Letter from the CEO: Our Great Migration

It’s just after commencement on the Forty Acres, and campus has settled into that familiar summer lull. Driving down San Jacinto Boulevard to the Alumni Center each morning, instead of waiting for a dense pack of students to cross the street, it’s usually just me and a driverless Waymo politely waiting each other out at the four-way stop. Everyone seems to be somewhere else this time of year.

Summer has always made me want to travel—and reminisce on past travel. Earlier this year, my wife Marsha and I hosted our very first Flying Longhorns trip to Tanzania for a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle: the Great Migration across the Serengeti.  

And, yes, it was extraordinary. Herds of wildebeest and zebras stretched across the landscape in numbers so large they stopped making sense after a while. Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? At some point, you just give up trying to count and stare in amazement.  

But what surprised me most about the trip wasn’t the wildlife. It was how quickly a group of strangers became old friends.  

Now, I expected the trip to be fun. I knew someone, or several someones, would sing “The Eyes of Texas.” I assumed there would be plenty of burnt orange and more than a few UT flags appearing in places they probably never had before.  

What I didn’t expect was how quickly the group bonded. Somewhere between early morning game drives and long conversations over dinner, a real sense of camaraderie took shape. People traded stories about their time at UT, their careers, their families, and the paths that eventually led them halfway across the world.  

Our travel program offers something you can’t quite replicate on your own. There’s an instant familiarity that comes with traveling alongside fellow Longhorns. You begin the trip with a shared connection before the plane even leaves the gate.  

For alumni who already travel with the Flying Longhorns regularly, I now completely understand why so many of you plan your lives around these adventures. And for those who haven’t yet, I have one question: What are you waiting for?

Hook ’em,  
Robert W. Jones, BBA ’87, Life Member
Texas Exes CEO