Aside from a breathtaking beautiful campus, here are three things Belmont Abbey College has done recently that should be a model for colleges across the country:
1. They offer a curriculum heavy on classical liberalism and fundamental disciplines, including two semesters of rhetoric, two of classic texts in political philosophy, two in Western civilization, two in literary classics, a semester on the U.S. Constitution, and First-Year Symposium (a one-semester introduction to college life in a Catholic and Benedictine community; the school has an abbey on campus).
2. They just reduced their tuition by 33%—a reduction by nearly $10,000/year. BAC president Dr. William Thierfelder said of the “tuition reset” that it “is a strategic move toward providing an outstanding private college education at an affordable price,” in light of the unsustainable rise in the cost of higher education, which has been more than quadruple the rate of inflation in the past 25 years.
3. They are standing up for their right to religious freedom. Belmont Abbey College’s lawsuit was the first to be filed after the Department of Health and Human Services issued in 2011 what’s known simply as the “HHS mandate.” The U.S. Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia is expediting the Benedictine liberal arts college’s case, scheduling it to be heard Dec. 14.