Much like the rest of America, The University of Texas at Austin has prioritized football over mental health. With the announcement of the demolition of UT’s historic social work building came the curiosity of its replacement. To no one’s surprise, the beautiful, historic social work building is going to be replaced with yet another unnecessary practice facility for athletes.
On Feb. 13, UT Athletics Director Chris Del Conte announced the disheartening plans with misguided reasons.
“It’s about a little under 800-yards to a practice field, is just not conducive to time management, not conducive to their time,” Del Conte said. “So, this place where the current social work building is, they are moving to a new facility. When that building became available, I asked if we could participate in this new venture to have that area become part of our new practice facility.”
As concluded by The Daily Texan, the “800-yard walk” that Del Conte is referring to as a waste of time only takes 11 minutes. If time management is a concern, maybe the players should learn how to fit an 11-minute walk into their schedule instead of promoting the destruction of a historic building.
While Del Conte mentioned that the social work building was relocating anyway, it does not make this okay. The building is recognized as the first racially integrated school in Austin and is on the National Register of Historic Places, so the university should be looking to preserve the character of the building instead of demolishing it.
Fox News had the opportunity to interview Barbara Anderson, a former UT professor who has been outspoken about the demolition.
“I think we continue to lose the concrete evidence that the past here is important. The past tells us a richer story about who we are today. I can’t imagine going to Florence, Italy and just seeing markers of where the Pizza Palace was,” Anderson said.
“I think what’s so startling about this is this magnificent building with its history, with its trees and its art. They’re going to be destroyed so that you can have another practice field for football.”
Universities need to stop putting student-athletes on unwarranted pedestals and start devoting more attention to other areas of importance, like social work. The field of social work is becoming a staple in the foundation of America, and it needs to be treated as such. UT is on its way to making a huge mistake, but it is not too late to make a change. A website has been created to promote the preservation of the building; join its mailing list to stay in the loop.
