UT Austin has seen a whirlpool of activism over the last few months. Though much of that activism channels the university’s vast resources to cure racial injustice, much more targets the school itself. UT, after all, is two-faced: both a treasure trove for bold solutions and an institution soaked in the racial mistakes of its past and present. Today, less than 5 percent of UT’s student body is black, a reality that has, among other things, led students to call for a sweeping makeover of the university’s darker visage. In this week’s edition of “A Million Prisms, One School,” rising 2Ls Lauren Thomas and Abigail Emery consider how UT policies, from faculty recruitment to curricular decisions, feed an environment of racial apathy that is in dire need of repair.

Today’s groundswell of social activism has deep roots in our nation’s history — and reflects a continued desire to transform musty political promises into firm, actionable commitments. Along the way, countermovements invariably burst forth, sometimes drowning out speckles of light and sometimes succumbing to the tides of justice. Rising 2Ls Anthony Collier and Katy Yu recall their first encounters with social movements and offer thoughts on how they relate to the current moment.