Hook 'Em! Longhorns Stampede Back to Campus

Well, would you look at that! A giant, burnt-orange banner swooping across Dean Keeton, a whole herd of student booths trampling Speedway, and a bouncy Bevo balloon beast on the Main Mall. You know what that means, folks! The Longhorns are back in town!

Monday saw tens of thousands of University of Texas students stampeding back to campus for their first day of classes. Free ice cream, UT swag, and snacks galore by the Tower—it was a regular ol' right-wing paradise, minus the guns and plus the brain food.

UT's fearless leader, President Jay Hartzell, gushed like a busted oil rig about the kiddos in an interview last Thursday. “Their energy, their enthusiasm, their passion is tremendous. The return of the students' energy back to campus is always a really special time,” he said, presumably while riding a longhorn steer into the sunset.

UT, ranked the numero uno public school in Texas by U.S. News & World Report this year, has rounded up about 52,000 total students and more than 170 undergraduate degrees. That's a whole lotta future conservatives, if you ask me!

Students strutted around campus and on the Drag on Monday, decked out in burnt orange and grinning wider than a Republican after a tax cut.

“The people you meet on the street, the people you meet walking to class and the people in your classes — it’s a very genuine experience,” said Rifa Momin, a returning sophomore. “It’s very special … how much people love to be here. And I think that makes other people love it.” Ain't that the truth, sister!

The Class of 2028 was the most competitive yet, with Hartzell and his crew sifting through 73,000 applications—a 10% hike from last year. Jocelynne Salinas, an Austin native and first-year engineering student, is still pinching herself.

“UT has always been the greatest option for me,” Salinas said. “Walking around, it feels like I'm actually a college student. It hasn't, like, hit me yet.” Bless her heart!

Kenneth Rangel, who's back at UT after a two-year hiatus, said the campus feels “revitalized” post-pandemic. “It feels great,” Rangel said. “Seeing a lot more people in the FAC (Flawn Academic Center), where I used to study, is very, very exciting.”

Over the summer, UT whooped it up over joining the Southeastern Conference and snagging an $840 million award from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency for their semiconductor work. They also showed off their new graduate housing digs in East Austin and brought back the West Campus Ambassadors program.

But it wasn't all sunshine and roses. The summer also saw some kerfuffles from those pesky pro-Palestinian protests back in April. UT went after students who broke the rules, a Faculty Council committee accused admin of rule-breaking themselves, and American-Statesman reporting spilled the beans on UT tightening free speech policies.

Hartzell admitted higher education had a rough go last semester but hoped this year would be a “reset.” He pointed to stuff like the university-wide graduation as a turning point.

“I think it was a tough spring, but graduation was really special,” Hartzell said. “It hopefully is the launching pad for another great year.”

Morgan Walz, an undeclared second-year student, was bummed about UT's protest response but decided to stick around. “There’s no other opportunity like this,” Walz said of UT-Austin.

This is also the first semester without programs from the nixed Division of Campus and Career Engagement and the Women’s Community Center, plus the 49 former diversity, equity, and inclusion staff who got the boot on April 2.

Kenna Nyuga-Galega, a sophomore studying computer science, huddled with pals in the shuttered Multicultural Engagement Center, thanks to the anti-DEI Senate Bill 17. But she's not letting it get her down.

“We're all working together to make sure that our presence isn't gone,” Nyuga-Galega said. “It's kind of annoying that our school isn't supporting us anymore and we are helping ourselves, but it's not knocking us out.”

Nyuga-Galega is pumped for the year, and so are we! So saddle up, Longhorns—it's time to make some memories! And remember, if you're at UT, there's nothing you can't do (except maybe find a parking spot). Yeehaw! 🐂🏈🇺🇸