New Delhi: Just a week after the proposed University of Austin was announced on the Substack page of former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, touted as a bulwark against ‘cancel culture’ in higher education, two high-profile members of its advisory board have stepped down.
University of Chicago Chancellor Robert Zimmer and Harvard University psychology professor Steven Pinker quit the board Monday.
While Pinker tweeted that the split was amicable and he is “concentrating” on his book and BBC radio and podcast series, Zimmer pegged his decision on a “divergence” with the university’s statements.
By mutual & amicable agreement, I'm stepping off the Board of Advisors of U of Austin #UATX, wishing them well. I'm concentrating on Rationality (the book) and Think With Pinker (the BBC radio & podcast series) & won't be speaking on this further. https://t.co/xgo7exT61C
— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) November 15, 2021
In a statement posted on the University of Chicago’s news portal, he said the University of Austin’s “critical” statements about higher education “diverged very significantly” from his own views.
He also noted that the “board had no fiduciary, oversight or management responsibilities”.
University of Austin described the resignations as “missteps” common to “fast-moving startups”, but expressed regret over not sufficiently distinguishing between the roles of the founding trustees and the advisory board.
“This led to unnecessary complications for several members of the advisory board, including Robert Zimmer and Steven Pinker, for which we are deeply sorry,” it added on its website.
The duo’s departure from the university this early into its founding has resulted in media coverage focusing on the “growing pains” ahead, with one columnist referring to it as “cancel culture grift”.
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‘Dedicated to fearless pursuit of truth’
The setting up of the University of Austin was announced on 8 November by Pano Kanelos, former president of St John’s College, said to be one of the oldest colleges in the US.
The stated objective of the institution was “to renew higher education” by being “dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth”.
The institution, Kanelos said, will eschew the “censoriousness” of existing higher education institutions that allegedly stifle “intellectual dissent” and treat faculty members who stray from popular opinion “like thought criminals”.
“The reality is that many universities no longer have an incentive to create an environment where intellectual dissent is protected and fashionable opinions are scrutinised. At our most prestigious schools, the primary incentive is to function as finishing school for the national and global elite. Amidst the brick and ivy, these students entertain ever-more-inaccessible theories while often just blocks away their neighbours figure out how to scratch out a living,” Kanelos said.
“It’s not just that we are failing students as individuals; we are failing the nation. Our democracy is faltering, in significant part, because our educational system has become illiberal and is producing citizens and leaders who are incapable and unwilling to participate in the core activity of democratic governance,” he added.
Kanelos said apart from Weiss, several major figures in American higher education, from academics to university presidents and public intellectuals, share his concerns about the “state of higher education”.
These include historian and academic Niall Ferguson, evolutionary biologist Heather Heying and entrepreneur and investor Joe Lonsdale, who are the new institution’s founding trustees.
The advisory board boasts of big names like former Harvard University president Larry Summers, social scientist Arthur Brooks, psychologist Jonathan Haidt, activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali and political commentator Andrew Sullivan.
Kanelos also singled out college professors Dorian Abbot, Peter Boghossian and Kathleen Stock, who, according to him, faced significant harassment, censorship and threats in their respective universities, and are now supporting the University of Austin.
Criticism
The University of Austin has been subject to media scrutiny and criticism over a range of issues, from its ideological bases to its viability.
According to MSNBC columnist Katelyn Burns, the venture is simply “the latest, and largest, in a long line of cancel culture-related grifts” whose announcement “reads like a who’s-who of contrarian personalities”, and ultimately lacks any academic substance.
“None of the instructors are expected to produce research in their field; none of the programs provide credits that could be accepted at actual colleges. Instead, the University of Austin appears to be a clearinghouse for online videos or classes,” Burns added.
The Guardian reporter Julia Carrie Wong flagged a potential conflict of interest issue involving the big names that make up the founding trustees and advisory board.
With the exception of Kanelos, who moved to Texas from Maryland earlier this year to set up the institution, the rest of the big names mentioned are maintaining their “tenured day jobs”, Wong said.
“They have no campus, no student body, no degree programs, no accreditation, no faculty and no army of graduate students and adjunct professors to do all the dirty work of actually, you know, teaching classes,” she added.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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