The Crisis That Led to UATX
President Carlos Carvalho on the Manhattan Statement on Higher Education.
Christopher F. Rufo released the Manhattan Statement on Higher Education on July 14, signed by Jordan Peterson, Bishop Robert Barron, Victor Davis Hanson, and countless others — including members and supporters of UATX.
“The universities have brazenly, deliberately, and repeatedly violated their compact with the American people. They have engaged in a long train of abuses, evasions, and usurpations which, with every turn of the ratchet, have moved our society toward a new kind of tyranny — one in which ideology determines truth, and the university functions as a political agent of the left.”
The Statement’s signatories “call on the President of the United States to draft a new contract with [America’s] universities, which should be written into every grant, payment, loan, eligibility, and accreditation, and punishable by revocation of all public benefit.”
Read Rufo’s announcement and the full Manhattan Statement on Higher Education here.
UATX President Carlos Carvalho’s Response:
This crisis is why UATX was founded.
Universities have replaced truth-seeking with ideological activism. Academic rigor is almost nonexistent. Self-censorship is the norm. Equality under the law has been corrupted by DEI bureaucrats. And students, rather than learning to become citizens, are too often trained to see their country and civilization as beyond redemption.
Our curriculum compels students to engage the deepest questions of human freedom, moral order, and civilizational survival — not through slogans or activism, or by absorbing fashionable opinion, but through direct encounter with radically alternative thinkers throughout history.
Our admissions system — solely based on quantitative performance metrics — is the most meritocratic in the country.
We protect academic freedom without exceptions.
Our purpose is clear: to educate citizens and leaders capable of assuring the success of constitutional liberty and national prosperity.
But we can’t do this alone; we need competitors. The more universities that reclaim their purpose, the stronger we will become, and the stronger our nation will become.
If the United States is to remain free and prosperous, we must rebuild the institutions that sustain it. This statement points the way forward — and we hope other institutions will join us.
God speed UATX. May the old Ivy League pay close attention and learn from this splendid new University.
Thank you for your comments. I originally saw the statement in the Free Press and commented on it based on my friendship with professors and my experience representing them and working in the educational field for 40 years. I think Christopher Russo and the signatories understand the crisis in American education, which extends from K-12 on up very well and are in a good position to address the issues, including those presented in the Ivy League and similarly intellectually captured non-Ivy League colleges. I am confident that they will address the crisis that led to UATX in an even-handed and firm manner.
Crafting appropriate standards and rules will be difficult and implementation and enforcement of the academic, free speech, tolerance, anti-hazing and other applicable standards and rules will likely be even harder. There will likely be lots of pushback, complaints, and academic and non-academic dithering as the old guard seeks to hold on to the authority, power and influence it has amassed over the course of decades. But the effort must begin and proceed in accordance with the Statement. Hats off to their efforts. Let UATX be a beacon, as it already is, of educational excellence.