Like it or not, politics permeates everything in citizens’ lives, and education is a part of that life. Seeking political pluralism, a group of millionaires donate large sums of money to establish the first “Anti-Woke” university in the United States in Austin, Texas, fueled by anti-Zionist protests spreading across college campuses. To Silicon Valley.

Israeli conflict as a trigger. After the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Hamas, university campuses were rocked by student riots demanding that universities sever ties with Israel in protest of bombings against civilians in Gaza. BBC.

Many universities have bowed to pressure from students blocking events on their campuses, which has not pleased some of their millionaire clients. Wall StreetJournal It ensures that a group of philanthropic benefactors of these universities believed that orthodoxy had taken over educational institutions and therefore decided to establish their own universities.

University of Austin: millionaires’ claim. The University of Austin has only 92 students. This is not strange because it is one of the youngest universities in the USA, only three years old and has just started its first year of teaching. Its main donors include the names of major tycoons and wealthy investors who contributed more than $200 million to the new education project.

Some, like investor Len Blavatnik, the majority shareholder of Warner Music, even stopped donating to his alma mater, Harvard University, to contribute to the new university. The founders of the new educational project include Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir Technologies, and journalist Bari Weiss, known for her participation in the famous “Twitter dossiers”, as she says. CBS Newsrevealed the so-called bias “I woke up“This was run by Twitter before it was acquired by Elon Musk.

University of Austin: “Anti-Woke” university. According to real estate developer Harlan Crow, one of the institution’s other benefactors, the main reason for supporting this new university is “the fearless pursuit of truth. Much of today’s higher education seems to want to reject the achievements of the West and the achievements of Western civilizations.” “A lot of people think it’s a bad idea,” Crow said. Wall StreetJournal.

Billionaires such as Marc Rowan and Bill Ackman have been highly critical of the ideological positioning adopted by universities after the Hamas attacks on October 7. This led them to seek an educational project more in line with their ideology; this is also reflected in the messaging of one of the University of Austin’s “They burn, we build” promotional videos responding to pro-Palestinian protests. on campuses.

It is not a political university, but there is ideology. The University of Austin’s official position emphasizes that it is not a school with a specific political ideology. But some of TikTok’s top donors, such as Jess Yass, its largest American investor, are making major contributions to Republican candidates and causes, according to the publication. Forbes.

Pano Kanelos, president of the University of Austin, said the political ideologies of the school’s top ten donors vary, but “all of our donors are critical of today’s higher education.” “I have no interest in university anti-wakewhatever that means. “When we build this institution, there will be people of all intellectual tendencies, otherwise we will fail,” he said. Wall StreetJournal.

Millionaires against big universities. Millionaires’ discomfort with the political positions of elite universities is also felt in their contributions. A few days ago, Harvard’s president, Alan M. Garber, lamented poor fundraising numbers in 2024. Bill Ackman, CEO of one of the leading US hedge funds and a philanthropist at the University of Austin, rated it from X to this financial crisis. entity as one of the few opportunities for change for Harvard.

“It took what happened on major campuses after October 7 to convince Wall Street and people in Silicon Valley that there really was a problem with higher education,” he said. Wall StreetJournal Niall Ferguson, founder of the University of Austin.

Free tuition as first year incentive. The University of Austin will not receive its official accreditation as a collegiate institution until the first class of graduates.

So its first students are taking little more than a leap into the void by studying at a new university, so wealthy philanthropists are responsible for covering the cost with full-tuition scholarships worth about $130,000 annually. 40% of its students are locals who chose this university due to proximity, and 33% of them are women.

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Image | Unsplash (Charles DeLoye)