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

By Destiny Lewis

Photography By Destiny Lewis

Reporting Texas

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. 

“This is a campuswide issue,” said Ryan Lowe, a freshman and member of Students for a Democratic Society. “This is a threat upon education itself.”

The Austin chapter of Students for a Democratic Society organized the protest in response to a university announcement in January to consolidate academic departments and eliminate programs that support teaching and undergraduate research. 

UT Provost William Inboden announced that the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Office of Undergraduate Research and the Vick Advising Excellence Center will “wind down and conclude operations as separate units by the end of this spring semester.” Imboden described the changes as part of an effort to “optimize” and “streamline” academic operations.

Protesters chanted “Hands off our education” and “Stop the consolidation” as they stood outside the UT Tower and held signs opposing the closures.

“They want an ideal student who takes in information and doesn’t think critically,” Lowe said. “This is a complete betrayal of the fundamental ideas of education.”

SDS leaders said the changes reflect a years-long effort by state lawmakers to steer public universities away from academic programs and governance structures they associate with liberal or progressive ideology.

 In 2023, Texas lawmakers ordered public universities to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion offices, a move that eliminated more than 60 positions at UT Austin and closed several student support spaces. In June 2025, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 37, which reduces faculty authority over curriculum and places new oversight on faculty senates.

Protest organizers said departmental consolidations mark a new phase of that effort. They pointed to actions taken within the Texas A&M University System, where administrators implemented policies in January restricting the teaching of what they described as “race and gender ideology,” affecting about 200 courses. 

UT-Austin has said it is conducting a review of all curricula and academic programs as part of its restructuring process. Organizers said they fear the review will lead to additional course cancellations and departmental mergers with little advance notice to faculty or students.

University administrators have said restructuring efforts are aimed at improving efficiency and aligning academic programs with institutional priorities. A university spokesperson said the university remains committed to academic excellence and student success but declined to comment on specific department consolidations.

The School of Information is being consolidated with the College of Natural Sciences, a move SDS members argued will hinder archival and research-based programs. They said departments such as ethnic studies, women and gender studies, queer studies and other critical research programs are being disproportionately targeted.

Protest organizers warn the restructuring could lead to layoffs and reduced research capacity, which they say could affect the university’s national reputation and academic standing.

The group is calling for an end to the consolidation of ethnic studies and women, gender and sexuality studies programs, the protection of critical research centers and academic resource units and the restoration of faculty and graduate student representation through reinstated governance councils and a graduate student assembly.

About 20 students attended the protest, but organizers said the low turnout would not deter them from continuing to demonstrate.

“It can be embarrassing, and it can be hard to keep coming out here,” one organizer said near the end of the protest. “But we have to keep coming out. There’s no other way to express our voice.”