FORT WORTH, Texas — Some jokingly call it “Oxford on Lubbock Avenue,” an ambitious nickname for the Catholic liberal arts college in downtown Fort Worth, Texas.

But partly by design and partly by happenstance, the school of just 55 full-time students has more than one thing in common with its better-known counterpart.

The College of St. Thomas More was the brainchild of a group of parishioners at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Fort Worth who identified the need for adult education opportunities more than 20 years ago.

In 1981, the college started as the St. Thomas More Institute and held classes in living rooms and hospital corridors. By 1985 it had purchased its first property — a 50-foot plot of land across from Texas Christian University — that formed the backbone of the Oxford-style campus. Subsequent years marked the acquisition of adjacent lots that eventually morphed into a quadrangle of mismatched buildings.

“There's no real unity of buildings,” said senior Travis Cooper, “but there is a unity and intimate connection with the whole community.”

Finally the institute was ready for full-time students, although accreditation by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools was still several years away.

“In 1987, we decided it was time to have a convocation and announce that we would have classes,” said Dr. James Patrick, an original founder, later the college provost and currently its chancellor. Just eight students attended the college in its early years compared with 55 today. Administrators hope to have up to 120 students in the future.

But the mission of the four-year college remains the same: “The teaching of liberal arts in a way that makes the lives of the fellows [teachers and administrators] and students an adventure in the best of learning that lifts up the heart to truth, makes possible a genuinely good life in this time and place that God has given.”

The college has a single curriculum in liberal arts leading to a bachelor of arts degree. All students take classes in literature, philosophy, theology and classical languages.

During the school year the college has special events such as the Thomas More Lecture on Learning, the Louise Cowan Lecture in Literature and the Cardinal Newman Lecture. Also offered are three overseas programs to Rome, Oxford and Greece.

“The inspiration was to create a place like Oxford in the early 19th century,” said Dean Cassella, the college's provost.

To that end, the college is purposely small and community-centered, with a miniscule teacher-to-student ratio, and classes, called seminars and tutorials, no larger than 16 students. Teachers are called “tutors” or “fellows,” and matriculated (full-time) students must wear Oxford-style scholar's gowns to classes, the chapel and refectory — otherwise known as the dining hall. At other times, students follow a dress code of coats and ties for men and blouses and skirts for women.

The college is also faithful to its original goal of providing adult education to the local community.

Father John Gremmels, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Fort Worth, said the school provides a very good education.

“They're very loyal to the magisterium,” he said. “When I have somebody who needs an education on our parish staff, that's where I send [him].”

Father Allen Hawkins takes up an annual collection to benefit the college at his parish, St. Mary the Virgin in Arlington, Texas.

“Their attempt to maintain a great tradition of Catholic scholarship is important,” said Father Hawkins, a former Episcopal priest who converted — with his entire parish — to the Catholic faith 10 years ago. The College of St. Thomas More was a great asset for education, he said, and administrators were unfailingly encouraging and prayerful.

Father Hawkins is also a member of the provost council and an honorary fellow, which lands him in the company of literary luminary Walker Percy.

Literature is the basis for much of the college's curriculum. The college publishes a list of “great books” — different from the “great books” list followed by so many Catholic colleges — that students will read during their four years at the school. It strays from the official great books list by the addition of some works other Catholic colleges would never consider, such as Henri De Lubac's The Drama of Atheist Humanism, an interpretation of the anti-theist philosophical movement. Examining such books from a Catholic perspective in an environment where all fellows pledge to follow Pope John Paul II's 1990 apostolic constitution on Catholic colleges and universities, Ex Corde Ec -clesiae, encourages critical thinking, Cassella said.

Besides, Patrick said, “you can't re move people from the world in which they live.”

But you can infuse faith. Ca -tholicism is at the center of the school, even though not all students are Catholic. The brochure describes the Chapel of Christ the Teacher as “the heart of the college.” Students attend daily Mass and frequent perpetual adoration. Mealtime prayers are said in Latin and English, and each night the community gathers for compline (night prayer).

“It's amazing because there's still a sense of unity when it comes to religion,” Cooper said. “Even a lot of the Protestants come to prayer.”

And while the college doesn't have any sports teams or many college-sanctioned clubs, the Fort Worth area has plenty of museums and theaters to keep students occupied on weekends.

And what's keeping administrators occupied is the future growth of the college.

In 10 years they hope to double the student body to 120 and build “an Oxford-style neo-Gothic quadrangle,” Cassella said. Also on the to-do list is adding a graduate institute for the study of history and an expansion of the overseas program in Rome.

Housing on campus is limited, but that doesn't alter the small-community atmosphere.

“It's not just an academic but a personally intensive living environment. Everybody knows everybody else,” Cassella said. “All students and faculty are rather heavily entwined both personally and academically.”

Dana Wind writes from Raleigh, North Carolina.