“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..…

► Full story

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.

FAITH IN ACTION
Highlights from the College’s Alumni Blog

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.

► Full story