Newly Announced University of Austin Struggles to Make the Grade: School sheds founding board members, reports seven-figure donations – News
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The Cicero Institute building at 2112 Rio Grande is currently under renovation to provide offices for approximately 12 UATX employees (Photo by John Anderson)
Fed up of California’s bureaucratic restrictions on everything from his business to his backyard, Joe Lonsdale uprooted his family and brought his talents to Austin amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Lonsdale, who founded Palantir Technologies with Trump tech idiot Peter Thiel, told right-wing media minimogul Ben Shapiro last year that Texas was an oasis for “builders” like himself: “Why am I in? [the Bay Area]where everyone hates the people who create things and where our city is so dysfunctional? We’re building in Texas and it’s easy. “
“The new university made a number of mostly rather critical statements about higher education in general, which differed greatly from my own views.” – University of Chicago Chancellor Robert Zimmer in a statement announcing his resignation from the UATX board
As easy as it seems, it is easy to found a university on site. Last week, Lonsdale signed as the founding curator of the University of Austin, which is not the University of Texas at Austin but instead sees itself as a cure for the “culture of censorship” on college campuses. Why Austin? As UATX stated on its new website, “If it’s good enough for Elon Musk and Joe Rogan, it’s good enough for us.”
The emerging university is simultaneously applying for accreditation from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Higher Learning Commission, which is recognized by the US Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. In an interview with the Austin American-Statesman earlier this week, UATX President Pano Kanelos said he hopes to create both a graduate program and an undergraduate college with between 3,000 and 4,000 students by 2024.
When it launched last week, UATX added 31 members to its advisory board; When the Chronicle went to press, that list was now at 24. It is noteworthy that the Chancellor of the University of Chicago, Robert Zimmer, announced his resignation from the board on Monday: critical, that differed greatly from my own views “He said in a statement. Meanwhile, culture warriors like advisory board member and Atlantic writer Caitlin Flanagan joked about students sleeping with their professors.
Like most colleges, the University of Austin intends to organize itself as a not-for-profit institution to which donors can make tax-exempt contributions. While awaiting a decision from the IRS, UATX is relying on Lonsdale’s think tank, the Cicero Institute, which identifies as a largely impartial free market advocate, as its financial sponsor. Cicero’s building at 2112 Rio Grande is currently under renovation to provide offices for approximately 12 employees. According to Richter Glock, the institute’s senior director of policy and research, Cicero’s role in running UATX is minimal: “We don’t touch this or get involved … we have no hand in management or rollout.” In addition to funding from Lonsdale itself, Hillel Ofek, vice president of communications for UATX, told Salon that the school has received more than 600 donations, including several seven-digit amounts.
Andrew Gillen, a college researcher with the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation based in Austin, said UATX appears to be benefiting from a market opportunity. “Not every university, for lack of a better word, has turned ambivalent, if not hostile, to dissenting voices on campus, but many of them have.” But he also warned against getting too excited. “It’s one thing to say you’re going to do this stuff. It’s another thing to actually do it.”
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https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2021-11-19/newly-announced-university-of-austin-struggles-to-make-the-grade/
