Just to clarify something, it isn't UT-Austin (
better?) that has requests for certain types of pictures, it is the panhellenic groups that disseminate the information to the chapters that tells the pnms what to include in their packets.
The pnms may be going to UT-Austin or any other school. I did recs for girls going to schools all over the country (granted the majority I did were for Texas schools - but that includes A&M, TCU, SMU and Tech & if you want to lump LSU in there too, because in my area, it is almost considered a "Texas" school) and they all had the same types of resumes and photos. So don't blame UT-Austin, blame the panhellenic groups.
In one of the earlier posts, some girl said she had to make a "picture page" - that is what her panhellenic group requested. The Houston Panhellenic asks for a head shot and a 3/4 to full body shot (according to my friend). So each group must have a different idea of what they think works best for identification.