The 2025-26 academic year at UT presents unprecedented challenges for graduate students. In the past year, the Graduate Student Assembly’s handling of these challenges has been a far too cautious approach. After the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion programs under Senate Bill 17 and the loss of graduate student support systems, the GSA has remained muted and left thousands of graduate students vulnerable.
Crackdowns on DEI programs, a consequence of SB 17, led to the end of the Monarch Program, supporting undocumented and DACA students, as well as the Multicultural Engagement Center, along with its cultural graduations. In July 2025, the McCombs School of Business quietly ended its 40-year partnership with the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, affecting 15% of the MBA class of 2025. Scholarships and research funding opportunities have been frozen or terminated, and many faculty members have been fired due to “DEI-related” work. These losses directly attack the success of graduate students at UT. In April 2025, it was reported that some international students’ visas had been unexpectedly revoked. These reports came as over 6,600 international students, including undergraduate and graduate, attended UT Austin, with over 4,600 graduate students.
Unlike faculty senates and community organizations, the GSA has not spoken out against SB 17, inaction in which the costs are paid by the graduate students they represent, who are losing resources and support. While the GSA has offered safety information and inadequate clarity on the effects of SB 17, these responses were apathetic towards their obligation to advocate for their constituents. Silence may be due to fears of repercussions from UT administration, leading to more lost opportunities for graduate students, leaving student representatives with their hands tied behind their backs. However, if they are to fight with their hands tied, why haven’t they started to kick?
With student representation failing, the GSA has become largely inaccessible to busy graduate students. Historically, voter turnout for GSA elections has been low. In 2016, 462 out of 11,331 graduate students voted in GSA elections — making up 3.5 to 4%. This trend continues as UT Austin’s campus-wide student government elections only saw a 15% voter turnout in 2025, bringing in the current president and vice president.
Low turnout reflects deeper exclusion, leaving graduate students largely disconnected from their representatives. Meetings this year are scheduled once every two weeks during business hours, Mondays at noon, leaving them inaccessible for students with practical responsibilities or working side jobs.
With the exclusion of working graduate students, the GSA has underrepresented the experiences of the most vulnerable graduate students. The students who require advocacy now more than ever — working-class students, caretakers, people of color — are the least able to access representation, creating a loop of inaccessibility and underrepresentation.
An assembly that addresses the current needs of graduate students would have passed bold resolutions condemning the dismantling of DEI initiatives, the GSA has not. An assembly that prioritizes representation of the most vulnerable graduate students would make its processes accessible; the GSA has not. The GSA needs to embrace action and transparency for graduate students.
This year, neutrality is nothing short of complicity. Through partnership, the assembly needs to face the possible consequences of condemning SB 17 and its repercussions, like the AAUP, Texas NAACP, UT Faculty Council and others. The GSA must now decide to fight for the future of graduate students. In 2026, will the GSA rise to meet this moment?
Vallejo is a Master of Science in Social Work student from Weslaco, Texas.
