Another Six-year Term for Thomas Aquinas College President
(November 6, 2008)
SANTA PAULA, CA - Mrs. Maria O. Grant, Chairman of the Board of
Governors at Thomas Aquinas College announced today that at its
meeting on Monday, October 27, the Board of Governors voted unanimously
to reappoint Dr. Thomas E. Dillon as President of Thomas Aquinas
College for a term of six years, beginning in May of 2009.
"With his firm commitment to the mission and principles of
Thomas Aquinas College, Dr. Dillon has introduced this institution
to new friends across the country and abroad. He has gained interest
and support for the college among the Roman Curia and from many
donors who have made possible its strong position today," said
Mrs. Grant. She added that the Board of Governors salutes Dr. Dillon's
unceasing efforts for the college in the last 18 years as president
and looks forward to supporting him in his continuing leadership
of Thomas Aquinas College.
About Thomas Aquinas College:
Ranked the #5 "Best Value" in the country for 2008 and
2009 among all private institutions in the United States by The
Princeton Review, Thomas Aquinas College is a four-year Catholic
liberal arts college with a fully-integrated curriculum composed
exclusively of the Great Books, the seminal works in the major disciplines
by the great thinkers who have helped shape Western civilization.
There are no textbooks, no lectures and no electives. Instead, under
the guidance of faculty members and using only the Socratic method
of dialogue in classes of no more than 20, students read and discuss
the original works of authors such as Euclid, Dante, Galileo, Descartes,
the American Founding Fathers, Adam Smith, Shakespeare, Copernicus,
Kepler, Newton, Einstein, Aristotle, Plato, St. Augustine, and of
course, St. Thomas Aquinas. Graduates consistently excel in the
many world-class institutions at which they pursue graduate degrees
in fields such as law, medicine, business, theology and education.
They have distinguished themselves serving as lawyers, doctors,
business owners, priests, military service men and women, educators,
journalists and college presidents.
ABOUT DR. THOMAS E. DILLON:
For the past 37 years, Dr. Thomas E.
Dillon, the President of Thomas Aquinas College, has worked to advance
and sustain Catholic liberal education. Appointed to the College's
teaching faculty in 1972, a year after its founding, he served as
Assistant Dean for Student Affairs from 1976 to 1981; he then served
as Academic Dean from 1981 until his appointment as President in
1991. Dr. Dillon holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Integral Liberal
Arts from St. Mary's College of California, and Masters and doctoral
degrees in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame.
Widely-recognized as a national leader in the reform of accreditation
in higher education, Dr. Dillon was active in the early 1990s in
organizing a new national accrediting agency, the American Academy
for Liberal Education. In 2003, he was appointed to a three-year
term by the United States Secretary of Education to the 15-member
National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity,
a group that, in effect, accredits the accreditors.
In the late 1990s, Dr. Dillon was appointed by the United States
Congress to two consecutive three-year terms on the 11-member national
Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, an independent
committee that advises Congress and the Secretary of Education on
the disposition of over $60 billion annually in financial aid.
President Dillon is a member of the Sovereign Military Order of
Malta. He serves on the Board of Directors of a number of organizations,
including the Institute on Religious Life, and he has been a member
of Legatus for the past 11 years. He has spoken to various Legatus
chapters around the country and at the Legatus International Summit
in Naples, Florida, in 2005. Dr. Dillon has been interviewed about
Catholic higher education on a number of nationally-broadcast radio
programs and has done television programs on this and related topics,
primarily on the internationally-broadcast EWTN.
Dr. Dillon and his wife, Terri, have been married for 41 years
and have four children and 15 grandchildren.
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