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University of Austin weeds out DEI, replaces it with merit-based initiatives: VP

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University of Austin weeds out DEI, replaces it with merit-based initiatives: VP

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The University of Austin (UATX) welcomed its first cohort of students this fall, and instead of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, the private liberal arts university is touting freedom of speech, open debates and merit-based admissions.

“They talk about safe spaces. We want to create an environment that’s safe for ideas to be explored and where there’s not risks to the student for taking positions as they explore,” UATX Vice President Michael Shires told Fox News Digital. 

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The university, which is currently unaccredited, was founded in 2021 by a group of academics and public figures, including former New York Times reporter Bari Weiss, who were concerned about the decline of free speech across college campuses.

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UATX accepts students based on merit, not DEI initiatives. (iStock | University of Austin)

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. 

“As we look ahead, obviously this is a time when people are trying to figure out how to foster free speech on campus,” Shires said. “Oct. 7 was a critical juncture in the last year and a half that really showed some of the holes in the environment we’re in.”

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While the university was founded prior to Donald Trump’s re-election, Shires said the “Trump administration is an exciting time for us to build an institution in an environment where there’s value on open discourse and dialogue.” 

Trump has signaled he would also roll back DEI and “woke” policies within federal agencies, including dismantling the Department of Education, signaling a potential for more schools to adopt UATX’s model. He has also said he would sue and tax “excessively large private universities” who implement “woke” policies.

DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER RANTS ABOUT ‘THE WHITE MAN’ DURING HEARING ON THE DISMANTLE DEI ACT

The threat of what constitutes hate speech has been a major concern for many public universities in recent years – leading to the rise of what critics call censorship and cancel culture – but Shires said defining the term depends “what are the value systems you’re applying to those.” 

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“And you know, for us, that’s our goal, is to create an environment where there’s civil discourse and where, basically, respect for the other person, and you’re debating and maybe even disagreeing on ideas,” he said.

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(Dzmitry Dzemidovich/File)

UATX employs the Chatham House Rule to encourage open classroom discussions. Under the rule, students can share ideas or information they hear in class but cannot attribute them to specific individuals.

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At institutions like Harvard, only 3% of faculty identify as conservative, while more than 75% identify as liberal, undergirding the ideological gap that UATX founders aim to address.

According to Shires, while the school has an admissions constitution that accepts students based on a variety of merit measures, he said UATX’s “students are all over the place, ideologically, politically, philosophically.”

“We are an institute, so we don’t believe the institution should have a position or an orthodoxy or an ideology,” he said.

Over the last four years, several universities have faced legal challenges concerning their DEI policies, including the California Community College system, Northwestern University Law School, Stanford University and Fordham University. In March, the University of Florida announced its plan to eliminate the chief diversity officer position and DEI staff, earmarking the funds to be spent elsewhere in the university.

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Missing 19-year-old Camila Mendoza Olmos believed to be ‘in imminent danger,’ Texas sheriff says

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Missing 19-year-old Camila Mendoza Olmos believed to be ‘in imminent danger,’ Texas sheriff says

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Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar indicated that authorities believe that Camila Mendoza Olmos, a 19-year-old woman who went missing on Christmas Eve, is “in imminent danger.”

The FBI is supplying technical aid and the Homeland Security Department is keeping an eye on border crossings as well as international travel, Salazar indicated, according to ABC News. 

“We definitely don’t want to miss anything,” he said, according to the outlet. “The ground search is somewhat limited to a couple of square miles. We’re also not ruling out that this case may take us outside the borders of the continental United States.”

TEXAS 19-YEAR-OLD CAMILA MENDOZA OLMOS VANISHES OUTSIDE HER HOME ON CHRISTMAS EVE

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Camila Mendoza Olmos, 19, was last seen outside her home in San Antonio, Texas, on Christmas Eve, authorities said. (Bexar County Sheriff’s Office)

The sheriff confirmed to ABC that the young woman had not been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which he verified despite Olmos being an American citizen.

“That was a personal concern. So, I had it checked to make sure that there were no stops, no detentions, and that she’s not somewhere in a federal detention facility. That is something we needed to check,” Salazar noted, according to the outlet.

Fox News Digital reached out to the sheriff’s office for comment.

TEXAS FATHER RESCUES KIDNAPPED DAUGHTER BY TRACING HER PHONE’S LOCATION, SHERIFF’S OFFICE SAYS

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Camila Mendoza Olmos was last seen around 6:58 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in northwest Bexar County, Texas. (Bexar County Sheriff’s Office)

A December 24 Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Facebook post noted, “Camila was last seen leaving her residence at approximately 6:58 a.m. on Wednesday, December 24, 2025. Video footage from that time shows an unknown individual, believed to be Camila, searching inside her vehicle for an unidentified item. Moments later, the footage ends. It is believed that she left the residence on foot, as her vehicle remained at the location.”

The post notes, “The only items known to be on her person are her car key and possibly her driver’s license. Camila’s mother stated that Camila normally goes for a morning walk; however, she became concerned when Camila did not return within a reasonable period of time.”

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The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said, “It is believed that she left the residence on foot, as her vehicle remained at the location.” (Google Maps)

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The sheriff’s office indicated in the post that she had been “Last seen wearing: Baby blue with Black Hoodie, Baby blue Pajama bottoms, White shoes.”

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DAVID MARCUS: At AmericaFest, two legacies hang in the balance, Charlie Kirk’s and Donald Trump’s

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DAVID MARCUS: At AmericaFest, two legacies hang in the balance, Charlie Kirk’s and Donald Trump’s

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There are two legacies hanging in the balance this weekend in Phoenix as Turning Point USA puts on its annual AmericaFest conference, first is its late founder, Charlie Kirk’s and the other is President Donald Trump’s. 

At the convention center here in Arizona, as many as 25,000 attendees are expected to gather to celebrate the life of Kirk, who was tragically murdered just months ago, but also to try to chart a course forward for the movement he marshaled.

Arriving a bit late on Thursday, I was greeted by Lucas, a TPUSA employee from Detroit in his mid-twenties. He was a picture-perfect ambassador, a clean-cut kid who is eschewing his generation’s almost epic bout of despair and instead leaning in to create positive change.

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TPUSA SPOKESMAN SHREDS PODCASTER’S ‘DISTURBING’ DEFENSE OF PROTESTER WHO CELEBRATED CHARLIE KIRK’S DEATH

“The energy has been amazing,” he told me, referring to the huge upswing in interest in TPUSA since Kirk’s horrible murder.

“Not the way you’d want it to happen,” I somewhat darkly noted, but Lucas said, “You have to find the silver lining, I guess.”

Lucas and the hundreds like him are honestly an inspiration, while so many of their generation are out of shape from toe to top, they see a bright future for America that so many of us in advanced years have long ago forgotten.

But do not get the impression that at AmFest this year all is hugs and kumbaya. Iin fact, what you will find here are the early stages of a war to define what Donald Trump’s legacy, and the legacy of his MAGA movement will be.

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PASTOR GREG LAURIE LAUNCHES CRUSADE AT CAMPUS WHERE CHARLIE KIRK WAS KILLED, WANTS TO BRING HOPE FROM TRAGEDY

Thursday night’s lineup on the big stage was a potent mix, featuring both Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire and Tucker Carlson, whose current feud over Israel has become a bit more than nasty.

I won’t litigate the feud here, it’s all on video after all, but the broader point is that some lines are being drawn ahead of the first presidential race in a while, in 2028, that presumably will not include the name Trump on the ballot.

‘PEOPLE WERE LISTENING’: PROSECUTOR SAYS CHARLIE KIRK WAS TARGETED FOR HIS INFLUENCE

At Amfest, we finally have more than tea leaves to tell us what the conservative movement after Trump and Kirk will look like — we have the actual tea, and a few stains to boot.

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The factions are becoming clear, Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika, in her speech Thursday enthusiastically endorsed Vice President JD Vance for president, while Shapiro said, more moderately, that Vance would have to build his own coalition.

Is Shapiro lining up a movement behind a potential candidate like Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz who has not been a member of Donald Trump’s, let’s face it, somewhat obsequious court of the Oval Office, and if so, can Erika Kirk’s power thwart such a play?

This weekend in Phoenix has assembled the people with the strongest claim to the MAGA movement — a once disparate band of misfits whose allegiance to the “orange man” who kept winning put them at the forefront of American power and politics.

Many of the grave and profound conservative voices and pundits of old, who give no truck to the New Right have fled ship for think tanks or psuedo-right-wing journals that exist only to destroy Trump and his movement, but they are not the vanguard. The real fight is here.

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What plays out over this weekend in Phoenix will have profound implications not just for next year’s midterms, but for the presidential race in 2028.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Charlie Kirk, founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, during a panel discussion at the Generation Next Summit at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on March 22, 2018, in Washington.  (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Legacies are matters of the future, and it is only the young attendees at Amfest who will see the longest lasting fruits of the American conservative movement — a movement still firmly shaped by Charlie Kirk.

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It is both remarkable and stark to see the myriad and often giant images of their Charlie around the convention center amid his earthly absence. Each image is a reminder both of his life’s great success and its tragic end.

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But Charlie Kirk’s legacy will not be a statue, or a plaque. His legacy will live in the hearts of the young kids assembled in Phoenix this weekend. Maybe they are naïve. Maybe they are not withered and weathered by life’s brutal storms. God bless them for their hope. We could use a bit more of it.

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Two riders trapped more than 100 feet in air after Texas roller coaster malfunctions

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Two riders trapped more than 100 feet in air after Texas roller coaster malfunctions

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Two theme parkgoers were trapped more than 100 feet in the air for more than 30 minutes this week after a roller coaster in Texas malfunctioned.

The Circuit Breaker roller coaster at the Circuit of the Americas near Austin unexpectedly stopped at the first drop, leaving Matthew Cantu, 24, and Nicholas Sanchez, 20, dangling at a 90-degree angle Wednesday night, KXAN-TV reported, citing a publicist representing the two men.

“For more than 30 minutes after the ride stopped, family members reported receiving no clear updates, while witnesses said staff provided conflicting explanations, including comments that the riders ‘weren’t strapped in currently,’” the publicist’s news release said, People magazine reported.

UNIVERSAL ORLANDO THEME PARK COASTER DEATH RULED ACCIDENTAL

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Construction continues on the Circuit Breaker, the first tilt roller coaster in Texas.  (Jay Janner/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)

A sensor triggered a ride delay,” the Circuit of the Americas told Fox News Digital in a statement Saturday. “It was resolved, and the ride proceeded without incident.

“As with all amusement attractions of this sort, delays occasionally occur. We regret the inconvenience and are glad that out of the 25,000 people that have ridden the coaster, only two have this badge of courage.”

The Circuit Breaker is Texas’ first “tilt” roller coaster, which means the track tilts 90 degrees for a nearly vertical drop during the ride.

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The ride opened as a preview in October and will officially open next year, according to KVUE-TV.

Austin-Travis County EMS responded to the incident before 10 p.m. Wednesday, evaluating one of the men who refused medical attention, KVUE reported.

Cedar Point in Ohio opened its new Siren’s Curse roller coaster this summer. (Akron Beacon Journal/Imagn)

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Austin-Travis County EMS for comment.

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Another tilt roller coaster, known as the Siren’s Curse at Cedar Point in Ohio, has similarly malfunctioned multiple times since it opened this summer. 

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