Top Leadership Exodus Bedevils University of Austin, the ‘Anti-Woke’ College

The University of Austin, the private “anti-woke” college founded in part by a Palantir co-founder, Joe Lonsdale, and the recently hired CBS News chief, Bari Weiss, on the promise of disrupting the traditional university model, is facing a quiet exodus of its top officials.More than one third of those who joined UATX in non-faculty positions at the project launch in 2021 have left their posts, either by choice or as the result of policy disagreements, according to an analysis from the Chronicle of Higher Education. Among the 20 employees who left in the past year were the president, provost, and the executive director of admissions.Other operations staffers have left due to the “start-up” nature of the school’s launch.“A lot of the team that we had put together in that initial launch is no longer there,” a former chief of staff and senior vice president for strategy, Mike Shires, said to the Chronicle. “Some of that was them just naturally moving on, some of that is the nature of start-ups, some of that is strategic decisions made by the leadership.”Not everyone left voluntarily. Ellie Avishai, a key figure at the Mill Institute tied to UATX, was asked to leave after she publicly advocated for a middle ground on diversity initiatives, writing that DEI could be criticized without being completely dismantled.“That was the problem. And apparently, I had really triggered somebody that was sort of a powerful person in the university,” Ms. Avishai said in an interview with the Canadian Jewish News. “And that evening, I was let go, and so was my whole team.”In July, the economist and the former president of Harvard, Lawrence Summers, announced his resignation from the UATX advisory board, saying he was “not comfortable with the course that UATX has set nor the messages it promulgates.” Two other board members, Robert Zimmer and Steven Pinker, left shortly after the university’s launch.The turnover continued in October when Pano Kanelos, the former president of St. John’s College, stepped down as chancellor. Mr. Kanelos, who had transitioned from the university’s presidency to the chancellorship in January, subsequently co-founded a new firm with a former UATX faculty member that aims at “helping founders, funders, and leaders build and renew the institutions that sustain a free and flourishing society.”Positioned as the “anti-Harvard,” the unaccredited UATX utilizes a “merit-first” admissions model based on an application that the school claims “only takes five minutes to complete.” Applicants meeting high standardized test scores are admitted after an “integrity check” to pursue a bachelor of arts in liberal studies degree. The school is also known for its “Forbidden Courses,” a summer program designed to foster discussion of topics that the university’s administrators believe cannot be dealt with openly in a traditional university setting.These retreats feature various right-wing thinkers and “anti-woke” speakers, including Ms. Weiss and the CEO of the Babylon Bee, Seth Dillon. According to a New Inquiry report, the events take place at a Dallas property owned by Harlan Crow, a Republican megadonor who attracted media attention for his close relationship with a Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas.

Top Leadership Exodus Bedevils University of Austin, the ‘Anti-Woke’ College

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