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TOP MARKS FOR CURRICULUM & VALUE
ACTA Gives College “A,” Washington Monthly Places it among “Affordable Elite”
The American Council of College Trustees and Alumni has released its annual report on the curricular strength of American colleges and universities. For the sixth time in as many years, the organization has given Thomas Aquinas College a grade of “A” and a perfect rating.
As such, the College rates among the top 2 percent of American colleges and universities, 23 schools in all, named to ACTA’s coveted “A List.” Among these, the College has the highest four-year graduation rate — 73 percent, or nearly double the national average (39 percent) — save for the U.S. military academies. Moreover, the College is one of only four schools, or the top 0.4 percent nationwide, to earn a perfect score for the strength of its curriculum.
Complementing its high rankings in the various college guides, Thomas Aquinas College has also earned a spot among the nation’s “Affordable Elite,” according to Washington Monthly. Of the 224 schools that, according to the magazine, “give high-achieving non-wealthy students a break in price,” the College rates in the top 100, at No. 76.
More: A perfect score from ACTA 
Washington Monthly ranking
Other college-guide reviews
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LIBERAL EDUCATION IN THE JOB MARKET
Catholic Business Leaders Offer Students Advice at Career Forum
“You have the gift of being able to look at the world a little bit differently,” said Tim Ristoff, founder and CEO of TriVista Business Group, to an audience of Thomas Aquinas College students at a recent Career Forum in St. Bernardine of Siena Library. “That’s going to make you unbelievably successful, should you elect to go into the business world.”
How the College’s students can get started in that world — and how they can best showcase the gift of their liberal education in job interviews — was the subject of the afternoon forum, sponsored by the College’s Office of Career Advisement. Over the course of two hours, the students received expert advice and strong encouragement from a panel of four distinguished business leaders with deep ties to the College.
“When you really think about the most successful companies out there — Microsoft, Google, eBay, or GE — there wasn’t any particular engineer that developed that creative, innovative new product,” said Mr. Ristoff. “There was a group of people that thought differently, that observed the world from a different perspective, that were keenly aware of the way people interacted. That didn’t come from somebody reading it out of a textbook, and that’s what you have.”
Full story
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FAITH IN ACTION
Highlights from the College’s Alumni Blog
• The Cardinal Newman Society has issued its 2014 Catholic Education Honor Roll, recognizing 71 high schools of excellence “marked by the integration of Catholic identity throughout all aspects of their programs and excellence in academics.” To make the list, the Society explains, schools must have “an institutional commitment to providing a truly integrated and faithful Catholic education across all disciplines and in all areas of student activities.” Notably, four of the just 71 schools honored on this year’s list — less than 5 percent of the Catholic high schools in the United States — are headed by Thomas Aquinas College alumni.
• On June 21 at Mission San Juan Capistrano, the Most Rev. Kevin William Vann, Bishop of Orange, ordained Frater Jacob (Joseph Hsieh ’06), O.Praem., to the transitional diaconate. For the next year he will study theology and music in Rome, then return to the Norbertine Fathers at St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, California, where he will teach chant. “My ordination to the priesthood will be, God willing, on June 27, 2015 — less than a year away!” he writes. “Pray for me!”
• Dr. Peter KwasniewskI (’94), a professor of theology and philosophy, an instructor of music, and the choirmaster at Wyoming Catholic College, has authored Sacred Choral Works, a book containing 20 years of his musical compositions for the sacred liturgy. Complementing the book are three CDs featuring recordings of nearly all the compositions, so as to facilitate their learning for choir directors and members alike. “As long as the New Evangelization means what it should,” Dr. Kwasniewski writes, “it will also always and everywhere begin and end in the sacraments, and in particular, the Most Blessed Sacrament, in which, says St. Thomas, the common good of the entire universe is found.”
The Faith in Action Blog
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Cardinal Newman Society
Frater Jacob (Joseph Hsieh ’06), O.Praem.
Dr. Peter Kwasniewski (’94)
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HHS UPDATE
College Continues Legal Challenge of Federal Contraceptive Mandate
“The Supreme Court’s decisions in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., and Wheaton College v. Burwell confirm what Plaintiffs have argued all along: the Government substantially burdens the exercise of religion whenever it forces religious believers to violate their sincere religious beliefs. And here, the Government’s revised regulations continue to do exactly that.”
So begins a supplemental brief filed in the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals in September. Attorneys representing Thomas Aquinas College and other Catholic institutions are continuing their challenge of the HHS Mandate, despite the government’s latest “accommodation” to the requirement that requires employers to provide contraceptive, abortifacient, and sterilization coverage to their employees.
“Throughout this saga, the government has responded to each and every legal setback with only cosmetic concessions, thereby compelling further litigation,” says Thomas Aquinas College President Michael F. McLean. “We are therefore left with no choice but to continue defending our religious liberty by seeking judicial relief.”
Full story
Text of the supplemental brief (PDF)
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IN MEMORIAM
Walter J. Conn, 1934 – 2014
Please join members of the Thomas Aquinas College community in praying for the repose of the soul of Walter J. Conn, a member of the Board of Governors.
The chairman of Charles Dunn Co., one of the largest regional property-management companies in Southern California, Mr. Conn joined the Thomas Aquinas College Board of Governors in 2013. Sadly, his tenure would prove to be short-lived. Mr. Conn soon learned that he had multiple myeloma, a form of bone-marrow cancer. He waged a valiant fight against that disease for the next year, and on September 18 moved on to his eternal reward.
“Walter was a valued member of our Board of Governors and a great supporter of Thomas Aquinas College,” says President Michael F. McLean. “We pray for his eternal rest and also for the consolation of his wife, Donna; their children; his brother, Jim; and the entire Conn family.”
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Walter J. Conn |
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