Young America’s Foundation Names College a “Top Conservative College”

Another college-ranking guide has listed Thomas Aquinas College among the best in the nation. Following up on high ratings from The Princeton Review, U.S. News & World Report, and the Newman Guide, the College has earned the accolades of the Young America’s Foundation, being named one of just 15 schools nationwide on the foundation’s list of Top Conservative Colleges.

For four decades the Young America’s Foundation has championed the cause of intellectual seriousness on American campuses. Its new online guide thus highlights only those colleges that “avoid trends in academe by continuing to study Western civilization instead of straying toward the study of Marxism, feminism, sexuality, postmodernism, and other distractions that do not give students a complete understanding of our country, our culture, and its founding principles.” Calling Thomas Aquinas College a “fine institution,” the Young America’s guide praises the College for its “traditional Catholic morality and teaching.”

Given this fidelity to Catholic teaching, especially as it pertains to contentious political issues relating to abortion, euthanasia, and marriage, it is understandable that the College would be perceived as “conservative.” Yet it would be a mistake, argues President Michael F. McLean, to infer that either the intellectual or the moral life of the College is motivated by politics. “The truths of reason and of the Faith precede and transcend any politics,” he says. “Our aim is not to train liberals or conservatives, let alone Republicans or Democrats. It is to form lovers of wisdom.”

For this reason, as the Young America’s guide notes, “The ‘great books’ of Western civilization comprise the entire curriculum of Thomas Aquinas College,” and the College’s “faculty members serve less as lecturers and more as facilitators using the Socratic method.” The entirety of the Thomas Aquinas College experience, both inside the classroom and outside, is oriented toward the apprehension of truth guided by the twin beacons of faith and reason.

“We are grateful to the Young America’s Foundation for recognizing and appreciating what makes Thomas Aquinas College unique among all American colleges,” says Dr. McLean. “We are honored to be included in its list of top colleges, and we will continue to strive each day to be worthy of such honors.”

• Related: College Guide Rankings

 

 Posted March 19, 2012