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In today’s competitive collegiate marketplace, what causes some Catholic colleges to flourish — and others to fail? So asks the Cardinal Newman Society’s Adam Wilson in a newly released white paper, Catholic College Closes, but Other Small Colleges Thrive on Faithful Catholic Mission (PDF).

Upon interviewing various officials at smaller Catholic colleges — including Thomas Aquinas College’s director of college relations, Anne Forsyth — Mr. Wilson determines that a strong Catholic identity is key to such institutions’ success. Although various “small colleges around the country are struggling to find their niches in order to sustain enrollment,” Mr. Wilson writes, “some faithful Catholic institutions are successfully leveraging their faithful Catholic identities to attract students, inviting emulation both as models of success and as witnesses to the Faith.”

As an example, the report cites Thomas Aquinas College, which reached its maximum enrollment 10 years ago, yet has nonetheless experienced “an increasing number of applications in recent years.” Many of the students that apply to the College, the report notes, are drawn by the centrality of the Faith in the academic, spiritual, and moral life. “Because our admissions efforts as well as our advertising and publicity activities make our Catholic identity well-known,” Mrs. Forsyth explains, “Thomas Aquinas College has an established reputation for its strong Catholic identity and that this is one of the strongest attractions for prospective students.”

Moreover, the College’s commitment to its Catholic mission is also appealing to the benefactors who are essential to the financial well-being of any private school, especially one such as Thomas Aquinas, which admits students irrespective of their financial need. “Observing that we stand for our principles, benefactors are confirmed in their decision to stand with us and support us all the more in our efforts to form the minds and hearts of our students for Christ,” says Mrs. Forsyth. “As a result, they are deeply committed to the College and our students and provide unfailingly for our financial needs.”

Mr. Wilson further cites the College’s founding document, A Proposal for the Fulfillment of a Catholic Liberal Education, as “unique in the world of Catholic higher education, where many Catholic universities have become detached from the founding Catholic principles that guided them in their early years.” Adds Mrs. Forsyth, “This statement of our mission as a Catholic college is very much alive and at work here, constantly forming our decisions, the community, and the institution itself. With this continual return to our roots, the College renews again and again its commitment to its Catholic mission and identity.”