With so many American colleges and universities firmly in the grip of progressives who are determined to use the schools to push their illiberal, divisive notions on students, it’s encouraging to hear about alternatives. In recent years, a number of colleges have been created to give students an old-fashioned, non-ideological education. The best known among them is the University of Austin.
In today’s Martin Center article, Professor Richard Vedder writes about the progress that has been made on getting UATX up and running.
He writes, “I recently attended a summit of higher-education thinkers and philanthropists sponsored by the new University of Austin (UATX). UATX will admit its first class in the fall of 2024, but it is already doing a number of academic activities — for example, running short summer seminars for crackerjack students at other schools — as a trial run for a future as a full-fledged university.”
What a good idea. Those students will go back to their schools with a better appreciation for what higher education should be.
The plans are to open next year with between 100 and 200 students, and in time grow to rival universities like Chicago and Princeton. There will be no faculty tenure. Nevertheless, an impressive group of scholars is eager to teach at UATX.
“At a reception at the estate of board chair and high-tech entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale,” Vedder continues, “I saw some of the best and brightest names in American capitalist innovation mingling with an equally distinguished group of academics (including professors from schools not mentioned above — for example, the University of Chicago). There were scientists and classicists, artists and economists.”
The Martin Center will keep up on developments with UATX.