UT

UT Restructures Liberal Arts College, Targets Gender, Ethnic Studies

byNatalia Rodriguez

The University of Texas at Austin on Thursday announced plans to shutter seven departments in the College of Liberal Arts devoted to ethnicity, gender and international studies and to review curriculum related to those subjects.  
UT President Jim Davis said in a campus-wide email that Mexican-American and Latino Studies, African and African Diaspora Studies, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and American Studies will no longer be separate departments but will be consolidated into one school called Social and Cultural Analysis. Likewise, a new School of European and Eurasian Studies is being created from the current departments of  French and Italian, Germanic Studies and Slavic and Eurasian Studies.
The UT consolidation comes two years after it eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion programs and a month after Texas A&M University ended its women and gender studies program. Faculty there were told that 200 courses could be affected by a new A&M System policy restricting classroom discussion of race and gender. 

Talarico Urges UT Students to Channel Frustration into Political Action at Campus Rally 

bySamantha Rubin

As Democrats look to energize young voters ahead of a competitive primary, U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico urged University of Texas at Austin students Wednesday to reject political division and to help mobilize voters on campus. 

Students Blast UT’s Restructuring as ‘Threat Upon Education Itself’

byDestiny Lewis

Students rallied near the Tower on Wednesday to oppose the University of Texas at Austin’s decision to consolidate academic departments and eliminate several teaching and research support centers. 

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