Texas university argues college admissions policies are 'unjust,' touts new 'meritocratic admissions' policy
The University of Austin in Texas (UATX) believes college admissions are "unjust," so the school is going to do something about it.
"What we've done is create the most meritocratic admissions policy in the country," UATX Dean Ben Crocker told Fox News Digital. He continued, "We do not want high school seniors to be performing in their essays unpacking a vast list of shallow co-curriculars and extracurriculars."
UATX announced on Monday that students who score over a 1460 on the SAT, over a 33 on the ACT or over a 105 on the Classic Learning Test (CLT) are automatically admitted to the university, "pending basic eligibility and an integrity check."
The UATX explained further that students who perform below that threshold will be evaluated on test scores along with Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exam results, and "three verifiable achievements that are each described in a single sentence."
The university is currently unaccredited. It was founded in 2021 by a group of academics and notable figures, including former New York Times journalist Bari Weiss, after they raised concerns about the decline of free speech across college campuses.
While its inaugural students are not eligible for federal financial aid, the university has had significant support from private donors, including billionaire Bill Ackman and activist Harlan Crow, allowing it to offer free tuition to its first cohort.
"We just want to know, are you intelligent? Are you brilliant? And are you committed to building a great university with us? Our criteria is very simple. We're not interested in whether you're the right gender, the right race, the right ethnicity, it is merit first for us," Crocker said.
Crocker also cited the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, rejecting the use of race as a factor in college admissions as a violation of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
"Chief Justice Roberts, in his majority opinion, said, if we're going to eliminate racial discrimination, then we have to eliminate all of it. He said all of it. But what we've seen since that decision was handed down is that our elite universities have not," Crocker added.
In the wake of the SCOTUS ruling on affirmative action as well as President Donald Trump's crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), many universities abandoned DEI programs.
Furthermore, some universities reinstated requirements for undergraduate applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores after dropping the testing requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some universities had previously claimed that standardized tests raised concerns about inequality in higher education.
"We're trying to instigate a revolution in American higher education," Crocker told Fox News Digital.
"It's an American revolution in the sense that we see it as a return to the way things ought to be. We're not trying to radically reinvent everything, but we are trying to take what's best about education in the United States: meritocracy, excellence, the sense that you need to build something for the good of the country."
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