“By abstaining from federal funding programs, we will safeguard our mission from unwarranted federal involvement—an involvement increasingly at odds with our Catholic beliefs, the content of our curriculum, and our institutional practices,” college president Kevin Roberts said in February after the school’s board of directors voted unanimously to reject federal funding.
“Our decision is a prudential one,” said board chairman Andrew Emrich, adding that “pivotal legal decisions, executive orders, and administrative interpretations were all pointing to some near-term (and perhaps long-term) challenges for institutions of faith.”
“We really didn’t want the federal government meddling in our lives here,” board member David Kellogg told The New York Times. “The federal government hands you money and then threatens to withdraw that money if you don’t do what they want.”
It costs $28,150 a year to attend the small four-year liberal arts college in Lander, Wyoming, which has a great books/great outdoors curriculum, and requires students to participate in a three-week backpacking trip and turn in their cell phones and computers while on campus. The college set up a private loan program to help current and future students who need financial aid.
“There’s a real concern that eventually strings will be attached to student aid, and they don’t want to be put in that position,” explained Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, which recommends the small Catholic college to prospective students and their families.