Dear UT Community,

I hope you are all well despite the frigid temperatures and icy conditions outside. Between COVID-19 and our past couple of Texas winters, I have been amazed by our community’s resilience. Our own Professor Mary Steinhardt defines resilience as “the process of bouncing back and fully recovering in the face of change and stressful situations.” As she goes on to say, “Being resilient doesn’t mean a person won’t experience difficulty or stress. However, resilient individuals respond to stress in ways that help them not only recover but grow and thrive.”

This week, our staff members have once again shown their resilience, staying steady and calm while ensuring that our 7,500 students and essential personnel on campus are safe, warm and well fed. They have kept the heat on and water running, among many other things, while most of us hunker down and wait out the weather. Thank you to those staff members and to all of you who’ve continued to be resilient as we face another day of closures.

Due to the ongoing severe winter weather conditions, the university will remain closed on Friday, February 4, 2022. All classes and events will be canceled, and UT shuttle buses will not run. We will resume normal campus operations at 8 a.m. Saturday, February 5.

While we remain closed, only essential personnel are asked to report as requested by your supervisor. Please see my message from yesterday for more details regarding employee leave

Information regarding availability of on-campus resources will be continuously updated on the emergency web page. Any further closure and reopening announcements will be available via email, text messages, through local media, the university’s Facebook page and Twitter feed, and the emergency web page. You can also stay up to date on breaking weather information by following Troy Kimmel’s campus weather updates and his Twitter posts.

Be safe out there, and keep looking after each other, Longhorns.

Sincerely yours,

Jay Hartzell
President