You know, it’s interesting. I “think” from what I hear is that St. John’s back in the day (ie, the 70s and 80s) was a bit of a holdout for hippies. Interestingly, now it has sort of “evolved” as the rest of academia tries to demonize and dismantle the study of Western Civ., all of a sudden, St. John’s has become (as I understand) very conservative!
My how times change! In light of the general trend of our culture in America, though, that sure makes sense!
I was out there in 1965 & 1966 and it was a beautiful campus just outside of Santa Fe in the mountains. It was a freak show. Parents that had kids that couldn't fit into normal academic structure would send them there. Four years of pretty much studying the great books and anything else that suited their fancy and out the door to god knows what, probably teaching at Oberlin or Antioch.
As an aside one friend I had at our school, who was a math genius (so I was told) after spending a day with a few of the St John's students said they were much more advanced than he was in their pursuits and had a tough time following them.