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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
III. Politicial Atmosphere: Make My
Words Your Home
A few years ago Thomas Aquinas ran afoul
of its regional accrediting agency, the Western Association
of Schools and Colleges (WASC). WASC representatives complained
about the "restrictive nature of the curriculum"
at Thomas Aquinas and put pressure on the college to make
its curriculum and enrollment more "multicultural,"
in compliance with "Standard 4.B.2" of the WASC
documents for higher education, which calls for an "appreciation
of diversity" as one of the basic requirements of
higher education.
The college defended itself, engaging
in determined opposition to WASC’s politicized agenda.
Writing in the spring l995 issue of Policy Review,
college president Dillon stated, "We pursue no ‘affirmative
action’ for persons or texts. We look for the best
teachers, the best books, and students willing and able
to undertake the life of reason."
After the conflict made the pages of
the Wall Street Journal, larger institutions such as Stanford
and UCLA also voiced their concern over WASC’s criteria.
Thomas Aquinas was repeatedly characterized as playing
David to the WASC’s Goliath, and WASC ultimately
took the figurative stone to the head and backed down.
Indeed, recent WASC reports reflect favorably on the intellectual
and social life of the college: "In the best tradition
of a residential college, students characterize the college
as character building in that it not only teaches you,
it changes you. Students value their seriousness in leading
a life pleasing to God, which includes adherence to virtue
in all matters, practicing respect for others, affirming
chastity before marriage, and endorsing differentiation
of the sexes which nonetheless affirms both sexes as rational
truth seekers." The college has also earned effusive
praise from a recently formed accrediting agency, the
American Academy for Liberal Education.
The college demonstrates in its strict
rules and adherence to Catholic doctrine that the learning
it offers affects students’ social comportment, as
well as their intellectual lives. Thomas Aquinas is largely
immune from the controversy and scandal that seem to plague
other institutions of higher learning. Once every couple
of years, estimates a professor, there is a high-profile
violation of the Thomas Aquinas student code, which governs
everything from appropriate dress to sexual infractions.
In one recent case, a student was dismissed from the college
because she wanted to live with her boyfriend off campus,
in open violation of the student code of conduct. She
attempted to sue the college, but the suit was dropped.
According to students and faculty, what
political atmosphere exists on campus is overwhelmingly
traditional and is highly informed by Catholic doctrine.
"We pray every day in the chapel for an end to abortion,"
notes one student, and students frequently go off campus
to pray the rosary at a nearby abortion clinic. But in
general, students are more interested in debating the
intellectual arguments of the authors read and discussed
in class, and one professor notes that the political temperature
is kept purposely low: "We try to keep their minds
on the program." Apart from the Legion of Mary chapter
and pro-life work of students, activism is generally discouraged
for the sake of cultivating the intellectual life of students.
"It’s not the time of life" for such activities,
says a professor.
There is a modest degree of political
activity among faculty. "Some of the faculty are
more politically involved than others," notes one
student. One professor, for instance, circulated a petition
in support of Proposition 209 (a California ballot initiative
to end affirmative action). Campus speakers generally
tend to be intellectually and culturally, if not politically,
conservative. Past speakers have included Alan Keyes,
noted Straussian Harry Jaffa, the late conservative journalist
Malcolm Muggeridge, and Boston College theologian Peter
Kreeft.
The hiring process at Thomas Aquinas
is also distinctive among premier liberal arts colleges
and, according to faculty, is not subject to the ideological
constraints that so often attend such decisions at other
institutions. Neither is continued employment (there is
no such thing as tenure there) dependent on the "publish
or perish" mentality that often is at odds with an
institution’s commitment to teaching. "Thomas
Aquinas is very, very focused on quality education,"
says one professor, who adds that the administration "would
discourage publication if it adversely affects your teaching."
Although immune to certain pressures,
faculty hiring could be accused of a kind of "inbreeding,"
insofar as a marked preference exists toward hiring graduates
of Thomas Aquinas or similar great books schools, like
St. Mary’s College of California or St. John’s
College in Annapolis and Santa Fe. Of the twenty-three
tutors listed in the 1995-97 catalogue, for instance,
ten received their B A.s from Thomas Aquinas and an additional
six either studied or taught at St. Mary’s or St.
John’s.
The value of this practice, of course,
is that the college hires only tutors known to support
the program it operates. And selecting faculty from among
graduates of its own or similar programs is hardly surprising,
given the unique and challenging nature of teaching at
Thomas Aquinas. Faculty at the college must exhibit a
high degree of unity of purpose and approach; all must
be prepared to teach any part of the college curriculum.
Once hired, tutors remain at Thomas Aquinas under a virtual
"permanent appointment" system that dispenses
with the usual process of tenure review. Consequently,
great care is taken in the search and interview process
for a new faculty member. The college "almost always
grants permanent employment" if a faculty member
wants to stay, the professor says.
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[Contents]
Reprinted by permission of Intercollegiate
Studies Institute.
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