What’s New
On Wednesday, the University of Austin said it would use a $100-million donation to make two stark commitments: never charging tuition or accepting government funding.
The Details
The announcement says the donor is Jeff Yass, the co-founder of one of Wall Street’s most successful trading firms. The university said the large gift represented the start of a $300-million campaign to “build a university that sets students free.”
Yass was one of the university’s original donors, committing $35 million in 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal. In a piece in The Free Press Wednesday, he cited the rising levels of debt for Americans who pursue higher education, and called free tuition an “unprecedented level of accountability and alignment of incentives within the school.” (Yass has ties to the Trump administration; The New York Times reported he donated $2.5 million to the controversial effort to build a new ballroom on the White House grounds.)
Yass and the university said the institution hopes that offering free tuition will create an alumni base that is both successful and grateful enough to give back to the university, paying for subsequent classes’ tuition costs. The school’s currently enrolled 92 students are already attending without paying tuition, receiving grant-based aid, according to multiple statements from the university and administrators.
The Backdrop
Austin has grown slowly but steadily since 2021. In 2022 it launched application-based “forbidden courses” for college students to engage with controversial ideas over the summer. It also launched a fellowship program designed to “cultivate principled leadership” and a high-school program based in New York City.
It has also seen its fair share of controversies. Earlier this year, a former staff member alleged her center had been shut down because she said on LinkedIn: “We can have criticisms of DEI without wanting to tear down the whole concept of diversity and inclusion.” The former president, Pano Kanelos, refuted the claim. In July, Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University, announced he was leaving Austin’s advisory board, writing: “I am not comfortable with the course that UATX has set nor the messages it promulgates and so am withdrawing.” Kanelos himself departed the institution suddenly last month after he’d moved into the role of chancellor.
The university has a “certificate of authority” to issue bachelor’s degrees in liberal studies by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, but it is not yet accredited. It told The Chronicle in June that it was still seeking accreditation — the stamp of approval that makes an institution eligible for federal financial aid — and its website states it is pursuing the distinction from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
The university’s founding coincided with growing public discontent about the state of higher education and an intensifying conservative critique of the sector as too left-leaning. Founders cited the “broken” nature of American higher education in their decision to start the college, and it has called itself the “anti-Harvard.”
Founders, trustees, and advisors of the university have included many prominent members of the higher education’s heterodox crowd: the conservative historian Niall Ferguson; Dorian Abbot, a vocal critic of DEI; and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Hoover Institution fellow who is critical of Islam.
Since Austin’s founding, criticism of higher education has grown louder, and spurred aggressive federal scrutiny of the sector under President Trump.
What to Watch For
Recent polling indicates Americans oppose the idea of the federal government attempting to dictate colleges’ direction, as the White House has attempted to do with its proposed “compact” on higher education. The public also strongly believes that college has become too expensive. The University of Austin’s commitment to turn away government funding (and influence) and be free to attend may therefore also prove popular.
Whether they make for a compelling fund-raising pitch for big-dollar donors remains to be seen.
