Last Saturday morning a small but dedicated group of students met in the parking lot behind Bl. Junipero Serra Hall for the inaugural “Laps for Life” campus race. At 10:00 a.m. sharp they set off around the hilly, one-mile drive that loops the campus. Novices made their way around the drive once, while the more experienced runners opted for a three-loop course. At the finish line, organizers offered prizes of candy-filled baby bottles — a fitting choice for this fundraising event, which benefited local crisis-pregnancy centers.

“Rejoice, O Bride and maiden ever pure!”

On Saturday evening the St. Genesius Players treated Thomas Aquinas College students, faculty, and families to a production of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare.

“They’ve won an important battle, but for Thomas Aquinas College, the war rages on.”

So begins a front-page story in Thursday’s Santa Barbara News-Press about the federal government’s appeal of the College’s initial victory in its lawsuit against the HHS Mandate. (The article is available for free, via PDF download, courtesy of the News-Press.)

A beloved campus tradition, Trivial and Quadrivial Pursuits is the campus-wide quiz show — played on the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas — famous for its extravagant costumes and over-the-top displays of creative gamesmanship.

“On Nature, Reason, and Will in St. Thomas”

St. Thomas Day Homily
By Rev. Joseph Illo
Head Chaplain
January 28, 2014