Jack Lewellyn: UT students learn to manage their enjoyment of South by Southwest during midterms. I’m your host this week, Jack Lewellyn. And this is the Texan Recap. Here’s what you missed this week.

An irregular schedule has students balancing their course load alongside South by Southwest. Entertainment columnist Tyler Pullum is here with the story. Thanks for being here today, Tyler. 

Tyler Pullum: Thank you for having me. 

Lewellyn: So just jumping straight into my first question, would you mind giving us some more background on this story of yours?

Pullum: Yeah, so I worked on a story about students that are interning or volunteering at the festival. I know that usually it’s kind of a given that the festival runs during the spring break for UT, and I know that a lot of the volunteer and intern base is made up of students that attend UT, so I wanted to kind of see if that change in schedule impacted them at all, or if they were kind of apprehensive about volunteering.

And it was kind of interesting to really hear some of the answers from the students. 

Lewellyn: Okay, well, going straight into the answers of those students, you’ve talked to me previously about some of these students, balancing their classes with their work, volunteering, internships at South by. So what did they tell you?

Pullum: Yeah, I heard some mixed kind of responses about either preferring that the festival be during spring break or preferring that the festival would be during the regular school year. And one student told me that in previous years, because the festival was during spring break, it kind of felt like it was a world away because they, you know, usually went home and spent time with friends and family and that kind of thing.

And so being able to have it during the school year allowed them to kind of, I guess, access it more easily, especially with public transportation and just being in town. 

And then I had another student tell me that, as I’ve mentioned before, that it’s been really difficult to manage the course load along with, you know, the new opportunities that they’re taking on with the festival.

One student even told me that they took a 12 hour shift and had a government test the same day. And so, you know, just kind of trying to balance that with the midterms and with regular course loads can be a lot. But I think that throughout all of the students that I’ve talked to, none of the students regret volunteering or interning with the festival.

All of them see it as a well worth opportunity to expand their career opportunities and learn more about the fields they want to work in. 

Lewellyn: This is just sort of building off of some of the stuff you’ve already told me, but I believe you mentioned that this year is the first time South By wasn’t during spring break.

What did you learn about how that might change things? 

Pullum: I think that what I’ve heard from a lot of the people that I talk to is that, you know, people have to make a lot of tough decisions about their time commitments. Obviously, you know, students and faculty only have so much time during the week.

I’ve heard about faculty giving students off certain days because of events going on at South By that they want their students to participate in. I’ve heard of students that are volunteering or interning at the festival having to choose between skipping class and fulfilling their volunteer and internship duties.

And so I think that just kind of overall with the festival not being held during spring break, it kind of really forces the UT community into kind of a tough spot, you know, about having to decide between, am I going to commit to the classwork responsibilities that I’ve signed up for or am I going to pursue these career opportunities and take part in a really important opportunity for a lot of students to network and get experience and that kind of thing.

Lewellyn: Excellent. Well, that’s all I personally have. Is there anything you’d like to add?

Pullum: Honestly, I think that’s all I have to say. I really appreciate you taking the time to interview me today, and I look forward to hearing this. 

Lewellyn: Once again, that was entertainment columnist Tyler Pullum.

Thank you so much for being here today. 

Pullum: Thanks again.

Lewellyn: And that’s the Texan Recap for the week of March 3rd. I’m Jack Lewellyn.

The Texan Recap is a production of the Daily Texan Audio Department. If you liked this episode, make sure to subscribe to the Daily Texan on your streaming platform of choice, and follow us on Twitter @texanaudio. This episode was hosted and edited by me, Jack Lewellyn. Special thanks to Tyler Pullum for their reporting, and as always, cover art is by Emma Berke, and music is by Top Flow Productions.

To read the news stories in this episode or see more from the Texan, head on over to www.thedailytexan.com. Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next week.