Granted, I was an engineer, but UT was way too liberal for me back in the day. But I was astute enough to realize even then, that it wasn't the institution, it was its inhabitants that trended liberal, some students, a lot of professors. But also that that is the nature of high-level learning: many of its devotees are going to be proponents of the "latest, greatest ideas" circulating out there, and, while many of those ideas may not stand the test of time, they are the seeds of progress.
So, yeah, UT can be identified as "liberal" as can most institutions of higher learning, it's their nature. But I wouldn't say it attracts liberals any more than any other school. The only people that make university choices based on personal ideology at this point are conservatards.
Even conservatives should be fans of progress, just perhaps more measured and incremental than more left-leaning types. This intellectual revanchism disgusts me.