University of Austin was founded on free speech. How’s its first year?
Would being able to say whatever you want, whenever you want – no matter how offensive – make a difference in where you attend college?
How do those classroom discussions look?
Since September, 92 students have been experiencing what is billed as radical free speech as the inaugural class of scholars at the newly minted University of Austin.
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Would being able to say whatever you want, whenever you want, make a difference in where you attend college? In Texas, the University of Austin experiments in its first year with blending radical free speech with higher education.
Founded by a cadre of conservatives, and with donations from wealthy business leaders including billionaire Bill Ackman, who bemoaned that education was full of “woke” policies, UATX took off with a promise to any who would join their cause that they were the anti-liberal school. Here, founders say, fear of political retribution or public cancellation is nonexistent.
“That’s the classical reason universities were founded,” says Mike Shires, chief of staff and senior vice president for strategy and operations. There is a perception in society and throughout much of higher education, he says, where there are “families of ideas” that people are not allowed to talk about. Some of those topics include things like identity, climate, and politics.
“You’re not allowed to raise ideas that don’t conform to some sort of predetermined model. We were invented as an institution, not to blow that up, but create a modern example of how learning and education and conversation and discourse, and discourse and civil discourse can happen in a university environment,” says Dr. Shires, who is also a professor of economics and public policy.
At least 28 degree-granting colleges and universities shut down in 2024, with more expected by the end of this academic year. So UATX is not only a new college opening amid a trend of closures; it is a new school with a $200 million endowment. Broadcast news operations want interviews, as well as print media. Students are applying to attend and faculty want to teach there for the promise of free speech.
Zach Greenberg, faculty legal defense and student association counsel for Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), says that the group is encouraged by UATX.
“We’re glad to see that the University of Austin’s policies provide robust protection for student and faculty free speech rights. These policies, together with statements by UATX leadership extolling the importance of free speech, demonstrate a strong commitment to protecting expressive freedom,” Mr. Greenberg writes via email.
He references a 2024 FIRE survey that ranked how private universities rate in terms of free speech, with Harvard University at the bottom.
“It’s refreshing to see the creation of a new university dedicated to this important value. We encourage UATX and universities nationwide to ensure their actions conform to their free speech policies,” Mr. Greenberg says.
A new school finds its footing
UATX was conceived in 2021. It drew instant headlines, and skepticism, when author and The Free Press editor Bari Weiss, a founder and member of its board of trustees, first announced the university and its mission. Its board of advisors boast prominent names in academia, including former Harvard President Larry Summers and West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee. The inaugural class was 26% of the students who applied to the school. So far, there are 18 faculty members, including 16 who are full-time.
The school has come with criticism – including being called anti-woke. Robert Zimmer, at the time the chancellor at the University of Chicago, resigned in November 2021 as a member of an advisory board, saying that UATX “made a number of statements about higher education in general, largely quite critical, that diverged very significantly from my own views.” Acclaimed Harvard scientist Steven Pinker also resigned from that board within weeks of the school’s founding. Evolutionary biologist Heather Heying, a founder, resigned in 2022, saying the institution did not represent her “scientific and pedagogical values.”
“What I would tell a parent is that, if your kid comes here … they’re going to learn how to think, they’re going to learn how to communicate,” and how to interact respectfully, Dr. Shires says, describing his personal marketing pitch. He tells parents that by the time UATX is done training their children, that they are going to know how to do things that will serve them throughout their lives.
“That’s really what we’re selling to these parents: It’s an opportunity for your children to come here and be transformed in a way that lets them pursue things and actually do it well,” he says.
Dr. Shires says he cannot speak about the school’s diversity, because it doesn’t keep statistics on race or gender. A Monitor reporter was also not allowed to visit the campus at the Scarbrough Building at Sixth Street and Congress Avenue in downtown Austin. A navy-blue poster in a floor-to-ceiling window beckons potential students to “Dare to think” and “Join us in the fearless pursuit of truth.” The school’s promise on another window around the corner assures that “UATX will prepare thoughtful and ethical innovators, builders, leaders, and citizens through fair-minded open inquiry and sustained civil discourse.”
Jack Erickson is a student at UATX. A freshman from the Boston area, he is interested in entrepreneurship.
“I was looking at a lot of big schools, and really, when I found the University of Austin, it just seemed like I was much more consequential to the success of the school, and that they were taking a step in the right direction for higher education,” Mr. Erickson says.
He had already applied to multiple schools before he found the startup in January 2024. He says his story is different from some of his current classmates. A number told him that they hadn’t made plans to attend college until they got a founders scholarship. As members of the first class, that gave them a full ride – the equivalent of $32,000 in tuition.
“My problem with small private schools is that they would send me a bill for $85,000, and I didn’t think that I would get a good ROI on that education,” Mr. Erickson says. He then applied to large public schools in the South, with his top prospect being University of Georgia. UGA gave him a partial scholarship, but also wanted him to contribute $30,000 annually. He chose UATX with his parents’ blessing.
“I looked at it and said, ‘I’ve always been a risk taker.’ … And University of Austin just offered a really unique experience, especially being in the first class,” he continues.
That unique experience also looks a little something like this: He and other classmates get shuttle service to and from their apartments, which they share with University of Texas at Austin students. He co-founded the Austin Exchange group, where they have student mixers with UT Austin students and invite guest speakers, thinkers, and entrepreneurs to come and talk. He goes on golf outings as part of the golf club. He says that he is about to start a high-paying internship at 2 Hour Learning for up to 30 hours a week. He will be working on a project to develop a health and hydration app. His friends from Boston who are freshmen at big-name schools don’t have internships yet, he says.
“Putting down roots”
Inaugural students got scholarships to attend UATX. Since the school is not accredited, it does not offer the stability of tenure. Instead, professors have five-year contracts.
If a faculty member feels as though their academic freedoms are being curtailed, they can take the dispute to the school’s Supreme Court, Dr. Shires says, which comprises legal scholars from around the country.
“We didn’t want to create an environment where [tenure] was the model, where it’s literally, I have to cross the threshold, and then I don’t have to work anymore,” says Dr. Shires, who points out that he gave up tenure at Pepperdine University to come to UATX.
“The first purpose of tenure is to say the university can’t fire you if you say things that irritate them. It’s a free speech argument. We recognize that that is something that people are legitimately worried about,” Dr. Shires says. “The downside to tenure is that … basically you lose your leverage over your expectations of faculty performance.”
Because UATX is not nationally accredited, faculty can’t compete for federal research grants. Instead, they rely on a bank of wealthy school partners and private foundations.
“When you take a faculty position, you’re putting down roots, so I’m making an investment to be here for multiple decades,” says Eliah Overbey, assistant professor of bioastronautics. Dr. Overbey came to UATX off of postdoctoral research at Cornell University’s medical school. Now she likes that she gets to design new courses from scratch.
“There’s a lot of professors that look at these brand-name schools and really want that brand name. I think that’s a really bad approach, because ultimately, at the end of the day, you’re still going to be judged on your output and what you produce,” Dr. Overbey says.
The lack of accreditation doesn’t bother her. Schools typically earn accreditation after the first cohort graduates, which will be in 2028. Not having tenure isn’t a big worry for her, she says, because she is working on building a legacy at the school and has found support for her ideas. Dr. Overbey says that she is on a mission to make spaceflight more accessible for students, entrepreneurs, and researchers, and she has found support at UATX.
She reached out to her future employer after hearing about the school launching on a podcast, and got on the mailing list. She attended a talk at the Manhattan Institute where UATX President Pano Kanelos spoke about how universities needed to be reformed, and introduced herself to him.
This all happened when she was thinking of going in a different teaching direction.
“I was looking at MIT,” says Dr. Overbey.
“I was starting my application for that, but it was around the time of Oct. 7th, and I was watching the president of MIT testify before Congress,” says Dr. Overbey. She had to write a statement on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as part of her application, but says she stopped after watching Sally Kornbluth testify.
“Watching the president of that university and the DEI culture of universities more generally turn away Jews … I just couldn’t,” she says. “It felt like a personal violation to do that.”
The rest is history. She is almost two terms down, with, she hopes, many more to go.
