Manifesto for a new university in Austin

[Diogenes]

You don't have to be Ayn Rand to notice that none of the discussions about inequality coming from the left give any consideration to how different racial or demographic groups have different habits.
ETA: Asian students study harder than white ones and also outperform them scholastically. Surprised?

[Citation Needed]

Or will you just claim that any published social science that doesn't fit your narrative is the *spooky* left wing?

[whynotbc]

From their FAQ:
"WILL UATX RECEIVE PUBLIC FUNDING?
UATX has no plans to accept public funding. But we are researching the effect of public funding on students and on research grants."

What does researching the effect of public funding on research grants even mean?

Earlier they state they want to be financially independent. Am I correct, the no public funding is to avoid federal and state laws/regulations that are tied to accepting federal funding?

Also, $250 million to start a college? They want to buy land in Austin for a campus as they are going all-in on the in-person experience with a liberal education. Land and construction costs aren't cheap. Even if $250 million was the endowment that would be initially $12.5 million if going with 5% used to fund. They state they want to provide significant financial aid. I get they are going basic on student life. No government funds, so I guess no accommodations office and fewer staff members as no paperwork that is associated with.  Still will need IT, faculty members (personalized liberal arts), registrar's office especially given the format of the academic records suggested, business office, facilities, advancement, and it appears communications/marketing.

[Wahoo Redux]

Colleges are failing and retrenching all over North America, and these people want to start a new one.

Man, that is one big outgassing of conservative frustration.

[dismalist]

Colleges are failing and retrenching all over North America, and these people want to start a new one.

Man, that is one big outgassing of conservative frustration.

No, man, that's healthy competition. :-)

Everyone likes competition in the markets in which they buy. Everyone hates it in the markets in which they sell.

[Wahoo Redux]

Colleges are failing and retrenching all over North America, and these people want to start a new one.

Man, that is one big outgassing of conservative frustration.

No, man, that's healthy competition. :-)

Everyone likes competition in the markets in which they buy. Everyone hates it in the markets in which they sell.

Personally, I would LOVE to see rich people cultivating little colleges all over the continent.  I just think this sounds like someone trying to reinvent fishing in a mill creek. 

Just another angry conservative melodrama.  This will never get off the ground.

[dismalist]

Colleges are failing and retrenching all over North America, and these people want to start a new one.

Man, that is one big outgassing of conservative frustration.

No, man, that's healthy competition. :-)

Everyone likes competition in the markets in which they buy. Everyone hates it in the markets in which they sell.

Personally, I would LOVE to see rich people cultivating little colleges all over the continent.  I just think this sounds like someone trying to reinvent fishing in a mill creek. 

Just another angry conservative melodrama.  This will never get off the ground.

Maybe, maybe not. Important is for it to have a legal possibility of succeeding.

[Wahoo Redux]

Um...would it have an "illegal" possibility of succeeding?

Like...Meth U?  Tony Soprano College of Free Thought?  Trump University? 

[dismalist]

Um...would it have an "illegal" possibility of succeeding?

Like...Meth U?  Tony Soprano College of Free Thought?  Trump University?

Its, and others', success could be made illegal.

[Wahoo Redux]

Um...would it have an "illegal" possibility of succeeding?

Like...Meth U?  Tony Soprano College of Free Thought?  Trump University?

Its, and others', success could be made illegal.

It's been interesting talking to you tonight, Big-D.

There is a whole new level of paranoid crazy in certain strands of political thought.

[dismalist]

It's been interesting talking to you tonight, Big-D.

There is a whole new level of paranoid crazy in certain strands of political thought.

Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they're not after me! :-)

Buona notte.

[mahagonny]

If they do get off the ground I would be interested to see their mission statement. They say a lot about what is wrong with academia today that rings true to me, but they don't say much about how things came to be so wrong. One theory that should be looked into is that the probationary period that culminates in the award of tenure breeds conformity. And is tenure is problem because it undermines a college's need to have a moral mission that everyone is on board with, as William F. Buckley believed? They don't seem to be going there. They seem to be going in the direction of wide ideological diversity as someone has pointed out here. But how does that remain over decades? How is it monitored. Of course this is a strange question to ask on a forum where people hope the school will fail. Anyone who quits her job at the NYT because they're intolerant (Weiss) is asking for it.
ETA: As for predicting the school will fail, it probably comes from many of the same people who thought Hillary would win.

[Hegemony]

It's interesting that the new universities being founded seem to be principally on ideological grounds, cf. the New College of the Humanities in London.

Some of the people going in on the University of Austin are scholars I have a great deal of respect for. Some I disagree with, but no more than I disagree with some of my own colleagues. A few, however, are shoddy thinkers with a shtick of sensationalist abrasiveness who don't belong in any institution of higher education. In that regard, I worry about the standards of whoever is doing the hiring. We'll see which aspect prevails.

[mahagonny]

You don't have to be Ayn Rand to notice that none of the discussions about inequality coming from the left give any consideration to how different racial or demographic groups have different habits.
ETA: Asian students study harder than white ones and also outperform them scholastically. Surprised?

[Citation Needed]

Or will you just claim that any published social science that doesn't fit your narrative is the *spooky* left wing?

The published social science that shows that studying harder doesn't lead to more success. Haven't seen it.

[marshwiggle]

It's interesting that the new universities being founded seem to be principally on ideological grounds, cf. the New College of the Humanities in London.

Some of the people going in on the University of Austin are scholars I have a great deal of respect for. Some I disagree with, but no more than I disagree with some of my own colleagues. A few, however, are shoddy thinkers with a shtick of sensationalist abrasiveness who don't belong in any institution of higher education. In that regard, I worry about the standards of whoever is doing the hiring. We'll see which aspect prevails.

I think their timeline is long enough (2024 to start their undergrad curriculum) that if they get going, there will be changes from who's on board now. If/when they're actually able to make real employment offers, people will have to make decisions, including who actually wants to move to Austin. (I have never been to Austin and I have nothing against it. For any institution in any PHYSICAL location there are going to be people willing to move there and others who aren't.)

TL;DR - I wouldn't worry about that much at this point.

[Aster]

Real estate prices in Austin are astronomical. It seems peculiar that someone would want to build an entire new university there. There is much cheaper real estate pretty much anywhere else in Texas.

But it they want to build in Austin, I expect that this thing will be about the size and shape of a for-profit campus, existing as a couple of 5-story buildings shoe-horned into a 1-acre lot.

And... doing strange things is part and parcel of the Austin way.

Keep Austin Weird.