Will the Promise of the New University of Austin Fulfill the Hopes of Higher-Ed Reform?
Some of the World's Greatest Minds are Creating a New American University
The University of Austin, an upstart higher-ed institution put together by persons wanting to promote academic freedom, open inquiry, and quintessentially liberal values (including Niall Ferguson, Ayan Hirsi Ali, Peter Boghossian, Jonathan Haidt, Bari Weiss, and many others), have begun special summer programs (the Forbidden Courses program was offered during the summers of 2022 and 2023) and have hopes of beginning undergraduate courses in fall 2024. The institution is also planning to develop graduate programs over time.
The organization currently operates as a nonprofit and it is not currently accredited. Accreditation can take a decade or more for a new school, and that is without further red tape and ideological resistance that may yet stand in the way. Without accreditation, the school will mostly attract those who care more about intellectual curiosity than the average college-bound careerist, which may be a good thing. The fact that freeform discourse and academic rigor has become something to be found outside of traditional colleges and universities speaks to the need for something like what the University of Austin is trying to do.
For those outside the academy and for those who have not spent time on a college campus in a decade or more, it may be surprising to find that this need exists. One need not be a conservative, as I am not, to know that academic freedom is at risk at many higher-ed institutions. This has become such a right-wing talking point, in fact, that it has caused knee-jerk leftists (especially those who are older) to think that it must not be true.
It is true, however, and something must be done about it.
We can know that this is the case by looking at many of the people involved in the creation of the University of Austin, many of whom come from the left.
One institution will not be enough, but perhaps the University of Austin's mission will see other new colleges with similar aims rise up, and maybe--just maybe—established institutions will also recognize that the entire point of a liberal education is to foster thoughtful human beings who are capable of abstract reasoning and critical thought.
In two weeks, my conversation from a few years ago with Peter Boghossian--himself a person of the left and one of the founders of the new university--will be shared here at History Killers. Though the conversation was only back in early 2020, it was in many ways a lifetime ago and a whole world away. At the time, Boghossian was best known for his part in the Grievance Studies Hoax and was still a professor of philosophy at Portland State University. Neither of us had any sense that in a month's time a pandemic and lockdowns would define the next couple years, that he would ultimately resign from Portland State, and that he would be among the founders of a new university that would seek to reclaim the best of what higher education is about.
Stay tuned for that time capsule conversation in two weeks.
[James M. Masnov is a writer, historian, and lecturer. He is the author of Rights Reign Supreme: An Intellectual History of Judicial Review and the Supreme Court, available here. His first book, History Killers and Other Essays by an Intellectual Historian, is available here.]