Statement Condemning UT's Closure of the Center for Teaching and Learning

On Friday, January 16th, a number of programs and centers received news that they would be closing at the end of the academic year. This includes the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), the Office of Community Engagement, the Vick Advising Excellence Center, and the Office for Undergraduate Research. The CTL’s entire staff was unceremoniously fired by UT administrators - including graduate research assistants and teaching fellows. While all of these cuts are unnecessary, hundreds of graduate students are affected by the closure of the CTL. 

UTGWU sees this blatant attack on UT staff as another action in a continued effort to dismantle academic freedom. UT’s recent administrative changes, namely the appointments of President Jim Davis and Provost William Inboden, have ushered in a dangerous regime determined to stamp out all intellectual curiosity and community pushback. 

Despite how sudden these layoffs were, the attack on the CTL is nothing new. In 2024, the anti-DEI bill SB17 forced the CTL to stop the distribution of resources that promoted inclusivity in teaching. CTL’s admirable efforts to maintain this essential aspect of education are a likely cause of the far-right administration’s retaliation against them. The well-researched and data-driven techniques of the CTL are fundamentally at odds with the University’s ideological and authoritarian leadership, which is no longer hiding its goal of worsening the education that UT provides.

Not only does the CTL employ graduate students, but they also train and advise hundreds of graduate students across all of UT’s colleges. They organized the Teaching Preparation Series, which awards certificates and helps graduate students and postdocs develop teaching techniques. They offered GRS 097, a professional development seminar aimed at supporting first-time TAs. They consulted with graduate students on the job market, helping them craft compelling teaching statements and application materials. In the spring, they hosted the Graduate Teaching Showcase and in the summer, they offered the Student-Centered Course Design Institute. Closing the CTL will eliminate all of these essential resources and significantly harm UT’s graduate student community.

UT graduate student workers oppose the closing of the CTL, the firing of graduate workers, and the elimination of academic resources for graduate students. UTGWU calls on the university to reverse its decision.

Currently, it can feel as if UT administrators and Texas politicians have all the power to invest in far-right indoctrination while firing anyone they deem an ideological threat. Individually, we are vulnerable, but together, we can fight back. Graduate students are realizing their labor power and organizing together. Here on UT’s campus, we, the University of Texas Graduate Workers Union (UTGWU), are actively working to rise up in support of each other. We cannot wait for others to act. Only we can create the university we deserve.