Brenda Burt Papers

Materials in this collection date from 1977 to 2018, with the bulk of the material dating between 1983 and 2016. The primary subject documented in this collection is Brenda Burt's support and advocacy for Black and other minority students, faculty, and staff at the University of Texas at Austin, as a founder and the first staff director of the Multicultural Information Center, the Director of University Outreach for the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, and the Director of Undergraduate and Alumni Relations and a Lecturer for the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies. The materials provide a varied account of Burt's leadership in on-campus organizations and committees, her presentations on white privilege and diversity, and her efforts to make the university a more inclusive place. The materials also include rich documentation of the history of Black student life at the university, demonstrating the often tenuous relationship between UT Austin and minority students, faculty, and staff. Burt's activities beyond her role at UT Austin are also present within the collection, such as her involvement as a coordinator for Austin's city-wide Martin Luther King Jr. Day march and her work as an advisor for the Black Student Alliance's Big XII Council on Black Student Government.

Her papers are arranged into eleven series: Personal; Student Orientation, Preview and Welcome Programs; Educational Psychology Department; Black Studies; Multicultural Information Center; Division of Diversity and Community Engagement; Black Student Alliance; UT Austin Community Advocacy Project Materials; Resources; Visual and digital media; and Ephemera.

The Personal series documents some of the relationships Burt cultivated with people throughout her career at UT Austin. It dates from 1999-2018. Included are numerous thank-you cards and letters from UT Austin students, personal notes, funeral and memorial service programs, copies of acknowledgements written by students, a certificate of appreciation, and printed inspirational quotes and prayers.

The Student Orientation, Preview, and Welcome Programs series contains materials used to plan and administer orientation programs created to support incoming minority students entering UT Austin. It dates from 1988-1999. The series includes a variety of guides and resources available to incoming Black and Latinx freshmen, manuals for peer advisors involved in leading the programs, as well as internal administrative documents relating to program demographics and the efficacy of the programs.

The Educational Psychology (EDP) Department series contains materials related to a course Burt taught in the department, Minority Student Leadership Issues, dating from 1996-2013. In this course, students explored racial identity development, the psychological impact of racism, as well as ways to consider and talk about race. The materials in this series include course instructor surveys and rosters. The series also contains print materials related to the Minority Mentorship Symposium & Dinner, an event that students attended and wrote about for the class.

The Black Studies series documents Burt's involvement with the Black Studies program at UT Austin from 1977-2017. The Black Studies program consists of four units: the African and African Diaspora Studies Department (AADS), the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis, and the Art Galleries at Black Studies. Burt was involved with the Black Studies program at UT Austin through the AADS Department. She began teaching in the department in 2011. The next year, she became the Director of Undergraduate and Alumni Relations, and then was appointed a Lecturer in 2013. The first subseries, Black Studies program files, contains records, proposals, and publications relating to the program overall, dating from 1977-2012. The second subseries, African and African Diaspora Studies Department, contains materials related to Burt's role as Director of Undergraduate and Alumni Relations and dates from 1996-2017. It also contains her teaching files for the courses Black Lives Matter Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Moral Obligation, and Minority Student Leadership Issues, which was cross-listed with the Educational Psychology Department. Included in these teaching files are Burt's appointment letter, course instructor surveys, rosters, ephemera, and one syllabus, for Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Moral Obligation, taught in spring 2015. The third subseries, John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, dates from 1988-2015. It contains papers and resources related to student activism at UT Austin, an overview of the John L. Warfield Collection, and ephemera used to promote the center.

The Multicultural Information Center (MIC) series is comprised of budgets, institutional assessments, reports, meeting agendas, event planning materials, presentations, and informational resources on the MIC. The materials within this series span from 1984-2018, while the bulk of the materials date from 1998-2008, the period during which Burt was MIC director. This series best represents the original order of the Burt papers upon acquisition. The first subseries, Internal records, contains budgets, memos, event planning materials, policies, and staffing documents related to Burt's responsibilities in managing the operation and budget of MIC. Additionally, the Folders Institutional review of MIC, 2005-2008 and MIC report on DDCE funding and hiring & associated documents, 2005-2008 contain correspondence, proposals, institutional reviews, and audits narrating the events associated with her transition from director of MIC to Director of University Outreach within the DDCE. The second subseries, Institutional assessments, reports, and proposals, consists of annual reports, assessments, print and event materials generated by MIC, including MIC's founding report. The third subseries, Speeches and presentations, includes notes, reference materials, and content from speeches and presentations given by Burt in her capacity as MIC director. The Student organizations subseries contains event programming, proposals, and publications from the six student-run agencies housed under MIC at the time of Burt's tenure, namely Afrikan American Affairs (AAA), Asian Pacific Islander American Collective (APAC), Latin Leadership Council (LLC), and Longhorn American Indian Council (LAIC), Students for Equity and Diversity, and Minority Leadership Institute. Outreach and publicity, the fourth subseries, primarily contains guides, handouts, ephemera, and other print matter that promotes the MIC and provides information and resources to minority students. This subseries also includes publications, such as Campus Fusion and Blackink, as well as newsletters generated by the MIC and its affiliated student agencies. The sixth and final subseries, Diversity resources and reports, contains resources, evaluations, studies, and reports from UT Austin, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Texas A&M.

The Division of Diversity and Community Engagement series contains materials that document Burt's involvement in a range of campus diversity initiatives, dating from 1983 to 2017. The bulk of the materials is related to The Heman Sweatt Symposium on Civil Rights, an annual event organized by UT Austin students, faculty, and staff, which honored Burt at its 2011 gathering. This series also contains various publications and events sponsored by UT Austin alumni organizations such as Texas Exes, Black Exes, and the Precursors, and newspaper clippings about Black UT alumni.

The Black Student Alliance series documents Brenda Burt's involvement with Black students’ leadership training sponsored by various groups and organizations. It spans from 1985 to 2017. Most of the documents in the series are related to the Big XII Conference on Black Student Government and student government publications from the schools in the Big XII Conference (a collegiate athletic conference currently comprised of ten universities and headquartered in Irving, Texas). Also included in the series are campus publications sponsored by the Black Student Alliance such asThe Griot(1986-2008). Additionally, the series includes materials that document the crafting of the BSA's response to theFisher v. University of Texascase (2012-2014) that questioned the constitutionality of considering race as a factor in college admission decisions.

The UT Austin community advocacy project materials series contains materials related to Burt's involvement in additional campus organizations and projects, dating from 1981 to 2016. These records continue the narrative surrounding Burt's advocacy and mentorship within the Black community at UT Austin. Burt uplifted marginalized voices within the UT Austin and greater Austin communities by participating on various advisory committees and associations and by coordinating and volunteering for campus and community events. The series contains files detailing the extensive scope of her involvement in the African American Staff Advocating Progress (AASAP), which serves as a support system for the needs of Black faculty, staff, and students. The series also contains materials demonstrating Burt's role in planning the Black Male Leadership Retreats, as well as her connections to Black Greek life at UT Austin. Materials also cover her involvement with the Malcolm X Lounge renovations, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Sculpture Committee, the annual MLK March both on campus and throughout the city, as well as the Duren Residence Hall naming project and the Barbara Jordan statue project. There is also significant documentation of the renaming process of Creekside Residence Hall (formerly Simkins Hall), including a variety of testimonials demonstrating perspectives for and against the project to rename the dormitory, which was originally dedicated to William Stewart Simkins, a founding Ku Klux Klan member and former UT Austin professor of law.

The Resources series contains extensive materials compiled by Brenda Burt for research and teaching purposes. The materials are arranged into five subseries and date from 1985 to 2018. The Racism and diversity training materials subseries includes published training materials on topics such as gender and sexuality, white privilege and supremacy, social justice, and diversity. The UT Austin institutional materials subseries includes task force reports on student success and educational access, reports on Black students’ retention rates in Texas and racial harassment at UT Austin as well as UT Austin statistical handbooks. The Newspapers, magazines, and clippings subseries contains news articles predominantly from the local press, such as the campus publication The Daily Texan and Austin's major newspaper The Austin American-Statesman. These articles document the experiences of Black students, faculty, and staff at UT Austin. The Books subseries is composed of five bound volumes (some autographed) about Black history and Black integration at UT Austin. The Subject matter resources subseries includes a wide variety of published materials and printouts from online sources related to the historical and contemporary experiences of Black Americans, focusing on segregation, incarceration, and racism.

The Visual and Born Digital media series dates from 1998 to 2016. The first subseries, Photographs and visual media, contains photographs of Burt, the Heman Sweatt Symposium, the UT Austin campus, and UT Austin graduates. The subseries also includes two scrapbook pages depicting MIC students and a poster advertising a peace protest.The second subseries, Born Digital media is composed of one 3”-floppy disk and sixty-five CDs, and contains a wide variety of materials, such as motivational speeches, training materials, photographs, event programs, campus virtual tours, administrative records, brochures, logos, and document templates. These files were originally in Microsoft Word (.docx), Excel (.xls), InDesign (INDD), Video CD (VCD), and JPEG (.jpeg). The CDs are in the order in which they were donated by Burt and are listed at the item level.

The Ephemera series contains multidimensional objects and is divided into four subseries, Artwork, Awards, Miscellaneous, and Nameplates, dating from 2000-2017. The Artwork subseries contains a wooden cutout of a longhorn symbol and a racist piece of art found on the UT Austin campus, accompanied by a note written by Burt that explains its presence in the collection. The Awards subseries contains a selection of plaques and trophies Burt received during her tenure at UT Austin including the 2005 Most Outstanding Faculty Member Award from the Student Events Center, two Black Essence Awards (2006 and 2014), and an appreciation award from the Galveston County Youth, 2014. The Miscellaneous subseries includes assorted objects such as a conference notebook, a flashlight, a graduation sash, and several magnets. The Nameplates subseries contains Burt's desk nameplate and office door nameplate.