In the latest turn by conservative lawmakers and activists to remake higher education, the University of Texas is now welcoming applicants to a newly minted school aimed at examining the history of liberty in America.
Why it matters: Curricula and chalkboards have become a battleground in the culture wars.
The big picture: UT's School of Civic Leadership is among a growing number of institutes and initiatives at public universities established in response to demands from Republican governors, lawmakers and donors for more space for conservative thinking on campus.
- The new school will "prepare students for civic responsibility through the study of America's founding principles, economic foundations and history," per a university press release.
- Undergraduates admitted to the program can major in civics honors , where they will study "the intellectual inheritance of Western Civilization and the American constitutional tradition," per the release. Students can also earn a minor in philosophy, politics and economics .
What they're saying: "We don't see our project as being conservative in a partisan sense, but we are interested in topics that are often attractive to conservative scholars and students," Justin Dyer, founding dean of the school, tells Axios.
- "We are interested in having the university be a truth-seeking institution and we orient our academic work in light of that," Dyer said. "There are certain norms that follow — we have to be committed to open inquiry and freedom of thought and speech."
Flashback: In a 2017 op-ed in the Columbia Missourian, Dyer called himself "a conservative, straight out of central casting, a pro-life evangelical who is an unapologetic admirer of the American Founding Fathers and the U.S. Constitution."
- In his book "Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning," Dyer, who received a doctorate in government at UT, draws parallels between slavery and abortion, arguing that Roe v. Wade elevated a woman's right to an abortion above the rights of a fetus just as Dred Scott v. Sandford elevated the property interests of slave-owners above the rights of slaves.
Between the lines: One of the school's inaugural faculty members is John Yoo, a University of California-Berkeley law professor best known as the author of George W. Bush administration memos authorizing the use of torture .
- "John's a tremendously successful academic," Dyer says." He's been very productive, getting at core constitutional questions that are at the heart of what we're doing at the School of Civic Leadership."
Context: As lawmakers attack universities they perceive to be too liberal , UT has embarked on a rear-guard effort to build institutes and centers that cater to conservatives.
- The School of Civic Leadership will house the Civitas Institute, championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as a way to promote "intellectual diversity" and teaching on limited government and free markets.
- In 2020, the university launched the Salem Center for Policy, whose mission is to help students, business leaders and policymakers "cut through the noise of public policy," per its website , "... in pursuit of human flourishing and the preservation of a free society." It produced a podcast — "Woke-ademia," about the "shift of universities from academic inquiry to political activism" — and gets funding from prominent conservative donors.
- That same year, the university's law school started a clinic "focused on the free exercise of religion," bankrolled by a board member of the Religious Freedom Institute .
The other side: After the UT System Board of Regents created the new school to house the Civitas Institute last year, Richard Cherwitz, a UT professor emeritus in the communications department, called it a "politically motivated institute" that "violates the core values of academe."
- The institute "clearly caters exclusively to politicians who want UT to establish a conservative think tank rather than proposing programs that reflect genuine academic and intellectual interests and needs," he wrote in the Austin Chronicle.
By the numbers: The Civitas Institute was established with the help of state and system funds totaling $12 million in 2021, per the Texas Tribune .
- Dyer said that basic funding has continued as part of the overall university budget — $6 million per year — and "comprises the majority of funding" for the School of Civic Leadership. As dean of the school, he also fundraises, he said.
What's next: The conservative-minded liberal arts startup University of Austin is welcoming its first class this fall .
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