College has tools for making business leaders

By Zac Estrada
Special to the Business Times

Thomas Aquinas College may have the key to creating better employees for companies everywhere.

The Santa Paula school's uncommon curriculum and learning structure set it apart from other liberal arts colleges. But most important to employers, graduates are trained in sparking discussions and handling ethical issues.

Thomas Aquinas bases its entire curriculum on the Great Books program, a compilation of mostly fictional works from such authors as Homer, Shakespeare and Mark Twain. It also features works such as the Federalist Papers and the Communist Manifesto.

Director of College Relations Anne Forsyth said the college was founded with this curriculum and 33 students in 1971.

"We're different in having a four-year curriculum based around the Great Books program," she said. Thomas Aquinas is one of two schools in the country to base their entire program on the system.

The Great Books program was started by a Columbia University professor in 1919. It evolved from a single class based off of famous authors and their famous works to an entire curriculum.

The only degree Thomas Aquinas offers its 350 students is a bachelor's of arts in liberal arts.
Forsyth says the college doesn't accept transfers because of the specialized structure of the four-year curriculum. But many students get a degree at Thomas Aquinas in hopes that it will compliment their careers in the medical and business fields for example.

Interim president Peter DeLuca says about 10 percent of students attend law school and "a significant number" attend medical school. His own son earned his MBA at the University of Washington after graduating from Thomas Aquinas.

"When they finish they're much better rounded," DeLuca said. "Deans tell us they really appreciate our graduates because they're grounded."

By being grounded, DeLuca says the students graduating from his college are better able and more motivated to work with others.

"There's a desire of the graduates to be of service in the community," he said.

The way classes are structured plays a part in this. Forsyth says professors are known as tutors and are responsible for classes of just 17 students. She said the tutors were more like "advanced students."

"There are no lectures," Forsyth said. "Students prepare for classes with the reading and then sit around a table having discussions. They learn a great deal from each other."

The ability of Thomas Aquinas graduates to successfully develop arguments is why Tom Krause has hired several of them.

Krause is the chairman of Behavioral Science Technology, or BST, in Ojai. BST is a safety management consulting firm that works with organizations both domestically and internationally to increase safety procedures. The company worked with NASA after the Space Shuttle Columbia accident in 2003 to improve safety regulations ahead of the shuttle program re-launch.

Krause estimates he's hired nearly a dozen employees from Thomas Aquinas, mostly in lower-level management and marketing positions.

"As an employer, one of the things you're always interested in is the level of citizenship," he said. "It's not enough to select people who have the technical skill but don't fit into the culture. People who come out of Thomas Aquinas have a good chance of becoming good citizens and good colleagues."

Krause believes the Great Books curriculum reverts to the original intent behind a liberal arts education by teaching people how to think analytically. And the specific way in which the students are educated plays another critical role in making them listen to a different point of view, something Krause says is a "hugely important skill in business."

But the ability to make ethical decisions is even more important. Forsyth, DeLuca and Krause agree that events as severe as the banking crisis may have been softened if CEOs and other company officials knew how to make ethical decisions like Thomas Aquinas graduates.

"The ability to make ethical decisions is radically enhanced," Krause said. "The typical college graduate has no way to think about the complex nature of business today; they can only think about what works. As the world gets more complicated we need more people who can think about the complicated decision."