New University

[Dave Benke]

Its the Ross Douthat standard, something that I've offered here on occasion, that our leadership is terrible because they are decadent and unwilling to take any risks.  That our fights are so polarizing and terrible because people will only fund fights to take over/take back existing institutions instead of building new ones.  And that is all because of a lack of faith that there is anything but power.  Anything like goodness, truth or beauty. Or anything like faith, hope and love.  That any of those are worth betting a life on.

OK - and?  He's definitely in favor of new universities and Austin is exhibit 1A.

Dave Benke

[Michael Slusser]

The first president of the new university, Pano Kanelos, served as dean of Christ College at Valparaiso from 2013 to 2017.    He left to become president of St. John's College in Annapolis, the Great Books school.

I wondered at that, The two Saint John's Colleges seem to me to have already achieved what USTX hopes to do. A grand-niece of mine graduated from the one in Annapolis, and it sounded very challenging and open. Perhaps even more so than the proposed foundation.

I like Pr. Mark Brown's distillation of the Douthat viewpoint.

After I read the NYT editorial by Douthat in this morning's paper, my eye fell on a headline that said a new electric vehicle company raised nearly $90 million at its IPO. That's a new institution, and perhaps the truth is that money and stuff simply outdraw "goodness, truth or beauty. Or anything like faith, hope and love" massively in our current US society.

Peace,
Michael

[peter_speckhard]

The first president of the new university, Pano Kanelos, served as dean of Christ College at Valparaiso from 2013 to 2017.    He left to become president of St. John's College in Annapolis, the Great Books school.

That's an excellent point. He was very well regarded, at least in the circles I move in. I believe he was Orthodox and attended the little Orthodox church near campus. His focus in Christ College seemed to be on beauty and the theological significance of it, at least if I'm remembering correctly. He also would have known John Nunes from those years, since Nunes also taught classes for CC.

[peter_speckhard]

Here is a negative take from a UT prof.

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/university-of-austin-by-james-k-galbraith-2021-11?a_la=english&a_d=618e9a68cb464b268b413a5d&a_m=&a_a=click&a_s=&a_p=homepage&a_li=university-of-austin-by-james-k-galbraith-2021-11&a_pa=curated&a_ps=&a_ms=&

As usual, the problems are capitalism and conservatives' racism and sexism. But I don't think most of the main people involved consider themselves particularly conservative.

[peter_speckhard]

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/11/17/university-austin-bari-weiss-pinker-culture-politics-522800

This article points out the difficulties the new university is having. A few of the big names involved object to the idea that the new university is needed because academia in general is so flawed. In other words, by defining itself against established academia, it risks becoming just as straightjacketed. It will be interesting to follow this through the growing pains.

[Dave Benke]

My belief is that the more religious conservative folks already have their institutions of higher learning - Hillsdale.  And Bob Jones.  And a few others. There will be many lines of differentiation between Hillsdale and Austin.  Which means those on the religious right will or would eventually be forced to weigh in on why Austin is not good for your children. 

Dave Benke

[Terry W Culler]

My belief is that the more religious conservative folks already have their institutions of higher learning - Hillsdale.  And Bob Jones.  And a few others. There will be many lines of differentiation between Hillsdale and Austin.  Which means those on the religious right will or would eventually be forced to weigh in on why Austin is not good for your children. 

Dave Benke

Why do you believe Hillsdale is a religious school?  I've never had that impression.  I would agree more if you had made that observation about Grove City.  And why did you throw Bob Jones Univ. in there--is it some kind of red meat for the anti-fundamentalists among us?  And then there is Liberty, of course.  As I've read about the proposed new Univ. I see it more as a secular school that will not discriminate against those who are religious, thereby avoiding all the law suits that schools seem to always lose because they're more concerned about the snowflakes and their faculty encouragers than the Constitution of the USA

[peter_speckhard]

My belief is that the more religious conservative folks already have their institutions of higher learning - Hillsdale.  And Bob Jones.  And a few others. There will be many lines of differentiation between Hillsdale and Austin.  Which means those on the religious right will or would eventually be forced to weigh in on why Austin is not good for your children. 

Dave Benke

Wow. A lot of nonsense and bad attitude in that post, Dave, which makes it hard for "the more religiously conservative folks" among us to think you know what you're talking about. The President of Austin University is the former Dean of CC at Valpo. John Nunes is part of their founding team, which includes people of all kinds and degrees of religious interest. There is no reason whatsoever to compare it to fundamentalist schools.

Hillsdale was originally Christian, I believe, like nearly every non-state university. But today it is devoted to classic liberalism. It is a good school for liberal arts majors of any faith. There will probably be a lot of affinity between Hillsdale and Austin, the difference being that the latter will likely be more devoted to innovative funding models while Hillsdale will likely remain suspicious of any funding that seeks to set parameters on the curriculum. 

[Dave Benke]

My belief is that the more religious conservative folks already have their institutions of higher learning - Hillsdale.  And Bob Jones.  And a few others. There will be many lines of differentiation between Hillsdale and Austin.  Which means those on the religious right will or would eventually be forced to weigh in on why Austin is not good for your children. 

Dave Benke

Why do you believe Hillsdale is a religious school?  I've never had that impression.  I would agree more if you had made that observation about Grove City.  And why did you throw Bob Jones Univ. in there--is it some kind of red meat for the anti-fundamentalists among us?  And then there is Liberty, of course.  As I've read about the proposed new Univ. I see it more as a secular school that will not discriminate against those who are religious, thereby avoiding all the law suits that schools seem to always lose because they're more concerned about the snowflakes and their faculty encouragers than the Constitution of the USA

Sorry about that.  A buddy of mine sent his daughter to Hillsdale and since he's a man of the cloth I figured it was a religious school.  Grove City is unknown to me.  I think there's a big differentiation among religious schools, from the Roman Catholic Big East (formerly an important hoops league) schools like Georgetown, St. John's, Villanova, etc. to Bob Jones way on the other end.  Liberty,Wheaton and Grand Canyon are two well-enrolled Christian colleges.  Definition-wise - "snowflakes" = ?

Overall, there's another point to be made - Christian schools are in the ascendancy in this polarized era, and are picking up steam at the grade school and high school level.  Those kids will be heading to college and where will they go?  If and as this begins to effect say Big Ten schools, state universities, it will be and/or become a major thing.  Could that happen?  I think the answer is yes.  Given the overall birth rate decline and the availability of online instruction, that will make a dent.  I think.

Dave Benke

[Steven W Bohler]

My belief is that the more religious conservative folks already have their institutions of higher learning - Hillsdale.  And Bob Jones.  And a few others. There will be many lines of differentiation between Hillsdale and Austin.  Which means those on the religious right will or would eventually be forced to weigh in on why Austin is not good for your children. 

Dave Benke

Why do you believe Hillsdale is a religious school?  I've never had that impression.  I would agree more if you had made that observation about Grove City.  And why did you throw Bob Jones Univ. in there--is it some kind of red meat for the anti-fundamentalists among us?  And then there is Liberty, of course.  As I've read about the proposed new Univ. I see it more as a secular school that will not discriminate against those who are religious, thereby avoiding all the law suits that schools seem to always lose because they're more concerned about the snowflakes and their faculty encouragers than the Constitution of the USA

Sorry about that.  A buddy of mine sent his daughter to Hillsdale and since he's a man of the cloth I figured it was a religious school.  Grove City is unknown to me.  I think there's a big differentiation among religious schools, from the Roman Catholic Big East (formerly an important hoops league) schools like Georgetown, St. John's, Villanova, etc. to Bob Jones way on the other end.  Liberty,Wheaton and Grand Canyon are two well-enrolled Christian colleges.  Definition-wise - "snowflakes" = ?

Overall, there's another point to be made - Christian schools are in the ascendancy in this polarized era, and are picking up steam at the grade school and high school level.  Those kids will be heading to college and where will they go?  If and as this begins to effect say Big Ten schools, state universities, it will be and/or become a major thing.  Could that happen?  I think the answer is yes.  Given the overall birth rate decline and the availability of online instruction, that will make a dent.  I think.

Dave Benke

So, you don't know much about Hillsdale but decided to lump it together with Bob Jones University.  Nice.

[peter_speckhard]

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/university-austin-meteor-higher-education/

Still in the news based on reactions to the announcement.

And here is an interesting take on the logistics, social and financial, of the new project.

https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/university-austin/

[Michael Slusser]

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/university-austin-meteor-higher-education/

Still in the news based on reactions to the announcement.

And here is an interesting take on the logistics, social and financial, of the new project.

https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/university-austin/

Thanks. Those were fun reads. I have yet to see any comment on the fact that the major element missing from the UATX project is any explicit mention of the role of religion, much less Christianity, in building a critical institution of higher education.

Peace,
Michael

[peter_speckhard]

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/wokeness-claims-museum/

Hopefully this new university is about real history, not agenda-driven, anachronistic “history.”

[peter_speckhard]

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/education/too-good-fact-check-academic-journal-publishes-hoax-conservative-takeover

This another reason there needs to be some sort of alternative to academica. As one of the people interviewed notes, the peer review system is irretrievably broken. It serves simply to reinforce the boundaries of groupthink rather than to challenge or confirm the scientific validity of an author's claims.