Feedback: May 29, 2026

Demand Accountability

Dear Editor,

Last week, the UT System Regents met after the academic year ended, when many students and faculty were already out of town. Between no same-day sign-ups for testimony, timed remarks limited to the “chairmen’s discretion,” requiring pre-approval of speaking topics, and a phone line for speaker registration and questions that was disconnected the day before the meeting, public input felt, at best, discouraged. More concerning, buried in the 228-page agenda was a newly introduced rule granting university presidents unchecked authority to eliminate departments and terminate faculty, removing the existing appeal process and requirement to provide a rationale for these decisions.

It is difficult to accept these changes as anything but censorship when a fully Abbott-appointed board, including a former Republican state senator and members with explicit partisan ties, reliably advance any conservative measure placed before them. With UT-Austin moving to consolidate its ethnic and gender studies departments this fall, faculty remain in limbo about its impending implementation and whether newly grouped departments will be forced to compete for already-limited resources. However, this selective austerity seems convenient. Tech moguls Michael and Susan Dell recently crossed $1 billion in lifetime giving to the university, and as AI has become a consistent subject of praise from President Jim Davis, this year’s decision to automate the simple task of reading graduate names at commencement signals not only a disregard for the human foundations of academia but a growing institutional malleability. I implore those reading to demand accountability before a leading public university surrenders what remains of its integrity to the outside pressures it has shown no willingness to resist.

Ally Flores

It’s Not a Tumor!

Dear Editor,

I think it fitting that I read the word “ontologist” in “The Luv Doc: Free Will,” [Columns, May 22]. I had just been reading about Martin Heidegger (Being and Time, existentialist, etc.). I said the word out loud and my wife thought I said “oncologist” (we all know what that means). So, I explained it means a philosopher of “being.”

So, thank you Professor Luv Doc for the lesson. Keep up the guten Werk!

Robert McCurdy

The Luv Doc responds: Dear Robert: She’s not totally wrong … at least in some people’s opinion.

Moe Szyslak Attitude

Dear Editor,

I was as devastated as anyone else to hear that the Pease Park troll burned down mysteriously last week but was even more ashamed at the response the public had on various social media comment sections. We all know we had really bad lightning two nights in a row (which is what I’m betting on, she WAS holding a massive metal bowl) and yet I still saw tons of comments jumping to accuse people such as the homeless and drug addicts. Including a wide array of “People are the worst” which is so nihilist. You should check yourself for hidden biases if the first thing you thought of when losing one of Austin’s coolest landmarks was “Ugh I knew it was the Blank, even when it was the Blank I knew it was the Blank.” Real Moe Szyslak attitude going on here.

Dillon LaFollette