New England

Even though he did not attend Thomas Aquinas College, Dr. Daniel Gutschke — a new tutor on the New England campus — has long had a fascination with it, thanks to an early encounter with founding president Dr. Ronald P. McArthur.

“I am the son of a Baptist dairy farmer, and my wife Melissa’s father works for a Baptist college — Cedarville University, where we met,” says Dr. Brett Smith, a new tutor in New England. The Christian faith, with its essential conviction that man is liberated by truth, has long been near to Dr. Smith’s heart.

After months of anticipation, teams representing two faithfully Catholic liberal arts schools in New England — Thomas Aquinas College and the St. Thomas More College of Liberal Arts — squared off Sunday afternoon for a fierce game of ultimate frisbee.

The TMC team made the 65-mile journey from its campus in Merrimack, New Hampshire, to TAC-New England in Northfield, Massachusetts, for what’s been billed as the First Annual Thomas Bowl. Students from both schools lined the sidelines and cheered their squads through two highly competitive 20-minute halves.

One Friday evening each semester, groups of about 20 Thomas Aquinas College students from all classes — seniors and freshmen, sophomores and juniors — gather in classrooms across their campus for the All-College Seminar. Although separate, these groups engage in a single, common activity, namely, reading, analyzing, and discussing the same text, one that is not part of the College’s ordinary curriculum. Two members of the teaching faculty lead each of the discussions.

Over Don Rags, with no classes to keep them busy, an intrepid group from TAC-New England decided to hike Mount Monadnock in nearby New Hampshire.

Making the most of the fall foliage, Members of the New England Senior Class recently hosted the third annual Oktoberfest to raise money for their class gift to the College.