The Founding, Expansion, and Preservation of a Catholic College

 

Reflections from Members of the
TAC Board of Governors

 

When members of the Thomas Aquinas College Board of Governors met on the California campus early this year, New England Senior Tutor Dr. Glen Coughlin (’81) hosted a panel discussion to help his fellow governors “get a little deeper understanding of the mission of the College.” To that end, Dr. Coughlin invited four Board members who played key roles in the College’s history to share their experiences and insights. The following are excerpts from their comments.

 

Why Found a College?

by Peter L. DeLuca
Co-founder, third president

Thomas Aquinas College was founded during a tumultuous time in higher education. You had campus unrest tied to Vietnam War protests, the “Free Speech Movement” at Berkeley, and a great many developments of that sort. That turmoil exposed and accelerated the domination of the American universities by skeptical philosophy and Marxist ideology, which are related.

The concern that we, the founders of the College, had at the time was that Catholic colleges were following suit. They were abandoning the tradition of Catholic liberal education. They were abandoning it suddenly, and in droves, because they felt that they had to imitate the secular universities.

Although matters came to a head in the 1960s, these developments flow from a long history. Most Americans are surprised to find out that colleges did not have an elective class system until the middle 1800s. Until then, the Ivy League colleges all had a program very similar to what we do here, and it included the basic disciplines, mostly done from original texts, often in Greek and Latin.

Colleges brought in the elective system, however, because their presidents embraced the tenets of modern skeptical philosophy; they bought into the notion that you can’t know anything. That led to the view that students ought to study whatever they want, as nothing is particularly better than anything else, since none of it is really founded on truth — indeed, there is no truth. So, the elective system itself is a product of the triumph of skeptical philosophy in the modern university. People are always surprised when they find out that we don’t have majors at Thomas Aquinas College, but that’s why.

“In a way, the College was kind of a demonstration project as it was originally conceived.”

Concomitantly, that was when Catholic colleges were diminishing their Catholicity. In 1967 the presidents of most American Catholic colleges met for a retreat in Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin, where they came up with what’s known as the Land O’Lakes Statement, which amounted to a declaration of independence from the Church. Essentially, they were ashamed of their commitment to Catholic doctrine, so they abandoned it, wanting to be like secular universities.

These are the trends that motivated the founding of the College. We couldn’t do anything about the whole enterprise of Catholic higher education, but we thought we could create a single instance of where the very best kind of Catholic liberal education takes place, so people could see that it was a superior form of education. So, the College was kind of a demonstration project as it was originally conceived. 

As we tried to get the program started, we soon concluded that we couldn’t do it within an existing institution. That was what led us to the idea of founding a new college. At some point, someone said to our founding president, Ron McArthur, “Why don’t you start your own college?” And he said, “But you can’t start a college!”

Of course, he was right! We couldn’t start a college, only Divine Providence could supply the kind of capital that that required.

 

Impressions of an Early Student

by Andrew Zepeda (’79)
Founder of the Los Angeles-based law firm of Lurie, Zepeda, Schmalz, Hogan & Martin

When I was 18 years old and first came to Thomas Aquinas College in the fall of 1975, two things immediately began to impress themselves on me: One, the College’s education is about truth and gaining access to the truth — and ultimately gaining some wisdom. Second was the commitment to seeing that faith was respected with reason, with theology being the queen of the sciences.

So let me back up. How do you implement that? How do you make that happen, to go from truth and the access to the truth?

Well, one of the ways was the study of logic, one of the liberal arts. How do you come to know something, or know it is necessarily so, as opposed to holding it merely as a matter of opinion? To really analyze that and work through Aristotle’s logic was wonderful, but we also got to put it into practice, day by day, in a couple of other classes. In Freshman Mathematics, we studied Euclid, the great Greek geometer who assembled all the mathematical understanding of that time, working from fundamental premises to build — slowly, logically, and beautifully — to conclusions that are beyond your imagination.

“We were surprised at the community that developed, how intensely unified it was, and how committed we were to showing each other charity and respect. It was an experience that would be hard to find anywhere else.”

For example, Euclid does what is a very primitive calculus proof that the volume of a cylinder is three times that of the volume of the cone on the same base. That is not something you can imagine. You cannot even really wrap your head around it. But he proves it; it cannot be otherwise. That is, in fact, the case, and learning to hold things like that in your mind is a beautiful thing.

Then we move on to theology and philosophy. We wrestled with the Scriptures for the whole Freshman Year. Scripture is difficult. We got to some understanding of it, and got a little better feel for it, and we came to realize that this is a lifetime process. But in Sophomore Year we got to read the Fathers of the Church, such as St. John Damascene, St. Athanasius, and St. Augustine. It was an eye-opener, I think, for all of us, that here were men of the highest intellect committing themselves to studying the Faith, expressing themselves more eloquently than anyone can today. It was more than just an intellectual experience. It was very moving and caused us to really think through our lives as Christians.

The whole experience was like that. We got introduced to St. Thomas in the Junior and Senior Years, into some of the highest and deepest thinking about the principles of our faith. We were surprised at the community that developed, how intensely unified it was, and how committed we were to showing each other charity and respect. It was an experience that would be hard to find anywhere else. The real capper for me, though, was being exposed to the Church’s liturgical tradition, to Gregorian chant and the beautiful treasures of our liturgy. It was an introduction to beauty and to heaven.

 

Staying on Mission

by Dr. Brian Kelly (’88)
Senior tutor, former dean of the California campus

I arrived as a student in 1983, when the College was only 12 years old, and it was in a somewhat tenuous state. We slept and attended classes in temporary buildings constructed by attaching trailers side by side. There were occasional rumors of lawsuits and money crises, and the College had little in the way of national or international recognition. From my perspective as a student, though, the institution felt permanent and steady.

Thinking about my student experience, I guess it was because the College had such a clear sense of self-identity and unity. The tutors knew what they were trying to achieve in us, and they brought a positive and confident spirit to the daily tasks that made our formation in perennial wisdom possible. We saw this in their delight in teaching and learning. We heard it in the frequent talks from the president, Ron McArthur. Since that time, I have to say, I still get the sense of institutional permanence and steadiness.

Through the years, I have become more firmly convinced that the clarity with which we grasp and articulate our mission lies at the heart of our perseverance. Human endeavors are difficult to maintain. It’s very easy to drift little by little, and the founders cared very deeply about staying on mission. You cannot stay true to a real goal if you slip into complacency. How is it that this tiny endeavor has lasted this long with little or no mission drift?

“It’s very easy to drift little by little, and the founders cared very deeply about staying on mission. You cannot stay true to a real goal if you slip into complacency.”

There are many moments where we could have easily drifted, in big ways and in small ways, and there were many factors that contributed to staying the course. I will focus my remarks on one key factor that, in my opinion, has been crucial — the drafting of the College’s founding and governing document.

They say that “well-begun is half-done,” and the founders decided, right from the start, that in order to provide a solid foundation for their bold new effort, they would have to be very clear about the big picture. The wise man builds his house on rock and not sand. They carefully and deliberately articulated their vision in A Proposal for the Fulfillment of Catholic Liberal Education, commonly called the Blue Book. This “book” is very small in stature but great in effect.

Where would we be without a clear statement of where we stand? How would we have stayed on course through the internal and external storm winds that have frequently blown? How would we have resisted pressures to shift emphasis, or to “be more open,” or to line up with the latest priorities of this or that accrediting agency? It’s a little like asking where America would be without the Declaration or the Constitution. Think about how much worse our country’s situation would be today if we weren’t able to appeal to our nation’s founding documents.

It has helped us to be transparent about who we are and what we are trying to accomplish. Transparency is best. Strength comes with clarity. May God bless the founders and all who have helped Thomas Aquinas College thrive. 

 

Founding a Second Campus

by Dr. Thomas Kaiser (’75)
Senior tutor, first dean of the New England campus

Our primary goal in founding the New England campus was to make this education available to more students. At the time, we were at the point when we had students who were eligible and qualified to be in this program, but we didn’t have room for them. So, when the opportunity presented itself to start another campus on the other side of the country, we decided to go for it. I think it has been a very successful project.

Founding that new campus was in a way much easier than the initial founding of the College. For one reason, our program had been worked on and fine-tuned for almost 50 years, so we knew exactly what they would be doing, as far as teaching is concerned. When the College was first founded in 1971, there was kind of an outline of what the program would be, but the details were being worked out from year to year as the first class was working its way through the program. In New England, the program was already set.

The other advantage was having faculty members who had already been teaching in this program. In that first year, there were seven tutors, and we had a total of 78 years teaching experience in the program. So that’s a tremendous benefit, to be able to start with people who already know the program from the inside and just hit the ground running.

“We were also blessed with the commitment of the students who decided to help found that new program. They had a pioneer spirit; they wanted to come help set the tone in terms of the customs and their devotion to the program.”

We were also blessed with the commitment of the students who decided to help found that new program. They had a pioneer spirit; they wanted to come help set the tone in terms of the customs and their devotion to the program. It went so well the first year that we were wondering if we had left any great students in California! It really got us off to a good start.

Finally, we had the opportunity to form a wonderfully tight-knit community. Given the nature of the campus, with plenty of houses and apartments, we have the faculty living right on campus with the students. This arrangement worked especially well during Covid because we could consider the whole community an extended household, so were able to avoid the Covid lockdowns.

One measure of the success of the new campus is the fact that, in the first few years, our attrition rate was very low. Given the small size and the closeness of the community, students didn’t fall through the cracks. We were able to help people who really needed the help. Things have gone well. Another sign of success is the fact that we are attracting new students and faculty. As dean I would get inquiries from prospective tutors about once a week. People are fed up with what is going on at other institutions and are eager to come teach at a place like Thomas Aquinas College. Thirdly, we are attracting new benefactors because of the founding of that new campus.

These are all measures of success of what we have done, and they bode well for our future on both coasts.