Sébastien Le Belzic (special correspondent in the United States), edited by Gauthier Delomez / Photo credits: Brandon Bell / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
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7:25 a.m., March 6, 2024
In Austin, Texas, a new type of university will open its doors at the start of the next school year: it is an anti-woke establishment, a first in the United States. While Donald Trump attacks wokism in his campaign for the Republican primaries, Europe 1 went exclusively to this Texan university.
It is one of Donald Trump’s mainstays in the Republican primary campaign. The former president of the United States wants to wage war on wokism and political correctness, targeting in particular large universities and those he calls “pink-haired communists” who teach the history of racism in schools in a way he considers “inappropriate”. The question is in any case agitating the academic community, to the point that in Austin, Texas, the first anti-Woke university in the country will open next school year. Europe 1 went there exclusively.
An apolitical university focused on contradiction
The classrooms still smell like paint. The start of the school year will only take place in six months, but teachers are already busy in this new temple of education, which aims to be apolitical and oriented towards contradiction.
Its president, Pano Kanelos, underlines at the microphone of Europe 1 that “everything is political now, and the university also has this temptation to see itself as a political actor with a social program”. In total, 200 million euros were raised from private donors to open this unique university in the United States which promotes freedom of expression.
“It’s no secret that universities are dominated by far-left ideas,” said Patrick Gray, professor of literature. “In this historic moment, there is a political agenda known as ‘woke’ that some, very zealously, want to impose on students,” the teacher continues. For him, the American university is going through a cultural revolution which wants to erase the past, to draw a line under history, with the risk of transforming teaching into a political weapon.