{"id":359076,"date":"2026-07-02T20:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T20:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/359076\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T20:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T20:56:12","slug":"founding-fathers-and-the-forty-acres-ut-austin-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/359076\/","title":{"rendered":"Founding Fathers and the Forty Acres – UT Austin News"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Washington Statue<\/p>\n

Anyone spending more than 10 minutes on the Forty Acres will have seen the impressive statue of the father of our country at the top of the South Mall. But how did it come to be there?<\/p>\n

UT historian Jim Nicar writes on his blog \u201cThe UT History Corner<\/a>\u201d: \u201cIn 1924, a news report declared that Texas was the only state in the Union without a statue of George Washington. Surprised and dismayed, Frances [Campbell] knew she had to do something about it. The issue stayed in the back of her mind for years until discussions began within her [Daughters of the American Revolution] chapter on how best to observe the 200th anniversary of Washington\u2019s birth, coming up in 1932.\u201d<\/p>\n

To mark the occasion, a large boulder was placed at the site to mark the spot where a future statue would go. This prompted humorous exchanges about the world\u2019s first \u201cmonument to a monument\u201d and President H.Y. Benedict\u2019s incredulous note to professor William Battle, who was organizing the event, \u201cI have to thank them [the DAR] for a boulder!\u201d (The rock was moved two years later to allow work on the South Mall.)<\/p>\n

But the Great Depression and World War II delayed the project beyond the lifetime of its original champion, and many years passed before others took up the cause. In 1955, the statue, created by 85-year-old Pompeo Coppini, was finished and placed at the head of the South Mall, centered and aligned with the Tower. It was still the first statue of President Washington in Texas.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas<\/p>\n

The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas<\/a> was founded in 2014 by professors Lorraine Smith Pangle and Thomas L. Pangle and is housed within the College of Liberal Arts.<\/p>\n

The center named for the author of the Declaration of Independence and third president promotes and supports \u201cgreat-books education\u201d and the study of classic texts considered foundational to the United States. It is home to the Jefferson Scholars Program, in which undergraduates from colleges and schools across the University earn the Core Texts and Ideas Certificate. In addition to the study of foundational texts, the Jefferson Center promotes civic engagement and responsible citizenship.<\/p>\n

UT\u2019s new School of Civic Leadership also offers a major in Great Books Honors<\/a>, in which students explore foundational texts centered on the classics of philosophy, literature, theology, science, art and political thought in an eight-course sequence.<\/p>\n

\"\"Busts of Jefferson as well as Washington, Adams, Hamilton and Madison by StudioEIS are on view at UT\u2019s Briscoe Center for American History until December.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Alexander Hamilton Society<\/p>\n

Alexander Hamilton Society is a nonpartisan, national organization dedicated to promoting debates on foreign policy, national security and economic statecraft. The UT chapter is a highly recognized student organization and frequently partners with UT\u2019s Clements Center for National Security and the LBJ School of Public Affairs to host guest lectures, panel discussions and career networking. UT\u2019s provost, William Inboden, serves on its national Board of Advisers.<\/p>\n

The Franklin Medal\"\"<\/p>\n

Three UT Austin professors have won the Benjamin Franklin Medal, a prestigious science and engineering prize awarded by The Franklin Institute, more than 200 years old. Professor Yale Patt received it for his contributions to computer and cognitive science in 2016. The Cockrell School of Engineering has had two professors win it: John Goodenough won for the lithium-ion battery in 2018, and Bob Metcalfe won the medal in electrical engineering in 2024 for his \u201cpioneering role in the design, development, and commercialization of Ethernet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Washington Statue Anyone spending more than 10 minutes on the Forty Acres will have seen the impressive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[11918,92895,132,134,133,127592,8014,517,13178,46101,44919,23468,35612],"class_list":["post-359076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-alumni","tag-america250","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-clements-center-for-national-security","tag-cockrell-school-of-engineering","tag-college-of-liberal-arts","tag-faculty","tag-harry-ransom-center","tag-humanities","tag-lbj-school-of-public-affairs","tag-national-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359076","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=359076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}