Brand-new 'University of Austin' launches with controversial board of directors
Just a few blocks from the sprawling University of Texas at Austin campus is a new college called appropriately and confusingly the University of Austin. (It's also, as one Twitter user pointed out, the name of the fictional college in the 2000 film Road Trip.)
Announced on November 8 via Bari Weiss' Substack, the university is built for "witches who refuse to burn." According to its website, what makes the University of Austin different is a "commitment to freedom of inquiry," "an innovative curriculum," and "a new financial model" that promises to lower tuition. It's also worth noting that the website URL ends not with an .edu, but rather an .org. and its address on Rio Grande Street puts it in the heart of West Campus, a neighborhood filled with off-campus housing for UT students.
Along with Weiss, the polarizing former New York Times op-ed editor who famously resigned from her post in 2020 after accusing the paper of creating a hostile work environment, the school's board of advisors is a mix of high-brow academics, journalists, controversial thought leaders, and the somewhat puzzling addition of award-winning playwright David Mamet.
"We are a dedicated crew that grows by the day," writes Pano Kanelos, former president of St. John's College in Annapolis, in the launch letter. "Our backgrounds and experiences are diverse; our political views differ. What unites us is a common dismay at the state of modern academia and a recognition that we can no longer wait for the cavalry. And so we must be the cavalry."
Read more: https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/University-of-Austin-bari-weiss-david-mamet-16602695.php
My first impression is that the "innovative curriculum" may not be suitable to receive accreditation which means that a degree has little value.
My second impression is that there are some sketchy players involved in this scheme, or is that scam.
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