Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. Im delighted to join my friend @bariweiss, @Ayaan, @nfergus, @sullydish, David Mamet and many, many other prominent scholars, writers and artists as a founding advisory-board member of the University Austin, a new university devoted to free inquiry. In May 2018, Bari Weiss then an editor and writer at the New York Times published an op-ed that introduced an informal network of writers and thinkers hellbent on stamping out what they. Vous pouvez modifier vos choix tout moment en consultant vos paramtres de vie prive. Young men and women of Stanford are toldDie Luft der Freiheit weht: The wind of freedom blows," Kanelos wrote. The University of Austin has a good hook. She solidified her status as a bold defender of diversity of thought when she publicly resigned from The New York Times, citing a hostile work environment rife with pressure for ideological conformity. Sign In My Account About UATX Programs Support Us DONATE Even in the absence, or weakness, of these traditionally neutral institutions maybe because of it the claim to openness and fairness remains a powerful one, often conflated with objectivity itself. None of this has gone unnoticed by commentators on the left, who over the course of the past week have launched a stream of satire, vitriol and more serious accusations at the newly-born institution. All rights reserved. But who would want to do that? It is time to restore the meaning to those old school mottos. This core purposethe intrepid pursuit of truthhas been at the heart of education since Plato founded his Academy in 387 B.C. Bari Weiss, an American journalist, writer, and editor, has announced a new liberal arts university set to be the University of Austin. Ex-New York Times opinion columnist and editor Bari Weiss is among the founding board of advisers for The University of Austin, a new college dedicated to freedom of inquiry that rejects "illiberalism" found at most of Americas higher education facilities. Thats all part of the back-and-forth of American life. They are in a desperate contest to attract a dwindling number of students, who are less and less capable of paying skyrocketing tuition. Another board member, Princeton classics scholarJoshua Katz, has been accused of engaging in inappropriate conduct with three of his past female students. Announcing a new university dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth: @uaustinorg:https://t.co/ZqRLXcF2n0, Kanelos introductory letter offers a grim view of US education, claiming that over a third of conservative academics and PhD students had been threatened with disciplinary action for their views. Citing a study from the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, Kanelos added that nearly a quarter of students in the social sciences or humanities fields reportedly favored giving colleagues the boot for merely holding a wrong opinion, and 80% of American PhD students were willing to discriminate against right-leaning scholars.. Before Kanelos revealed the details of his new venture, he torched modern universities in his scathing Substack post. Specifically, UATX is seeking accreditation from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), a regional accreditor that has been criticized twice by the Department of Education over its accreditation of for-profit colleges, includingAmerican InterContinental University and the now-defunct Art Institute of Colorado. "On our quads, faculty are being treated like thought criminals," he wrote, noting a variety of educators who have been disinvited, threatened or harassed because of political views. Not to be confused with the University of Texas at Austin,one of the premier land-grant institutions in the country,UATX sets out to provide an alternative locus of learning for students seeking "the unfettered pursuit of truth. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports at least 491 disinvitation campaigns since 2000. As Glenn Greenwald has documented thoroughly, despite her current status as a warrior for diverse thought, as an undergraduate student at Columbia, Weiss dedicated a considerable amount of time tocallingprofessors critical of the Israeli government racist or antisemitic.. They're not sitting around criticizing or whining. Wait, American universities are right-wing institutions? Does Teen Vogue publish facts or fairy tales? This phenomenon, they proposed, was "tearing American society apart. Because it's not just. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. These are soaring words. But in these top schools, and in so many others, can we actually claim that the pursuit oftruthonce the central purpose of a universityremains the highest virtue? Lindsey Ellefson. Box 13491, Austin, TX 78711, United States. Our students will be exposed to the deepest wisdom of civilization and learn to encounter works not as dead traditions but as fierce contests of timeless significance that help human beings distinguish between what is true and false, good and bad, beautiful and ugly. Amidst the brick and ivy, these students entertain ever-more-inaccessible theories while often just blocks away their neighbors figure out how to scratch out a living. We should let that sink in. Thank you! But in these top schools, and in so many others, can we actually claim that the pursuit of truthonce the central purpose of a universityremains the highest virtue? In practice, the rational-minded independence it champions might be less a reachable condition than just that: a practice, and an aspirational one at that. You can share this story on social media: Subscribe to RT newsletter to get news highlights of the day right in your mailbox, Ex-NYT editor Bari Weiss goes on CNN to denounce world gone mad from wokeness and cancel culture (VIDEO), US anti-Russia bill totally unwarranted South African FM, Snowden mocks claim he lived in KGB safehouse, Ukrainian interior minister killed in helicopter crash, Biden asked Putin for meeting between spy chiefs Moscow, Ruble and yuan dominate Russia-China trade Lavrov, Saudi Arabia ready to ditch dollar in trade Finance Minister, Arab League defied Washington on photo op Lavrov, Russia wants to trade with African countries in local currencies Lavrov. The University of Austins explicitly stated ideological commitment is to a pluralistic, classically liberal freedom of expression. Two figureheads have parted ways with the University of Austin barely a week after its foundingand more growing pains are likely ahead. . ", Kanelos then pointed to data, including that "nearly a quarter of American academics in the social sciences or humanities endorse ousting a colleague for having a wrong opinion about hot-button issues such as immigration or gender differences" and "over a third of conservative academics and PhD students say they had been threatened with disciplinary action for their views.". That's why we are building UATX.". The University of Austin is a new liberal arts . They're not sitting around criticizing or whining. The University of Austin - a newly founded college announced on Bari Weiss' substack Monday - is committed to "freedom of inquiry, freedom of conscience, and civil discourse," according to the . Ad Choices. This group, which mostly derivedfromelite academic institutions, professed the supposedly courageous view thatthe American left with its fetish for diversity, intersectionality and "political correctness" had infected higher education with an authoritarian culture of censorship, suppressing unpopular views on issues like race, sex and gender. Founding trustees include Weiss, historian Niall Ferguson, evolutionary biologist Heather Heying, venture capitalist Joe Lonsdaleand the former president of St. John's College, Pano Kanelos. Now for the hard part. Lonsdale co-founded dystopian tech firm Palantir Technologies with Peter Thiel, another police state booster, aided by a hefty share of CIA money. In an email, spokesperson Hillel Ofek said the school will not hold any political or ideological test for its faculty. Slectionnez Grer les paramtres pour grer vos prfrences. Everybody loves free speech until their own personal line is crossed, and absent any leftist secure in their reputation who might agree in the future to be the University of Austins resident woke button-pusher, the accusation of an intra-right-centrist lovefest carries a semblance of truth. While the apparent birth of UATX may appearsudden, it's just one of the many conservative attempts in recent history to break free from the perceived constraints of liberal academia. A system that so brazenly extracts so much from so many without delivering on its basic promises is overdue for a reckoning. "And might I just say good luck to the nonexistent admissions staff that will have to gin up that process this late in the game!". The launch announcement came with a roster of name-brand thinkers to lend it intellectual luster, including the historian Niall Ferguson of the Hoover Institution at Stanford (who is a founding trustee at UATX), former Treasury secretary and former Harvard president Larry Summers, and the polymathic economist Tyler Cowen. Honestly with Bari Weiss: The New Founders America Needs The good people at UATX, where I'm proud to be on the board, are not waiting for the broken status quo to change. We welcome all who share our mission to pursue a truly liberating educationand hope that other founders follow our example. We believe human beings think and learn better when they gather in dedicated locations, where they are, to some extent, insulated from the quotidian struggle to make ends meet, and where there is no fundamental distinction between those who teach and those who learn, beyond the extent of their knowledge and wisdom. ", "We are alarmed by the illiberalism and censoriousness prevalent in America's most prestigious universities and what it augurs for the country," the school's, reads. The venture, called the University of Austin and headquartered in the eponymous city, was officially unveiled on Monday by co-founder Pano Kanelos, who supposedly left his job as president of St. Johns College in Annapolis in order to help launch the Texas-based institution. But the launch of UATX, and the vociferous reaction it has inspired, already serve as a cautionary tale about the notion of objectivity in modern American life how seductive the claim to neutral ground can be, and how powerful, but perilous, a tool its become in the culture-war toolbox. But according to a Cicero filing from December, the nonprofit reported zero financialassets and no full-time employees. And students will presumably be paying money to access this material, of course. 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