January 31, 2024

To: Texas Cowboy Alumni 
From: Matt Mackowiak, President of the Texas Cowboy Alumni Board of Directors 

I am here to report that the Texas Cowboys student organization is doing very well, now in our fourth semester since returning to campus.

As I start my term as Texas Cowboys Alumni Association (TCAA) president, I can also say that the foundation for both the student organization and the alumni board is strong and stable.

I want to personally thank outgoing TCAA president Brian Antweil for his steady and principled leadership and his commitment these past two years. Along with our outstanding and dedicated executive director Eddie Lopez, Brian and the TCAA board ably stewarded the student organization through the return to campus and through the provisional status period.

We are now fully back at UT and the future is very bright.

To each of our board members during this period, thank you for your service, your counsel, your time and your talents – you have truly made the difference.

I have served on the TCAA Board since 2016 and was immediate past TCAA vice president. In recent years I have taken the opportunity to really get to know the student officers and the New Men and it truly is an outstanding group of young leaders.

With the stability we now have, we can seize this moment and raise our aspirations and that is what we intend to do during my term as TCAA president.

Our new TCAA officer group met separately to prepare for the January board meeting. During that board meeting we took stock of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we want to go from here.

 We have four key areas where we will focus our efforts going forward:

1)     The Tower Renovation Capital Campaign – TCAA has now signed a memorandum of understanding with the University to raise a substantial sum towards the Tower renovation. Our overall fundraising effort will set a minimum goal of $35 million -- $30 million for the Tower renovation and $5 million to more fully fund our endowment (which can allow for more scholarships, gear being covered for New Men, and more TCAA philanthropy). We have ten years to reach this significant fundraising goal, and the University has committed to being our active partner in this effort, lending their skills and experience directly to us. We will be rolling out full program details in the next few months, as we are finalizing program benefits and renderings currently. The benefits to Cowboys will be significant: Naming the South Tower entrance for Texas Cowboys, displays of our organizational history and telling the story of our most inspiring alumni, and making event/meeting space available for our use. This is an extraordinary opportunity for the Texas Cowboys, and we will need the generous support of many of our alumni. We are thrilled that Texas Cowboys alumnus and longtime board member Kent Lance has taken a leadership role in this effort. Stay tuned for full program information very soon.

 2)     Alumni Engagement – While we offer an annual alumni reunion in the fall, pregame tailgates at the Texas Cowboys Pavillion across from the stadium, and regional events in major cities each summer, we feel that we can more significantly increase alumni engagement with more events held in cities where we have large groups of alumni. Ideally, we would have monthly events in Austin, quarterly events in Dallas and Houston, and biannual events in San Antonio, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Washington, with other cities also possible. We also will explore zoom events for alumni that may offer an expert or speaker of interest. We need alumni leaders in Austin, Houston and Dallas initially, so if you are interested, please contact me directly.

 3)     Mentorship – TCAA board member and UT Law professor Elliot Cotton has been pushing for a New Mentorship focus in recent years and we will act on it starting this year. We are seeking to create a Big Brother system inside the student organization and an individual alumni mentor for each old man right after they are initiated. We will be asking all alumni if they wish to participate and then we will offer these alumni to each New Man class. Stay tuned for more information on this, but if you are interested in helping organize this effort, please contact Elliot Cotton or me.

 4)     Overseeing the student organization and managing the University relationship – At present we have an outstanding relationship with the University. Dean of Students Katie McGee is a big fan of our student group and knows our organizational leaders personally. We hold monthly zoom calls with her when school is in to review how things are going and stop any problems before they grow. While we are sad to be losing a wonderful supporter of Texas Cowboys with UT president Jay Hartzell departing for SMU at the end of the spring semester, we are confident we will quickly build a great relationship with the new president. We are already working very well with the development office and athletics. The student organization’s permanent commitment to being the strongest anti-hazing organization on campus remains our constant thought. TCAA must keep rigorous oversight of the student organization, with guardrails, to eliminate to the greatest extent possible any future incident which could arise. We will continue to keep our ultimate decision-making role in selections, as it is the best way to ensure our current direction continues. Eddie Lopez is invaluable to us in the relationships he develops with our student organization and the advice he gives them daily.

We have deepened our commitment to UT Elementary as our primary philanthropy. We are also helping work with special needs children at Rosedale. Service hours are a huge priority, and service is at the heart of every member of the student organization.

Communication from TCAA has not always been sufficiently robust. Technology is now making communication both quicker and easier. We will be markedly improving that very soon, including text alerts for upcoming events. We are also updating our contact information database, with the help of the university.

This spring, the student organization will hold their Spring Barbecue charity fundraiser and have a large speaker event on campus. We also hope a significant number of alumni will attend initiation toward the end of the semester, which we will promote once we have the date and location.

Finally, we just completed selections for the Spring New Man class – another stellar group of 25 young men who are willing to give their best to Texas.

Having sat in on every interview in one of our two interview rooms over three days, I can tell you it is inspiring to see the caliber of candidates that wish to become members of Texas Cowboys. This semester, we had 130+ attendees at our info session, 130 applicants applied, we granted 70 interviews, and in the end, we selected 25 outstanding New Men. I want to thank Texas Cowboys alumni selection co-chairs Bernardo de Alba and Robert Solimani for again leading this effort, and specifically thank Jason Silverstein, Matthew Seliger, Jeff Newberg, John Thompson, and of course, Eddie Lopez and Kent Lance, for making time to participate in interviews.

For those who have re-engaged with Texas Cowboys in recent years, thank you.

For those who haven’t, we want you back and we are going to create many ways to do so, whether that be regional events, mentorship, TCAA volunteer opportunities, or just coming by a much-improved pre-game tailgate experience.

Texas Cowboys have consistently been the oldest and most distinguished men’s student organization at the University of Texas. With TCAA’s continued oversight, the student organization is returning us to that revered position.

 

Sincerely,

Matt Mackowiak
Texas Cowboys Alumni Association president
New Man, Fall 2001
Austin, TX

Cell: 512-423-6116
Email: matt@potomacstrategygroup.com