University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,864 students as of fall 2024, it is also the largest institution in the system.
The university is a major center for academic research, with research expenditures totaling $1.06 billion for the 2023 fiscal year. It joined the Association of American Universities in 1929. The university houses seven museums and seventeen libraries, including the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and the Blanton Museum of Art, and operates various auxiliary research facilities, such as the J. J. Pickle Research Campus and McDonald Observatory.
UT Austin's athletics constitute the Texas Longhorns. The Longhorns have won four NCAA Division I National Football Championships, six NCAA Division I National Baseball Championships, sixteen NCAA Division I National Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, and the school has claimed more titles in men's and women's sports than any other member in the Big 12.
13 Nobel Prize winners, 25 Pulitzer Prize winners, 3 Turing Award winners, 2 Fields Medal recipients, 2 Wolf Prize winners, and 3 Abel Prize winners have been affiliated with the school as alumni, faculty members, or researchers. The university has also been affiliated with three Primetime Emmy Award winners, and as of 2021, its students and alumni have earned a total of 155 Olympic medals.
History
Establishment
The idea of a public university in Texas was first mentioned in the 1827 constitution of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas, which promised public education in the arts and sciences under Title 6, Article 217, but no action was taken. After Texas gained independence from Mexico in 1836, the Constitution of the Republic emphasized Congress's duty, in Section 5 of its General Provisions, to establish a general system of education when circumstances allowed.After Texas was annexed, the Seventh Texas Legislature passed O.B. 102 on February 11, 1858, allocating $100,000 in United States bonds from the Compromise of 1850 for the University of Texas. The Civil War delayed fund repayment, leaving the university with only $16,000 by 1865. Nevertheless, the Texas Constitution of 1876 reaffirmed the mandate to establish "The University of Texas" by popular vote.
On March 30, 1881, the Texas legislature organized the structure of the university and called for a popular vote to determine its location. Austin was chosen as the site with 30,913 votes, while Galveston was designated for the medical department. On November 17, 1882, the cornerstone of the Old Main Building was laid at the original "College Hill" location, and university President Ashbel Smith expressed optimism about Texas's untapped resources. The University of Texas officially opened its doors on September 15, 1883.
Expansion and growth
The old Main Building of the university was built in a Victorian-Gothic style and served as the central point of the campus's site, and was used for nearly all purposes. But by the 1930s, discussions arose about the need for new library space, and the Main Building was razed in 1934, despite the objections of many students and faculty. The modern-day tower and Main Building were constructed in its place.In 1916, a contentious dispute erupted between Texas Governor James E. Ferguson and the University of Texas over faculty appointments. Ferguson's attempt to influence these appointments led to a retaliatory veto of the university's budget, jeopardizing its operations. Subsequently, Ferguson was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives, convicted by the Senate on charges including misapplication of public funds, and removed from office.
In 1921, the legislature appropriated $1.35 million to purchase land next to the main campus. However, expansion was hampered by the restriction against using state revenues to fund construction of university buildings as set forth in Article 7, Section 14 of the Constitution. With the completion of Santa Rita No. 1 well and the discovery of oil on university-owned lands in 1923, the university added significantly to its Permanent University Fund. The additional income from Permanent University Fund investments allowed for bond issues in 1931 and 1947, which allowed the legislature to address funding for the university along with the Agricultural and Mechanical College. With sufficient funds to finance construction on both campuses, on April 8, 1931, the Forty Second Legislature passed H.B. 368. which dedicated the Agricultural and Mechanical College a 1/3 interest in the Available University Fund, the annual income from Permanent University Fund investments.
In 1929, the University of Texas was inducted into the Association of American Universities.
During World War II, the University of Texas was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission. Additionally, to facilitate the wartime effort, academic calendars were compressed, allowing for accelerated graduation.
After Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Houston, Texas, area teen Marion Ford had been accepted to become one of the first Black attendees. In an interview with a reporter he announced his desire to try-out for the football team. The Ford Crisis would begin and all Black admissions at the time were rescinded until policy could be drawn up.
In the fall of 1956, the first Black students entered the university's undergraduate class. Black students were permitted to live in campus dorms, but were barred from campus cafeterias. The University of Texas integrated its facilities and desegregated its dormitories in 1965. UT, which had had an open admissions policy, adopted standardized testing for admissions in the mid-1950s, at least in part as a conscious strategy to minimize the number of Black undergraduates, given that they were no longer able to simply bar their entry after the Brown decision.
Following growth in enrollment after World War II, the university unveiled an ambitious master plan in 1960 designed for "10 years of growth" that was intended to "boost the University of Texas into the ranks of the top state universities in the nation." In 1965, the Texas Legislature granted the university Board of Regents to use eminent domain to purchase additional properties surrounding the original. The university began buying parcels of land to the north, south, and east of the existing campus, particularly in the Blackland neighborhood to the east and the Brackenridge tract to the southeast, in hopes of using the land to relocate the university's intramural fields, baseball field, tennis courts, and parking lots.
On March 6, 1967, the Sixtieth Texas Legislature changed the university's official name from "The University of Texas" to "The University of Texas at Austin" to reflect the growth of the University of Texas System.
1966 shooting
On August 1, 1966, Texas student Charles Whitman barricaded the observation deck in the tower of the Main Building. Armed with multiple firearms, he killed 14 people on campus, 11 from the observation deck and below the clocks on the tower, and three more in the tower, as well as wounding two others inside the observation deck. The massacre ended when Whitman was shot and killed by police after they breached the tower.After the Whitman event, the observation deck was closed until 1968 and then closed again in 1975 following a series of suicide jumps during the 1970s. In 1999, after installation of security fencing and other safety precautions, the tower observation deck reopened to the public. There is a turtle pond park near the tower dedicated to those affected by the tragedy.
The first presidential library on a university campus was dedicated on May 22, 1971, with former President Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson and then-President Richard Nixon in attendance. Constructed on the eastern side of the main campus, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum is one of 13 presidential libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration.
A statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was unveiled on campus in 1999 and subsequently vandalized. By 2004, John Butler, a professor at the McCombs School of Business suggested moving it to Morehouse College, a historically black college, "a place where he is loved".
Recent history
The University of Texas at Austin has experienced a wave of new construction recently with several significant buildings. On April 30, 2006, the school opened the Blanton Museum of Art. In August 2008, the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center opened, with the hotel and conference center forming part of a new gateway to the university. Also in 2008, Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium was expanded to a seating capacity of 100,119, making it the largest stadium in the state of Texas at the time.On Tuesday, September 28, 2010, a shooting occurred at the Perry–Castañeda Library where student Colton Tooley, armed with an AK-47, fired shots on his walk from Guadalupe Street to the library's front entrance. The student ascended to the sixth floor, before killing himself. No one else was injured, except for one sprained ankle suffered by a student fleeing the scene.
In early 2020, following a major outbreak of the new coronavirus, the university restricted travel to Wuhan province in China, aligning with the US Department of State's recommendation. By March 17, 2020, then-UT President Gregory L. Fenves announced a transition to online classes for the rest of the spring semester after 49 confirmed COVID-19 cases emerged from students' travels to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, during spring break. Throughout the summer, the university reported over 400 cases and its first COVID-19-related death, a custodial worker.
The fall 2020 semester consisted of a majority of online courses through platforms like Zoom. On August 6, 2020, UT Austin initiated plans for free COVID-19 tests for all students. UT Austin returned to primarily in-person classes and campus activities for the fall 2021 semester, implementing safety protocols like testing requirements and vaccination incentives to ensure a safe return amid the ongoing pandemic.
In 2024, after four years of test-optional admissions for undergraduate applications due to the COVID-19 pandemic, standardized testing scores were once again made a mandatory part of admissions, beginning with applications for the fall 2025 semester. Jay Hartzell commented that the SAT and ACT standardized exams were "a proven differentiator that is in each student's and the University's best interest."
On April 2, 2024, the University of Texas at Austin announced additional adjustments in compliance with Senate Bill 17, particularly in response to a letter from March 26, 2024, from Texas State Senator Brandon Creighton, which led to the layoff of approximately 60 individuals, most of whom formerly worked in DEI-related programs, and the elimination of the newly renamed Division of Campus and Community Engagement. Students, faculty, staff, and outside critics denounced the university's over-compliance with the anti-DEI law, since the university had already been compliant since January 1, 2024. At a UT Austin Faculty Council meeting on April 15, 2024, in response to mounting criticism, President Jay Hartzell stated the additional changes were made in response to the threats from the Republican-led State Legislature and the University of Texas System Board of Regents, and to restore "confidence" in the university, reacting to changing tides in public opinion towards higher education amongst Republicans. The university's Division of Campus and Community Engagement operated the University of Texas-University Charter School, a charter school system with 23 campuses across Texas, until the closure on April 2, 2024, leading the charter school to be moved to the College of Education.
On April 24, 2024, a large Pro-Palestinian demonstration occurred that included students and faculty. Protestors demanded a ceasefire in the Gaza war and urged the university to divest from companies profiting from Israel's actions. The protests occurred amidst the ongoing nationwide demonstrations on college campuses. In response, the university requested the assistance of the Austin Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety. The deployment of multiple police units led to the confirmed arrest of 57 protesters, including a photojournalist for Fox 7 Austin, with several more detained. Charges were then dismissed against 46 protesters the next day, leading to their subsequent release, with the charges against the remaining 11 protesters dropped on April 26, 2024. The decision to send law enforcement received sharp backlash, including from general faculty, staff, students, several Democratic legislators for the region. The UT Faculty Council Executive Committee denounced the response, in part due to the extreme, chaotic, and violent police response that ensued. The university ultimately set new rules for protests on campus, such as banning masks and face coverings and instituting a 10 PM curfew for all protests, directly contradicting prior guidelines. Initially, the university told students and faculty that arrested protestors would no longer be allowed on campus, but retracted the statement two hours later, stating that they would be allowed "academic" access, only to then announce a change to full access for university affiliates. Additionally, the university temporarily suspended the student organization that organized the protests, the Palestine Solidarity Committee.