Why the University of Austin launched and how it hopes to serve higher education

Ramya Nambala's dream was simple: go to Harvard University's Law School and become president of the United States. But as a sophomore at the University of Texas' prestigious Canfield Business Honors Program, she began questioning what she wanted higher education to do for her.

"What I wanted to do is be my own boss and create things that are good," Nambala said. "UT and many other traditional schools are built to get you a job."

Torn, Nambala created a vision board and cut out a quote: "Say yes." The next day, while listening to a podcast, she heard venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale discuss the innovative energy in the fledgling University of Austin, where he was one of four co-founders.

"I just looked at that vision board," Nambala said. "I was like, 'Why is this so perfect?'"

On Sept. 9, Nambala restarted her undergraduate career to join 91 other students as the founding class of the University of Austin — the city's newest higher education institute, nestled on the third floor of the historic Scarbrough Building downtown.

Many questioned her choice, she said. But to her, not taking that chance would have been unthinkable.

At a time when one college is closing per week, according to The Hechinger Report , the University of Austin wants to lead the industry into a hopeful future, integrating an inventive spirit with a return to the study of classic, foundational texts. Culturally, it wants to counter illiberalism and censorship, which school leaders say is pervasive in higher education today, with a commitment to free inquiry and pursuit of truth. And students want to lead.

"Students here are true builders. It's so inspiring to see how they will be creators," said Nambala, who spoke to the American-Statesman during her second week of class. "We all say we know a couple of us will be billionaires, and it's a joke, but I feel like it's actually true."

Why was the University of Austin launched? When Pano Kanelos said in 2021 that he was founding a new university in Austin, everybody listened.

"So much is broken in America. But higher education might be the most fractured institution of all," wrote Kanelos , who had been the president of the country's third-oldest university, St. John's College in Annapolis, Md.

In some corners, the notion that something was wrong with higher education struck a nerve. Critics argued that the University of Austin was a college for canceled conservative-leaning thinkers against woke ideology, and advisers such as the former University of Chicago president backed out early.

But in other corners, it resonated. More than 1,000 people submitted inquiries in the first 24 hours, and 100% of faculty members who were offered a job accepted it, said Jacob Howland, the founding provost and dean of intellectual foundations.

Once it secured a certificate of authority from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the university began recruiting applicants and offering free tuition for the founding class. In early September, Gov. Greg Abbott welcomed that class at the Capitol, shaking each student's hand.

"The interest is enormous," Howland said. "We feel like we have a lot of momentum right now, and we're going to need it, because we still have a lot we need to do."

How is the University of Austin different? Sept. 9 was the students' first day, but it's far from the university's first outing. At the March 9 opening of its Austin Union, the school's debate society, former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke. The self-styled UATX sponsored an event at South by Southwest and formed a partnership with Capital Factory, a local startup incubator and center for entrepreneurs, which will hold the university's Office of Entrepreneurship and Leadership and help students through their four-year project.

The university's foundations already diverge from tradition. UATX does not have tenure, or diversity, equity and inclusion practices. None of its deans has held such a position before, Howland said.

"Ours is a revolutionary institution — revolutionary in the proper sense," Kanelos, the founding president, said in his opening welcome Sept. 2. "The word revolution — in its original sense, revolvere — means to revolve, to turn back to a point of origin, with the purpose of renewing an original spirit or ideal."

UATX released a constitution codifying its leaders' responsibilities, notably creating an independent judicial body to hold the leaders accountable to the institution's values, something leaders say has not been done at a university before. The university also started a bitcoin endowment aiming to raise $5 million, what it says is the first such long-term endowment at a higher education institution.

How does UATX fit into political landscape? The school has a philosophy of teaching and learning in a way that all views can be put forth and debated to pursue the truth. Howland said this requires a commitment to academic freedom and prioritizing learning over activism.

As public trust in higher education has plummeted and tensions on campuses over domestic and international conflicts brew, the University of Austin has surfaced as an appealing antidote to some. Bloomberg reported that the controversy over how Ivy League presidents handled antisemitism after Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks on Israel brought more donors and applicants to UATX.

Parents "want that joyful, rich education that they had to be available to their students," Howland said. "And they began to worry; especially after Oct. 7, they realized that there's a lot of things going on in universities other than teaching and learning."

Morgan Marietta joined the University of Austin as dean of the Center for Economics, Politics and History after a brief stint at the University of Texas at Arlington. Marietta had resigned from his post after the dean of his college instituted new guidelines for events, including mandating prior approval, sharing a copy of planned remarks and a risk assessment and mitigation plan, after he held a Q&A that escalated when pro-Palestinian students claimed the event was one-sided.

In an interview with the Statesman, he critiqued academia as prioritizing "mainstream liberal progressive" hires over unconventional thinkers like himself, and institutions as practicing conformity and censorship instead of tackling highly charged topics.

"The decline has been just horrifying over the last 20 years, watching the ability to engage in other discussions of important events just decline and decline," Marietta said. "We need new institutions. I don't think the current schools are going to reform themselves."

Who is UATX attracting? For Constantin Whitmire, UATX stood out from the other places to which he applied. Whitmire, who has lived in San Francisco and Germany, wanted to study where he could focus on learning and building new things away from "echo chambers."

"I didn't want to go to a place that was all politically buzzed up (and focused on) modern-day politics and current events and going out demonstrating the entire day," Whitmire said. "I wanted to spend time focusing on my academics and maybe building a project on the side."

Nambala, who said she considers herself to be politically moderate, chose UATX not for the political landscape but to pursue all of her passions, from her artificial intelligence nonprofit to her novel to her interest in space and quantum computing.

"I truly believe I could impact a billion people, but before UATX, I didn't actually think I could," said Nambala, who hopes to create such an impact within 10 years. "These successful people are looking to invest in ambitious young people, and they will provide you with outsized opportunities that you can only dream of."

Ben Crocker, the university's director of special programs and associate director of admission, said applicants largely are from families that have been interested since the beginning or are students the school recruited like "an elite sports team," an idea he credits to Lonsdale. He characterizes the institution's students as patriotic, independent and highly motivated.

"A lot of these kids have sort of been in relative isolation," Crocker said. At an event for prospective students last winter, he said their union was incredible. "There was this explosion of creativity and energy; they were just over the moon."

Before classes began, students formed organizations, wrote and directed a seven-minute film, and founded a publication called the Austin Beacon , Howland said, speaking to the students' drive to boldly "found" the institution.

Howland said students have diverse ages, socioeconomic backgrounds and political persuasions. Data the college released showed that 68% of its students are male and 45% are from Texas. The college had an acceptance rate of 26%, and deans directly approved the applicants. The school did not release racial demographic data for applicants. Applications for its next class opened Friday, also offering free tuition for four years.

What will UATX become? Students occupy most of two floors of a West Campus residential complex, Howland said. A shuttle takes them to the downtown campus ― a navy- and gold-themed open floor with a library, a lecture hall and four classrooms, a dining area where students eat lunch with professors, and an open atrium to play chess, converse and pore over texts in study nooks.

As staff and faculty members soak in their realized vision, they feel eager for the world to see the university's potential to transform students' lives.

"Our donors are saying, 'We really want to transform higher education as a whole,'" Howland said. "All these things just (make) an unbeatable package of excellence, and that's my hope, that we quickly become known for that."

Kanelos told the Statesman last winter that he sees the long-term vision of the institution as a "Stanford to UT's Berkeley," rivaling the flagship university on the Forty Acres, about a mile and a half north. More broadly, he sees UATX as higher education's "north star" — a symbol also on the school's logo — that poses an alternative to polarization.

"We're an immensely hopeful university," Kanelos said "The fact that we're succeeding is simply a sign that there is such hunger for institutions that want to be problem solving and want to be helpful in the future."

Mike Shires, the university's chief of staff and a professor, shares Kanelos' belief that UATX will transform higher education and help rebuild trust. And to him, that starts with the students.

"They're young men and women who have literally chosen to pick an institution where there's risk associated. It's brand new," Shires said. "They've come here to build a student body in a student learning community that can carry forward for future generations."