Vice President Pence and Cardinal Parolin discuss Nicaragua

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Denver Newsroom, Dec 30, 2021 / 11:56 am (CNA).
The Archdiocese of Baltimore has declared new COVID-19 protocols in response to a rising number of positive cases of the virus. “Now more than ever, it is impor… […]

In addition to ranking No. 1 for “most conservative” students, Thomas Aquinas College’s students ranked No. 5 for “most religious” and “happiest” in the entire country. / Credit: Courtesy of Thomas Aquinas College/YouTube

CNA Staff, Aug 30, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Thomas Aquinas College has been ranked by the Princeton Review as having the most conservative collegiate student body in the country.

The Princeton Review selects 390 top colleges each year and then ranks them according to different categories based on student responses to surveys. 

According to student responses, Thomas Aquinas College (TAC), a small Catholic liberal arts college in southern California, ranked No. 1 in “most conservative students.” Other Catholic schools that ranked in the same category included University of Dallas (UD) at No. 6 and Assumption University, an Augustinian liberal arts school in Massachusetts, which ranked No. 20. 

TAC is known for its Socratic, discussion-based approach to education where all students major in the liberal arts. TAC doesn’t have desks in classrooms, and students call faculty “tutors,” not “professors.” 

TAC also maintains a dress code, requiring women to wear skirts or dresses during the class day and at other events, while men are required to wear slacks and collared shirts.

The Princeton Review surveys more than 160,000 U.S. undergraduate students at “the Best 390 Colleges” for their various rankings, according to its website. 

For the “most conservative” ranking, the Princeton Review asked students in a survey to answer if they were politically “far-left, Democrat, nonpartisan, Republican, or far-right.” 

But students’ conservative values are closely tied to religiosity at TAC, according to Christopher Weinkopf, executive director of college relations at TAC.

“Because TAC students are serious about their faith, they care deeply about the unborn and hold countercultural views on a number of social issues that qualify as conservative in contemporary political parlance,” Weinkopf noted. “But contemporary politics are absent from our classical curriculum, which aims at eternal truths that transcend all politics.”

“Our students seek to uphold the Church’s intellectual tradition and moral teachings, which is conservative in the truest sense of the word,” Weinkopf added. 

Several Catholic colleges also ranked high in the “most religious students” category — TAC included. TAC ranked No. 5, UD ranked No. 10, and The Catholic University of America ranked No. 14 based on student surveys. 

TAC’s campus in Santa Paula, California, features a large chapel, Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel, where Mass is celebrated several times a day. TAC also has a campus in Northfield, Massachusetts.

“Our founders were determined that, at Thomas Aquinas College, the Catholic faith would not be merely an adornment on an otherwise secular education but would be at the heart of all that we do,” Weinkopf noted.

Weinkopf said TAC’s curriculum “draws on all the major disciplines — especially mathematics, natural science, and philosophy — in the service of theology, the study of God.”

“Our chaplains offer Mass four times daily, with confessions before and after, plus regular nightly rosary and other devotions,” he noted. “And our campus rules of residence are designed to promote Christian virtue.”

On UD’s campus, the Church of the Incarnation hosts Mass at least twice a day and is adjacent to the Cistercian Abbey. The Catholic University of America, for its part, has five chapels throughout campus, including a 24-hour chapel, and Mass is celebrated several times a day.

Both UD and TAC also have distinctly happy students, according to the Princeton Review: UD ranked No. 4 in “happiest students,” while TAC ranked No. 5. TAC also ranked No. 13 in “friendliest students.”

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Sacramento, Calif., Nov 13, 2018 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As wildfires continue to burn throughout the state of California, local Catholic Charities agencies are working with agencies in neighboring states to coordinate relief.

The so-called Camp Fire in Northern California has claimed 29 lives in the town of Paradise, and has destroyed nearly 6,500 homes, making it the most destructive wildfire in the state’s history. The fire is only a quarter contained, according to the New York Times, and the local sheriff announced Sunday that nearly 230 people were still missing.

At the same time, the Woolsey Fire west of Los Angeles has destroyed an estimated 370 structures and claimed two lives so far.

Matt Vaughan, director of communications for Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada (CCNN), told CNA that the agency is working to gather supplies for survivors of the fires. CCNN is headquartered in Reno, Nevada, which is approximately 160 miles east of Chico, California, one of the largest cities affected by the Camp Fire.

“We’re trying to collect donations, which we will then send over, most likely to Chico,” Vaughan said.

“It sounds like they’re asking for a lot of the donations to be sent there right now, just because some of the other areas are affected [by the fire]…We have been in contact with Catholic Charities in Sacramento,” he said.

“We’re just really focusing on getting the really crucial, needed items over to the affected victims over there at this point…warm clothes, shoes, paper products, blankets and coats are among the most needed items right now. And that’s really what we’re asking the community to provide.”

Yvette Myers, Chief Program Officer for CCNN, said she hopes to hear from the agency in Sacramento soon, as well as from the national branch of Catholic Charities, about the best way to deliver supplies.

She said they are working jointly with a local organization to send trucks full of supplies to California, starting Nov. 16, and that they won’t know how big the truck will need to be until they begin receiving donations.

“We’re waiting to hear back from Sacramento…about if it’s a possibility that we bring trucks to them, where they’re going to go. So it’s kind of a waiting game right at the moment,” Meyers said.

“We’re actually waiting to hear back from [Catholic Charities USA]…about what the plan is.”

“Their greatest needs are clothing, hygiene, blankets, coats; they can use anything, but that’s what they’re really asking for right now,” she said.

According to the Diocese of Reno, items that are donated that are not accepted by the donation centers in California will go to local St. Vincent’s Thrift Stores in Nevada.

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