Tuition free 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

For many college graduates, the cost of their education wasn't justified by the results: 85% last year said, "I wish my college had better prepared me for the workplace." They paid the high price but didn't get the result they hoped for.

So, who loses when a college fails to deliver job-ready graduates? Everyone.

One wealthy individual is willing to try to change that dynamic by investing $100 million to make University of Austin tuition-free, with a vision as to how keep it free in the future:

"UATX will prepare students to become the next generation's leading entrepreneurs, innovators, scientists, and philanthropists. In turn, these successful graduates will financially support future generations of students . . ."

"UATX will live [or] die by the excellence of their graduates and the success they achieve in the world . . . If UATX doesn't deliver--in the eyes of its graduates and society--it will cease to exist. And it should."

"I'm Betting $100 Million on a New University"

UATX not Harvard

Follow-up to these posts

No phones or laptops in class, no grade inflation, no TA's leading discussion instead of professors. Students planted 2,977 American flags on 9/11 without anyone telling them to. They debate Aristotle, dress up for the symphony, and cook for each other.

This is the University of Austin (UATX). It was founded because places like Harvard totally dropped the ball in educating our young adults, and something had to be done. UATX was created to be what a university ought to be: "dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth."

Last year was their first year and they've just started their second. They've begun well. Time will tell whether they can survive the critics and establish success.

from If You Don't Want to Go to Harvard

(cont'd tomorrow)

Slavery legacy 2

Follow up to this post

One-sided arguments mislead people. Among the politically-left leaning folks in this country,  a one-sided story about race has dominated academia: that the white race is uniquely to blame for slavery. 

But it's just not true, as Coleman Hughes teaches at UATX. Most American students have been taught this one-sided narrative with twisted results like hopeless discouragement and contempt for their neighbors.

Kaizen Asiedu is a rising "influencer" online who has something to say about it.

(cont'd tomorrow)

U of Austin 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

UATX was founded to be the right kind of university, where truth is pursued with respect for each other, with humility, with honesty. As one of the founders, Bari Weiss, put it, "grievance and resentment define the current cultural moment. It’s a dead end. We must get back to gratitude." 

In his convocation address, President Kanelos didn't just complain about the degraded state of our existing universities. He tried to clearly express what this new one was created to do.

"We are returning to the very roots of the Western . . civilization that brought forward these extraordinary institutions called universities.

"This university is dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth."

"Human beings have freedom and agency, and . .  we will learn how to use our freedom well. [Our] purpose is not simply knowledge, but wisdom."

Hopefully this new attempt at higher education will help to create a new generation of Americans dedicated not to grievance and resentment (photo), but to goodness and truth and beauty.