Thomas Aquinas College

    Maroon & blackWebsitewww.thomasaquinas.edu

Thomas Aquinas College is a private Catholic liberal arts college with its main campus in Santa Paula, California. A second campus opened in Northfield, Massachusetts in 2018.^[2] Its education is based on the Great Books, and students are instructed via the seminar method. It is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission.^[3]

Academics

Thomas Aquinas offers a unique, single degree program: Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts.^[4] The degree program comprises courses in mathematics, philosophy, language, theology, natural science, and music theory.^[5]

To ensure institutional autonomy, the college doesn't accept funding from either the federal government or the Catholic Church. Rather, the college relies upon private donations to provide its need-based scholarships.^[6] The college does not provide merit based scholarships.

In 2012, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni included Thomas Aquinas College in its What Will They Learn? study, which assigned a letter grade to 1,070 universities based on how many of the following seven core subjects were required, according to its specific criteria: composition, literature, foreign language, American history, economics, mathematics, and science. Thomas Aquinas College was one of 21 schools which received an "A" grade, a grade assigned to schools that included at least six of the seven subjects.^[7][8]

Curriculum

Thomas Aquinas College offers one degree, a Bachelor of Arts in liberal arts. This is an integrated liberal arts curriculum made up primarily of the Great Books of the Western Tradition, with the order of learning emphasized in the structure of the curriculum. Much of the first two years of the four-year program is devoted to the Trivium (logic, rhetoric, and grammar) and the Quadrivium (geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and music.)^[9] Natural science, philosophy, and theology are studied over the course of all four years. By the completion of their third year, students will have completed eleven papers assigned over the course of their semesters—"Five essays are written in  freshman year, four in sophomore year, and two lengthier essays are written in junior year."^[10] In their fourth year, students produce a senior thesis under the guidance of an advisor and defend it before a panel of faculty members.

The college replaces textbooks with the original sources, which are the seminal works of each discipline.^[11] Thomas Aquinas College acknowledges that not all of the texts in its program are of equal weight: some are viewed as masterworks while others are studied as sources of opinions that "either lead students to the truth or make the truth more evident by opposition to it."^[9] Some texts are read in their entirety, whereas others are covered via selected excerpts.^[9]

Student life

Three chaplain-priests reside on campus and provide the Sacraments as well as spiritual direction.^[12]

Intramural sports are practiced throughout the year and include volleyball, soccer, football, basketball, ultimate, and baseball. The St. John Paul II athletic center is home to both male and female exercise rooms, a rock-climbing wall, a lap swimming pool, outdoor tennis and basketball courts, and an indoor gymnasium. The athletic center is the newest building on the California campus, opening its doors in early 2022.^[13]

The St. Genesius Players produce one play a year, commonly a selection from Shakespeare.^[14] The College Choir presents an annual concert and a spring musical, often a production of Gilbert and Sullivan.^{[citation needed]} The choir sings at Sunday Mass as well as special events. A second student choir, often joined by various instrumentalists and vocalists from the student body, performs at formal and informal events throughout the year.

Unmarried students are housed on campus in six dormitories. Married students may live off-campus. Men's and women's residence halls are off-limits to members of the opposite sex.^[15]

The possession or use of alcohol or illegal drugs on campus or in the dormitories is prohibited and may entail expulsion from the college.^[15]

Chapel

As the “crown jewel” of the Thomas Aquinas College campus, Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel was dedicated on March 7, 2009.^[16] The design for this 15,000-square-foot (1,400 m²), $23 million building employs Early Christian, Renaissance, and Spanish Mission styles.^[17] Designed by the New Classical architect Duncan Stroik, it is cruciform in shape and features both a 135-foot (41 m) bell tower and an 89-foot (27 m) dome.^[18] Pope John Paul II blessed the chapel's plans in 2003, and in 2008, Pope Benedict XVI blessed its cornerstone. Adoremus Bulletin has called Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel “A Triumph of Sacred Architecture.”^[19]

Library

The ceiling of the college's Saint Bernardine of Siena Library has a 17th-century Spanish monastery artesonado. The library has a collection of rarities including thousands-year-old Hittite seals and devotional and sacred objects of saints.^{[citation needed][20]} The library is home to some 65,900 works.^[1]

New England Campus

Beginning in the Fall 2019 semester, Thomas Aquinas College has operated on an additional campus in Northfield, Massachusetts. Both campuses are under the authority of the same board of governors and follow the same curriculum, however each campus has a unique culture due to its unique geography. The New England campus formerly belonged to Northfield Mount Hermon School, a preparatory school that moved to another campus in 2005 and was given to Thomas Aquinas College in 2017 by the National Christian Foundation.^[21] The campus is located near the Connecticut River, and includes 100 acres of land, residence halls, a library, gymnasium, a chapel, and plenty of classrooms and administrative space.^[22]

Notable alumni

• Thomas Alexander (1999), Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counter Narcotics and Global Threats^[23]
• John Berg (1993), former Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter
• Laura Berquist (1975), founder of the Mother of Divine Grace homeschooling program
• Peter Kwasniewski (1994), traditionalist Catholic writer and composer of sacred music.
• Mary Neumayr (1986), chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality^[24]
• Paul O'Reilly (1984), academic and current president of Thomas Aquinas College
• Pia de Solenni (1993), theologian who formerly served as the chancellor of the Diocese of Orange
• Katrina Trinko (2009), journalist, Director, and Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Signal at The Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC^[25][26]

See also

• Shimer College
• St. John's College
• Thomas More College of Liberal Arts
• Trivium
• Wyoming Catholic College

References

External links

• Official website

Two-year and community collegesFour-year colleges and universitiesGraduate-only schools