As Texas wrangles with controversy round its faculty music, “The Eyes of Texas,” the college introduced Wednesday that every one members of the Longhorn Band and Longhorn Pep Band can be required to play it.
As a part of the release, Texas additionally introduced the formation of a College Band starting in fall 2022 that may permit college students to carry out in a marching band for educational credit score, whereas not requiring them to play the college alma mater or combat music. Texas mentioned the Longhorn Band will carry out at official college and sporting occasions, whereas the College Band “can have alternatives” to carry out at related occasions and different venues.
A motion to re-examine the alma mater started final June, when Texas athletes shared a gaggle assertion by way of social media calling for modifications to make the campus extra inclusive, together with changing “The Eyes of Texas” and ending a requirement that athletes be required to sing it. In March, a Texas committee that studied the origins of the music, which initially debuted in a minstrel present in Austin in 1903 and was seemingly first carried out by singers sporting blackface, released a 58-page report that discovered that the music “debuted in a racist setting, exceedingly frequent for the time, however, because the preponderance of analysis confirmed, had no racist intent.”
Within the early a part of the 2020 soccer season, gamers refused to remain on the sphere for the music, earlier than altering course in October after athletic director Chris Del Conte met with the staff and mentioned he hoped the Longhorns would stand collectively to honor the followers.
Upon the discharge of the college’s research of the music, Texas president Jay Hartzell instructed the Longhorn Community that athletes wouldn’t be required to remain on the sphere or sing “The Eyes of Texas.”
“My hope is that we’ll get to some extent the place folks be ok with staying on the sphere and honoring one another, whether or not it is followers within the stands honoring the student-athletes, student-athletes honoring help from the followers,” Hartzell mentioned. “However no one’s going to be required or mandated to remain on the sphere. Or definitely to sing the music.”
For Longhorn Band members, this new coverage ends a season of uncertainty after the coed paper, The Day by day Texan, reported in October that the Longhorn Band couldn’t carry out at any upcoming soccer video games, as a result of it “did not have the mandatory instrumentation” resulting from a survey of band members who objected to taking part in “The Eyes.” Texas responded by saying it didn’t anticipate the band to play at upcoming video games due to COVID-19 precautions, and continued taking part in a recorded model of the music over the stadium loudspeakers.
With this announcement, Hartzell and Texas made expectations for the band clear.
“We have to have a good time and nurture what makes UT particular, and the Longhorn Band is a kind of nice organizations that form our campus tradition, elevate faculty spirit and supply superb alternatives for our college students,” Hartzell mentioned within the launch.