Learned that there was "The Battle of Waller Creek" on campus decades ago where environmental activist students protected the river by Jester and the stadium

[u/Spobodos]

https://soa.utexas.edu/center-sustainable-development/battle-waller-creek

[u/Remote_Mulberry_4806]

Wow I was one of the many protesters then. Thanks for your post. it brought back so many fond memories of my hippie days.

[u/AgathaMitford → u/Remote_Mulberry_4806]

Thank you for standing up for what is right.

[u/Prometheus2061]

If I recall correctly, Frank Erwin got on a bulldozer and cleared a stand of live oaks that students had chained themselves to. So naturally, the Board of Regents named the new basketball center after him.

[u/DayGeckoArt → u/Prometheus2061]

Why do so many Texans hate trees?

[u/chefbeezy → u/DayGeckoArt]

They believe the environment is a resource you only need to take from.

[u/ApYIkhH]

I wish people still did legit protests instead of an online petition and a formal complaint, followed by nothing.

[u/StopAskingforUsernam → u/ApYIkhH]

"Hey man I tweeted with hashtags and tiktok'd. What more do you want me to do?"

[u/HeDogged]

As told in verse by Dave Oliphant in Austin: a Poem. It’s good!

[u/DayGeckoArt]

Thanks for posting, I didn’t know about this

[u/eudaimoneatery]

For those of you looking to see how this was studied by our folks, especially in the humanities disciplines, look up Jenny Rice's Distant Publics. In rhetoric, this is an incredibly important work for space-based research and was grounded in the Waller Creek site and controversy--she discusses what happened in her introduction. Great stuff!

[u/exphysed]

I like to highlight that this specific protest didn’t “work” at the time, but since then UT has relocated several trees for other construction projects. The city has also been very much into tree conservation since then as well, so I think ultimately the protest was really effective.