Life & Letters

Features

  • The “C” that Changed the Constitution

    It took two centuries and one mediocre grade to ratify the 27th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In 1982, Gregory Watson stumbled upon a 200-year-old proposed amendment, written by James Madison, while researching a paper for his sophomore government class. It read: “No law varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives…

    Rachel White

  • Funding the Future

    A $1.5 million gift will fund seven scholarships and contribute to the Marilyn Ann White Endowed Discretionary Fund, or “the tutoring fund,” for students in all three branches of the UT Austin Reserve Officers Training Program. The gift provides additional funding for the Lt. Col. Herbert C. White Jr. Leadership and Scholarship Fund, awarded to…

    Rachel White

  • Life is Learning; Learning is Living

    Terry Orr jokes that pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in classical archeology in his late 70’s was all a ploy to avoid retirement. “A lot of people retire because they are tired of driving to the same office and dealing with the same people; but when you work for yourself, it’s different. You aren’t trying…

    Rachel White

  • Barton Creek, Compromise and a Whole Lot of Elephants

    Inside the Education of a Sustainability Studies Major After more than a decade of germination, the Bachelor of Arts in Sustainability Studies in UT Austin’s College of Liberal Arts has its first graduates. The major was born out of several sustainability-focused initiatives on campus. The first was the 2007 establishment of the President’s Sustainability Steering…

    Emily Nielsen

  • This Fool’s No Ghoul

    On Halloween night, 13-year-old Rik Gern grabbed his wooden cane before setting off to trick-or-treat around the neighborhood as Charlie Chaplin. Delighted at the sight of a child festooned in a black bowler and matching mustache, families welcomed him inside to show off his foolproof impression to granny. “Look, Nana! Look who’s here to visit…

    Rachel White

  • Economics Junior’s Snapchat Geofilter Business Takes Off

    In the spring of 2015, Andrew Lee attended a UT Austin lecture by Evan Spiegel, the founder and CEO of Snapchat, sponsored by the campus organization and professional business fraternity, Delta Sigma Pi. The experience made a major impression on the then-college freshman, and in a few short years, Lee’s own company would be collaborating…

    Emily Nielsen

  • UT Austin MAPATHON Helps with Disaster Relief

    Following the recent hurricanes and earthquake, LILLAS Benson joined the University of Texas Libraries and people around the world in using the OpenStreetMap platform to donate their time to hurricane relief efforts through open-source mapping. Videography and photography by Todd Bogin

    Rachel White

  • Longhorn Lightens the Load for Incoming Students

    Filling a 100-square-foot space with the essentials you’ll need to be successful for the next academic year is no small task, especially when you add it to the endless shopping list of books and school supplies. This year, families of college students expect to spend an average of $969.88 on back-to-school expenses, according to a…

    Rachel White

  • Predators Turned Prey

    Shark Week brings all sorts of shocking—and horrifying — spectacles to viewers. This year, audiences were promised the first-ever man versus shark swim off, where 23-time gold medalist Michael Phelps will face off against “one of the fastest and most efficient predators on the planet,” a great white. But, perhaps, what’s more shocking is the…

    Rachel White

  • Putting People First

    Jordan Metoyer is an economics and liberal arts honors/urban studies alumna from Inglewood, California, by way of Sugar Land, Texas. She is the recipient of a 2017 Schwarzman scholarship, which will send her to pursue a master’s degree in global affairs with a concentration in public policy at Tsinghua University in Beijing this fall. As…

    Emily Nielsen

  • The Open Rhodes

    Mikaila Smith is a Plan II senior with concentrations in international affairs and Chinese from Sydney, Australia, by way of Austin, Texas. She has been named a 2017 Rhodes scholar, which will provide for her to pursue a Master of Science degree in refugee and forced migration studies, followed by a Master of Science degree in…

    Emily Nielsen

  • Can We Talk?: Why Discourse is Dying in America

    I’ll have to admit that I was a bit perplexed when I heard linguistic anthropologist Elizabeth Keating say, “There is a very strong preference for agreement in conversation in the U.S.” I couldn’t believe my ears — even the Pew Research Center pegged political polarization as the defining feature of modern U.S. politics. And it’s…

    Rachel White

  • A Monumental Decision: What to do About Jefferson Davis and the Challenges of Commemoration?

    Let’s talk about statues, or one statue in particular, and all of the trouble a cold, hard, unfeeling thing can cause. Imagine you are the president of a very large, prestigious institution, representative of the spirit and aspirations of a region. Your greatest benefactor, a former regent and a veteran, stipulates in his will the…

    Victoria Davis

  • American Girls in Red Russia: Chasing the Soviet Dream

    If you search “women in the 1920s” in Google Images, what you get are a few photos of women working or protesting, but many more photos of sexually liberated flappers — at the beach, on the town, or dancing the night away at some speakeasy. The 1920s look like one big party. But the decade…

    David Ochsner

  • Army Strong: UT Army ROTC Celebrates 70 Years

    The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards. – Colonel Sir William Francis Butler, in Charles George Gordon Though the National Defense Act of 1916 created the Reserve Officers’…

    Rachel White

  • Testing the Waters

    Bailey Anderson is a geography and the environment alumna from Bowie, Texas. She is the recipient of a 2017 British Marshall scholarship, which will fund her pursuit of a Master of Philosophy in geography: water science, policy and management at the University of Oxford. Anderson has also been awarded the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration…

    Emily Nielsen

  • Leaving Home: Austin’s Declining African American Population

    In December of 2015, author and former Austin resident Ellen Sweets wrote a farewell letter to Austin that was published in TribTalk: Ever since I decided to leave Austin, I’ve tried to write a farewell devoid of anger and frustration, and every time I’ve had to move on to writing something else. A Facebook post.…

    Victoria Davis

  • People, Places and Pages of Influence

    The Pro Bene Meritis award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts. Since 1984, the annual award has been given to alumni, faculty members and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic pursuits or have participated in service related…

    Rachel White

  • Helping Students Set Sail

    The Pro Bene Meritis award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts. Since 1984, the annual award has been given to alumni, faculty members and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic pursuits or have participated in service related…

    Rachel White

  • Living Off His Mind: Angelbert Metoyer’s Patient Pursuit to Understand

    When he was 7 years old, Angelbert Metoyer had his first art show in his father’s office. His father had adorned his office walls with a collection of his son’s drawings and invited his colleagues in to appreciate the artwork and purchase their favorite pieces. It was a simple gesture he arranged to help Metoyer…

    Rachel White

  • A Stand Up Longhorn

    The Pro Bene Meritis award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts. Since 1984, the annual award has been given to alumni, faculty members and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic pursuits or have participated in service related…

    Rachel White

  • First Class: Rethinking Health Care Through the Liberal Arts

    The doors of the Dell Medical School have opened for its first class of future doctors, and they are on a mission to get the training they need to make a difference in the lives of future patients, their communities and even medicine itself. Of the 50 members in the school’s inaugural class, three graduated…

    Emily Nielsen

  • The Untold Stories of Modern Warriors

    The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.   – Thucydides  Oftentimes, we are met with spectacular images of war, depicting valiance and vilifying enemies; but these stories, some say, lack an honest narrative. While soldiers…

    Rachel White

  • Bright Futures: Q&A with the 2016-17 Larry Temple Scholars

    Each year, the Larry Temple Scholarship recognizes two students in the College of Liberal Arts with superior academic merit. First awarded in 1992, the scholarship honors Austin lawyer and public servant Larry Eugene Temple. Temple, a champion of higher education, graduated with a bachelor’s degree from UT Austin in 1957 and received his law degree from…

    Emily Nielsen

  • Living Without the Snooze Button: Leadership Lessons from Coach DKR

    Daron K. Roberts is originally from East Texas. As a student at The University of Texas at Austin he earned degrees in Plan II Honors and government and served as student government president. He teaches about the intersection of leadership, sports and business, and was recognized as one of the Harvard Kennedy School’s 75 Most…

    Elan Kogutt