please for all us out of touch ivory tower folk who live in castles surrounded by servants and big ideas…. what is normal?
lol sure sure. Tail between your legs and running off. I look forward to your next adolescent drive by.
Yea, when my wife won’t bite I have to come here for a couple jabs I guess. But I digress, off to the pub I go…
Other than what I have read about Hillsdale on this forum I know little of the college. However the Great Books of the Western World series their curriculum is based on is a fine compilation of books. It is a 54 volume series comprised of classics from the time of Homer to the 1940's. The original series pictured below does not include the blue and bronze colored books stacked on either side of the 3 stacks of Great Books in the middle. When we lived in the Chicago area in the 1970's we were fortunate to live next door to Marc Law, a well educated, well read man who was a friend and colleague of Mortimer Adler, one of the educators who spent years compiling the books included in this inestimable set. Marc became a great friend to Trucker and me and adored our son who was 2 to 4 years of age during that time. Marc died from leukemia before we moved back to the east in 1976, but his set of Great Books was entrusted to us to give to our son when the time was appropriate. The set of treasured books he left to us is one of the first 500 printed in the first edition published in 1952. It is numbered #478 and was signed by Mortimer Adler, a philosopher and educator affiliated with the University of Chicago. Great Books of the Western World - Wikipedia Great Books of the Western World is a series of books originally published in the United States in 1952, by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., to present the great books in 54 volumes. The original editors had three criteria for including a book in the series drawn from Western Civilization: the book must be relevant to contemporary matters, and not only important in its historical context; it must be rewarding to re-read repeatedly with respect to liberal education; and it must be a part of "the great conversation about the great ideas", relevant to at least 25 of the 102 "Great Ideas" as identified by the editor of the series's comprehensive index, the Syntopicon, to which they belonged. The books were chosen not on the basis of ethnic and cultural inclusiveness (historical influence being seen as sufficient for inclusion), nor on whether the editors agreed with the authors' views.[1] History The project for the Great Books of the Western World began at the University of Chicago, where the president, Robert Hutchins, worked with Mortimer Adler to develop there a course of a type originated by John Erskine at Columbia University in 1921, with the innovation of a "round table" approach to reading and discussing great books among professors and undergraduates.[2]—generally aimed at businessmen. The purposes they had in mind were for filling the gaps in their liberal education (including Hutchins' own, self-confessed gaps) and to render the reader an intellectually rounded man or woman familiar with the Great Books of the Western canon and knowledgeable of the Great Ideas visited in the "Great Conversation" over the course of three millennia. ______________________ The first and second sets of the signed 500 were given to Queen Elizabeth II and President Harry Truman.
Abbreviated list of things that make conservatives squirm. List of things Conservatives have "canceled" - TheAlmightyGuru
Not the books that are inappropriate - as 92 said they are good books but rather their stated intent to fashion NC into Hillsdale of the south. Hillsdale is a private and very conservative Christian school - and good for them but not good for a public university.
My post was not intended to defend New College's possible intention to (mis)use a Great Books based curriculum, but rather to praise the books inclusion. Apparently I missed the statement announcing the intent to "fashion NC into Hillsdale of the South." And I agree a narrow, parochial curriculum is not appropriate for a publicly funded college or university. ----------------- What do you know of University of Austin, recently housed in an historic 8 story commercial building in downtown Austin? Founded by Niall Ferguson, Bari Weiss, under the leadership of Univ of Austin's president Panos Kanelos, with Jonathan Haidt on the advisory board, and Steven Pinker until his recent resignation, the 'anti-woke' school is now accepting applications for its opening in the autumn of 2024. Ferguson is married to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who taught a seminar entitled "Forbidden Courses" this past summer With $200 million and state approval, University of Austin is ready to start accepting applicants A new university in Austin that was launched two years ago to combat a perceived waning dedication to free speech and civil discourse at traditional universities is now accepting its first group of applicants to enroll in the fall of 2024. Founders of the University of Austin announced Wednesday that the state has granted them the authority to award degrees, clearing a major hurdle to opening. School leaders also said they will offer the inaugural 100-student class full scholarships for the entirety of their four-year undergraduate program, using $200 million the school has raised in private donations since leaders announced plans to create the new liberal arts university in the Texas capital. “This is an opportunity for students to not only go to a university but help us build the university or build the culture of the university, create the institution with us,” UATX President Pano Kanelos told The Texas Tribune. “We thought that there would be a wonderful way to reward them for being part of this project by offering these scholarships.” Students will be admitted on a rolling basis until the school reaches its first 100 students, Kanelos said. _____________ Students reveal ‘forbidden lessons’ taught at anti-woke University of Austin - New York Post - AHA Foundation Fed up with the increasingly woke and intolerant political climate on American campuses, former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss last year announced the launch of The University of Austin, a new four-year college dedicated to “the fearless pursuit of truth.” The college aims to welcome its first class of full-time four-year undergraduates in 2024, and last month, its first summer program, “The Forbidden Courses” series, admitted 80 students from colleges across the US. “This is an insanely intelligent group of people — a genuinely thoughtful, bold group of kids. And it bodes very, very well for the future of the institution,” University of Austin founding faculty member Peter Boghossian told The Post. A former professor at Portland State who came under fire for publishing hoax papers in woke academic journals, Boghossian taught a course at the University of Austin called “Street Epistemology,” about conversational techniques that help people think more critically about deeply-held beliefs. _____________________________________ Jonathan Haidt @JonHaidt Here's the most hope-giving event in higher ed in years: The launch of Austin U, a new U constructed around the telos of truth. I want my kids to go there. I am proud to be on the advisory board https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/we-cant-wait-for-universities-to _______________________ We Can't Wait for Universities to Fix Themselves. So We're Starting a New One. We Can't Wait for Universities to Fix Themselves. So We're Starting a New One. I left my post as president of St. John’s College in Annapolis to build a university in Austin dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth. By Pano Kanelos November 8, 2021 So much is broken in America. But higher education might be the most fractured institution of all. There is a gaping chasm between the promise and the reality of higher education. Yale’s motto is Lux et Veritas, light and truth. Harvard proclaims: Veritas. Young men and women of Stanford are told Die Luft der Freiheit weht: The wind of freedom blows. These are soaring words. But in these top schools, and in so many others, can we actually claim that the pursuit of truth—once the central purpose of a university—remains the highest virtue? Do we honestly believe that the crucial means to that end—freedom of inquiry and civil discourse—prevail when illiberalism has become a pervasive feature of campus life? The numbers tell the story as well as any anecdote you’ve read in the headlines or heard within your own circles. Nearly a quarter of American academics in the social sciences or humanities endorse ousting a colleague for having a wrong opinion about hot-button issues such as immigration or gender differences. Over a third of conservative academics and PhD students say they had been threatened with disciplinary action for their views. Four out of five American PhD students are willing to discriminate against right-leaning scholars, according to a report by the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology. _____________________________ University of Austin President Pano Kanelos pitches Texas’ newest university as a place dedicated to free inquiry University of Austin President Pano Kanelos pitches Texas’ newest university as a place dedicated to free inquiry UATX was launched by a group of higher education critics, including Kanelos, who believe universities have abandoned their commitment to open inquiry, free speech and civil discourse. ---------- Pano Kanelos, the founding president of a new private university in Texas called the University of Austin, believes polarization on university campuses today reflects a “hardening” of empathy within American culture. Speaking at a Texas Tribune event Wednesday, moderated by the Tribune’s Managing Editor Matthew Watkins, Kanelos said he wants to create a classroom experience where students feel comfortable “taking intellectual risks” and can hone their opinions through dialogue. “I don't think at a university, one opinion plus another opinion should equal two opinions, one winning out in the end,” he said. “One opinion plus another opinion should equal better opinions.” Kanelos laid out his vision for the new private university, set to launch in fall 2024. He believes it can be a champion for free speech and open inquiry. _______________________________ Stern professor resigns from professional org. after refusing to write diversity statement - Washington Square News Stern professor resigns from professional org. after refusing to write diversity statement Jonathan Haidt, a professor of ethical leadership at NYU’s Stern School of Business, resigned from a psychology research conference after refusing to write a required equity, inclusion and anti-racism statement. Carmo Moniz and Tori Morales Oct 4, 2022 The announcement was posted on Sept. 20 to a blog run by Heterodox Academy — an organization of more than 5,000 educators, students and administrators that Haidt co-founded — which promotes diversity of thought in universities across the United States. While the organization claims to be politically neutral, it has faced criticism for suggesting that conservatives often face increased scrutiny in the field of academia. “Most academic work has nothing to do with diversity, so these mandatory statements force many academics to betray their quasi-fiduciary duty to the truth by spinning, twisting or otherwise inventing some tenuous connection to diversity,” Haidt wrote in the post. Haidt is on the board of advisers at the University of Austin, a new organization that opposes “illiberalism” and “censoriousness” in higher education. Many academics, writers and university administrators have backed the university, which has no accreditation, campus or faculty. Among its founders is former Stern professor Niall Ferguson, who has made homophobic comments and denounced “cancel culture.” In 2018, Haidt co-authored a book titled “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting up a Generation for Failure,” in which he criticizes the existence of safe spaces and trigger warnings on college campuses, and argues that these concepts are detrimental to the young people’s mental development. _________________________ The school is not without its critics - It’s the University of Austin Against Everyone — Including Itself The nation’s newest university isn’t 10 days old, but it’s already entering damage-control mode. The University of Austin announced Monday that high-profile advisers Steven Pinker and Robert Zimmer were leaving its board of advisers, where they briefly served as part of the brain trust shaping the college’s free-inquiry-focused mission. When the self-styled “UATX” launched last week, its founding president Pano Kanelos said it would “restore the meaning to those old school mottos. Light. Truth. The wind of freedom,” in the face of “universities [that] are doing extremely well at providing students with everything they need… except intellectual grit.” It was both a mission statement and an implicit critique: the University of Austin will be “fiercely independent,” in contrast to an academic establishment hopelessly captured by censorious progressive ideologues. The launch announcement came with a roster of name-brand thinkers to lend it intellectual luster, including the historian Niall Ferguson of the Hoover Institution at Stanford (who is a founding trustee at UATX), former Treasury secretary and former Harvard president Larry Summers, and the polymathic economist Tyler Cowen. Harvard’s Pinker has kept quiet about why he’s ending his affiliation, but the University of Chicago chancellor Zimmer made it clear: He’s all for free expression, but not the direct attack on existing higher education that attended the university’s launch, saying in his statement that “the new university made a number of statements about higher education in general, largely quite critical, that diverged very significantly from my own views.” West Virginia University president Gordon Gee, another adviser, kept his affiliation but said even more directly: “I do not agree other universities are no longer seeking the truth nor do I feel that higher education is irreparably broken.” _________ The school intrigues me, and I am interested to see how it fares in the chaotic near future.
so what are they going to do with all those "student athletes" now on scholarship? Isn't that half their student population now?
It seems orthodoxy has found its way into UATX after all - forcing some founders to separate themselves as an act of conscience. It will be interesting to see how and if this new movement influences the traditional academy.
Based upon my reading of the Hillsdale newsletter someone signed me up for, at least as much as I can stand, the issue is not learning from the Canon of “Great Books”. Never immersed myself in one that did not change me somehow. No way to be educated by Jesuits without strong immersion into the Canon. The Great Books are great. But Hillsdale uses the books as superficial weapons of white supremacy. They don’t even understand them other than as weapons of exclusion. Plus they read them with Christian supercessionist hermeneutic. New College under this leadership will only disserve its students and harm our state.
