(New York) In July 2020, journalist Bari Weiss became a heroine of the American right by slamming the door of the New York Times. In her resignation letter, the one who had been working since 2017 in the Opinions pages of the prestigious newspaper affirmed that “intellectual curiosity” was not an asset, but “a handicap”.
Earlier this year, the 37-year-old American joined other disrupted journalists, including Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan, on the Substack platform. She has since published a newsletter that allows her to express herself freely (and in a very lucrative way) on censorship, the culture of banishment (cancel culture) and other drifts attributed to “wokism”.
And, a week ago, she created a surprise by announcing the founding of the first anti-woke, therefore, to say.
PHOTO FROM BARI WEISS’S TWITTER ACCOUNT
Bari Weiss, former journalist of New York Times
“We are tired of complaining about the failure of higher education. So we decided to do something. We are announcing a new university dedicated to the fearless search for the truth: @uaustinorg, ”she tweeted.
His tweet was accompanied by a link to his Substack account, where the first president of the University of Austin (or UATX), Pano Kanelos, former president of St. John’s College in Annapolis, signs a text explaining the reason for ‘be of the establishment.
It’s not just that we are letting the students down as individuals; we are failing the nation.
Pano Kanelos, first president of the University of Austin
“Our democracy is falling apart, in large part because our education system has become illiberal and produces citizens and leaders who are unable and unwilling to participate in the core activities of democratic governance,” writes -he after having denounced the “harassment” which pushed professors to leave their universities.
A Who’s Who of criticism from the left
The list of founding trustees and advisers of the University of Austin is a Who’s Who of criticism of the American left and the perverse way its concerns – diversity, intersectionality, fairness, etc. – have contaminated, according to them, society, and especially the university.
SCREENSHOTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF AUSTIN WEBSITE
“We are building a university dedicated to the intrepid search for the truth,” “We are done waiting for universities to recover, so we are building a new one,” read the homepage of the site. ‘University of Austin.
Along with journalists Bari Weiss and Andrew Sullivan, it includes historian Niall Ferguson, linguist and psychologist Steven Pinker, playwright David Mamet, economist Glenn Loury, entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Also in the group are Peter Boghossian, former professor of philosophy at Portland State University, and Kathleen Stock, former professor of philosophy at Sussex University. The first resigned last September, denouncing a university which “has transformed a bastion of free thought into a factory of social justice”. The other resigned last month after being accused of transphobia.
The University of Austin does not yet have a campus in the Texas capital. It is not yet accredited and is not yet authorized to operate as a private higher education institution.
However, the university plans to offer a program called “Forbidden Courses” next summer, where students will be encouraged to debate “the most provocative issues that often lead to censorship or self-censorship in many universities”.
According to its promoters, a master’s program in entrepreneurship and leadership will be offered from fall 2022 and a full undergraduate program will follow in fall 2024.
And why did the founders of the University of Austin choose the capital of Texas? The answer can be found on the establishment’s website: “If it’s good enough for Elon Musk and Joe Rogan, it’s good enough for us.” ”
The Tesla boss announced last October the move of his company’s headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin. As for the comedian and host, he has lived there for over a year.
Texas is also synonymous with a minimal state.
Another Trump University?
Of course, the announcement of Bari Weiss aroused mixed reactions. Conservatives hailed this initiative, which comes at a time when “the university elite needs to be shaken up”, in the words of Ross Douthat, one of the conservative feathers who continues to write in the New York Times.
But even commentators sympathetic to the University of Austin’s cause have expressed some skepticism about the project’s feasibility. Beyond the issue of funding, how can we convince students to enroll in a university which is not yet accredited and whose diplomas, if any, will be of uncertain value?
In the meantime, the critics of Bari Weiss et al., Already numerous, have given themselves to their heart’s content, calling the University of Austin a “Fox News of higher education” or, worse yet, comparing it to Trump. University.
Tristan Snell was one of the first to make this comparison. He had sued Trump University as an assistant attorney general for New York State.
“Is the University of Austin accredited as a school in the State of Texas?” He asked in a series of tweets. “Is it allowed to call itself a university?” The parallels with Trump University might be closer than you think. ”
Critics of Bari Weiss have not forgotten, on the other hand, one of the greatest contradictions of his personal trajectory. During her time as a student at Columbia University, the Pittsburgh native participated in numerous campaigns of harassment against Arab and Muslim professors targeted for their criticism of Israel.
Three years ago, Bari Weiss denied participating in such campaigns, claiming to have simply defended “the rights of students to express their views in class.”
A fearless search for the truth would make her lie.