5 Questions All Conservatives Should Ask on College Tours

From Young America's Foundation

Heading out on any college tours this fall? Don't miss our must-read guide for conservative high school students touring college campuses. If you're going to spend four years and thousands of dollars at an academic institution, you'll want to make sure the college supports your right to be conservative. Make sure to ask your tour guides these five essential questions.

1. Does the school have a YAF chapter or other conservative club?

Young Americans for Freedom chapters and other conservative clubs bring balance to our country's overwhelmingly liberal universities. Often times, they hold their schools accountable for advancing liberal bias and trampling the rights of their conservative student populations. If your school of choice doesn't have a chapter, make sure to start one right away.

 

2. Are there free speech zones on campus? Or other restrictive codes on speech? 

Institutions of higher learning are notorious for using free speech zones and codes to restrict the right of conservative students to speak their minds. Make sure you attend a school that respects your right to voice your opinion, even if it makes campus liberals uncomfortable.

 

3. Does the school assign texts by Hayek, Friedman, and other free-market thinkers? 

Professors refusing to expose their students to the work of important and acclaimed conservative economists and thinkers is, perhaps, the most insidious form of institutionalized liberal bias. Ask tour guides, most of whom are students themselves, whether they've ever been assigned to read writers like Friedman and Hayek in their classes. Chances are they've read plenty of Marx but little Friedman.

 

4. How many conservative speakers have spoken on campus recently?

Many universities eagerly host liberal speakers like President Obama, Secretary Kerry, and Cornel West on their campuses but fail to ever make an effort to host speakers who represent the conservative viewpoint. Students need to hear both sides of the story and universities who let this happen better position their students to make decisions about our country's future.

5. Can you identify any conservative professors?

If there are no known conservative professors at the school you're touring, think again about attending. Chances are it will be difficult for you to learn the proper information about our economy, military, social policy, and more.

Ask your campus tour guides these questions and report back to us with their answers! We'll help you in any way that we can. And don't forget to consider attending one of our Top Conservative Colleges!

Happy touring!

Donald Trump Releases Epic New Ad on Eve of Iowa Caucus

Father Rutler: "The Still Small Voice"

Our recent snowstorm missed setting a record by just one-tenth of an inch, almost matching the blizzard of 2006. Even so, it surpassed the storms of 1888, 1947, 1996 and 2010. Going through my files, I found my message in the weekly bulletin of my former parish mentioning the “Presidents’ Day” snowfall of 2003, and I wrote then the same things I can observe now: how edifying it was to see how many of the faithful trudged through the snow to attend Mass, and how quiet the city suddenly became.
 

Such silence does not last long in the city, but it is a reminder of how precious the gift of quietness is. “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). God works his ways through the busyness of daily life, but he often gets his message across, as he did to Elijah, not in the wind or earthquake or fire, but in a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12). Most especially, he communicates by coming as Christ himself, the living Word who became a man and dwelt among us. “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (Hebrews 1:1-2).
 

Increasingly in our time, loud music in public places masks the inability to engage in genuine conversation. The poet W. H. Auden visited me once and told me to turn off the record player: “Do you want to hear me or that?” He put me off background music forever, and I am glad that I listened to him.
 

Before the blizzard struck I received in the mail my latest book just published by Ignatius Press, entitled He Spoke to Us. The production of a book takes long enough for an author to read with detachment what he wrote. The title is from the appearance of the Risen Christ on the Emmaus road. When he vanished, the two men said, “Were not our hearts burning within us when he spoke to us on the road, and when he made the Scriptures plain to us?” (Luke 24:32).
 

The point of this collection of essays is that God speaks through circumstances and people, and he gets his message across “in many and various ways” if only we quiet down and pay attention. So I noted at the beginning of the book: “Wherever that Emmaus road was in fact, it stretches for all of us from the start of our lives to its setting . . . If the human race is too dull to recognize Christ on those occasions when he appears in the events of each day and in curiosities we stumble upon, he patiently explains to us who are ‘slow of heart’ what is going on.”   

Free Movement Proposed Between Canada, U.K, Australia, New Zealand

The Commonwealth Freedom of Movement Organization wants to see free movement policies between Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. (Commonwealth Freedom of Movement Organization)

From cbcnews-British Columbia

When James Skinner moved from the United Kingdom to Australia, he fell in love with Melbourne, landed a great job, met a great group of friends, settled down in his new home — only to leave because permanent residency was much harder to obtain than he anticipated.  

Skinner, who now lives in Vancouver, says he fears the same experience could happen again.

• Vasco Castela loses job, may have to leave Canada over immigration mix up
• Permanent residency spouse sponsorship delays leave new dad unable to support family

"We are virtually the same people," he told The Early Edition's Rick Cluff, referring to countries within the Commonwealth.

"The only thing that divides us is the cover of our passports."

Skinner, who is the founder and executive director of the Commonwealth Freedom of Movement Organization, is calling on politicians in Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand to loosen restrictions on visas and work permits between the four countries.

He says citizens within the European Union can work and reside indefinitely in each of the 28 member states, and a similar policy occurs between Australia and New Zealand.

There's no reason why something similar can't happen between Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, he argued.

"We've had that Commonwealth tie for generations and decades in the past, we've stuck together through thick and thin, [we] share the same head of state, the same native language, the same respect for the common law," he said.

"It's not something completely out there that we're proposing."

The Commonwealth Freedom of Movement Organization's petition has already gathered nearly 25,000 online signatures.

Skinner says he plans to send the petition to politicians in New Zealand and Australia, and then to the Canadian and British governments, pending elections in each respective country.

USA TODAY Ranks Thomas Aquinas College Among “Best 10 Colleges for the Money” in the Country

SANTA PAULA, CA—January 29—Drawing upon research from the educational data-analytics firm College Factual, USA Today recently proclaimed Thomas Aquinas College one of the country’s Best 10 Colleges for the Money.

The “Best Colleges” ranking identifies schools that have “good outcomes for students,” such as high graduation rates and low student-loan default rates, as well as a “reasonable price tag” for the education they offer. In evaluating the total cost of attending a school, College Factual calculates an “average net price” — tuition minus scholarships and financial aid — and multiplies that amount by the average number of semesters it takes students to graduate. Most Thomas Aquinas students, College Factual reports, graduate in 4.1 years; nationally, the average is closer to five or six years.

“Thomas Aquinas is a small private school firmly rooted in the Catholic tradition,” reads the College’s profile on the College Factual website. “The school has high freshmen retention and graduation rates, as well as a low student to faculty ratio and high amount of full time teachers.… Compared to schools of a similar caliber, Thomas Aquinas is underpriced.”

The College’s being named to USA Today’s “Best 10 Colleges for the Money” list, says Director of Admissions Jon Daly, is a reflection of its longstanding commitment to value and affordability. Thomas Aquinas College turns no student away on the basis of financial need, and it caps the amount that students are asked to borrow at $18,000 over four years. Average total debt after four years is less than half the national average of nearly $35,000.

“By God’s grace, and thanks to the tremendous generosity of our benefactors, Thomas Aquinas College is able to offer a one-of-a-kind Catholic liberal education that is within the financial reach of all families,” says Mr. Daly. “We have long considered our school to be a ‘best value,’ and it is heartening to see that USA Today and College Factual, as well as many secular and Catholic college guides, agree.”

About Thomas Aquinas College

Thomas Aquinas College is a four-year, Catholic liberal arts college with a fully-integrated curriculum composed of the Great Books, the seminal works in the major disciplines by the great thinkers who have helped shape Western civilization. There are no textbooks, no lectures and no electives. Instead, under the guidance of faculty members and using only the Socratic method of dialogue in classes of no more than 20, students read and discuss the original works of authors such as Euclid, Dante, Galileo, Descartes, the American Founding Fathers, Adam Smith, Shakespeare, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Einstein, Aristotle, Plato, St. Augustine, and of course, St. Thomas Aquinas. Graduates consistently excel in the many world-class institutions at which they pursue graduate degrees in fields such as law, medicine, business, theology and education. They have distinguished themselves serving as lawyers, doctors, business owners, priests, military service men and women, educators, journalists and college presidents.