The UT Tower will shine with burnt orange lights Wednesday, February 24 in recognition of the tireless work of the teams of people that have worked to keep and restore the campus to operational readiness after historic winter storms hit Texas.

Campus reopened on the morning of February 24th after closing on Sunday, February 14 to prepare for the severe winter weather in and around Austin.

“Last week during the nadir of our battle against the winter storms, the Tower lights were dimmed out of solidarity with our state and to conserve power,” President Jay Hartzell said in a message to the campus community. “As you know, the Tower is lighted white most evenings, but occasionally we light it orange — for example, in celebration of a victory or to commemorate a moment. Tonight, we do so for both reasons. We light the Tower orange to signify our ability to persevere, return to creating and disseminating knowledge, and to say thank you to our tremendous Longhorn community — students, staff, faculty, parents and alumni — for their tireless efforts to help one another during the crisis and to restore our university to the pursuit of its core missions.”