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A new private university in the states capital will be dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth in response to the culture of censorship that its founders say is plaguing higher education.

But leaders for the University of Austin are still working towards getting the school accredited, creating an undergraduate program and securing land for its campus.

Scholars, activists and entrepreneurs teamed up to start the university, to be known as UATX, because they were alarmed by the illiberalism and censoriousness prevalent in Americas most prestigious universities and what it augurs for the country, according to the schools website.

So much is broken in America. But higher education might be the most fractured institution of all, said Pano Kanelos, the incoming president of the University of Austin.

He announced the nonprofit universitys creation Monday in former New York Times journalist Bari Weiss newsletter, who is also one of its founders. Kanelos is the former president of St. Johns College in Annapolis, a small, private liberal arts school.

Self-censorship is pervasive across colleges and universities because the institutions chill speech and ostracize those with unpopular viewpoints and lead scholars to avoid entire topics out of fear, Kanelos wrote.

The universitys announcement garnered national attention for its team of journalists, artists, philanthropists, researchers and higher education leaders involved in the project.

Its founders also include former Harvard President Lawrence Summers; David Mamet, a playwright; former American Civil Liberties Union President Nadine Strossen; academics and other former university leaders.

The universitys headquarters are located in central Austin, just a short walk away from the University of Texas nearest building.

Unlike several new universities that opt for teaching courses virtually, school administrators plan on having a physical campus with as few screens as possible. But land for a campus has not been secured.

The schools founders chose Texas because of the states boom in talent and capital and Austin, in particular, because it is a hub for the kind of people our university aims to attract and from whom we want to receive guidance, according to the universitys website.

The school which will focus on humanities, social sciences and natural sciences is seeking initial accreditation through the Higher Learning Commission and authorization from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Heather Berg, a spokesperson for the commission, said the accreditation process can take between one and seven years.

But the University of Austins website says it will not wait for accreditation to get started on its programming.

The institution will offer a Forbidden Courses summer program in the coming year for college students to discuss the most provocative questions that often lead to censorship or self-censorship in many universities.

Next fall, it will begin offering a masters program on entrepreneurship and leadership with plans to launch its undergraduate programs in 2024.

Its not easy for a new university to compete for undergraduate students who are often seeking well established schools based on reputations, Niall Ferguson, a historian, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, wrote in an essay for Bloomberg.

(Students) go to college as much for the high-prestige credentials and the peer networks as for the education. Thats why a new university cant start by offering bachelors degrees, Ferguson said.

University leaders have secured the seed money necessary to launch the institution but are in the process of securing $250 million.

A new financial model that streamlines administrative costs will allow the school to have a tuition rate thats about half of the average cost for a private university, Kanelos told The Texas Tribune. The average annual tuition for a private, four-year university is about $28,500, according to the latest federal data.

The university is not taking student applications yet.

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, The Meadows Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University and Todd A. Williams Family Foundation. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Labs journalism.

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University of Austin launched by college critics in response to a culture of censorship - The Dallas Morning News

The Turkish Warrior, human rights fighter, and Boston Celtics star, Enes Kanter, has only been allowed to set foot on the court twice this season in 13 games, for a total of 10 minutes, while China has banned video streaming of Celtics games to prevent citizens from getting a glimpse of his dissident shoe collection.

Many fans are speculating that Kanter is benched because he spoke out against brutal dictator Xi Jinping and in support of Taiwanese, Tibetans, Hongkongers, and Uyghurs. On Nov. 10th, Kanter told CNN that during the first game of the season, NBA officials threatened to ban and fine him if he didnt remove his Free Tibet shoes, though they later backed off after realizing that he wasnt breaking any rules.

On Nov. 14th, Kanter apparently confirmed his fans suspicions when he posted a flipbook animation on social media showing him slam dunk a basketball into Xi Jinpings face. He wrote, Keep limiting me on the court, I will expose you off the court.

The NBA and the Celtics have remained completely silent, offering no explanation for why Kanter is sitting on the bench. All we know for sure is that his lack of playing time is disappointing to all of his new fans, which includes the president of Taiwan, who recorded a video in which she personally thanked him for his strong support.

Pro-Beijing keyboard warriors have been peppering social media with propaganda, suggesting that Kanter is not playing because he lacks skill and provides little value to the Celtics.

Such arguments are unconvincing.

Last season, the 610 big man put up respectable numbers playing for the Portland Trailblazers, a team that made the playoffs, finishing with a record of 40 wins and 32 losses. Kanter played every game and averaged a double-double: 11 rebounds (the 7th highest in the NBA) and 11.2 points.

Most impressively, he set an NBA season record by pulling down 30 rebounds in a single game. He is only the fourth player in the last two decades to accomplish this feat.

At 29 years old, Kanter has a lot of good years left in his career. However, he is courageously putting it all on the line by speaking up for victims of the most powerful authoritarian regime on the planet.

Kanter told CNN:

I believe that God gave me this platform to be the voice of all those innocent people out there who dont have a voice. So I was like, you know what, I understand that this could affect a lot, but Im just going to be the one, the first one to step up and bring all the human rights violations that China is doing [into the spotlight], and like I said in my tweet, I dont care about your endorsement deals, I dont care about your money, or I dont care about any kind of businesses that you are doing. If you are abusing peoples rights, Im going to say something. To me, human rights are way more important than your money, your endorsement deals, or everything you can give me.

Critics, such as Chinas foreign minister, have argued that Kanter is an opportunist just trying to get attention.

However, Kanter has been speaking out against human rights abuses committed by the authoritarian government of his home country, Turkey, for a decade. His persistent activism has cost him dearly. Four years ago, the Turkish government canceled his passport, accused him of being a terrorist involved in a failed military coup attempt, and has since issued 10 warrants for his arrest.

Kanter denies the terrorism allegations, saying, The only thing I terrorize is the basketball rim. He points out that I dont even have a parking ticket in the U.S. I have always been a law-abiding resident.

Because of his outspokenness, Kanter has received death threats and cannot travel overseas with his team due to fears that he could be assassinated. His family in Turkey was pressured to publicly disown him, and he has been unable to speak with them for several years out of concern that they would be immediately arrested. His father has already served time in prison, and, according to Kanter, it is just because he is my dad.

Kanter has clearly demonstrated that he cannot be intimidated into silence. The best that the Chinese government can hope for is to weaponize its financial power to destroy Kanters NBA career, de-platform him, and thus make an example out of him.

In China, this is called killing the chicken to scare the monkey (). The aim would be to frighten other potential critics into silence, a deliberate attempt to undermine free speech.

By censoring every game that Kanter appears in, the Chinese government will be able to turn Kanter into a financial liability for any team that he plays for. When his contract expires at the end of this season, any team that signs him will risk losing whatever revenue it was previously earning from Chinas market of 1.4 billion people, a sum which is likely far greater than whatever financial value that Kanter alone can bring to the table. If no team signs him next year, Kanter would be forced into retirement.

The NBA consequently faces a moral dilemma. It can quietly take Chinas money and throw Kanter under the bus (along with Taiwanese, Tibetans, Hongkongers, and Uyghurs), or it can stand in solidarity with Kanter by expressing robust support for human rights, democracy, and freedom of speech including for people who live under the shadow of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The right thing to do ought to be self-evident to every player, coach, manager, and owner.

Last year, the NBA enthusiastically supported the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement by allowing players to put social justice messages not only on their shoes but also on the backs of their jerseys. The phrase Black Lives Matter was even painted on the courts.

Messages that the NBA approved for jerseys included Say Their Names, How Many More, I Cant Breathe, Vote, Justice, Liberation, Equality, and Freedom. On shoes, some players wrote the names of victims of police violence while others wrote messages such as Ready for Change.

In the same way that the NBA embraced the BLM movement, it can and should join Kanter in standing up for the rights of people who are oppressed by the Chinese government. With the Beijing Winter Olympics approaching, now is a better time than ever. Players from all 30 teams could write slogans on their shoes such as Uyghur Lives Matter, Free Tibet, Liberate Hong Kong, Stand With Taiwan, and No Beijing 2022.

Undoubtedly, all NBA games would immediately be censored in China, and it would be costly. However, the NBA can afford to have ethics, as the average players salary is more than US$8 million (NT$222 million).

Chinas authoritarian government should not be allowed to buy the NBAs silence, and the NBA should not be complicit in a CCP-orchestrated attack on the career of one of its players a naked attempt to undermine free speech and cover up its ongoing industrial-scale human rights abuses.

Until the NBA gathers the organizational will to take a principled stand, fans should call out its hypocrisy and continue supporting the MVP of human rights advocacy, Enes Kanter.

Lindell Lucy is an American based in Tokyo, where he teaches high school economics. He has a B.A. in philosophy from Stanford University and is currently studying international relations at the Harvard Extension School.

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Stand with Kanter: Eject Chinese censorship from the NBA - Taiwan News

Marie Henein near The Globe and Mail offices in Toronto on Sept. 24.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail

Keep your Opinions sharp and informed. Get the Opinion newsletter. Sign up today.

Re Lets Try To Understand Vaccine-hesitant Health Care Workers (Nov. 12): Health care workers knowledge of medicinal failures, such as thalidomide and OxyContin, may factually justify their fears. Fine. But understanding would be incomplete while action is still required to treat a pandemic, where vaccination is the only realistic mass solution with a low probability of risk.

Consequently, subjective fears should not be a relevant criteria when the objective reality of a deadly pandemic is at play. If patients seeking health care are forced to put themselves in harms way, then I believe they are being knowingly sacrificed to the misunderstanding of medical reality by some health care workers.

I cannot morally or medically justify such a trade-off. Fear is understandable, but vaccination mandates should be an operational necessity.

Tony DAndrea Toronto

Re Poilievres Reappointment Is A Red Flag (Nov. 11): I think Pierre Poilievre is a good finance critic. He works hard to inform the public of the dire straits from a pattern of overspending by this government, particularly for working-class Canadians.

The Liberals have never met promises to reduce spending. An informed person should be reminding the public of the possible dangers.

Remember the fiscal debacle of the early 1980s, when Pierre Trudeau was prime minister and interest rates rose to over 20 per cent? A huge increase in unemployment and people losing homes was the result.

Justin Trudeau has stated that he doesnt look at monetary policy. That is scary to me.

Anne Robinson Toronto

I think Pierre Poilievre has failed to show any signs of maturing, his comments about the Bank of Canada being the latest example. Instead of thoughtful arguments and reasoned policy options, Mr. Poilievre often offers hyperpartisanship, sound bites and Twitter posts.

None of this gives me any reason to take him seriously, much less take the Conservatives seriously as a governing alternative.

Michael Kaczorowski Ottawa

Re Toronto School Board Rejects Marie Henein Book Club Event (Nov. 12): Im convinced that the stability of a nation rests on the incorruptibility of its judicial system and, presently, that systems greatest enemy is social media, where people can be condemned on rumour. Worse, judgments passed down after lengthy legal review can be lambasted and second-guessed.

By rejecting Marie Heneins book, I believe the Toronto District School Board is reinforcing judgment by social media. Everyone in Canada should read her section entitled Middles for lessons on the legal system.

Ms. Henein should be sought out to discuss the law with teenagers, rather than being prevented from doing so.

Bruce Sutherland Lt.-Col. (Retd); Calgary

As a survivor of sexual abuse, I side with the Toronto District School Boards choice to pull support from Marie Heneins presentation to a book club of impressionable high-school girls. No miscommunication this is a form of censorship, one I fully support.

Jian Ghomeshis trial is often presented as the nascence of the #MeToo movement. Sadly, I feel that his accusers found themselves on trial instead. In taking on his case then, there should be karma for Ms. Henein now.

Speaking on her life and immigrant experience, I have no doubt that Mr. Ghomeshis case would come into discussion. Under the guise of a noble profession, such a career-making case should forfeit access to a moralizing pulpit, particularly in retrospect and with such an impressionable audience in question.

#MeToo has evolved the legal profession seems to have some ways to go.

Marian Kingsmill Hamilton

What a shame that these girls do not get an opportunity to see an example of an immigrant beating all odds in the male-dominated world of criminal defence and rising to legal stardom. Marie Henein is exactly who these girls should be meeting. They should understand the legal system and hear from an exemplar in the field that there is a role for them in it.

I find it short-sighted and narrow-minded of the Toronto District School Board to censor Ms. Henein. It is the board that looks to be sending the wrong message to students not Ms. Henein.

Gilda Berger Toronto

Re More Schools Trying To Tackle Anxiety, Period Poverty By Providing Menstrual Products For Free (Nov. 9): Making menstrual supplies readily available to students at school would be an excellent move.

It is nerve-racking to have my period at school and wonder if I will have enough supplies to make it through the day. Periods can be uncertain due to the potential irregularity of menstrual cycles and factors such as stress. This causes worry over potential leaks or ruined clothes, and may interfere with education.

All schools should provide free menstrual products to prevent disruptions in female education and level the playing field.

Sarah Falk Woodland Christian High School; Cambridge, Ont.

Re International Student Recruiting Machine (Nov. 6): The rising cost of living, exploitation by employers and landlords, surging unemployment and a devastating pandemic have amplified problems faced by international students in Canada.

Indian youth are lured by pop culture, word of mouth and glittering social media from kith and kin who have migrated to Canada. They are pessimistic about achieving their goals and providing a good lifestyle for themselves and their families at home.

Many of my friends have migrated to Canada. Now their dreams have changed because it becomes a matter of survival in a new country. Study is at the back seat. Priorities change.

What solutions can the Canadian government offer? It should lower fees to study in Canada. It should invest in foreign talent with scholarships. Accommodations at subsidized rates are also a need of the hour.

More sensitive approaches from employers and landlords would also pave way for happier employees and renters.

Jaspreet Singh Patiala, Punjab, India

Re Walk This Way (Letters, Nov. 10): From a letter-writer who slows down to 90 kilometres an hour on the way to the cottage, to another who doesnt drive to the cottage if its raining, to yet another who hasnt owned a car or ridden in one for more than 25 years, there is competition over who contributes the least to climate change.

I have them all beat: I dont go anywhere.

T.M. Dickey Toronto

Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com

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Letters to the editor: Nov. 15: 'This is a form of censorship, one I fully support.' Toronto school board rejects Marie Henein book club event, plus...

The best measure of the artist Ai Weiwei was made not by any critic but by an interrogator working for Chinas state security forces. It came 51 days into his imprisonment in 2011 on trumped-up tax evasion charges. The agent understood that I wasnt an evil person, Ai relates in his autobiography, just a troublemaker. Everything I did was basically a form of dadaism, the agent told him. Cultural subversion was my speciality.

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The artist first became a nail in the eye, a spike in the flesh, gravel in the shoe of the Chinese Communist party when he orchestrated the gathering and publication of the names of 4,851 children who died in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Their deaths, Ai writes, were a direct consequence of corruption and the unsafe construction of school buildings.

Were Ai to have kept this politicking confined to the gallery, the state security services might not have been so determined in their persecution of him. Indeed, we hear little about the conceptual work that initially made his name: the 1,001 Chinese nationals, from all walks of life, who became a living artwork at the Documenta exhibition in Kassel in 2007 are afforded just a few paragraphs; his later installation of 100m ceramic sunflower seeds in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern in 2010 even less. Art Ai regards as a safe haven, a language that was less confrontational. Instead, the artist has increasingly turned to documentary-making to highlight the governments corruption and censorship, as well as embracing blogging and social media with bravado. Politics, he says, is a kind of readymade artwork.

The earthquake is not the only cause Ai has taken up. He has highlighted labour abuses in the construction of the 2008 Beijing Olympics stadium he helped design; sold a pack of baby formula at auction to call attention to its high levels of toxic melamine; and campaigned against the cat-meat trade. In 2009 the artist was beaten and his team locked in their hotel rooms after they travelled to Chengdu in Chinas southwest to support a fellow activist on trial.

Ai clearly relishes the publicity these confrontations afford him and he makes no huge effort to ingratiate himself with the reader. In 1994 he produced The Black Cover Book, a compendium of artworks and texts distributed under the radar of the censors. Though it did catch the attention of the police, spooking his collaborators, Ai sounds disappointed when he reveals they did not directly interfere. After Chengdu he says he was determined to see how far I could go. His arrest followed shortly after, sparking international condemnation (in 2015, when the UK issued only a limited visa to allow him to visit his show at the Royal Academy in London due to his criminal record, home secretary Theresa May intervened to extend it).

Given that AI is not shy of controversy, there are some strange omissions. He does not address the criticism levelled at him after he recreated the photograph of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian refugee pictured dead on a beach, with himself in the position of the drowned boy. Nor does he mention his support for Julian Assange. Early in the book, in a paragraph concerning self-criticism sessions in 1940s China, he writes how ideological cleansing continues in the modern west under the influence of politically correct extremism but leaves the point hanging.

Ais rebellion has its roots in his fathers turbulent life. He writes that he was never emotionally close to Ai Qing, who was a famous poet. Yet it is evident that his fathers persecution, first under the Nationalists in the 30s and then as a rightist during the Cultural Revolution, had a profound effect on Ais character.

Ai Qing joined the Communist party in 1941 and was intimate with its leading lights, including Mao Zedong, whom he found thoughtful and composed, and widely read cracking the occasional joke. Yet he soon fell foul of the leaders purges. It is in the recollections of Weiweis teenage years in a region nicknamed Little Siberia that the autobiography is at its most vivid and revealing. Living in a dug-out pit, the boy foraged for firewood to keep warm, his father forced to clean latrines in which faeces would freeze into icy pillars.

Father would always light a cigarette and size up the work as though admiring a Rodin sculpture. The nicotine rush would bolster his courage in addressing the task ahead, he writes. Ai Qing suffered this persecution stoically, he notes: I have to admit I lack that level of forbearance. When Ai Qing was eventually politically rehabilitated, he professed himself at peace, but for his son those humiliations have cast a long shadow. He expresses an impatience with the timidity of my fathers generation.

Despite these mixed feelings, 1000 Years of Joy and Sorrow is ultimately an elegiac tribute to his fathers professional and personal legacy. He quotes from Ai Qings poems, reproducing several of them in full. One of his fathers earliest works, written in Paris, describes his fellow exiles loving freedom, hating war / In a fury over these things / In anguish over them / Working up a sweat / Tears in their eyes. Ai now lives in Portugal, and, for all his pragmatic understanding of arts limits in the face of totalitarianism, rejecting his fathers belief that poetry was inseparable from the future of democratic politics, art nonetheless remains for him a signifier of social health. Censorship, Ai writes, is the cruellest form of violence.

1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows by Ai Weiwei, translated by Allan H Barr, is published by Bodley Head (25). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

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1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows by Ai Weiwei an assault on the censors - The Guardian

Dove Camerons open bathrobe selfies came with a risk today, although the 25-year-old didnt take her chances when it came to staying inside Instagrams no-nudity guidelines. Posting to social media at the start of the week, the former Disney star stunned fans with a sexy lingerie-and-bathrobe look, with the photos quickly gaining likes from those 44 million followers.

Showing off her new dark brown hair as she ditches the blonde, the We Belong singer sizzled with her robe slipped down off her shoulders and worn open at the top underwear beneath it added more pop, although it was here that Cameron inserted a digital heart emoji to protect her modesty.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK SEPTEMBER 12: Dove Cameron attends the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards at Barclays Center on September 12, 2021 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for MTV/ ViacomCBS)

Snapping herself while backed by glossed-white tiles, Dove rocked her dark hair in a ponytail as she wore heavy eye makeup, although eyes may well have been farther down. The Powerpuff Girls star was flaunting her cleavage in a balconette and sheer cream lace bra, one boasting thick black straps, plus a plunging neckline. Doves gallery brought out a fair amount of skin, but the Flawless Beauty ambassador ensured her heart emoji kept the nipple out of it.

Dove also showcased her snake finger tattoo and upper ear piercings, alongside her plump pout. The Emmy winner kept her caption short, using only two dance-like emoji. The post gained over 600,000 likes in under an hour, including one from actress Lili Reinhart. More after the snaps, where you can check out the gallery with a swipe.

Dove, who made headlines for showing her raw side in an honest post on World Mental Health Day this year, continues to be a talking point for prioritizing her mental health, even admitting that her self care isnt always pretty. In summer 2020, an interview with Byrdie saw the star admit that internet-friendly trends are hard to achieve in fact, she straight-up isnt following them.

I would love to be one of those people that says: I wake up every morning at 5 a.m. And then I stretch, and then I fill my belly with lemon water. But Im not. I wake up anywhere from 8 a.m. to noon. Im really, really bad, she revealed. The interview came ahead of the actress split from boyfriend of nearly four years, Thomas Doherty.

Also revealing shes happy to seek professional help, Dove continued:Im such a manic creature. I feel like certain things can feel meditative for me. I definitely go to therapy, but I wouldnt necessarily say that it makes me feel great every time.

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Dove Cameron forced to censor open bathrobe photos - Champagne and Shade