Thomas Aquinas College receives a $38 million gift, the largest in its fifty-five-year history.
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.
Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created,
And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth . . .
Students at Thomas Aquinas College begin every class by praying these words together. For four years, they are immersed in a life of intense learning—studying the Great Books of the Western intellectual tradition, participating in Socratic-style seminars, and seeking wisdom in community with their peers. When they leave the college, they are charged with a mission: having been created anew through the Holy Spirit, they are sent out to renew the face of the earth.
The staff and faculty at Thomas Aquinas College are devoted to this mission and focused on providing students with a truly life-changing education. “Everything we do here at the college is about the students,” said Vice President for Advancement Dr. John Goyette. “It’s really about the students and trying to give them the best education we can to equip them for a bright future in the world, where we think they’re going to be, and have been, leaders in their communities, in our nation, in the world, and in the Church.”
In recent years, however, financial stability has been an increasing concern for institutions of higher education. Universities across the country are experiencing a drop in enrollment and many have been forced to close their doors permanently. Despite this bleak landscape, TAC’s enrollment rates have bucked national trends, driving the college to expand to a second campus in Massachusetts in order to admit students hungry to study the liberal arts.
What keeps the students coming? Thomas Aquinas College offers something beyond facts and figures. “We see our education as culminating in not just secular wisdom, but finally supernatural wisdom,” Dr. Goyette explained. “We really are trying to restore Western civilization, but that doesn’t just mean Great Books or Socratic seminars. It’s also the great tradition of faith and reason being united, not divided.”
Fides Quarens Intellectum, the college’s motto, translates to “faith seeking understanding” and fittingly sums up the approach to education embodied by TAC’s faithful Catholic faculty and passed on to its students.
But even with growing demand for its Great Books education, the college has faced its share of struggles. TAC aims to keep its education affordable and accessible to any student who desires it. Thus, tuition prices are significantly lower than operating costs, and generous financial aid is offered to students with demonstrated need. The college relies on the great generosity of its friends and benefactors to make up the difference. Gifts to the college represent an investment in the future of the Church and the world, and a profound hope in the students and their ability to renew the face of the earth.
This hope is reflected in a landmark $38.15 million gift recently made to TAC by the William and Barbara Martin Foundation—the largest gift in the college’s history.
The gift is divided into four parts, each of which supports a vital element of the college’s mission. $15 million will go to an endowment to cover student financial aid, $2.5 million to the college’s operating costs for the coming year, another $15 million to fund construction of a guest house for friends and benefactors at the college’s California campus, and the final $5.65 million to construction costs for a new and improved dining hall.
Each of these four initiatives represents a transformative investment in the students—whether directly, by covering the costs of their education and campus construction, or indirectly, by allowing benefactors to enter into campus life and meet the students they are supporting.
“The Martin Foundation’s gift reflects an abiding commitment to the students of Thomas Aquinas College,” said Mr. Christopher Weinkopf, executive director of college relations. "It will help us attract future benefactors to continue supporting the college and its mission." The gift is a tangible sign of the hope for the future that William and Barbara Martin saw in the students who will carry all the riches of the Catholic intellectual tradition with them into the world to make it new.
