In 2021, a crew of self-described free speech martyrs announced they were founding a university to save American higher education from the scourge of cancel culture. Pretty much from the jump, critics of UATX suspected the project was less about “freedom of speech” and more about building a right-wing echo chamber for aggrieved libertarians. It operated out of a former retail store in downtown Austin, with funding from “anti-woke” philanthropists like Palantir co-founder Joseph Lonsdale. According to comprehensive reporting by Politico, in April of 2025 Lonsdale called an all-staff meeting that threw the entire project into a tailspin. More on education: Gen Z Arriving at College Unable to Read