A liberal arts education in its purest form is a comprehensive education that brings together all forms of human knowledge.

Over the years, Panocanellus, now president of the University of Austin,

observed a growing homogenization and bureaucratization of higher education.

He saw school programs becoming more and more similar,

administrators outnumbering students, and young adults being taught the pathway to success is dependent on censorship and adherence to the status quo.

We've created a culture of conformity at university, culture of conformity at higher education.

So in 2021, together with a group of similarly concerned individuals, he started the University

of Austin, which emphasizes curiosity, risk-taking, and moral agency.

Three years later, Canellas is the president of a fully operational freshman class and a diverse faculty.

We're trying to generate graduates who are themselves our builders and creators.

This is an important part of our curriculum. This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Yanya Kellogg.

Hano Canellos, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.

Thank you for having me. I'm really looking forward to this conversation.

Well, let's start with the Department of

Education. As we're filming here, just a day ago, there were rumors there was going to be an executive

order signed by President Trump to abolish the Department of Education. That didn't happen. But what

are your thoughts in general? I would be shocked if there wasn't some action taken from the new administration regarding the Department of Education.

I'll say when it comes to higher education, I think the expectation is that there's going to be significant reform around accreditation and universities, possibly moving accreditation to the states as opposed to kind of the national

creditors, probably making entry for new accreditors into the system a lot easier and

a lot faster.

And I'm all for that, I think, being America's newest university and going through the process right now of authorization and chartering and accreditation, the whole regulatory process of becoming a new university is extremely cumbersome and slow moving and challenging. And it really dissuades new institutions from taking shape.

And I'm all for as many new institutions coming into the ecosystem as possible, because I think that one of the great strengths of American higher education traditionally has been the kind of heterogeneity of the ecosystem.

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