Aquinas College (Tennessee)

This article is about the Tennessee college. For other schools with the same name, see Aquinas College.

Aquinas College is a private Catholic college in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1961 and named in honor of St. Thomas Aquinas. It is operated by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia.

Aquinas College

Former names	St. Cecilia Normal School (1928–1961) Aquinas Junior College (1961–1994)
Motto	Veritas et Caritas (Latin)
Motto in English	Truth and Charity
Type	Private
Established	1961
Founder	Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia Congregation
Religious affiliation	Catholic (Dominican)
Academic affiliation	SACS
President	Cecilia Anne Wanner
Students	52
Undergraduates	37
Postgraduates	15
Location	Nashville, Tennessee , U.S. 36.1320°N 86.8440°W / 36.1320; -86.8440
Campus	83 acres (34 ha)
Patron saint	St. Thomas Aquinas
Nickname	Cavaliers
Website	aquinascollege.edu

Aquinas College main academic building and traffic circle, with Siena Hall rising in the background. The college sits on an 83-acre wildlife preserve. Corpus Christi Adoration Chapel stands beside the college to the lower right, welcoming visitors daily. March, 2020.

History

Aquinas College is a private four-year college founded in 1961, owned and operated by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, Tennessee. It offers undergraduate degrees in education, English, and history, as well as graduate degrees in education.

Aquinas College's roots began in 1928 as St. Cecilia Normal School as a school for religious sisters located at the St. Cecilia Motherhouse. In 1961, the school moved away from the Motherhouse, opened to the public, and became Aquinas Junior College. In 1994, the college was renamed Aquinas College when it began offering four-year degrees. Since that time, Aquinas College has grown to include four-year programs in Liberal Arts, Business, Nursing, and Teacher Education. And in 2012, the college began graduate studies in the School of Education and in the School of Nursing, and founded a residential life program and House Life program. Aquinas is part of the Dominican Campus, located approximately five miles (8 km) west of downtown Nashville. Also on the same plot of land are Overbrook School, a coeducational eight-grade Catholic primary school, and Saint Cecilia Academy, a Catholic girls' high school.

The addition of a third and fourth year collegiate curriculum caused a major change in the school's operation. It had previously been a major power in junior college athletics (notably baseball and basketball). However, the school's administration felt that continuing to play junior college athletics while operating as a four-year college, as was done for a period, misrepresented the school's true nature to the public and that competition at the four-year collegiate level of athletics would prove cost-prohibitive, so the institution currently sponsors no athletic programs.

In 2014, Aquinas College began the implementation of its Vision 2020: Truth & Charity strategic plan, which included the reintroduction of intercollegiate athletics.^[1] The college promptly implemented three initiatives outlined in the strategic plan: the foundation of a perpetual Eucharistic Adoration chapel,^[2] the foundation of study abroad in Bracciano, Italy,^[3] and the implementation of a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program.^[4]

Rankings

The U.S. News & World Report has ranked Aquinas College as 14th in Best Regional Colleges in the South in its 2015 rankings,^[5] up from a ranking of 30th in the previous year. Contributing to the high ranking were the low class sizes and student-to-faculty ratio, high freshman retention rate, high test scores, a high graduation rate, and a high peer assessment score. The magazine also recognized Aquinas College for being fourth in Best Colleges for veterans in the same regional college category, up from seventh in the previous year.