UT-Austin students to hold referendum on “Eyes of Texas”

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Student authorities leaders of the University of Texas at Austin are planning to hold a referendum on the finish of the month to gauge pupil opinion on the college’s divisive alma mater, “The Eyes of Texas.”

According to a press launch despatched Sunday, Student Government Assembly leaders have been working with UT-Austin’s Office of the Dean of Students for over a yr to get approval to add the nonbinding referendum to the poll for subsequent yr’s pupil management election.

Student leaders stated the need to embody the ballot stems from a 2021 college report that documented the tune’s origins and historical past after students demanded the college get rid of it over issues about its connections to minstrel reveals. Ultimately, the report authors concluded the tune was “not overtly racist.”

The referendum, which can be held Feb. 27-28, is not going to drive any speedy adjustments to the college tune, which UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell has said will stay the college alma mater and can proceed to be sung on the finish of sporting occasions.

But the referendum is probably going to rekindle conversations on campus about whether or not the tune must be changed, at the same time as many teams of students and alumni view it as a unifying drive.

“Throughout this whole entire process, we never got to hear from students what they think,” stated Kevin Roberts, speaker of the Student Government Assembly, in a press launch. “I believe it’s time we let students have their voices heard and that we let them be the ultimate body that decides what our school song should be, not donors and not university administrators.”

In an interview with The Texas Tribune, Roberts stated that if the bulk of students need the tune changed, college officers ought to go on the file and say they’re going to divert from pupil sentiment and hold the tune.

University officers didn’t reply to a request for remark Monday.

The pupil meeting authorised an analogous referendum in November 2021, however the college rejected the request to put it on the poll on procedural grounds as a result of the coed physique president didn’t signal the laws. Roberts stated the president had forgotten to signal it.

The meeting handed the referendum once more in February 2022. This time, it was correctly signed and the college authorised it. Student authorities leaders determined to put it on the poll this February.

The pupil meeting will hold its personal inside vote Tuesday on whether or not members consider the “Eyes of Texas” must be eliminated.

UT-Austin pupil leaders have debated whether or not the college ought to substitute “The Eyes of Texas” for years, largely as a result of it debuted at a pupil minstrel present the place students doubtless wore blackface. There was additionally a longstanding perception that the phrase got here from an announcement that Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee used to say to troopers in the course of the Civil War, telling them, “The eyes of the South are upon you.”

That debate intensified within the wake of George Floyd’s homicide in 2020, when a gaggle of UT soccer gamers wrote a letter in June of that yr calling on the college to substitute the tune with one “without racist undertones,” amongst different calls for.

The following month, Hartzell introduced a listing of initiatives to make UT-Austin a extra various and inclusive campus, which included renaming at the least one constructing and honoring Black leaders on campus.

Hartzell stated the college tune would stay, however the college would “own, acknowledge and teach about all aspects of the origins of ‘The Eyes of Texas’ as we continue to sing it moving forward with a redefined vision that unites our community.”

A couple of months later, Hartzell introduced the Eyes of Texas History Committee, a gaggle of professors, historians, alumni and students who documented the tune’s historical past to present extra context round its origin and that means for numerous teams of students and alumni over time.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, the tune continued to be a supply of controversy throughout campus, notably on the soccer discipline.

In one occasion, the college band could not find enough musicians who have been keen to play the tune. The soccer crew drew swift condemnation when athletes left the sphere on the finish of a recreation with out singing the tune. Student tour guides went on strike over a plaque with the tune’s lyrics within the college welcome middle.

Meanwhile, dozens of donors threatened to pull contributions or cease their assist if UT-Austin bought rid of the tune.

The Eyes of Texas History Committee printed its report in March 2021, noting it couldn’t discover any main supply documentation instantly linking Lee to the phrase “Eyes of Texas.”

The report concluded that the intent of the tune was “not overtly racist” however acknowledged that “it is similarly clear that the cultural milieu that produced it was.”

“The fact that the song was, for decades, sung and revered on a segregated campus has, understandably, blurred the lines between intent and historical and contemporary impact. This complicates its understanding and explains how different people experienced the song in vastly different ways,” the report stated.

Student authorities representatives stated they’ll spend the following few weeks spreading consciousness of the vote on campus and on social media, and educating students on the historical past of the tune utilizing the college report, in addition to different sources.

They’ll announce the outcomes of the referendum on March 6.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news group that’s funded partially by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Find a whole list of them here.