CatholicVote Touts TAC as Having “Most Conservative Students”

CatholicVote features a new story by TAC alumna Grace (Miller NE’24) Porto trumpeting Thomas Aquinas College’s latest ranking, according to the Princeton Review, as the U.S. college with the “most conservative students”— surpassing such right-of-center stalwarts as Hillsdale and Grove City Colleges.

“Unlike Hillsdale, Thomas Aquinas College does not offer majors in political science,” observes Mrs. Porto. “The school also does not study contemporary politics, and instead includes courses on political theory as part of the philosophy curriculum. Students read Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Politics, St. Thomas’s On Kingship, Machiavelli’s The Prince, Locke’s Second Treatise on Government, Rousseau, Spinoza, the founding documents of the United States, De Tocqueville, Adam Smith, and Marx.”

Yet even though modern politics are absent from the College’s classical, Great Books curriculum, there is much about TAC that would qualify as conservative in the current cultural climate. “Many students attend daily Mass, which is offered at least twice a day,” Mrs. Porto notes, “and the residential rules, like single-sex dorms and limited internet access, encourage students in their intellectual, moral, and spiritual formation.”

Ultimately, these practices spring from the College’s commitment to its Catholic foundation. “Thomas Aquinas College exists to uphold the Church’s intellectual tradition and moral teachings,” says Executive Director of College Relations Chris Weinkopf, “which is conservative in the truest sense of the word.”

Mrs. Porto’s full article is available via CatholicVote.