In October 2021, the Texas Legislature passed a higher education construction bill for the expansion of college campuses all over the state. The bill allocated over $3 billion in tuition funds toward further urbanizing campuses. The UT System received authorization to use over $800 million in the final bill toward construction projects.

Since this bill passed, there have been many construction sites on and around UT-Austin’s campus. Unfortunately, the lack of communication about construction on campus increases the amount of pedestrian inconveniences. UT should notify the campus community by text at least one day prior to the start of construction that will block or disrupt pedestrian walkways. 

UT has a website with information depicting the state of construction on campus. The details related to the structure and layouts of the building are easy to find. Some of the projects located on the Capital Improvement Program also give timelines of when the construction should be completed. Additionally, there is a map of when and where the construction will be on campus, which is updated daily. However, many students are not aware of this resource.

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“The construction advisories include project dates, summary of scope, traffic and pedestrian impact and maps,” Veronica Trevino, assistant director for issues management for financial and administrative services communications, said in an email. “If a construction timeline changes, that information is updated on the project page.” 

Trevino also said that UT already alerts the community about walking routes and traffic impacts through their social media. The most recent example is a Twitter post from April, which alerted the community about East Campus Graduate Student Housing construction. However, this tweet only received two likes and two retweets. It’s clear the social media posts are not reaching enough people.

UT already messages students promoting free food and giveaways, so sending students updates about construction is feasible. 

Public relations sophomore Simi Sodipe has experienced confusion due to the lack of information about construction. She was headed to G.B. Dealey Center for New Media on Whitis Avenue, but ended up lost due to the construction and detours, arriving at Speedway instead. She also had trouble moving in due to the construction on and around campus.

“(UT should) just notify the students more and be more clear in the logistics. I feel like if they notified us at least a few days before, I think that we would have had a much better experience moving in,” Sodipe said. “This also adds on to the issue that students feel that UT doesn’t really care for them in terms of safety, housing and security, so it just adds on to (a) more complex distrust of the administration.” 

Some students were not aware about the Main Mall being blocked off for Gone to Texas and were confused on what alternative routes to take. If there was a notification about this a day ahead of the event, many students would not have been as inconvenienced. 

While the website is helpful, students would benefit from text reminders about construction sites and changes to popular walkways ahead of time.  

DuBois is a public relations and sociology sophomore from Killeen, Texas.