Three students praised the University of Austin's inaugural summer program for fostering civil discourse and open dialogue around subjects that might be considered taboo through its dedication to free speech.
The University of Austin — established as a free speech alternative to other colleges — over the summer offered its "forbidden courses," which were intended to allow students to "inquire openly into vexing questions" about controversial subjects "with honesty and without fear of shame," the university's website states. The classes covered topics ranging from feminism to the history of the Black male experience since the nation's founding.
"We debated if Islam is a religion of peace," Sophia Sadikman, who attended a course on critical thinking and freedom of expression, told Fox News. "We debated single parent households versus two parent households. We talked about transgenderism."
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"Very intense, hot-button topics," Sadikman, a Brown University senior, told Fox News.
Peter Boghossian, a University of Austin founding faculty member, recently described the forbidden courses as classes where "people who hold different opinions are presented about topics we wouldn't or couldn't or shouldn't even talk about."
"If you have a sincere question, you're welcome to ask that, even if some people may be offended by that question," he added.
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Brown University senior Sean Fischer, who took a class on the Black male experience in the U.S., said he was drawn to the University of Austin's forbidden courses program because of its "emphasis on civil discourse and free speech and the pursuit of truth."
"They were super unique in their dedication and in their construction of a curriculum around those ideals," he said. "It's not something I had seen elsewhere in terms of summer programs."
The forbidden courses and their focus on allowing students to openly discuss sensitive topics without fear of judgment or repercussion is central to the University of Austin's founding principles: "freedom of inquiry, freedom of conscience and civil discourse." The school doesn't yet offer degrees but plans to hold its grand opening next year.
The University of Austin has organized limited programs in Dallas — including the forbidden courses — while it waits to break ground on a campus in Austin. The university describes the one-week session on its website as offering students the chance to engage in "small discussion-based seminars, lectures, and social activities … to explore the great questions of our time."
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A diverse student body spanning a wide spectrum of political and social ideologies enriched the program's quality of discourse, according to Hillsdale College junior Jane Kitchen.
"Every kind of person was there and had things to say," she told Fox News. "So, discussing anything turned into this really rich learning experience."
"There were so many different kinds of people there, like atheists and Christians and Republicans and Democrats and libertarians," Kitchen, who took a course on feminist history, added.
Kitchen said she recently transferred to Hillsdale, a conservative college, from Bryn Mawr College after feeling "stifled" at the women's liberal arts institution.
"I felt like the landscape of ideas was very homogenous," she told Fox News. "And there was a hostile culture towards any kind of contrarianism or dissent."
The University of Austin will hold its second forbidden courses program this summer in June and July, according to the learning institution's website.
To watch students describe their forbidden courses experiences, click here.
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