FORT WORTH, Texas — The University of Texas announced its “solution” to its eye problem, but the consequences of a controversy over a song could be felt for years.
Its former partner in the Big 12, the University of Missouri, went through similar racial awareness pains in 2015, and no one is quite sure if the school has fully recovered.
This week, UT released its 59-page report concerning “The Eyes of Texas,” a school song that will remain in place but student athletes are not required to stay on the field or sing.
“Through our conversations, it has become clear that without facts and clarity, there will still be potential for division,” the report said on page 54 before introducing 40 recommendations for change. “Even with this report, that divide may remain.”
Better make that will remain. Texas should not expect to suffer to the lengths the way Missouri did, but this is not over.
There will be an effect on donations. There will be an effect on recruiting, both to the overall student population and in athletics. There could be an effect on enrollment.
MISSOURI’S PROBLEM
In the fall of 2015, Missouri’s student body president Payton Head used social media to express anger with what he felt were anti-homosexual and anti-transgender sentiments, as well as bigotry at the school. Head, a Black man, also said people riding in a truck screamed racial slurs at him.
A few weeks later, the first of what would be many protests on campus began.
During a homecoming activity with the Legion of Black Collegians on campus, a drunk white student disrupted the event and used a racial slur when he was asked to leave.
The school’s chancellor, R. Bowen Loftin issued a statement that said, “Racism is clearly alive at Mizzou.” He ordered diversity training for faculty and students starting in 2016.
Feeling that the school’s response to their concerns was inadequate, protesters formed a group that called for changes in to the curriculum, and for the resignation of the University of Missouri’s system president, Tim Wolfe.
As the fall progressed, there were more non-violent protests on campus. One student started his own hunger strike to force the university to do more. In November, about 30 members of the Missouri football team said they would not play until Wolfe resigned.
While he apologized for how he handled the situation, he initially tried to manage what had become a full-blown crisis complete with national media coverage.
Wolfe resigned in November of that year, followed by Loftin, who had previously served as the president of Texas A&M from 2010-13.
Meanwhile, then-football coach Gary Pinkel, who publicly supported his players, announced his retirement on Nov. 13 of that year. The timing of his retirement was health related. He was 63, and he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgskin lymphoma six months earlier.
Pinkel had 15 successful seasons at Mizzou, turning around a program that had been historically irrelevant.
While the school implemented new changes to address diversity concerns, the damage from the negative publicity was considerable.
The football program has not returned to the level of success it had under Pinkel.
The freshman enrollment at the University of Missouri’s main campus in Columbia dropped by more than 35% in the two years since the fall of 2015, according to The New York Times.
In 2015, Mizzou’s enrollment was 27,000. Two years later, it was 23,800. Seven dorms went unoccupied for years.
Donations suffered, and even the university library had to publicly campaign for book donations.
What school officials don’t know — and this is the part that may affect Texas — is whether the consequences are as a result of people who were put off by the University of Missouri’s proactive behavior to address the issues of minority students or those who thought that the school didn’t go far enough to address students’ concerns.
HOW TEXAS WILL AVOID A MISSOURI SEQUEL
With a current enrollment just over 30,000, it appears Missouri has mostly recovered, and it’s doubtful Texas will feel all of those consequences.
Missouri’s tumultuous time, which was sparked in part by the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, two hours east of Columbia, was a national story.
The issues in Austin may have started with a national story, namely the killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day last year that sparked nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, but the concerns on the Texas’ campus were more confined within the borders of the state and school.
The University of Texas will always rank higher according to the bible of higher education, the U.S. News and World Report college rankings.
There will always be a greater demand to attend UT compared to MU.
According to those rankings, Missouri has an acceptance rate of 80% compared to 32% for UT.
But, at least according to the emails uncovered by The Texas Tribune from boosters and fans to the school about how it handled “The Eyes of Texas” issue, a pretty report doesn’t solve the problem.
Because there is no middle. There are those who want the song, and those who don’t because of what is perceived as racist origins.
The most likely hit on UT will be in the form of donations, and recruiting. And it appears that the fallout might have begun already.
Evan Stewart, a 4-star wide receiver from Frisco, who is Black, announced Thursday on social media that he is decommitting from UT citing “multiple things” but not saying what any of those things were.
Previous football coach Tom Herman was adamantly in the corner of his players on the “Eyes” issue. His successor, Steve Sarkisian, previously said the players will stand for the song after a game, as per tradition.
Former Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger told reporters at the UT Pro Day on Thursday regarding the new policy, “I trust everybody is going to do what feels right for them.”
Because Texas is Texas, it will always land highly ranked players. Often times those players are “highly ranked” because the brand name that is Texas offers them a scholarship.
Some boosters already have threatened UT that they would cease donations if “The Eyes of Texas” tradition ends. Texas does not know yet if the solution in the report solves that concern.
There is some fear the type of student Texas has previously attracted, a top performer from the best high schools in the state, may choose another university.
Like Missouri, Texas may never know the true scope of this mess. Are more people going to be upset because they think the school caved to the boosters who didn’t want any change, or think the school caved to the students who wanted broad change?
The consequences Texas will feel as a result of this controversy will not be as bad as Missouri’s, but there will be a price to be paid.
