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University of Texas Faces New Outcry Over Old Song With Minstrel Roots
Many students want “The Eyes of Texas” to go. Wealthy alumni insist it should stay. The dispute has become a flash point as universities struggle to deal with traditions spawned in earlier eras.
Fans singing “The Eyes of Texas” at a University of Texas football game in Austin in November.Credit.Jay Janner/USA Today Sports, via Reuters
May 7, 2021
SAN ANTONIO For generations, the fight song at the University of Texas at Austin has been etched into the state’s very fabric. For students, the words “the eyes of Texas are upon you” have been sung before and after every sporting event and commencement. Beyond the campus, the song is ever-present at weddings and funerals and even space, where it was a wake-up call for astronauts on the Gemini, Apollo and Skylab missions.
Student tour guides at UT-Austin are going on strike this week over a debate about whether to remove a plaque in the Admissions Welcome Center with The Eyes of Texas lyrics on it. Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Daily Texan
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Dozens of students at the University of Texas at Austin who give campus tours to prospective Longhorns are refusing to work this week over a dispute about a plaque with “The Eyes of Texas” lyrics hanging in the Admissions Welcome Center.