University of Texas at Austin

The complaint signals a continued desire among some UT Austin students and alumni to push administrators to discontinue using the song as the university’s alma mater, despite the university’s insistence that it will remain.

On Aug. 1, 1966 a shooter began firing on the University of Texas at Austin campus from the top of the tower in the Main Building.

The decision comes just a week after news surfaced that the two schools planned to leave the Big 12, sending shockwaves through college sports and many Texas lawmakers who feel the expansion will have drastic consequences on the remaining Texas schools in the Big 12.

Four prominent lawmakers — one each with ties to Baylor University, Texas Christian University, Texas Tech University and Texas A&M University — met with Gov. Greg Abbott’s staff Thursday, one day after news broke that the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma had reached out to the Southeastern Conference about joining.

The consultant, Brad Deutser, is listed as a chair of the committee tasked with chronicling the full history of 'The Eyes.'" But some students who spoke with him said they felt he was trying to convince them to accept the school's position on the song.

The university is starting a separate student marching band that will not perform at major university events or have a required repertoire of songs.

The new emails reveal more powerful donors and alumni than were previously known who mobilized on the issue in June right after the student athletes went public with their demands to get rid of the song.

The UT Austin committee recommended developing a campaign for students and alumni "to lean into difficult conversations, including race, history, and talking across differences."

"This is not a history about what happened to them over there in Tulsa or Juneteenth or the civil rights movement," says professor and historian Peniel Joseph. "This is our history."

Few Texas universities — some of which have been identified as coronavirus hot spots — have explicitly encouraged students to quarantine for 14 days before Thanksgiving or required exit testing, despite staggering rises in case counts across the state and country.

The University of Texas at Austin made headlines early in the pandemic after more than 60 students contracted COVID-19 during a spring break trip to Cabo San Lucas. That group was among the first of more than 1,250 UT students, staff and faculty to test positive. One staff member died in July.

In counties where four-year college students make up at least 10% of the population, cases have grown 34% since Aug. 19, according to a Texas Tribune analysis. That’s compared with 23% in counties with a smaller proportion of students.