A Salute to Dr. Kaiser

“The Antidote to ‘The Administration’”

By Patrick Gardner, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean for Student Affairs
Thomas Aquinas College, New England
May 20, 2022

Note: Dr. Thomas J. Kaiser (’75), a member of the College’s first graduating class and its teaching faculty, was one of the pioneers of the New England campus, arriving early in 2019 to oversee its opening later that year. This spring, with the completion of the academic year, he is stepping down as dean of the New England campus and returning to teach fulltime in California. Below are remarks that the assistant dean for student affairs on the New England campus, Dr. Patrick Gardner, offered in honor of Dr. Kaiser on the eve of Commencement 2022.

Working under Tom the last three years has been my first real duty in administration, here at the College or elsewhere. Elsewhere, as you know, the term “the administration” can often be a byword, or term of abuse, like “the powers that be” — a term meaning an impersonal, unapproachable, out-of-touch authority, whether those qualities be real or perceived. Here at TAC, well, yes, we have the administration — you have probably seen the signs — but we have two great advantages in forestalling the unhealthy, us-vs-them atmosphere that the term can connote. Both of these are gifts from our founders.

First, we are small by design, small enough that we stand a real chance of remaining a community of friends. Second, by design of our polity, there are key administrative duties that must be taken on by tutors, by those who are here first as teachers, not as administrators, and thus have first another relationship to colleagues and students before they take on those duties when called upon.

But while those gifts from our founding offer advantages, they don’t make us immune as a community to thinking in terms of “the administration” when difficulties and differences of opinion arise, and someone has to make a hard decision. It’s still a struggle, and depends on the people in the community, not just its founding design.

That’s something I came to admire quickly when I started on the California campus under the leadership of Mike McLean; Brian Kelly, who was then dean; and then John Goyette — how each of them worked to preserve a community of friendship, with colleagues and students, and they have continued to do so in spite of the obstacle of 3,000 miles between two campuses. It depends on the people in the moment, and ultimately it depends on God’s grace granting practical wisdom to a leader and charity to him and all in the community.

That’s what I have seen most strikingly and consistently for three years under Tom’s leadership on this campus. He is the opposite or the antidote to “the administration.” And while I don’t think he wants this sort of ceremony, I feel obliged by piety to say a little of what I have seen.

That’s what I have seen most strikingly and consistently for three years under Tom’s leadership on this campus. He is the opposite or the antidote to “the administration.” And while I don’t think he wants this sort of ceremony, I feel obliged by piety to say a little of what I have seen.

He’s personal. That is, he leads well by knowing the people first and always thinking about each individually. I have never seen him treat any problem merely abstractly, just applying a rule or policy; he was always attentive to the particulars of a situation. And he always wanted to know, before making a decision, what do this and that person think about it, what do they have to say, even though those people were under his authority and he could make the call without them. Having seen the whole history of the College from the inside from the first, he so often put what I knew simply as a policy in its context from personal experience of its origin, to give its measure as a means to an end, not an end in itself. In one case at least, he tells me, he was personally the reason for a rule or policy: “no discharging firearms through dorm room windows.”

He’s approachable. My office has been across from his, and I am amazed at the patience with which he’s gone through each day with a never-ending series of knocks on his office door or heads poked in: “Tom, do you have a minute?” Too often from me, but also from everyone, tutors, staff, students; and he’s always got a minute, or a half hour, to listen and advise, to talk things through. And students will knock on the door of Wilson House off hours, too, and be welcomed there.

And he’s anything but hands-off. I learned early on that if I knocked on his office door, and he was out and not in class, and I wanted to find him, I just had to ask myself, “What work is underway on some campus building right now?” Because he was probably there, with a tool in his hand. If it’s work on the Chapel, he’s there to a certainty. Installing the altar rail, improving the design of the sanctuary floor, mounting the statues, and so on.

But from the first he would do any task, and from the first lonely months out here on a campus that, while beautiful, put the phrase “deferred maintenance” to shame, you can imagine just how much menial work there was to be done, and how much supervision and organization of other hands when they arrived, which is even harder. Cooking for the crew when we didn’t yet have a kitchen running, hurrying to get houses habitable before tutors arrived with their families, hauling and moving office and dorm furniture from Newbury College (may she rest in peace), whatever it may be — and not just at the beginning. It was not one week ago that a certain visitor of note was expected at Kenarden Hall, and I arrived in the morning to find — picture this, if you will, as you approach the magnificent entryway to Kenarden over there, marble columns and all, with the sign by the walkway pointing that way and reading “Administration,” you peer through the glass doors, and there’s the Dean, with a vacuum in hand, cleaning the rug.

I learned early on that if I knocked on his office door, and he was out and not in class, and I wanted to find him, I just had to ask myself, “What work is underway on some campus building right now?” Because he was probably there, with a tool in his hand.

But while nothing’s too small or menial to be below his concern on this campus, he’s also kept the big picture in mind, both speculative and practical. I had the honor of co-leading Junior Theology with him, and in spite of all the time that this job took away from teaching, it was easy to see that this was what he’s here for, witnessing his discipleship to St. Thomas, his command of the whole curriculum in connection with theology, its queen, and his mastery of the Discussion Method, which requires a loving attention to every soul around the table.

Practically, he’s kept his eyes on what in the world outside threatens the College, and of what awaits our students when they graduate, and he’s protected and prepared them. As one senior put it at the President’s Dinner this past Wednesday, Dr. Kaiser has been like a father to them, and that seems about right — a lot more telling than “the administration.” I hope that, if you don’t already know it, the parents here will take heart in the knowledge that their sons and daughters have had here a paternal care for each one, and that the Board members know that this campus has had a leader who measured up to the vision of the founders.

Finally, and most importantly, the backbone of all the rest, is the love that Tom and Paula show for Our Lord and for His mother and ours and their perseverance in prayer. No matter what trials were going on in the office, unless he was chained there by a meeting, Tom would set them down at 11:25 each morning, and he and Paula were always there at daily Mass, always there at Rosaries, and Stations, and processions.

In leaving this community they are already leaving a great gift in that example, and in the work God has accomplished through their prayers; and so their magnificence in the gift of the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help was supremely fitting.