{"id":137136,"date":"2023-11-10T01:12:42","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T06:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=137136"},"modified":"2023-11-10T07:47:16","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T12:47:16","slug":"worlds-newest-university-founded-in-austin-following-texas-accreditation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/worlds-newest-university-founded-in-austin-following-texas-accreditation\/","title":{"rendered":"World&#8217;s newest university established in Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>The University of Austin will offer 100 full four-year scholarships to its first students, leaders said<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A nonprofit aimed at transforming and restoring education became a university and is accepting applications.<\/p>\n<p>The University of Austin &#8212; formerly\u00a0 known as UATX &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uaustinorg\/status\/1722276931566288973\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced<\/a> its new status Wednesday on X, following recent state certification, and opened admissions to undergraduates for fall 2024.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The state of Texas has officially certified UATX as the University of Austin, now operating and recognized as a degree-granting university,&#8221; the school wrote.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-137137 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/PanoKanelos72.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"207\" height=\"242\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/PanoKanelos72.jpg 207w, https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/PanoKanelos72-94x110.jpg 94w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 207px) 100vw, 207px\" \/>University President Pano Kanelos (<em>pictured<\/em>) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2023\/11\/08\/university-austin-uatx-launch-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a><em> The Texas Tribune<\/em> Wednesday that the school&#8217;s first college students will be given the opportunity to &#8220;help us build the university or build the culture of the university, create the institution with us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>School leaders will offer full four-year scholarships to 100 in the school&#8217;s first undergraduate class, using some of the $200 million in donations they have raised since founders announced UATX in 2021, according to <em>The Tribune.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Undergraduate applications are now open!<\/p>\n<p>The state of Texas has officially certified UATX as the University of Austin, now operating and recognized as a degree-granting university. For information on our undergraduate program and how to apply, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lprwXYzYCs\">https:\/\/t.co\/lprwXYzYCs<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6IVHERkWBZ\">pic.twitter.com\/6IVHERkWBZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; University of Austin (@uaustinorg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uaustinorg\/status\/1722276931566288973?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 8, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>UATX submitted an application for accreditation in Dec. 2022 with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.<\/p>\n<p>In October, the board permitted UATX to start granting degrees with the authorization of a two-year certificate, which the board can renew every two years for an eight-year term while the school seeks national accreditation.<\/p>\n<p>National accreditation is required for students to receive federal Pell grants to cover tuition and fees.<\/p>\n<p>Bari Weiss, founder of <em>The Free Press<\/em> and member of the university&#8217;s board of advisors, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/feed\/update\/urn:li:activity:7128397680849883136\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a> on LinkedIn yesterday that the school received its first class of 2028 undergraduate application just one minute after it had announced its official certification as the University of Austin.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>&#8216;We&#8217;re building something extraordinary in Austin,&#8217; founder said<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Two years ago, the founders of UATX \u201cpromised an education without the censorship and enforced ideology present at most traditional universities,\u201d <em>The College Fix <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/its-north-star-is-truth-university-of-austin-founders-discuss-endeavor-with-the-college-fix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> in November 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are building something extraordinary in Austin,\u201d philosopher Peter Boghossian, a founding faculty fellow, told <em>The Fix <\/em>at the time. \u201cUATX is the real deal: it is a genuine alternative to the illiberalism and censoriousness that has taken over our university systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>University of Austin&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uaustin.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website<\/a> aligns the institution with &#8220;the existence of truth,&#8221; academic freedom, innovation and liberal education.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We believe great works are not antiquated relics but guides towards intellectual liberation,&#8221; according to the university.<\/p>\n<p>President Kanelos told <em>The Fix<\/em> in a January <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/we-dont-want-to-be-yale-university-of-austin-constructs-a-new-model-of-excellence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview<\/a> that UATX sought professors \u201cwho are first and foremost committed to the principles we hold of open inquiry, civil discourse, and freedom of conscience.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The university wants to attract \u201cfolks who are committed to the principles and who are going to bring the widest variety of opinions, beliefs, and experience to the table,&#8221; he said. \u201cWe\u2019re very interested in people who exhibit the kind of passion for inquiry that Socrates had, and we want to welcome those people to our institution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the summers of 2022 and 2023, UATX gathered scholars and young people in Texas for two sessions of a non-credit program of seminars, lectures and group activities, called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/the-university-of-austin-gave-me-an-adventure-in-ideas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;Forbidden Courses.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>University of Austin program director Jacob Howland, in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/article\/college-of-the-future\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">essay<\/a> in the Winter 2023 edition of <em>City Journal<\/em>, wrote that UATX will succeed because of its success with &#8220;Forbidden Courses,&#8221; thousands of job inquiries from potential professors, and because of its donors, \u201cmore than 60 of whom made gifts of six, seven, or eight figures.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Howland said the new university will stand apart as other colleges increasingly provide an inferior, politicized product.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A crisis of illiberalism engulfs American higher education,&#8221; according to Howland. He noted more than 80 percent of college students surveyed reported self-censoring in a 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/reports.collegepulse.com\/college-free-speech-rankings-2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">survey<\/a> co-commissioned by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and RealClearEducation.<\/p>\n<p>Even more, many college professors serve as agents of &#8220;cultural repudiation&#8221; and &#8220;act as if their job were to reverse the expansion of mind and heart that education is meant to accomplish,&#8221; Howland wrote. Colleges routinely teach students &#8220;that our aspirations for truth, beauty, and goodness have been mere projections of the lowest instincts: instruments of domination and servitude, power, and systemic injustice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Steering clear of both political indoctrination and relativism, UATX has been &#8220;guided by a robust conception of human flourishing,&#8221; according to Howland. &#8220;We believe that a rigorous education reveals the basic stuff of our being and equips us to pursue what we love and do well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the founders of UATX &#8212; now the University of Austin &#8212; &#8220;are united in our belief that higher education needs radical reform and that the best way forward is to start a new university,&#8221; Howland wrote.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Disclaimer:<\/strong> <em>Maggie Kelly attended the UATX \u201cForbidden Courses\u2019 in June 2023 through a full scholarship, as did all the students accepted into the program. She wrote about her experience <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/the-university-of-austin-gave-me-an-adventure-in-ideas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/universities-validate-disordered-psychological-behavior-chris-rufo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Higher ed disorders the psyche, Chris Rufo writes<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>IMAGES: @uaustinorg\/X; St. John&#8217;s College<\/p>\n            <div class=\"article-truncate-control\">\n                <button class=\"show-complete-article\">\n                    Read More                <\/button>\n            <\/div>\n\n        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The school will offer 100 full four-year scholarships to its first students, leaders said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1269,"featured_media":137139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1367],"tags":[38169,18028,360,47537,45324,27145,32451,51787,43207,51786,46544,7723,904,37608,47661,51785,51784,45766,43206],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/UniversityofAustinbuilding72.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Oh4L-zFS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1269"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137136"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137167,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137136\/revisions\/137167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}