Congresswoman Elise Stefanik sat down with UATX President Carlos Carvalho to discuss the failures of the Ivy League, whether universities should be neutral, and how UATX students can serve our country. (Recorded May 11, 2026.)
00:00 — Preview
00:26 — UATX President Carlos Carvalho introduces Rep. Elise Stefanik
01:03 — Why Rep. Stefanik visited UATX
01:25 — Rep. Stefanik's new book
03:13 — Will the Ivy League meaningfully reform?
06:51 — Is credentialism on the decline?
07:41 — Congressional oversight
09:49 — Dartmouth's course catalog
11:59 — Failed leadership
12:41 — Faculty tenure
13:50 — Should universities be neutral?
16:10 — Harvard's founding motto
17:40 — UATX's core curriculum
18:08 — Would you send your son to Harvard?
19:36 — "A civilian service academy"
20:46 — The decision to serve
22:04 — Advice to UATX students
22:20 — Term limits
23:34 — Rep. Stefanik's plans for the future
24:35 — The direct line from campus to politics
25:25 — New York is beautiful
26:16 — Q&A: Problems Congress can’t solve
27:53 — Ben Sasse's moral courage
28:36 — Q&A: How to ask a question
30:07 — Q&A: Do university presidents believe the ideologies they push?
32:21 — Q&A: Rep. Stefanik's response to criticisms of the Trump administration
36:00 — Q&A: K-12 reforms
38:57 — Q&A: Retired FBI agent asks about unequal justice
41:46 — Q&A: A canary in the coal mine
Events at UATX
May 26 — “Restoring America” A lecture by David Rose, co-founder and CEO of the American Civics Academy. 5 PM. RSVP.
May 27 & 28 — “The Tragedy of Hamlet” Produced, directed, and performed by UATX students. 6 PM both nights. Sold out.
May 29 — “Will Immigration Save America?” A debate between economists Bryan Caplan and Garett Jones, both of George Mason (Caplan is also a Visiting Professor at UATX). 12:45 PM. RSVP.
June 2 — “Plato and Liberal Education” A lecture by Brendan Boyle, Associate Dean for Graduate Programs at St. John’s College. 5 PM. RSVP.
June 10 — “Why Liberal Education Will Make Tomorrow’s Leaders” A lecture by Tony Abbott, Australia’s 28th Prime Minister. 5 PM. RSVP.
Weekend High School Program
Free two-day Socratic seminars with UATX faculty, open to high schoolers.
San Francisco Bay: May 29-30
America’s Founding Principles with Visiting Professor Chris Nadon: Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration and his Letter to Holmes: the ideals, contradictions, and reckoning with slavery at the root of American political life.
The Technology & Philosophy of AI with Dean Clint Staley: How large language models actually work, the ethics of copyright and liability, and whether a machine could ever truly think.
Transhumanism with Professor Allen Porter: The moral, political, and religious stakes of engineering enhanced humans and posthumans.
Austin: June 20-21
How to Be an Elitist with Professor Alex Priou: Churchill and Strauss on the challenges to excellence in an age of mass democracy.
Destination Mars: Survival Not Guaranteed with Professor Eliah Overbey: Cosmic radiation, bone-melting microgravity, and how scientists plan to bioengineer the space-ready human.
Is Beauty Objective? with Professor Clay Greene: Why people defend their taste like a basic human right, and whether beauty has any grounding in biology, God, or social life.
The Future of American Freedom with Professor Jonathan Yudelman: Tocqueville’s “soft despotism” and Solzhenitsyn’s Harvard address on the threats to American liberty.
Will the Real Bible Please Stand Up? with Professor Carson Bay: Who decided which texts made it into Scripture, and how those canonical lines were drawn.
Plus America’s Founding Principles (Nadon), The Technology & Philosophy of AI (Staley), and Transhumanism (Porter) — see SF Bay descriptions above.
Visit Austin This Summer for Two Weeks
Our Summer Fellowship is a two-week residential program for advanced high school and college students.
When: June 20–July 3
Courses:
American Political Thought
Democracy in Crisis
The Age of Sensibility
Build an LLM From Scratch
Plus: Write an essay on the Declaration of Independence for a chance to win a $2,500 award toward the Fellowship.
We charge you nothing—except everything you’ve got.
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