Reflections on UATX
I’ve finished my visiting professorship at the world-famous, ultra-controversial University of Austin (UATX), where I taught courses in Immigration and Housing, Education and the Family, and Introduction to Political Science. I came to campus every school day, and spent many hours socializing with the students. Here are my main thoughts on the experience.
The students at UATX are academically fantastic, a great package of high IQ, sky-high curiosity, and intellectual engagement. The only school I’ve taught at that’s in the same league is the University of Chicago, especially Agnes Callard’s Night Owls program.
UATX spurns holistic admissions, automatically admitting students with a 1460+ SAT, 33+ ACT, or 105+ CLT. But by my lights, their students had much better personalities than top schools that officially put high weight on personality! Curiosity and intellectual engagement aside, UATX students were strikingly cheerful, gregarious, agentic, and enthusiastic. Attendance at my on-campus game nights and karaoke parties was high — and since quite a few of my students are based in Northern Virginia, you’ll probably get to meet a few at Capla-Con 2026.
As a GMU professor, I’m used to low student attendance. At UATX, attendance is mandatory, enforced with preset grade penalties. Even so, absenteeism was fairly common. But strikingly, students with poor attendance were still highly engaged wherever they chose to show up. Why? UATX students skip classes not because they’re lazy, but because they literally have something better to do. One student was busy running a start-up. Other students were rehearsing for Hamlet. Good for them!
While we’re on the subject of Hamlet, the UATX drama club’s performance was profoundly moving. Overall, I preferred Ian McKellen’s (Gandalf/Magneto) live 2022 production, where the famed octogenarian played the title role. But as I told the UATX cast, they were all — McKellen aside — better than their counterparts in my favorite Hamlet production. My epiphany during the play: Contrary to many English teachers, Hamlet is not a tragic hero. He is a full-fledged anti-hero. Remember, after he manslaughters Polonius, Hamlet shows no regret. Instead, he sadistically hides the body from his heirs!
While I met scores of students, I only closely interacted with two of UATX’s full-time workers. Not coincidentally, both are my metaphorical brothers, men I’ve called close friends for many years. The first brother at UATX is the new president, Carlos Carvalho. I’ve been very close with Carlos since Covid, and I enthusiastically attest to his stellar IQ, lovable personality, and steely integrity. I’m thrilled to associate with any institution that would put Carlos at the helm. The second brother at UATX is Tim Kane, dean of social sciences. I’ve known Tim for twenty years; I even made this short comic book about our friendship origin story. Tim is a classic economist, adept at making the unseen seen, and even more positive about life than I am. A role model for students, colleagues, and all who know him. Also, it’s very fun to call him Dean Kane.
Carlos, me, and the bust of Jeff Yass. Students gave me lots of inside information on how UATX is doing. Even the relatively disgruntled students are quite chipper compared to normal, lazy, apathetic undergrads. I repeatedly urged my students to sit in on a few classes across town at the University of Texas to encounter ordinary college students, because at UATX, ordinary is virtually non-existent. UATX students often openly asked, “How can we make UATX better?” A great question… that few normal college students would bother to pose, because they’re both incurious and resigned.
The UATX humanities students are the happiest, because UATX delivers exactly what they want: a totally retro boot camp of reading, discussing, and writing about the Great Books, our Western canon. The entrepreneurship students are the least happy. They clearly care far more about our dizzying economic future than our glorious literary past, yet they’re still academically obliged to spend many precious hours on the Great Books. Still, compared to normal business and STEM majors, UATX entrepreneurship students get ample face time with uber-successful entrepreneurs.
Isn’t single-minded dedication to the Great Books a bizarre fetish in the age of AI? I’m definitely inclined to say so, but even I think the Western canon is awesome enough to keep training a few hundred new enthusiasts per planet every year. Given today’s top universities’ low interest in our Western canon, it makes sense for UATX to pick up the slack.
What will UATX’s humanities majors do after graduation? I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them ended up working for top UATX donors like Jeff Yass and Joe Lonsdale. I can also see some of them partnering with friends over in entrepreneurship to start businesses. Most college students fail to gain valuable human capital, useful career connections, or intellectual joy. At least UATX humanities students get the latter two.
I wouldn’t be surprised if more than one unicorn company came out of UATX, though I wouldn’t bet on it.
Critics have decried UATX as hypocritical, politicized, and otherwise terrible. After three-and-a-half weeks at UATX, I really have no idea what they’re talking about. Or to be more precise, I think the critics have impossibly high (double) standards and are hungry to find fault. And as usual, almost all of the shocking anecdotes reported in the mainstream media are, according to my knowledgeable and trusted insiders, deeply misleading.
Does UATX invite some speakers who are deeply in error? Sure. Does UATX invite some speakers that are not merely wrong, but intellectually weak? Sure. But the average quality of their speakers far outshines top mainstream colleges. At least they’re not totally boring and irrelevant. Ahem.
Are there MAGAs at UATX? Almost surely, but they weren’t vocal. MAGAs are about 20% of the U.S. adult population, so even if you think their views are uniquely awful, it would be pretty weird if they were entirely absent. As a professor at a normal woke university, I’m totally comfortable with being on the same campus as people with deplorable views. And even amicably conversing with them, if they’re so inclined.
My litmus test of the intellectual openness of UATX: I didn’t just write Open Borders. I assigned the book to my students, and debated in favor of open borders before the whole school. And not only did they joyfully hire me; they made me feel supremely welcome during my stay. This is what “right-wing counterculture” ought to be.
"critics have impossibly high (double) standards"
Better trademark that one.
Sounds like education is a merit good for 70%+ of the students