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CAMPUS LIFE
MULTIMEDIA |
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TV Program Covers Launch of TAC, New England |
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Photos: California Welcome Dance for the Class of 2023 |
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Photos: New England Game Night |
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Photos: California Opening Concert & Trivial Pursuit |
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New England Lecture: David Whalen |
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Video Highlights From New England Convocation |
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Photos: Faculty Children Host Party for NE Students |
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California Rosary Procession for the Nativity of Mary |
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Slideshow:
Fall Volleyball in New England |
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Students Welcome the Class of 2023 on both Coasts! |
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New England Opening Concert & Trivial Pursuit |
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Slideshows: Family Picnics on Both Campuses |
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Photos: First-Ever
Cross-Country
All-College Seminar |
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Photos:
Volleyball Championships |
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Slideshow: Priests & Deacons Visit TAC, New England |
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UPCOMING EVENTS |
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Anniversary of the Death of Founding President Ronald P. McArthur
October 17 |
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California Lecture: Dr. Bruce Marshall
Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine
Southern Methodist University
October 18 |
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New England Don Rags
October 22-23 |
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California Don Rags
October 22-24 |
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New England Lecture:
Rev. David Vincent Meconi, S.J.
Associate Professor of Patristics, Theological Studies
Director, Catholic Studies
Saint Louis University
October 25 |
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California Tutor Talk:
Dr. John J. Goyette
“St. Thomas on the Philosophic Understanding of the Interior Word as a Similitude of the Divine Word”
October 30 |
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Feast of All Saints
No classes / office holiday
November 1 |
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Anniversary of the Death of College Founder Marcus R. Berquist
November 2 |
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California Lecture: Dr. Michael Mack
Associate Professor
Department of English
The Catholic University of America
November 8 |
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New England Lecture:
Rev. Sebastian Walshe, O.Praem. (’94)
November 8 |
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California Tutor Talk: Dr. John F. Nieto
November 13 |
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California Thanksgiving Concert
November 22 |
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Thanksgiving Recess
November 27 – December 2 |
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First Semester Examinations
December 14 – 20 |
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Residence Halls Close
December 21 |
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Alumni Christmas Soiree
December 21 |
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Christmas Vacation
December 21 – January 12 |
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Christmas
December 25 |
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Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God
January 1 |
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California Lecture: Dr. Timothy Noone
January 17 |
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New England Lecture: Dr. Robert Augros
January 17 |
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OneLife LA
January 18 |
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Legatus Summit Seminar: On the Sacraments and Their Ministers
January 23 |
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March for Life
January 24 |
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Walk for Life West Coast
January 25 |
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Feast of St. Thomas
January 28 |
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New England St. Thomas Day Lecture
by Rev. Joseph Koterski, S.J.
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Fordham University
January 28 |
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California St. Thomas Day Lecture
Rev. Dominic Legge, O.P.
Assistant Professor, Systematic Theology
Dominican House of Studies
January 28 |
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IN MEMORIAM |
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Margaret Cruickshank
August 23
Benefactor
Helen Grace Puccetti
August 29
Mother of Pip (Donahoe ’78) and grandmother of Theresa (’20) and Peter Donahoe (’22)
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PERFECT SCORES!
College Gets 100 Percent Ratings for Curricular Strength, Catholic Identity
• The American Council of College Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has released its annual report on the curricular strength of American institutions of higher learning and, once again, Thomas Aquinas College is at the very top of the list. For the eleventh time in as many years, ACTA has given Thomas Aquinas College a grade of “A” and a perfect rating. By earning an “A,” the College rates among the top 2 percent of American colleges and universities, 22 schools in all, named to ACTA’s coveted “A List.” Moreover, TAC is one of only seven schools, or the top 0.6 percent nationwide, to earn a perfect score for the strength of its curriculum.
• The National Catholic Register has selected Thomas Aquinas College as one of only 38 faithfully Catholic colleges and universities included in its Catholic Identity College Guide 2019. The guide is based on the schools’ responses to 10 questions which, the Register explains, are designed such that “a ‘YES’ answer reflects essential elements of the renewal of Catholic identity called for by Pope St. John Paul II’s 1990 apostolic constitution on higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae (Out of the Heart of the Church), its 2000 ‘Application to the United States,’ canon law, and other relevant Church documents.”
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“TAC IS A RARE GEM”
National Review Looks at Thomas Aquinas College, New England
By William Z. Nardi
Collegiate Network Fellow, National Review
“Though the lot of church-related colleges is hard nowadays,” Russell Kirk wrote in National Review in 1971, “one promising new liberal-arts college (most decidedly Catholic) has appeared: Thomas Aquinas College, near Malibu in Southern California. It offers much for mind and conscience. It is intellectually rigorous; it is unabashedly Christian; and it is on a humane scale. Its doors (those of a former seminary) will open to undergraduates this autumn. The institution does not expect to enroll more than three hundred students, ever.”
Thomas Aquinas College (TAC) has withstood the test of time. Forty-eight years later, it’s still traditionally Catholic, grounded in a great-books curriculum, and dedicated to studying the foundational documents of the American political order. It still caps enrollment at fewer than 400 students. Now it’s replicating its efforts in the lovely rural setting of Northfield, Mass., along the Connecticut River valley. This semester, fall 2019, is the first for the New England campus
In recent years more than 25 percent of liberal-arts colleges have closed, merged, or abandoned their original mission, TAC East has successfully launched in the region hit the hardest..…
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ON INTERNET ACCESS AND DRESS Codes
Assistant Deans go “On Tap” to Answer Students' Questions
The assistant deans of Thomas Aquinas College recently took turns hosting “On Tap” question-and-answer sessions with the students on their respective campuses. First up was Dr. Jared Kuebler in California, followed by Dr. Patrick Gardner in New England, both of whom answered a wide range of queries, some personal, some practical, others touching on matters pertaining to the College’s curriculum and pedagogy. The questions and responses were most profound, however, when they addressed the College’s Code of Conduct.
When asked, for example, why Thomas Aquinas College only permits student Internet access in designated study areas, Dr. Kuebler referenced St. Thomas’ writings on the need for silence and contemplation. “You need to avoid flooding the senses so that you can focus the powers of imagination and let the intellect do its work,” he said. “Were we to take away that rule, it would send the message that it’s not a big deal to get caught up in the distractions of the Internet, that you can still succeed, you can still excel in the pursuit of wisdom even without those habits. And that would be a lie.”
One week later in New England, Dr. Gardner similarly enlightened students on the virtues of the dress code. “The central principle is that we are body and soul; we are embodied beings, and how we treat our body, including what we wear, affects, often in an unconscious way, what we are doing,” said Dr. Gardner. “How you comport yourself and how you attire yourself affects how you go about your business. And so having a dress code causes us to take more seriously the work we are doing here, which is eminently worth taking seriously. It treats our education like the high thing it is, the opportunity it is, and as an occasion to which we want to rise.”
Based on the applause they engendered, the discussions were well-received — so much so that the assistant deans intend to make “On Tap” a regular occurrence on their campuses.
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Dr. Jared Kuebler
Dr. Patrick Gardner |
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FAITH IN ACTION
Highlights from the College’s Alumni Blog
• The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) recently announced that it has named Ken Colombini (’85) as its new communications director. A former newspaper reporter, editor, and columnist, Mr. Colombini transitioned to public affairs in the 1990s with positions in California state government, where he ultimately served as deputy director for communications at California State Parks. He moved from Sacramento to St. Louis in 2000 to take a position at Anheuser-Busch, culminating in work as the company’s director of governmental and environmental communications. Now as the RFA’s communications director, he is responsible for the development and implementation of a broad range of the national trade association’s communication strategies.
• Will Bertain (’08) has been named the first assistant headmaster at the St. Jerome Institute (SJI), a just-opened, classical high school in Washington, D.C. A founding faculty member and master teacher at Glendale Preparatory Academy, Mr. Bertain worked for the Great Hearts Academies in Arizona for more than a decade, holding the positions of academic dean and interim-assistant headmaster at Anthem Preparatory Academy. “Will’s philosophical formation from Thomas Aquinas College enables him to offer teenagers a deep academic mentorship,” says Peter Crawford, the school’s headmaster. “His leadership is a true gift to the hearts and minds of our first class and future generations of students.”
• Last year, Aaron Dunkel (’06) ran a long-shot campaign for the City Council of Santa Paula, California, hometown of the College’s West Coast campus. Although his effort came up short, the campaign allowed him to make meaningful friendships with many of the city’s residents, including his fellow candidates. And when an opening arose on the city’s Planning Commission this spring, the council’s members — including four who had not long ago vied with him for a council seat — voted unanimously to award Mr. Dunkel the position. He now works with his fellow commissioners to ensure that development in Santa Paula is carried out in an orderly fashion. Says Mayor Clint Garman, “We are honored to have Aaron Dunkel on the commission.”
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Ken Colombini ('85)
Will Bertain ('08)
Aaron Dunkel (’06)
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DIVING IN
Aquatics Center Opens on New England Campus
It was a “baptism by immersion” on the evening of September 30 as the students of Thomas Aquinas College, New England, celebrated the opening of the aquatics center in Meany Gymnasium — and just in time, now that the autumn weather has arrived. The pool, which had fallen into disrepair since the campus’ previous occupants moved away in 2005, has been under renovation for the last several months. Thanks to the generosity of College Governor Angela (Andersen ’87) Connelly and her husband, Jack, it has now been fully restored. Students were eager to take a swim and, on that Monday evening, they got their opportunity.
At a poolside ceremony attended by students as well as members of the faculty and their families, Chaplain Rev. Greg Markey blessed the facility, sprinkling holy water along its perimeter. Then Associate Dean Thomas Kaiser, joined by Facilities Manager Steve Wiggin, ceremoniously cut a red ribbon that been strung between two diving boards — before becoming the first to jump in. They were immediately followed by dozens of students, many of whom who were fully dressed, who cheered, splashed, and executed some dramatic dives off the boards.
More work remains to be done on the facility, which will honor St. Joan of Arc and will be renamed the Connelly Family Aquatics Center at a forthcoming dedication. In the meantime, however, the pool is now open for use, much to the students’ delight. Future swimming events are already in the works.
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