University of Austin wants to combat colleges’ so-called censorship culture
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In Austin’s West Campus neighborhood, a stone’s throw from the University of Texas flagship campus, is a large yellow brick house with red moldings. Inside is the headquarters of a new liberal arts university founded to counter what its founders believe is growing censorship culture on the college campus.
“We’re fed up with waiting for America’s universities to repair themselves,” said a promotional video for the University of Austin that was posted on Twitter on Monday morning. “So let’s start a new one.”
The announcement caught some national attention for its advisory board – a who’s who of college critics and iconoclasts such as former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, Harvard academic Steven Pinker, former Harvard University president Lawrence H. Summers and the playwright David Mamet.
But also because the university decided to open in the capital of Texas.
“If it’s good enough for Elon Musk and Joe Rogan, it’s good enough for us,” says the new university’s website, referring to the CEO of Tesla and the podcast host, both of whom have been from California since mid-2020 moved to Austin.
The University of Austin’s mission is to create a “bitterly independent” school that offers an alternative to what founders see as increasing “illiberalism” in colleges and a decline in universities’ commitment to protecting free speech and civil discourse .
“Most people, most institutions, are really well meant,” said Pano Kanelos, president of the new university, in an interview with The Texas Tribune. “And I don’t think there are bad people out there causing that. It’s just a kind of cultural drift. “
Kanelos, who quit his job as president of St. John’s University in Annapolis, Maryland this summer, said he sees this new university as a “north star” for universities to “reclaim a space for open debate,” which he thinks is not happens as often as it should on other college campuses across the country.
“We may never find the truth, but that’s what scholars do,” he said. “It’s hard to do when you are afraid that if you make a mistake you will be punished.”
Kanelos said the decision to open the university in Austin had more to do with the attractiveness of the city to “innovative thinkers and loners.”
“Austin is like a big maker space now,” he said. “The proximity to a large part of this space is really intellectually stimulating”
Kanelos said the proposed university has received a lot of financial support and raised $ 10 million in private donations in two months, which will enable it to hire about seven employees. Since the public launch on Monday morning, Kanelos told The Texas Tribune that he has received more than 1,000 requests from professors to attend the university, which he believes indicates the need for this type of school.
But the university is still many steps away from functioning as a traditional university. It lacks a permanent address for a campus (executives say they are buying land in the Austin area), degrees (estimated arrival time for a bachelor’s degree is fall 2024), and accreditation (founders believe the standard accreditation process needs reform but recognize that oversight is necessary for degrees to be considered legitimate).
Nor have they officially been granted non-profit organization status by the federal government. You are using Cicero Research, led by Austin-based technology investor and advisory board member Joe Lonsdale, as a temporary nonprofit sponsor.
According to Cicero Research’s 2020 Tax Return, its mission is to “create and distribute non-partisan documents recommending market-based solutions to public policy issues” and “produce and distribute non-partisan educational materials on the importance of maintaining Texan”. Politics, values and history. “
The University of Austin website also promises a new, more affordable study model, made possible with lower administrative costs and fewer amenities than a traditional college campus.
Kanelos estimates that tuition would be about half the average annual cost of attending a typical private university, or “$ 30,000”. The founders plan to raise $ 250 million over the next few years to start the undergraduate and graduate programs.
Also, don’t expect state-of-the-art recreation centers or high-quality restaurants, Kanelos said.
“We’ll probably have a soccer field and a basketball hoop outside,” he said. “No food court. We’re going to be an old school canteen from the 50s, a kind of queuing … and the reason for that is that the students end up paying for it. “
The school plans to begin a credit-free program called Forbidden Courses next summer. Students from other universities can participate in discussions on topics that “often lead to censorship or self-censorship in many universities”. The program is currently in design mode with the help of three founding faculties, including Peter Boghossian and Kathleen Stock.
Boghossian resigned from Portland State University believing the university has “turned a bastion of free inquiry into a factory for social justice.” Stock resigned from the University of Sussex after she was harassed and criticized for her work questioning whether gender identity is more important than biological sex.
A master’s degree in Entrepreneurship and Leadership would begin next fall, before a bachelor’s program starts.
The announcement from the University of Austin comes at the same time that executives from the University of Texas at Austin are working with private funders and the Republican Lt. Doctrine of Individual Freedom, Restricted Government, Private Entrepreneurship, and Free Markets. ”Texas lawmakers already gave the Liberty Institute one $ 6 million initial funding approved. UT Austin officials have also pledged $ 6 million.
Emails received from the Tribune about an open filing request indicate that at least one member of the University of Austin advisory team is in touch with UT Austin President Jay Hartzell.
According to the emails, Hartzell had lunch with Austin-based tech investor Lonsdale earlier this year. In February, Hartzell emailed Lonsdale to Carlos Carvalho, the professor at UT-Austin who directed work at that school’s Liberty Institute.
“Joe is interested and active in many of the same areas as you – bringing data on political issues, supporting free markets and capitalism, and so on,” Hartzell told Carvalho. In the same email, he told Lonsdale about the planned UT-Austin think tank.
“We’re working together on a campus-wide initiative that could deepen many of the same topics in a broader, cross-campus way – with the working title ‘Liberty Institute’.”
UT-Austin and Lonsdale did not respond to requests for comment. Kanelos said while meeting with people at UT-Austin who helped found the Liberty Institute, he said that the centre’s goals do not represent the entire university he is trying to start.
Disclosure: The New York Times and the University of Texas at Austin are financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the journalism of the Tribune. You can find a full list of them here.
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https://www.texastribune.org/2021/11/08/university-austin-founders-college-culture/