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A nascent conservative center being established at the University of Texas at Austin has dropped its working moniker, the Liberty Institute, and been rebranded as the Civitas Institute. The name change follows objections raised months ago by the First Liberty Institute, a Christian conservative legal organization in Texas, which owns the Liberty Institute trademark.
The Civitas Institute has also named a director, hiring Justin Dyer away from the University of Missouri, where he served as a political science professor and director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, The Texas Tribune reported Monday. The publication noted that Dyer has described himself as “a conservative, straight out of central casting, a pro-life evangelical who is an unapologetic admirer of the American founding fathers and the U.S. Constitution.”
The institute prompted an outcry last fall, when UT faculty members first learned of plans to establish a conservative think tank supported by private donors and Texas Republican lieutenant governor Dan Patrick, who has been criticized for attacks on academic freedom. The state and the University of Texas system have both pledged millions in funding.
Dyer’s hire comes amid pushback from professors involved with the program, public records requests from The Texas Tribune uncovered. Some faculty members believe the university has strayed from its original plan and have raised concerns about donor influence in faculty hiring, among other things. Dyer himself has been the subject of some complaints from faculty attached to the program, who believe he doesn’t have the “needed prominence” to establish the center.
Dyer is set to begin July 1.
