Defeating the Forces of Chaos, Illiberalism, and Nihilism

Good morning.

UATX has an incredible opportunity to confront a serious problem in American higher education. Our universities have become infected by a harmful lie — that all ideas are equally valid, that truth is merely a social construct, that one culture's wisdom is as good as another's superstition. This relativism gives rise to illiberalism.

Merit is out of fashion, and universities that once championed colorblind equality now practice obvious racial discrimination under the banner of diversity.

Political conformity and self-censorship are the norm. Conservative faculty comprise less than 5% of professors.

During COVID, we watched our best institutions abandon scientific reasoning in favor of political theater. After October 7th, we saw them struggle to condemn obvious evil.

Students now face harassment for their most cherished beliefs—swastikas painted on Jewish students' dorm walls, American flags stolen and defaced, "Glory to our martyrs" banners hung in libraries.

America suffers as a result. When our elite institutions fail to produce actual elites — people of character, wisdom, and competence — our entire society pays the price.

I emphasize this madness because the University of Austin was born in response to it. If universities were serving students and our nation well, we would not be here today.

UATX is a return to American principles — and a place to prepare citizens for democratic life.

It also exists to liberate minds from lazy conformity. Our students engage with the great books and the great minds to wrestle with the timeless questions every human must face: What is justice? What gives life meaning? What makes us human?

We do this not to confirm opinions but to challenge them.

We are creating an environment where Christians can examine and practice their faith without mockery, where Jews can learn without harassment, and where students and faculty are not censored.

We shape our curricula deliberately — we have strong opinions about what to include or exclude, because we are not relativists and because we believe in the possibility of wisdom.

UATX is for builders and believers. We see the pursuit of truth and innovation as natural allies in defending Western civilization against the forces of chaos, illiberalism, and nihilism.

We are training what Jefferson called a "natural aristocracy" — not of birth or wealth, but of virtue and talent. Men and women who understand both machine learning and moral philosophy, who build character, who build companies, who join institutions with a patriotic spirit.

UATX is unapologetically American. That flag in our atrium isn’t just decoration. It’s why we’re here. We believe in the American experiment: that free people can govern themselves, that merit matters more than ancestry.

Finally, we're a startup, and that's our advantage. While others form committees to discuss ideas, we just try them and see what works.

That’s why we’ll succeed. We may not have the deepest pockets or the grandest halls, but we remember what universities are for: to defend civilization — and to drive it forward. We’re creating not just knowledge, but wisdom. Not just graduates, but leaders.

The road ahead is hard. We're building in the shadow of institutions with centuries-old reputations. Critics call us too conservative or too radical, too ambitious or too naive.

Good. Easy was never the goal.

Ten years from now, we’ll look back and see these early days as the foundation of our success.

But that's ten years from now. Today, we have work to do. Classes to teach, students to recruit, research to conduct, an institution to build.

The most exciting times aren't ahead. They're here, right now, in this room, with this team, doing this work.

So let's get started.

Thank you.

— From UATX President Carlos Carvalho's inaugural address