Texas Union Faculty: We Didn't Know

The role of the Texas Union Board in the decision to close UT Austin's Informal Class Program and the Cactus Cafe has been broadly discussed. Now board member Dr. Thomas Garza (one of UT President Bill Powers' three appointees to the body) has said that not only did faculty have no input on the decision, but it was not on the agenda for last Friday's meeting.

Garza posted the following to the Save the Cactus Cafe (Austin, TX) Facebook page and it has been verified by the Chronicle that he is the author:

As one of three faculty members on the Union Board, I would like to comment on the total lack of input on this decision from Board faculty. All three of us were absent during last Friday's decision (the item was not explicit on the distributed agenda), and our voices should have been crucial to any decision. I know that at least two of us are frequent attendees to Cactus concerts – and have been for several decades. I join your voices in objecting to this hasty decision made with little input from those who actually benefit from the many joys the Cactus Cafe provides.

For those of you that missed the university's Feb. 2 town hall budget meeting, the full video is available here: But you may be interested to read what Austin musician Guy Forsyth had to say to Powers and the crowd at the meeting:

"I've spent 20 years as a professional musician in this town, and some of my very first shows were actually on the drag across the street from the Cactus. In that first year, I was able to work my way up the food chain into the Cactus, and now 20 years later as a homeowner and a father, that's a place that I make money. It's a place where, over the years, I've relied on making money, so I have a very personal thing at stake here. But what I really want to communicate is what I feel as a professional is the quality of the club. I've been all over the world to play music. I've been to Japan numerous times and all around the United States, and the places that have the environment that's conducive for a musical experience at the level of the Cactus Cafe are very rare all over the world. And I find that performers who perform in different places and have performed at the Cactus Cafe, all of them say, 'Oh yes, that's one of the best places to play because of the strength of the musical experience that transpires in that room.' And I think that's not merely because of the geometry of the room, it's not merely because of the management, it's not merely because of the history. It's all of these different layered upon and compounded. What I have understood in this conversation so far, and actually I've not and I'll ask you once again to make it clearer, is this about the money or this is about the purpose of the Cactus Cafe?"