FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2026
Contact: Cameron Samuels
RIP UT: Donors Strike, Students to Stage Funeral
for Academic Freedom at Regents Meeting
AUSTIN, TX — On Wednesday, May 20 at the University of Texas System Board of Regents meeting, Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) and partners will stage a funeral, marking what organizers describe as the "death by a thousand cuts" to academic freedom and higher education in Texas.
Simultaneously, major donors have begun pledging to withdraw individual giving and decline future monetary contributions until the university takes significant steps to protect academic freedom and the rights of all students, faculty, and staff. Initial pledge-takers include alumni in business, real estate, film, education, and elected office.
Next week’s funeral follows a similar demonstration by SEAT at Texas Tech University in Lubbock earlier this month, which featured a memorial wake, eulogy remarks, and a procession across campus. Visual elements included funeral attire and a horse-drawn carriage carrying an urn and books, photographs, and other markers of academic life.
Academic freedom, long considered a cornerstone of higher education, has succumbed after what can only be described as a slow and deliberate erosion. Its decline was not sudden. There was no single moment of collapse, no dramatic final breath. Instead, it endured a death by increments — policy by policy, decision by decision — until the thing itself became unrecognizable.
"Proclaiming the death of UT and its spirit of academic freedom is serious and not taken lightly. But 150 years after our university was chartered, the time has come. For the world’s second wealthiest university, the decisions made by regents and administrators have grave consequences that echo far beyond Texas. They have brought this upon us recklessly and without regard for our dignity and humanity," said Cameron Samuels (they/them), SEAT executive director and student at UT’s School of Law and LBJ School of Public Affairs. "Students are mourning the loss of a university once considered a beacon of truth, opportunity, and a guardian genius of democracy. What’s gone is not forgotten."
The University of Texas fell to a death by a thousand cuts:
and that's just to name a few...
WHEN & WHERE:
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
11 AM - Memorial Wake (110 Inner Campus Dr, Austin)
11:30 AM - Funeral Procession (via Guadalupe, 11th, and Congress)
12:30 PM - Eulogy Remarks (210 W 7th St, Austin)
1 PM - Testimony at the Regents Meeting (210 W 7th St, Austin)
4:45 PM - Regents Meeting Recesses
WHO:
Cameron Samuels (they/them), SEAT executive director and UT graduate student
Adrian Lara (he/him), UTSA freshman in the REGSS department
Daniel Ramirez, UT sophomore wrongfully suspended for free expression
Karma Chavez (she/her), president of AAUP at UT Austin
And more
The university and its spirit of academic freedom is survived by those who still insist on asking difficult questions — and by those who believe universities should remain places where such questions are not only allowed, but exalted. May she rest in peace.
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About Students Engaged in Advancing Texas
SEAT is a movement of young people developing transferable skills and demonstrating youth visibility in policymaking. Advocating for a seat at the table, SEAT is normalizing the presence of students in educational policymaking – nothing about us, without us.
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