4.17.14 Hillsdale Collegian

Michigan’s oldest college newspaper

Vol. 137, Issue 24 - 17 April 2014

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Senior class officers elected

Micah Meadowcroft Assistant Editor

President Andy Reuss

Vice President Heather Lantis

Treasurer Kadeem Noray

Junior Andy Reuss was named president of the class of 2015 Wednesday.

“I’m really excited to have the opportunity to serve my senior class,” Reuss said. “I’m honored that my classmates have entrusted me with this responsibility, and I’m excited about who I get to work with and make our senior year one for the books.”

Rising seniors voted Tuesday and Wednesday. Reuss is joined on next year’s senior committee by juniors Heather Lantis as vice president, Kadeem Norray as treasurer, Annie Teigan as secretary, and Shelly Peters as social chair.

The committee is responsible for the planning and execution of all senior class events, including the senior party, the senior gift, and future class reunions.

Joanna Wiseley, director of career services, said there was great voter turnout, with over 200 juniors casting a ballot.

“I look forward to the opportunity to work with them next year,” she said.

Besides class president, Reuss is an English and politics double major, and will be head resident assistant in the Simpson Residence next year. He works in the president’s office, is a George Washington fellow, and a contributing columnist to student magazine The Hillsdale Forum.

Presidential duties include leading the selection of the senior commencement speaker, hosting certain campus events, and running committee meetings.

Vice President Lantis is a

See Election A3

The Hillsdale College shotgun team took home gold in the Division III ACUI championship, winning in sporting clays and five-stand. The team hit 550 out of 600 possible targets. (Courtesy of Jordan Hintz)

Shotgun team takes home the gold Jack Butler Assistant Editor The magic happens on a secluded, grassy field about six miles away from Hillsdale College on Bankers Road.

There, at the John A. Halter Shooting Sports Education Center, members of the college shotgun team prepare for competitions against schools many times

Hillsdale’s size, with programs much older.

And yet they win.

This year, through a competition restructuring that kept the team in Division III, it took home its second ACUI overall championship, hitting 550 of 600 possible targets in the six events, and winning gold in sporting clays and five-stand.

Combined, the team hit 20

more targets than the second place finishers. Freshman Jordan Hintz led the way, earning 3rd in America Skeet, 2nd in American Trap, and winning the High Combined American and Trap events.

“I won these individual awards that I never dreamed I would win,” Hintz said.

Coach Mike Carl was also impressed with Hintz.

“It’s about as spectacular a

performance as you can get,” Carl said.

Other standouts at the national performance included freshman Casey Inks, junior Joe Kain, and freshman Kyle Luttig in sporting clays; Hintz, Kane, and Luttig in 5-stand; and Inks and sophomore Anna Pfaff coming close to the top 25 female shooters in overall scores.

See Shotgun A7

YAF petition stopped by deans’ office Frederick Douglass Chris McCaffery Assistant Editor Young Americans for Freedom stopped its petition for meal plan reform on April 1 at the request of Dean of Men Aaron Petersen.

“I didn’t say, ‘You’re in big trouble,’ I just said, ‘You guys need to stop this,’” Petersen said.

“I don’t think petitions are the best way to solve important issues.”

Although YAF had planned to offer the petition to students for three days during lunchtime in the Grewcock Student Union, they stopped after only two days and 250 signatures. YAF had been planning the campaign since last spring.

“The deans’ office asked us to stop with our petition, and we feel that our two days of petitioning were successful with bringing the concerns of campus to the administration,” YAF President junior Nathan Brand said.

Q&A

Jonah Goldberg is a founding editor of National Review Online.

He is also a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and a Fox News contributor. He has written two books, “The Tyranny of Cliches” and “Liberal Fascism” both of which have made New York Times best seller list. Goldberg is on campus as the Dow Journalism Program’s Eugene C. Pulliam Fellow. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife Jessica, his daughter Lucy, and their puppy Zoe. Compiled by Bailey Pritchett.

Brand and the rest of his group have had a series of meetings with administrators, including Petersen, Assistant Dean of Men Jeffery Rogers, Dean of Women Diane Philipp, Chief Staff Officer to the President Mike Harner, and President Larry Arnn.

“We simply encouraged YAF and any other group or individual to meet with us if they have an idea on how to make Hillsdale better,” Philipp said in an email.

“We work hard on such projects all the time and welcome student input. Students typically offer very creative and positive ideas when working with us on projects.”

Arnn said that while college administrators are happy to meet with students, petitions are not the best way to have the discussion.

“The college is happy to hear from students, solicits their opinions frequently, and listens and responds to everyone who has something to say,” he said in an

email. “Often, the purpose of the petition is to place pressure. We hope not to conduct our discussions here under pressure.”

YAF members don’t regret petitioning, though.

Hillsdale College

Adrian College

Kalamazoo College

$8.55$13.50

$8.55$32

$6.50$10

The estimated range of permeal costs at Hillsdale and two other colleges.

“This is something every student has an opinion on,” YAF Chairman sophomore Savanna Wierenga said. “Having a petition is such a great way to get lots

statue in the works Evan Brune News Editor

Hillsdale College is in the process of commissioning a statue of famed 19th-century orator Frederick Douglass.

Chief Staff Officer to the President Mike Harner said the college has not set a time for when the statue might be dedicated, but typically, a dedication ceremony comes 12-15 months after a statue is commissioned.

The statue will be placed in Kresge Plaza, next to Lane Hall, where it will join the statue of Abraham Lincoln and the Alpha Kappa Phi Civil War monument.

“Douglass has been thought of since the Liberty Walk was thought of,” Harner said. “His

ideas regarding human nature and rights are important to us.”

Harner said the plans are currently being developed in committee.

“When you take a commission, there is usually a patron, which we have,” he said.

Douglass was first announced at the Rebirth of Liberty and Learning Gala, where scholarships in his name were announced.

The Douglass statue joins five other statues on the Liberty Walk, which began with George Washington in 2003.

“The Liberty Walk is a tribute to those who came before us who have particular ideas about human nature and freedom,” Harner said. It’s a reminder to us and honors their memory and points a way forward.”

See Douglass A3

See YAF A3

(Anders Kiledal/Collegian)

Jonah Goldberg is a founder of National Review Online What is the movie you think every young person should see?

For political purposes, I’ll say “A Face in the Crowd,” the best movie ever made on populism.

How long have you been a conservative, and have you noticed your values change over time?

Like a lot of people, I had a confused period. I wanted to know what I thought about politics for myself. It didn’t last long.

I think I’ve always been a conservative. Being a conservative was rebellious where I grew up, and I always kind of liked that. But my

views have changed a lot. I am a lot more libertarian after writing “Liberal Fascism.” Although I think it is an insufficient philosophy, it’s one of the few political philosophies incapable of becoming tyrannical.

Which intellectual figures have influenced your thinking?

The thinker I’m most fascinated with is Joseph Schumpeter.

What he understood was what other people in this time don’t which is the when of something is more important than the what of something. Traditional economics thinks about the model, but not

INSIDE

how things change over time. I find that really intersting.

College students are stereotyped as liberal. Why do you think that is and what can conservative leaders can do to capture the young American mind?

Realistically, it is that most college students are politically apathetic — which is better than them all being liberal. I think you judge most progressive movements by their utopias. Today, liberalism wants to turn America into a giant college campus where the only real crime is hurting some-

See Q&A A3 Energy in spoons

Shakespeare in the Arb Student-directed play “As You Like It” appears in the arboretum. B1

David Satter Journalist David Satter is the fall 2014 Eugene C. Pulliam fellow in journalism A2 Translation contest Juniors LaRae Ferguson and Joshua Benjamins take top prizes at Greek and Latin translation contests. A3

of people involved.”

According to Harner, the college administration has been reviewing its current dining policies since last semester. It wants to make meal plans a better value while maintaining Hillsdale’s strong community.

“While YAF’s petition efforts are well-intended, they are incidental to the efforts of the past six months,” Harner said in an email.

Brand said his group has done research into other colleges in the area that have similarly-sized enrollments to Hillsdale’s 1,400 students, such as Kalamazoo College and Adrian College, whose meal plans have policies similar to what YAF is proposing.

Kalamazoo College arranges dining through a company called Sodexo and does not require students living off-campus or in independent housing to buy a meal plan. The school offers optional, small plans, as well as flexible

Coping with chronic illnesses, students share their stories. B4

Fair announces musical acts Country singer Randy Houser will perform at the 2014 Hillsdale Country Fair. Tickets go on sale April 22. A6 (Courtesy of David Satter)

(Laura Williamson/Collegian)

News........................................A1 Opinions..................................A4 City News................................A6 Sports......................................A7 Arts..........................................B1 Features....................................B3

Track school records broken Senior Maurice Jones and sophomore Emily Oren broke school records in the 400 and the steeple chase, respectively. A8 twitter.com/ hdalecollegian facebook.com/ hillsdalecollegian

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David Satter coming this fall

“I am looking forward to sharing my experiences with the students at Hillsdale,” Satter said in an email. “I was a corFormer Moscow correspondent in Moscow at respondent for the Finanthe height of Soviet totalicial Times and contributarian rule and witnessed tor to National Review the hope and tragedy of David Satter will spend post-Soviet Russia.” two weeks on campus Satter said he has next semester as the Euknown of Hillsdale and gene C. Pulliam Visiting its educational philosoFellow in Journalism. phy for many years. He is Satter will teach a oneexcited to teach a course credit class from Oct. on a campus where some 6-13. The class will focus close colleagues have on opinion writing and taught. long-form magazine ar“A number of my colticles, as well as the challeagues and friends have lenges of reporting in a either lectured or taught non-democratic country. at Hillsdale, including the “Many of our students late Alexander Shtromas, have an interest in foreign who helped me in the correspondence,” said writing of my first book,” Dow Journalism Program he said.

Director John Miller. “His Satter has published recent exclusion from three books: “It Was a Russia will also remind Long Time Ago and It us of first principles, inNever Happened Anycluding the idea that free Journalist David Satter is the fall 2014 way: Russia and the societies must have a free Eugene C. Pulliam fellow in journalism.

Communist Past,” “Darkpress.”

(Courtesy of David Satter) ness at Dawn: The Rise Satter had been workof the Russian Criminal ing in Russia since Sepcountry for the next five years State,” and “Age of Delirium: tember as an adviser for Radio because he is considered “unde- The Decline and Fall of the SoLiberty. This past January, the sirable” by Russian officials. viet Union.”

Russian government rejected Alex Anderson Web Editor

Satter’s application for a correspondent’s visa, a decision that has barred him from entering the

WHIP introduces mentor program Natalie deMacedo Collegian Reporter Participating in the WHIP program not only introduces students to valuable internship experiences, but starting this summer, a new alumni-student program will also equip them with valuable mentoring relationships.

The Kirby Center, along with the help of Career Services and the Alumni Office, is forming an alumni-student mentorship program, Kirby Center Director Craig Kreinbihl said. After assessing students’ current interests and career ambitions, the college will match WHIP students with alumni working in Washington, D.C. Kreinbihl said the program will commence on June 16 for the 50 or so Hillsdale students who will be in Washington, D.C., over the summer. The kick-off event will give students a chance to mingle with alumni and find someone they might like to be mentored by.

“What we are trying to do this summer is bring people back and connect them with the Kirby Center,” Kreinbihl said. “So much mentoring is done informally, so we wanted to formalize it a bit.”

Keith Miller, assistant director of career services, said a student who takes initiative can already form these relationships.

“It’s pretty easy to Google who went to Hillsdale, and they are really eager to help. If you sent them an email, I bet they’d get coffee with you,” Miller said.

Still, the college believes an

actual program could help begin relationships, particularly for more reserved students.

“One of the most valuable components of coming to Washington are people that students are able to connect to,” Krienbihl said.

Hillsdale graduate Palmer Schoening ’08, president of Schoening Strategies LLC, coordinated with Kreinbihl to form the program.

“Our goal is to provide students a softer landing in Washington, D.C., and to help them advance their careers,” Schoening said. “Helping Hillsdale students navigate into positions of leadership in Washington, D.C., will improve the country.”

Both Miller and Kreinbihl expressed how important and valuable meeting alumni can be.

“To use the terminology of our former Secretary of Defense, you got your known unknowns and your unknown unknowns,” Miller said.

Miller said that an alum can warn you about how a certain office is managed or who to talk to. He added that alumni are people on the ground with knowledge that students can glean from.

Betsy Woodruff is a Hillsdale alumna working at The Washington Examiner who will be part of the new mentoring initiative.

“This kind of program would definitely have been helpful to me when I was interning in D.C.,” Woodruff said in an email. “I’m glad the administration is looking to start it.”

A2

17 April 2014

Core squeezes schedules

Bailey Pritchett Assistant Editor

Imogen Kane is among the handful of freshmen on the premed track who were handed a white sheet from their adviser that guides their schedule for the next four years. On that sheet was a new two-credit class, physical wellness and dynamics, one of the newest requirements imposed by the updated core requirements.

With a rigid schedule, Kane said she is frustrated that the twocredit class that meets four times a week secures the place of an elective classes.

Senior Rachel Warner, a chemistry major, took physical wellness and dynamics her freshman year and is convinced that every student should take the class.

“I liked it for the simple fact that it brought more awareness to fitness and health,” she said.

“It should be mandatory because if you’re forced to take Constitution, I don’t see why you shouldn’t be forced to take a P.E. class. It is good for Hillsdale students that have never had a health class before.”

Warner is also a runner for the Hillsdale cross country team.

Even though her involvement in a varsity sport has made her more aware of her health, she liked reviewing the material.

Physical wellness and dynamics has a lecture component that meets twice a week. For seven weeks of the semester, a lab component is also implemented that meets twice a week, on different days than the lectures.

“The cost-benefit is not worth it,” Kane said. “I’d rather take a 50-minute cycling class to get a workout rather than sitting down in a classroom.”

Although the new core only requires physical wellness and dynamics and one P.E. class, the 2013 incoming class will earn one less credit in the core while spending two additional hours completing the sports studies portion.

Registrar Douglas McArthur said that change triggers concern in all students, both directly affected by the core and not.

“It is natural to be a bit nervous,” he said. “But when change does come, we can help them find a sane, reasonable path to complete requirements. It is not a cause for panic. Maybe a cause for planning but not panic.”

The core curriculum will change gradually over the course

of an undetermined period of time. One of the changes next year will move the biology requirement from four credit hours to three. Rather than scheduling a different day for labs, lab exercises will fuse with lectures.

Eventually, Provost David Whalen said, the core will reach between 61-65 credits. The former core was 55.

In order to complete the core, honors program requirements, and the pre-med track, Kane plans on taking summer classes.

Her college tuition will not cover the cost of her mandatory courses.

“I have to pay extra to graduate on time,” Kane said. “Whether it’s during a summer class or exceeding the credit limit per semester. I think that’s unfair.”

Although Kane doesn’t mind spending the summer working toward completing her academic requirements, she wishes there was an opportunity to take more electives. But there simply isn’t time.

“I look at physical wellness as an academic class,” Kane said.

“If it were the same work level as a P.E. class, I could take another academic class. But I can’t.”

Honors theses cap Hillsdale careers Teddy Sawyer Assistant Editor

At first, it seems like any other small gathering: a couple professors and a student sit chatting on the couches of the Heritage Room. Moments later, the student stands to address a group that has come to hear a thesis defense.

Honors students defend their theses for a one-hour period. The first 10 minutes are dedicated to the presentation itself. The next 30 are set aside for questions from three professors: the student’s chosen faculty thesis advisor, second reader, and Associate Professor of History Richard Gamble, the head of the honors program. The last 20 minutes are for other members of the audience to ask any remaining questions.

“Idealistically, my hope for the honors thesis is that it will become more and more of a capstone experience for the students,” Gamble said, “a culmina- Senior Gracemarie Lambert presents her honors thesis in the Mossey Library Heritage tion of four years in the honors Room. Lambert’s topic was “A Response to Absence: Reading Marilynne Robinson’s Gilprogram for the students and a ead and Housekeeping in tandem. (Courtesy of Brett Wierenga) connecting point to the rest of combined her interests and year. By the end, students spend students come insufficiently precampus.” reached beyond a single disci- more than a year preparing for pared, but Gamble said it is fairly Students are evaluated on pline to develop the topic for her their defenses between research rare, and more as a result of an intheir presentations and familiar- thesis. and actually writing their paper. complete or sub-par thesis paper, ity with their topic. By the time “My topic was a combination Other students delve into sub- and not the defense itself. Somethe students present, they have of my two majors, so I took the jects outside the purview of their times a student will only pass already written a 20- to 35-page two things I love the most — majors. conditionally, which entails corpaper on a topic.

Shakespeare and the study of the Senior Erin Mundahl, despite rections made after the defense, “I feel like 30 pages is far different memories of history,” being an English and French but that student may still graduenough into a topic to go further Schutz said. “So I studied Shake- double-major, chose to look into ate with the honors program as into the topic than a normal col- speare’s histories. Dr. Smith is the sociological and psychologi- long as criteria are fulfilled. lege paper, but [in doing a thesis] the foremost Shakespeare schol- cal topic of loners and society.

Gamble said the best way to we’ve also jumped into it enough ar on campus, and Dr. Gaetano’s She dubbed her thesis, “‘All the prepare is to attend others’ deto realize how much more there specialty is the Renaissance, so I lonely people, where do they all fenses, as the students know their is and that we’ve really just bare- brought the two together.” come from?’: A Socio-Psycho- topics by the time their peers are ly scratched the surface,” senior Gamble said the topic is up to logical Examination of the Loner defending theirs. In the weeks Emily Schutz said. the students as long as they can in Society,” looking into a topic leading up to a defense, it is Schutz presented her thesis, find faculty members interested that, according to Mundahl, has knowing what to expect and hav“‘But remember — For that’s in advising for their project, and not yet been studied intensely. ing confidence that help a student my business to you:’ The Role as long as they write their proThe thesis defense is a re- most. of Wonder in Shakespeare’s His- posal for the topic during the quirement for honors students torical Memory,” on Wednesday. spring semester of their junior for graduation. Each year, some Like many others, Schutz

New English professor hired ODK partners with local NHS Sarah Albers Collegian Reporter

Serial interviews. Business lunches. The drudgery of shaking hands, remembering names, making long-distance phone calls. Single-use shampoo bottles and scratchy hotel towels.

This is what Hillsdale College subjects its professorial candidates to before making a hiring decision.

It’s what Kelly Franklin called home about.

“It was wonderful,” Franklin said. “It was fun. It was also long and somewhat stressful and it was a ton of work to prepare for.

But as soon as I got to Hillsdale, it all clicked. I called my wife after the first night — I couldn’t sleep! I didn’t sleep more than a few hours each night. I was so jazzed up and energized by the conversations I had with the faculty and the students.”

Franklin, the man who bested more than 80 applicants throughout the hiring process, is refreshingly earnest. A student by heart and educator by profession, his philosophy is simple.

“I think that, when you’re teaching literature, it relates to the impact literature has not just on reason but on the heart,” Franklin said. “What teachers

are trying to do, particularly at places like Hillsdale, is communicate goodness, truth, and beauty.”

Sophomore Josiah Lippincott, one of the students involved in the interview and selection process, noted that Franklin’s style was very much in keeping with Hillsdale’s commitment to dynamic, authentic classroom engagement.

“We all very much liked him,” Lippincott said. “We really wanted someone who could engage with people like myself, who haven’t had much advanced experience writing: a teacher who would let us be able to really get something out of the class, even if we weren’t English majors.”

In addition to fostering meaningful discussions within the classroom, Franklin’s personal philosophy appears closely related to the liberal arts orientation of Hillsdale’s students and faculty. Franklin stressed the idea that classic literature is more than an aggregate of arcane and irrelevant texts. The great books, when approached correctly, have implications reaching far beyond a student’s transcript.

“As an educator,” Franklin said, “I think that literature goes a long way to reach human be-

ings in a way that is more than intellectual. Art and literature touch us in an emotional way.

It touches our hearts. You get a great impact by reaching the intellectual as well as the human element in your students.”

English Department Chair Michael Jordan said that Franklin’s educational background as well as his personal outlook made him a good fit for the position.

“In the English department, two-thirds of our teaching is in the great books,” Jordan said.

“One of the major qualities we were looking for was someone who has the ability to teach the great books of the Western, British, and American traditions. In addition, Franklin focuses on Walt Whitman — that was one of the gaps we had in the department.”

Franklin wrote his dissertation on Whitman, but his accomplishments are not limited to the American literary heritage. He has a master’s degree in both English and Spanish and is currently in the process of finishing his doctorate in English at the University of Iowa.

“I love being a student,” Franklin said. “I’ve been one most of my life. I love what happens in the class. I love being in the classroom.”

Amanda Tindall Assistant Editor

On March 19 , the Omicron Delta Kappa leadership honorary of Hillsdale College met with students in the National Honor Society at Hillsdale High School to take the leadership principles of both organizations and put them into action.

On May 4, students and volunteers will begin the first phase of the project, working to restore a park behind the high school.

“Our goal for ODK for this year was to move forward from just being a status symbol to actually being an active honorary on campus that promotes more than just recognition,” President of ODK senior Ben Holscher said.

The students at Hillsdale High listened to talks on leadership from Assistant Professor of Religion Don Westblade, President of ODK senior Ben Holscher, and senior Anthony Manno.

After listening to the talks, current and future members of ODK teamed up with the NHS students, applying the lessons they learned, to solve a problem they saw in the community. The problem chosen: the tennis courts in the Jim Inman Memorial Park behind the high school.

“NHS came to the seminar with

a few ideas, one of which was the Jim Inman park behind the high school,” NHS President Branden Bischer said. “But we really didn’t expect it to become as big as it did.

The ODK started planting seeds in our mind, and it just took off.”

For Summer Wells, Hillsdale High School’s NHS adviser, it was encouraging to see the students get so involved and take leadership positions in the project.

“It was really cool for me to see that by the time the speakers had gone and they came up with this idea, the students just came to life,” Wells said. “They initiated conversations and gave their thoughts and stepped up into leadership positions within the group.

Because so many of them are really busy, I was trying to get them to move past NHS as being just another thing to do. They were a totally different group of kids when they left.”

Holscher also said that he was expecting that the ODK students would have to guide the conversation, but the high school students stepped up to the plate.

“It grew from just being a seminar, to being a launching pad for an initiative on the part of the NHS kids to not only fix up the park, but make it into a community park to take under their wing and make their own.” Holscher said. “It shows how capable young people

can be when they get a vision and get excited about something and are willing to put their hearts into it and do it.”

The entire project will consist of two phases. In the first phase, much of the manual labor will be completed the May 4 volunteer day. Students and other volunteers will be landscaping, painting, cleaning out the river, and clearing brush.

In the second phase, they’ll raise money for repairing the pavillion, the tennis courts, and the parking lot; moving trees, repairing lights; making running trails; and fixing the receding grass.

While the high school has set aside some money for the park, students are still looking into ways to fundraise.

“We’re hoping that this leadership luncheon will be a regular occurrence of NHS and ODK,” Holscher said. “The leaders for NHS and ODK will come together and continue to make this a launching pad for community projects for NHS with ODK mentoring them along the way.”

With a $15,000 budget, NHS is heading up the fundraising for the project. Holscher said they’re looking for more volunteers to help during phase one, and anyone interested can contact him at bholscher@hillsdale.edu.

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Students win translation contests Abi Wood Arts Editor

Juniors LaRae Ferguson and Joshua Benjamins took top prizes at the Maurine Dallas Watkins Sight Translation Contests, the results of which were announced in Evanston, Ill., this past weekend.

Ferguson placed first in translation exams in the Koine Greek category (Koine is a third-century B.C. Greek dialect, the same in which the New Testament was written), a first-place title she defended from her victory last year. In the same category, Benjamins placed third. There were 19 entries.

In both Intermediate Greek, out of 28 entries, and Advanced Latin, out of 53 entries, Benjamins took first place. Out of six contests held, Hillsdale students won three.

Additionally, it was announced that Ferguson will join Benjamins in presenting her paper at the Jan. 8, 2015 American Philological Association convention in New Orleans as part of an undergraduate research panel.

Ferguson and Benjamins weren’t the only two to take the exam. Each school can submit three entries per category. More

Election From A1 history major and a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma women’s fraternity. She is also on the track team and involved in Athlete Intervarsity Hillsdale Christian Fellowship. She is currently vice president of Student Federation.

“I’m very thankful and honored to have the opportunity to serve this senior class,” she said.

“I’m excited and looking forward to serving my fellow students one more time.”

Teigen, the new secretary, is an English and biology double major, with a biochemistry minor. On campus, she holds a leadership position as a member of the Pi Beta Phi women’s fraternity, and is a member of the honors program. She volunteers at Lockhaven and the Hillsdale Community Health Center. She has already practiced her new job description in her role as sec-

YAF

From A1

plans and arrangements with offcampus businesses. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 1,379 students.

Adrian College also contracts with Sodexo. It offers block and traditional meal plans with additional dining credit, like Charger Change, which only residence hall students are required to purchase. They also partner with businesses such as Domino’s Pizza, which will accept students’ meal plan dollars for delivery. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 1,767 students.

Sodexo is a large multinational corporation that offers facilities management and food service to corporate, educational, healthcare, and governmental clients, among others.

Sophomore Christy Allen, YAF board member, points to these and other schools as working examples of what YAF is trying to accomplish at Hillsdale.

“Other schools of comparable size do it differently than we do and are still successful,” she said.

Allen agreed with Brand that the petition was successful in showing how many students are concerned about the issue.

“I genuinely don’t know how they want us to go about voicing a group opinion,” Allen said. “We get that this is the most private of

than 30 Hillsdale students took the exams at all levels, and the Hillsdale department settled on submitting three of the entries.

“We use these as a pedagogical tool to help students work on passing their senior comp exams and prepare them for masters and Ph.D. sight exams,” said Joseph Garnjobst, associate professor of classical studies and national tabulator for the competition.“The competition is secondary to the exams.”

He stays true to this mantra, asserting that the competition is never centered around “our students versus anybody else’s students.” Garnjobst tells all the students present what he tells his own students, and even offers to comment on their papers.

“Just preparing the papers and submitting them are where you get all the benefits. If you happen to win, that’s gravy,” he said.

Ferguson said the winnings came as a surprise to her.

“I certainly did not expect it,” Ferguson said. “It is thrilling, though, to have a skill that is so close to my heart confirmed in this way.”

She added that the ability to read and understand Koine Greek in its linguistic context

has always been one of her highest priorities for her college education. Since she’s been at Hillsdale she has taken at least one –– often more than one –– Greek class per semester, choosing to study Greek at Hillsdale because the Koine classes are embedded into a solid classical and Greek program. Ferguson said she credits dedicated professors and encouraging family and friends with her success thus far. Benjamins also credits his success at the convention with the strength of the classics department at Hillsdale.

“I give tremendous credit to my professors, who bring so much enthusiasm, wit, and expertise to their task,” he said.

“They have really inspired me to pursue classics at a serious level.”

For Benjamins, a highlight of the weekend was the “certamen,” a classics trivia game in which teams of four compete in elimination rounds to answer the most questions about classical civilization, mythology, language, and literature.

“I really enjoyed the friendly competition, and it was a great way to meet fellow classics students from across the country,” Benjamins said.

retary of Student Federation this year.

Secretarial duties will include note taking at meetings, managing publicity for senior class events, and developing class and committee meeting agendas.

“I’m really excited to get more involved and represent my class well, and I’m flattered and honored to have been selected,” she said.

Like Lantis and Teigen, Noray already has experience in his position as the new class treasurer.

The triple major in economics, physics, and math is the treasurer of both the Classical Liberal Organization and the Young Americans for Freedom.

“I’m happy, I suppose, because I do think that I’m qualified to handle whatever comes along in being class treasurer because I do have a lot of treasurer experience here. But I’m also surprised, because I have no idea who nominated me, and I didn’t campaign at all,” he said. Noray will be responsible for the development and financing of a senior

class gift.

Noray is also the vice president of Praxis, and member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

“I’m flattered that there are enough people who think that I would do a good job at this, that would vote for me. That’s special, and that means a lot to me.

And I’m excited to probably be the first African-American treasurer.”

As social chair, Peters will be senior class chief party planner.

Peters is majoring in Christian studies with a minor in classical education. She is the head RA in Olds Residence, and a member of KKG. She is a member of the vision team for Intervarsity Hillsdale Christian Fellowship, a resident life assistant, and campus health coordinator.

“I’m deeply honored,” she said. “And I love people, so being social chair is kind of exciting. I hope to throw a spectacular senior party and represent my rocking senior class well.”

private schools, and we agree to do things a certain way, but we should have the ability to voice concerns, especially if so many students have them.”

She clarified that YAF is not trying to be confrontational or adversarial, but wants to encourage a conversation.

“What we’re trying to do is not to demonize Saga or the workers or the deans,” she said.

“We’re trying to get students together to say that student life can be improved. We’re trying to open discussion.”

Arnn also addressed concerns about the school’s dining policies.

“We take the view here that the old understanding is the correct one; the things we do together: talking, living, eating, classes are all important,” he said in the email. “The dining service is not a major source of net revenue to the college. We do all in our power to make it good and to make it affordable. It matters that the students gather to dine.”

Arnn encouraged students who have concerns or ideas for improving the school to come to him or other administrators.

He said they should be willing to listen to their reasons for their policies, as they’ll listen to the students’.

“If students see a better way, we are glad to hear it,” he said.

“They should also want to hear the reasons why things are the way they are. There are such rea-

sons, and we are very glad to explain them.”

Arnn has another reason for keeping things they way they are: he loves the food.

“The dining hall happens to be my favorite place to eat, of all the places I eat outside of home,” he said in his email. “The food is, in my opinion, excellent, and I eat fancy food often. Best of all is the company. I value that very much, and others do too.”

YAF has been asked to analyze feasible alternatives to the current system and present them to Philipp.

“The students are going to complete some comparative research for us on meal programs from similar schools to Hillsdale,” Philipp said. “They are also going to work with the Healthy Plate group in the Health and Wellness Club and come up with another survey for the students prior to the end of this term.”

Brand, Allen, and Wierenga are meeting with Philipp on April 24 and are currently creating a student-body survey about the issue.

Allen is optimistic about what they’ll be able to accomplish and preserve.

“We don’t believe community has to be sacrificed in the name of more flexibility for the students,” she said.

A3 17 April 2014

WHIP reduces internship

Walker Mulley Collegian Freelancer

Students will receive six credits instead of the previous nine for internships done through the Washington Hillsdale Internship Program beginning this fall.

The change is part of an effort to increase WHIP students’ options, making it easier to fit a semester in the District of Columbia into their overall schedules, said Matthew Spalding, associate vice president and dean of educational programs for the Kirby Center.

The reduction to six credits will allow students to take three academic courses on top of the internship without incurring the credit overload tuition charge, Manager of On-Campus Whip Recruitment Sophia Carr said.

Before the change, the ninecredit internship would have combined with three classes worth three credits each for a total of 18 credits, the level at which overload charges begin.

Now, a WHIP student taking three classes will be taking 15 credits.

In conjunction with the credit

reduction, students will be granted more flexibility in the hours they intern. Previously, WHIP students were required to work full-time internships, Carr said.

Starting this fall, four-day-aweek internships will be accepted as well.

According to Spalding, the precise hours of each internship are worked out between the intern and the outside organization, while the reduction in credits offered and in the minimum internship hours should make it easier for students to take three classes while in Washington.

“The overwhelming interest we get from students coming on WHIP is that they want to take more courses,” he said.

In a survey of about 90 students which Carr conducted this semester, approximately 70 percent of respondents said the option of taking three courses would make them more likely to participate in the WHIP program, Carr said. The survey included past and current WHIP students as well as those who had expressed interest in participating in the future.

Spalding said he’s working to ensure students can take the

classes they need in order to stay on track for graduation. The increased course offerings at the Kirby Center in recent semesters were part of this same effort.

“I want to make it as easy and as attractive as possible for Hillsdale students to come out and learn in and enjoy Washington, D.C.,” he said.

Spalding made the decision to reduce the internship credit with Paul Moreno, director of academic programs at the Kirby Center. The decision was then approved by the college faculty.

The change in credits offered for the internship was also made to better reflect the proper weight of the internship relative to classes, Spalding said. He pointed out that the internship is now equivalent to two classes, instead of three. This change brings Hillsdale more in line with other colleges, which largely offer six credits for an internship.

Moreno said that, while an internship is valuable in many ways, the new credit total better reflects its academic value.

“I saw it as part of a tightening of the academic standards of the program,” he said.

figure out the position of the sun on foggy days or when the sun was below the horizon,” Ramette said.

The Vikings had to rely on the sunstone because the magnetic compass hadn’t been introduced to Europe yet.

“Additionally, to use a magnetic compass that far north would be impractical. There would be too much fluctuation to get a true bearing,” said Tripepi, who serves as secretary for the Society of Physics Students.

Lakshminarayanan covered the topic very thoroughly, according to Tripepi, and he covered general optics and the optics of the eye as well as polarized light.

“Overall, I thought the presentation was great. He presented it very clearly, and he explained all you needed to know about how the Vikings would use the method he proposed,” Tripepi said.

At the end of the lecture, Lakshminarayanan admitted that his theory was still yet to be proven, but the students thought the presentation was compelling.

“Everyone was generally impressed by the presentation,” Ramette said.

Hayes said he enjoyed interacting with other physics enthusiasts outside of Hillsdale.

“One of the wonderful things about the Saturday morning physics lecture in Ann Arbor is the fact that the large crowd is passionate about physics,” Hayes said. “Our students get the opportunity to experience a large hall filled with accomplished folks who love physics.”

In addition to the lecture, the physics “demos” put on outside of the lecture hall were also a favorite among the students.

“My favorite part was seeing Lakshminarayanan do a demo that explained how polarizers work,” Tripepi said.

Tripepi encouraged students to participate in future trips to Saturday morning physics talks at U-M. “I think the physics talks are a really good experience, and I would really encourage people to go to them,” Tripepi said.

dent than college students who are on welfare.

The single greatest thing that has happened in the past five years is Barack Obama. A lot of young kids are learning that it is not automatic that you get a good job out of college or that the economy grows. A lot of kids are learning that through living through the Obama years. He has shown that saying “liberals know how to get the economy going” doesn’t actually get the economy going.

What is your take on popular culture?

There is a lot of garbage in popular culture. Even if you watch only family channels, the commercials are bad. But I think conservatives write off how conservatism is in popular culture. For example, it’s amazing how pro-life TV is. If I told you 30 years ago that America today had a culture that was more pro-gay, pro-gun, and prolife, you’d say I’m crazy. We write off popular culture when what we need to do is get conservatives into popular cultures. Our goal is to get the country, not the GOP, to move more rightward.

Physics students trek to U of M Evan Carter Collegian Reporter

On April 12, a group of five physics enthusiasts — sophomores Joshua Ramette, Daniel Halmrast, William Blount, and junior Michael Tripepi and a local alumna — traveled to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with Professor of Physics Ken Hayes to attend a lecture on polarized light and Viking lore.

“I thought the presentation was excellent,” said Ramette, president of the Society of Physics Students.

“Being from Hillsdale, I appreciated that it had both history and physics.”

In his lecture, U-M’s visiting physics scholar, Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan, theorized that the Vikings used calcite crystals, referred to as “sunstone” in Viking lore, to depolarize light from the sun, allowing the Vikings to see the position of the sun even when the sun was hidden from view.

“He posited that the Vikings possibly used calcite crystals to

Q&A

From A1

one’s feelings or negatively hurting someone’s self-esteem. The average college student, for the most part, has their food paid for, housing paid for, utilities paid for, people clean up after them. All that is asked of them is that they read interesting things and share with professors what they know. And yet, they think they’re independent. There are people less depen-

On the Greek Scene Detailing the news and events of Hillsdale’s Greek houses

Sigma Chi Sigma Chi would like to congratulate ATO on winning Greek Week. Thanks to all those who participated and made this year’s Greek Week fun and competitive. Today, there is a faculty mixer at the Sigma Chi house from 3:30-5:30 p.m. All faculty members welcome.

Corrections

News In the article, “Alumni spotlight: Palmer Schoening,” Schoening’s post-grad location was incorrect.

He graduated with a master’s degree from Georgetown University in 2011.

Douglass From A1

Provost David Whalen said the Walk not only honors those important to the American experiment of self-government and the principles of human

In the article, “Chariot race starts Frat Greek Week,” the date of the last Greek Week chariot race was incorrect. The last fraternity chariot race occurred in the spring of 2005. liberty, but also those individuals who are important in the history of the college.

“Not only did Douglass speak here, but it was in Hillsdale that one of the most famous photos of Douglas was taken,” Whalen said in an email. “The power of his intel-

Opinions In the article, “Politics at Hillsdale: superb, valuable, and well-rounded, sophomore Josiah Lippincott’s name was spelled incorrectly.

The Collegian regrets these errors. ligence, the vigor of his moral commitments, and the grace of his verbal expression make him, I believe, a fitting figure for honor not only at a liberal arts institution, but at this one in particular.”

A.J. Specials Week of April 22-25 Mon: closed/Easter Monday

Congratulations Hillsdale College Class of 2014!

Tues: C. Soup/Salad Sandwich $4.75 W ed:

Bacon/Tomato Melt

$3.35

T hurs: Philly Steak Pizza

$4.25

Fri: Tuna Salad/Clam Chowder $4.25

All specials include a medium soft drink.

OPINION 17 April 2014 A4

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Don’t visit Hillsdale too often

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Online: www.hillsdalecollegian.com Editor in Chief: Caleb Whitmer News Editor: Evan Brune City News Editor: Taylor Knopf Opinions Editor: Sally Nelson Sports Editor: Morgan Delp Arts Editor: Abigail Wood Spotlight Editor: Casey Harper Web Editor: Alex Anderson Washington Editor: Sam Scorzo Circulation Manager: Daniel Slonim Ad Managers: Matt Melchior | Isaac Spence | Rachel Fernelius Assistant Editors: Macaela Bennett | Jack Butler | Hannah Leitner | Chris McCaffery | Micah Meadowcroft | Bailey Pritchett | Teddy Sawyer | Morgan Sweeney | Amanda Tindall Photographers: Anders Kiledal | Shaun Lichti | Gianna Marchese | Ben Block | Carsten Stann | Ben Strickland Faculty Advisers: John J. Miller | Maria Servold

The opinion of The Collegian editorial staff

Don’t visit Hillsdale too often after graduation.

We seniors at the Collegian haven’t developed any sort of hatred for the college. Rather, this warning stems from a deep and deepening love for our soonto-be alma mater.

Ask anyone who has attended

Call your mom Daniel Teal Student Columnist In this semester’s “Life and Light” column, I have explored authors who have, in some form, responded to the literary and cultural modernism of roughly the past century. Rather than asking the tradition’s questions — What is God? What is Man? And what has each to do with the other? — the modern finds himself severed from the past, lacking the roots of a secure religious or cultural context. Yet, several 20th-century authors have attempted to address what they see to be problems with the modern attitude. Recall T.S. Eliot’s language of fragmentation and Percy’s of malaise and the way that both hinted that some solution lies in a recovery of religious vision. Now, the time has come to turn our attention to two other authors: Annie Dillard and Marilynne Robinson.

While many may be familiar with Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” (1974), fewer may be aware of a later work of hers, “Holy the Firm” (1977), which deals with the problem of unexplained suffering in the world and

exposes the reader to how Dillard is making sense of a particular tragedy she encounters. The context in which Robinson sets her story, “Gilead,” is a little further removed: rural Kansas in the late 1800s. Yet, despite the slight antiquity of Robinson’s setting, the spirit of her writing can speak to and act as a balm for the spiritually and morally fatigued individual who picks up “Gilead” off the shelf today.

“Holy the Firm” takes the form of a 76-page journal-like series of reflections which Dillard writes out during a three day period in a water-front cottage on an island in Washington state’s Pudget Sound in 1975. Dillard sees a firestorm of spiritual metaphors in the natural world, like a moth that flies into her candle flame one evening, becomes consumed by the fire, then acts as a wick that provides illumination by which she can read Rimbaud’s verse. The keenly sensitive central concern of Dillard’s reflections is: If there is a loving and powerful God, why is there so much suffering? Suddenly, Dillard’s reverie of the natural world collides with tragedy. A small plane crashes into the nearby woods and explodes, melting the skin off the face of its passenger, a seven-year-old girl named Julie Norwich, with whom Dillard had been apple-picking the day before. The horrificallydisfigured girl faces a lifetime of pain and blindness, in response to which Dillard writes, “Her face is slaughtered now… Can you scream without lips?” She asks, “Do we really need more victims to remind us that we’re all victims? …Do we need little flame-faced children to remind us of what God can — and will — do?”

While Dillard seems not to

pock-marked freshmen, so similar yet so different than those you knew.

So stay away for a while, maybe visit occasionally, but not too often. Cherish your Hillsdale by remembering it. Don’t become that one guy who returns repeatedly.

reach an overly-satisfying answer to these questions that brings peace to herself or her readers, she does seem to gingerly (but purposefully) re-envision some forms of suffering as enigmas which provides fodder for artistic illumination of our experience, like the moth, consumed in flame.

Sometimes mysterious light can shine through tragedy and gives us an idea that something is going on. She writes, “There is only the world lit or unlit as the light allows. When the candle is lit, who looks at the wick? When the candle is out, who needs it? But the world without light is wasteland and chaos, and life without sacrifice is an abomination.” Perhaps individual objects of suffering are something like art that lights the Kingdom of God for people to see?

I believe that Dillard suggests that God must have self-imposed limits on his own power, and that she would strongly agree with Flannery O’Connor’s sentiment that “evil is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be endured.” Dillard’s “Holy The Firm” does respect the problems of evil and suffering as mysteries, and I recommend the book strongly for anyone who has the strength of will to entertain the notion of God’s existence and the discernment to see the difficulty in such a notion.

Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead” provides a drastically different experience for the reader.

Rather than a condensed exposition of the kind of heart-wrenching events that can turn our lives upside down, Robinson’s protagonist, Reverend John Ames, shares a vision of human experience that is permeated by grace.

The novel takes the form of a letter that Ames writes, as he is dying, for his seven-year-old son

to read when he is grown. His reflections are an amalgamation of memories and ponderings that range from love, grace, existence, blessing and light to wonder, memory, mortality, and darkness. Ames processes through his upcoming death, his years past of deep loneliness, and his relationship with a wayward god-sonof-sorts whom he struggles to forgive. As the letter progresses, Ames moves towards a position of empathy and love. In reading “Gilead,” I find that he is able to adopt a redemptive, grace-filled vision in large part through his sense of wonder at the beauty of the world. He writes, for example, “I feel sometimes as if I were a child who opens its eyes on the world once and sees amazing things it will never know any names for and then has to close its eyes again.” Ames’ vision of the world is foundationally colored by his faith, which allows him, for instance, to conceive of love as “the eternal breaking in on the temporal” and enables him to appreciate a thing as simply beautiful as water — tangible evidence of God’s blessing on the world. Ames speaks of a “silent and invisible life” that emanates from a garden after rainfall. Ames sees this invisible life in others’ laughter, romantic love, soft moonlight, and old friends. For him (and I presume, for Robinson), these very-earthly delights are made holy by the presence of the Divine in them—author and protagonist subscribe to a richly sacramental physical world.

As a reader, my question is this: Can the suffering of Dillard’s book and the grace of Robinson’s be compatible or is an attempt to reconcile the two impossible? Are we left with fragments — or something more?

HOLDER’S RACE CARD

Jonah Goldberg Syndicated Columnist Last week, the president’s lap dog blew his dog whistle.

In case you didn’t know, in politics a “dog whistle” is coded language that has a superficial meaning for everybody, but also a special resonance for certain constituencies. Using dog whistles lets politicians deny they meant to say anything nasty, bigoted or controversial.

Speaking to the National Action Network the day after a testy but racially irrelevant exchange with Republican members of a House panel, Attorney General Eric Holder said, “The last five years have been defined ... by lasting reforms even in the face of unprecedented, unwarranted, ugly and divisive adversity.” He

continued: “If you don’t believe that, you look at the way -- forget about me, forget about me.

You look at the way the attorney general of the United States was treated yesterday by a House committee. ... What attorney general has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment? What president has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment?”

Now, bear in mind the audience. The National Action Network is Al Sharpton’s plaything, often providing the shock troops Sharpton needs for rent-a-mob protests, shakedown operations and MSNBC photo ops. Holder didn’t say criticism of him and Obama is racially motivated, but the notion the audience (or the media) would take it any other way doesn’t pass the laugh test.

Holder’s hypocrisy is stunning given that he once famously chastised Americans as being “cowards” for not talking openly about race. Who’s the coward now?

For the record, there’s nothing special about the rough time Holder has received. Forget Harry Daugherty of Teapot Dome fame or John Mitchell, who went to prison. Ed Meese’s critics had “Meese Is a Pig” posters printed up. Janet Reno and John Ashcroft never got cake and ice cream from opponents.

The best recent comparison is probably Alberto Gonzales, George W. Bush’s second attorney general, because like Holder, he was a fairly incompetent par-

From the Archives: New union haze free

The Uses of a

Cigar, cigarette and pipe smokers can puff a sigh of relief. The snack bar in the Knorr Student Center will allow indoor smoking through the new semester, although the new Grewcock Student Union will not.

Students who smoke use the snack bar for studying or protection when the weather gets tough.

“I appreciate that Hillsdale provides a place inside for people to smoke,” said sophomore Templeton Klos, who frequents the snack bar almost daily.

Klos and other smokers said they are grateful that Hillsdale accepts smokers.

“I’ve always enjoyed the way Hill-

Liberal Arts

sdale treats smokers,” junior Damian Cleary said. “They have always been pretty accommodating.”

Carolyn Ford, who works in the current snack bar and will work in the Grewcock Student Union, said she is excited to work in a smoke-free environment and thinks students will benefit too.

“The smell is not always the best but you don’t have to come here, especially with the actual snack bar moving,” sophomore Sara Franz said.

Liz Klimas Nov. 29 2007

But that doesn’t mean we should come back and try to relive our own college experiences.

The buildings, the smells, the air would be the same, yet the faces about campus eerily different. The token union dwellers would be replaced by other

Searching for Life and Light: Dillard and Robinson

The editors welcome Letters to the Editor but reserve the right to edit submissions for clarity, length, and style. Letters should be 450 words or less and include your name and number. Send submissions to snelson1@hillsdale.edu before Sunday at 6 p.m.

Call your mom while you’re at college.

It took me four months, a reminder from the dean, and a nasty email to figure that out. In fact, do it every week, your life will improve.

If I am truthful, that single injunction is sufficient advice for this whole piece.

But heck, I’m a graduating senior, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned from writing this column every three weeks, it’s that I’m in a position for posturing and pontification (in the event that you don’t know, seniors are Josh Andrew Student Columnist effectively absolved from stupidity; we can blame it on the fact that our lives are about to change and we are most certainly under emotional duress).

On this note, bear with me in my praise of Jane Francis Andrew and those like her.

When it gets right down to it, moms are weirdly profound.

Despite your current aesthetic flare and the recent addition of words like “epistemology” and “Christological” to your vocabulary, you really haven’t changed that much since getting to college, and what you perceive as mom’s hackneyed platitudes are likely truest things to run through our mind since Dr. Gamble told you that America isn’t what you think it is.

You want advice? Call home.

Of course, the natural impulse leads one to seek guidance from upperclassmen. To say this is a mistake would be crude and likely an overstatement of things, but your mom is a safer choice. Most importantly she is almost certainly free of a savior complex: that insidious tendency to make freshmen your little sinner that you’ll raise to new life while collecting volunteer hours. The moral of the story is that you shouldn’t be afraid to make that mystery call to the bullpen. Bring in mom.

She won’t disappoint.

For instance, my own dear mother asked me recently if I was doing the hard things, like being loyal and gracious with my friends. I replied that I was conflicted about the whole grace thing, I felt as though my will was divided against my flesh, leaving me in existential paralysis, wandering between a platonic hyperspace and this corporeal reality. I also pointed out that the phrase “hard things” is generic and cheap. I really said that. She gave me her equivalent of “strike the crap and answer the question.”

Answer the question: are you being loyal and gracious?

College offers an apparently infinite expanse of time and space in which a person can make any number of friends, run the gamut of philosophical dogmas, and adopt a myriad of personas. The best part: all this comes at the cost of zero commitment. Let’s be real here, what is loyalty and grace in the face of your epic pursuit of identity and truth? Dislike a roommate’s political standing? Get a new one! Think your pastor is ugly? Find a different church! It is, after all, your education.

If your mother is like my own, she will reply with the sort of things mothers say, turning our conversation back to her initial question about “hard things.” But when given a chance to be heard, she will explain that in one month I will leave those I call my dearest friends, and I will begin to wonder if it was worth it. While my skin will not likely be soaked in boils and my family will probably be alive, I will be removed from those I’ve come to love and there is something unnatural about this. It’s as though the friendships I’ve made have underscored the inevitability of loss and the possibility of suffering. The suggestion, then, that such a thing is “hard” is insightful and perplexing. For to affirm the beauty of human life, to be loyal to your friends, is to accept a vocation with the knowledge that this work, this beauty, may yield sadness. It may yield a vulnerability wherein you are given to the world and told to love it even as it is, to adopt a posture of receptivity without a plan for retreat. And yet this is where mom proposed for the concluding moments of her dear son’s college experience. I’d like to think it’s made a difference.

So call your mom and listen.

Hillsdale in the past few decades — Hillsdale remains perpetually the same in many, fundamental ways. We complain about Saga, whine about the size of the core, debate the merits of the Greek system. Our college culture abides and thrives, even while class after class departs.

Education

by Forester McClatchtey

tisan loyalist with a thin skin.

Gonzales was treated brutally by Democrats. Some even tried to impeach him. I don’t recall Gonzales insinuating that such efforts were anti-Latino.

Holder has deserved all he’s gotten. He earned his contempt of Congress citation by refusing to provide documents on the disastrous Fast and Furious operation that left an American dead from a gun the U.S. government put on the street. If anything, Holder deserves more grief, particularly from a media that seem to have forgotten his efforts to surveil journalists’ phone records and name Fox News’ James Rosen an unindicted co-conspirator in an espionage case.

Even inside the White House, Holder is considered too political. “Holder substitutes his political judgment for his legal judgment, and his political judgment isn’t very good,” says an unnamed White House official, according to the Washington Post’s David Ignatius.

Holder’s remarks come at a convenient time. In a widely discussed New York Magazine essay, Jonathan Chait argues that race relations have gotten worse under Obama. Chait believes that liberals have become obsessed with conservative racism as the real explanation for everything Republicans do. Meanwhile, he says conservatives have cocooned themselves in a kind of righteous victimhood, where racism is a relevant issue only when

conservatives are falsely accused of it. (It’s a fair point that conservatives should be more conspicuously concerned about racism.)

It is an at times brave and insightful, if not uniformly persuasive, essay. The Holder episode casts light on one of his arguments. According to Chait, Obama has steadfastly refused to make race a national issue, even as the ugly racial conversation has raged. “In almost every instance when his blackness has come to the center of public events, however, [Obama] has refused to impute racism to his critics,” Chait writes.

That’s largely (though not entirely) true about what the president has said himself. But it is manifestly untrue about what he has allowed to be said on his behalf. He didn’t mind the racial theater congressional Democrats put on when black congressmen marched through Tea Party protests to sign Obamacare. One of those congressmen, civil rights hero John Lewis, gave a stirring speech at the 2012 Democratic Convention and suggested that a vote for the GOP amounted to “going back” to Jim Crow.

Republican presidents are routinely expected to denounce outrageous comments by members of their own party, never mind members of their Cabinet.

Not Obama. His feigned aloofness is his exoneration, even as racial politics get ever more poisonous, thanks in part to his whistling lap dog.

A5 17 April 2014

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

World Vision and Evangelicals flip-flop, hurt needy David Flemming Special-to-the-Collegian On March 25, the United States branch of World Vision announced that it would hire individuals in same-sex marriages. World Vision reversed the policy change one day later after protests from donors and the Evangelical community at large.

On March 25 and 26, World Vision lost more than 10,000 sponsorships.

I have never been more ashamed to be an “Evangelical,” to be considered a similar kind of “Christian” with a group of people who think that taking “a stand” against one kind of sin will give any actions that follow as a result of that stand, a sudden righteousness that removes any burden of proof from their actions. And to a lesser degree, I am ashamed to have supported World Vision. How naive.

For those who don’t know, World Vision International is an Evangelical Christian humanitarian organization most known for its child sponsorship program. Through it, donors from across the world can support children in impoverished communities through a monthly donation — usually $35 — that provides “access to clean drinking water, sanitation, education, skills for future livelihood, nutrition, and health care,” according to World Vision’s website.

I decided to become a sponsor nearly three years ago, and I have been profoundly changed by the experience.

God is the only one who could foster a relationship with a boy who is half my age, in a country that has a per capita income of less than 3 percent of what an American earns every year.

The child I sponsor, Guideneaud Jean, lives with his grandmother in Port-auPrince, Haiti, after both of his parents died from AIDs. I have exchanged many letters with Guideneaud and have even received a few pictures of Guideneaud over the years.

It can be argued that World Vision acted in complete self-interest. World Vision reversed its decision on March 27th.

“The decision to make a U-turn was made after donors canceled several thousand child sponsorships in two days,” said World Vision president Richard Stearns. This can be interpreted one of two ways. It might possibly be construed to mean that Mr. Stearns wanted to do whatever he could to stop the children’s suffering.

What comes across to a greater degree, however, is that. Stearns wanted same-sex couples to have the potential to work with World Vision to make World Vision look “better” to the liberal-leaning Christians, and most especially to the US government, which “provides 18 percent of its revenues.”

Either way, it was the children that were the most hurt.

Q u i t e frankly, I wonder how God could even make something good come out of this.

10,000 kids were shown supposedly unconditional love for a few years. Then s u d d e n l y, because of Evangelical in-fighting in America, their chances of future employment look bleaker, their food becomes harder to come by, and, in short, their hope is cruelly stolen away. I imagine many children who had become Christians will wonder if anyone really loves them anymore. Perhaps some may even stop professing Christianity.

(Dane Skorup/Collegian)

Economically, it makes perfect sense for a Christian to drop a sponsorship because an organization provides an inferior “product,” and then sponsor another child with a more “Christian” organization. In protest of World Vision’s flip-flopping, I will probably do the same thing, but only when

Guideneaud becomes self-sufficient. If I dropped the sponsorship now, however, Guideneaud will lose all of the benefits of my support, and, perhaps rightly so, would decide that he no longer wants to follow a God that encourages His followers to desert people in their time of need.

Hillsdale should Discourse: better than debate have a shop class Garrett West Special-to-the-Collegian

Schulyer Dugle Special-to-the-Collegian The floorboards in my car are rusting and rotting out and I haven't the faintest clue how to fix them. Yet I can design a society from the ground up and discuss G.W.F. Hegel, economic coercion, and New Jersey education policy. The only time I've ever built a birdhouse I fit the pieces together so poorly I had to use caulking to make it water-proof-ish. My latest endeavor, a shelf for my desk, consisted of my sawing and then screwing three pieces of wood together. Please hold your applause until the end: I still cracked two of the pieces. I’ve replaced the headlights on my car a few times but that’s about it. This is the sad extent of my woodworking and mechanical skills.

Yet I will soon be venturing out into a world dominated by cars, sinks, and doors that are all liable to break.

College isn’t practical enough. We need a shop class.

What I mean by shop class is a hands-on explanation of the various tools and methods required to maintain the physical objects that we rely upon yet don’t notice until they stop working. Who thinks about a sink until it leaks? These classes would provide a basic grounding in car mechanics, plumbing, and carpentry. We don’t need to learn how to replace an engine or renovate an entire kitchen, but some basic knowledge about different tools would come in handy. Which jobs require a hacksaw and which a back saw?

When is the next time Peter Thiel (co-founder of PayPal) or some other rich libertarian is going to draft me to help create the latest free city? Probably never. When is the next time something is going to go wrong with my car? Probably tomorrow.

There are two reasons to have shop class: usefulness to life in general and

satisfaction. Even the most liberalartsy among us will still acknowledge that we’re going to college for at least one other reason than simply to go to college. It might be to obtain a key to the ivory tower or a ticket to a highpaying financial job. But we also take classes for pure pleasure that don’t help us to achieve our goals directly, like a beer seminar, social dance, or basic shotgun.

Shop class fulfills both of these qualifications. It should fulfill the core’s physical education requirement so as to not further burden students with an even larger core curriculum.

Career Services recently held the “Life After Hillsdale Explained” seminar for seniors and juniors on the more basic things of life. One of these workshops was on basic car maintenance.

I’m thankful to the staff of Career Services for hosting this event. They’ve realized something about graduating seniors: We’re not ready for the real world. But this weekend seminar didn’t go far enough.

Maybe I'm just a tired old senior who's ready to move on. But I'm not, really. I still enjoy my classes — even the one on Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche. I'm simply weary of consumption. College is geared for the student to consume as much as possible. Even the things we do produce, such as papers and tests, are usually only read by one person before they disappear into the annals of forgotten undergraduate effort. Sure, you can hold an essay in your hand with the satisfaction of accomplishment. You can even pass it around to your friends or get it published in the Collegian. This is all well and good. But it pales in comparison to the delight of physical creation. A shop class would give us an outlet for this sort of endeavor.

Now turn off your computer and go build something.

Carter will detract from student bands Ian Fury Special-to-the-Collegian

Breaking News: Aaron Carter will be singing at Centralhallapalooza.

But, of course, you have already heard about it. It’s all anybody can talk about.

In a vacuum, I don’t care that Carter is coming to Hillsdale. Am I fan of his?

No. Is the Student Activity Board and Student Federation wasting our money? Yes. But SAB can spend its money as it pleases. What bothers me is that Carter will be stealing stage time from hard-working student bands. To make matters worse, SAB is giving an hour of time to a disc-jockey. Depending on how long Carter plays, he and the DJ will rob stage time from between three and six student bands at Centralhallapalooza, the gig of the year.

I am a proud member of a couple student bands. There is a disturbing lack of bassists on campus; I try, and largely fail, to fill that void. Sure, I have some conflict of interest, but, as a member of Phi Mu Alpha, I have opportunities to play throughout the year.

Other members of student bands do not.

Outside of Battle of the Bands in the fall and Centralhallapalooza in the spring, there are no opportunities for

student bands to play on campus. SAB claims that it is adding the hour of DJ music so that students can dance. Those students have parties every week featuring dance music, many of them with live DJs, to dance at. Student bands do not have such opportunities.

Centralhallapalooza is supposed to be an event that creates enjoyment for the student body. So shouldn’t the performers be students? SAB doesn’t understand that as much enjoyment is garnered from playing the music for our friends as is found in listening to the music. I know of several seniors who were looking forward to Centralhallapalooza being their last opportunity to play on campus. Due to SAB’s changes, many will not get that chance.

Look, I get that student bands aren't professionals. We don’t claim to be as talented as “real” bands. There’s a reason we play cover music. There’s a reason nobody is signing us to record deals. That’s not the point. Student bands have spent hours rehearsing for a chance to play at Centralhallapalooza. SAB doesn’t seem to care about this. They’ve robbed our chance to play for our friends. Is anybody really so excited about Aaron Carter that he’d personally cut a band out of Centralhallapalooza? Apparently SAB is.

I recently met a real-life Marxist.

Though I had long been convinced that none really existed, I felt obligated to assent to the reality of this one, and we had a conversation — a good one. We spoke, mostly, about the relationship between politics and philosophy, and as it came to an end, I said, jokingly, “It was great to meet a real Marxist.” He responded, “I don’t think I’ll ever hear that again, but I really enjoyed talking to you.” Since this encounter, I’ve thought often about the nature of discourse. How ought we to engage with other viewpoints? What sort of attitude towards other thinkers ought we to cultivate?

Fortunately, last week’s op-ed presented me with two helpful illustrations, one from Josiah Lippincott and the other from Ian Andrews. First, Lippincott described non-Hillsdale political science students: “While colleges across America churn out political science students primed to man the machinery of the modern administrative state and fully indoctrinated in the dogmas of the liberal holy trinity of race, class, and gender, Hillsdale stands apart.” I agree that Hillsdale is an incredible college that does indeed stand apart, but this is an arrogant caricature of the students of other institutions. It is just this attitude that prevents genuine engagement with other ideas; it is this that obscures truth with vitriol. But

enough about Lippincott.

When one adopts an attitude of derision towards other thinkers, the point of engaging in discussion is twofold: To defend one’s own position and to destroy the other’s. To prepare for verbal combat, we assemble our evidence and analyze our premises. We delineate the steps of our reasoning, checking carefully for fallacies and preparing to smooth over any (inevitable) assumptions. Safe within this impenetrable fortress of argumentation, we begin to dismantle the argument of the other.

We criticize false premises, latch onto any hint of a fallacy, and generally eviscerate the argument before it has the chance to, perhaps, breathe a deeper meaning into the structure of the world.

Conceiving of discourse in this way undermines its legitimate co-operative purpose — truth-seeking — in two distinct ways. First, combative debate fails to convince. Minds are not won by cold logic and dry rationality. Proving someone wrong rarely ingratiates him to the cause, and he is more likely to dig in his heels than to convert. Second, when one takes a stand purely in opposition to another’s viewpoint, one’s own views tend to lose their vitality.

Ideas and arguments cease to be robust, supple ways of explaining and understanding the world. Instead, they ossify into cop-out explanations of complex issues, groundless talking points, and ideology.

In contrast, Andrews’ most recent op-ed illuminates how we ought to engage with other thinkers. Speaking of the fresh attitude towards his

own education that he developed late in his collegiate career, he says, “I felt drawn into a level of contemplation that begged me to look at the world and be dazzled by it....Every moment became a discovery, and every conversation an education.”

According to Andrews, we cannot filter the world through our own image.

Truth is there for us if we go out of ourselves to meet it. True education, then, is essentially ecstatic — a going out of oneself. Discourse with others ought to be characterized by an analogous virtue — empathy. When we seek truth together, we must go out of ourselves to meet the other. We must be willing to see the world from his viewpoint and to allow him to explain it in his own terms.

If we would habituate ourselves to this particular attitude of empathy, our thought would become adept at understanding arguments precisely because it would be capable of weighing them from various perspectives. To perhaps give a helpful analogy, consider the way the child determines what a thing is. He does not only stare at it directly.

He picks it up and turns it over, holds it, drops it, etc. In the same way, to understand an argument one must turn it over and examine it from other perspectives, not simply stare more intensively.

From this understanding ought to lead confidence and humility as we become more cognizant of the truth of our own understanding, and as we recognize that we are fortunate to participate in it. Only then will we be capable of convincing others of our own ideas.

New core makes 4.0s too easy Ramona Tausz Collegian Reporter In the fall of 2012, only three freshmen earned a 4.0 grade point average in their first semester, according the registrar’s office. In the fall of 2013, 17 freshmen did the same.

Similarly, while 33 percent of freshmen in the fall of 2011 made the Dean’s List and 35 percent of freshmen in the fall of 2012 made the Dean’s List, 45 percent of freshmen made the Dean’s List in the fall of 2013.

The increase in 4.0s and the roughly 10% increase in Dean’s List students is noteworthy. Notably, this new change coincides with the introduction of the new core.

Not contending with both Western Heritage and Great Books simultaneously made for an overall easier first semester. Of course, there were exceptions to this — some students took Great Books two along with Western Heritage last semester, and some took other challenging upper-level courses — but, for most typical students, the semester was lighter than it had been under Hillsdale’s old core. The higher GPAs may signify that better learning takes place under an easier core. But part of Hillsdale’s glory was its challenging core. Is it a good thing that now more students are able to achieve “the best” standards simply because those standards are lower?

Certainly, that Hillsdale is continually attracting higher-level students and raising its admission standards also influenced this change. The class of 2017 is considered the second-smartest incoming class in Hillsdale’s history.

Nevertheless, this cannot fully account for the higher GPAs. After all, the class of 2015, the highest-ranking class in Hillsdale’s history, still had only six students earn 4.0s. As the chief change between last year and this year, the new core certainly played a role in influenc-

ing grades. As one of the 17 freshmen with a 4.0 last semester, I believe that, despite its many positives, the lightened freshman core can have two negative side-effects on students’ mindsets.

First, it alters the definition of “the best.” Although initially elated at having received a 4.0 last semester, my enthusiasm dipped when I realized that I could explain part of it away by saying, “It was only because I didn’t also have an English class.” Something about the achievement felt artificial because I knew the challenge had not been as great as classes before me.

Previously, the truly “exceptional” students were those who were able to face the difficulty of the old challenging core and still come through with high GPAs. As it is, my freshman class has not only missed out on attempting this worthy rite of passage, but has also been detained in gaining knowledge essential to continuing in our liberal arts education.

On the surface, when you compare the grades of the freshman class with the grades of previous freshman classes, it seems we’ve achieved more than they simply because our GPAs are higher. But when you compare what we haven’t gained with what previous classes received in their first semesters — foundational knowledge of classical and medieval literature, the ability to analyze great works for themes within the context of the Western Heritage, and the skills to write well and then use that ability in future classes — it seems that

we’ve achieved much less. I’d rather accept the rigorous test of the old core and be introduced early on to the foundational knowledge of the Great Books class than have a devalued 4.0 GPA. Second, an easier first semester may fail to truly introduce students to the challenge of what the pursuit of truth in the study of the liberal arts really means. A valid reason for adopting the new core was that it would better ease students’ transition from high school to college. But should the transition be easier or the 4.0 more attainable?

An easier first semester sends us off on this endeavor with a false idea of how to “rejoice in the challenge” by creating an artificial standard of the strength the liberal arts at Hillsdale will require in the future. I think it likely that the old core, with its rigorous first semester of both Heritage and Great Books, prepared students for the upcoming challenge much better.

Undoubtedly, the new core is backed by strong arguments and has many positives benefits. I simply ask you to think about whether or not the new core has changed the definition of a Hillsdale freshman 4.0 — formerly a precious, near-impossible reward of only the greatest, rarest talent and work — and what that means for the mindsets of Hillsdale’s students. By making high GPAs easier to attain, do we risk lessening the reward and cheapening the value of the “challenge” we are to rejoice in?

(517) 610-5586 Dine In • Carry Out

CITY NEWS

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

A6 17 April 2014

County Fair to feature Randy Houser Ramona Tausz Collegian Reporter The 164th Hillsdale County Fair will feature country singer Rand Houser, as announced on April 10.

Houser will perform on Saturday, Sept. 27, at 7 p.m. with opening act Danielle Bradbery, winner of the fourth season of “The Voice” in 2013.

The Hillsdale County Fair board announced Houser ’s performance the same week as his single “ G o o d night Kiss” reached No. 1 on country music charts.

His two other charttopping songs include “How Country Feels” and Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” from his debut album “How Country Feels.”

Bradbery also boasts a top song on country song rankings with “Heart of Dixie” released in July 2013.

The Fair board began looking for 2014 fair entertainment immediately after the 2013 fair.

The board’s entertainment committee, which handles the selection of concerts and non-concert

entertainment for each fair, discovered that Randy Houser was available at a time that would fit the fair’s schedule and contacted him.

Scott Dow, Hillsdale County Fair manager, anticipates this concert being a great success, considering Houser’s chart-topping status and Bradbery’s big hit “Heart of Dixie.”

According to Dow, coun-

Hillsdale College junior Landon Peterson agreed with Dow. “The Fair has had some big names over the past few years like Florida Georgia Line, Rodney Adkins, and Josh Turner, so maybe this Randy Houser guy will make it big too,” Peterson said. “The fair has a good track record with country musicians, and that might be reason enough

ing the concert.

“It’s always nice to have concert attendees also take in the fair and take in what we have to offer,” he said. “We have a lot to offer here at the Hillsdale County Fair for all ages.”

Concert tickets go on sale Tuesday, April 22, at 8 a.m. at the Hillsdale County Fair Office, located at 115 S. Broad St. Tickets are also available at Star

(Courtesy of HIllsdale County Fair board)

try artists’ concerts tend to be popular at the fair, such as the Florida Georgia Line concert at last fall’s fair.

“Randy Houser is a nice follow-up to Florida Georgia Line.

It’s young country and there’s a lot of buzz in the industry,” Dow said. “We saw that last year with Florida Georgia Line, and Randy Houser has that potential to really do something great.”

to go see Randy Houser.”

According to Dow, the entertainment committee is wellsatisfied with their choice of Houser and Bradbery.

“I think this year we have a good example of two great entertainers,” he said. “This will be a great show.”

Dow hopes that concertgoers will visit the fair’s many other attractions in addition to attend-

Tickets at 800-585-3737 or at www.startickets.com.

Tickets are $38 for Track & Box Seats and $35 for Grandstand seats.

For more information on the concert or the Hillsdale County Fair, contact the Hillsdale Fair Office at 517-437-3622 or visit www.hillsdalecountyfair.org.

Sixth in a series

Los Mariachis Mexican restaurant closed down this past January, according to El Cerrito manager Adam Rocha. Rocha’s family owned Hillsdale’s El Cerrito in addition to the Jonesville restaurant until selling Los Mariachis to Alfredo Guzman in 2007. Rocha’s family had transformed the establishment into a Mexican bar and restaurant from Filmore’s Sports Bar, it’s previous title. Los Mariachis was a Jonesville favorite and host of many sorority events.

-Morgan Delp

DAVIS MIDDLE SCHOOL RENOVATES ENTRANCE Evan Brune News Editor

Davis Middle School, built in 1929, will undergo renovations from mid-July through early August to improve the visibility and security of the main entrance and office area.

Approximately $250,000 will be used this summer to improve the frontside of Davis on 30 N. West Street.

“The Davis School remodel is in the architect’s planning stage. We have the desired concepts visualized, but the drawings are not completed. A construction budget will be developed from those drawings,”

said Hillsdale Community Schools Superintendent Shawn Vondra in an email.

According to Vondra, changes will include a redesign of the main office entrance, which will be moved into the corridor of the existing entrance. A new set of external doors will be installed, which will include a buzzer lock system for improved security “Security is something that all schools are thinking of right now,” Davis Middle School Principal Erin North said.

North also said the entrance redesign would provide easier access, as well as improved security.

In addition to the redesign,

the office interior will undergo renovations to the ceiling, walls, and flooring. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems will be updated, along with electrical and firesuppression systems.

Finally, all of the windows on the east side wall, which face West Street, will be replaced.

“We have a five-year plan of action for building and site projects, so the expenses for this project were planned for in advance,” Vondra said. “These upgrades at Davis are a part of that plan. By planning in that fashion, we are able to package multiple desired goals into the one comprehensive project.”

(Macaela Bennett /Collegian)

A loud explosion in downtown Hillsdale interrupted the Sunday morning of June 24, 1923. At 3:03 a.m., a bomb detonated behind Cascarelli’s Fruit Store, situated in the “Wedge” between Howell and Broad Streets.

The owner, Pete Cascarelli, was upstairs above the store with his son Joe and nephew Frank when the bomb went off.

It blew a hole in the foundation of the store, sending stones from the building flying and shattering windows on both sides of Broad Street for more than a block. The sound of the bomb rang as far as the lakes surrounding Hillsdale.

The Hillsdale Daily News reported that the device was most likely a homemade time bomb that used nitroglycerine, as it would have taken a large amount of dynamite to cause such extensive damage.

The paper also reported speculation that the attack was the work of a Detroit-based Italian Black Hand gang. Black Hand groups were known for sending wealthy immigrants letters demanding money and threatening violence, kidnapping, or arson.

At the time, 12 Italian families lived in Hillsdale County, but all were of good reputation. Cascarelli insisted he had no enemies, and no suspects were ever arrested in connection with the bombing.

-Compiled by Daniel Slonim

Nonprofits won’t fund roads Taylor Knopf City News Editor

(Andera Kiledal /Collegian)

Vanished Hillsdale

Asking nonprofits for payments in lieu of taxes is a legal option to generate road-funds but not advisable, according to Hillsdale Attorney Kevin Shirk.

A payment in lieu of taxes or PILOT is a voluntary contract a tax-exempt nonprofit may agree to pay a city to assist with the cost of tax-funded roads and services.

Because the city of Hillsdale’s major employers are tax-exempt, city council asked Shirk to weigh in on the legality of PILOT agreements and the potential revenue they could generate for street repair.

In Shirk’s opinion released March 27, he said PILOT agreements are legal and could be used to offset road costs; however, they are not legally enforceable and would be a gift on the part of any nonprofit.

“Payments in lieu of taxes, from whatever source, are in most circumstances not a legally enforceable obligation, and therefore are not a viable funding source for long-term projects such as street repairs or improvements,” Shirk said.

Council specifically asked Shirk to examine an increased payment from the Hillsdale Public Board of Utilities. The BPU pays 3 percent of its

gross revenue to the city each year. It also evaluates its profits annually to determine any other monetary transfers to the city. However, Shirk said that BPU’s payments are different in nature than a PILOT agreement.

Councilman Patrick Flannery pointed out that the BPU is technically part of the city already; therefore, it’s payments are more like inter-fund transfers.

“It is my opinion that the determination of whether the Board of Public Utilities should increase its payment in lieu of taxes is a determination to be made by the Board of Public Utilities,” Shirk said.

Each nonprofit would negotiate its own terms of payment.

Therefore, it is not a reliable source for long-term revenue because a nonprofit could stop or change its payment at any time.

The BPU is not the only tax-exempt entity PILOT agreements could apply to in the city. Hillsdale College — like most educational institutions — is also a large tax-exempt nonprofit using tax-paid city roads and services.

Hillsdale College Chief Administrative Officer Rich Péwé said while a PILOT agreement is not something the college would consider, it does try to accommodate the city with projects or services the college directly benefits from.

The college significantly helps fund road and sidewalk

repairs surrounding its campus, such as parts of West, College, and Galloway Streets.

Péwé said that a PILOT agreement would change the nature of the relationship between the college and the city.

He said that if payments were made to the city, it would require the college to pay attention to where that money is spent. That is not part of the college mission, he said.

“While we have a big interest in the success of the community, we need our top focus to be on our students and education,” Péwé said. “If we commit money on a fixed purpose outside our mission, it could harm us.”

Péwé said he would look at paying directly for services the college uses, such as the runs the Hillsdale County Fire department makes to the college.

Péwé said he has requested that data from the fire department in the past.

“That’s a true service we really appreciate. They are protecting important assets of the community. These are beautiful historical buildings,” he said.

“We might look into the data and see how much it costs the fire department to make runs to the college. It’s easier to quantify that. There is data.

It directly supports a service we are using. A PILOT would not directly correlate to a service being used.”

Medicaid expansion aids residents Macaela Bennett Assistant Editor

More than 2,500 Hillsdale County residents will receive healthcare coverage under the Healthy Michigan Plan, Michigan’s Medicaid expansion program.

“According to projections released by Michigan League for Public Policy, we expect that 2,707 of the county’s uninsured population will be eligible for health insurance through Medicaid expansion,” said Theresa Christner, Health Promotion and Education Director of the Branch-HillsdaleSt. Joseph Community Health Agency. “This represents 45 percent of the county’s uninsured.”

By April 15, 59,280 Michigan residents had enrolled in HMP, according to The Michigan Department of Community Health.

Although separate from insurance offered through Michigan’s Healthcare Exchange, HMP provides the same federal and state-mandated essential health benefits for those at or

below 133 percent of the federal poverty level.

The Michigan Legislature passed Medicaid expansion in December, but coverage didn’t begin immediately due to a lack of votes.

In addition, Michigan legislators put restrictions on the Medicaid expansion which required the approval of a federal waiver.

“Michigan put a twist on the normal expansion and called it the ‘Healthy Michigan Plan,’” said Steve Todd, health officer at the community health agency. “People can only be on it for four years, and there’s a larger co-pay for certain people.”

Before the HMP, about 180 of Hillsdale’s low-income residents received healthcare through the Hillsdale-BranchSt. Joseph Health Plan, Plan B. This healthcare coverage provided by the health agency ended on March 31 and many were left uninsured because HMP didn’t begin when expected.

“We had hoped to keep this plan running until expanded

Medicaid began under the HMP,” Todd said. “Now, the 417 people, who have some type of primary healthcare coverage which would qualify for the HMP will be in limbo and doing without.”

Todd suggested the problems plaguing Michigan’s rollout of the Affordable Care Act were partially to blame for HMP’s delayed start.

“I don’t know what’s holding it up,” Todd said. “But it’s probably funding issues that are tied into problems with the ACA getting geared up.”

Despite the rough start, Tuesday’s announcement is a start in accomplishing Michigan’s goal of covering 320,000 residents in its first year.

“There were a few bumps in the road, but it should be a smooth transition,” said Mary Boyer, HMP certified navigator and health department proctor.

“A large number of people are now able to get healthcare, and a lot of people are satisfied with what they’re getting.”

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Softball sweeps home openers

Chargers beat Urbana, split doubleheaders with Lake State and Northwood Monica Brandt Collegian Reporter In its first home games of the season, the Hillsdale College women’s softball team split doubleheaders against both Northwood University and Lake Superior State University.

In the second game against Lake Superior, freshman Cassie Asselta hit her first collegiate home run to take a 1-0 lead in the second inning.

“I was more excited about the hit than I was about the home run,” Asselta said. “I won’t forget about that second pitch.”

Junior Kate Ardrey hit a tworun homer in the third inning to bring the score to 3-0.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Lake Superior threatened to tie the game with runners on second and third, but Ardrey struck out the last batter for a 4-1 Hillsdale victory.

Hillsdale went into the game coming off a 3-2 loss in the first game against the Lakers.

“I was mad to say the least,” head coach Joe Abraham said. “I told the team, ‘We better win this game or else.’ I don’t know what the ‘or else’ would have been, but fortunately we didn’t have to find out.”

The day before, Hillsdale

SPORTS

A7 17 April 2014

played Northwood University, winning the first game 6-4.

“It was one of the strongest I’ve seen us come out,” Ardrey said. “Every time they scored we came back. It was one of the best

the top, and tying the game again in the bottom of the fifth inning after Northwood scored another run in the fourth.

Sophomore Ainsley Ellison hit a two-run double in the sixth

Northwood scored one in the fifth inning, two in the sixth, and a walk-off run in the bottom of the seventh to win the game.

“It was a sickening loss,” Abraham said.

Hillsdale swept Urbana University in its home opener on Thursday, April 10, winning the first game 4-3 and the second 7-5.

Sophomore Sarah Grunert hit a home run in the team’s first home at-bat, and also pitched the win.

Hillsdale plays Walsh University on Saturday, and Lake Erie College on Sunday.

Hillsdale had rescheduled its original home opener against Tiffin University to be on Tuesday, April 15, but the game had to be rescheduled again because of snow. The game is now scheduled for Wednesday, April 23.

The team has been battling injuries this season, as it’s now down to 12 players from the original 18.

“We are two pitches away Sophomore Julia Kosco (left) throws the ball to first baseman from being .500 overall,” Abrajunior Melissa Felkey (right). (Anders Kiledal/Collegian) ham said. “With the circumstances we have faced this seafights I’ve seen us put up.” inning to win the game. son, it’s incredible.”

Hillsdale came back from In the second game, Hillsdale two deficits, tying the game in took an early 3-0 lead in the secthe bottom of the second inning ond inning, but could not score after Northwood scored three in again.

Baseball

BOX SCORES

12-24 overall Wayne State: 18 Hillsdale: 4 Wayne State: 6 HIllsdale: 1 Wayne State: 13 Hillsdlae: 5 Hillsdale: 10 Northwood: 8 Season Leaders Hits: Luke Ortel: 43 Tad Sobieszczanski: 40 Nolan Breymaier: 38 Home runs: Lincoln Reed: 1 Chris McDonald: 1 Ethan Wiskur: 1 RBIs: McDonald: 23

Hillsdale: 4 Urbana: 3 Hillsdale: 7 Urbana: 5

Hillsdale: 6 Northwood: 4 Northwood: 4 Hillsdale: 3 Lake Superior St.: 3 Hillsdale: 2 Hillsdale: 4 Lake Superior St.: 1 Season Leaders: Hits: Bekah Kastning: 24 Jessica Knepper: 21 Ainsley Ellison: 20 Sarah Grunert: 20 Home runs: Grunert: 3 Kasting: 2 Kate Ardrey: 2

ERA (10+ innings): Dan Pochmara: 1.08 Joe Chasen: 3.60 Jake Lee: 3.96

RBIs: Kastning: 11 Knepper: 11 Ardrey: 8 Gunert 8

Softball

ERA: Grunert: 3.03 Ardrey: 4.17 Klopfer: 4.55

11-15 overall

Shotgun

Club

{ From A1

{ From A8 games a season.”

The rugby club has been having some problems securing a field to play on, which is the reason for the uncertain number of games per season.

The team had to cancel a couple of games this past season due to being denied the field they usually use. In addition to trying to permanently secure a field for next season, rugby is looking at other ways to grow.

“We’re considering the possibility of a coach,” Michael said. “We’re talking to Oakland (University) about what that looks like and whether it’s worth doing or not, because they actually don’t have a coach right now, and they’ve got an extremely well put together program.”

Regardless, Michael is happy with where the program is headed.

“We just have so many solid, committed guys right now, which is awesome,” Michael remarked. “It’s a good core to have looking forward to next season.”

Sophomore Frank Bruno attempts to throw off competitors in a rugby match in the fall. (Giana Marchese/Collegian)

This was hardly the young team’s first brush with success, however.

In 2012, the team, then not far removed from its founding by shooting instructor Bart Speith, won its first national championship at the ACUI Division III College Clay Target Championships. The next year, victory elevated the team to Division II, a higher level of competition.

Despite the increased challenge, divisional novice status, and being one of the smaller contesting teams, Hillsdale still earned 7th place.

What accounts for this exemplary record? Hintz, also a junior Olympic competitor and Olympics aspirant (he’s aiming for 2020), credited in part the donors who make practicing at the pricey range possible.

“We’ve got Mike Carl, who gets us freshmen up to speed, Adam Burlew, and Bart Speith, who maintains the range,” he said. “And our team has the abil-

ity to practice at the nicest range of any college, since we’re the only college with our own range.

It’s windy a lot, but that makes us better in the end, and it’s extremely important to our success.”

Carl himself attributed success to upperclassmen who weren’t necessarily recruited -yet still succeeded -- along with specifically recruited underclassmen, and the great facility.

“Underclassmen leadership, the number of good shooters brought in, and the facility are what make this program unique,” he said.

Charger Chatter: Cassidy Kaufman pretty standard. I want to stay healthy and if I score some points at conference that’d be sweet. My goal is 14.0 meters by the end of the season though and it’s looking like I’m on the right track.

What do you love about track?

Cassidy Kaufman is a junior who competes in the triple jump for the men’s track team.

Originally from Seattle, Wash., Kaufman is majoring in sports management and is considering working in human resources after graduation.

You are coming off an injury.

What is that process like?

Coming off an injury is really strange. All summer I was favoring my other leg and it was really getting in the way of my training. But right before I came to school in the fall, the pain just went away. It was totally a God thing in the sense that it just stopped bothering me. With one sudden injury in your sport, the psychological effects can mess you up. You can focus on that one instance where you were injured and it can slow your progression in the sport.

What are your goals for this season?

My goals for this season are

Track is the most laid-back sport I have ever been a part of. I’m part of a team, but at the same time, it’s up to me to put up points and give my best effort. The field events especially are so chill. At the triple jump pit last week there were only four of us, but we’re sitting there talking to each other, encouraging each other on this next jump. It’s a really unique experience.

Is it difficult to balance being an athlete and a student?

Absolutely. But at the same time, if you ask any athlete what they would be doing if they weren’t on a varsity team here, they would have no idea. The typical response is “Watch a lot of Netflix.” For me, it gives me structure in my day and something to focus on outside of school, which at Hillsdale especially is too easy to get bogged down with.

What else are you involved in?

On campus I am involved with Athletes InterVarsity. Using the platform God has given us as athletes, our goal is to share the gospel message to not only our teammates, but to our coaches

and those we come into contact with. It’s something that is special to Hillsdale because we have seen such amazing progress in our ministry and so many prayers come into fruition. And the fact that I can be a part of it is so sick.

What drives you to do so much? ​ Realizing that I am nothing without God and the fact that He has gotten me to where I’m at is a miracle. Truly. To look back even at the past three years and clearly see a change that would not be there without God

motivates me to do what I do. I look at guys like freshman stud Ty Etchemendy and beast of an All-American Mo Jones and say, “Okay, well, I don’t think that’s in God’s plans for me, but I’m on this team. What can I do to make this team better and also display God’s love to such an amazing group of people?”

You’re from Seattle. What was it like coming to Hillsdale?

Seattle is very different than Hillsdale, Mich. Getting away from living around a big city, seeing the ocean, and being surrounded by white-capped

mountains took some getting used to, but Hillsdale has been so good to me. Being away from my church, friends, and family took some getting used to, but the people here make it so easy to fall in love with Hillsdale. The people here just care about you. Shout out to the Lantis family for being my adopted family here. They have taught me so much in being selfless, never being too serious, and caring for people. And I need to thank them in advance for letting me crash at their house for Easter...again.

What is most important to

you?

The most important thing to me is showing people why I am who I am and how that has become a night and day difference to the guy I used to be. The only reason for that is God’s unbelievable amount of grace.

God’s example of love to us in the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son is something I lose sight of all the time, but even though I forget sometimes, that is the most important thing to me.

-Compiled by Casey Harper

Best of luck, Hillsdale College seniors!

17 April 2014

(Photo Courtesy of Anders Kiledal)

Charger Sports JONES, OREN BREAK SCHOOL RECORDS Hillsdale Invitational: Chargers host first outdoor meet not roll over.

Freshman Joseph Newcomb won 1st in the 800-meter, and senior Matt Raffin took second in the 110 hurdles, logging a The families and friends of provisional qualifying time.

Hillsdale track and field comRaffin also set a personal record petitors watched expectantly at in the 400 hurdles. He said he the Hillsdale Invitational. The hopes to P.R. in all his events at crowd pushed the Hillsdale athMt. San Antonio Colletes to optimal perlege in Walnut, Caformance. According lif, where part of the to senior Mo Jones, team is competing this the guys’ mentality weekend. was “this is our turf.”

Freshman Allison At that point, the Duber won the 400 fans were unaware and junior Amy Kerst they were about to won the 800-meter witness Hillsdale hisrun. Freshman Dana tory.

Newell placed 1st in At the 400-meter the hammer throw. hurdles, Jones took The Mt. SAC Reoff, pushing with evlays is known for haverything he had to ing tough competition, the sound of cheering which Raffin said fans. He finished, and helps improve your then realized he just time. broke the school re“Basically I have cord and likely qualipeople racing with me fied for nationals. the whole time, which But that was not is extremely helpful,” the only school rehe said. cord broken that day.

Freshman Jessica Sophomore Emily Hurley is part of a Oren tore through the group going to Grand 3000-meter steepleValley State Univerchase, beating the sity this weekend. previous record by She will compete in more than 9 seconds. the 400-meter and Not bad, considering 200-meter dash. it was her first time to “It’s a pretty big compete in the steeschool, so it’s some plechase. good competition,” “I was happy to she said.

“I really think break it so quickly I can push myself the and look forward to Sophomore Emily Oren broke the school extra .4 seconds that trying to get the time steeple chase record last Saturday. Senior Maurice Jones broke his own school record in I need to P.R. in the down even more,” the 400-meter. (Anders Kiledal/Collegian) 400. It would be such Oren said. a confidence booster, Jones ran a proand I think it is totally visional qualifying time, and don’t want to just roll over for possible.

I have to make every he hopes to earn an automatic anyone.” meet count.” qualifying time this weekend.

The Chargers certainly did

Director of Athletics Don Brubacher said the new public locker rooms will be “fresh and clean.” (Anders Kiledal/Collegian)

College to remodel locker rooms Micah Meadowcroft Assistant Editor

This summer will see the renovation of the public locker rooms in the Roche Sports Complex.

While some preliminary and non-intrusive repairs are already being made, May 12 marks the beginning of a thorough overhaul of the facilities. The administration plans to complete the process, at the latest, by the beginning of the fall semester.

“We try never to defer anything,” Rich Péwé, the college’s chief administrative officer, said.

While periodic repairs of the locker facilities have been a regular occurrence since their construction in 1988, the need for a complete overhaul in the near future became clear about two years ago. Péwé and the administration see this summer as an opportunity to do what needs to be done with the least amount of disruption and inconvenience.

“The big picture is we have 1,000,300 square feet of campus,” he said. “We try to take care of it.

We try to do that efficiently. Everything gets used at a pace. There are places like the sports complex where everyday there’s a process, there’s a cycle, there’s wear and tear.”

The repair of the lockers coinciding with the second phase of the renovation of the arena is entirely coincidental. While phase two of complex renovations will see new lockers constructed for team sports, that is unrelated to the poolside locker repairs.

“The phases only have to do with the new construction,” Director of Athletics Don Brubacher said. “This falls in the category of regular updating.

We’re also finally going to replace the roof in this portion of the building.”

The lockers see more use than just the general public. The women’s swim team is housed in

the women’s locker room, and while no Hillsdale men’s teams use the men’s facility, visiting athletic teams use it.

“I think it’s great,” sophomore swimmer Hannah Leitner said. “I’m really excited to see the carpet out. Also there’s the fact that the swim team uses it and we’re the only team that doesn’t have a private locker room. It’ll just be really nice to have it updated, not only nice for the swim team but nice for the public.”

The carpet will be replaced with a textured, poured surface. Beyond that, the tiles in the shower and bathroom portions will be cleaned and then covered with a sealant that will prevent future decay of grout and maintain surface integrity. Brubacher said this process will be an improvement on the current practice of stripping the tile surface every few years and relaying it.

“It’s a great system,” he said. “It’s a wonderful process.”

In addition to the flooring, the ceiling will see renovation. Péwé said he doesn’t like the tiled drop ceiling currently in place, and Brubacher finds that it makes the lockers unnecessarily hot in warm weather. That drop ceiling will be removed and the locker room’s higher ceiling will make it feel more open and allow more airflow.

Not everything in the locker rooms need repair or replacement.

“The interior block is holding up great,” Péwé said. “Those lockers are holding up great.”

Brubacher said that not all the plumbing fixtures will be replaced, as many remain in perfectly good operating condition.

However, come fall, the locker rooms will look like a different place.

“The rooms will function better,” Brubacher said. “They will look better because they will be fresh and clean.”

Baseball finishes Northwood sweep

Junior Nolan Breymaier prepares to crank the ball at a home baseball game. (Anders Kiledal/Collegian) Caleb Whitmer Editor-in-Chief Hillsdale College baseball nearly blew a 10-run lead on Wednesday.

Northwood University Timberwolves (12-19, 4-13) scored eight runs over the final four innings, but they fell three short of

a massive comeback. The Chargers (12-24, 10-11) hung on for a 10-8 win.

“We had a pretty good game overall today,” said assistant coach Gordie Theisen. “The offense had timely hits early in the game and allowed us to get a pretty good lead. That always takes pressure off the defense and pitching.”

Wednesday’s home win completed Hillsdale’s sweep of Northwood. The schools played two games last week, both of which the Chargers won.

In the first inning on Wednesday, junior Nolan Breymaier hit an RBI single, and sophomore Tad Sobieszczanski followed that with a sacrifice fly.

Freshman Ethan Wiskur then slammed a solo home run in the second.

The Chargers kept the scoring going, rounding four runners in the third off a pair of double’s from sophomore Lincoln Reed and freshman Jake Lee. They scored another three runs in the fifth off a throwing error and two RBI singles, putting Hillsdale up 10-0.

But then Northwood’s bats woke up.

Having only two hits prior in the game, the Timberwolves took seven from sophomore pitcher Chris McDonald in the sixth inning, scoring five runs.

With runners on first and second, sophomore Mitchell Gatt replaced McDonald. He then forced a double play to close the inning.

“Northwood earned their runs by swinging the bats,” said Theisen, who noted that McDonald was outstanding earlier in the game. “We would always prefer allowing runs in that manner as opposed to allowing freebies – walks, errors, hit batters, etc.”

Gatt retired the next six bat-

ters before he was replaced by sophomore Lucas Hamelink in the ninth.

The Timberwolves then scored three more runs, pulling themselves within two of Hillsdale.

With the tying runs on first and second, Hamelink threw a fastball on a 1-0 count. The Northwood batter’s hit deflected off Hamelink’s glove, flew straight up, and landed in front of him before he made the gameending throw to first.

“I guess it must have looked a little funny, because Coach Kocher asked me if I had narcolepsy after the game,” Hamelink said.

“But hey, we got the out and we won the game – I’ll take it.”

Overall, Hamelink said he was dissatisfied with his outing.

“I wasn’t sharp. I got behind in counts, and paid for it,” Hamelink said. “However, there were some positives. I was able to face some adversity and pitch through it, and get some key ground balls when we needed them. Thankfully, the offense was huge today and gave us that cushion in the ninth.”

Earlier this week, Hillsdale lost three games to Wayne State University. Wayne took two games on Saturday, 18-4 and 6-1, and one more on Sunday, 13-5.

Hillsdale will play a threegame home series against the University of Findlay (9-21, 6-14) this weekend.

“It’s great because I’ve been training really hard, and I’m getting back in the hurdles after getting hurt last year,” Jones said. “We just don’t want people coming in and running all over us. We want to show our fans and our families that we can compete at a high level. We

Club sports look to expand next year

Nathanael Meadowcroft Collegian Reporter

Hillsdale’s club sports program enjoyed a season of expansion this past year, and are looking forward to growing even more next year.

“Our girls’ club volleyball team made a lot of strides this year,” said Kevin Foeman, assistant to the director of recreational sports. “They played a lot of good competition.”

The team, led by sophomore Betsy Thistleton, is looking forward to developing even more next semester.

“There are about 15 girls involved in club volleyball.

We practice twice a week and scrimmage against an 18U local club team during practice a lot,” Thistleton said in an email. “The program is still very new, so we are working on building it up right now. We hope to join a league in the fall so that would really increase the number of games we play and give us some good competition.”

In addition to women’s volleyball, men’s club volleyball

has also seen growth this past year.

“Our guys’ club volleyball team practices a lot,” Foeman said. “[They’re] pretty competitive, so hopefully they’ll continue to get better and expand their schedule.”

The team practices twice a week and travels to play in collegiate tournaments.

“We play a lot of GLIAC schools as well as some larger Big 10 school clubs,” sophomore captain Eric Walker said in an email.

In addition, the club hosted its first three home matches this year, and had the privilege of playing in the Hardwood Classic this past fall at Michigan State University, the nation’s largest preseason club tournament.

In addition to club volleyball, Hillsdale also has seen growth in its rugby club, led by junior Dakota Michael.

“Rugby club is a group of 18 guys who get together on Tuesdays and Thursdays and practice,” Michael said. “We usually play anywhere from four to eight

See Club, A7

{

Casey Harper Spotlight Editor

B1

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

17 April. 2014

Abigail Wood

Shakepeare in the Arb puts on ‘As You Like It’

Senior Whittaker Dunn and junior Meredith Caton play Orlando and Rosalind, respectively, in Shakespeare in the Arb’s production of “As You Like It.”

The Gray Havens to come to Hillsdale Hannah Leitner Assistant Editor

(Photo Courmake a stop in Hillsdale. tesy of the Radford said that the Gray Gray Havens Havens are looking forward to band) playing in Hillsdale.

“There’s just something about college students that you can’t find when you perform at houses or churches,” Radford said. “There’s just an energy in them.”

But getting the band to visit wasn’t the hardest task for Allen to conquer in order to bring the band to Hillsdale.

Given that the Gray Havens wanted at least a $300 profit from the show and a location provided for the event to be held, Allen needed to organize the logistics for the band.

“Originally it was just going to be a house event, but he just took off and planned everything.” Radford said. “We didn’t do a lot.”

See Band B2

Mariani visits to share his poetry, story ters from Colgate University, Mariani wrote his dissertation on Gerard Manley Hopkins and received his PhD from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

“Hopkins is, for me, someone in the room,” he said. “His poetry is transformative. The younger poets like W.H. Auden, Hart Crane, “Everyone has a story.” and Elizabeth Bishop said his work was revolutionary. John BerrySo says Paul Mariani –– poet, biographer, and man and Robert Lowell were influenced by him.

Chair of Poetry at Boston College –– this semesI’ve been deeply influenced by him in terms of not ter’s visiting writer in the Wilmer Mills Visiting only the poetry and the poetics but his faith, at the “There’s always been Writer program. His most recent collection of heart of it.” something about narpoems is titled “Epitaphs for the Journey: New, Mariani’s writing is deeply influenced by his Selected, and Revised Poems,” and he has writ- rative –– even my faith, and through his narrative poetry, he holds ten the biographies of many great writers, such as a deeper conversation. His poetry has a narrative John Berryman and Robert Lowell, and recently poetry is largely narcharacter; “Epitaphs for a Journey” is divided into rative.” completed a biography of Wallace Stevens. eight sections, each one covering a span of his lifeAs a young boy growing up in New York City time. who learned to read from comic strips in the Sun“There’s always been something about narra— Poet Paul Mariani day paper, Mariani began writing in first grade. tive,” Mariani said. “Even my poetry is largely nar“I remember being in Kindergarten,” Mariani rative — it tells stories. And I’m also a biographer, said. “And I really didn’t like Kindergarten beso I tell the stories of poets. I’m still to this day cause I wanted to learn how to read right away. I built the empire fascinated with stories.” state building on the floor, and while we were taking a nap, I put my Senior Hannah Strickland, who introduced Mariani at his poetry foot under it and collapsed the whole thing. And the teacher said ‘I reading on Tuesday evening, explained that Mariani saw “every perdon’t know if I want this boy in my class.’ So I talked to my mom son as a poem.” and said, ‘Mom, I want to go to school to learn, but we’re playing not “There’s an honesty in his writing that I really appreciate,” Stricklearning!’ and they skipped me into the first grade.” land said. “He doesn’t skirt around anything. He does a really great From first grade onward, Mariani continued to write. At 17, he job of balancing the honesty and the beauty in his writing.” wrote a poem for which he won an award of 10 dollars.

This beauty is something that Mariani considers incredibly imporAfter graduating from Manhattan College and receiving his Mas- tant in poetry, something he says will “never be a waste.”

Amanda Tindall Assistant Editor

See Shakespeare B2

A.A. Milne society puts on “The Ugly Duckling” Emma Vinton Collegian Reporter

{

It was completely by chance that junior Tim Allen heard of the obscure, small band from a friend. It was completely by chance that while downloading their songs online he received a cover email from the band about a tour in the area. And it was completely by chance that the band’s tour was coming through the area and could make a couple extra stops along the way.

But it isn’t by chance that the Gray Havens are set to perform in Hillsdale at the Dawn Theatre on Thursday, April 24, at 8 p.m.

Composed of husband and wife duo Dave and Licia Radford, the band is based out of the small town Crystal Lake, Ill., where the couple records from a home studio.

They began recording their first album in 2012 and finished on January 25. The available but unpublished album consists of six songs and initiated a tour.

Allen described the Gray Havens as “Folksy with some real, awesome jazz influence.”

After being introduced to the band by a friend, Allen downloaded the six-song album.

In order to download the songs, Allen had to sign-up for the email list. Because of this list, Allen received a cover email about open slots in the tour.

Co-worker at Jitters and friend junior Katherine Sinkovitz said that she only learned about the band by working at Jitters with Allen. Sinkovitz said that she was with Allen when he received the email from the band saying that they had openings slots in their tour schedule.

“He started freaking out. He was like, ‘Oh my gosh, they are going to be in Michigan. Oh my gosh, we could get them here.’”

After sending an email back to the band, Allen received a call from Dave Radford.

Since the band tour was passing through the area, they could

tion alive is really, really special.”

The play wouldn’t happen without a lot of hard work by both Kalthoff and Whalen.

“I couldn’t have done it without Liz,” Kalthoff said. “I’d have gone insane.”

The cast expressed affection for their directors as well.

“Phoebe and Liz are fantastic. They are really patient directors,” said sophomore Kendell Karpack, who plays Rosalind’s cousin Celia. “If I interpret something a certain way, and they interpret something a certain way, we can kind of talk it out and decide what the character would do. So it’s really cool to have that partnership.”

Kalthoff agreed that the interpretation of the play is a collaborative effort.

“We’ve tried to keep it really, really open so it’s not us just us imposing our reading on the cast but us all having a reading together,” she said.

Freshman Dani Morey, who plays the shepherdess Phoebe in the play, said Whalen and Kalthoff are a great team.

“He is a king of any country from any storybook, in whatever costume you please. But he should be wearing his crown.”

So opens A.A. Milne’s play, “The Ugly Duckling,” and in this case, the King, Queen, and rest of the cast are from this country, from Hillsdale’s page in the storybook.

A group of friends in the A.A. Milne Society is performing Milne’s play April 23 at 7 p.m. in the Formal Lounge or outside on the quad, weather permitting.

Senior Audrey Gray, the director, who also directed “The Tempest” for last year’s Shakespeare in the Arb, said she has been talking about putting on a small play since last year, when she read through the play at an A.A. Milne event.

“They are very different,” she said. “This play is a lot more relaxed in terms of dialogue, whereas Shakespeare is quite structured with his verse and meter. It is about the experience and putting on a fun play.”

She said that the play is an enjoyable crowd pleaser that caters to a large audience –– especially to children.

“We are hoping that professors and their children will come,” Gray said. “It caters to kids with the storybook setting and humor, and adults will enjoy it just as much, if not more.

Milne's subtle humor is sometimes lost on children while adults will pick up on the hilarity if they are willing to take the time for a fairy tale."

Junior Maran McLeod describes her character, the Queen, as “fed up with it all,” and said she has enjoyed getting into character.

“She is relatable –– especially at this point in the semester –– because she keeps on plotting even though there is not much hope,” she said.

McLeod said that reading and acting short plays like Milne’s help develop a necessary sense of leisure.

“I’d really like to raise the profile of the A.A Milne Society on campus,” she said. “Leisure is an important thing to inculcate in students. These are little stories, but they have simple truths.”

Junior Julie Finke, who plays the Ugly Duckling Princess, said that the princess is an unblemished combination of joy,

Alignment

See Milne B2

{

Should the sun come out to stay, the Slayton Arboretum will be, like all the world, a stage, and students shall perform “As You Like It,” Shakespeare’s play.

Junior Liz Whalen and sophomore Phoebe Kalthoff are directing Shakespeare in the Arb’s production this year, with performances finals weekend, May 3 and 4. They cast “As You Like It” before Christmas break and have been rehearsing throughout this semester.

The play is a pastoral comedy set in a forest — making the arboretum an especially fitting stage — which follows the adventures of Rosalind, played by junior Meredith Caton, as she, disguised as a man, flees her uncle into the arms of Orlando, played by senior Whittaker Dunn. Rosalind, pretending to be a boy, pretends to be a girl to help Orlando. Various characters flit in and out, and hilarity ensues.

Caton and Dunn aren’t just playing love-interests on the stage; they are dating in real life. For Caton, that is an opportunity to relax, not worry about developing chemistry, and just be comfortable to develop their characters. Dunn sees it as a senior gift.

“Liz asked me in Jitters, ‘are you going to be OK acting opposite Meredith?’ and I said, ‘yeah,’ and she said, ‘that won’t be awkward?’ and I said, ‘no.’ And then I walked away and thought about it and I should have really said, ‘I don’t want anyone else acting opposite of Meredith,’ because I don’t,” he said. “So it’s been a real blessing; what a great gift for my final year, final semester, here.”

Beyond the intersection of fact and fiction, “As You Like It” continues a longstanding tradition of student-produced Shakespeare, something that Whalen and Kalthoff both value.

“It sounds trite, but I think I speak for both of us when I say this has been really, really special to do,” Whalen said. “We both grew up watching Shakespeare in the Arb. We both remember seeing the very first production ever and seeing Hamlet dying on the Arb steps.

Those were really powerful images that we received as children. So that’s, I think, why it means so much for us to be faithful to Shakespeare’s images and try to bring them to life in a delightful and beautiful way. We are giving a gift that we have received and benefited from so many times through the years.”

Kalthoff appreciates that the tradition of Shakespeare in the arb is not fading away. Sixty students auditioned.

“Our cast is really, really amazing,” she said. “Keeping the tradi-

{

Micah Meadowcroft Assistant Editor

(Laura Williamson/Collegian)

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Review: Slasher Flicks “Enter the Slasher House” Ian Ostaszewski Special to the Collegian

I am not a fan of horror movies. Although I can understand the appeal for those who enjoy the visceral thrill of getting scared, I have never been able to willingly subject myself to the experience. One may ask, then, why I am reviewing an album by a band with the name Slasher Flicks.

The answer is that Slasher Flicks is not actually that frightening. The group is the brainchild of Avey Tare (real name Dave Portner), one-fourth of the critically-acclaimed psychedelic/experimental band Animal Collective. Portner, a professed horror movie fan, formed Slasher Flicks while he was in between tours with his main band.

His stated goal with the band is to create cute, campy Halloween songs with a pop sensibility.

So despite their violent name, Slasher Flicks bear little musical resemblance to bands with a similar persona-like horror-punks the Misfits. Slasher Flicks’ closest musical point of reference is probably one that Portner himself has mentioned in interviews: 60s novelty songs like “The Monster Mash” and “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” Think less “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and more “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

For most listeners, Slasher Flicks is just another in a long line of Animal Collective side projects. There never seems to be a lull in the band members’ creative energies, and even when they’re not touring or recording, they seem to be working on a project of some sort.

It can be tiring for even the most dedicated of fans to pore through Animal Collective’s

discography to find the gems.

Thankfully, “Enter the Slasher House” is worth the listen; it’s one of the most accessible things that Animal Collective or any of its associated side projects have released, yet it retains so many of the things that make that band great.

The first thing that grabs ahold of your ear on “Enter the Slasher House” is its carefullycrafted ambience. Throughout the album, gurgling synths bubble up like witches’ cauldrons and wiggly guitars wail like ghosts. Songs like “That It Won’t Grow” and “The Outlaw” employ a creepy carnival organ to great effect. The hauntedhouse vibe is tempered by an air of playfulness: just listen to the gibberish vocals in the chorus to “Catchy (Was Contagious)” and try not to smile.

There’s more to “Enter the Slasher House” than horrormovie kitsch. The songs themselves still hold up when you look past the novelty of the Halloween sound effects. The energetic “Blind Babe” successfully pairs hyperactive punk beats and syncopated samba rhythms.

“That It Won’t Grow” juxtaposes somber, introspective verses with explosive, radiant choruses, tinged every so slightly with a reggae feel. The secret weapon throughout the album is its inventive, angular drumming provided by Jeremy Hyman of noise-punk band Ponytail.

The album’s best moment is also its most straightforward and poppy: single “Little Fang.”

Its funky drums and creeping bassline hearken back to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” but the chorus is propelled by Ronettes-style call-and-response backup vocals. The song is a persistent earworm that sounds like little else that Avey Tare has previously recorded, solo or otherwise.

By Animal Collective standards, the tracks on “Enter the Slasher House” are fairly short — only three songs make it past the 5-minute mark. Besides some idle jamming on “Roses on the Window” and “Your Card,” the album does a good job of avoiding the long, repetitive codas that sometimes detract people from Avey Tare’s main band. And yet many of the melodies and synth parts on “Enter the Slasher House” would feel right at home in an Animal Collective song. This could be the album that Animal Collective fans use to convince haters of the band’s worth.

If there’s anything to complain about on “Enter the Slasher House,” it’s Avey Tare’s persistent use of pitch-shifting vocal effects. These effects work well when used tastefully, like the monster-voice effect used on “Little Fang.” Elsewhere, they seem carelessly thrown on in post-production, and by the end of the album, they’re just tiring.

They also exacerbate another issue present on most Animal Collective releases as well as “Enter the Slasher House”: the burying of the lead vocal in the mix and, as a result, the indecipherability of lyrics.

Side projects like Slasher Flicks seemed doomed to failure from the beginning: only diehard fans will bother to listen, and among those, many will be upset that the time and energy put into “Enter the Slasher House” couldn’t have gone towards an Animal Collective album instead. It’s true that the album isn’t as good as Animal Collective’s best work, but it’s by no means a throwaway album, and it offers a new, refreshing take on the band’s signature sound. If nothing else, it could serve as great Halloween party music — even if it was released in April.

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Kilgore new curator for college coin collection

Sarah Albers Collegian Reporter

Brenna Wade pointed out a coin on the computer screen.

It looked unremarkable to the untrained eye. The ‘Satirical Napoleon,’ part of the extensive Alwin C. Carus coin collection, is actually an elaborate lampoon, a tiny and tangible holdover from the culture that produced it.

“The helmet is Prussian,” Wade said, explaining that Napoleon III had lost to the Prussians during a battle in Sedan around the time the coin was minted. The coin depicts Napoleon III smoking a cigarette with a chain collar around his neck. On the collar is inscribed ‘SEDAN.’ Wade is a technical service librarian for Hillsdale College and was curator of the Alwin C. Carus coin collection during the 2008-09 school year. Her primary task as curator was to research and catalog the coins.

Senior Julia Kilgore, recently hired by the college as the fulltime coordinator for the Carus collection, hopes not only to expand the collection itself but to get more Hillsdale students to take advantage of its vast historical resources -- satire included.

“We have small exhibitions in the Heritage Room,” Kilgore said. “We currently have the Great Britain collection on display, but we have over 500 coins. We have Arabic coinage, Russian, German.”

Her love for museum studies and education will be put to use in her new position as curator and educator.

“I have always been fascinated with culture and the act of narrating,” Kilgore said. “I love showing people physically what

history is. It's a connection between theory and fact.”

Kilgore has been working with the collection since 2012, helping to finish cataloging the coins. According to Dan Knoch, Library Director, she was a natural fit.

“She was interested in archives and special collections,” Knoch said. “What we want [for the collection] is to expand its use. We want to promote it, reach out to the faculty, and

able coins,” Calvert said, “but to collect coins representative of a broad, comprehensive historical range. He wanted to find a college where the coin collection wasn't going to be used for any purpose but for education. He didn't want it sold.”

The collection is complementary to Hillsdale's philosophy as an institution, seeking to encompass the high points of the Western tradition.

“What he was interested in were coins that represented the most important parts of history,” Calvert said. “Most of the coins are from Western history specifically.”

Wade also said that the collection was “very special.”

“Most collectors collect narrow and deep,” Wade said.

“This collection is very broad, if slightly shallow. It basically touches upon every aspect of history.”

While the coins have intrinsic historical and monetary value, the collection is worth more than that. Through currency, it captures the way a people represented themselves.

It is a tangible connection with a culture long gone.

“Coins tell us a huge part about the society they came from,” Calvert said. “Religion, politics, economy – it's all in the coins. You can even see the transition from free societies to monarchies on coinage. The symbols a nation uses to represent itself will show up on their currency.”

As coordinator, Kilgore's task is to communicate the history held within the Carus collection.

Her first order of business?

Open a new display.

According to Kilgore, the exhibit will open in the Heritage Room on May 1st and will focus primarily on Hellenistic Greek coinage.

“Carus’s vision was not necessarily to collect the most valuable coins, but to collect coins representative of a broad, comprehensive historical range.”

–– Kenneth Calvert, Hillsdale Academy Headmaster, involved in coin acquisition

enhance the website catalog.

These are all things that Julia will be working on.”

The collection first came to Hillsdale in 2005 as a gift from its namesake, Alwin Carus.

Kenneth Calvert, headmaster of Hillsdale Academy, was involved in its acquisition and remains involved with its curation today. The collection is extensive and the philosophy behind its formation unique.

“Carus's vision was not necessarily to collect the most valu-

Last senior art exhibit focuses on communication, response Teddy Sawyer Assistant Editor

It is the goal of the senior art majors in the third and final senior art show of the semester to not only communicate with their audience, but to elicit a response as well.

Seniors Elizabeth Brady, Lisa Graham, Aaron Sandford, and Lauren Wierenga will open their exhibit on April 22 and will hold their reception

Shakespeare From B1

“Watching them work together is really fun,” she said.

“It’s really cute to watch Liz and Phoebe confer and talk to one another. It’s almost like they are reading each other’s minds while they confer behind their books.”

Senior Ty Herndon plays Oliver, Orlando’s older brother. He said that Whalen and Kalthoff work really hard.

“Seeing the progress from when we did a read through and everyone was just reading and now when people are taking on the roles and standing inside the text — they are really bringing it out and it’s really cool to see people’s interpretations,” he said. “It’s been a lot of fun.

They keep it fun and relaxed.”

They emphasize focus on two themes in the production: love and laughter.

“There’s something I love about the gratuity and delight that Shakespeare is taking in his characters and in their language,” Whalen said. “It’s actually got some really lovely and thoughtful reflections on the nature of romantic love.”

Kalthoff and Whalen said “As You Like It” provides a character study of human nature and a realistic look at what it means to be in love. Caton has found that realism in her exploration of the character of Rosalind.

“She doesn’t take herself too seriously in love,” she said.

on April 25 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Daughtrey Art Gallery in Sage Center for the Arts.

The exhibit will remain open April 22 to 25.

“It’s a lot of each medium.

Everyone has their one medium they’re focused on, and it’s neat to have artists who are so good at their medium,” Wierenga said. “Aaron and Bitsy sculpt –– I can’t sculpt to save my life –– Lisa does painting, and I do do a lot of photography and graphic design. All the mediums are represented, and

It’s hard to imagine how she could, considering many of her scenes contain double layers of cross-dressing.

The humor hasn’t stopped being fresh for the directors, and the actors haven’t stopped being funny.

“We have seen this so many times, and we still are just dying laughing every time,” Whalen said.

Dunn said the directors can’t keep it together at rehearsals.

“They laugh constantly at us, they just cannot get through a scene, it doesn’t matter what is happening,” he said. “Maybe this is just me, but it’s kind of distracting. They are just laughing at us all the time.”

Everyone agreed that a highlight of the productions humor is watching junior John Taylor.

“I know what the best part is going to be,” Dunn said. “It’s going to be watching John Taylor act the role he was born to play, as Touchstone, the king’s fool.”

Kalthoff and Whalen hope that audiences will be able to come out and enjoy the beauty of the arb and of Shakespeare at 2 p.m., May 2 and 3.

“I want them to take away the clever humor and comedy that Shakespeare displays. They are such crazy characters,” Kalthoff said. “I want them to have a good time and also to provoke some thought at the same time.

Some of the speeches are really, really beautiful — you hear it and you can’t help but stop and think more deeply.”

they’re all represented very well.”

Each student overlaps with another, but has a unique focus among the four. Brady focuses on sculpture, though including a variety of painting and sketches; Graham tends to focus on painting as well as sculpture and drawing; Sandford generally does a lot of graphic design, but he is focusing on fine arts for his show with primarily photography and sculpture; Wierenga focuses mostly on photography

and graphic design but also will include drawings and oil paintings.

Each one takes the art in a different direction, but each aims to express and communicate something, oftentimes not entirely consciously.

“I tend to have a religious bend to a lot of my work,” Brady said. “I’m not sure it starts out that way, but it definitely ends that way, especially with the sculptures. I think three out of four of my sculptures are religious.”

Band

From B1

But Allen wanted to do more for the band than the minimum. Instead of hosting a small event in a house, Allen decided to rent out the Dawn Theatre, making the final estimated costs to be around $700.

However, Allen says he hopes concert admission can be free for students. So how will he accomplish raising $700?

“I hope to contact each dorm [for donations] and put it forward as a big dorm social,” Allen said.

Allen said he hopes the dorms will be willing to help, but if the resources for the concert are not met, Allen said he will have to come up with the

Though he won’t show very much of it in the exhibit, Sandford said a huge part of his work is in graphic design, which is a medium that principally aims to communicate with an audience. It also requires a response to fulfill any purpose. He aims to represent more of the creative fine arts aspect of his work.

“Without response, art is really just sad –– like graphic design is all about communication, so its great to see people seeing your art,” Sandford said.

Similarly, Graham said she looks to other artists and their work for influence on color and theme, but she doesn’t pull too deeply from any given artist because she wants to be her own artistic self, not an imitator.

The artists emphasized the importance of the opportunity to show their work, to have friends and family see their work exhibited, and to see and read responses of others to their work in person and in their sign-in books.

money through private means.

“It’ll be $700 between the rental and the band, but I would love to throw them a little bit more money,” he said. “I know they will do it for $300, but I’d love to throw a little on top.”

On top of providing the band with a large area to perform, Allen also wished to give the band a small house party. When asked what he would do if he did not meet the required monetary quote, Allen replied: “That would be really unfortunate. It might end up with me panhandling in front of the library, if I need to.”

But for Allen, the risk is worth it to have the band come. He hopes that through the band’s visit, he can share its music and message with others.

“Their music has blessed me,” Allen said, “and I think it will bless others that hear it as well.”

(Photo Courtesy of the Gray Havens band)

Milne

{From B1 kindness, love, and beauty and emphasized a deeper meaning in the play as a whole.

“The play is really talking about how there is more to you than just your beauty,” Finke said.

Finke said that the cast members were already friends, so acting really provided time to spend with one another as, in a way, a last hurrah.

“A lot of them are seniors, and we wanted to do something fun together before they all graduate,” Finke said. “They are all so great at acting, drama, and enjoying life, and we’ve done a lot of wonderful things together.

This is another great thing on the list. We are simultaneously doing it to enjoy each others company and to show campus that A.A. Milne is great.”

According to Finke, the hilarity and light-heartedness of the play -- as well as its brevity -- make it a perfect study break.

“The script and the wording are just sheer brilliance all the way through,” she said. “It is both really fun and extremely witty, and it plays on deep life themes.”

Spotlight

B3 17 April 2014

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Alum begins career at WSJ House to home Amanda Tindall Assistant Editor When Kate Bachelder ’13 met Director fo the Dow Journalism Program John J. Miller during her time in Washington D.C. with the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program, she had no intention of pursuing a career in journalism — but that would change within the short amount of time she had left in college.

“I came to work in journalism through a series of very happy accidents,” Bachelder said. “The first point was when I took John J. Miller’s “Advanced Writing” my junior year of college and just really connected with it and enjoyed it and learned a lot.

And thought ‘Well, this might be something that I’m more interested in than I thought.’”

Miller, national correspondent for National Review, claims that he is, in part, responsible for Bachelder’s change in career pursuit.

“I met Katy pre-Hillsdale,” Miller said. “I was Hillsdalebound at the point. I remember meeting her and she signed up for my course in Advanced Writing. She did really well and we had fun in the course, and I tricked her into journalism.”

Through taking Advanced Writing, Bachelder gained what she believes is one of the most valuable parts of a college experience. She gained not only an interest in a potential career, but a mentor and skill to which she could dedicate time.

“I wrote this piece about Miller right before I graduated about how one of the most important things to do in college is to find an academic home, a professor who takes a real interest in you,” Bachelder said. “For me, Miller was someone who helped me become better at a skill and a craft, so that I could take it and get even more training in it in the work place. It’s about finding a skill you can hone. I think that passion and feeling called to a field is something that happens once you get really good at it.”

In the field of journalism, its always said that you need to two

illness

{From B4

knees, hands, elbows, and back. At the end of freshman year in spring 2013, French didn’t know if she would return to Hillsdale College.

Her symptoms started with pain in her feet.

“I was put on medications and nothing really helped,” she said. “Then it spread to another part in my foot, and then another part in my foot, and then my other foot.”

By the end of Christmas break, French was incorrectly diagnosed several times.

Finally, during the summer of 2013, the Cleveland Clinic diagnosed French with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Even though POTS is a heart condition, French said some doctors believe it can cause chronic pain.

“When I stand up or adjust my posture, my blood pressure drops and my heart-rate skyrockets,” French said, describing POTS. “They don’t really know a ton about it, and I was recently told by a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic that they weren’t sure if I had it or not.”

Though many students are unaware, chronic illness affects many students on campus.

Sophomore Hannah Carroll also experiences chronic pain, brain fog, and exhaustion— symptoms caused by Lyme disease and a brain virus.

“I had to wear wrist braces for about a year,” Carroll said.

“The pain was definitely connected with the Lyme, but when the Lyme was no longer a factor and I still had joint pain, that’s when the viruses appeared to be more of an issue.”

Senior Elizabeth Anne Odell reached for a marker to write Latin nouns on the whiteboard, but suddenly she could not see straight. Her vision turned into a kaleidoscope, and then she cannot see anything.

When she opened her eyes again, Odell realizes she is lying on a stretcher, being lifted into an ambulance. Someone is

Vivian Hughbanks Collegian Reporter

Bachelder discusses on WSJ live an opinion piece she wrote about unpaid internships.

(Courtesy Kate Bachelder)

things — practice writing and good connections. By gaining a mentor in Miller, and explaining that she was interested in interning for syndicated columnist and editor of National Review Online Jonah Goldberg, she also gained, what she called, the best college internship she had.

“John called and said, ‘If you’re going to take an intern, you have to pick Katy,’” Goldberg said. “So I did. I don’t really like having interns. You want it to be a rewarding experience for them, and that can be a huge hassle. But she set out to make it rewarding. ” Besides gaining experience and entering into the world of journalism, Bachelder said that one of the main things she learned while working for Goldberg was to “calm down.”

“Working for Jonah was the most fun internship I had in college by a long stretch, He really has a happy-warrior attitude that I hope to cultivate for the rest of my life, Bachelder said. “He never lets work get in the way of

having a really great time. The lesson I learned from him is that you don’t have to take yourself so seriously.”

With the release of “The Tyranny of Cliches,” Goldberg said his summer was incredibly busy, and Bachelder had the ability to anticipate what he would need and took initiative.

“If you do the little things really well, you get trusted with a lot of things,” Bachelder said.

“If you’re meticulous and competent, really good things happen to you. No task is too small or menial for you to wow someone with.”

After her internship with Goldberg, Bachelder became the opinions editor at the Collegian.

“She just went from zero to 60 in no time at all,” Miller said.

“And former Editor-In-Chief Patrick Timmis made the right choice in making her opinions editor.”

After graduation, Bachelder worked as a Robert L. Bartley Fellow at The Wall Street Journal.

holding a phone to her ear, and she can hear her mom’s voice.

through traumatic times in their lives. It gives you more of an awareness that the world isn’t fine.”

Carroll’s voice goes quiet as she speaks the honest truth.

“My darkest moments were wondering when I was going to die,” Carroll said. “My body was just shutting down. It was grim.”

Clinging to faith in the midst of the confusion, fear, and pain is a difficult thing to do, something which French struggles with.

“If I don’t have the strength to brush my teeth, how will I have the strength to make the hard decisions and choose to follow God every day?” French said.“Christ went through a lot of pain, and He didn’t have to go through that for us, but He chose to go through the pain in order to keep us from greater pain.”

French is still in pain. She still takes pills, and recently, she started physical rehabilitation which one doctor hopes will ease her pain. She goes to bed early, she salts all her food, and she drinks Gatorade. She is still not entirely sure what is wrong with her body.

French, Carroll, and Odell haven’t given up the fight for healing, and they still cleave to Christ. French shows off her tattoo, the simple outline of a deer on her shoulder, and explains how it represents her hope.

“I love Psalm 18, how it says ‘it will make your feet like the feet of a deer,’” French said.

“I first found that verse when I couldn’t walk. That’s just so cool — He’s making my feet into the feet of a deer. I mean, deer are kind of cool. They prance and their feet are small and so powerful. The tattoo reminds me that this was a hard thing happening in my life, and Jesus is transforming me into whom He intends me to be. He will ‘secure me in high places,’ and He is protecting me.”

“That was the first time I had a seizure,” Odell said. “I was teaching Latin to the third grade class at Hillsdale Preparatory School. I had no idea what was happening.”

Odell collapsed while teaching class to third-graders in fall 2010, before she was diagnosed with Lyme disease.

“That was the first time I had a seizure,” Odell said.

Even though Odell has healed from an active infection of Lyme, she still feels the effects of Lyme in her body.

Odell’s body reacts severely to mold, so if she is exposed, she can be sick for weeks or fall prey to seizures.

While Carroll and Odell have sure diagnoses and know how to take care of their bodies, French’s condition is still uncertain. Some doctors have attributed French’s chronic pain to POTS, while others claim that the pain is caused by fibromyalgia, an illness that affects muscles and nerves.

“That’s been a hard pill to swallow, that there isn’t really ever going to be an absolute answer for me, which is weird,” French said. “I was expecting a diagnosis, and then once I got a diagnosis they’d give me a magic pill and I’d be fine. But life doesn’t really work that way.”

It was then that French said she realized how much she needed Jesus.

“I realized I am capable of bringing nothing,” French said.

“God really has to carry me to Him. There are days when I physically can’t go to church or my brain can’t read, and it’s been a really odd blessing to see that – it’s really God carrying me to Him.” Odell knows that moments like these have changed how she handles suffering and how she views the world.

“To be dealing with this day in and day out, you learn more about the nature of suffering,” Odell said. “I think you can become more sensitive to suffering in general. Everyone goes

“I was hesitant to take an internship right after graduation because I didn’t know where it would go, and it did end up being a full-time job,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to do an internship or a fellowship or something that doesn’t have complete commitment because it tends to lead to other things. Especially if you don’t know what you want to do, it’s a good opportunity to figure that out while you work.”

Within a few weeks, the Wall Street Journal offered Bachelder a position on full-time staff. She is currently an assistant editorial features editor.

“It’s like going to graduate school in public affairs with how much I’ve learned from experts in a wide array of fields,” she said. “My colleagues are extraordinarily sharp. The routine is really interesting — to see the pages come together every single day, to have a routine that is so predictable, yet so intellectually rigorous and challenging in different ways.”

Ever wonder what was on the corner of Manning and College streets before the parking lot for Kendall was built?

That lot was once the site of a historic house, the home of the Pi Beta Phi Sorority.

Michigan Alpha Pi Beta Phi was chartered at Hillsdale in 1887. Before living in the current building on Hillsdale Street, Pi Phi chapter meetings were held in individual rooms and the third floor of East Hall until 1898, then moved to various houses in the area.

In 1923, the sorority moved to the house on Manning street which was demolished in 2000 to make way for the Kendall parking lot.

The white house was the sorority’s first permanent building on campus and, as an older building, had quite a few quirks.

The most unusual aspect alums remember is the sleeping quarters: an unheated porch whose windows the health department required to be perpetually open.

Actives constantly slept with electric blankets to survive the winters.

“The house manager had, as a part of her duties, the job of turning on all electric blan-

kets by 9 or 10 p.m. or at least an hour before anyone would retire,” said Carol Ann Barker, former dean of women and Pi Phi alumna to the Collegian in 2000. “One would dress for bed, go to the sleeping porch, and run – literally – to one’s bed in order to dive in under the warmed blanket. I awakened one morning with a fine misting of snow on top of me and the bed.”

Oct. 12, 1968, Pi Phi broke ground for the new house. The three level, brick colonial building can house 42 girls, and was completed the following year.

Funds for the house were raised through designated gifts from alumni, parents, students, and friends.

The weekend of Oct. 2, 1987, over 250 Pi Phi alumnae returned to Hillsdale to celebrate the centennial of Pi Beta Phi on campus. The events included a dedication ceremony for the newly completed brick sign and flagpole for the house, donated by the Pi Phi Parents Association, and Alumnae.

Today, 37 women live in the house.

“The house is very central to the chapter - it’s a gathering place,” said Pi Phi President Elizabeth Harris. “It’s where everything happens. It’s a place for common growth.”

The previous Pi Beta Phi house on Manning Street.

(Courtesy Linda Moore)

Spotlight B4 17 April 2014

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Chick Ranch

Life in spoons Students cope with chronic illnesses Ten spoons means it’s a bad day, so French reaches for her pills and swallows the first of many. Today she Sophomore Becca French will take a total of 20 pills, opens her eyes and starts to and she’ll be drinking plenty sit up – then she knows she of Gatorade. only has 10 spoons. Shower“I’m on a high salt diet, ing might take three spoons, so I salt everything I eat, like so there won’t be a shower hot chocolate,” French said. today. Getting dressed is two “The salt is to raise my blood spoons, but she pressure and get has an exam tomy heart-rate to morrow, so she “I couldn’t really go down. I drink needs to save 1-2 liters of Gaat least five for carry a plate most torade a day, studying, and days because my which is really three for breakdisgusting. I refast, lunch, and hands weren’t ally hate Gatodinner. Getting rade.” working.” dressed might The high — sophomore be pushing it. salt diet is per Becca French her doctor’s inSpoon Theory, which structions. Last French learned spring, French from writer Christine Mise- would strap wrist braces onto randino, helps French plan her aching hands, then pack her day around the pain. her backpack with heating Spoons represent energy and pads and painkillers before allow you to plan out your making the long trek up the energy use, French said. hill.

When you’re in chronic pain, “The littlest things would you don’t have many spoons. take up so many spoons and “When you run out of I would have so few to use,” spoons, there’s no way of French said. “I couldn’t regetting them back until the ally carry a plate most of next day,” French said. “If the time because my hands you go over, and overextend weren’t working. So I just yourself, it’ll take days to get ended up eating alone in my that spoon back. It’s a way of room, or not eating in my giving a currency to energy, room, just hoping someone and it’s really helped me in would bring me food.” planning out my days and Chronic pain wracks figuring out there’s no way French’s body in her feet, of pushing through the pain for me.”

See ILLNESS, B3 Kate Patrick Collegian Freelancer

Tory Cooney Senior Reporter

Senior Katie Annett loved horses since she was a young girl. She loved the Old West since a middle school teacher’s casual mention that Jesse James had a brother which compelled Annett to look him up. The two interests have fueled each other over the years and have continued to grow.

“My family went to a ranch in Arizona when I was in eighth-grade,” Annett said.

“And I realized working with horses out West, that’s actually a job!”

Annett is going to take the job after graduation—wrangling horses at Hawley Mountain Ranch in Montana.

Hawley Mountain is a “dude ranch,” that was originally a former cattle ranch that converted to a wilderness tourist destination. As a result, Annett’s primary duties will include caring for the ranch’s 35 horses, leading trail rides, instructing guests, and participating in the life and upkeep of the ranch.

“I kind of thought just because I don’t have any previous cattle ranching experience, guest ranches would be a good way to get into it,” Annett said.

“I wouldn’t have to worry about the actual cowboying stuff yet.”

Annett’s plunge into the

Senior Katie Annett plans to work with horses after graduation..

rancher life although unexpected, not only because of the untraditional route for a Hillsdale graduate, but also because she didn’t grow up in a ranching family or working closely with horses.

She rode for several years when she was younger, but stopped almost six years before leaving for college. Annett’s interest in riding and her love of horses continued, however, and she picked up horseback riding again her junior year at Hillsdale, taking the college’s Western riding class at Wingate Farm with Marie Gibson, who runs the barn’s lesson program.

She continued taking les-

sons at Wingate, eventually assisting Gibson in classes and even leasing a mustang named Sally this semester who she’s been helping to teach.

“The number one thing you need working with horses is patience,” Gibson said. “Some people have it and some people don’t. Katie has it. She’s going to do great at the ranch.”

Annett’s stay at Hawley Mountain will extend from May to September. She intends to apply to other ranches in New Mexico and Arizona, who have a later guest season.

“I’ve just always wanted to do this, I knew it was something I wanted to try,” Annett

(Sally Nelson/Collegian)

said. “So I figured I might as well go for it.”

Senior Megan Korpics is also going to become a wrangler after she graduates, at Laramie River Ranch in Wyoming.

Though she hasn’t ridden consistently in college, Korpics has developed her skills this semester through riding lessons.

“It will be extremely challenging, particularly with the physical and emotional demands from long hours of physical work combined with constant interaction with guests,” said Korpics. “But it will also be that much more rewarding.”

{

Hillsdale students break into national media

Evan Carter Collegian Freelancer

The bustle of Fox News Commentator Greta Van Susteren’s studio leaked through her laptop speakers as Hannah Grandy logged onto Skype from her computer.

“We’re live in 30 seconds.”

Grandy, an economics major, has appeared on the Fox News show “On The Record” with Greta Van Susteren as a panelist on two occasions.

It turns out national media involvement is becoming a Hillsdale tradition. Seniors Hannah Grandy, Alex Anderson, and Warren Viegas all share experience working in media varying from television broadcast or the Internet.

Jan. 21 marked Grandy’s first appearance after she got a phone call from Greta’s program booker, ’12 graduate Charlie Couger, asking her if she would participate on a panel of millennials discussing the Obama economy. Five hours later she was on the air.

“All in the span of five hours it went from you know just going about my business to, I’m going to be on national TV,” Grandy said.

Before going on the show that night, Grandy called her advisor, Professor of Economics Gary Wolfram, for advice before her appearance on air. Grandy said Wolfram

Hannah Grandy

gave her advice that “if you could decide what’s going to be on the front page of the newspaper tomorrow make it your goal to say that.”

Grandy took Wolfram’s advice, and as a result she led the panel’s discussion. Hannah’s received a second call from Couger a month later. Unlike the first broadcast, things did not go as smoothly, and the earpiece provided by the college’s broadcast studio did not fit in Grandy’s ears.

“I couldn’t hear what they were saying because the earpiece kept falling out,” said Grandy, “I was like, ‘I have no

Alex Anderson

idea what the question was, but I’m just going to go with it.’”

Junior Alex Anderson, a politics major and member of the Dow Journalism program, has diverse experience in working in media.

During the summer of 2012, Anderson won a contest with CNN iReport and was sent to report on the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa.

“Seeing how the show was produced made me interested in getting experience at the national network level,” Anderson said.

His interest in broadcast led him to apply for an intern-

MEREDITHCATON, JUNIOR

ship at Fox News. In the summer of 2013, Anderson worked for Fox News Political Commentator Sean Hannity.

“I just saw everything I had been working for in college come to fruition,” he said. “I saw my education, the classes I had taken, come to application.”

In February, Anderson had a video he produced about small businesses in the Hillsdale area using the Square credit card reader published on Fox News Business.com.

“I thought it would be good to tell the story of a small business so I pitched the story to

Warren Viegas

Fox,” Anderson said.

After college Anderson plans to pursue a career in communications, either working at a television network, as a Congressional press secretary, or possibly at a public relations firm.

Warren Viegas is the nephew of conservative author and film maker Dinesh D’Souza.

This family relationship has given him the opportunity to work with his uncle on a number of his projects.

When Viegas emigrated from India to the United States at age seventeen, he knew nothing about American poli-

tics until he stumbled upon his uncle’s book, “Letters to A Young Conservative.”

“After reading the book, I was inspired by what my uncle is trying to do,” Viegas said.

Although Viegas was largely an observer of the production of his uncle’s first movie, “2016: Obama’s America,” he learned about what goes into making a movie, especially how to write scripts. Viegas played a more significant role in promoting his uncle’s most recent and yet to be released film, America.

Recently he wrote the script to the YouTube video “Between Two Americas,” which parodies Zach Galifianakis’ webshow “Between Two Ferns,” as a promotional piece aimed at younger viewers, particularly college students.

“If you looked at the demographics 2016 reached, it was for the older crowd,” he said.

“If you want to reach a younger crowd you have to do things a little differently,” Viegas said.

After graduating Hillsdale, Viegas plans to pursue a career in the film industry.

“The media is liberal, leave Hillsdale and go anywhere else, it’s liberal. The entertainment industry is very liberal.

The conservative values are under threat because of it,” said Viegas, “There is a good opportunity for a lot of people to make a difference in the media setting.”

CAMPUSCHIC Describe your fashion sense.

“Scummy” East Coast Prep.

What inspires your style?

Alecia Silverstone from “Clueless,” and French tomboy.

What is your biggest fashion pet peeve?

No-show socks. How do they stay on your feet?

What is your favorite item of clothing.

Snakeskin heels from Geneva, Switzerland.

Photos and Compilation by Ben Strickland