Newman College Celebrates Campus, Plans for Opening Day

On Sunday, November 9^th, leaders and supporters of the Cardinal Newman Liberal Arts Project celebrated at the newly purchased Ostego, Michigan, campus for the developing Newman College, which hopes to open its doors as early as the fall of 2009.

“The imminent launch of Newman College is more than simply a good idea—it is necessary,” said Patrick J. Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, who delivered the first annual Thomas More Lecture for the college.

College founders reached a deal with public school officials to purchase a former high school in the Kalamazoo area, including more than three acres with room for future residence halls and other campus buildings. Sunday’s lecture and benefit dinner was the first opportunity many supporters had to see the campus, which is undergoing extensive renovations to future classrooms, administration and faculty offices, a library, and a Catholic chapel.

“Guided by Catholic teaching, the Magisterium of the Church and Ex corde Ecclesiae [the Vatican’s guidelines for Catholic higher education], the Newman College Project is an initiative to found a premier liberal arts institution in the American heartland of Western Michigan, continuing the renaissance of the Catholic liberal arts tradition begun in the ‘70s and early ‘80s,” said Dr. Ronald Muller, provost and co-founder of the college. “Newman College is inspired by [19^th century Cardinal John Henry] Newman’s academic vision of the importance of knowledge sought for its own sake, his understanding of the relation between the disciplines, and his love of Latin, Greek, the philosophic disciplines and classical learning.”

The college has announced plans to admit students in fall 2009, but it is not permitted to formally recruit students until Michigan officials approve the curriculum and facilities, Muller said.

Although the college needs to raise substantial funds before opening, the founding board is confident that Newman College will enjoy the success of other recently established Catholic colleges that share its strong Catholic identity. These include John Paul the Great University in San Diego; Southern Catholic College near Atlanta; and Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming.