‘ Higher training needs competitors,’ one backer says
In recent years, several prestigious universities have lost a number of ultra-rich donors for various reasons, most notably because of their acceptance of diversity, equity, and participation, and their willingness to accept prevalent racism, as well as their willingness to kowtow to cultural demands.
If the donations coming into a newly established institution in the heart of Texas are any indication, that does n’t mean the 1 % are giving up on higher education.
The University of Austin, which recently welcomed its first class of students, has a parade of multi-millionaires and billionaires who have pledged some$ 200 million to support the start-up program, according to The Wall Street Journal, which was published on Sunday.
A thriving school in Texas with 92 students is being supported by businessmen who are upset with aristocracy colleges, according to the Journal, citing sources including tech mogul Peter Thiel, real estate developer Harlan Crow, investor Alex Magaro, and real estate mogul Jeff Yass.
Crow told the Journal,” Most higher education nowadays seems to want to reject Western achievement and the achievements of European civilizations in their entirety.” ” Some people think that’s a terrible idea”.
Yass, in a speech to the Journal, said:” Higher training needs competition. Philanthropists should start new colleges in accordance with the founding principles of National educational institutions.
The post continued,” Whether potential students find UATX as appealing as donors remains to be seen.” ” UATX now is unable to obtain certifications, and it can only be granted it after its first-class graduates. The first class of students is receiving full-tuition scholarships worth about$ 130,000 as a way to reduce the risk students are taking. More than 40 % of the class’s learners are from Texas, and a second are women.
As The College Fix has recently reported, the University of Austin was launched to function as a place where conservatives, republicans, classical liberals — and liberals — may find a place where open discussion and civil conversation is welcomed and encouraged, yet when tackling controversial issues.
” We do n’t want to be Yale”, its President President Pano Kanelos told The Fix in a 2023 interview.
The degree one holds does not determine the caliber of their thinking or instruction, Kanelos said at the time. We want to welcome those people to our institution because they exhibit the kind of passion for inquiry that Socrates had.
Last summer, the university hosted a” Forbidden Courses” program, where there were” no trigger warnings, microaggressions or safe spaces”, The Fix reported.
” Conversation was bound only by the university’s statement of principles: ‘ freedom of inquiry, freedom of conscience, and civil discourse.'”
The founders of UATX promise” an education without the censorship and enforced ideology present at most traditional universities”, as The College Fix , reported , in November 2021.
” We are building something extraordinary in Austin”, philosopher Peter Boghossian, a founding faculty fellow, told , The Fix , at the time. A genuine alternative to the illiberalism and censorship that have ruled our university systems is UATX, according to the statement.
MORE: World’s newest university established in Austin
IMAGE: University of Austin
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