Thomas Aquinas: Chamber hears
of famed ‘Great Books’ college
February 13, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Thomas Aquinas College nestled in the hills north of Santa Paula continues to be low profile on a local level but has a growing international profile, those attending the January Good Morning Santa Paula learned.
Jonathan Daly, the college director of admissions, was the featured speaker at the Chamber of Commerce sponsored breakfast meeting.
A resident of Santa Paula with his wife Maria and their six children, Daly said he was pleased that so many at GMSP were aware of Thomas Aquinas and appreciative of the college.
Daly, a native of Maryland who grew up in South Dakota, said his retired City Bank vice-president father had learned of Thomas Aquinas’ liberal arts focus and was impressed by its Great Books program; he encouraged Daly, who finished high school in California and seemed destined to become an engineer, to attend.
Daly said the “Nuts and bolts of what a Great Books school is,” a four-year program offering a BA degree in liberal arts.
But, “You go behind the textbooks,” and start from the beginning to study “The text that shaped civilization itself.”
At class 17 Thomas Aquinas students sit around a round table where tutors do not “Tell the students what to think but guides them through the text and answers questions... “
The Great Books resulted from discussion among American academics and educators, starting in the 1920s and 1930s that sought to improve the higher education system by returning it to the western liberal arts tradition of broad cross-disciplinary learning.
Students don’t study all the Great Books but, said Daly, “They get a good portion done.”
About 30 percent of Thomas Aquinas graduates become educators, about 20 percent enter business and many later study law.
“I graduated in 1999,” and Daly said the careers selected by his 44 classmates “Are really across the board,” with some now working for Apple, others entering religious life, engineering, medicine and other professional pursuits.
Quite a few graduates he added, enter politics.
No matter the profession they all share one attribute: Thomas Aquinas “Teaches people to be critical thinkers, skills you can use wherever you go... “
The school, which has a maximum enrollment of 350, is only one of three that are “stand alone Great Books” colleges.
About 38 percent of students are Californians and about 40 percent are from “East of the Rockies” but students also hail from Nepal, Canada, England, Nigeria and “A little pocket of Argentina” that Daly said has sent numerous students.
Up to 20 percent of the student population is Hispanic and although open to all religions up to 95 percent of students are Catholic.
“We’re upfront with people, they study four years of theology,” and although “We do believe there is a way that will lead to the truth,” conversion is not a requirement.
Various sources consistently rank Thomas Aquinas as one of the top 100 universities in the nation and its board of directors and supporters has included such well-known figures as the late J. Peter Grace and Carl Karcher.
The college has a generous scholarship program, carefully crafted loan program and campus work opportunities.
Chamber President Fred Robinson said Santa Paula at times has struggled with its image, but “We have one of the top 10 liberal colleges in the nation in our backyard... it’s a public relations gem.”
