Tiny College on a Quest for the Truth

Surrounded by the chaparral-covered hills of Los Padres National Forest, midway between Ojai and Santa Paula, tiny Thomas Aquinas College is an isolated cluster of buildings where students study a curriculum based solely on the classic works of Western civilization.

Their purpose, say some of the school’s 196 students and 19 teachers, is the quest for truth, gleaned from what are called the Great Books, written from 2,500 BC to the early 20th Century.

“Teachers and students together are learners,” said Thomas E. Dillon, former dean of the college who became president last week. “They work together to learn the truth at the feet of the master--the book itself.”

That mission has gotten the college notice as one of the 50 best liberal arts schools in the nation, as chosen by a guidebook published by National Review, a conservative magazine. Thomas Aquinas was one of three institutions in California listed.

Study at the private, four-year Roman Catholic college, founded in 1971, is based on a reading list that includes Aristotle, Albert Einstein, Descartes, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Galileo, the Bible and, of course, St. Thomas Aquinas, the 13th-Century theologian and philosopher.

The study of Latin and classical music is required, and tutorials in Greek are optional. Students do not have majors, and there are no elective courses.

“You’re free to think,” said senior Christel Krause, 21, of Long Beach. At other schools, “Teachers teach a concept, but not the principles it’s based on,” Krause said. “And you’re not able to question.”

At Thomas Aquinas, the right to question every idea, every book, fellow students, and even professors--called tutors--is fundamental.

Tutors guide intense discussions of the texts during day and evening seminars of about 14 to 18 students, sometimes held outdoors on the bucolic, 163-acre campus. High-tech laboratory equipment is absent--not essential, school officials say, to understanding the basic principles of modern science.

“The program at Thomas Aquinas teaches you how to question, how to express yourself, how to think,” said Sean Kelsey, a junior from Freehold, N.J. “It gives you a good basis to go out and do whatever you want to do, whether it’s driving a bus or going to graduate school.”

Some scholars have criticized curricula based on the Great Books because they include few authors who are women or non-European. The only book on Thomas Aquinas’ reading list written by a woman is “Emma,” by Jane Austen. None of the books are by non-Western authors.

The Great Books program was started about 40 years ago by professors from the University of Chicago and Columbia University in an effort to continue classical education in the face of declining interest in what they saw as the great works of the Western world.

Some of the school’s students have earned undergraduate or master’s degrees at other schools, but start over at Thomas Aquinas to read texts that they say have been omitted or neglected at other schools.

Because the school does not accept transfer credits, all students must enroll as freshmen. This year, eight of the 64 freshmen already have degrees.

Anne Burnham, 22, who was valedictorian of her class at Hillsdale College in Michigan, enrolled as a Thomas Aquinas freshman last fall. Her brother, who preceded her as Hillsdale’s valedictorian, is a sophomore at the school.

“At Hillsdale, I thought everyone would be in pursuit of knowledge and truth,” said Burnham, a New Mexico native. “The teachers were, but many of the students were not.”

The school’s standards are strict. Visits to sex-segregated dorms by members of the opposite sex could lead to automatic expulsion. In class, students must address each other as Mr., Miss or Mrs. Women are required to wear dresses or skirts to class, meals and chapel services, and men may not wear T-shirts.

Tuition at the school, which accepts no government funding, is $10,350 for the 1990-91 school year. About half the students go on to graduate school.

Teachers and students say the curriculum works because it establishes learning as a lifelong process.

“I love this kind of learning,” said Dillon, the school’s president. “It never stops.”