University of Texas - Cactus Yearbook

“RIGHT: Energetic canoers paddle through the San Francisco rapids in the lower canyons of the Rio Grande. BELOW: Revelers at Willie Nelson ' s 4th of July picnic roast in the sun. have a really unique background I ' m one of only 10,000 business majors. A one in four chance at UT. There are more business majors these days because there seems to be less money around. I ' m not a typical finance major. For one thing, I don ' t have any izods. My father is an engineer for an oil company. I have lived in Sydney, Singapore, and Indonesia: now, my parents live in Japan. I was born in Ari- zona and grew up in California in an oil town. I feel like a Texan because I like Texas. Accordingly, I like Texans because they ' re inde- pendent. There ' s still hope for Texas room to grow. Other places have filled up. I ' ve never been in a city that ' s really like Aus- tin. Austin has its own twilight zone. This place seems like the most painless blend of converging lifestyles. Austin has liberals and conservatives and communist youth brigades. I think Austin is really lucky to be growing - economically, culturally everyone is conscious of the perils of growth. Austin may have the chance to be the first big city that grew success- fully. In Austin, you can ' t escape the friendli- ness. There are lakes and the sun shines all the time and it ' s not a dust bowl. Out of the country, the image of Texas is going back to Gene Autrey and John Wayne. On that same line, here ' s an Australian joke. ' Q: What ' s the difference between a rich Texan and a poor one? A: A poor Texan washes his own Cadillac. ' I don ' t think that UT spends enough on teachers. Texas could have an excellent academic reputation. They have everything a good school could want a good city, a good academic cen- ter. But, they need to spend more money on other things besides buildings. UT really does have a bureaucracy and any bureaucracy is impersonal. But if anyone is going to win a war on mediocrity then they have to improve that somehow. Gene Ward, senior in finance from Austin. ”