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Save the Cactus Cafe.org
A campaign of Friends of the Cactus Cafe

 
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Dear Friend of the Cactus Cafe,
 
Well, it’s been a wild couple of weeks.  When I got wind of the Texas Union management’s decision to close the Cactus Cafe, like many, I was stunned and wanted to do something.  So I started a Facebook group called “Save the Cactus Cafe” and went to bed that night, happy that a couple dozen of my friends had joined.  By the next morning, there were over 2,000 members and within 24 hours we had grown to over 5,000.  As I write this, well over 23,000 people have shown their support for keeping the Cactus Cafe open.
U.T. President William Powers Jr. told attendees of his town hall meeting that the Texas Union will save $66,000 by shutting down one of the most legendary and iconic listening rooms in the country and that students want more control of the space.  Actually, there are just a small handful of students on the Union board expressing this desire, and they say they want to take the Cactus Cafe “in a different direction.” A number of student groups are actively opposing this move because they feel it will destroy the fundamental character of the club. And they’re right. It will.

While students fight the battle on campus, we need to do our part by mobilizing in the community and we need your help to do that. It’s important that the Texas Union management knows that financial support exists in the Austin and American music communities to address both the budgetary concerns and the student concerns regarding the Cactus.  We have laid out a plan that we believe addresses those concerns, but to implement it we must first Save the Cactus Cafe. We should not be wiping the slate clean, but building on what’s there.
 
We have set a symbolic goal of raising $66,000 to fund this campaign and also to support educational and cultural programs through the Cactus Cafe once we succeed in keeping it open.  Please help us make a statement of support for the Cactus Cafe by clicking the link below:

http://savethecactuscafe.org/donate
 
Friends of the Cactus Cafe is non-profit organization in the process of filing for 501(c)(3) status. Upon initial approval of that application by the IRS, your contributions made now will be tax-deductible. Please understand that this is not a money-making venture for us and our board members operate under strict conflict-of-interest rules. We are doing this to keep the Cactus Cafe open in a manner that preserves its fundamental character, in its current location, under experienced and professional management as it now operates, and build upon that model to offer support and greater educational and cultural opportunities for students through the Cactus Cafe.
 
Please donate today, thanks for your support and please ask your friends to contribute, too, at this link:

http://savethecactuscafe.org/donate
 
In Music,

Wiley Koepp
UT graduate (BA ’95) and Austin musician (since ’93)
 


Comments

Tom Horn

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:49:27 am

To know what Cactus Cafe supporters are up against, you might take a look at a film entitled "University, Incorporated" (submitted by UT graduate student Kyle Henry as a thesis, shelved in at least one UT library and available online), or maybe have a look at this website:

http://www.utwatch.org/archives/theothertexan/no2_unionhistory.html

 

M. McKinney

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 1:03:24 pm

Thanks, Wiley and Friends of the Cactus Cafe! It is so great to have a concrete way to start to really help in this fight. I hope everyone takes this link and starts sending it out to everyone that they know.

 

Jenell Scherbel

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 1:52:31 pm

Tom Horn's comment is interesting. Not sure it's relevant to current Cactus concerns, but reading the book, Our Invaded Universities, by former editor and publisher of the Texas Observer, Ronnie Dugger, was an eye opener for me.
As to the Cactus, let's DO save this Texas, national, and world treasure. I'm donating come March from my rather meagre social security income, and I hope y'all will too!

 

Tom Horn

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 6:15:16 pm

Hi, Jenell--

Okay. Point well taken.

Please allow me to connect the dots on my comment’s relevance in detail. Please also forgive my wordiness; as with most political intrigues, this story is tangled and torturous. I hardly like it but I cannot ignore it.

Have you noticed that since this firestorm of protest exploded, not one administrator at UT has stepped up to claim credit for “re-purposing” the Cactus? That is, nobody has said “That was my bright idea.” It's almost as if they want to pretend that it sprang up full-blown of its own accord. Likewise, we have yet to hear an explanation as to how or why a matter of such importance would fail to appear on the agenda announced in advance of the Texas Union Board of Directors’ meeting.

The silence on both points has been deafening.

Will no one admit responsibility?

Way to man up there, y’all!

According to reports in the Austin Chronicle and the Austin American-Statesman, without prior notice Union Executive Director Andy Smith proposed the recommendation to kill Informal Classes and the Cactus at the Board’s last meeting. Then Mr. Smith proceeded to reject alternatives suggested by the Board. Notably, no faculty members were present at this meeting, and the rationale to create sweeping policy changes in this fashion remains unclear.

However, from Mr. Smith’s public record, we can be certain that:
• Despite vehement opposition, he killed the Union’s once-enviable campus-wide film series. This is documented in Kyle Henry’s “University, Incorporated.” As a commenter on UT President William Powers’ “Tower Talk” blog (http://blogs.utexas.edu/towertalk/) noted on February 7, “Andy Smith plays a cameo role in the film as he runs away from students who were unable to make their way onto his calendar yet persisted in pursuing an interview.” That was his method of fielding grass-roots student and community input.
• Despite vehement opposition (including a referendum in which 76% of students who voted said nixed his plan), in November 1990 (as documented in the UT Watch entry for that date at http://www.utwatch.org/archives/theothertexan/no2_unionhistory.html), he killed the Union’s in-house eateries, then proceeded to install “outsourced” franchises such as Wendy’s and Taco Bell.

Also documented on the UT Watch site:
• The Texas Union Board of Directors once voted to fire Mr. Smith. However, then-President William Cunningham overruled the Board.
• A student referendum also favored firing Andy Smith, “dissolving the Board and running the Union as student, staff and faculty-run cooperative.”

In short, the people have pursued legitimate avenues in an attempt to make themselves heard before. . .but under the Andy Smith regime, to no avail.

I fervently hope that the popular groundswell against “re-purposing” the Cactus breaks this pattern. So let’s not go away. With a sustained effort, even in the face of a monolithic non-response or double-talk from on high or protracted stalling tactics, we can accomplish this.

Public outcry has made a difference before. It has happened. According to the Union’s own website at http://www.utexas.edu/txunion/about/history/index.php?section=about, during the 1960s “a student protest. . .led to the transfer of the food service in the building to Union control,” and “the early 70s were marked by the expansion of Union programming offerings to include student theater presentations, non-credit classes, a film program, rock concerts and folk singers.”

It can happen again. But we have to make it happen.

 

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