For, a national nonprofit that helps patients navigate medical debt and health care expense reduction programs.  Cook’s story is one of many that  inspired UT students to form Let’s Crush Medical Debt, an Austin chapter of Dollar For.

Paxton Urges Conservatives to ‘Take on the Evil’ of the Left to ‘Save America’

byNatalia Rodriguez

State and federal Republican officials called for conservatives to wage war against leftist ideologies in a Turning Point USA event on the University of Texas campus Monday, stating that it was their “life purpose to destroy them.”

UT Students Rally Against Trump Compact, Urge University Leaders Not to Sign

byDestiny Lewis

Chanting “do not sign,” dozens of University of Texas students Monday protested the university’s potential support of the Trump administration’s college compact, a pledge critics say threatens academic freedom, diversity and freedom of speech on campus.. “
The protest, organized by Students for a Democratic Society, was the second UT demonstration opposing the Trump administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” an offer of preferential funding for schools that agreed to follow the administration’s priorities. Although the UT System regents chairman initially welcomed the offer, the university has not announced a final decision.

A Conference on UT Campus for ‘Pro-Natalists’ Draws Ire

byAlex Lamb

In April 2024, state and local police cracked down on University of Texas students protesting Israel’s invasion of Gaza, following calls for intervention by university administrators. As with protests on other college campuses, university and political leaders accused the pro-Palestinian protesters of antisemitism.
Almost a year later, one of the same groups involved in those protests, the Austin Chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, took part in another protest — this time to oppose the presence of alleged neo-Nazis and eugenicists at a conference held on the UT campus. The activists highlighted what they called a disconnect between the treatment of two groups accused of connections to antisemitic views

Home Sweet … Hotel? Students Uprooted from Faulty Student Housing Complex

byRebecca Butler

Stella Perez planned to have an at-home date with her boyfriend on Valentine’s Day. Instead, she got a call from her student housing complex, Crest at Pearl, that she would be evacuated and relocated to a hotel room for “routine inspections” in her unit.  She spent the rest of Valentine’s weekend in a hotel and the next month haggling with the apartments.
She’s since learned that Crest at Pearl, 706 W. Martin Luther King Blvd. just southwest of the University of Texas campus, has had four code complaints filed against it over two years for structural problems.
Crest at Pearl, built in 2014, is one of 14 student living complexes in Austin’s West Campus neighborhood owned and managed by the Austin-based property management company American Campus Communities. 

Student Government Approves Plan to Make Printing Easier, Cheaper

byRebecca Butler

Responding to student frustrations about the cost of on-campus printing, the University of Texas’ Student Government voted Tuesday night to give students a $2 printing allowance each semester.
The pilot program, which will be implemented over the next few years, aims to change UT’s longstanding printing system that results in financial strain for some students

Behind the Horn Documentary

byMiriam Belmonte

In the fall of 2024, Texas Hockey kicked off its season in the Texas Collegiate Hockey Conference, determined to make an impact. The Longhorns season is packed with weekly 6am practices as they push themselves to face fierce rivals like Texas A&M. Kyle Galloway, head coach, strives to guide the team into regionals and nationals. […]

‘We’re the First’: Spacecraft En Route to Conduct UT’s Search for Water on Europa

byAlex Lamb

Scientists working for the University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Geophysics in the Jackson School of Geosciences have developed airborne radar equipment capable of seeing through Europa’s thick layers of ice to determine whether water is present. They call this equipment REASON, and it launched in October aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft on a five-year journey toward the distant orbit of Jupiter.

Korean Students at UT Call for President’s Impeachment Back Home

byShunya Carroll

Soo-Hee Kang has traveled 7,000 miles to media at the University of Texas school of radio, television and film. The distance made Kang feel hopeless when the president of South Korea placed her country under martial law. 
“After the martial law ended,” Kang said, “I became very angry and felt like I had to do something — even from far away.” 

Pro-Palestine Activists Urge UT Regents to Divest from Weapons Manufacturers 

A group of pro-Palestinian activists demonstrated at a  University of Texas System Board of Regents meeting Wednesday demanding the divestment of university funds from weapons manufacturers supplying arms to Israel. 
With Palestinian flags rippling in the wind, around 50 protesters marched on the sidewalk outside the UT System Building in downtown Austin, chanting to the beat of a drum. Inside, the regents convened in a quiet boardroom. 

Pro-Palestinian Students Protest Israeli Politician’s Speech at UT

byShunya Carroll and Sarah Gonzales

Pro-Palestinian protesters condemned the University of Texas for allowing  a former Israeli prime minister to speak on campus as part of Hillel International’s Teach-In tour Tuesday night at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. 

Texas Goalkeeper’s Work for Others Nets SEC Community Service Honor

byLuke Lawhorn

Like the rest of the University of Texas student-athletes, Megan Hogate received a bunch of Nike athletic gear when she stepped on campus in fall 2021. After watching the shoe boxes pile up in her closet, she decided to do something with them. She would recycle them into Valentine’s Day boxes with heart-filled messages for children at the Dell Children’s Medical Center.
Hogate’s Valentine initiative was just one of many volunteer and community outreach efforts she’s undertaken, earning her recent recognition by the Southeastern Conference to its annual women’s soccer Community Service Team — the first time Texas, a new SEC member, has placed an athlete on the team. She is one of 16 student-athletes chosen for the honor highlighting “an athlete from each school who gives back to their community in superior service efforts.”

‘Sadly Disheartened’: Democratic-Supporting UT Students Express Fear, Anger After Election

byMeredith McKelvey, Sarah Gonzales and Madeline de Figueiredo

The day after Republican candidates swept the 2024 U.S. and Texas elections, many University of Texas students expressed excitement, anger, disappointment and fear for the state’s and country’s future.
“We are definitely feeling a lot of disappointment,” said Brian Peña, president of the University Democrats. “We worked very hard for the whole year and are reeling from the national and statewide results.”

Photos: Voting on the Forty Acres

University of Texas students turned out in strong numbers at campus polling locations Tuesday for national, state and local elections.
Click for slideshow.

Student Activists Stopped from Delivering Pro-Palestine Letter to UT President, Say They Could Face Disciplinary Action

byMichael Karlis and Meredith McKelvey

More students at the University of Texas say they face disciplinary action after attempting to deliver a letter to President Jay Hartzell demanding the university divest from companies connected to Israel’s war in Gaza.