The University of Austin Has Opened its Doors With a Mission to Return to True Academic Freedom

The University of Austin Has Opened its Doors With a Mission to Return to True Academic Freedom

The University of Austin was conceived in 2021 as a reaction to the woke, leftist culture that has consumed higher education. Bari Weiss of the Free Press joined together with a small group of open minded academics and laid the groundwork for what would be a more politically balanced campus.

The school is not yet accredited, but has already opened and enrolled its first class.

Inside Higher Ed reports:

University of Austin Enters Its First Academic Year

University of Austin, a new higher ed institution founded by high-profile conservative figures, officially welcomed its inaugural class on Monday.

The university, sometimes referred to as UATX, markets itself as an institution born out of alarm over the “rising tide of illiberalism and censoriousness prevalent in America’s universities” and says it is committed to “the pursuit of truth.”

In his speech at convocation, President Pano Kanelos, who formerly served as president of St. John’s College, described the university’s 92-student cohort as “pioneers.”

“As I look across this room, I do not see students or faculty or staff or loved ones,” Kanelos said. “I see a room filled with the courageous, the bold, with pioneers, with heroes. I see a room filled with those who have said, emphatically, ‘We will not accept passively what we have been handed, the givens are not good enough, we will create anew.’”

“We have come together, all of us, as founders,” he added.

Provost Jacob Howland told students in his opening remarks that launching the university involved trekking through “rough terrain.”

“In under three years, we have built a rough-hewn yet sturdy and serviceable outpost of real education,” Howland said.

The university is not accredited but received approval from the state of Texas to grant degrees, which allowed it to begin accepting applications last November.

You can explore the school’s website here.

You can also view a campus tour video below:

This is from the speech by UATX President Pano Kanelos referenced above. It was published in the Free Press:

Ours is a revolutionary institution — revolutionary in the proper sense. False revolutions propose only the tearing down of the established order; they are an exercise in nihilism. Yet the word revolution—in its original sense, revolvere—means to revolve, to turn back to a point of origin, with the purpose of renewing an original spirit or ideal.

To what are we returning? Not to some pallid vision of what universities looked like a decade or two or three ago, before their current malaise. Not to some nostalgic notion of ivy-covered quads and fusty dons. Our return is even more radical, radical in the sense of radix, roots, in that we are returning to the very roots of the Western intellectual tradition, to the very roots of the civilization that brought forward these extraordinary institutions called universities.

We are returning to a time when living the life of the mind was itself a bold adventure, when the world was afire with contending and clashing ideas, when everything under the sun was scrutinized, and measured, and queried, which gave birth to a civilization that was restless, and curious, and risk-taking, a Promethean civilization that sought the light of truth, even when that light was searing or sometimes even blinding.

The United States needs more alternative schools like the University of Austin.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of something that will flourish.

Featured image via YouTube.

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