Update: Many further articles by and about the founding group and this university are now appearing: New York Times column here, New York Post column here by co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and by internationally acclaimed historian Niall Ferguson, another founder, here. Crain’s Chicago also has a column about certain faculty members of the University of Chicago and University of Illinois who are helping the effort.
You have to love this: The university is “an interesting cocktail of typically American ingredients — defiance and optimism,” said John Tomasi, the incoming president of Heterodox Academy, quoted in the NYT.
By: Mark Glennon
The sting of competition solves most problems, and so it may be for higher education.
A project I have been following for some months was publicly announced today — a new institution dedicated to the classic principles for which universities are supposed to stand. It is to be called the University of Austin, and it is historic.
The new university is largely the product of work spearheaded by Joe Lonsdale, Nial Ferguson, and Bari Weiss. Lonsdale is an enormously successful tech entrepreneur who fled Silicon Valley for Texas, and he has assembled an extraordinary team to lead the effort to launch the new school. Lonsdale also founded a public policy venture called the Cicero Institute, which seeks to reform state laws to allow more innovation and bottom-up solutions.
The new venture is described publicly today for the first time by Pano Kenelos, who left his position as president of St. John’s College to head the new university. As he outlines, he and the team behind the launch intend to deliver a drastic alternative to the culture of illiberal mediocrity that is now standard in higher education in Illinois and across the nation. The new university will be dedicated to classical liberalism. They will have none of the woke cancel culture now entrenched at most colleges and universities.
Elon Musk recently tweeted that he was considering something similar in Texas. No word yet on whether he is is part of the U of Austin effort.
Envy Austin for becoming the home of the new school, but hope that the competition it provides will spark reform here in Illinois and everywhere else. In the meantime, withhold contributions to institutions that are broken. Only defunding, and this new competition, will bring about the reforms needed to purge the rot so deeply enshrined in so many schools.
More columns and op-eds will be coming out this week from others on the founding team.
This column was updated by changing the third paragraph to more correctly describe some of the people behind the project.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Sounded like St. Johns to me before I read that it had that school’s former prexy involved. Long ago the University of Chicago used to be a Great Books school after Hutchins imported Mortimer Adler from Columbia. Unfortunately, those who follow school rankings will notice UC has slipped from its former exalted status, now even behind Northwestern. Can UC’s new president restore its former reputation or will he just play Hans Brinker?
I love the idea of this new University. This is a great post.
In fairness, I think Elon Musk’s tweet was in jest. But sometimes he runs with things, and you never know what he’s thinking.
Elon’s tweet was that he believed he could fund his new university on merchandise alone. Its name:
Texas Institute of Technology & Science.
Musk has been part of the discussions with this group, but it’s unclear whether he will be part of it or is thinking about his own thing.
One of the hardest things to do for new universities is to get “accredited” by the Department of Education. One of the great things Elon Musk did to the space industry was compete and make NASA look slow. He didn’t ask for permission. Question is will U of Austin seek approval from the US Government, or will it go off on its own with its own student funding (no govt loans and no govt research dollars). Love the effort.
Jeff, I am sure Lonsdale knows the rule from the startup world that you and I know: Don’t ask for permission, ask who is going to stop you.
Of course, the lab for this new ‘traditional minded’ academic institution is to be a free and prosperous Red State. Best of luck!?
Winning elections is a necessary first step, but this doesn’t end until the root of the problem is eradicated – progressive control of academia. Kudos to Univ of Austin for fighting that battle.
When can I enroll my children!!??
Better yet, tax endowments’ profits when corruption (use of funds for private individuals’ benefit of, like, I don’t know, trips on Jeff Epstein’s jet) revealed.
https://www.openthebooks.com/waste-of-the-week-on-the-national-desk-ivy-league-endowment-could-exceed-1t-by-2048/