HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kn ...
in
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the
University of Texas System The University of Texas System (UT System) is an American government entity of the state of Texas that includes 13 higher educational institutions throughout the state including eight universities and five independent health institutions. The UT ...
. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 graduate students and 3,133 teaching faculty as of Fall 2021, it is also the largest institution in the system. It is ranked among the top universities in the world by major college and university rankings, and admission to its programs is considered highly selective. UT Austin is considered one of the United States's
Public Ivies "Public Ivy" is a term that refers to prestigious public colleges and universities in the United States that provide a collegiate experience similar to those in the Ivy League.Richard Moll in his book ''Public Ivys: A Guide to America's best pub ...
. The university is a major center for academic research, with research expenditures totaling $679.8 million for fiscal year 2018. It joined the Association of American Universities in 1929. The university houses seven museums and seventeen libraries, including the LBJ Presidential Library and the
Blanton Museum of Art The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art (often referred to as the Blanton or the BMA) at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest university art museums in the U.S. with 189,340 square feet devoted to temporary exhibitions, permanent col ...
, and operates various auxiliary research facilities, such as the
J. J. Pickle Research Campus The J. J. Pickle Research Campus (PRC) in Austin, Texas, United States is owned and operated by the University of Texas at Austin. It sits on 475 acres (1.9 km²) in northwest Austin, approximately 9 miles (14 km) north of the main UT ...
and the
McDonald Observatory McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located near unincorporated community of Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States. The facility is located on Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, with additional fac ...
. As of November 2020, 13
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
winners, 4 Pulitzer Prize winners, 2
Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in compu ...
winners, 2 Fields Medal recipients, 2 Wolf Prize winners, and 2 Abel Prize prize winners have been affiliated with the school as alumni, faculty members, or researchers. The university has also been affiliated with 3 Primetime Emmy Award winners, and as of 2021 its students and alumni have earned a total of 155 Olympic medals. Student-athletes compete as the Texas Longhorns. The Longhorns have won four
NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...
National Football Championships, six NCAA Division I National Baseball Championships, thirteen 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.


History


Establishment

The first mention of a public university in Texas can be traced to the 1827 constitution for the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. Although Title 6, Article 217 of the Constitution promised to establish public education in the arts and sciences, no action was taken by the Mexican government. After Texas obtained its
independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...
from Mexico in 1836, the Texas Congress adopted the Constitution of the Republic, which, under Section 5 of its General Provisions, stated "It shall be the duty of Congress, as soon as circumstances will permit, to provide, by law, a general system of education." On April 18, 1838, "An Act to Establish the University of Texas" was referred to a special committee of the Texas Congress, but was not reported back for further action. On January 26, 1839, the Texas Congress agreed to set aside fifty leagues of land—approximately —towards the establishment of a publicly funded university. In addition, in the new capital of Austin were reserved and designated "College Hill". (The term "Forty Acres" is colloquially used to refer to the University as a whole. The original 40 acres is the area from Guadalupe to Speedway and 21st Street to 24th Street.) In 1845, Texas was annexed into the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
. The state's Constitution of 1845 failed to mention higher education. On February 11, 1858, the Seventh Texas Legislature approved O.B. 102, an act to establish the University of Texas, which set aside $100,000 in United States bonds toward construction of the state's first publicly funded university (the $100,000 was an allocation from the $10 million the state received pursuant to the Compromise of 1850 and Texas's relinquishing claims to lands outside its present boundaries). The legislature also designated land reserved for the encouragement of railroad construction toward the university's endowment. On January 31, 1860, the state legislature, wanting to avoid raising taxes, passed an act authorizing the money set aside for the University of Texas to be used for frontier defense in west Texas to protect settlers from the alleged attacks of Native peoples. Texas's
secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics l ...
from the Union and the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
delayed repayment of the borrowed monies. At the end of the Civil War in 1865, the University of Texas's endowment was just over $16,000 in warrants and nothing substantive had been done to organize the university's operations. This effort to establish a University was again mandated by Article 7, Section 10 of the Texas Constitution of 1876 which directed the legislature to "establish, organize and provide for the maintenance, support and direction of a university of the first class, to be located by a vote of the people of this State, and styled "The University of Texas". Additionally, Article 7, Section 11 of the 1876 Constitution established the Permanent University Fund, a sovereign wealth fund managed by the Board of Regents of the University of Texas and dedicated to the maintenance of the university. Because some state legislators perceived an extravagance in the construction of academic buildings of other universities, Article 7, Section 14 of the Constitution expressly prohibited the legislature from using the state's general revenue to fund construction of university buildings. Funds for constructing university buildings had to come from the university's endowment or from private gifts to the university, but the university's operating expenses could come from the state's general revenues. The 1876 Constitution also revoked the endowment of the railroad lands of the Act of 1858, but dedicated of land, along with other property appropriated for the university, to the Permanent University Fund. This was greatly to the detriment of the university as the lands the Constitution of 1876 granted the university represented less than 5% of the value of the lands granted to the university under the Act of 1858 (the lands close to the railroads were quite valuable, while the lands granted the university were in far west Texas, distant from sources of transportation and water). The more valuable lands reverted to the fund to support general education in the state (the Special School Fund). On April 10, 1883, the legislature supplemented the Permanent University Fund with another of land in west Texas granted to the Texas and Pacific Railroad but returned to the state as seemingly too worthless to even survey. The legislature additionally appropriated $256,272.57 to repay the funds taken from the university in 1860 to pay for frontier defense and for transfers to the state's General Fund in 1861 and 1862. The 1883 grant of land increased the land in the Permanent University Fund to almost 2.2 million acres. Under the Act of 1858, the university was entitled to just over of land for every mile of railroad built in the state. Had the 1876 Constitution not revoked the original 1858 grant of land, by 1883, the university lands would have totaled 3.2 million acres, so the 1883 grant was to restore lands taken from the university by the 1876 Constitution, not an act of munificence. On March 30, 1881, the legislature set forth the university's structure and organization and called for an election to establish its location. By popular election on September 6, 1881, Austin (with 30,913 votes) was chosen as the site. Galveston, having come in second in the election (with 20,741 votes), was designated the location of the medical department (Houston was third with 12,586 votes). On November 17, 1882, on the original "College Hill," an official ceremony commemorated the laying of the cornerstone of the Old Main building. University President Ashbel Smith, presiding over the ceremony, prophetically proclaimed "Texas holds embedded in its earth rocks and minerals which now lie idle because unknown, resources of incalculable industrial utility, of wealth and power. Smite the earth, smite the rocks with the rod of knowledge and fountains of unstinted wealth will gush forth." The University of Texas officially opened its doors on September 15, 1883.


Expansion and growth

In 1890,
George Washington Brackenridge George Washington Brackenridge (January 14, 1832 – December 28, 1920) was a philanthropist and the longest-serving Regent for the University of Texas. His donations of time, land holdings and wealth expanded the university and provided educat ...
donated $18,000 for the construction of a three-story brick mess hall known as Brackenridge Hall (affectionately known as "B.Hall"), one of the university's most storied buildings and one that played an important place in university life until its demolition in 1952. The old Victorian-
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
Main Building 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 over the objections of many students and faculty. The modern-day tower and Main Building were constructed in its place. In 1910, George Washington Brackenridge again displayed his philanthropy, this time donating on the
Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...
to the university. A vote by the regents to move the campus to the donated land was met with outrage, and the land has only been used for auxiliary purposes such as graduate student housing. Part of the tract was sold in the late-1990s for luxury housing, and there are controversial proposals to sell the remainder of the tract. The
Brackenridge Field Laboratory The Brackenridge Field Laboratory (BFL) is an urban research station owned by the University of Texas at Austin. Established officially in 1967, it contains 82 acres of land and research infrastructure. It is dedicated to studies in biology. The e ...
was established on of the land in 1967. In 1916, Gov.
James E. Ferguson James Edward Ferguson Jr. (August 31, 1871 – September 21, 1944), known as Pa Ferguson, was an American Democratic politician and the 26th Governor of Texas, in office from 1915 to 1917. He was indicted and impeached during his second term, ...
became involved in a serious quarrel with the University of Texas. The controversy grew out of the board of regents' refusal to remove certain faculty members whom the governor found objectionable. When Ferguson found he could not have his way, he vetoed practically the entire appropriation for the university. Without sufficient funding, the university would have been forced to close its doors. In the middle of the controversy, Ferguson's critics brought to light a number of irregularities on the part of the governor. Eventually, the Texas House of Representatives prepared 21 charges against Ferguson, and the Senate convicted him on 10 of them, including misapplication of public funds and receiving $156,000 from an unnamed source. The Texas Senate removed Ferguson as governor and declared him ineligible to hold office. In 1921, the legislature appropriated $1.35 million for the purchase of 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 (now known as Texas A&M University). 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. The University of Texas was inducted into the Association of American Universities in 1929. 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. 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 famous Longhorn 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 Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
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 The University of Texas System (UT System) is an American government entity of the state of Texas that includes 13 higher educational institutions throughout the state including eight universities and five independent health institutions. The UT ...
.


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.


Recent history

The first
presidential library A presidential library, presidential center, or presidential museum is a facility either created in honor of a former president and containing their papers, or affiliated with a country's presidency. In the United States * The presidential libr ...
on a university campus was dedicated on May 22, 1971, with former President Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson and then-President
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
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 The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...
. 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". 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 The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art (often referred to as the Blanton or the BMA) at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest university art museums in the U.S. with 189,340 square feet devoted to temporary exhibitions, permanent col ...
. 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 (by capacity) in the state of Texas at the time. On January 19, 2011, the university announced the creation of a 24-hour television network in partnership with
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
, dubbed the
Longhorn Network Longhorn Network (LHN) is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between The University of Texas at Austin, ESPN and Learfield (formerly IMG College), and is operated by ESPN (itself owned jointly by The Walt Disney Compa ...
. ESPN agreed to pay a $300 million guaranteed rights fee over 20 years to the university and to IMG College, the school's multimedia rights partner. The network covers the university's intercollegiate athletics, music, cultural arts, and academics programs. The channel first aired in September 2011. In 2021, UT Austin leaders worked with Dan Patrick, Lieutenant General of Texas, and private donors to set up a Liberty Institute at the university. In 2022, Patrick said that the Liberty Institute was created to restrict teaching about critical race theory. Patrick's remarks sparked concerns about academic freedom and freedom of thought on campus. The University's Division of Diversity and Community Engagement operates the University of Texas-University Charter School, a charter school system with 23 campuses across Texas.


Campus

The university's property totals , comprising the for the Main Campus in central Austin and the
J. J. Pickle Research Campus The J. J. Pickle Research Campus (PRC) in Austin, Texas, United States is owned and operated by the University of Texas at Austin. It sits on 475 acres (1.9 km²) in northwest Austin, approximately 9 miles (14 km) north of the main UT ...
in north Austin and the other properties throughout Texas. The main campus has 150 buildings totaling over . One of the University's most visible features is the Beaux-Arts Main Building, including a tower designed by Paul Philippe Cret. Completed in 1937, the Main Building is in the middle of campus. The tower usually appears illuminated in white light in the evening but is lit burnt orange for various special occasions, including athletic victories and academic accomplishments; conversely, it is darkened for solemn occasions. At the top of the tower is a carillon of 56 bells, the largest in Texas. Songs are played on weekdays by student carillonneurs, in addition to the usual pealing of Westminster Quarters every quarter-hour between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. In 1998, after the installation of security and safety measures, the observation deck reopened to the public indefinitely for weekend tours. The university's seven museums and seventeen libraries hold over nine million volumes, making it the seventh-largest academic library in the country. The holdings of the university's
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the p ...
include one of only 21 remaining complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible and the first permanent photograph, '' View from the Window at Le Gras'', taken by Nicéphore Niépce. The newest museum, the
Blanton Museum of Art The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art (often referred to as the Blanton or the BMA) at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest university art museums in the U.S. with 189,340 square feet devoted to temporary exhibitions, permanent col ...
, is the largest university art museum in the United States and hosts approximately 17,000 works from Europe, the United States, and Latin America. The Perry–Castañeda Library, which houses the central University Libraries operations and the Perry–Castañeda Library Map Collection, is at the heart of campus. The Benson Latin American Collection holds the largest collection of Latin American materials among US university libraries, and maintains substantial digital collections. The University of Texas at Austin has an extensive tunnel system that links the buildings on campus. Constructed circa 1928 under the supervision of UT engineering professor Carl J. Eckhardt Jr., then head of the physical plant, the tunnels have grown along with the campus. They measure approximately six miles in length. The tunnel system is used for communications and utility service. It is closed to the public and guarded by silent alarms. Since the late 1940s, the university has generated its own electricity. Today its natural gas
cogeneration Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elec ...
plant has a capacity of 123 MW. The university also operates a TRIGA nuclear reactor at the
J. J. Pickle Research Campus The J. J. Pickle Research Campus (PRC) in Austin, Texas, United States is owned and operated by the University of Texas at Austin. It sits on 475 acres (1.9 km²) in northwest Austin, approximately 9 miles (14 km) north of the main UT ...
.Nuclear Engineering Teaching Lab
''Nuclear and Radiation Engineering Program.'' Retrieved February 10, 2006.
The university continues to expand its facilities on campus. In 2010, the university opened the state-of-the-art Norman Hackerman building (on the site of the former Experimental Sciences Building) housing chemistry and biology research and teaching laboratories. In 2010, the university broke ground on the $120 million Bill & Melinda Gates Computer Science Complex and Dell Computer Science Hall and the $51 million Belo Center for New Media, both of which are now complete. The new LEED gold-certified, Student Activity Center (SAC) opened in January 2011, housing study rooms, lounges and food vendors. The SAC was constructed as a result of a student referendum passed in 2006 which raised student fees by $65 per semester. In 2012, the Moody Foundation awarded the College of Communication $50 million, the largest endowment any communication college has received, so naming it the Moody College of Communication. The university operates two public radio stations, KUT with news and information, and KUTX with music, via local FM broadcasts as well as live streaming audio over the Internet. The university uses Capital Metro to provide bus transportation for students around the campus on the UT Shuttle system and throughout Austin.


Organization and administration

The university contains eighteen colleges and schools and one academic unit, each listed with its founding date: *
Cockrell School of Engineering The Cockrell School of Engineering is one of the eighteen colleges within the University of Texas at Austin. It has more than 8,000 students enrolled in eleven undergraduate and thirteen graduate programs. The college is ranked 10th in the world ...
(1894) *
Dell Medical School The Dell Medical School is the graduate medical school of The University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas. The school opened to the inaugural class of 50 students in the summer of 2016 as the newest of 18 colleges and schools on the UT Austin ...
(2013) * College of Education (1905) *
College of Fine Arts The School of Fine Arts or College of Fine Arts is the official name or part of the name of several schools of fine arts, often as an academic part of a larger university. These include: The Americas North America *Alabama School of Fin ...
(1938) * College of Liberal Arts (1883) * College of Natural Sciences (1883) *College of Pharmacy (1893 in Galveston, moved to Austin 1927) *Continuing Education (1909) * Graduate Studies (1910) *
Jackson School of Geosciences The Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin unites the Department of Geological Sciences with two research units, the Institute for Geophysics and the Bureau of Economic Geology. The Jackson School is both old and new. ...
(2005) *
LBJ School of Public Affairs The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs (or LBJ School of Public Affairs) is a graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin that was founded in 1970 to offer training in public policy analysis and administration for students that a ...
(1970) * McCombs School of Business (1922) *
Moody College of Communication The Moody College of Communication is the communication college at The University of Texas at Austin. The college is home to top-ranked programs in advertising and public relations, communication studies, communication sciences and disorders, jo ...
(1965) *
School of Architecture This is a list of architecture schools at colleges and universities around the world. An architecture school (also known as a school of architecture or college of architecture), is an institution specializing in architectural education. Africa ...
(1948) *
School of Information This list of information schools, sometimes abbreviated to iSchools, includes members of the iSchools organization. iSchools organization The iSchools organization reflects a consortium of over 100 information schools across the globe. iSchools pr ...
(1948) * School of Law (1883) *
School of Nursing Nurse education consists of the theoretical and practical training provided to nurses with the purpose to prepare them for their duties as nursing care professionals. This education is provided to student nurses by experienced nurses and other med ...
(1976) *School of Undergraduate Studies (2008) * Steve Hicks School of Social Work (1950)


Academics

The University of Texas at Austin offers more than 100 undergraduate and 170 graduate degrees. In the 2009–2010 academic year, the university awarded a total of 13,215 degrees: 67.7%
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...
s, 22.0% master's degrees, 6.4%
doctoral degrees A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
, and 3.9% Professional degrees. In addition, the university has nine highly selective
honors programs Honors colleges and honors programs are special accommodation constituent programs at public and private universities – and also public two-year institutions of higher learning – that include, among other things, supplemental or alternati ...
, eight of which span a variety of academic fields: Liberal Arts Honors, the Business Honors Program, the Turing Scholars Program in Computer Science, Engineering Honors, the Dean's Scholars Program in Natural Sciences, the Health Science Scholars Program in Natural Sciences, the Polymathic Scholars Program in Natural Sciences, and the Undergraduate Nursing Honors Program in School of Nursing. The ninth is the Plan II Honors Program, a rigorous interdisciplinary program that is a major in and of itself. Many Plan II students pursue a second major, often participating in another department's honors program in addition to Plan II. The university also offers programs such as the
Freshman Research Initiative The Freshman Research Initiative (FRI), developed at the University of Texas at Austin, gives first-year students in the College of Natural Sciences the opportunity to conduct research in chemistry, biochemistry, nanotechnology, molecular bio ...
and Texas Interdisciplinary Plan.


Admission


Undergraduate

The University of Texas at Austin is one of the most selective universities in the region. Relative to other universities in the state of Texas, UT Austin is second to
Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...
in selectivity according to a '' Business Journal'' study weighing acceptance rates and the mid-range of the SAT and ACT. The University of Texas at Austin was ranked as the 18th most selective in the South. As a state public university, UT Austin was subject to
Texas House Bill 588 Texas House Bill 588, commonly referred to as the "Top 10% Rule", is a Texas law passed in 1997. It was signed into law by then governor George W. Bush on May 20, 1997. The law guarantees Texas students who graduated in the top ten percent of their ...
, which guaranteed Texas high school seniors graduating in the top 10% of their class admission to any public Texas university. A new state law granting UT Austin (but no other state university) a partial exemption from the top 10% rule, Senate Bill 175, was passed by the 81st Legislature in 2009. It modified this admissions policy by limiting automatically admitted freshmen to 75% of the entering in-state freshman class, starting in 2011. The university will admit the top one percent, the top two percent and so forth until the cap is reached; the university currently admits the top 6 percent. Furthermore, students admitted under
Texas House Bill 588 Texas House Bill 588, commonly referred to as the "Top 10% Rule", is a Texas law passed in 1997. It was signed into law by then governor George W. Bush on May 20, 1997. The law guarantees Texas students who graduated in the top ten percent of their ...
are not guaranteed their choice of college or major, but rather only guaranteed admission to the university as a whole. Many colleges, such as the Cockrell School of Engineering, have secondary requirements that must be met for admission. For others who go through the traditional application process, selectivity is deemed "more selective" according to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and by ''U.S. News & World Report''. For Fall 2017, 51,033 applied and 18,620 were accepted (36.5%), and of those accepted, 45.2% enrolled. Among freshman students who enrolled in Fall 2017, SAT scores for the middle 50% ranged from 570 to 690 for critical reading and 600–710 for math. ACT composite scores for the middle 50% ranged from 26 to 31. In terms of class rank, 74.4% of enrolled freshmen were in the top 10% of their high school classes and 91.7% ranked in the top quarter. For Fall 2019, 53,525 undergraduate students applied, 17,029 undergraduate students were admitted, and 8,170 undergraduate students enrolled in the university full or part time making the enrollment rate 31.8% overall. In the 2020–2021 academic year, 79 freshman students were National Merit Scholars.


Rankings

The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) was ranked tied for 38th among all universities in the U.S., and tied for 10th place among public universities according to '' U.S. News & World Report''s 2022 rankings.2022 Best National Universities , US News Rankings
/ref> Internationally, UT Austin was ranked 34th in the 2020 "Best Global Universities" ranking by ''U.S. News & World Report'', 45th in the world by Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in 2019, 39th worldwide by
Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'' (often referred to as the THE Rankings) is an annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' (THE) magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarel ...
(2019), and 65th globally by
QS World University Rankings ''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for th ...
(2020). UT Austin was also ranked 31st in the world by the
Center for World University Rankings College and university rankings order the best institutions in higher education based on factors that vary depending on the ranking. Some rankings evaluate institutions within a single country, while others assess institutions worldwide. Ranking ...
(CWUR). The University of Texas at Austin is considered to be a "
Public Ivy "Public Ivy" is a term that refers to prestigious public colleges and universities in the United States that provide a collegiate experience similar to those in the Ivy League.Richard Moll in his book ''Public Ivys: A Guide to America's best pub ...
"—a public university that provides an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price, having been ranked in virtually every list of "Public Ivies" since Richard Moll coined the term in his 1985 book ''Public Ivies: A Guide to America's best public undergraduate colleges and universities''. The seven other "Public Ivy" universities, according to Moll, were the College of William & Mary, Miami University, the University of California, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina, the University of Vermont, and the University of Virginia. In its 2016 edition of college rankings, ''U.S. News & World Report'' ranked the Accounting and Latin American History programs as the top in the nation and more than 50 other science, humanities, and professional programs rank in the top 25 nationally. The College of Pharmacy is listed as the third-best in the nation and The School of Information (iSchool) is sixth-best in Library and Information Sciences. Among other rankings, the School of Social Work is 7th, the
Jackson School of Geosciences The Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin unites the Department of Geological Sciences with two research units, the Institute for Geophysics and the Bureau of Economic Geology. The Jackson School is both old and new. ...
is 8th for Earth Sciences, the
Cockrell School of Engineering The Cockrell School of Engineering is one of the eighteen colleges within the University of Texas at Austin. It has more than 8,000 students enrolled in eleven undergraduate and thirteen graduate programs. The college is ranked 10th in the world ...
is tied for 10th-best (with the undergraduate engineering program tied for 11th-best in the country), the Nursing School is tied for 13th, the University of Texas School of Law is 15th, the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs is 7th, and the McCombs School of Business is tied for 16th-best (with the undergraduate business program tied for 5th-best in the country). The University of Texas School of Architecture was ranked second among national undergraduate programs in 2012. A 2005 Bloomberg survey ranked the school 5th among all business schools and first among public business schools for the largest number of alumni who are
S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of ...
CEOs. Similarly, a 2005 ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' report ranked the university as "the number one source of new
Fortune 1000 The Fortune 1000 are the 1,000 largest American companies ranked by revenues, as compiled by the American business magazine '' Fortune''. It only includes companies which are incorporated or authorized to do business in the United States, and fo ...
CEOs". A "payback" analysis published by SmartMoney in 2011 comparing graduates' salaries to tuition costs concluded the school was the second-best value of all colleges in the nation, behind only Georgia Tech. A 2013 College Database study found that UT Austin was 22nd in the nation in terms of increased lifetime earnings by graduates.


Research

UT Austin is
classified Classified may refer to: General *Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive *Classified advertising or "classifieds" Music *Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper * The Classified, a 1980s American ro ...
among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity." For the 2014–2015 cycle, the university was awarded over $580 million in sponsored projects, and has earned more than 300 patents since 2003. The University of Texas at Austin houses the Office of Technology Commercialization, a
technology transfer Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...
center which serves as the bridge between laboratory research and commercial development. In 2009, the university created nine new start-up companies to commercialize technology developed at the university and has created 46 start-ups in the past seven years. License agreements generated $10.9 million in revenue for the university in 2009. Research at UT Austin is largely focused in the engineering and physical sciences, and the university is a world-leading research institution in fields such as computer science. Energy is a major research thrust, with federally funded projects on biofuels, battery and solar cell technology, and geological carbon dioxide storage, water purification membranes, among others. In 2009, the University of Texas founded the Energy Institute, led by former Under Secretary for Science Raymond L. Orbach, to organize and advance multi-disciplinary energy research. In addition to its own medical school, it houses medical programs associated with other campuses and allied health professional programs, as well as major research programs in pharmacy, biomedical engineering, neuroscience, and others. In 2010, the University of Texas at Austin opened the $100 million Dell Pediatric Research Institute to increase medical research at the university and establish a medical research complex, and associated medical school, in Austin. The university operates several major auxiliary research centers. The world's third-largest telescope, the
Hobby–Eberly Telescope The Hobby–Eberly Telescope (HET) is a 10-meter (30-foot) aperture telescope located at the McDonald Observatory in Davis Mountains, Texas. The Hobby–Eberly Telescope is one of the largest optical telescopes in the world. It combines a numb ...
, and three other large telescopes are part of the university's
McDonald Observatory McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located near unincorporated community of Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States. The facility is located on Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, with additional fac ...
, west of Austin. The university manages nearly of biological field laboratories, including the
Brackenridge Field Laboratory The Brackenridge Field Laboratory (BFL) is an urban research station owned by the University of Texas at Austin. Established officially in 1967, it contains 82 acres of land and research infrastructure. It is dedicated to studies in biology. The e ...
in Austin. The Center for Agile Technology focuses on software development challenges. The
J.J. Pickle Research Campus The J. J. Pickle Research Campus (PRC) in Austin, Texas, United States is owned and operated by the University of Texas at Austin. It sits on 475 acres (1.9 km²) in northwest Austin, approximately 9 miles (14 km) north of the main U ...
(PRC) is home to the Texas Advanced Computing Center which operates a series of supercomputers, such as Ranger (from 2008 to 2013 ), Stampede (2013–2017 ), Stampede2 (since 2017 ), and Frontera (since 2019). The Pickle campus also hosts the Microelectronics Research Center which houses micro- and nanoelectronics research and features a cleanroom for device fabrication. Founded in 1946, the university's Applied Research Laboratories at the PRC has developed or tested the vast majority of the Navy's high-frequency sonar equipment. In 2007, the Navy granted it a research contract funded up to $928 million over ten years. The Institute for Advanced Technology, founded in 1990 and located in the West Pickle Research Building, supports the U.S. Army with basic and applied research in several fields. The Center for Transportation Research is a nationally recognized research institution focusing on transportation research, education, and public service. Established in 1963 as the Center for Highway Research, its projects address virtually all aspects of transportation, including economics, multimodal systems, traffic congestion relief, transportation policy, materials, structures, transit, environmental impacts, driver behavior, land use, geometric design, accessibility, and pavements. In 2013, the University of Texas at Austin announced the naming of the O'Donnell Building for Applied Computational Engineering and Sciences. The O'Donnell Foundation of Dallas, headed by
Peter O'Donnell Peter O'Donnell (11 April 1920 – 3 May 2010) was an English writer of mysteries and of comic strips, best known as the creator of ''Modesty Blaise'', an action heroine/undercover trouble-shooter. He was also an award-winning gothic h ...
and his wife, Edith Jones O'Donnell, has given more than $135 million to the university between 1983 and 2013. University president William C. Powers declared the O'Donnells "among the greatest supporters of the University of Texas in its 130-year history. Their transformative generosity is based on the belief in our power to change society for the better." In 2008, O'Donnell pledged $18 million to finance the hiring of university faculty members undertaking research in mathematics, computers, and multiple scientific disciplines; his pledge was matched by W. A. "Tex" Moncrief Jr., an oilman and philanthropist from Fort Worth. The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute is located on the Gulf coast in Port Aransas. Established in 1941, UTMSI was the first permanent marine research facility in the state of Texas and has since contributed significantly to our understanding of marine ecosystems. Research at the Marine Science Institute ranges from locally-important work on mariculture and estuarine ecosystems to the investigation of global issues in marine science, from the Arctic to the tropics.


Endowment

The University of Texas System is entitled to at least 30% of the distributions from the Permanent University Fund (PUF), with over $33 billion in assets as of year-end 2021. The University of Texas System gets two-thirds of the ''Available University Fund'' (the name of the annual distribution of PUF's income), and the Texas A&M University System gets the other third. A regental policy requires ''at least'' 45 percent of UT System's share of this money go to the University of Texas at Austin for "program enrichment". By taking two-thirds and multiplying it by 45 percent, UT gets 30 percent, which is the ''minimum'' amount of AUF income that can be distributed to the school under current policies. The Regents, however, can decide to allocate additional amounts to the university. Also, the majority of the University of Texas system share of the AUF is used for its debt service bonds, some of which were issued for the benefit of the Austin campus. The Regents can change the 45 percent minimum of the University of Texas System share to goes to the Austin campus at any time, although doing so might be difficult politically. Proceeds from lands appropriated in 1839 and 1876, as well as oil monies, comprise the majority of PUF. At one time, the PUF was the chief source of income for Texas' two university systems, the University of Texas System and the Texas A&M University System; today, however, its revenues account for less than 10 percent of the universities' annual budgets. This has challenged the universities to increase sponsored research and private donations. Privately funded endowments contribute over $2 billion to the university's total endowment. The University of Texas System also has about $22 billion of assets in its General Endowment Fund.


Student life


Student profile

For Fall 2011, the university enrolled 38,437 undergraduate, 11,497 graduate and 1,178 law students. Out-of-state and international students comprised 9.1% of the undergraduate student body and 20.1% of the total student body, with students from all 50 states and more than 120 foreign countries—most notably, the Republic of Korea, followed by the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
,
Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
, and
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
. For Fall 2015, the undergraduate student body was 48.9% male and 51.1% female. The three largest undergraduate majors in 2009 were Biological Sciences, Unspecified Business, and Psychology, while the three largest graduate majors were Business Administration ( MBA), Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Pharmacy ( PharmD).


Residential life

The campus has fourteen residence halls, the newest of which opened in Spring 2007. On-campus housing can hold more than 7,100 students.
Jester Center Jester Center or Jester Center Residence Halls is a co-educational residence hall at The University of Texas at Austin, built in 1969. The residence hall was named after Beauford H. Jester, who served as the Governor of Texas from 1947 until 1949 ...
is the largest residence hall with its capacity of 2,945. Academic enrollment exceeds the on-campus housing capacity; as a result, most students must live in private residence halls, housing cooperatives, apartments, or with
Greek organizations Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and other off-campus residences. University Housing and Dining, which already has the largest market share of 7,000 of the estimated 27,000 beds in the campus area, plans to expand to 9,000 beds.


Student organizations

The university recognizes more than 1,300 student organizations. In addition, it supports three official student governance organizations that represent student interests to faculty, administrators, and the Texas Legislature. Student Government, established in 1902, is the oldest governance organization and represents student interests in general. The Senate of College Councils represents students in academic affairs and coordinates the college councils, and the Graduate Student Assembly represents graduate student interests. The University Unions Student Events Center serves as the hub for student activities on campus. The Friar Society serves as the oldest honor society at the university and recognizes students who have made significant contributions to the school. Texas
Orange Jackets Orange Jackets is the oldest service organization for women and non-binary folks at the University of Texas at Austin. The group was founded in 1923 as a women's honorary service organization, named for their distinctive orange vests. As the o ...
, founded in 1923, is the oldest women's honorary service organization on campus and empowers young women leaders to serve the campus and community. The Texas Blazers, an honorary service organization, act as official hosts of the university.
Texas 4000 for Cancer Texas 4000 for Cancer or Texas 4000 is a 501(c)(3) federally registered non-profit organization, and the longest annual charity bicycle ride in the world. Each year a new group of 60 to 100 University of Texas at Austin students make a 70-day, 4, ...
is another student organization, which also doubles as an Austin-based nonprofit, that hosts a 4,500-mile bike ride from Austin, Texas to Anchorage, Alaska, thus far raising over $5 million for cancer research and patient support services since its inception in 2004.


Greek life

The University of Texas at Austin is home to an active Greek community. Approximately 14 percent of undergraduate students are in fraternities or sororities. With more than 65 national chapters, the university's Greek community is one of the nation's largest. These chapters are under the authority of one of the school's six Greek council communities, Interfraternity Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council, Texas Asian Pan-Hellenic Council, Latino Pan-Hellenic Council, Multicultural Greek Council and University Panhellenic Council. Other registered student organizations also name themselves with Greek letters and are called affiliates. They are not a part of one of the six councils but have all of the same privileges and responsibilities of any other organization. Most Greek houses are west of the Drag in the West Campus neighborhood.


Media

Students express their opinions in and out of class through periodicals including ''
Study Breaks ''Study Breaks'' is a monthly lifestyle magazine aimed at college aged students. As a student entertainment magazine on many campuses around Texas, it has a circulation of over 50,000. ''Study Breaks'' was started in Austin in 1988 and is run by C ...
'' magazine, Longhorn Life, '' The Daily Texan'' (the most award-winning daily college newspaper in the United States), and the '' Texas Travesty''. Over the airwaves students' voices are heard through Texas Student Television (
K29HW-D K32OJ-D, virtual and UHF digital channel 32, branded on-air as TSTV (Texas Student Television), is a low-powered independent television station licensed to Austin, Texas, United States. The station is owned by the University of Texas. Founded in ...
) and KVRX Radio. The Computer Writing and Research Lab of the university's Department of Rhetoric and Writing also hosts ''the Blogora'', a blog for "connecting rhetoric, rhetorical methods and theories, and rhetoricians with public life" by the Rhetoric Society of America.


Traditions

Traditions at the University of Texas are perpetuated through several school symbols and mediums. At athletic events, students frequently sing "
Texas Fight "Texas Fight" is the official fight song of the University of Texas at Austin and was written by Colonel Walter S. Hunnicutt in collaboration with James E. King, then director of the Marlin High School Band. It is sung to a fast tempo version Taps ...
", the university's fight song while displaying the
Hook 'em Horns Hook 'em Horns is the chant and hand signal of The University of Texas at Austin. Students, alumni, and fans of the university employ a greeting consisting of the phrase "Hook 'em" or "Hook 'em Horns" and also use the phrase as a parting good-bye ...
hand gesture—the gesture mimicking the horns of the school's mascot, Bevo the Texas Longhorn.


Athletics

The University of Texas offers a wide variety of varsity and intramural sports programs. On June 12, 2020, UT student-athletes banded together with their #WeAreOne statement on Twitter. Among the list of changes included: renaming certain campus buildings, replacing statues, starting outreach programs, and replacing "The Eyes of Texas." UT Interim President Jay Hartzell released a statement on July 13, 2020, announcing the changes to be implemented in light of these demands from UT student-athletes. Hartzell said the university would make a multi-million dollar investment to programs that recruit, retain and support Black students; rename the Robert L. Moore Building as the Physics, Math and Astronomy Building; honor Heman M. Sweatt in numerous ways, including placing a statue of Sweatt near the entrance of  T.S. Painter Hall; honor the Precursors, the first Black undergraduates to attend the University of Texas at Austin, by commissioning a new monument on the East Mall; erect a statue for
Julius Whittier Julius Whittier (July 7, 1950 – September 25, 2018) was the first black player on the University of Texas football team, among his other accomplishments. Early life Whittier was born Julius Edward Whittier in San Antonio, Texas, on July 7, 1950. ...
, the Longhorns’ first Black football letterman, at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium; and more. However, one of the most controversial topics on the list – replacing "The Eyes of Texas" as UT's alma mater – remained untouched. * Further information: ''
Horns Illustrated ''Horns Illustrated'' is a print and digital publication based in Austin, Texas, that covers University of Texas at Austin athletics. The magazine was started in 1990. It features interviews, athlete profiles, in-depth analysis and game recaps, ...
'', print and digital university athletics publication.


Varsity sports

The university's men's and women's athletics teams are nicknamed the Longhorns. Texas has won 50 total national championships, 42 of which are NCAA national championships. The football team experienced its greatest success under coach Darrell Royal, winning three national championships in 1963, 1969, and 1970. It won a fourth title under head coach Mack Brown in 2005 after a 41–38 victory over previously undefeated
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...
in the 2006 Rose Bowl. The University's
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
team has made more trips to the College World Series (35) than any other school, and won championships in 1949, 1950, 1975, 1983, 2002, and 2005. Additionally, the university's men's and women's swimming and diving teams lay claim to sixteen NCAA Division I titles, with the men's team having 13 of those titles, more than any other Division 1 team. The swim team was first developed under Coach Tex Robertson.


Notable people


Faculty

In the Fall of 2016, the school employed 3,128
full-time Full-time or Full Time may refer to: * Full-time job, employment in which a person works a minimum number of hours defined as such by their employer * Full-time mother, a woman whose work is running or managing her family's home * Full-time fa ...
faculty members, with a student-to-faculty ratio of 18.86 to 1. These include winners of the
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Science, the National Medal of Technology, the
Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in compu ...
, the Primetime Emmy Award, and other various awards. Nine Nobel Laureates are or have been affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin. Research expenditures for the university exceeded $679.8 million in fiscal year 2018.


Alumni

File:Wes_Anderson-20140206-85.jpg, Wes Anderson, filmmaker File:JamesBaker.jpeg, James Baker, former White House Chief of Staff and Secretary of State File:Alan Bean in 1969.jpg, Alan Bean, NASA astronaut, fourth person to walk on the Moon File:LloydBentsen.jpg, Lloyd Bentsen, 69th
United States Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
and former U.S. Senator from Texas File:Mrsbush-20060206.jpg, Laura Bush, former First Lady of the United States File:Tom C. Clark.jpg, Tom C. Clark, former Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...
File:Lady Bird Johnson, photo portrait, standing at rear of White House, color, crop.jpg, Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady of the United States File:062707_267_Roger_Clemens.jpg, Roger Clemens, seven-time Cy Young Award winner File:Kevin_Durant_(Wizards_v._Warriors,_1-24-2019)_(cropped).jpg,
Kevin Durant Kevin Wayne Durant ( ; born September 29, 1988), also known by his initials KD, is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball f ...
, 11-time NBA All-Star File:Farrah_Fawcett_1977.JPG, Farrah Fawcett, actress File:Tom_Landry.jpg,
Tom Landry Thomas Wade Landry (September 11, 1924 – February 12, 2000) was an American professional football player and coach. He was the first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League (NFL), a position he held for 29 seasons. Dur ...
, Pro Football Hall of Fame coach File:Jeb Bush by Gage Skidmore 2.jpg, Jeb Bush, former
Governor of Florida A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
File:Jayne_Mansfield_(Kiss_them_for_me-1957).jpg, Jayne Mansfield, model and actress File:John Brennan CIA official portrait.jpg,
John Brennan John Brennan may refer to: Public officials * Jack Brennan (born 1937), U.S. Marine officer and aide of Richard Nixon * John Brennan (CIA officer) (born 1955), former CIA Director * John P. Brennan (1864–1943), Democratic politician in the U. ...
, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency File:Jordan Spieth after winning the 2015 U.S. Open.png, Jordan Spieth, professional golfer File:Stacey Abrams 2021 (cropped).jpg, Stacey Abrams, voting rights activist File:Matthew McConaughey - Goldene Kamera 2014 - Berlin.jpg, Matthew McConaughey,
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
-winning actor File:Greg Abbott 2015.jpg, Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas File:Walter Cronkite November 1983 gtfy.00866 (cropped).jpg, Walter Cronkite, journalist File:Rex_Tillerson_official_portrait.jpg,
Rex Tillerson Rex Wayne Tillerson (born March 23, 1952) is an American engineer and energy executive who served as the 69th U.S. secretary of state from February 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, under President Donald Trump. Prior to joining the Trump administ ...
, 69th United States Secretary of State File:Neil_deGrasse_Tyson_in_June_2017_(cropped).jpg, Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist File:Owen_Wilson_Cannes_2011.jpg,
Owen Wilson Owen Cunningham Wilson (born November 18, 1968) is an American actor. He has had a long association with filmmaker Wes Anderson with whom he shared writing and acting credits for ''Bottle Rocket'' (1996), '' Rushmore'' (1998), and '' The Royal ...
, actor File:Renée Zellweger Berlinale 2010 (cropped).jpg, Renée Zellweger, Two-time Academy Award winning actress
Texas Exes The Ex-Students' Association of The University of Texas (more commonly known as Texas Exes) is the association of former students of the University of Texas at Austin. The organization is one of the largest alumni associations in the world (the ...
is the official University of Texas alumni organization. '' The Alcalde'', founded in 1913 and pronounced "all-call-day," is the university's alumni magazine. At least 15 graduates have served in the U.S. Senate or U.S. House of Representatives, including Lloyd Bentsen '42, who served in both Houses. Presidential cabinet members include former U.S. Secretaries of State
Rex Tillerson Rex Wayne Tillerson (born March 23, 1952) is an American engineer and energy executive who served as the 69th U.S. secretary of state from February 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, under President Donald Trump. Prior to joining the Trump administ ...
'75, and James Baker '57, former U.S. Secretary of Education
William J. Bennett William John Bennett (born July 31, 1943) is an American conservative politician and political commentator who served as secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 under President Ronald Reagan. He also held the post of director of the Office of ...
, and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans '73. Former First Lady Laura Bush '73 and daughter Jenna '04 both graduated from Texas, as well as former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson '33 & '34 and her eldest daughter Lynda. In foreign governments, the university has been represented by Fernando Belaúnde Terry '36 (42nd President of
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
) and by
Abdullah al-Tariki Abdullah Tariki (19 March 1919–7 September 1997) (Arabic: عبدالله الطريقي), also known as Red Sheikh, was a Saudi politician and government official. He was the first Saudi oil minister appointed by King Saud, and co-founder of Or ...
(co-founder of OPEC). Additionally, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority,
Salam Fayyad Salam Fayyad ( ar, سلام فياض, ; born 1951 or 12 April 1952) is a Jordanian-Palestinian politician and former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority and Finance Minister. He was Finance Minister from June 2002 to November 2005 and ...
, graduated from the university with a PhD in economics. Tom C. Clark, J.D. '22, served as
United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...
from 1945 to 1949 and as an Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...
from 1949 to 1967. Alumni in academia include the 26th President of The College of William & Mary Gene Nichol '76, the 10th President of
Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original cam ...
Robert A. Brown Robert A. Brown (born July 22, 1951) is the 10th president of Boston University. He was formerly the provost of MIT. In 1991, Brown was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering for the application of computing techniques to ...
'73 & '75, and the 8th President of the University of Southern California
John R. Hubbard John Randolph Hubbard (December 3, 1918 – August 21, 2011) was an American educator, academic administrator, and diplomat who served as the eighth president of the University of Southern California from 1970 and 1980. Early life and education ...
. The university also graduated Alan Bean '55, the fourth man to walk on the Moon. Additionally, alumni who have served as business leaders include Secretary of State and former
ExxonMobil Corporation ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...
CEO
Rex Tillerson Rex Wayne Tillerson (born March 23, 1952) is an American engineer and energy executive who served as the 69th U.S. secretary of state from February 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, under President Donald Trump. Prior to joining the Trump administ ...
'75, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell, and Gary C. Kelly, Southwest Airlines's CEO. In literature and journalism, the school boasts 20
Pulitzer Prizes The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had ma ...
to 18 former students, including Gail Caldwell and
Ben Sargent Ben Sargent (born November 26, 1948) is a retired American editorial cartoonist. He began drawing editorial cartoons for the ''Austin American-Statesman'' in 1974 and retired in 2009. His cartoons are also distributed nationally by Universal Pr ...
'70. Walter Cronkite, the former CBS Evening News anchor once called the most trusted man in America, attended the University of Texas at Austin, as did CNN anchor
Betty Nguyen Betty Nguyen (born September 1, 1974) is an American news anchor, who is currently at WPIX in New York City. Nguyen has previously worked for NBC News, MSNBC, CBS News, and CNN. Career Nguyen began her career as a morning anchor and reporte ...
'95. Alumnus J. M. Coetzee also received the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. Novelist Raymond Benson ('78) was the official author of James Bond novels between 1996 and 2002, the only American to be commissioned to pen them. Donna Alvermann, a distinguished research professor at the University of Georgia, Department of Education also graduated from the University of Texas, as did Wallace Clift ('49) and Jean Dalby Clift ('50, J.D. '52), authors of several books in the fields of psychology of religion and spiritual growth. Notable alumni authors also include
Kovid Gupta Kovid Gupta (born 1988) is an Indian-American author, screenwriter, filmmaker, and social activist. He is best known for his non-fiction books '' Kingdom of The Soap Queen: The Story of Balaji Telefilms'' and '' Redrawing India: The Teach For ...
('2010), author of several bestselling books, Ruth Cowan Nash ('23), America's first woman war correspondent, and
Alireza Jafarzadeh Alireza Jafarzadeh is a media commentator on the Middle East and an active dissident figure to the Iranian government. He is best known for revealing the existence of clandestine nuclear facilities in Iran in 2002. At the time of the revelatio ...
, author of "The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis" and television commentator ('82, MS). Although expelled from the university, former student and The Daily Texan writer
John Patric John Patric (May 22, 1902 – August 31, 1985) was an American writer. He was a contributing writer for ''National Geographic (magazine), National Geographic'' during the mid to late 1930s and early 1940s and was the author of two books. His 194 ...
went on to become a noted writer for '' National Geographic'', '' Reader's Digest'', and author of 1940s best-seller ''Why Japan was Strong''. University of Texas at Austin alumni also include 112 Fulbright Scholars, 31 Rhodes Scholars, 28 Truman Scholars, 23 Marshall Scholars, and nine astronauts. Several musicians and entertainers attended the university. Janis Joplin, the American singer posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, attended the university, as did February 1955 '' Playboy'' Playmate of the Month and Golden Globe recipient Jayne Mansfield. Composer Harold Morris is a 1910 graduate. Noted film director, cinematographer, writer, and editor Robert Rodriguez is a Longhorn, as are actors Eli Wallach and Matthew McConaughey, the latter of which now teaches a class at the university. Rodriguez dropped out of the university after two years to pursue his career in Hollywood, but completed his degree from the Radio-Television-Film department on May 23, 2009. Rodriguez also gave the keynote address at the university-wide commencement ceremony. Radio-Television-Film alumni Mark Dennis and Ben Foster took their award-winning feature film, Strings, to the American film festival circuit in 2011. Web and television actress Felicia Day and film actress Renée Zellweger attended the university. Day graduated with degrees in music performance (violin) and mathematics, while Zellweger graduated with a BA in English. Writer and recording artist
Phillip Sandifer Phillip Sandifer (born 10 May, 1959) is an American writer, musician, recording artist and music producer. His music is primarily known within the Americana and Inspirational music field. Personal life Phillip Sandifer was born in Baltimore, M ...
graduated with a degree in History. Michael "Burnie" Burns is an actor, writer, film director and film producer who graduated with a degree in Computer Science. He, along with graduate Matt Hullum, also founded the Austin-based production company Rooster Teeth, that produces many hit shows, including the award-winning Internet series, '' Red vs. Blue''. Farrah Fawcett, one of the original '' Charlie's Angels'', left after her junior year to pursue a modeling career. Actor
Owen Wilson Owen Cunningham Wilson (born November 18, 1968) is an American actor. He has had a long association with filmmaker Wes Anderson with whom he shared writing and acting credits for ''Bottle Rocket'' (1996), '' Rushmore'' (1998), and '' The Royal ...
and writer/director Wes Anderson attended the university, where they wrote '' Bottle Rocket'' together, which became Anderson's first feature film. Writer and producer
Charles Olivier Charles Olivier is an American film and television writer, producer, playwright, journalist and editor. His work has won several Emmys, a G. Foster Peabody award, a Thurgood Marshall Humanitarian Award for Excellence in Journalism, as well as ma ...
is a Longhorn. So too are filmmakers and actors Mark Duplass and his brother Jay Duplass, key contributors to the mumblecore film genre. Another notable writer, Rob Thomas graduated with a BA in History in 1987 and later wrote the young adult novel ''
Rats Saw God ''Rats Saw God'' is a young adult novel written by Rob Thomas, published in 1996. Plot It follows the main character Steve York, the son of an astronaut. Steve is a high school student who has had issues with marijuana and has found himself in t ...
'' and created the series '' Veronica Mars''. Illustrator, writer and alum Felicia Bond is best known for her illustrations in the ''If You Give...'' children's books series, starting with '' If You Give a Mouse a Cookie''. Taiwanese singer-songwriter, producer, actress Cindy Yen (birth name Cindy Wu) graduated with double degrees in Music (piano performance) and Broadcast Journalism in 2008. Noted composer and arranger Jack Cooper received his D.M.A. in 1999 from the University of Texas at Austin in composition and has gone on to teach in higher education and become known internationally through the music publishing industry. Actor
Trevante Rhodes Trevante Nemour Rhodes (born February 10, 1990) is an American actor. He won several accolades and achieved recognition in 2016 for his performance as Chiron in the Academy Award-winning film ''Moonlight''. He has since starred in '' The Preda ...
competed as a sprinter for the Longhorns and graduated with a BS in Applied Learning and Development in 2012. In 2016, he starred as Chiron in the
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
- and Golden Globe-winning film '' Moonlight''. Many alumni have found success in professional sports. Legendary pro football coach
Tom Landry Thomas Wade Landry (September 11, 1924 – February 12, 2000) was an American professional football player and coach. He was the first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League (NFL), a position he held for 29 seasons. Dur ...
'49 attended the university as an industrial engineering major but interrupted his education after a semester to serve in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. Following the war, he returned to the university and played fullback and defensive back on the Longhorns' bowl-game winners on New Year's Day of 1948 and 1949. Seven-time Cy Young Award-winner Roger Clemens entered the MLB after helping the Longhorns win the 1983 College World Series. NBA MVP and four-time scoring champion
Kevin Durant Kevin Wayne Durant ( ; born September 29, 1988), also known by his initials KD, is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball f ...
entered the 2007 NBA Draft and was selected second overall behind Greg Oden, after sweeping National Player of the Year honors, becoming the first freshman to win any of the awards. After becoming the first freshman in school history to lead Texas in scoring and being named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, Daniel Gibson entered the 2006 NBA draft and was selected in the second round by the Cleveland Cavaliers. In his one year at Texas, golfer Jordan Spieth led the University of Texas Golf club to the NCAA Men's Golf Championship in 2012 and went on to win The Masters Tournament three years after leaving the university. Several Olympic medalists have also attended the school, including 2008 Summer Olympics athletes Ian Crocker '05 (swimming world record holder and two-time Olympic gold medalist) and 4 × 400 m relay defending Olympic gold medalist Sanya Richards '06. Mary Lou Retton (the first female gymnast outside Eastern Europe to win the Olympic all-around title, five-time Olympic medalist, and 1984 ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence tw ...
'' Sportswoman of the Year) also attended the university.
Garrett Weber-Gale Garrett Weber-Gale (born August 6, 1985) is an American competition swimmer, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and world record-holder in two events. Early life Weber-Gale is Jewish, and was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. He graduated from Nic ...
, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and world record-holder in two events, was a swimmer for the school. Also an alumnus is Dr.
Robert Cade James Robert Cade (September 26, 1927 – November 27, 2007) was an American physician, university professor, research scientist and inventor. Cade, a native of Texas, earned his bachelor and medical degrees at the University of Texas, and be ...
, the inventor of the sports drink Gatorade. In big, global philanthropy, the university is honored by
Darren Walker Darren Walker (born August 28, 1959) currently serves as 10th president of the Ford Foundation, a private foundation dedicated to human welfare. In June 2020, Walker led the Ford Foundation to issue a $1 billion designated social bond to stabi ...
, president of Ford Foundation. Other notable alumni include prominent businessman
Red McCombs Billy Joe "Red" McCombs (born October 19, 1927) is an American businessman. He is the founder of the Red McCombs Automotive Group in San Antonio, Texas, a co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, former chairman of Constellis Group, a form ...
, Diane Pamela Wood, the first female chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, chemist Donna J. Nelson, and neuroscientist
Tara Spires-Jones Tara Spires-Jones is professor of neurodegeneration and deputy director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. She is also a group leader in the UK Dementia Research Institute. Education and career Spires-Jo ...
. Also an alumnus is Admiral William H. McRaven, credited for organizing and executing Operation Neptune's Spear, the special ops raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden. Oveta Culp Hobby, the first woman to earn the rank of a colonel in the United States Army, first commanding officer and director of the Women's Army Corps, first secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare attended the university as well.


Keene Prize for Literature

The Keene Prize for Literature is a student literary award given by the university. With a prize of $50,000, it claims to be "one of the world's largest student literary prizes". An additional $50,000 is split between three finalists. The purpose of the award is to "help maintain the university's status as a premier location for emerging writers", and to recognize the winners and their works. The prize was established in 2006, in the College of Liberal Arts. It is named after E. L. Keene, a 1942 graduate of the university.


See also

* ArchNet – A joint project between the university and MIT on
Islamic architecture Islamic architecture comprises the architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam. It encompasses both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day. The Islamic world encompasses a wide geographic ...
*
Cactus Cafe The Cactus Café is a live music venue and bar on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. Located in Austin, Texas, a city frequently referred to as "the live music capital of the world," a number of well-known artists have played in th ...
*
Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences The Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences is an interdisciplinary research unit and graduate program at The University of Texas at Austin dedicated to advancing computational science and engineering through a variety of progra ...
*
List of University of Texas at Austin presidents The complete list of University of Texas at Austin presidents officially includes 28 individuals in the history of the University. The office of the president was originally established in 1895. The position did not exist back when the Universit ...
*
Silicon Hills Silicon Hills is a nickname for the cluster of high-tech companies in the Austin metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Texas. Silicon Hills has been a nickname for Austin since the mid-1990s. The name is analogous to Silicon Valley, but refer ...
*
University of Texas at Austin High School The University of Texas at Austin High School (UTHS) is a public online high school affiliated to the University of Texas at Austin. Its offices are located in the Development Office Building on the University's campus in Austin, Texas, United ...
* University of Texas at Austin admissions controversy * University of Texas Elementary School * University of Texas Sailing Team


Notes


References


External links

*
University of Texas at Austin Athletics website
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Texas At Austin, University Of University of Texas tower shooting 1883 establishments in Texas Educational institutions established in 1883 Flagship universities in the United States Tourist attractions in Austin, Texas Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Universities and colleges in Austin, Texas
University of Texas Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,0 ...
Austin