Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic — and Joyful Fidelity
School’s in for Jeffrey Nelson. On Sept. 1, the former
senior vice president at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in
Nelson brings a Renaissance-man
background to this small but faithful Catholic college founded in 1978. Along
with his work in
Before moving with his wife
Cecilia and their three young children from the Mid-Atlantic region to northern
What are your first thoughts as you settle into your new work?
I do feel called in many ways. God
has prepared me for this through the various experiences of my life. It’s an
honor and privilege to lead such a liberal arts college, to strengthen it and
to position Thomas More as a leader in liberal arts education in
I have spent most of my adult life working to renew the higher purposes of higher education, with a particular vocation to invigorating the Catholic liberal arts tradition.
Whether in school, politics, writing and publishing, marketing, development, or in my years with ISI, this has been the common thread: to explore ideas — first principles — for the sake of the individual and, through their actions in the world, for the health of our culture, Church and polity.
What is your educational background?
I went to a Catholic college, the
What will be your initial priorities?
One of the goals the board of directors has set for me is to build the college to approximately 400 students. (Current enrollment is around 100.)
Thomas More has traditionally been what Time magazine rightly referred to as a micro college. While we’re micro in scale, we’re macro in orientation because we’re Catholic and a liberal arts college engaging the universal, timeless tradition in the West and of our fathers, and we’re doing it in a way that forms the whole person intellectually and spiritually.
These kinds of colleges are the future, I think. I’ve been in the education business the last 15 years and I know the problems of higher education. I’m convinced more and more that the smaller-scale college, very vigorous and directive, is the way.
We need to bring back the college model of really preparing and equipping young Catholics with this universal, catholic, whole education for life and culture in the 21st century. We have to be working with them to develop leadership skills and appreciate the various culture and language skills so they can take their place as leaders. That has to be done on a smaller scale.
What inspiration do you find in the college’s namesake?
Thomas More is the perfect patron for our time. He was a humanist anchored in the patristic tradition and believed very strongly in the centrality … of a liberal arts education as conceived in the trivium (grammar, rhetoric and logic) as crucial for forming society’s leaders. That seems to be the mission of the Catholic colleges now — to renew and restore their own tradition of education within the context represented wonderfully by Thomas More and his time.
Thomas More is the hinge. For Catholic educators, he is a man for every season — literary stylist, apologist, a leader of state, a devoted and integrated Christian, a wonderful family man, and such a happy and funny guy. I think a Catholic college should exude joy. I want our graduates to be humble and joyful and equipped to be able to have a skill set that allows them to realize success in whatever vocation God has chosen for them.
God became man, he died for us,
and he promised he will always be with us. There is no dark night for us. We
carry the light out from
What’s your vision for the college’s proposed Chapel of the
The college draws students from
all around the country, from
I think that looking at the North American martyrs as people who prepared the way for us to be Christians in this part of the world is important for students to connect with as we move forward.
This special chapel is part of our larger strategic plan and it will be adjusted to our numerical goals. We do have the plans and a wonderful Catholic architect, but we’re taking a pause to reconsider our needs in light of our goals. We don’t want to build a chapel that’s too small.
What is the college’s stance toward Pope John Paul II’s 1990 apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae (on Catholic Universities) and the mandatum?
Thomas More gave his life for the integrity of the magisterium, the teaching authority of the Church, and the absolute need of such an authority in temporal as well as spiritual realms. With the example of our patron before us, we joyfully submit to the Church’s instruction in Ex Corde Ecclesiae and other like documents.
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- September 17-23, 2006