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Choosing The Right College - The Whole Truth About America's
Top 100 Schools
Intercollegiate Studies Institute (1998)
Introduction by William J. Bennett
"[Thomas Aquinas College is] virtually
unparalleled for providing its students with a rigorous
liberal arts education." -- Intercollegiate Studies
Institute
Campus Life: On Being and Essence
Since 1978, Thomas Aquinas has been located
on a beautiful site in southern California, between the
cities of Santa Paula and Ojai. Rugged mountains rise
beside the campus, which is built in a Southwestern/California
mission style. "The setting is appropriate"
for the intellectual undertaking students are engaged
in, says one student.
Because the site was previously undeveloped,
all of the buildings are new and some are still temporary.
"As funds are raised, buildings go up," explains
a professor. The college currently has a commons/dining
room building, a classroom building, three permanent dorms
(two male and one female), and the St. Bernardine Library,
completed in 1995. Plans are under way for a laboratory
science building, a chapel, and more dormitories, and
the college is in the midst of a campaign to raise funds
for these projects. The administration "is aware
of what is needed," according to one student, and
both students and faculty seem generally pleased with
the current facilities and future plans.
The social and extracurricular environment
at Thomas Aquinas is vastly different from that at most
American colleges. There is no campus newspaper, no student
government, and no Greek system. The rules of behavior
would inspire students elsewhere to rebellion. Students
must live on campus unless they are married or granted
special permission -- and the college’s rules of
residence state that since "the purpose of the college
is to establish a community of learning, such permission
is not usually given." No student may enter a dormitory
of the opposite sex, and may only linger on the porch
long enough to wait for the person he or she is meeting.
Alcohol is prohibited on campus, and students must sign
out before leaving campus. "Formal dress," including
skirts or dresses for women and slacks and collared shirts
for men, is "to be worn throughout the week in the
chapel, offices, classrooms, laboratories, dining hall,
and library," the rules say. In class, students are
to address each other as "Mister" or "Miss,"
and may not chew gum or consume food or beverages.
One student says that, although "students
are not always thrilled to discipline themselves in that
regard," most are pleased that a code is in place.
One of the nice things about these policies, says one
professor, is that "faculty don’t have to enforce
them"; all violations are under the jurisdiction
of student prefects, who are chosen by the faculty with
help from student suggestions.
When their schedules allow, students
can make the ten-minute trip into Santa Paula or visit
the beach in Ventura, twenty minutes away. Opportunities
for hiking, fishing, and backpacking abound in the Los
Padres National Forest, which borders the campus. Occasional
group trips to the Los Angeles area (about an hour’s
drive) are organized around cultural events such as performances
by the Los Angeles Opera or Master Chorale.
Organized athletic and musical opportunities
are kept to a minimum because of the college’s small
size and focus on the intellectual life, yet student-initiated
sports and musical groups abound. Volleyball, soccer,
basketball, and softball are popular, and there is a superlative
choir and scola trained in Gregorian chant.
Although there is no compulsory religious
observance at Thomas Aquinas, Mass is offered three times
daily, as are opportunities for Eucharistic Adoration
and recitation of the rosary.
According to recent figures, roughly
half the graduates of Thomas Aquinas go on to graduate
or professional schools. Another 11 percent begin a religious
vocation. According to one professor, many of the women
get married and begin raising a family. Unlike at many
of the nation’s colleges, "many students leave
with greater faith" than when they arrived, one professor
says. Most students come to Thomas Aquinas because they
believe the college can satisfy their love of and desire
for the truth. They are seldom disappointed with their
choice. "I came here because I wanted to learn how
to think," one student says. "I wanted to learn
the best things -- things that are worth knowing in themselves."
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[Contents]
Reprinted by permission of Intercollegiate
Studies Institute.
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