The Deacon's Bench
Wyoming Catholic College, a Catholic university founded in 2005 in Lander, announced in late February that it “shall not participate in federal student loan programs.”
The decision came after months of analysis and deliberations by the college and its board of directors.
“While the financial benefits are undeniable,” said a news release, “the increasingly burdensome regulatory requirements are clearly troubling for faith-based institutions.”
The decision to forego federal student loan and grant programs was reached in a unanimous vote by the college’s board of directors.
“While respecting that some of our peer institutions have reached a different conclusion on this issue,” said Andrew Emrich, the board’s chairman, “what is different in our case is timing: At the very point we were grappling with this question, pivotal legal decisions, executive orders, and administrative interpretations were all pointing to some … challenges for institutions of faith.”
In a video posted on the college’s website, Kevin D. Roberts, its president, if the college had been founded 30 years ago, “perhaps the decision to participate in federal programs would be easy.”
“Without being an alarmist, however, it is reasonable to say that the political landscape in 2015 is very different than it was 30 years ago,” he said.
Roberts told Catholic News Service in an interview that he finds it an “affront to our Catholic identity that we cannot provide something that would clearly benefit our students and would clearly benefit this institution, because the government has overreached.”
“Our Catholic identity might be further in danger as a result of receiving federal funds,” he continued. “I say ‘further in danger’ because it is already (endangered) by the HHS mandate.”
And watch a video presentation below.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In