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UT Austin consolidates ethnic and gender studies departments · Austin Signal

0:08
The University of Texas at Austin is
0:10
restructuring departments in the
0:11
College of Liberal Arts.
0:13
The decision was announced today,
0:15
but it's a move that students and
0:16
staff have been worried about for
0:17
months. We're gonna have more about
0:19
the departments affected,
0:21
and police in Austin are still using
0:23
license plate reader data, months
0:25
after city council ended using the
0:26
technology on grounds of privacy
0:29
concerns.
0:29
How and when APD says they're using
0:31
the data and the tech's future use
0:33
here in Austin, that is coming up
0:35
on today's show.
0:37
The Austin Signal is a production
0:39
of KUT News, hosted by
0:41
Jerry Quijano.
0:42
Plus, 30,000 people
0:44
are gearing up for this weekend's
0:46
Austin Marathon.
0:47
It's gonna be an especially big deal
0:48
for one man who was left paralyzed
0:50
after a snowboarding accident.
0:53
Come hear his story.
0:54
That's coming up next, right here on
0:56
Austin Signal.
1:06
Howdy out there, this is
1:08
Austin Signal.
1:09
Thank you for tuning in to listener
1:11
powered public radio.
1:12
This is KUT News.
1:14
I'm your host, Jerry Kikano.
1:16
It's Thursday, February 12th.
1:19
Thank you, for making us part of
1:21
your day.
1:23
The city of Austin ended a
1:24
controversial program last year that
1:26
had cameras up across the city,
1:28
helping to find people by reading
1:30
license plates.
1:31
But months later, the Austin Police
1:33
Department still has access to
1:35
the technology.
1:36
KUT's Andrew Weber reports that
1:38
one city council member wants to
1:40
close this surveillance loophole.
1:43
Austin ended its license plate
1:45
reader program after a lot of
1:47
pushback from residents.
1:48
They said the cameras made by Flock
1:49
Safety constantly scan license
1:52
plates and those scans are
1:53
accessible to any law enforcement
1:55
agency with access.
1:57
They argued that could enable
1:58
deportations by immigration
2:00
authorities or lead to wrongful
2:02
arrests.
2:03
Mackenzie Rine, an attorney and
2:04
privacy advocate, likened the system
2:06
of cameras across the city to a
2:08
mouth that constantly needs
2:10
feeding. And the only way to protect
2:11
protect us, is to refuse to feed the
2:13
surveillance system entirely.
2:14
She and others urged the city to
2:16
end its contract with Flock, and it
2:18
did. The Austin Police Department
2:20
removed the dozens of cameras around
2:22
the city. It was the largest city
2:23
to do so.
2:24
Cut to last week.
2:26
Concern tonight from Austinites over
2:28
government surveillance and how
2:29
federal law enforcement may be
2:31
using local tech.
2:32
Thanks so much.
2:33
That's a KXAN piece on concerns
2:35
about, you guessed it, flock cameras
2:37
in North Austin.
2:38
Those cameras are operated by the
2:40
Texas Department of Public Safety on
2:41
its North Lamar campus.
2:43
The city can't regulate those, but
2:44
it got me curious whether data
2:46
from those cameras could be shared
2:48
with the Austin Police Department.
2:49
The answer is yes.
2:51
But that's not something the
2:52
department told Mike Siegel.
2:54
He's the Austin City Council member
2:55
who pushed APD to end its license
2:58
plate reader program.
2:59
I think it's a violation of the
3:00
intent of council policy.
3:01
When the city started its program,
3:03
it required APD to divulge who
3:05
it was sharing its data with and
3:07
when it requested data from other
3:09
departments.
3:10
That's important, Siegel says,
3:11
because those guardrails prevented
3:13
the Austin police department from
3:14
sharing data in certain situations.
3:17
You couldn't search the system for
3:18
abortion crimes, right?
3:20
You couldn't search it for
3:21
possession of marijuana offenses.
3:23
It seriously curtailed
3:25
how the tool could be used, so that
3:27
should be respected.
3:28
But Round Rock and Sunset Valley
3:30
police shared data from their flock
3:32
cameras with Austin Police within
3:34
the last month, according to their
3:36
publicly available logs, without
3:38
the oversight the city intended.
3:40
APD told KUT that they do request
3:42
access from other law enforcement
3:43
agencies for investigations.
3:46
But after KUT asked about the data
3:48
sharing, the department said it may
3:49
re-evaluate its policy.
3:51
For Siegel, the incident highlights
3:53
the need for a more comprehensive
3:55
policy on surveillance technology.
3:57
Siegel and other council members
3:59
passed a measure called the Trust
4:00
Act last week that would require
4:02
formal agreements on data collection
4:04
and some city approval for
4:06
APD.
4:07
After speaking with KUT, Siegel said
4:09
he plans on closing the gap
4:11
in the city's current regulations
4:12
requiring APD to better document
4:15
how it requests data from other
4:17
agencies.
4:17
So I expect the council will clarify
4:19
this issue when we adopt a
4:21
final surveillance use policy to
4:23
ensure that our police are not
4:24
relying on a loophole to use
4:26
surveillance tech that our community
4:28
has clearly projected.
4:29
Mackenzie Ryan, the activist we
4:30
heard earlier who spoke out against
4:32
flock cameras way back last June,
4:35
said the department's loophole was
4:36
inevitable.
4:37
I mean, I can't say it's, like,
4:39
surprising to me at all.
4:40
This constantly happens.
4:42
This is the inherent problem with
4:44
surveillance.
4:44
Ryan says surveillance firms like
4:46
Flock often ask for forgiveness,
4:49
not permission, and that opaque data
4:51
sharing like this is commonplace.
4:53
She says cities and counties are
4:54
often on their back foot when it
4:56
comes to ensuring people's privacy.
4:58
The first step you should ever have
5:00
before you're implementing any of
5:01
this should be,
5:04
how do you ensure that this
5:06
is not abused?
5:07
How do you insure that people's
5:09
data is protected, that their
5:10
privacy is protected?
5:11
Ryan says she supports the city's
5:13
trust act.
5:14
She says it's a step forward to
5:16
protect Austinites from unwanted
5:17
surveillance.
5:18
But she hopes the city keeps asking
5:20
questions of security firms like
5:22
Flock.
5:23
I'm Andrew Weber.
5:25
And Andrew is joining us now here
5:27
live on the show for more discussion
5:29
about this story.
5:30
Welcome, Andrew. Thanks for having
5:31
me, Jerry. So I know we were talking
5:32
a little bit about Austin police
5:34
here, but I wanted to ask and circle
5:35
back to the flock cameras being used
5:37
by the Department of Public Safety
5:39
up on North Lamar.
5:40
What do you know about those?
5:41
What did you find through your
5:42
investigation?
5:42
Yeah, I reached out to DPS about
5:44
those because they're on the DPS
5:46
campus, like I said in the story.
5:48
It's part of a big network of
5:50
these flock cameras that
5:52
DPS maintains across the city.
5:54
And the way they sort of, the
5:56
preemption that they have is that
5:58
these are state-owned roads.
5:59
North Lamar Boulevard is a state
6:01
road. So they're allowed
6:03
to put these cameras up there.
6:05
It's not exactly where that data is
6:07
going because, like this,
6:09
like can share that with
6:11
any department.
6:13
It's not immediately clear if
6:14
they're sharing it with APD they
6:15
told me that I had to file a
6:17
public records request to
6:19
get that list of Agencies
6:21
that they share with and I filed
6:23
that and we're waiting on it and
6:24
we'll report when I get that.
6:25
Yeah
6:25
Yeah, yeah, if you if and when you
6:27
get that back we will bring it here
6:28
on Austin signal Okay, I wanted
6:30
to turn now to City Council We
6:33
had a KUT City Hall reporter Luz
6:35
Modena Lozano in a few weeks ago
6:36
Maybe last week talking about
6:38
something similar has council
6:40
considered any use of any other
6:41
technologies like this prior to
6:43
these flock cameras
6:44
Yeah, I was actually talking with
6:46
Ben, our editor, about that.
6:47
Today, it's sort of same genre,
6:49
different artists.
6:50
Luz has been covering live view
6:52
cameras. Those are AI cameras
6:53
that can sort of
6:56
predict behavior and log it.
6:58
And that's a big, big,
7:00
sort of sticking
7:02
point with a lot of folks is that
7:04
there's a lot going on here and
7:05
there's lot of data.
7:06
And it's not necessarily secure
7:08
data.
7:09
That's one thing that they're
7:10
looking at. They're looking biometric
7:11
stuff as well within the trust
7:14
uh, and these sort
7:16
of sites that are these sort of
7:18
devices that mimic, um,
7:20
like a cell tower.
7:21
So it pings somebody's phone and
7:23
then police or investigators can
7:25
get, get somebody's data from, from
7:27
a phone.
7:28
Okay, I want to circle back lastly
7:29
to Councilmember Mike Siegel and the
7:31
trust act Obviously, this is
7:33
something that is constantly in
7:35
conversation here in Austin and in
7:37
other places across the country
7:38
Should we can expect these kinds
7:40
of conversations to continue at
7:42
City Hall?
7:44
Yes, uh, this, you know,
7:46
this came after a week after the
7:48
trust act passed and Siegel said he
7:50
wants to sort of fast track a
7:52
sort of correction to this loophole
7:54
in that as they go forward.
7:56
Alrighty, we have been speaking with
7:57
Andrew Weber.
7:58
He is KUT's Government
7:59
Accountability Reporter.
8:01
We're gonna have a link to his
8:02
reporting in today's podcast, Show
8:04
Notes, and at kut.org
8:06
slash signal.
8:07
Andrew, thank you very much.
8:08
Thank you, Terry.
8:14
Higher education has been in the
8:16
crosshairs of Texas politics for
8:18
several years, with the state laws
8:20
being passed targeting DEI
8:22
and education, and an effort
8:24
from Governor Greg Abbott, who said
8:25
in October to, quote,
8:27
end indoctrination and return to
8:29
education fundamentals, end quote.
8:32
This morning, the University of
8:33
Texas at Austin announced its
8:35
restructuring the College liberal
8:36
arts, a college that was home to
8:38
ethnic and gender studies.
8:40
For more about this, we are speaking
8:41
with QUT's education reporter,
8:43
Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Vasquez.
8:45
Greta, thanks for talking with us.
8:46
Thank you for having me, Jerry.
8:47
So tell us a little bit about what
8:49
this consolidation looks like and
8:50
about these affected departments.
8:53
Yeah. So seven departments were
8:54
affected in total.
8:55
And I want to be clear that these
8:57
departments will no longer exist.
8:59
So it's the African and African
9:01
diaspora studies, American studies,
9:03
Mexican, American and Latina
9:05
studies, and women's gender
9:07
and sexuality studies will be, those
9:09
four will be consolidated into a new
9:11
department of social and cultural
9:13
analysis. And then there's other
9:15
three, which is French and Italian.
9:16
That's one.
9:17
Germanic Studies and Slavic
9:19
and Eurasian Studies, those will
9:21
become the Department of European
9:22
and Eurasian Studies.
9:25
This information was given
9:27
to
9:29
the heads of departments this
9:30
morning, and we first heard it from
9:32
faculty from those departments, and
9:34
then UT President Jim Davis sent
9:35
an email to the community announcing
9:37
these changes later in the day.
9:40
On top of the departments being
9:42
consolidated, Davis also said
9:44
curriculums will be reviewed and
9:45
they will determine which minors
9:47
majors and courses will be
9:49
offered once this restructure
9:51
is done.
9:52
Okay yeah, lots of department names,
9:53
we're going to have a link to the
9:55
reporting in our show notes, it's at
9:56
kut.org slash signal as
9:59
well. So they gave this news about
10:00
what was changing, what was their
10:02
reasoning behind the changes.
10:03
So faculty from the affected
10:05
departments told us they kept
10:06
hearing it was a matter of
10:07
efficiency and fragmentation and
10:10
in his letter later in the day,
10:11
Davis also said that the
10:12
restructuring was needed or is
10:15
needed because an evaluation
10:17
of the college revealed that there
10:19
was quote, significant
10:20
inconsistencies and fragmented
10:22
across the college's departments.
10:24
He has also talked a lot
10:26
about balanced and challenging
10:28
educational experience for UT
10:29
students and that was something else
10:31
that was mentioned in this letter.
10:33
Okay well this news was
10:35
announced today but this is
10:37
something that department chairs and
10:38
students in these programs kind of
10:40
had they seen this coming correct.
10:42
Yes, yes.
10:43
They saw it coming. Back in October,
10:44
the UT system began auditing
10:46
courses related to gender studies.
10:49
And that same month, department
10:50
chairs were sent,
10:52
they got an email saying that there
10:54
was a new committee had been created
10:56
that would help a potential
10:58
restructure of the college.
10:59
And they were told that some units
11:01
would lose autonomy, but they didn't
11:03
have many details.
11:04
And the committee that was created
11:06
was not allowed to talk about what
11:07
was happening behind closed doors.
11:10
Okay, well, this is a process that's
11:12
going to be playing out over months
11:14
into the future, but there
11:16
are still students who are in these
11:17
programs. What does it mean for
11:18
those students?
11:19
So faculty say at least 800
11:21
students will be affected,
11:23
and they say because of bureaucracy
11:25
and their attention will
11:27
be taken away from students.
11:29
And David said in his letter that
11:30
students currently enrolled will
11:32
be able to continue their degrees as
11:35
changes are happening, but
11:37
it's still unclear what will happen
11:38
after.
11:39
Okay, well again, we have more on
11:41
this story at KUT.org.
11:43
A lot has been unfolding this
11:44
morning. Greta, you've been
11:45
reporting a lot, speaking with a lot
11:47
of people from the university as
11:48
well as a lot faculty members.
11:50
What have you been hearing from
11:51
them?
11:51
Yeah, so I've been talking to
11:52
faculty in the last few months since
11:54
October leading up to this
11:55
announcement, and they have been
11:57
worried about what this means, of
11:59
course, for students.
12:00
That's their main reason of being
12:01
here, but also their
12:04
research in terms of bureaucracy,
12:06
how much more staff will have.
12:07
And of course they're also worried
12:09
about this means in terms
12:11
in terms of potential layoffs.
12:13
Also this morning I talked to Karma
12:15
Chavez, who teaches in the
12:16
Department of Mexican American and
12:18
Latina studies and
12:20
this is what
12:21
she told me.
12:22
So we're seeing a nationwide trend
12:24
in attacks on
12:26
ethnic and gender studies and
12:27
attacks on American studies
12:28
departments that those on the
12:30
political right view as
12:32
providing a view of
12:34
both history and contemporary
12:36
society that they don't like because
12:39
it provides an analysis of
12:41
this specifically around issues like
12:43
race, gender, sexuality,
12:45
ethnicity.
12:46
Okay, you got the last question
12:47
before you get out of here.
12:48
This move was announced today.
12:50
Is this a done deal, or is there any
12:52
recourse for students and faculty in
12:54
these departments?
12:55
This seems to be a done deal.
12:57
We don't know the exact timeline of
12:59
this. UT said they don't have an
13:00
exact timeline.
13:02
As I said, UT has not been very
13:04
communicative regarding these
13:05
changes up until now.
13:07
So staff, faculty,
13:09
students, they don't know a lot,
13:12
and they're feeling the uncertainty.
13:14
We've seen protests in the last few
13:15
months, and I can imagine we'll
13:17
continue to see them now that the
13:19
announcement is official, and we'll
13:20
keep an eye.
13:21
Okay well we will have this story in
13:23
our podcast show notes so you can
13:24
find more at KUT.org slash Signal.
13:27
I know you have an interview after
13:29
this interview right now to continue
13:30
reporting on this story so we will
13:32
continue to bring you that reporting
13:34
here on Austin Signal and
13:36
everywhere that you get news from us
13:37
on the KUT app online at Kut.org
13:40
all these good places.
13:42
This is listener powered public
13:44
radio and we have more Austin Signal
13:46
coming up after this break.
13:48
Stay with us.
13:57
This is Austin Signal, welcome back.
14:00
30,000 people are expected to
14:02
run in this Sunday's Austin
14:04
Marathon.
14:05
People of all ages and all abilities
14:07
testing themselves on the
14:09
notoriously hilly course.
14:11
And for one 24-year-old runner,
14:13
it's an especially big deal.
14:16
KUT's Katie McAfee has
14:18
his story.
14:19
Max Crone was never a big runner.
14:22
He grew up in Wisconsin playing
14:23
football and basketball with his
14:25
older brothers.
14:26
But all of that changed four years
14:28
ago.
14:29
Crone, was about to start his junior
14:30
year in college.
14:32
He was on track to graduate with a
14:33
finance degree, but something about
14:35
that didn't feel right.
14:37
He decided to take a break from
14:38
school. He moved out to
14:39
Breckenridge, Colorado.
14:41
Not a whole lot of people were
14:43
in favor of that decision,
14:45
but I guess in
14:47
some way they ended up
14:49
right.
14:50
Crone had an easy routine at West.
14:52
Wake up, go to work at a local
14:54
Mexican restaurant, clock out,
14:56
and hit the slopes.
14:57
He spent a lot of his free time
14:59
skiing and snowboarding.
15:01
I just, I always wanted to be a ski
15:02
bum.
15:03
Then he had an off day.
15:05
It was sunny and unseasonably
15:07
warm.
15:08
Cron was snowboarding with some
15:09
friends down a blue diamond.
15:10
That's a tough course.
15:12
They hit a fork in the road.
15:13
And they went right,
15:15
I went left, and we
15:17
just kind of lost each other.
15:18
I saw them kind of disappear
15:20
behind a big wall of trees.
15:22
Krohn was alone, racing 40
15:24
miles an hour down the mountain.
15:26
Then he tried doing a trick, one
15:28
where you pop off the nose of the
15:29
board and catch some air.
15:31
It's called a nollie, but
15:33
it didn't work.
15:34
The nose of my board stuck into the
15:36
snow because it was a
15:38
warmer day.
15:39
The snow was a little bit softer.
15:41
It grabbed the front of my bird as
15:43
I was propelling off the nose.
15:47
And yeah, I just, I went flying.
15:49
Felt like I was in the air forever.
15:51
He flew maybe 100 feet and
15:53
landed on his neck.
15:55
The first thing that went through my
15:56
head was did I just die,
15:59
you know, because from
16:01
that point there was no sensation,
16:03
no function, no nothing.
16:07
Krohn doesn't know how much time
16:09
passed while he was lying in the
16:10
snow.
16:11
He tried calling for help, but no
16:12
words came out.
16:14
Eventually, he says someone found
16:15
him.
16:16
They tended to me and
16:18
they got ski patrol involved
16:20
and from that
16:22
point it was just going to a bunch
16:23
of hospitals.
16:24
He was brought to the intensive care
16:26
unit.
16:27
Doctors confirmed he was paralyzed
16:29
from the neck down.
16:30
My mom called me on the phone.
16:32
I was like, okay, jeez.
16:34
I wish she didn't call me right now,
16:36
but because I knew that she was
16:37
devastated.
16:43
Crone spent eight days in the ICU.
16:45
He did start to regain some feeling,
16:47
but the doctors were careful not to
16:49
say if he'd ever be the same again.
16:51
There's a video from the day after
16:52
the accident.
16:53
Can you squeeze my fingers?
16:56
A physical therapist asks him
16:58
to spread his fingers out.
16:59
I have a harder time on this side.
17:00
Yeah, really hard time.
17:03
He can't.
17:06
But Crohn says he stayed positive.
17:08
He developed a mantra while he was
17:10
recovering.
17:11
Goal or highest potential.
17:13
What can I do every single day
17:15
to grow and
17:16
to try to get the best
17:19
possible odds for a good recovery?
17:21
Months of physical therapy followed.
17:23
First, he practiced sitting in a
17:25
wheelchair and propelling his legs.
17:27
Then he practiced standing.
17:28
Then standing with his eyes closed
17:30
without falling over.
17:32
Once he could do that, he was ready
17:33
to learn how to walk again.
17:35
He'd put on a big, bulky harness
17:36
attached to a track on the ceiling,
17:38
then one foot in front of the
17:40
other. He says it was like being
17:42
right-handed and having to write
17:44
with your left hand.
17:45
For the rest of your life until you
17:46
perfect writing with your left hand.
17:48
After three months, Cron was walking
17:50
again, mostly supervised
17:52
trips from the couch to the fridge,
17:54
but he kept improving, more and
17:56
more each day.
17:57
He was learning how to move again,
17:58
and he didn't want to take that for
18:00
granted.
18:01
He got an idea.
18:02
I was like, you know what, I'm gonna
18:04
do a triathlon.
18:05
He signed up for a sprint triathlon.
18:07
It's a half mile of swimming, 12
18:09
miles of biking, and a little over
18:11
three miles of running.
18:12
It's generally considered a
18:14
beginner-friendly race, but
18:15
remember, Crohn is still deep in
18:17
recovery at this point.
18:19
I asked him why he signed up.
18:20
I really don't know why other than
18:22
just to prove to myself that I
18:24
can.
18:25
A year and a half after his injury
18:27
in Breckenridge, he finished the
18:28
sprint triathlon.
18:29
After that, he says
18:31
I kind of got the runner's
18:32
bug.
18:33
He signed up for a marathon in
18:34
Madison, Wisconsin.
18:36
His friends and family weren't
18:37
really supportive of this.
18:39
He had never run more than four
18:40
miles before.
18:41
A marathon is 26.2
18:43
miles.
18:45
Everybody was kind of convinced me,
18:46
well, you've never even ran a half
18:48
marathon before.
18:49
You've never done this, you never
18:50
done that. And I was like, well,
18:51
like, the point is it to do
18:52
something that I know I can do.
18:54
His goal was to finish.
18:56
That was his conservative goal,
18:57
anyway.
18:58
I had in the back of my mind, I
18:59
would love to go sub four.
19:01
I ended up with four hours
19:03
and nine seconds.
19:04
Now Krohn is determined to break
19:05
four hours in the Austin Marathon.
19:08
He signed up for it after moving
19:09
here in November.
19:10
He trains almost every day after
19:11
work and he has sort of an unusual
19:13
way of training.
19:15
Typically, marathon runners run four
19:16
to five days a week.
19:17
One of those is a long run.
19:19
You start around six miles and then
19:21
build your way up to at least 18
19:23
miles before race day.
19:25
Not Krohne.
19:26
He mostly does strength training.
19:27
The farthest he's run before this
19:29
race is 13 miles.
19:31
On the treadmill.
19:32
Without music.
19:36
But he has a good reason for this.
19:37
My C3 and C4
19:39
vertebrae are now fused,
19:41
and if you fall and
19:43
that breaks, that could be
19:46
a full sever of the spinal cord
19:48
and that could put you in
19:50
a wheelchair for good.
19:52
Looking back at videos from Krohn's
19:54
recovery, it's hard to believe he's
19:55
the same guy taking on a 26.2
19:58
mile race.
19:59
In one video, he tries taking a
20:01
step down a flight of stairs.
20:04
No, that'll hurt.
20:08
Alright, we'll try that again.
20:12
It's painfully slow.
20:14
Watching him on the treadmill now,
20:15
you would never know he once
20:17
struggled with that one step.
20:21
I always tell people my
20:23
snowboarding injury was the most
20:25
important thing that's ever happened
20:26
to me. And I've learned more
20:28
from that than I've
20:30
learnt from anything else.
20:35
I'm Katie McAfee in Austin.
20:44
It is Black History Month all
20:46
February long, and Myles
20:48
Bloxdon from our sister station KUTX
20:50
has been telling the stories of
20:52
Black excellence here in Austin.
20:54
Today we're learning more about a
20:56
life insurance salesman and former
20:58
college football who became
21:00
a chronicler of Black Austin
21:03
life.
21:07
Tommy Lee T.
21:08
L. Wyde was born on July 27,
21:11
1937, in Point Blank,
21:13
Texas.
21:13
He grew up playing football,
21:15
excelling at the sport and earning a
21:17
scholarship to Bishop College in
21:18
Marshall, Texas, where he graduated
21:20
with a degree in business
21:21
administration.
21:23
But Wyde's education extended far
21:24
beyond the classroom.
21:26
He came of age during the height of
21:27
the civil rights movement, a period
21:29
that shaped his understanding of
21:31
collective strength and the
21:33
importance of community.
21:34
And in 1962, Two
21:36
years before the Civil Rights Act
21:38
was signed into law, he moved to
21:40
Austin, Texas, carrying with
21:41
him both formal training and lived
21:43
experience that would soon shape
21:45
his life's work.
21:48
Upon arriving in the capital city of
21:50
Texas, Wyatt recognized the
21:52
beauty of East Austin as a thriving
21:54
hub of black businesses, culture,
21:56
and community.
21:57
He felt compelled to tell the
21:58
stories of the people who built and
22:00
sustained this vibrant area.
22:02
At a time when positive media
22:04
coverage of black life was rare.
22:06
Motivated by that vision, he
22:08
founded the Villager Newspaper
22:10
in 1973 alongside
22:12
his then-wife Barbara and a close
22:14
friend with a mission to spotlight
22:16
the positive stories of Black
22:18
Austin.
22:20
Accessibility was central to that
22:22
mission. From his very first
22:23
publications, the Villagers was free
22:25
to the community.
22:27
Wyatt also believed the newspaper
22:28
should be a platform where the
22:30
community could speak for itself.
22:31
So over time, he hired black
22:33
reporters.
22:34
Students, and community members to
22:36
help tell these stories, documenting
22:38
black life, leadership,
22:40
culture, arts, and politics across
22:42
Austin and Central Texas.
22:46
The Villager quickly became the
22:48
go-to newspaper for Austin's black
22:50
community.
22:51
While its circulation numbered in
22:52
the thousands, its reach extended
22:54
far beyond the printed page.
22:56
The newspaper was passed
22:57
hand-to-hand through barbershops,
22:59
schools, grocery stores, and
23:01
black-owned businesses.
23:02
The newspaper became one of the most
23:04
influential voices in black
23:06
Austin.
23:07
Wyatt often said the community
23:09
needed a voice, and he made that
23:11
belief his mission.
23:13
His community work even extended
23:15
outside of the villager.
23:16
Over the years, he didn't just cover
23:18
East Austin, he became a civic
23:20
leader, serving on multiple boards
23:22
and commissions, including the East
23:24
11th Street Village Association.
23:27
He launched initiatives like the
23:28
Youth Brigade to support children's
23:30
education and became a trusted
23:32
advocate for East Austin residents.
23:37
More than 50 years later,
23:38
The Villager remains a light in the
23:40
community.
23:41
Even as technology transformed the
23:43
journalism landscape, Wyde
23:45
remained committed to print, once
23:47
saying, people still keep scrapbooks
23:49
of articles.
23:50
We continue to do the work for the
23:51
people.
23:52
And that work continues.
23:54
The Villagers still covers
23:56
everything connected to Black Austin
23:57
and continues to play a vital role
24:00
in shaping the city's music scene,
24:02
spotlighting local musicians and
24:03
national artists. From neighborhood
24:05
events all the way to the Grammys.
24:08
Tommy Lee T.L.
24:10
Wyatt passed away on January 10th
24:12
of this year at the age of 88,
24:14
but his presence remains,
24:16
living on in the stories he
24:17
preserved, the voices he amplified,
24:20
and the community he believed
24:21
deserved to be seen, heard,
24:24
and remembered.
24:25
His legacy continues on through
24:27
The Villager, the newspaper he
24:29
founded to ensure Black Austin
24:31
would always have a voice.
24:35
Bad self Say
24:37
it loud
24:38
For more on Tommy Lee T.L.
24:40
Wyatt, visit KUTX.org.
24:43
I'm Miles Bloxson.
24:45
This is Austin Signo.
24:48
And I'm your host Jerry Kehannel,
24:50
thank you for being with us.
24:51
We'll be back with you tomorrow at
24:53
one o'clock.
24:54
This is Austin Signal.