{"id":255318,"date":"2026-04-18T05:15:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/255318\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T05:15:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:15:41","slug":"protesters-march-as-justice-clarence-thomas-gives-ut-austin-lecture-at-hogg-auditorium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/255318\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters march as Justice Clarence Thomas gives UT Austin lecture at Hogg Auditorium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 University of Texas at Austin students marched across campus Tuesday to protest proposed changes to several academic programs, as a high-profile visitor spoke on campus.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of students gathered at the UT Tower before marching to Hogg Memorial Auditorium, where U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delivered a special lecture.<\/p>\n<p>The demonstration was organized by the Austin chapter of Students for a Democratic Society. Students are opposing a plan to consolidate several ethnic, cultural, and language studies programs.<\/p>\n<p>Students said they have spent months trying to reach university leaders, including President Jim Davis, to raise concerns about the changes and call for more transparency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of these requests have been denied or ignored,\u201d UT Austin sophomore Georgia Schmit said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/witnesses-testify-on-last-day-of-camp-mystic-lawsuit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ALSO| Witnesses testify on last day of Camp Mystic lawsuit<\/a><\/p>\n<p><p>KEYE<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Schmit also said students feel their concerns are being dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe feel like we\u2019re very kind of being put on the back burner right now,\u201d she said. \u201cHe only has time for the things that benefit him and the money he wants to bring into the school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Students also say Davis has made time for campus events such as Thomas\u2019 lecture, but has not met with them.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with The Daily Texan, Davis defended the consolidation plan, saying it would not reduce resources for the affected programs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImagine this is like a pie divided into five pieces, and then you put the pie together again,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a difference in the scale or scope or volume of that, and nothing has changed in terms of the funding streams going into that particular group.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also acknowledged student concerns about the changes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would invite people to recognize that in uncertainty, there are multiple possible outcomes and not to rest on a fear of what the outcomes could be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>CBS Austin reached out to the university for comment on the protest and student concerns, but had not received a response.<\/p>\n<p>A representative from the Texas State Employees Union, who joined the march, also questioned the impact of the visit from Thomas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI immediately think of Anita Hill,\u201d the union representative said. \u201cI have questions about his understanding of the Constitution, but I also have that very ugly memory of his behavior towards women.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Students said the proposed consolidations could affect course offerings, degree paths, and campus spaces they describe as essential to identity and community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 University of Texas at Austin students marched across campus Tuesday to protest proposed changes to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-255318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}