I enjoy the atmosphere at the UC and like the building. Some events there, like the time Ralph Nader spoke and some others, had to use more than one spill-over room. But, with the newly remodeled alumni auditorium there is plenty of room. I don't think they need to tear down the UC. Its bad enough what they did to the old houses on Melrose and then decided to build the sorority village some place else.

The way it is described, it sounds like they are going to eliminate all the green space in that entire block. The plan is to first tear down "several older buildings" (historic = expendable when it comes to buildings and trees at UT), including Aconda Court and Temple Court and build Phase I there, THEN tear down the UC and build Phase II. (See the News-Slantenal article here.) Pretty soon the entire campus is going to be hardscaped into a suburban heat island.

As far as the excuse of "lack of adequate meeting space" goes, like, isn't that what the UT Conference Center is used for? Oh yeah, I forgot - its status as being "historically insignificant" puts it at the top of the list of potential buildings to demolish, as well.

I couldn't figure out how they thought they could get away with this. But if you read between the lines, I predict there is a major private funder who is linking the "need" for a new building with providing an exclusive place for football fans - the official reason earnestly put forth as creating "meeting space for students" is so laughable. Funny how these things get announced under the radar in the summer months.