A new university is being launched in Austin, Texas by a group of academics and entrepreneurs frustrated at the oppressive 'wokeness' in U.S. institutions.
Panos Kanelos, who resigned from St John's College and left in June, announced on Monday that he was founding a new university
Pano Kanelos, who stepped down as president of St John's College in Annapolis on June 30, announced the news on Monday on Bari Weiss's Substack, writing: 'I left my post as president... to build a university in Austin dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth.'
Kanelos has gathered a 31-person board of advisors - including Weiss, historian Niall Ferguson, journalist Andrew Sullivan, playwright David Mamet and former treasury secretary Larry Summers - to kick start the university.
It will be known as the University of Austin - not to be confused with the University of Texas at Austin.
The university is operating out of an address near the University of Texas, and is still in the process of securing land in the Austin area for a physical campus. It is also seeking millions in donations for scholarships and to help establish its programs, and is yet to be accredited.
Journalist Bari Weiss is among those appointed to the board of the new academic institution
The University of Austin will launch in 2022 with a summer school for students at other institutions, entitled 'The Forbidden Courses'
They do not plan to offer undergraduate courses until 2024, but will begin in the summer of 2022 with a program entitled 'The Forbidden Courses'.
'Our summer program invites top students from other universities to join us for a spirited discussion about the most provocative questions that often lead to censorship or self-censorship in many universities,' they state on the website.
'Students will become proficient and comfortable with productive disagreement.
'Instructors will range from top professors to accomplished business leaders, journalists, and artists.'
Historian Niall Ferguson, who wrote an op ed in Bloomberg on Monday announcing the university's founding, described the course as offering 'the kind of content and instruction no longer available at most established campuses, addressing the kind of provocative questions that often lead to cancelation or self-censorship.'
Niall Ferguson, the historian and a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, is also on the board. He was previously a professor of history at Harvard, New York University and Oxford
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a founding faculty member. The Somali-born American activist and writer is known for her criticism of Islam
He wrote: 'With a
