当马可·鲁比奥于10月7日站在雅典卫城前发表演讲、捍卫西方文明时，他最热切的听众是二十多名美国研究生——他们在佐治亚州萨凡纳一所微型私立文理学院攻读古希腊语。
When Marco Rubio stood before the Acropolis in Athens on Oct. 7 and delivered a speech in defense of Western civilization, his most avid listeners were two dozen American graduate students steeped in the study of ancient Greek at a tiny, private liberal arts college in Savannah, Ga.
“我觉得这很非凡，”国务卿赞扬“西方精神”及定义西方的古典特质后，斯蒂芬·布莱克伍德在电子邮件中写道。现年50岁的布莱克伍德是拉尔斯顿学院的创始校长，该学院坐落于战前时期萨凡纳的核心地带，专攻西方人文学科，涵盖从柏拉图到T·S·艾略特的广阔领域。布莱克伍德写道：“我有生以来，未曾听过任何重要政治人物如此清醒地阐述我们文明的起源。”
“I thought it was remarkable,” Stephen Blackwood says in an email after the secretary of state has spoken in praise of “the Western mind” and classical traits that define the West. Mr. Blackwood, 50, is the founding president of Ralston College, which sits in the heart of antebellum Savannah and specializes in the study of Western humanities, sweeping from Plato to T.S. Eliot. “Not in my lifetime,” Mr. Blackwood writes, “have I heard such a clearsighted account of our civilization’s origins from any major political figure.”
拉尔斯顿学院成立于2006年，直到2022年才开始授课，得益于英国慈善家、媒体大亨保罗·马歇尔的捐赠，学院才得以招收首批24名学生攻读为期一年的人文学硕士学位（至今每年仅招收24名学生）。这笔2500万美元的捐款使大多数拉尔斯顿学生得以免学费就读。拉尔斯顿还有其他捐赠者，包括由家得宝创始人伯尼·马库斯设立的马库斯基金会。布莱克伍德表示，慈善支持帮助学院“保持不接受联邦资助”。
Ralston College was founded in 2006 but didn’t begin holding classes until 2022, when a benefaction from Paul Marshall, a British philanthropist and media mogul, enabled the college to launch its first cohort of 24 students on a one-year M.A. in humanities. (It still admits only 24 students a year.) The $25 million gift allows most Ralston students to attend tuition-free. Ralston has other benefactors, including the Marcus Foundation, established by Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus. Philanthropic support helps the college “to remain free of federal funding,” Mr. Blackwood says.