UT Urged to Consider 'Win' for Cactus

Friends of the Cactus Cafe's plan calls for a team approach to saving this historic campus venue, which has served as a launch pad for many successful musicians. (Photo by John Anderson)

With a final decision on the fate of the Cactus Cafe imminent, University of Texas officials gave interested parties until May 7 to submit their input on the venue. At 4:38pm, just before close of business that day, the Friends of the Cactus Cafe gave UT more than just an opinion. The community group submitted a 25-page proposal to bring students, staff, and musicians together to save the historic campus site.

The Friends' proposal is based on the six guiding principles laid out by UT's Cactus Conversations working group. With a new advisory Cactus Cafe Coordinating Com­mit­tee, the current management would continue to keep the cafe open six days a week as a daytime bar and nighttime venue. Open to the public, it would provide free or discounted concert admission to students. It would become a "learning laboratory" through internships, student artist-in-residence opportunities, and music industry workshops. Branding would be improved through merchandising and resurrecting KUT's Live From the Cactus Cafe series. To help cover any budgetary shortfall, the plan also proposes making it a real cafe once again by expanding the menu.

Currently, UT's Vice President for Student Affairs Juan González is considering two plans: a "self-operating model," which would keep the venue within the Texas Union, or handing management over to Austin's NPR affiliate KUT Radio. Publicly released details of both proposals are sketchy (see "Off the Record," Music). Friends of the Cactus Cafe co-founder Reid Nelson called his group's new and more thoroughly designed concept "a unified self-operating model" that uses the best of the current proposals to maintain the traditions of the cafe. "It goes a long way to making the Cactus relevant to the student body and, just as important, it's self-sustaining with a modicum of fundraising," he said.

The group has now launched a pledge drive aimed at raising $36,000 a year to support this plan. Noting that Cactus supporters have already donated $20,000, campaign co-founder Wiley Koepp said, "This is a great way for them to now demonstrate their ongoing commitment."

González announced via the Texas Union website that he will make a final decision "in a few days." However, on May 10 the UT Faculty Council passed a resolution calling for a "full and open discussion" among all stakeholders before González takes that step. Student representative Matt Portillo has asked González to consider this new plan as one of the viable options. Portillo, who participated in the Cactus Conversa­tions, called it "a 'win' for all groups involved – students, the community, and the university."