Longhorns Don’t Litter is a campaign created by Environmental Communications students in the School of Advertising and Public Relations in the Moody College of Communication. Led by Prof. Valerie Salinas-Davis, this class operates as a real environmental advertising and public relations agency with like-minded clients and budgets from the Green Fund. In Spring 2021, students in the founding class set out to generate awareness of the need to protect the Waller Creek Watershed by working with Visual Artist and Lecturer Karen Maness to promote the “Creek Monster” sculpture built by students in the College of Fine Arts. That fall, Environmental Comms students turned to a new focus: working to raise awareness of space junk with clients Dr. Moribah Jah in Aerospace Engineering and Texas Immersive Institute (TTI) Director Erin Reilly to create and produce Shifted Space. In Spring 2022, Environmental Comms students returned the class agency focus to the Waller Creek Watershed with clients in UT Environmental Health & Safety, who for three semesters have worked with us to develop, launch and maintain the Longhorns Don’t Litter campaign.

Working as the Creek Comms Agency, students have conducted robust research that indicates: half of UT students haven’t heard of Waller Creek; nearly all students love our campus green spaces but have noticed litter on and around campus; 20 percent admit to littering; and nearly all would support a campaign to protect our watershed. Since 2022, Creek Comms Agency accomplishments have included: working with Texas Athletics to create the official “Longhorns Don’t Litter” brand, producing the “Experience Waller Creek Walking Tour” with The Drag Audio Production House and TTI, launching the campaign on Bevo Blvd. during home football games in November 2022, installing “Longhorns Don’t Litter/Drains To Waller Creek” storm drain labels across campus, developing a partnership between Capital Metro and Waterloo Greenway Conservancy for a “Longhorns Don’t Litter” bus advertising campaign, and co-sponsoring the 5th Annual Waller Creek Symposium with our favorite urban nature guru Dr. Stuart Reichler.

Plans are under way to develop an official Longhorns Don’t Litter Partner program that will include volunteer opportunities and a new Adopt-a-Creek program on campus. Environmental Communications (ADV/PR 378) is open to students across campus. The class is a communications option in the Global Leadership in Sustainability minor in the McCombs School of Business, satisfies the communication credit for Sustainability Studies in the College of Liberal Arts, and contributes to the Science Communications Minor in the School of Advertising and Public Relations.