Wyoming Catholic College is a four-year college committed to offering a liberal arts education that steeps its students in the awesome beauty of our created, natural world and imbues them with the best that has been thought and said in Western civilization, including the moral and intellectual heritage of the Catholic Church. The college strives to promote a love of learning, an understanding of natural order, and the quest for virtuous living so that its graduates will assume their responsibilities as citizens in a free society.

The curriculum and campus are devoted to the formation of the whole person, i.e., the spiritual, physical and intellectual dimensions. Studies include the classics of imaginative literature, history, mathematics, science, philosophy, fine arts, and theology. They employ the great and good books as well as the natural created world, effecting a rich combination of intellectual and experiential or poetic knowledge. Students’ imaginations are enriched and their capacity for wonder deepened. Moreover, students and faculty share in a campus life that reflects the ideals taught directly and indirectly in the classroom.

In this Catholic tradition, emphasis lies not on the dissemination of information, but on the development and perfection of the intellect, the passions, and the will, enabling students to approach and embrace the good, the true, and the beautiful throughout their lives.

In addressing the whole person, the college contributes to the students’ spiritual and moral formation. This is done via Catholic culture, context, and traditions. The faculty and college are faithful to the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church and the deposit of faith handed down over the past two thousand years. 

First and foremost, our teachers are dedicated to excellent teaching. They understand and agree with Newman, who, in his Idea of a University, contends that “A University [the undergraduate university or a college] is a place of teaching universal knowledge. This implies that its object is…the diffusion and extension of knowledge rather than the advancement.” Furthermore, they understand Newman’s stance that “to discover and to teach are distinct functions; they are also distinct gifts, and are not commonly found united in the same person. He, too, who spends his day in dispensing his existing knowledge to all comers is unlikely to have either leisure or energy to acquire new.” Hence, even though many of WCC’s faculty are accomplished writers with numerous publications to their credit, their first priority is always teaching, not research or publication, as is so often the case elsewhere. All professors share an overriding commitment to the students and to their ongoing formation. This is the reason why our student-teacher ratio is (and will always be) between 20:1 and 10:1, depending on the type of class. In senior year, each student will have the opportunity to work one-on-one with a professor as his or her thesis and oration adviser.

Second, our teachers understand the true nature of the teacher-student relationship. They know they are only the instrumental cause in helping their students to know the truth about a subject, while their students are the primary cause. In other words, each student must see the truth for himself; the teacher cannot see it for him. Our teachers do not see themselves as merchants peddling wares, for this turns the acquisition of knowledge into a mercantile affair, which cheapens and denies its true nature. They know that, as Socrates claims, a teacher is more like a midwife: he does not cause truth, but only helps deliver it.

Third, our teachers understand that their primary job is to help students become educable, not completely educated, for to become educated takes a lifetime. They are confident that, if they help cultivate the verbal skills of learning (thinking, reading and writing, speaking and listening) and the motivation to learn, their students will make themselves lifelong learners and, finally, educated persons, which is the true fruit of liberal education.

Fourth, our Catholic teachers submit to the authority of the Catholic Church by taking a formal oath of fidelity. This oath states that they will not intentionally teach anything contrary to the Catholic faith and, furthermore, will weigh and measure all secular knowledge in the light of Catholic teaching. They know that the revealed doctrines that are interpreted, taught, and guarded by the teaching Magisterium of the Catholic Church come from the infallible God, who can “neither deceive nor be deceived.”    

Fifth, our teachers realize they are not the only teachers at the College; they are the servants of greater teachers who have come before. Our teachers, in company with the students, sit at the feet of great authors, looking to them for wisdom—especially to the saints who stand foremost among these authors. Professors at WCC conceive of themselves as “doormen,” ushering their students into a great vestibule of learning, where they will meet Plato, Virgil, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Shakespeare, and so forth.  Although the professor has a certain primacy in the classroom (for a living person is most of all suited to teach living students), he understands that a deeper primacy is held by the wise from all ages, who continue to reach us through their cherished writings.

And sixth, our teachers are skilled in various pedagogies and are able to adapt them to the circumstances of teaching, that is, the type of material being taught, the nature of the class (an instruction class, conversation class, or skills class), and the state of the students.  They realize that sometimes they must teach like a monitor (through lecturing), sometimes like a Socratic midwife (through conversation driven by questioning), and sometimes like a coach (through exercises aimed at developing particular habits).

Our Students

What specific virtues should a student possess in order to succeed at Wyoming Catholic College? We are convinced that, if a student possesses the virtues of zeal and docility (or teachableness) upon entering WCC, the other virtues necessary to success will soon be formed—diligence in study, joy in learning, punctuality in completing assignments, and so forth.      

The very word “student” comes from the Latin studiosus, meaning zealous.  A student therefore is one who is zealous for the truth.  Zeal, we might say, is what separates and distinguishes the true student from enrollees just biding their time in school.  The zealous student, recognizing his ignorance in respect to the truth, whether it concern theology, philosophy, or mathematics, etc., is anxious to set out on a journey of discovery.

We are confident that, given normal intelligence, the student who possesses zeal and docility will be able to gain a liberal education at Wyoming Catholic College.