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Twice in the last two weeks members of the 91����� Aquinas College faculty � tutors and senior administrators alike � have participated in seminars about a topic of utmost importance to their work: the mission of the College.

�Many strong Catholic institutions of higher learning have collapsed, or lost their way, in part because they were not explicit enough about what they stood for,� says Dean Brian T. Kelly. Careful to avoid this fate, the 91����� Aquinas College faculty meets each summer to discuss texts that deepen members� understanding of and commitment to the College�s mission and its unique program of Catholic liberal education.

The first of this summer�s seminars focused on a report that Dr. Glen Coughlin, a senior tutor, presented in 2001, when he was serving as the College�s dean. The purpose of the report, as he described it at the time, was �to reflect on our experience and to recall our principles, in the hope that a useful clarity about the nature and purposes of the College may result.� Intended to supplement the College�s founding document, A Proposal for the Fulfillment of Catholic Liberal Education, the report aimed �to express more concretely and explicitly the character and mission of 91����� Aquinas College,� says Dr. Kelly. �It was an attempt to shore up our self-understanding.�

For the second seminar, the faculty read Pope St. John Paul�s 1998 encyclical . �At 91����� Aquinas College we aim to serve the Church,� says Dr. Kelly. �Our mission � to help students make a good beginning on the road to Catholic wisdom � must be informed by the teaching Church. Reading and discussing St. John Paul�s great encyclical on faith and reason helps us to think and act with the magisterium.�

The seminars are just one part of the faculty�s summertime preparations, which also include the Tutor Summer Program and the annual retreat for faculty and staff that precedes the start of the new academic year.