Collegian 03.06.2025

Library construction will close colonnade after spring break

By Carly Moran Senior Reporter

For the next two years, the Michael Alex Mossey Library will be under construction, according to Chief Administrative Officer Rich Péwé.

Last month, the Hillsdale College Board of Trustees ap-

proved all funding for the addition of a North Wing, which will begin construction during Spring Break and be completed by April 2027 according to Péwé. The total project will cost $43.7 million, with $10 million in binding pledges already donated.

“Students will have access to

Tori Hope Petersen publishes new book

By Tayte Christensen Assistant Editor

Author, speaker, and podcast host Tori Hope Petersen ’18 published her second book, “Breaking the Patterns That Break You” on Feb. 4.

“It’s a story about our identity in Christ — understanding what he says about each of us, and how we can walk confidently in that, not making ourselves smaller for the sake of others, but becoming more of who he has created us to be, for his glory and our good,” Petersen said.

Petersen, an All-American track and field athlete at Hillsdale, now hosts the “I Love You Already Podcast” and started the Loved Already Conference for women in 2023. She speaks around the country and published her first book, “Fostered,” in 2022 about her journey through the foster care system.

“After I wrote my first book, I received a lot of feedback from readers about how they wished I would share more about my healing journey,” Petersen said. “But I hadn’t felt quite ready to put that process into words, because I was still navigating my own healing.” Petersen said for her second book, she wanted to write from “the perspective of not having it all figured out, but figuring it out.” “I wanted to write a book

that wouldn’t make readers feel like me, the author, was standing from a stage telling them how to get it together,” Petersen said. “Instead, I wanted to write something that would feel like people were walking hand-in-hand with me as we were journeying, figuring it out together.”

Petersen grew up with a mentally ill mother and never knew her father, who died a month before she was born. This background led Petersen to enter the foster care system at age 4. She reunited with her mother for a short period before re-entering the system at 12, according to previous Collegian reporting. Petersen stayed in foster care until she turned 18.

“When I was writing my first book, it felt like I was just writing out what happened to me,” Petersen said. “With this second book, it felt like I had to dig a little deeper to understand what happened to me, and how I dealt with the pain in the worst and best ways. It took a lot more reflection that sometimes I wanted to push away, and I had to take a lot of responsibility for the patterns that I continued to engage in.”

While a student at Hillsdale, Petersen majored in

all the spaces in the library besides the circulation area,” Péwé said. “The Heritage Room will continue to be available. The renovation will be messy.”

When students return from break, they can no longer enter through the west doors of the library. The entrance will be blocked off to build the North

Wing, spiral staircase, and new circulation desk. Instead, they must enter through a temporary first-floor entrance by the Heritage Room, or via the northern, third-floor entrance by the outdoor stairs. The student path and gate will be moved further east, toward the side of Delp Hall.

“The architect has talked about referencing the great libraries of the 19th and 20th centuries in America and in Europe, at Oxford, and places like that,” Library Director Maurine McCourry said. “A lot of the spaces will be intended specifically for reading and study, quiet contemplation.”

According to architect firm Michael G. Imber architect Alice Arnn, the drafting team looked to reflect both the liberal arts tradition and the college’s history in the redesign.

“The original master plan references many American and European examples with the understanding that the college fits within the history of western education, but we also found much to emulate in a master plan that the College commissioned in 1944 to commemorate its centennial,” Arnn said. “Our library looks back to English examples and the early 20th century language of American liberal arts colleges specifically — to

the work of Christopher Wren, Edwin Lutyens, John Russell Pope, and Paul Cret.”

The breezeway connecting the library to the Grewcock Student Union will be completely blocked off to create the new facade. Students looking to enter the union from the south must detour around the building, using the paved path to the east.

The college has already blocked off student access to the Ludwig Von Mises Room and study rooms on the second floor of the library, to make room for library staff usage.

“All of us in tech services will be moving into those study rooms,” McCourry said. “So those are going to be closed, but we are going to move the tables out. All the seats for studying that we currently have, we’re going to be able to keep all of those available. They’ll just be kind of squished together.”

Because part of the addition will be above the college maintenance tunnels, and soil conditions are currently quite soft, the construction crew will begin the project by building micropile foundations underground, as well as by demolishing the colonnade, according to Péwé.

See Library A3

By Ellie Fromm Assistant Editor

Sophomore Mikey McCollum scored 19 points, redshirt senior Charles Woodhams added 17 points, and junior Ashton Janowski contributed 13 points to lead the men’s basketball team to a 76-59 victory over the Ashland University Eagles in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference quarterfinal at home on Tuesday night. The Chargers now advance to the tournament’s semifinal game, which Hillsdale will host on March 7 at 7:30 p.m. against the Malone University Pioneers “We were connected on the defensive end tonight and were able to play most of the game on our terms,” redshirt junior Cole McWhinne said. Hillsdale entered the G-MAC playoffs as the No. 3 seed and Ashland was No. 6 seed. Malone entered the tournament at No. 7 and beat No. 2 Kentucky Wesleyan College Panthers 72-62 on Tuesday.

CCA explores ‘History on Film’

By Elaine Kutas Collegian Reporter

Historical dramas both demonstrate and provoke society’s reaction to the actual events, speakers said in Hillsdale College’s fourth Center for Constructive Alternatives, “History on Film” March 2-5.

This final CCA of the academic year featured four films that covered major historical events, each followed by lectures on those topics.

The 2024 motion picture “Reagan” was shown on Sunday. After the movie, Kenneth Khachigian, a speechwriter for the Reagan administration, spoke on his personal experiences with the president in his speech titled “The Reagan I Knew.”

“Reagan was uncomfortable with strangers in his life,” Khachigian said. “Telling jokes and his genial personality was how he dealt with uncomfortable situations.”

Khachigian characterized Ronald Reagan as a crusader, communicator, competitor, and friend. He also shared treasured moments with the president that depicted Reagan outside his political demeanor.

“One day, we were meeting Nancy Reagan for lunch at the Century Plaza Hotel and he brought me up to the roof where he was flying paper airplanes made of presidential stationery and watching them fall to the ground in the Century studio,” Khachigan said. “I’m sure there was a janitor down there sweeping up like eight airplanes.”

Monday featured a showing of “October Sky,” a 1999 film about Homer “Sonny” Hickam and his friends’ adventures building rockets in Coalwood, West Virginia. The film was based on Hickam’s memoir about his childhood, “Rocket Boys.” Hickam gave the evening lecture entitled “NASA and the Movies” and reflected on the adaptation of his book into the film.

er, and though I loved working for NASA, I wanted to write,” Hickam said. “One day in 1995, I got a call from the editor of Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine and she asked for 2,000 words due in two days. I told her, ‘I could write you 2,000 words about when I was a boy building rockets in West Virginia.’”

His publication in the Smithsonian magazine prompted calls from publishers who knew him from his first book, “Torpedo Junction,” and according to Hickam, he had auctioned the book to movie producers before the book was even written. He wanted to write a story about

his NASA career and include references to his childhood, but the story wasn’t working as planned.

“I was going to have to let that 14- to 17-year-old boy tell the story,” Hickam said. “I had to find Sonny Hickam and let him tell the story.”

After the showing of “A Bridge Too Far” on Tuesday, Wayne and Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College Victor Davis Hanson spoke about World War II on film. Hanson spent the beginning of his talk pointing out how the war was portrayed in film in the different decades after the war.

“During the 1940s and ’50s, people began to critique the common ideal about the war,” Hanson said.

According to Hanson, this social critique launched an abundance of good-guy, badguy movies understating the grittiness of the war. Hanson said the 1960s saw the anti-war agenda during Vietnam, but soon, a counter-reaction arose.

have an element of tragedy and a realistic depiction of history.”

According to Hanson, “A Bridge Too Far” is a great World War II movie because it showed the reality of the war — the death, the risks, and most importantly, the lost battles. The film depicts the Market Garden plan by the British and English to capture and hold bridges in Holland closest to the German border to infiltrate Germany and bring about the end of the war.

“The Market Garden mission was a bad idea from the start,” Hanson said. “It was a crazy idea and General Montgomery later said the allies never lost the territory they gained, but at what cost. It was an ungodly disaster.”

The showing of “Chariots of Fire” on Wednesday was followed by a talk from Titus Techera, executive director of

See Basketball

“We finally got a reaction of gritty and great movies that were not ambiguous about the

Allies’ role in the war,” Hanson said. “These movies have to

Courtesy | Film Hafizasi

Courtesy | Pinterest

Courtesy | MovieWeb

Gehrke lectures on history of Catholic church

By Austin Gergens Collegian Freelancer

“If you’re having church problems, don’t blame God’s Son, I got 95 theses, but the Pope ain’t one,” Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Center for Military History Jason Gehrke said during his lecture “What Happened to Catholic Christianity?” Feb. 28.

Gehrke, a confessional Lutheran, outlined his goal to demonstrate how the history of the Catholic Church after 325 A.D. has been a history of being divided by agreement.

“Catholic Christianity is fundamentally united by its belief that there is a unity of both thought and practice, that those things go together,” Gehrke said. “In ancient Christianity, that assertion is perhaps most fully articulated when Catholic Christians were talking to pagans.”

This lecture was the second in Gehrke’s three-part lecture series on theological history, which he said was partially born from hearing theological debates around campus.

“I often hear theological claims and narratives traded, often among people who aren’t really sure about the historic and therefore definite reference for the words they’re using,” Gehrke said. “I think that’s a bit ubiquitous around here, particularly among the students.”

Gehrke said one of the first markers of Catholic Christianity is how it differentiates itself from Gnostic teachings.

“That tradition of Christianity that used the word ‘catholic’ first was that one asserting that the incarnation was real,” Gehrke said. “Catholic Christianity is predicated on the real incarnation of Jesus. It emerges, not only in opposition, but necessarily and fundamentally in opposition to that other trajectory that we can call gnostic Christianity, which was also a tradition.”

Moving chronologically, Gehrke used the Creed of Nicaea to demonstrate an internal Church pattern.

“Catholic Christianity is itself involved in a process of internal differentiation that will involve regular, mutual anathemas, and what happened in the history of the church around that,” he said. “Catholic Christianity received and admitted the Creed of Nicaea in 325, and pretty soon also became divided by its acceptance of Nicaea.”

Rather than the Protestant Reformation of the early 1500s, Gehrke pinpointed how differences about the 4th century Council of Chalce -

Author from A1

Christian Studies with a minor in psychology.

Associate Professor of Psychology Collin Barnes said Petersen took classes with him while she was a student.

“She was fun, energetic, and a good student,” Barnes said. “I have fond memories of her.”

Petersen said her first book takes the form of a memoir and details her early life in foster care, while her second

Math team adds up to third in state

By Jillian Parks Editor-in-Chief

don

— which emphasized Christ’s human and divine natures — led to four kinds of Catholic Churches: Assyrian Church of the East, the Egyptian Coptic Church, Chalcedonian Orthodoxy, and the Church of Rome.

“All of those Catholic churches are the historic seeds of Nicaea, the ones named in Canon Six,” Gehrke said. “Three of them have a Petrine charism, and all of them are holding partially except Chalcedon.”

Associate Professor of History Matthew Gaetano reflected on the significance of taking the Coptic and Assyrian Churches seriously, which presents a reality of a differentiated Catholic Church in the West wherein its members affirm the Council of Chalcedon.

“Chalcedonian Christianity as actually being preserved through the Reformation is something that’s actually not to be taken for granted quite as much as I think we do,” Gaetano said. “The way that you’ve attended to the significance of the Egyptian Assyrian church helps to make clear just how remarkable that level of unity about the character of the Triune God and Christ really is.”

Gehrke said the 16th-century Reformation was really a “schism around the Alps,” and not the whole world, as the churches already drew distinctions several centuries earlier.

“Unless your notion of what the church is becomes purely ideological rather than historical, then you’re going to have to affirm, in some sense, an enduring Catholic character in all of these broken traditions,” Gehrke said.

Davis Smith, a first year graduate student, said he enjoyed learning how schism is not a bug, but a feature of Catholic Christianity.

“Schism is going to be an inevitable feature of Orthodox Christianity wherever it is because if you’re really concerned about truth and doctrine and practice, you’re going to want to make a split from those who believe differently,” Smith said.

Smith said Gehrke saw things through a Lutheran lens, yet was balanced in his presentation.

“He was pretty gracious towards the other traditions,” Smith said. “They can all claim Catholicity — he wasn’t saying that Rome and Calvinists and even Anabaptists are necessarily wrong for being schismatic or for having doctrines we disagree with.”

The Hillsdale College Math Team ranked third in Michigan in the annual Putnam Mathematical Competition. Sophomore Andrew Schmidt scored the highest on the team with 31 points and ranked 254th out of 3,988 contestants.

“We beat all the liberal arts colleges, kind of our peer institutions. Then you look at universities like Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Saginaw Valley — some of these places are 15 times our size, and we beat them,” said Associate Professor of Mathematics and Math Team Adviser David Gaebler.

“The only places that beat us are University of Michigan and Michigan State, and they’re both over 50,000 enrollments. I’m pretty happy about being third in the state.”

The test was proctored in person on campuses across the U.S. and Canada on Dec. 7, 2024. The test includes six hours of math with a two hour break at the halfway mark. Of 120 points, the median score this year was a 2.

“Most of the things being tested are high school things

— lists of integers, geometric figures. A motivated 10th grader could know what they’re being asked, but they would not know how to do it,” Gaebler said. “It’s designed that way to test problem solving and cleverness, as opposed to knowledge. You don’t become good at the Putnam by taking a lot of classes and doing a lot of homework and just sort of putting one foot in front of the other.”

Every Thursday, the math team meets to do old Putnam test questions. Gaebler said now that the club is largely student run, the mathematicians split into small groups to work through the problems on their own. Schmidt, as the team captain, is in charge of scheduling meetings, picking and printing the practice problems, and leading the discussions. He broke the school record last year as a freshman with a score of 41 points.

“The way I was taught math, [failure] was a massive part of the learning curve,” Schmidt said “I had to write a proof every week. And there were some weeks where all afternoon I would be pacing my room, like, ‘What on earth, I cannot solve this stupid problem.’ But

being able to shut the mindset down of ‘oh, I can’t get past this’ and work through it was a big part of math for me, especially in competition.”

Schmidt said the Putnam is not for everyone, but the sixhour Saturday test has its benefits.

“It lets you step out of the classroom and sort of feel math as something more dynamic and more like what it actually is in research, or like historically, as these things are being discovered,” Schmidt said. “If that’s something that is exciting and you’re willing to maybe fail, but also take a chance at seeing something really cool, then go for it. And, there’s no such thing as flunking the Putnam.”

His first competition with the team, freshman Levi Dittman came away with one point this year.

“I think most of us who do it, we just really enjoy problem solving,” Dittman said. “There’s a bit of a feeling of accomplishment when you’re done, but I’d say it’s mostly the first thing. We just really love solving mathematics problems.”

For Dittman and many others, math is a creative endeav-

or, using set rules, theorems, and proofs to solve a wide array of problems.

“Oftentimes, there’s not necessarily a single way to solve the problem, and most of the time, we’re not going to have any idea of how to solve it at the outset,” Dittman said. “You need to parse it, understand it, and then figure out a line of attack and follow through. It’s not something that you can boil down to a single recipe.”

According to Gaebler, the well-rounded liberal arts education that attracts students like Dittman, Schmidt, and sophomore Ben Bassett is good preparation for a test like the Putnam.

“Andrew is big on music. He sings in the chamber choir. He’s an elite classical guitarist,” Gaebler said. “Ben is a physics and math double major and loves computer programming. These students, they’re not one-dimensional. I think that helps them in the kind of creativity that’s involved. I think maybe people who are a little bit less broad in their interests have a harder time coming up with something original that they haven’t seen before.”

Simpson men beat cold with igloo

By Fara Newell Collegian Freelancer

After 40 hours of work and two tons of ice blocks, four men from Simpson Residence constructed an igloo outside the dorm.

“Doing something cool that nobody else would really do, and going to a ridiculous amount of effort to do something that’s going to melt in a week, just for the sake of it, is kind of fun,” sophomore Andrew Hawken said.

Hawken and sophomore Wyatt Peters had extra time on their hands when Hawken decided to build an igloo, according to Peters.

“He wanted to build an igloo all of a sudden,” Peters said.

The full project took four days, according to Peters and Hawken. They first tried snow blocks, but the igloo kept crumbling, Hawken said.

Peters and Hawken said their next idea was to build the igloo with ice. They first went to excavate ice at Winona Lake, across from Slayton Arboretum, but security found them and ordered them off the ice.

“The security guy was very nice, but he said that we couldn’t be out on the ice. There was running water underneath that causes thin spots and people have fallen through before, so it’s a liability for the college,” Hawken said.

Peters said he was surprised the chainsaw wasn’t more of an issue.

“I was mostly just surprised that he didn’t ask us what we were doing with a chainsaw,” Peters said.

Undeterred by the inci -

book tackles the repercussions she faced as a result of a tumultuous upbringing.

“It communicated what I accomplished, but throughout that climb there have been dark valleys, and this second book communicates those,” Petersen said. “I actually think those stories are more important to tell. People thought my first book was deep and vulnerable, but this book feels more so.”

While a student, Petersen said she submitted works of

writing to various campus publications but was never published. She said that didn’t keep her from continuing to write.

“I didn’t change my voice to make it more acceptable in the spaces where it wasn’t heard,” Petersen said. “To the aspiring writer who keeps putting themselves out there, and being shut down, please know those moments do not define your work or you.

Some audiences won’t want to hear what you have to say

dent with security, Peters and Hawken said they moved the operation to Baw Beese Lake. They worked day and night to cut and move the ice.

Hawken cut strips of ice with a chainsaw before cutting them into blocks. The men then used snow shovels to remove the ice from the water.

“We didn’t reach into the water at all because we tried that once, and our hands got so cold that we would have gotten frostbite if we’d done that for all the blocks,” Hawken said.

From there, Hawken said they slid the blocks across the ice to shore.

Initially, the pair used Hawken’s car to transport the ice blocks back to Simpson. They lined the car with plastic to prevent the melting ice from ruining the seats.

“We only managed to fit 15 blocks in his car, and each block was 30 pounds. So we had 450 pounds of ice in his car,” Peters said. “It was pret ty inefficient and it was gonna take a really long time.”

Sophomore Victor Fer nandez loaned his truck for hauling ice, Peters said. This way, they could haul up to 50 blocks of ice per trip. With each block weighing around 30 pounds, they transported about 1,500 pounds per trip.

Sophomore Jack Baldwin and freshman Thaddeus Re udelhuber also helped exca vate the ice. Baldwin said he was motivated to help because building an igloo is a rare oc casion.

“There’s not many opportu nities anywhere south to build igloos,” Baldwin said. “It was therapeutic. I would cut ice for a living.”

But Hawken and Peters

right off the bat, but once your voice resonates with people, and once people start listening, the people who turned you down, denied you, or silenced you will no longer have a choice but to listen.”

Petersen said since her book’s release, she completed a book tour and visited six cities in one week, including Arlington, Texas; Longmont, Colorado; Vienna, Virginia; and Defiance, Ohio.

said the same cold conditions that made the construction possible also made the process arduous and painful. After hours of excavating, Peters said his tendons hurt and his gloves were frozen stiff.

“I definitely damaged those poor gloves. It took two and a half dryer cycles with just my gloves in there to get them dry,” Peters said. Hawken said his pant legs froze completely solid from the water kicked up by the chainsaw.

“It was 10 degrees outside, so all that water hit my jeans and then froze solid,” Hawken said.

For the construction of the igloo itself, the Simpson men laid a foundational layer to outline the base. They mixed water and snow to create a slush mixture to pack around each layer of ice blocks.

“It was six degrees, so it froze instantaneously, and after a few minutes, you could

Hawken said he felt safe sleeping in the igloo because he was confident in its structural integrity.

“It was actually pretty snug; it kept the wind out and everything,” Hawken said.

Six days after the men completed the igloo, warm weather made the slush mixture melt and the structure collapse. Hawken and Peters said they decided to smash it with a sledgehammer.

“We just smashed it to bits, which was fun, but it was also sad,” Hawken said.

Peters said he didn’t want to destroy the igloo, but it was the proper decision.

“We put it out of its misery; it was the right thing to do,” Peters said.

Hawken said the difficulty of building the igloo added to its worth.

“It was pretty hard to do, which adds value to it,” Hawken said.

Despite the cold working

“Working with Tori has been an absolute joy and priv-

Subscribe to The Collegian To receive weekly issues of Hillsdale College’s student newspaper, please contact Lauren Bixler at lbixler@hillsdale.edu.

ilege,” said Christina Hanks, Petersen’s director of publicity. “She brings such a rare blend of authenticity, wisdom and unwavering compassion to everything she does.”

Hanks said Petersen has a special ability to point people toward healing and hope.

“Her heart for others is evident in every page she writes, and I know it will continue to impact countless lives,” Hanks said.

In the future, Petersen said she hopes to write another

book, but for now she will continue to speak and teach while caring for her family.

“The messages that I have been receiving on social media have been overwhelming, and I am so thankful,” Petersen said. “The book seems to be doing exactly what I prayed it would — helping people heal what is underlying, and affecting them in ways they didn’t even realize.”

How to: Join The Collegian To find out more about how to contribute to The Collegian through writing, photography, or videography, please contact Jillian Parks at jparks@hillsdale.edu.

The igloo lasted for six days.

Courtesy | Andrew Hawken

Sophomore wins oratory competition

By Jillian Parks

solution, and why the Found-

C.S. Lewis Society hosts education panel

By Joseph Peshek Collegian Freelancer

Education teaches students how to love, not just what to love, according to three Hillsdale professors who spoke in a panel hosted by the Hillsdale College C.S. Lewis Society Feb. 27. The panelists spoke on an assortment of issues pertaining to classical education

about the American republic. This makes total sense: they’re talking to an audience at Hillsdale College who truly believes in investing in the future of this republic,” Coupland said. “The prompt also referred to education in general, but if you go back and you look at the speeches, you’ll see that many of them capitalize on reading in particular, the role that literacy plays within a larger education.”

Hovance structured his speech according to a problem and his proposed solution.

“The problem I was trying to lay out is that there’s this idea of education that is beautiful, amazing, and has this transformative power that in a Hillsdale education we see a lot,” Hovance said. “But then when you actually get down to it and you go into a public school, all this kind of beauty stuff we’re talking about isn’t really apparent.”

More specifically, he focused on lack of literacy and effort to teach children to read high-level ideas. Hovance’s solution was abandoning the kind of progressive philosophy that views education as solely a means of employment.

“One of the things that was really captivating for me was his use of location on the stage to be able to frame the ideas that he was speaking about,” Coupland said. “In terms of the visual use of location and referencing back, he used space to be able to frame the ideas he was trying to say. That was really powerful.”

After a weekend of performing as Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Morey took to the Plaster Auditorium stage to deliver her speech centered on the importance of reforming the public school system, specifically in literacy and civic education. She split her speech into three sections: the problem, the

my speech was what’s wrong with education using statistics about low literacy levels, about how kids are scoring on civic education tests. And then a section with some statistics on how we can fix it, what’s worked for students and what hasn’t, and different schools implementing different resources to help them,” Morey said. “Education, in civics, in the government, impacts politics heavily, because an informed citizenry can actually create a good government.”

Coupland said Morey clearly cared about what she was talking about and seemed to believe in the ideas that she was articulating.

“Growing up with my older siblings coming to Hillsdale, I’ve always known that education is really important, and I think this research only cemented that fact for me,” Morey said. “If anybody here took a citizenship quiz, they would either ace it or close to it. But 3% of public high schoolers are passing these quizzes. Knowing the difference in the education we get here versus what they are getting helped me realize how important it was, how few students are getting the opportunities we have now, and why we should change that.”

Morey said more people should enter the competition, even if they are afraid of public speaking.

“It gives them excellent exposure to professors — just in the preliminary rounds, the mock trial coaches judged us, and it was incredible, and their ballots were so helpful,” Morey said. “If they make the final round, the people they meet and the people they impact could be lifelong connections. I know public speaking is terrifying, yes, but what’s the worst that could happen?”

Like many of the speakers emphasized in their speeches yesterday, Coupland said people ought to engage in public conversation, and the Edward Everett competition is one way to do that.

“Here at Hillsdale, students and faculty are encouraged to get out, to be in public space, and to argue for ideas, not just hide it under a bushel,” Coupland said. “We have to be involved, and we have to rely not just on the strength of the arguments, but our ability to persuade others towards those good ideas.”

by ‘The Abolition of Man,’” Gregg said. “It’s so prophetic. You’d think it was written yesterday, and there are some moments that are just genuinely dark.”

Gregg said. “And I think even a non-liberally educated person has to recognize that education has an end, and maybe that’s the place to start.”

Correction: In the Feb. 27 edition, “Restoration to revive bell’s toll,” mistakenly reported the Victory Bell was made from melted Civil War bullets. The bell was made from Michigan copper, not bullets.

“Part of the question is less about how we get students to admire the things that are worthy of admiring but how we get them to admire something at all,” Assistant Professor of Education Jonathan Gregg said.

Seniors Justus Hume, the society’s president, and Mark den Hollander, the society’s vice president, shared the stage with panelists Assistant Professors of Education Jonathan Gregg and David Diener, and Professor of History Bradley Birzer to discuss what Lewis says about classical education in the modern world. Hume and den Hollander asked the panelists a variety of questions submitted by the Hillsdale faculty and student body.

Den Hollander asked the panelists about their first experiences reading Lewis’s famous work, “The Abolition of Man.” “I was and still am haunted

After sharing their experiences of “The Abolition of Man,” the panelists discussed how Lewis might reply to the question of whether education is meant to be a student-led enterprise aimed at open inquiry or something that is led by teachers tasked with transferring true information to their students. The panelists said Lewis would say both and neither.

“I think Lewis thought of teachers as master learners, so the teacher is guiding the students on this journey of inquiry, but in such a way that points them toward the givenness of reality,” Diener said. “So it’s not that you jam facts into students’ heads because that’s ultimately what makes them educated, but education is about orienting students toward a correct understanding of the world.”

Den Hollander then asked about how to talk about classical education with those without a liberal education.

“I think a conversation about what the end of education is would go a long way,”

Dr. Diener and Dr. Birzer both stressed the importance of pointing out the negative consequences of rejecting universal objective values.

Hume then asked the panel how parents and educators can go about cultivating love within the hearts of their kids and students.

“There is an element in education where we need to find the wonder,” Birzer said. “The wonder isn’t just saying, ‘Let’s find what’s wonderful.’ It’s really trying to figure out what is wonderful in life and expressing that as a professor.”

Diener posed a series of questions that parents and teachers can ask themselves when tasked with educating the next generation.

“What do you want your students to love differently when they leave your classroom?” Diener said. “How do I want them to leave my classroom with their soul or heart inclined differently than when they enter? What do I want them to love?”

The panelists closed the discussion with an assortment of book recommendations per-

taining to C.S. Lewis and his views on education. Gregg recommended Lewis’s work “The Discarded Image” and his essay “Medieval and Renaissance Literature;” Diener recommended Wendell Berry’s book “The Loss of the University,” and Birzer recommended “The Abolition of Man” and C.S. Lewis scholar Michael Ward’s “After Humanity.” Freshman Karis Lim said she enjoyed the evening’s panel.

“I really liked the part about how education shapes affections and ignites affections in the first place because we have forgotten how to love,” Lim said, “It is kind of a scary thing when we stop caring about things and stop being vulnerable; then there is a destruction of love and education.”

Junior Jonathan Williams said he appreciated Lewis’s approach to non-Christian literature and how that approach broadens the field of study for classical education.

“I thought they did a really good job at figuring classical education as always bringing you closer to the source of truth in Christ even through all of these other non-Christian things.”

Professors discuss Trump’s economics

By Megan Li Assistant Editor

The three greatest threats to American liberty today are the government, the left, and malign foreign actors, said Charles Steele, associate professor of economics and director of the Center for Commerce and Freedom, in a talk hosted by the Praxis Political Economy Club and the Classical Liberal Organization Feb. 27.

The lecture, called “We Dodged a Bullet: A Libertarian Analysis of the 2024 Election,” featured presentations from Steele and Professor of Economics Ivan Pongracic that examined the events leading up to and proceeding from the election of President Donald Trump.

“I’m talking about two radically different regimes that we might have had, might have faced, and I think one is generally supportive of individual liberty — free markets in the American constitutional system — and one that is overtly hostile,” Steele said.

Steele cited Saule Omarova, a public policy advisor nominated by the Biden Administration to

Library from A1

“We are getting more restrooms, but during the construction, we’re only going to have four,” McCourry said. “We’ll have the four single-stall restrooms. We will put family restroom signs on them, because there is no way that we will have two men’s and two women’s restrooms throughout the entire building.”

The next two years will see some substantial renovations. The North Wing addition will include multiple seminar rooms, a large classical reading room, spaces called “parlors,” and a modern classroom. According to Péwé, the circulation center and staff work room’s ceilings will be replaced, the main staircase will be replaced with a spiral staircase, and a light monitor will be installed by the new school year. The two-story addition, undercroft and exterior grand staircase will be completed by May 2027.

“We don’t currently have immediate plans to renovate any of the rest, apart from the circulation desk,” Péwé said. “However, if there is room in the budget towards the end of

be the comptroller of currency in 2021, as an example of the federal government’s intended control.

“She’s made the following argument: all bank accounts, all private banking, should end,” Steele said. “The Federal Reserve will be the only deposit bank, and then the Federal Reserve will disperse money to the new National Investment Authority, and they will decide how it’s allocated.”

Steele said he hopes to see Trump abolish a federal cabinet position as a start.

“He’s put people in charge of all these agencies who are explicitly opposed to administrative rule and who are really challenging the bureaucracy,” Steele said.

Pongracic began his talk by quoting a post from the Substack “bad cattitude.”

“‘The American state has rotted and festered beneath us into something more predatory than protective,’” Pongracic read aloud.

When he watched movements like Black Lives Matter, the election of Joe Biden, and the New Green Deal between 2020 and 2024, Pongracic said

the project, we may replace carpet and some of the most worn furniture.”

According to McCourry, Mossey Library was originally built in 1971 but was only two stories at the time. The library’s current foyer was connected to the since-demolished Kresge Center for Traditional Studies. In 1994, the Heritage Room, third floor, and eastern half of the library were built, bringing in the current flooring, wallpaper and furniture the college has today. In 2005, the old Carr Library, north of Mossey, was torn down to build the Grewcock Student Union.

“We are going to try very hard to keep all the same services, to keep all of the collections accessible,” McCourry said. “Some of the special collections will be a little harder to get because they’re going to be going into storage.”

According to Arnn, the San Antonio firm Michael G. Imber Architects is looking to expand the aesthetic choices of Christ Chapel to the rest of campus.

“Christ Chapel set a new standard for the quality of

he believed the American experiment had come to its end.

“The people that live in the Soviet era are looking at these people and going like, ‘Oh, geez, these guys are a little extreme, aren’t they?’” Pongracic said.

Pongracic said every action of the federal government for the past few years has been to enlarge and strengthen the government while subjugating the individual. The national debt is a case in point.

““I thought, ‘There’s no way in hell that they can double the debt again over the next eight years,’” Pongracic said about the Obama Administration. “And they said, ‘Hold my beer.’” The conservative movement needs to change its mindset about losing in an “admirable” manner, according to Pongracic.

“That defeatist attitude has become such a big part of our self-identity that it’s prevented us from recognizing and taking a win,” Pongracic said. “Make no mistake about it — from the perspective of liberty, Trump is a massive, massive winner.”

Sophomore Brian Shia, president of Praxis and CLO, said Pongracic has a reputation for being pessimistic about the fu-

architecture and introduced a much more classical language and civic scale to the campus,” Arnn said. “Central Hall was built in the French

ture of America, but he has become optimistic since Trump’s election.

“This is such a crazy change that I had to hold an event about it,” Shia said.

Both Steele and Pongracic agreed Trump is the most libertarian president they have seen in their lifetime. Senior Lauren Smyth said Steele and Pongracic were very engaging presenters and made strong cases.

“I never expected to hear Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan compared in an econ lecture, but there’s a first time for everything,” Smyth said. Praxis and CLO will host a follow-up presentation from Associate Professor of Economics Christopher Martin called “Did We Dodge a Bullet?: The Conservative Alternative to Binary-Choice Politics,” Thursday, March 6th from 7 to 8 p.m. in Lane 124.

“What I’m most excited about is the shift toward more free-market and classical liberal ideas” Shia said. That is what will keep this project going on beyond Trump’s term as president.”

Second Empire style, and it is very American and even midwestern in its materiality and detailing.”

Sophomore Nina Morey got second place. Courtesy | Austin Thomason

Sophomore Jon Hovance got first place. Courtesy | Austin Thomason

The addition will include a stair hall. Courtesy | Michael G. Imber Architects

Opinions

The Collegian Weekly

The opinion of the Collegian editorial staff

Study to be human, not an employee

Editor-in-Chief | Jillian Parks

Managing Editor | Isaac Green

Senior Editor | Michaela Estruth

Outreach Director | Olivia Pero

Design Editor | Ally Hall

News Editor | Catherine Maxwell

Opinions Editor | Caroline Kurt

City News Editor | Thomas McKenna

Sports Editor | Jacob Beckwith

Culture Editor | Colman Rowan

Features Editor | Kamden Mulder

Social Media Assistant | Sam Otting

Circulation Manager | Lauren Bixler

Assistant Editors | Megan Li | Tayte Christensen | Christina Lewis | Alessia Sandala | Zachary Chen | Eleanor Whitaker | Anna

Broussard | Ellie Fromm | Ty Ruddy

Ad Manager | Nathan Stanish

Puzzle Editor | Matthew Tolbert

Illustrator | Maggie O’Connor

Faculty Advisers | John J. Miller | Maria Servold

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 the Opinions Editor at ckurt@hillsdale.edu before Saturday at 3 p.m.

Dear Collegian,

Meals are optional. Midterms are not.

Midterms are rough on everyone.

They’re like a gaping, evil hole of hell right in the middle of the semester. Almost before you know it, that President’s Ball high has worn off, leaving you with nothing but the bare shell of an existence until Olds Glow.

That, and more than two whole midterms to take in a single week before spring break.

Your health is usually the first thing to sacrifice in these desperate times. I know, because I had to take a Western Heritage midterm on the same day as a two-page paper for my Aristotelian Philosophy class last semester, and I’ve been recovering ever since. If you’re anything like me, sleep is the first thing to go.

Now, I’ve been no angel in this regard. Especially this semester, my usual bedtime (8:46 p.m. sharp, right after Olds visiting hours close at 8:30) has crept later and later. I stayed up until nearly 11 p.m. owning a Platonist two weeks ago — even though I had to get up early at 8 a.m. in order to get a full breakfast in before my 10 o’clock. And that’s before adding in the stress of midterm season.

In this last week — due to frantic midterm studying, putting the beginning touches on another three-pager on Aristotle’s thoughts on dancing, and soulfully crooning

“Don’t Stop Believing” on the Olds lobby piano — I’ve only been able to get seven and a half hours of sleep each night.

The bodily wear and tear is beginning to take its toll. I keep dozing off in class (it’s OK because we were talking about nominalism) and I’ve even started drinking tea in order to get enough caffeine (I’m up to a full cup a day now).

My mind, body, and soul, but mostly my body, have been put through the wringer of midterms and wracked mercilessly. I have been purgated and punished and pleonastically pummeled. It’s a harrowing experience that no Hillsdale student should need to face.

That’s why I’m sharing

There may be a family member who says you ought to be ashamed of pursuing a humanities major. Associate professor of English Jason Peters calls him Uncle Ed. Unfortunately, Uncle Ed has a misguided view of the purpose of education, favoring utility over all else: Learn, regurgitate, and repeat until you land a job. Yet we should be proud to admit that the humanities are beau-

tiful, and that’s reason enough to cling to them. The alternative is forsaking beauty at the expense of pure practicality, which sounds like a blueprint for Brutalist architecture and a culture devoid of a soul.

While education offers practical applications, these will never be its sole purpose. Humanities majors learn to think critically about essential things. Literature teaches us to

read ourselves into the world. History teaches us the mythos of heritage. Theology addresses important questions of how best to live in Creation. These help, not hinder, our ability to make a living and contribute to society. Students of the humanities engage in conversations within the tradition of the humanities as teachers and pastors. A humanities major might open doors to law school, or a

career in journalism or politics. Half the beauty of engaging in rich tradition is applying what we have learned.

The humanities peer into the human experience. Studying them requires an outlook on education that sees past utility. Trust that beauty in what you study actually does matter… and don’t mind Uncle Ed.

Keep smut out of teen literature

By Jayden Jelso Collegian Reporter

“But is there spice?”

Anyone who’s spent time scrolling BookTok — a TikTok community in which creators discuss and recommend books — has likely heard someone ask this. “Spice” is simply a less egregious word for smut: “obscene or lascivious talk, writing, or pictures,” according to Oxford Languages.

Put simply, it’s written pornography.

my expertise in dealing with midterms on only seven and a half hours of sleep.

Prioritize your hours of shut-eye above all else during midterm season. Cleave to them like a squirrel cleaves to the last acorn that falls from a tree in autumn, when all the other squirrels are also trying to get theirs, the furry little rats.

Put your friendships on pause — they’ll understand how much stress you’re under. And if they really love you as a friend, they’ll know just how important these midterms are to you. Skip meals to get more study time.

Be willing to cut class to study as well. Remember, your grade on any given midterm could make or break your entire life, but missing one eensy-weensy itty-bitty class won’t affect you at all. Besides, memorizing the Four Causes for your Aristotelian Ontology class is a much better use of your time than, say, French, which was invented by a nation which has never won a significant land or naval battle and has been compensating ever since.

If you need to, make the ultimate sacrifice — the greater studious devotion hath no man than this — and skip Swing Club. It will make you feel mean and small inside, but there’s no help for that: If you want to pass midterms, you need to commit. These tips can’t take away the pain of midterm season — nothing can, really, except for maybe the hope of spring break — but it will get you through, and you’ll be well-rested, too. Know that there is light at the end of the midterm tunnel: You just have to close your eyes to see it. Go in peace. Be like Aristotle.

Joseph P. Oldsboy is double-majoring in Philosophy and Olds with an ex in Mac. Following the end of midterm season, he hopes to return to a healthy sleep schedule.

This piece was edited by Zack Chen.

Over the last few years, BookTok’s popularity has become a driving force in the publishing world. According to a 2023 article in The Guardian, “TikTok recommendations are driving sales and launching authors' careers as the social media app continues to reshape the industry.” Though they stand to benefit authors, BookTok trends have damaging influence on the types of books getting published, especially in the young adult genre.

On BookTok, trends manifest themselves through whatever trope the platform is currently obsessed with, and the publishing industry follows these trends. If “enemies to lovers” — a trope that spoils the love story by telling us that the characters begin as enemies but end up in love — is popular on BookTok, an influx of books with that theme appear on the shelves.

Different literary tropes rise and fall in popularity, but the one underlying trend that doesn’t seem to go away is smut. One might think people would have the common de-

cency to keep the consumption of this kind of content private at least. After all, porn addiction is not something to be celebrated. But private doesn’t seem to be a word in BookTok’s vocabulary. Social media has given people license and opportunity to overshare, celebrating their consumption of sexually explicit material.

Written smut is more culturally accept ed than visual porn — luckily, there aren’t large TikTok communities of guys recommending their favorite videos, but there are plenty of women online who brag about the explicit novels they consume. In fact, there are entire TikTok accounts, like @allygriffeth or @maya_reads_spice, dedicated to recommending books that are the “spiciest.” There are also people who will not read a regular book, like @yannareads, an account with more than 459k followers whose bio claims, “if it’s not smut, I probably won’t read it.”

These women claim that it’s empowering to explore their sexual preferences through fiction, calling people purist or even misogynistic who rightly identify this as porn addiction. But this accepted addiction didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s the consequence of young adult or YA novels becoming increasingly sexual.

Over the last couple of decades, YA novels aimed at read-

ers aged 12-17 have increasingly included sexual scenes. The “Shatter Me” series, which has sold more than 10 million copies since it was first published in 2011, has multiple sex scenes throughout its nine-book arc. The “Twilight” series normalized the inclusion of vulgar content in young adult literature. While the “Twilight” series doesn’t contain graphic descriptions of sex, it dangerously romanticizes abusive relationships. E.L. James took this to extreme when she wrote the smut-ified fanfiction of “Twilight” that later became “50 Shades of Grey.” According to Bookstr, “One of the main ways that smut and romance were able to go deep into the mainstream was through the ‘50 Shades of Grey’ trilogy.” Now, this doesn’t mean romance has no place in young adult literature. It absolutely does. “The Hunger Games” and “Harry Potter” contain non-explicit romantic plotlines. Hillsdale alumna Ruta Sepetys ’89 writes clean historical fiction for teens. But today’s mainstream YA publishers don’t seem to understand or care that teens don’t, and shouldn’t, need sexual content to enjoy a novel. Though books like the “50 Shades” trilogy are marketed as adult novels, BookTok blurs the line between what is and isn’t appropriate for children and teens. Creators recommend explicit books on a day-to-day basis, using flashy buzz-phrases

like “this book altered my brain chemistry” or “the spice was out of this world,” which pique the interest of younger viewers. Because of this, school libraries have become more willing to include explicit books on their shelves. In 2024, “A Court of Silver Flames” was found on a school shelf in the Brownsville Independent School District in Texas. This book contains no less than eight graphic sex scenes. In addition, according to a 2024 article from The Harvard Crimson, “studies from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show that schools are placing less and less emphasis on the importance of critical thinking in literature; this decline in young teenagers’ ability to critically engage with the content, when coupled with teens’ increasing exposure to books dealing with explicit consumption, is concerning.” At Hillsdale, we pride ourselves on upholding virtue, intellectual rigor, and conservative values. We have the opportunity to support these ideals both online and in person. Porn in any form weakens the common man, and we can fight it by speaking against the trends that society wrongly calls empowering.

Jayden Jelso is a sophomore studying English and the author of the dystopian novel "Talon" (2023).

Illustrated by Maggie O'Connor.

Voice memos are the new texts

By Ally Hall Design Editor

Kaeleigh and I are rarely in the same place at the same time, despite living in the same town, taking the same classes, and operating in the same social sphere. The basis of our friendship is none of these typical markers of camaraderie. Instead, our connection remains embedded in the ether of Apple Voice Memos.

More intimate than a text and less demanding than a phone call, voice memos offer the perfect intermediate means of communication for the modern age. Far from another fad of technology-obsessed society, voice memos require levels of attentiveness, recall, and consistency that some “in-person” relationships don’t.

My daily voice memos with Kaeleigh range from five to 20 minutes in length. They’re personalized podcasts about our days’ events: commentary on campus celebrities looking more haunting than usual, critique of a dumb comment said in class, or a deep dive into That Thing That Happened In Middle School.

Some days feature lighter topics than others, but each note contains threads of conversa-

tions we began over six months ago when we no longer occupied the social scenes we’d grown accustomed to over the years. Call it grief, call it the frontal lobe development, but listening to “Starships” for the fourth time at a fraternity event no longer seemed appealing.

Voice memos were a creative way to engage when neither of us respond to text messages for days or weeks on end. The blue “play” button with an accompanied transcript taunts the listener to tune in.

Mundane noises like the crackle of cooking eggs, the metallic crunch of a chip bag, or the sharp pings of signal chirps accompany each note. I know the sound of Kaeleigh’s gluten-free chicken nuggets cooking in her air fryer and the jingle of her doorknob more intimately than I know any of her nonverbals. There are no physical cues to signal emotional states, so both speaker and listener must pay closer attention to how the stories are being told. There’s a standard format to follow with each delivery: You begin with a series of introductory remarks, often prefaced with a belated response excuse: “Hi, sorry this is late. Hope your headache is gone. I’m walking home from class.”

Next, you address content from the person’s previous memo, usually empathizing: “How else were you supposed to react? I’d cop a felony.” You then report on any sightings of ex-boyfriends, best friends, or celebrity professors: “I think he needs to wear a tiny bell around his neck like a cat so I stop jumping every time he rounds the corner!”

Finally, you add whatever strife you’re dealing with that day: “I accidentally turned in a paper about Plato and on the title page, I wrote ‘Aristotle.’ I’m considering dropping out.”

We’re able to include one another in the parts of our lives we don’t directly share. Even if Kaeleigh and I don’t spend a weekend night together, I’ll be sure to hear an account that wouldn’t translate well over text. Kaeleigh will have the utmost grace and stoicism bearing life’s greatest burdens, but threaten firearm violence if someone plays a Pitbull song she doesn’t like.

Something about the faceless, yet intimate design of the interaction encourages a closeness that has transformed our friendship. For two notoriously aloof women with health complications and avoidant tendencies, voice memos are our chosen means of growing together. I’ve

had more candid discussions via voice memos about chronic pain, relationship struggles, and academic pursuits with Kaeleigh than with my therapist. Voice memos enable us to report directly from the in-between spaces of life — the dark confines of our bedrooms, the backend of fake social media profiles, and speedy walks to and from class.

At some point in each voice note these days, we joke about how a few months ago, we were reporting from the trenches of despair. We’d send long accounts of that day’s challenges and ask for advice. But now, they’re different. Our voice memos are lighter, our spirits higher. Technology has transformed communication and interpersonal relationships in undeniably nuanced ways. I’m a staunch advocate for handwritten letters, seeing those you love in person as often as you can, and making the effort to call someone even for a few minutes. But voice memos offer an opportunity to target certain relationships that are stuck in the no-man’s-land of intimacy.

Ally Hall is a senior studying Rhetoric and Media.

German elections mean hope

By Frederick Woodward Collegian Reporter

Germany’s recent elections promise hope for the West. If such a left-leaning country can experience a remarkable shift towards conservatism, this bodes well for both America and Europe.

Originally scheduled for September 2025, Germany moved its election to Feb. 23 due to mounting dissatisfaction with Germany’s leadership. A long recession caused the International Monetary Forum to label Germany the “worst-performing major economy” in 2023. Ongoing environmental and refugee spending had triggered a budget crisis. To make matters worse, the latest in a series of suspected attacks by Middle-Eastern refugees and immigrants occurred, this time in Munich. The attack left more than two dozen people injured just ten days before the election.

The election results were nothing short of historic. The Bundestag, or German Parliament, which was previously governed by a left-wing alliance of the SPD (Social Democrat), FDP (Free Democrat), and A90 (Green Coalition) parties, underwent a radical transformation. For the Marxist-founded Social Democrats in particular, representation in the 630-seat German Parliament fell below 20% for the first time since 1933, landing at its lowest level since 1887.

The parties that carried the day were the CDU (Christian Democratic Union of Germany) with 28.4% of the vote and 208 parliamentary seats, and AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, or German Alternative) with 20.8% of the vote and 152 parliamentary seats. Together, the CDU and the AfD parties swung an unprecedented 360 parliamentary seats — a very healthy majority, considering that the remaining 270 seats must be shared across four disparate left-wing political parties.

The two parties will have much to negotiate. The CDU and AfD both favor reducing immigration, strengthening national defense, revitalizing the economy, and promoting a positive vision of German national identity. As strategist Erik Lenhart has observed, both parties have far more in common with each other than they do with any of the other leftist parties in the Bundestag.

But it still remains to be seen how parliamentary alliances will form. Ironically enough, the biggest obstacle to a CDU/AfD supermajority isn’t substantive policy differences — it’s the popular perception of the AfD as a “radical far-right party.” Like many leftist perceptions, however, this is inconsistent with the facts. As Vice President J.D. Vance observed in a post on X earlier this year, the German states that supported the AfD most vigorously

are “the same areas of Germany that were most resistant to the Nazis.” Unfortunately, this has not yet improved the AfD’s reputation.

In a rough analogy to American politics, the CDU is closer to the establishment-type Republican Party, while the AfD is akin to the MAGA movement. Media slander of the AfD, the type which many Americans now instinctively ignore when leveraged against MAGA, still seems to have some sway in German political perceptions. CDU leadership must realize how it could benefit from cooperation with the AfD and in spite of social and political pressures, forge a tie.

Under the Trump administration, America’s relationship with a newly conservative Germany will evolve. In the wake of the Feb. 23 election, CDU leader and soon-to-be Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that his “absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA.”

Merz’ stance rhymes in many ways with the America First agenda, albeit in a polite German tone. As leader of the CDU, Merz has advocated for a "zero tolerance" approach to punishing criminals, reversing marijuana legalisation, curtailing "woke" policies and language, and exploring a return to nuclear power. A committed capitalist and a devout Catholic, Merz is some-

thing of a Trump figure, branding himself as a businessman and political outsider, and stating he hopes to bring much-needed reforms to Germany.

Like Trump, Merz is not a spotless candidate. However, the success of both his party and the AfD in an election with record 82.5% voter turnout is a positive sign. As historian and author Charles Coulombe opined earlier this week, “if the election of Mr. Trump and the string of victories of the so-called ‘far-right’ in Europe signify nothing else, it is that the Liberal Order we have lived under for so long is nearing the end of its tether.”

As Coulombe and Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin have both observed, Europe is in the midst of a “crisis of identity.” It faces a binary choice: toward virtue and greatness, or toward weakness and decline. Germany, until recently one of the most liberal countries in Europe, has set the stage for its renewal, and by extension that of the West. Now she must deliver on this vision. Germany must still scale an enormous summit in her quest for renewal.

Nevertheless, all ascents begin with one step. Semper altius.

Frederick Woodward is a sophomore studying political economy.

Let humans choose humans: no AI hiring

By Elijah Guevara Collegian Freelancer

As college seniors refine their applications in hopes of entering the workforce in the coming months, they must confront a growing threat: Artificial intelligence is taking over the hiring process.

Since the advent of ChatGPT and the artificial intelligence tech race, up to 42% of employers have begun using AI in the hiring process to improve recruiting. This may entail AI screening resumes, selecting candidates, and analyzing body language and vocal inflections in video interviews, according to the BBC.

Most Americans do not find this prospect promising. According to a 2023 Pew Research study, 71% of U.S. adults oppose AI making final hiring decisions, and 41% oppose the use of AI in reviewing job applications.

However, ChatGPT and similar programs are a result of decades of prior AI development. Just like any other technology, AI evolved over years, gradually embedding itself into our daily lives, including the workforce and hiring process. Google and LinkedIn, the

sites most commonly associated with online job-searching and application, have used AI for almost as long as the sites themselves have existed. Google began using machine learning in 2001 to help its systems understand spelling mistakes. The company now uses AI for everything from helping with Google Translate to providing comprehensive results to search queries. LinkedIn began using AI around 2006 to develop its “People You May Know” function, an algorithm which connects people according to their interests, thus solidifying AI’s indirect influence over the online hiring process, according to Forbes.

AI is not new to the hiring process, and it’s here to stay. However, we ought to be cautious about AI replacing a crucial aspect of every hiring process: human judgement.

U.S. Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts emphasized this problem in his 2023 End of Year Report, in which he related the problem of artificial determinations to the U.S. judicial system — where human judgment matters the most.

“Machines cannot fully replace key actors in court,”

Roberts said. “Nuance matters: Much can turn on a shaking hand, a quivering voice, a change of inflection, a bead of sweat, a moment’s hesitation, a fleeting break in eye contact.”

Roberts concluded most people still trust human judgment to “draw the right inferences” from small clues in human interaction that machines might not pick up on.

The same holds true for the hiring process. Any machine can gargle up and organize information based on the order of degrees, experience, or even the number of typos in a resume. A more sophisticated machine might even analyze body language and vocal inflection to make hiring decisions

But the hiring process is severely limited if it runs solely on data and algorithms. While convenient, letting a machine decide which candidates advance based solely on resume data, analysis, and raw numbers ignores crucial nuance about a person that cannot necessarily be captured on paper. This may result, for instance, in bad candidates with impressive resumes being favored while better-fit candidates with more modest resumes are rejected

without either receiving faceto-face evaluations.

In-person interviews level the playing field of the hiring process. While resumes and data can give certain job candidates an edge, there remains a fundamentally human element of evaluating a person’s job fitness that AI can never replace.

An employer with virtue, perspective, and intuition can pick the right person for a job far better than the most sophisticated machine because machines cannot understand people by any metric beyond its own data. AI cannot base its judgement on any human experience or perspective of its own. Any attempt to run a hiring process without these necessities has failed from the start.

In the end, nothing can fully evaluate a person as well as another person. While one can generally accept AI as a result of our increasingly technological world, we must still hold the line by keeping AI’s role in the hiring process to a bare minimum. Leave the business of hiring people to people alone.

Elijah Guevara is a freshman studying the liberal arts.

DOGE falters

By Luke Miller Collegian Reporter

The $7 billion cut by the Department of Government Efficiency thus far is only about 1/1,000th of the 2024 federal budget. DOGE hasn’t taken a chainsaw to federal spending — just a pocket knife.

Both President Donald Trump and Elon Musk tout the work of DOGE as a promise they’ve kept to fiscal conservatives. But DOGE is not the answer they say it is. In fact, DOGE is not and will never be the real solution to the budget deficit problem.

The real answer lies in meaningful structural changes to spending, but neither Republicans nor Democrats are willing to address this.

Trump told his voters on the campaign trail he would address America’s financial problems and cut the nearly $2 billion budget deficit the Biden administration accumulated each year. Trump’s only effort to keep his word thus far has been through DOGE, which he created to audit the federal government for “waste, fraud, and abuse.”

According to its website, DOGE has already saved taxpayers more than $55 billion, but these numbers are massively inflated.

A financial analysis published by the Wall Street Journal Feb. 22 revealed the contracts cut by DOGE have yielded closer to $7 billion thus far. The Journal predicts that number will shrink to $2.6 billion over the next year.

This overestimation is due to the fact that DOGE cuts federal contracts, but most of the money “saved” from these cuts will still be spent by the federal agencies on other things.

The federal agencies DOGE has audited have not undergone meaningful budget changes, and it does not appear they will anytime soon. This means these agencies will create new contracts to spend the money in their budget, making the DOGE cuts much less meaningful in the absence of significant structural change.

DOGE is a Band-Aid on a system running rampant with irresponsible spending. No matter how much waste, fraud, and abuse it finds, the savings will tally up to a mere drop in the ocean of federal spending.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, Social Security and Medicare-related spending adds up to more than $3 trillion per year, yet Trump refuses to touch them.

These programs are almost entirely paid for by designated tax revenue from the payroll tax, meaning they require little extra funding from Congress.

In 2023, $1.6 trillion of the tax revenue controlled by Con-

gress went to social welfare programs, according to House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington. Welfare programs used more discretionary funding than Social Security, Medicare, and defense spending combined.

Means-tested social welfare programs, including food stamps, federal housing, and almost 100 other welfare programs, consumed 72.6% of unobligated federal tax revenue last year, according to Arrington.

These payments meant the average welfare recipient household made about $80,000 in 2022, and the median U.S. household income that year was about $75,000 according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

If the Trump administration really wants to address the spending problem, a meaningful place to start would be addressing the means-tested welfare programs that are running wildly out of control.

Even though Congress passes the budget, the executive branch runs the welfare programs. A gradual 50% cut to welfare benefits could eventually save the federal government $800 billion per year, and the average welfare recipient household would still see its income rise to almost $50,000 per year, leaving it well above the poverty line.

Most politicians see cutting welfare benefits as political suicide, and they might be right. People do not tend to vote for candidates who promise to give them less free money. However, this administration is in a unique position to handle that problem. Trump is a second term president who does not need to seek reelection, putting him in an excellent position to make the hard choice and cut structural spending.

For the last century, each generation of Americans has massively added to the national debt, passing it on to their children with the knowledge that someone will have to deal with it eventually. The first step to dealing with it is to stop the ever-increasing budget deficit.

DOGE is not capable of meaningful spending cuts that will dig America out of the massive deficits incurred each year by the federal government. Instead, Trump should focus on fixing the rampant spending problems in the Social Security, Medicare, and social welfare programs. The Trump administration has yet to show it is serious about addressing America’s real financial problems. Fiscal conservatives should not be content with surface-level solutions.

Luke Miller is a sophomore studying political economy.

'Gulf of America' executive order is un-American

By James Joski Collegian Freelancer

Welcome to the Gulf of America, at the mouth of the America river, east of the America mountains, and west of the America peninsula. If that statement sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is. Yet this is just the direction President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” moves us.

“It is in the national interest to promote the extraordinary heritage of our nation and ensure future generations of American citizens celebrate the legacy of our American heroes,” the order reads. To achieve this laudable end, Trump changed Mount Denali’s name back to Mount McKinley and the Gulf of Mexico’s name to the Gulf of America. While this order attempts to promote awareness of American heritage, its changes missed the mark. In fact, they did the opposite of what they were intended to do: They sterilized America’s rich heritage and obscured her history.

The Gulf of Mexico is a prime example. Spanish explorers named the gulf in 1550, and in the 475 years since, generations of French, Spanish, and English speakers have used that name. Changing it suffocates this history under the disturbingly austere title of “Gulf of America.”

In adopting these names, we risk detaching our history from the future. In obscuring the Spanish contributions to this nation’s discovery, the order creates an impression that America has always been here — that others didn’t come before us. It distorts our connection with the past, and thus corrupts our relationship with the future.

Trump’s executive order also fails when it comes to renaming Denali.

Alaskans, both Republican and Democrat, have always favored Denali’s name. The name Mount McKinley was coined by prospector William Dickey in 1896 and imposed on Alaskans in 1917. Since 1975, long before our modern obsession with inclusivity, Alaska had petitioned for a name change back to Denali, having already voted to change it at a local level. It was stopped by McKinley’s home state of Ohio.

If Trump’s goal is to highlight America’s heritage, then he should be proud to have Ameri-

ca’s highest peak represent Alaskan culture.

It is admirable to honor the work of President William McKinley, but the man never visited Alaska or Mount Denali. His recognition should not come at the expense of Alaskan history and heritage, which is inextricably part of the American heritage Trump claims he wants to promote.

If Trump truly wants to promote America’s beautiful heritage he must reverse this executive order. However, he has only doubled down by taking measures

to punish dissenting organizations, like banning the Associated Press from his press pool for using “the Gulf of Mexico.”

Trump’s stated intentions are good. We should be proud to be American, but this renaming is un-American. It also sets a dangerous precedent. Where do these name changes end? Do we change Mississippi's name because it's Native American? Do we change Florida’s name because it's Spanish? Neither of those ethnicities are the majority land users anymore, so by Trump’s logic they should be named after America as well. Yet it would be a travesty to erase these names and the history that goes with them. These renamings are also hypocritical. In an administration obsessed with cutting federal spending by any means necessary, superfluous expenditure to change accepted titles is perplexing. When the Department

of Defense renamed 9 army bases in 2023 it cost $62.5 million. If that is what it takes to rename a few forts, renaming the gulf won't help with the national debt. The greatest tragedy of this name change is that it only worsens the culture war in America. Whether you call it the Gulf of America or the Gulf of Mexico will determine whose side you are on. As the Associated Press has discovered, impartiality is not an option. This immature game of rightwing virtue-signaling needs to end. It is time for Trump to take the high ground and return the proper historic names to these places so that Americans can truly remember and appreciate their beautiful shared heritage.

James Joski is a freshman studying the liberal arts.

Illustrated by Maggie O'Connor.

City News

Dawn Theater seeking new outside management

CL Real Estate is relinquishing control, and the Dawn’s nonprofit will accept bids

By Tayte Christensen Assistant Editor

The Dawn Theater is searching for new management, following a request by CL Real Estate Development to back out of its current management agreement.

In a meeting Feb. 27, the Dawn Theater Governance Board said it is negotiating with the management group and preparing a request for proposals for incoming management bids.

The Keefer House Hotel LLC, a branch of CLRED, has rented and managed the Dawn Theater since 2022 when the group signed a 10-year contract with the city’s Tax Increment Financing Authority board, which works with local businesses and management to promote the city’s economic development.

The Dawn Theater Governance Board, a four-member subcommittee of TIFA’s Targeted Development Committee, said in the meeting it is still negotiating with CLRED to terminate the Dawn Theater’s lease, but has begun the conversation concerning what the theater’s new management structure will look like.

“CLRED legitimately wants out, but they also don’t want to leave the city in the lurch,” Dawn Theater Governance

Board Chair and Professor of Theater James Brandon told The Collegian.

The council discussed potential structures of the new management, including whether TIFA should hire a manager rather than allowing a lessee to operate the theater, but TIFA

Chairman Andrew Gelzer said he is hesitant to incorporate this style of management for the sake of both TIFA and the theater. Instead, Gelzer said it is important for the board to strike a balance between public and private management, similar to the theater’s current management style.

“The trick is crafting whatever agreement we have with any potential operator in a way that it’s not a detriment to the private side of the business,” Gelzer said in the meeting. “To me, that’s the prime requirement: having the community aspect of this theater go forward without it being detrimental.”

Former Dawn Theater General Manager and CLRED Communities Manager Gianna Green ’17 said at the meeting she had been involved with operations leading up to the Dawn’s reopening in 2021. She expressed concern over a new management structure that would include public and private entities.

“The reality is that community members are more natu-

rally inclined to attend events that directly benefit the theater rather than the ones that are operated by a private business,” Green said. “One potential solution would be for the public facing side to manage the concerts and entertainment while the private side handles weddings and parties. However, this arrangement places an unfair income limitation on its private enterprise.”

Friends of the Dawn Theater Chair Mary Wolfram said the nonprofit, created in 2017 by TIFA’s Targeted Development

“There

munity center, operating as a dual public private event center. Wolfram, who was involved in creating the original plan, said she looked at other event centers in the area to see how they were structured before creating a plan for the Dawn.

“There is no way in this world that the Friends of the Dawn Theater have kept any manager from making money,” Wolfram said. “The Friends are the nonprofit involved. They don‘t call them nonprofits for nothing. You can’t make money on bringing events like the

will be multiple entities vying for the opportunity to manage the Dawn.”

Committee, exists for the benefit of the theater. Wolfram advocated for keeping the group involved in the Dawn’s management structure.

“My concern is you’re trying to cut the Friends out,” Wolfram told the TIFA board. “It’s not a good idea. It’s not a good idea for the Dawn for a lot of reasons.”

Wolfram said the initial business plan for the Dawn Theater’s grant outlined that the space was to be used as a com-

Friends bring to the theater.”

Brandon said in the meeting he sees the value in keeping the Friends involved in the management of the theater.

“On the public side of this, I also see that the Friends have a vested interest in making investments into the space a private entity does not want to eat the cost of,” Brandon said. “No private entity wants to come in and say, ‘Oh yes, we need to spend $200,000 on projector screens.’ They don’t want to do

Councilman announces mayoral run

Matt Bentley, a Hillsdale native, will face the acting mayor

By Thomas McKenna City News Editor

Matt Bentley announced he will run for mayor of Hillsdale in the August special election, and he’s “singularly focused” on stopping plans to create bike lanes and other road changes in the city.

“I don’t like bike lanes,” Bentley told The Collegian. “They choke out a city, and once they get their foot in the door, they don’t go away. They clutter the traffic and our deteriorating roads, and nobody needs them. They’re fake, and they’re not safe for drivers or bicyclists.”

The city will hold the special election to elect a mayor in August, and Bentley could be joined by a fellow councilman in the race. Acting Mayor Joshua Paladino told The

Collegian he plans to submit paperwork soon.

“I will file for mayor in the coming days,” Paladino said. Bentley, a 58-year-old who represents Ward 2, grew up in Hillsdale, graduated from Hillsdale High School in 1985, and attended the University of Michigan. He returned to Hillsdale from Ann Arbor in 2020, driven back home by Ann Arbor’s pandemic measu-

winning an uncontested race. He announced his candidacy at Monday’s city council meeting.

“I’m running my campaign to stop the ‘road diet’ and the bike lanes that come with it,” Bentley said in an interview.

“I have 40-plus years of familiarity with this town. I’ve lived in many places, but I’m glad I’m home.”

res and adoption of bike lanes. Bentley joined the city council in November of last year after

The “road diet,” as the city calls it, would remove one lane from each side of Broad Street to make room for bike lanes and a middle turning lane for both directions. The changes would also end access to Hillsdale Street from Broad Street.

that. They’re not going to see the long term return of that investment. As a community, we can’t have a better advocate in this space than the Friends of the Dawn Theater.”

Acting Mayor Joshua Paladino said, while having the Friends of the Dawn manage the theater could make sense given the community events hosted in the space, the theater will need to make money somehow, which comes primarily from hosting private events.

“The concern of having an organization like the Friends of the Dawn run it is that TIFA won’t make any money on the lease,” Paladino said. “They’ll probably lease it to them at cost. And I think TIFA wants to make some money back out of the Dawn. They put a lot of time and resources into it, so they would like to make a little income.”

Brandon said the Dawn Theater will benefit from having new management, regardless of its arrangement.

“The current management structure is clueless as to how to run a theater,” Brandon said in the meeting.

“I don’t think we could do worse than what we have right now.”

Hotel Investment Services, a hotel and restaurant management company, is contracted by CLRED to assist in managing

both the Dawn Theater and the Keefer House Hotel, according to HIS Chief Operating Officer Brian Barton.

He said HIS will have no role in selecting new management for the Dawn Theater, since the group is not the lessee of the building, and will be focused on advising those who are making the decision.

“Our team will work with CLRED to ensure a smooth transition in operations at The Dawn,” Barton said. “CLRED remains committed to completing the Keefer House Hotel’s renovation and ensuring a successful opening. Given this priority, both CLRED and HIS are fully focused on opening the Keefer and planning for its long-term management.”

CLRED declined to comment at this time.

Brandon said there are several groups, including local entities, interested in operating the Dawn, but the council has yet to release applications for its request for proposal.

“There will be multiple entities vying for the opportunity to manage the Dawn, and that’s a great thing, because that means they think they can make it work,” Brandon told The Collegian.

The committee will meet again March 7 and will establish guidelines for requests for proposal applications.

At a feedback meeting in January, Zoning Administrator Alan Beeker promised to incorporate resident feedback before seeking approval from the city council.

Bentley called the city’s system for funding road repairs “arbitrary and unfair.” The city picks dilapidated roads for repairs by designating streets in poor condition as Special Assessment Districts. To fund the projects, it taxes residents on the street as much as $5,000.

The council approved a measure last month to make road repairs less expensive for property owners by lowering interest rates, capping initial costs, and extending the payback period. But Bentley said those reforms don’t go far enough.

“It adds undue expenses to an already expensive tax burden,” Bentley said. “We’re maxed out on our property taxes. We’ve improved it by extending the payoff period and lowering the interest rates, but we can and will do more.”

His campaign manager, Isaac Kirshner ’22, said he thinks Bentley’s local roots make him a strong candidate.

“Matt knows Hillsdale,” Kirshner said. “He’s from here. He knows people in town and they know him. His folks live just down the street. He understands what Hillsdale’s been through, and I believe he has a vision for a strong future, one which doesn’t leave the town and the people of Hillsdale behind.”

Bentley said he has not wanted to live anywhere else since returning in 2020.

“I have 40-plus years of familiarity with this town,” Bentley said. “I’ve lived in many places, but I’m glad I’m home.”

Airport to use state funds to buy tractor, repaint runway

By Malia Thibado Collegian Reporter

The Hillsdale Municipal Airport will receive almost $150,000 in state grants to maintain and develop the airport within the next year.

The airport will use the funds to pay for sealing and painting the airport’s runways and taxiway and to purchase a John Deere 5095M utility tractor, which will help remove snow from runway, according to Hillsdale Airport Manager Ginger Moore.

“We have a couple of old snow plows, but they cannot handle all of the type of snow removal that has to happen,” Moore said. “The tractor will help tremendously.”

The Michigan Department of Transportation and the Michigan Aeronautics Commission announced the 33 airports will receive a total of $4 million for airport development as part of the 2025 State and Local Airport Program.

“Gov. Whitmer and I are committed to investing in infrastructure that serves communities across Michigan, and our airports are no exception,” Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II said. “We’re proud of the progress we’ve made bringing home millions in federal funding to improve airports, and these new awards will help airports improve safety, security and infrastructure. Let’s keep working together to improve infrastructure in Michigan and better connect our small business owners, people, and families.”

The airports approved for

grants were chosen based on their project timelines, project justification, airport license status, and alignment with the 2017 Michigan Airport System Plan according to Michael Frezell, communications director at MDOT.

“This important State and Local Program provides essential funding, ensuring airport infrastructure investment for safe, efficient, and reliable travel for businesses and communities alike, at airports large and small across our state,” Ben Carter, chair of the Michigan Aeronautics Commission said. The grants come as Acting Mayor Joshua Paladino seeks to move the airport off city tax funds and toward financial self-sufficiency. The program funds will address unfunded airport maintenance, capital development, revenue generation, and equipment needs, according to Frezell. Hillsdale’s general aviation airport caters to hobby flyers, private pilots, and business jets, according to Moore. In the past five years, the airport has undergone many repairs and improvements such as adding the Hillsdale Flight Center in 2024 and the initiatives to add and repair terminals.

“Hillsdale Airport has been working hard improving the airport and staying in good standing for general utility license,” Moore said.

Ava-Marie Papillon illustrated the City News header.

Matt Bentley hands his candidate paperwork to City Clerk Katy Price Monday night. Courtesy | Isaac Kirshner

Council postpones Barry Street repair decision

Residents filed letters objecting to city plans

By Sydney Green Collegian Reporter

The Hillsdale City Council delayed a decision on the Barry Street road repair project at its meeting Monday after proposed repairs met opposition from most residents on the street. Barry Street was originally scheduled for repair this coming summer. But, after a majority of the street’s residents rejected the plan, the council met March 3 to hold a public hearing and discuss the Special Assessment District for Barry Street. The SAD for Monroe Street was approved in a 6-2 vote.

Establishment of the SAD would require the homeowners to pay up to $5,000 for repairs to the dilapidated road. One Barry Street homeowner, Timothy Polelle ’19, gathered signatures from a majority of his neighbors, but the city council rejected his petition at the Feb. 17 meeting because residents have to submit their own letters, according to city officials.

At this week’s city council meeting, 16 Barry Street residents — a majority — submitted letters asking to opt out of the proposal. The council would need to vote 7-1 to override these objections.

In a 6-2 vote, the council voted to push discussion to its April 7 meeting, with Councilman Robert Socha and Councilman Will Morrisey in the minority. During the council’s deliberation, Acting Mayor Joshua Paladino suggested using extra

funding from the Capital Improvement Fund, the new endowment from Hillsdale College, and the new special assessment policy to offset the costs homeowners would have to pay.

“My preference is that we do this project, and I would like to spend some money to do it,” Paladino said in the meeting. “We are getting $100,000 from the college, we have the capital outlay fund, and are saving money by increasing Dial-A-Ride and airport hangar rates. I say we negotiate a number, say $100,000 to start, apply that equally to all residential properties, and that could give everyone $3,000 off this assessment.”

Paladino said this relief would apply to all three districts with roads in need of repair: Monroe, Arch, and Barry.

“This is what the general fund surplus should be for, the citizens’ primary concern: infrastructure,” Paladino said. “These are all streets that are being used for general purposes, so we should be willing to spend a little bit of money.”

City Manager David Makkie said approving Paladino’s suggestion would show bias to certain districts and not others.

“Using this policy to treat other areas differently is disingenuous, you are taking money out of the general fund to prop up a certain district as opposed to all the other districts we have done,” Mackie said. “This is what the government is for, to treat everyone the same. I feel like where we are going with this

is inappropriate for the rest of the districts.”

In response to Mackie, Councilman Jacob Bruns said the council should determine what is appropriate.

“It is not the city manager’s job to determine what is appropriate, that is the council’s job,” Bruns said. “The inappropriate thing is offering your political opinion to the political body.”

Councilman Robert Socha said Paladino’s idea should have been brought up earlier.

“I don’t appreciate you bringing this up at the moment we are voting on this. It is ad hoc and was sprung on us as a surprise,” Socha said. “If we are going to do something like this then we should have set that as policy before we come into this situation and to spring it on me like this is insulting.”

According to Paladino, the new special assessment policy passed would accrue potential earnings of around $120,000. Paladino said the $100,000 distributed to residential properties would still leave the council $20,000 in the green.

“I am happy to set it as a policy where next year we spend $100,000 and give it equally to all the 401 residential properties in that district,” Paladino said. “We have to address the circumstances at hand; if our residents don’t want something but we have the money to contribute to a project right now, then why not spend the money?”

State legislator pushes to name Feb. 14 Frederick Douglass Day

By Isabella Doer Senior Reporter

Michigan’s Feb. 14 celebrations may soon extend beyond Valentine’s Day, as the state House of Representatives passed a resolution from Rep. Jennifer Wortz, a Republican who represents Hillsdale, to recognize it as Frederick Douglass Day.

“Douglass is one of the most principled political advocates and talented orators in American history,” Wortz said. “His enormous accomplishments, character, and ability more than warrant a day of commemoration, and I hope my resolution helps inspire my peers and me to also champion the cause of human liberty for which Douglass fought so hard.”

House Resolution 23, the first bill passed by Wortz, formalizes a tradition started by Wortz’s predecessor, former Rep. Andrew Fink, to recognize Douglass’s historical ties to Hillsdale County. Douglass visited Hillsdale College in 1863 and 1888, delivering speeches on the moral and political challenges of his time. The college commemorates these visits with a statue of Douglass beside Lane Hall.

Wortz explained why Feb. 14 — Valentine’s Day — was chosen to honor Douglass.

“The resolution declares Feb. 14 the commemorative date for Douglass because that was the day he chose to remember as his birthday,” Wortz said in a press release.

“Though he did not remember his exact birthdate, Douglass chose to celebrate it on Valentine’s Day because his mother, Harriet Bailey, referred to him as her ‘Little Valentine.’”

tant topic,” Lindsey said. Beyond historical commemoration, Wortz drew parallels between Douglass’s fight against slavery and modern concerns about human traffikking. She said millions remain enslaved worldwide.

“If you think that slavery is dead in the United States, it’s not,” Wortz said. “It’s alive, and it’s an evil we need to work to prevent.”

She cited a police ridealong in which officers described a trafficking operation moving victims between Camden, Michigan and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

“Though he did not remember his exact birthdate, Douglass chose to celebrate it on Valentine’s Day because his mother referred to him as her ‘Little Valentine.”’

State Sen. Joe Bellino, a Republican who represents Monroe and part of Hillsdale County, said he would support a similar resolution in the Senate, especially given Michigan’s abolitionist history.

Peter Jennings, associate professor of leadership studies, said Douglass visited Hillsdale on Jan. 21, 1863, during a 2,000-mile recruitment campaign following the Emancipation Proclamation, urging African American men to enlist in the Union Army.

“‘Men of Color to Arms! Now or Never!’ That was the topline of a broadside Douglass used to call on formerly enslaved men to ‘rise up in the dignity of our manhood, and show by our own right arms that we are worthy to be freemen,’” Jennings said.

Wortz said she felt privileged to represent a district that hosted Douglass.

“It seemed appropriate for this office to continue recognizing him,” Wortz said.

“I’m so lucky in my district to have a rich history of people fighting against slavery,” Bellino said. “To honor Frederick Douglass, who made a trip to Hillsdale and helped shape our history, is just wonderful.”

Bellino also stressed the importance of teaching history accurately.

“If we don’t teach history as it happened, kids will never know why we got here today the way we did,” Bellino said. “It’s critical that we remember figures like Frederick Douglass.”

State Sen. Jonathan Lindsey, a Republican who represents Coldwater and part of Hillsdale County, praised Wortz’s resolution as well.

“I commend Representative Wortz’s efforts on this impor-

“This is happening here, and we need to act,” Wortz said. “Policies in our state have made it easier for traffickers to exploit minors, and we need to address that.”

Referencing Douglass’s 1863 Hillsdale speech, in which he argued that truth is unchanging, Wortz praised his legacy as an advocate for human rights and political truth.

“His words remind us that ‘there was no such thing as new truth. Error might be old or new, but truth was as old as the universe,’” Wortz said. Wortz said she encourages Michigan residents to learn more about Douglass’s legacy and the fight for human liberty.

“History repeats itself,” Wortz said. “We have much to learn from figures like Frederick Douglass, and I hope this resolution sparks renewed appreciation for his life and work.”

State Rep. Jennifer Wortz, who represents Hillsdale, with the Douglass statue on campus. Courtesy | Jonathan Meckel

Swimming Sports Feature

Mason and Clifford qualify for NCAA Nationals in Indy

By Michaela Estruth Senior Editor

Seniors

Megan Clifford

and Elise Mason will swim in the NCAA Division II championship March 11-15 in Indianapolis, after qualifying for the competition last month.

“It was more a relief than anything,” Clifford said about qualifying for nationals. “I knew that I had the capacity to qualify. It was just a matter of doing it.”

Clifford qualified in the 200-yard butterfly, and Mason qualified in the 1,650, 1,000, and 500-yard freestyle. Head swim coach Kurt Kirner said freshman Matilyn Wilhelmsen qualified as an alternate and will attend nationals in case any competitors scratch from the meet.

Clifford said she hopes to break the two minute barrier in the 200-yard butterfly. Mason said she hopes to place in the top 16 for the 1,650-yard freestyle.

“My main goal is to finish my senior year strong and enjoy the process,” Mason said. “I definitely want to make the most of my last chance to swim ever. A more specif-

Noughts & Crosses

Difficulty:

The numbers around the border indicate the length of the longest runs of consecutive noughts or crosses in that row or column (a zero means that symbol does not appear in that row or column).

ic goal is getting top 16 in the 1,650, which would mean getting All-American. I'd love to do that one more time.”

This is Clifford’s third nationals competition and Mason’s fourth.

“It was exciting to think that I can finish up my four years of swimming having gone to nationals all four years,” Mason said.

Both Clifford and Mason said they have swum competitively since childhood. Clifford was seven and Mason was five.

“I have spent a lot of hours in the pool, but I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons from the sport,” Mason said. “It is crazy that it’s coming to an end in just a few weeks.”

Mason and Clifford said they are continuing to train as normal with an upcoming rest period to mentally prepare for the competition. Mason said she is excited to compete at nationals with Clifford.

“She's a great training buddy and is really an inspiring swimmer,” Mason said. “I'm so lucky to be going with her.”

Clifford said she will stay focused before the meet but also enjoy her time.

“My routine is to stay calm and organized leading up to the meet,” Clifford said. “When I am there, I am having fun with my teammates.

Kirner said he is thrilled to attend nationals in support of Clifford and Mason.

“They are both very dedicated and driven athletes who have taken to the training program we have provided,” Kirner said. “I’m not sure how much I can take credit as they put in the work and are intrinsically driven to excel in championship settings.”

Kirner said he is proud of their performance, not only as swimmers, but as upstanding women.

“They have grown in education both in and out of the classroom at Hillsdale,” Kirner said. “They represent Hillsdale College as exceptional athletes and human beings.”

Kirner said, with his many years of coaching, he sees Clifford and Mason’s exceptional skills and is proud to be their coach.

“This is my 50th year of coaching swimming, and I couldn’t have a better set of athletes to be escorting to the swimming ‘Big Dance.’”

ABCD

Difficulty:

Each row and column contains 1 each of A, B, C, and D, as well as two blanks. The letters around the border indicate the first letter to appear on that end of the corresponding row or column.

Six alumni to be inducted into 2025 Hall of Fame class

By Issac Green Managing Editor

Boasting 12 national championships and 21 All-American honors, six Charger athletes will join the Hillsdale College Athletic Hall of Fame at a ceremony in the Searle Center this fall.

Keith Otterbein ’79, Michael Michno ’84, Michael Nugent ’85, Cleves Delp ’86, Troy Weatherhead ’11, and Emily (Oren) Newcomb ’16 will join 96 individuals and 17 teams as the 26th class of inductees to receive the honor.

“It's been fun to reflect on my time at Hillsdale and relive some of the moments,” Newcomb said. “It's great to be recognized for all the hard work I put in during my time at Hillsdale. But I also don't think any of this would have been possible without my teammates and coaches who really pushed me to be better, so in a way, it also feels like I'm sharing the honor with all of those people as well.”

Newcomb, the youngest member of the 2025 hall of fame class, is the most-decorated athlete the college has ever produced, racking up nine national championships and 14 All-American honors while on the track team, according to a Hillsdale College Athletics press release.

Her school records in the indoor mile, indoor 3,000-meter run, outdoor 3,000-meter steeplechase and distance medley relay still stand today, as well as her indoor mile record at the NCAA Division II National Championships.

Newcomb said the thing she remembers the most about her time at the college is all the friendships she built running on the back roads of Hillsdale.

“Obviously it was super fun to win all the national titles and become All-American a lot, but it would have not been nearly as satisfying if I didn't have my team around me cheering me on while I did it,” Newcomb said.

After graduating, Newcomb worked at Hillsdale College for several years as an admissions counselor while running professionally and competing at the 2016 and 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials in the steeplechase.

“The support I received from the college while a student and an employee has allowed me to really fully explore all these different parts of myself and life and grow in so many ways,” Newcomb said. “It has made me a better wife, friend, daughter, sister, and employee.”

Another star on the track for Hillsdale, Michael Michno finished his collegiate career as the NAIA national champion in the 1,500-meter run during the 1984 season. He also earned All-American honors twice while wearing the Charger uniform.

“I look at the names who have been inducted in front of me,” Michno said. “It’s just quite an honor to be put with those types of athletes.”

According to Michno, Hillsdale was the perfect place for him to be during that part of his life and athletic career.

“Those four years of development really helped the rest of my career because starting in 1984 I was able to then dedicate myself to seeing how much I could really push my body, which got me to the 1988, 1992, and 1996 Olympic trials,” Michno said. “I also was able to run professionally for close to 10 years on both the European circuit and on the indoor and outdoor circuits in the United States.”

Michno said he attributes much of this success to his coach, Joe Rogers. “There were times he probably should have just put me on a bus and sent me back to Detroit, and he just stuck with me. I think he saw something in me,” Michno said. “I needed to do some serious maturing as an individual and an athlete. When I look back at my career, I’m going ‘yeah, I would've gotten rid of me in a heartbeat.’”

Making the honor all the more exciting for Michno is the nomination of his teammate, Michael Nugent, he said.

Nugent won back-to-back NAIA National Championships in the indoor 3-mile run and collected three All-American awards at Hillsdale. In addition to his athletic success, Nugent was named the Outstanding Senior Man of the 1985 class.

On the football field, hall of fame inductee Troy Weatherhead set NCAA all-division records for single season completion percentage (76.9%) and career completion percentage (70.2%) during his three years as starting quarterback for the Hillsdale football team.

Weatherhead won All-American honors in 2010 while leading the Chargers to their first conference title in nearly two decades.

“I am truly humbled and honored by this recognition,” Weatherhead said. “It is a true testament to my teammates and coaches I played with during my time. I was so blessed to play quarterback with incredible talent at every position around me, and this honor is as much about those guys as it is about me.”

Weatherhead said the lessons he learned in building trust, accountability, and responsibility while in a Charger uniform he still carries with him today in his personal and professional life.

“I remember the pride I had wearing a Hillsdale jersey, and carrying on the legacy of so many that

played before me,” Weatherhead said. “The rich tradition associated with the football program is special, and to represent the school and alumni was something I

cherished during my time.” Alongside Weatherhead at the induction ceremony will be his head coach — Keith Otterbein. An All-American linebacker during his time as a player for Hillsdale in the 1970s, Otterbein returned to the Charger football program as a head coach in 2002. In his 22 seasons coaching, he won 133 games and four conference championships. The Chargers made three NCAA DII playoff appearances under Otterbein’s tenure where they collected their only two NCAA DII playoff victories in program history.

The final inductee of the 2025 hall of fame class, Cleves Delp, started at first base for the Hillsdale baseball team and led the team in slugging percentage for two years in a row. Delp has continued to support the Chargers since graduation with gifts that have enabled the construction of athletic facilities on campus. All five of his children have attended and played sports at Hillsdale College.

The hall of fame induction for the new class of Chargers will begin at 5 p.m. on Sept. 26 with a cocktail hour followed by dinner and a ceremony. Newcomb and Weatherhead said their advice to current Charger athletes is to cherish every moment of their collegiate careers and the relationships they build.

“The accolades are fun in the moment, and even fun to relive years later, but what has really changed me and been a lasting piece of my time as an athlete is my friends,” Newcomb said.

“Make sure you surround yourself with the right people who will give you good advice and keep you going when it gets hard.”

Regardless of the size of the school, Michno said Hillsdale athletes should never underestimate what they can do.

“Once you get out, nobody cares whether you went to Hillsdale or you went to Villanova or you went to Michigan,” Michno said. “Once you put your toe on the line everybody’s equal. Never underestimate what you can do just because of the size of the school. Whether you're an athlete or just a student there, it’s quite an accomplishment to be a part of the Hillsdale family.”

Emily (Oren) Newcomb '16. COURTESY | HC Athletics

Troy Weatherhead '11. COURTESY | HC Athletics

Baseball wins three straight Baseball

By Ty Ruddy Assistant Editor

The Charger baseball team won three straight games last week to improve to 5-5 overall as freshman Will Lehman earned Great Midwest Athletic Conference North Division Baseball Player of the Week.

The Chargers started the weekend on the road with a 5-4 win over the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Crimson Hawks. Hitting highlights for the Chargers included a triple and two RBIs from senior Zak Kent. The Chargers had some success against the Crimson Hawk defense, tallying seven hits in total, but senior left-handed pitcher Drew Erdei said his teammates on the mound played a big part in the undefeated weekend.

“Our pitching staff had its best weekend yet,” Erdei said. “We attacked the strike zone and trusted our defense to make plays, which they did.”

IUP on the road 5-3. The bats came alive as the Chargers racked up 11 hits. Freshman Will Lehman notched two RBIs and a double in his campaign and freshman Gaard Swenson put a pitch over the wall for the first home run of

the fourth inning, a nine run surge in the fifth inning gave the Chargers a considerable lead. The game stood at a stalemate from the sixth inning onward. The Bald Eagles put up one more run in the ninth, but the Chargers took

aging. It was great to see him named Conference Hitter of the Week.”

Lehman led the Chargers on Sunday with three hits and four RBIs, including the three run homerun that sparked the fifth inning success for the Chargers. From Monday to Sunday Lehman went 9-18 . According to a press release from the Hillsdale Chargers Athletics website, Lehman has started all ten games this season, hitting .381 and leading the team with 15 RBIs.

Friday’s win for the Chargers goes down as a win for senior right-handed pitcher Andrew George, who gave up no runs and no hits through 1.1 innings. Much of the job on Friday's game fell to sophomore Daniel Higdon, who closed out the win for the Chargers.

On Saturday, Hillsdale beat

the weekend. Swenson and sophomore Rocco Tenuta each had an RBI, and freshman right-handed pitcher Cary Gibson recorded his first win for the Chargers.

The Chargers won on the road again on Sunday, this time over the Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania Bald Eagles. Down 5-1 after

the game 10-6.

“Will Lehman, especially, had an incredible week for a freshman. He came through with a go-ahead double in the 9th inning to secure a win and also hit a huge 3-run home run,” associate head coach Ryan Van Amburg said. “Everything he hit was loud, which is really encour-

Senior John Hunter said with this past weekend under their belt, the team feels confident moving forward.

“These were great games from start to finish. I think we really showed some resilience this weekend,” Hunter said. “This is the best we’ve looked all year.”

The Chargers will play Emporia State University and #25 Maryville University twice each this weekend in St. Louis, Missouri. On March 12 they play Saginaw Valley State University at home and they round out spring break with a four game series against Malone University on March 15 and 16 in Canton, Ohio.

Women's Tennis

Tough outing against ranked competition

By Tayte Christensen Assistant Editor

The Charger women's tennis team fell short in a 5-2 loss to Wayne State University Warriors Feb. 28 at the Margot Biermann Athletic Center.

“Overall the match was quite good, and we definitely surprised them with how competitive we were,” sophomore Ané Dannhauser said.

In doubles, the Chargers went one for three against the Warriors. In No. 3 doubles, junior Bella Spinazze and senior Megan Hackman pulled off a 6-3 victory.

“Megan and I had a really good doubles win against Wayne State, and I truly believe it was due to our confidence and energy,” Spinazze said. “We stepped on the court believing in ourselves and played some of the best tennis we have played all season.”

But in No. 1 and No. 2 doubles, the Chargers fell short. No. 1 pair Dannhauser and senior Courtney Rittel lost 6-4, and No. 2 pair freshman Briana Rees and senior Libby McGivern lost 6-3.

“Doubles was really close, and it was honestly a match that we could have won, but we learned a lot and will be more prepared next time,” Dannhauser said.

In singles against the Warriors, both freshman Julia Zlateva and Hackman took

their matches to the third sets, winning No. 5 and No. 6 singles respectively.

“Playing a top-ranked team is always hard but it showed us how much we are capable of because we kept it competitive the entire match,” Zlateva said.

Dannhauser and Rees also played singles matches extending to the third set, but neither one followed through with a win.

“My singles was a battle and a half, but it always is against this player,” Dannhauser said. “There are so many things I want to change from that match, but aIl we can really do is learn from Friday. I definitely want to work on taking advantage of the opportunities I am presented with in my match, so practice will probably be focused on that this week.”

The Chargers, now 5-4 on the season, will play University of Northwestern Ohio at home March 8 before heading to Florida to play Nova Southeastern University and Palm Beach Atlantic University over spring break.

“The team is super excited for spring break,” Dannhauser said. “We are going to Florida and playing against a bunch of very good schools down there. I can't wait to play outside and experience sunshine again.”

Track and Field Medals and marks as Chargers earn multiple national slots

By Joshua Mistry and Ellie Fromm Collegian reporter and Assistant Editor

The Charger track and field women placed third overall at the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Indoor Championships at Ashland University Feb. 28-March 1, ending the weekend with seven top-three finishes for the women and three top-three finishes for the men. Hillsdale will send senior Cass Dobrowolski, senior Ben Haas, freshman Evyn Humphrey, senior Katie Sayles, and junior Tara Townsend to the NCAA Division II championships March 13-15 in Indianapolis.

The women’s team placed third in the G-MAC with 114 points and the men’s team placed seventh with 32 points.

Freshman Baelyn Zitz -

mann placed first overall in the indoor pentathlon with 3,560 points. Zitzmann also placed third in the pentathlon 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.06 seconds and tied for first in the pentathlon high jump with a mark of 1.62 meters. She also won the pentathlon 800-meter run with a time of 2:22.17, earning her a new school record in the pentathlon overall and the first championship medal of the meet for the Chargers.

“The G-MAC is the most competitive field we have seen so far this season. I was happy with my performance,” Zitzmann said.

Junior Lucy Minning tied the 60-meter dash school record of 7.58 seconds, earning her sixth place in the preliminary race on Friday.

Freshman Allison Kuzma won the 5,000-meter race by 20 seconds with a time of 17:01.48, setting a personal

best and a provisional qualifying time.

Dobrolowski placed second in the high jump with a mark of 2.05 meters and Haas won the weight throw with a mark of 20.98 meters. Sayles placed fourth in the weight throw with a mark of 17.80.

Senior Reese Dragovich placed second in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:10.18. Humphrey placed second in the 3,000-meter race with a time of 9:59.16. Kuzma placed third in the 3,000-meter race with a time of 10:00.95. Humphrey won the mile with a time of 4:48.94 and junior Zealand Tarrant won the heptathlon 1,000-meter race with a time of 2:43.29.

Senior Nicole Marshall placed fourth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:13.70.

"Leading up to G-MACs, our training was very technical and strategic, focused

on exact pacing, race simulations, and frequent recovery," Marshall said. "This will continue into the outdoor season in addition to a return to more volume and strenuous workouts."

Senior Richie Johnston placed second in the 3,000-meter race with a time of 8:21.18.

“Every year this sport continues to improve and the G-MAC was no exception to that," Johnston said. "I was very content with my race in all aspects and since it was the last race of my indoor career I'm happy to go out the way I did."

In the field, Townsend won the pole vault with a mark of 3.98 meters.

"I think the team put forth an excellent effort, but I believe we have even more potential for the outdoor season," Marshall said.

Emma Vis, softball Charger chatter

Compiled by Francesca Cella

What movie have you rewatched the most? The Notebook.

What is your favorite place to go in Michigan?

My favorite place to go in Michigan is Torch Lake in the summertime.

What is the strangest skill you have that turns out to be useful? I do some things left-handed and some things right-handed. For example, I throw right-handed but hit left-handed.

Should softballs be called softballs?

No, they definitely don't feel soft!

Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

Freshman Gaard Swenson at the plate over the weekend. COURTESY | LUCIA SPINAZZE

Freshman Evyn Humphrey placed second in 60m dash. COURTESY | G-MAC Instagram

SEMIFINALS BOUND

A10 March 6, 2025

Women's Basketball

McDonald hits career high as Hillsdale advances to semis

By Cassie DeVries Collegian Reporter

Hillsdale women’s basketball defeated Cedarville University 81-66 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinal on Tuesday and defeated Malone University 68-61 on Saturday, March 1.

“This is the farthest anyone on our current team has made it, which is really motivating,” sophomore Annalise Pietrzyk said.

Since the Chargers were ranked second in conference, Hillsdale hosted the quarterfinal at home for the first time since 2008-09.

“It was the first time we hosted the first round in a long time so we all were super pumped,” senior Kendall McCormick said.

The victory also marked the Chargers’ first 20-win season since the 2008-09 season.

Hillsdale had the lead 21-17 by the end of the first quarter but widened their lead in the second quarter, outscoring Cedarville 23-7.

“The first quarter wasn’t our best but the second quarter I think we showed exactly who we are and showed the G-MAC that we are a good team,” senior Caitlin Splain said.

While Cedarville closed the gap to 15 points, they remained behind the Chargers the entire game.

Cedarville double-teamed senior Lauren McDonald and held her to nine points, but in doing so opened up centers senior Marilyn Popplewell and freshman Ellie Bruce, who scored 12 and 18 points respectively.

Splain finished with 16 points, four assists, and five rebounds. McCormick led the team defensively with nine points, six rebounds, three assists, and four steals. Pietrzyk had eight points and four rebounds.

The Chargers also defeated Malone University 68-61 on Saturday, March 1, Malone’s senior night. The game marked the end of the Chargers’ regular season, and Hillsdale finished second in the G-MAC.

The victory made the Chargers’ record 19-9 for the season and 16-4 in the G-MAC, the best season finish since 20082009.

The Chargers started strong and established a 20-10 lead in the first quarter, but Malone outscored Hillsdale 16-6, tying the game in the second quarter.

“We've needed to come back from a deficit before, and our girls are very resilient, so they don't let many things raise them,” head coach Brianna Brennan said.

In the third quarter, Malone took the lead 42-32.

“Malone came into the third quarter with a lot of energy. It

was noticeable that our girls were a little bit down on themselves, so we subbed Kendall McCormick back in because she's by far our best defender,” Brennan said.

Brennan said she told McCormick to get her teammates back in the right defensive mindset and to take ownership of the defense.

“She really ran with it,” Brennan said. “Her defense was electric, and she really set the tone defensively.”

Hillsdale rallied early in the fourth quarter and went on a 13-0 run to retake the lead but lost it to Malone again 56-53 with four minutes left.

Bruce made a layup, and freshman Sarah Aleknavicius had a block that allowed McDonald to hit a pull-up jumper.

“Sarah got a huge block for us when we really needed a stop,” McDonald said.

Junior Emma Ruhlman scored a 3-pointer, and McDonald hit another jumper after a turnover.

“Our defense toward the end of the game really helped us,” McDonald said.

McDonald made four points on the line and finished with a career high of 30 points and 10 rebounds. Splain made another layup to secure the Chargers’ victory.

“Lauren had a great game,” Splain said. “We always talk about how, whenever we play, it

could be anybody's night to go off, and that was definitely Lauren's game.”

Splain also had 11 points, four assists, four rebounds, and two steals, and Ruhlman had 10 points and two steals.

Senior Kendall McCormick had six points and six rebounds.

Senior Marilyn Popplewell had four points and six rebounds, and Bruce had four

points and four rebounds. Hillsdale also outrebounded their opponents 39-33.

The Chargers will advance to the G-MAC Semifinal this Friday, where they will again play Malone in Ashland, Ohio on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

“We just played Malone on Saturday and it was a really competitive game, so the game on Friday will definitely be in-

Conference Brackets

Basketball from A1

“I

tense,” McCormick said. “We are super blessed to be able to still be playing because a lot of people are done. We are hoping to win Friday and make it to the conference final game on Saturday.”

The winner of the championship game on Saturday will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA DII tournament.

we executed enough to put ourselves in a good position going down the stretch. We were passing, cutting, sharing the

lowed us to have success.”

Junior Nathan Rastovac attended the game and said it was a good competition, and that the attendees seemed to appreciate this exciting game. 504 people attended the game.

“The atmosphere of the stadium was electric,” Rastovac said. “Every time the fans and students would get loud, our team would have great momentum. They seemed to play to the crowd's energy and took the lead and never let it go.”

Earlier in the week, they beat the Malone University Pioneers 61-49 away on March 1 and the Thomas More University Saints 70-65 at home on Feb. 27.

On Saturday, against the Pioneers, the Chargers took the lead early in the game and, though Malone did tie them three times, the Pioneers never surpassed the Chargers. This win secured the Chargers’ hopes to host their G-MAC quarterfinal game.

Reuter and redshirt senior Eric Radisevic scored 13

points each, and Woodhams scored 12 points.

Reuter said the team played well both offensively and defensively, and that the team’s communication played a large part to their success on the court.

“I thought that our defense and how we played as a team defensively was a catalyst in that win,” Reuter said. “I mean, they are obviously a very good, individually talented team, and we held them to 49 points on their home floor, which is very, very impressive on our part.”

Last Thursday, the Chargers held the lead throughout the game against the Saints.

Reuter said the Chargers scored early in the game, but their shooting game began to slow down later in the game, while the Saints’ started to make their shots.

Looking ahead to their semifinal game, and the Chargers’ rematch against the Pioneers, McWhinne said that the team is going into this game focused. If the Chargers beat the Pioneers, they will play in the championship game on Saturday at 3 pm.

“We’re going to have to battle against their guards and defend the 3-point line if we want to play on Saturday,” McWhinnie said. “The familiarity is nice with scouting, but we understand that just because we beat them last week won’t give us any bonus points on Friday. We’ll have to come out and give another great effort to advance.”

The winner of the G-MAC tournament will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA DII tournament.

“In the second half, I think they made it a four point game going into the last media time out, and we came out, and I think we scored on our next two possessions, and that really gave us confidence going down the stretch to be able to handle their runs,” Reuter said. “I thought we executed really well down the stretch. That was why we were able to come away with a win.”

Freshman Ellie Bruce (left) and sophomore Annalise Pietrzyk (right). COURTESY | KENNETH GAUDET

Senior Joe Reuter (left) and redshirt senior Charles Woodhams (right). COURTESY | KENNETH GAUDET

C U L T U R E

SAB takes students to the Detroit Institute of Arts

By Grace Brennan Collegian Reporter

Live jazz echoed through every room, immersing the visitors of the museum into the art. Getting even more involved in the art, some sat on wooden benches called “horses” where they used drawing material provided for them, or their own, to draw copies of famous paintings and sculptures.

The Student Activities Board took 26 students to the Detroit Institute of Arts museum on Feb. 28 to experience the drawing and live music events going on that night.

Ingrid Dornbirer ’24, director of student activities, said the event was a fun way for students to leave campus.

“It’s fun for students to be on their own time and have their own pace around the museum as well as finding a night where some events are happening,” Dornbirer said.

Dornbirer said she loved the museum’s drawing, which allowed visitors to draw DIA art.

“There are tons of people sitting on their drawing horses and sketching, kind of in their own world, and I think that’s fun to see that they’re participating in the art with the famous artists,” Dornbirer said.

Along with personal drawings, the band Isaiah Collier and the Chosen Few performed live jazz music in the Rivera Court, the interior court of the museum which is surrounded by large murals by Diego Rivera.

Junior Jake Hamilton said this was his first trip to the DIA.

According to Hamilton, he has been to art museums in Italy and the Netherlands and yet had never heard

Freshman Zoe Katsaros said this was her first time at the DIA and the live music

and

said.

added to her experience.

“It’s interesting to see the

silence of all the paintings, but then the hustle and bustle of all the people that are here for the music event,” Katsaros said.

“To see those two things in contrast is really fun and exciting.”

Freshman Fara

Newell said Thomas Cole’s “Sunset on the Arno” was one of her favorite pieces.

“Thomas Cole’s ‘Sunset on the Arno’ is a lovely example of his ability to illustrate landscapes with impressive life and emotion.

The serenity of the river at sunset causes the viewer to feel as though they were in such a calming scene,”

Newell said.

Sophomore Gabe Bileca, who has been to the DIA before, said coming

this time with the additional events was a new and moving experience.

“It’s a little bit of a frenzied vibe because we’re here for a limited time, so we’re trying to see everything we can see,” Bileca said. “But at the same time, it’s this raw emotional experience that’s putting you in the mood to look at these art pieces and just absorb as much of the original artist’s vision as you can and let it move you whatever way it may.”

Sophomore Claire McNeil, member of the SAB board, said the trip was easy to plan and she enjoyed her time at the DIA.

“I love the diversity of all the arts here, the music, paintings, pottery, and stained glass,” McNeil said. According to McNeil, because of the success of the trip, SAB will be planning a similar event sometime in the future.

“We had an awesome turn out with a long list of people,” McNeil said. “I definitely think this is one we’ll bring back in the future.”

Film scores inspire student composition

By Gemma Flores Collegian Reporter

Tonight at 8 p.m., students and faculty are invited to watch “Hazilea at the Dawn,” a collection of senior Ethan Graham’s piano compositions.

The concert will take place in Conrad Recital Hall. Graham, a music major specializing in composition, wrote the first draft of “Hazilea at the Dawn” in his freshman year at Hillsdale. Now, in his senior year, he’ll be able to see the story and music brought to life.

“I had always wanted to write it into something bigger but never had the chance to collect all my drafts into a finished project until this year,” said Graham. “It’s arranged for string quartet, piano, and three vocalists. This could be considered my first foray into musical theater, blended with my usual mixed-media composition style.”

an’s struggle with her brother’s heroic death in battle.

“It’s a portrait of Psalm 139:11-12: ‘If I say, ‘surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night’ — even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.’ I’m deeply fascinat-

Graham comes from a musical family and said he has studied piano for most of his life. As a kid, he wasn’t fascinated by just any music, but specifically movie scores.

“My first sublime encounter with music was with film score,” Graham said. “It was either the ‘Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs’ soundtrack or the ‘Polar Express’ soundtrack. I don’t remember which one was first, but I would just sit and listen to it over and over.”

While in high school, Graham took on the task of writing the music for a friend’s film. Through that exposure, Graham said he explored music in a more visual capacity.

the chills because something really resonates with you?”

Graham said. “I would always find that in film music. I love it. And I didn’t realize it until late sophomore year here that I wanted to be a film composer.”

Graham said he considers himself a composition major, even though no such thing exists at Hillsdale College. Ac-

me opportunities to hone my craft and to learn and grow and have connected me with composers that they know. I’ve really been very blessed.”

After graduation, Graham plans to pursue a master’s degree in scoring for film, television, and interactive media at Pulse College in Dublin, Ireland. His performance tonight will encompass the work

“My first sublime encounter with music was with film score, it was either the ‘Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs’ soundtrack or the ‘Polar Express’ soundtrack.”

his musical journey,” Blackham said in an email. “He will be sorely missed, not only by me, but by many others in the music department. But I’m also looking forward to seeing where that journey takes him.”

Sophomore Samuel Jarzab, one of the three characters in the theatrical component of the show, described “Hazelia at the Dawn” as “transcendent.”

“It asks the listener to come along on a journey through the grief of a young girl and how God’s infinite love and grace is truly restorative and elevating,” said Jarzab, “It’s a story about love.”

The show itself is based on a fictional story Graham had written about a young wom -

ed by broken humans encountering a perfectly loving God and this is the most dramatic exploration I have undertaken within that theme,” Graham said.

Professors’

Despite Graham’s love for movie scores and composing, he was unsure of what he wanted to do with music when he first came to Hillsdale. While reflecting on the music and musicians that inspired him the most, Graham decided he wanted to pursue film scoring as a career.

“You know when you get

cording to Graham, the music faculty at Hillsdale have rallied around him nonetheless to support him in his dreams.

“We’ve kind of made it up as we’ve gone along but it’s been really amazing,” he said.

“All of the faculty have really come behind me and given

he has done while at Hillsdale.

Brad Blackham, one of Graham’s piano teachers at Hillsdale, said he has loved watching Graham’s impact on the music department.

“It’s been an absolute joy for me to be able to help Ethan prepare for the next step in

“It’s been super wonderful working on this project. Quite honestly, this might be the most fun I’ve ever had working on a project,” said sophomore Maggie Saffian, who plays the main role, “It’s just really moving. I look forward to every single rehearsal and never want to leave!”

Join Graham for the performance of “Hazelia at the Dawn” to see his performance come to life on stage.

Picks: Collin Barnes, chairman of psychology

Maybe you’ve felt that way. Even if you haven’t, the song is unforgettable. Watch the video for the full effect.

Read this as an undergraduate. Lots of classmates went on mission trips in the summer. I never did, just read books and worked factory jobs. Felt like less of a Christian because of it. This book helped me see that you don’t have to be a pastor or missionary to be a believer. I’m sure that seems obvious around here, but it wasn’t where I came from.

music inside an art museum.

“I don’t think it detracts at all from there being paintings

sculptures. If anything, it adds to it,” Hamilton

“Bank of the Oise at Auvers” by Vincent van Gogh Grace Brennan | Collegian

“The Vampyre of Time and Memory” by Queens of the Stone Age (2013)

Medieval aesthetic. Great one-liners. Absurd storyline. Features the Necronomicon. Hero’s name is Ash. Has a chainsaw for a hand. Monsters die. Damsel in distress gets saved. There’s time travel. Sam Raimi directed. What more could you want?

“The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind” by Mark Noll (1994) “Army of Darkness” (1992)

Compiled by Caroline Kurt Opinions Editor

Barnes and his wife, Meghan, on the University of Oklahoma’s Norman campus a day or two before his first date with her. COURTESY | Collin Barnes

Ethan Graham COURTESY | Ethan graham

C U L T U R

And the Oscar goes to…Hollywood’s DEI

By Elijah Guevara Collegian Freelancer

Best actor Adrien Brody, best actress Mikey Madison, best director Sean Baker, and best picture “Anora” triumphed in the 97th Annual Academy Awards ceremony. It was a big night for celebrating indie filmmakers — and for reaffirming the unwavering degeneracy of Hollywood film standards.

On Sunday, March 2, a distinguished roster of film industry heavyweights, actors, and artists packed into the Dolby Theatre for the ceremony, hosted by comedian and former late-night host Conan O’Brien.

From its glamorous stars to O’Brien’s signature wisecracks to Ariana Grande’s and Cynthia Erivo’s room-shaking “Wicked” performances, the night tried to offer much, despite the few awkward hiccups of long acceptance speeches and the orchestra playing them off to get on with the show.

However, the Academy Awards was still a let down by its elevation of works promoting woke, degenerate, and even anti-Christian themes.

For one, this Academy Awards ceremony was the first dictated by Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Under guide -

lines introduced last year, films that lacked certain gender, race, or sexual representation were officially declared ineligible to compete for the Academy Award of best picture.

er words, a DEI pope, a transgender musical comedy, and a stripper drama, respectively.

Hosts and award winners alike did not hide these facts on stage but proudly touted them.

“If you haven’t seen ‘Conclave,’ its logline is ‘a movie about the Catholic Church’ —

For example, criteria says that “at least one” of the actors submitted for Oscar consideration must be from an “underrepresented racial or ethnic group.” Anoth er states that at least two “creative leadership” positions in a film must include one individual from an un derrepresented group such as LGBTQ+, women, or “peo ple with cognitive or physical disabilities.”

In her acceptance speech for best actress in “Anora,” Mikey Madison honored the “sex worker community” and declared she would “always continue to support and be an ally” of it.

One might notice that all three front-runners for the highest honors of this Acade-

tive winner of the night, who in 2015 shot his breakthrough movie, “Tangerine,” using only iPhones, took home four Academy Awards for directing, producing, writing, and editing “Anora” — the most Oscars won by one person for a single film.

While the Academy downplayed the new guidelines on stage, its fruits were evident in the ceremony’s nominees and winners.

The top contenders for best picture and best screenplay included “Conclave,” “Emilia Pérez,” and “Anora” — in oth-

but don’t worry,” O’Brien joked.

In another bit, he touted the fact that “Anora,” a romcom about a Brooklyn stripper who falls in love with the son of a Russian oligarch, uses the f-word a whopping 479 times in its 138-minute runtime.

the letter, and then some.

In the end, the wins by “Emilia Pérez” and “Conclave” paled in comparison to those garnered by “Anora,” which won five out of its six Oscar nominations.

Sean Baker, the mastermind behind “Anora” and defini -

Departed greatness: Scorsese’s

‘The

Saints’ does not impress

By Colman Rowan Culture Editor

Oftentimes a well known art-

ist’s newly religious work feels like a cathartic inquisition into his personal beliefs — which is great, but usually results in weak art. So it was with Mark Wahlberg and Shia LaBeouf. So it is with Martin Scorsese’s “The Saints.”

Fox Nation released the first four of the eight-episode docudrama in November and December 2024 and are set to release the next four in April.

The series has drawn particular interest because the director, Scorsese, has made many wildly successful movies, receiving the second most Oscar nominations of any director ever. From “Taxi Driver” to “Goodfellas” to “The Departed,” Scorsese’s films are praiseworthy for their storytelling. But because they often feature darker themes, lots of violence, drug use, and sex, it piques the interest of the seasoned Scorsese-head to see him make an earnest show about… Catholic saints?

not heretical (as far as I can tell), this show is not convincing. Producing compelling stories about piety can be one of the hardest things for an artist to do. The reason for this is simple: true piety is inimitable. An actor will never really depict the faith of Joan of Arc. Watching her try on screen feels like cheapening the depth of faith into crass sentimentality.

The mysterious ways in which God works in our lives are deeply personal, and, when the director must generalize and simplify the story into 30 minutes, the point is lost.

Something like “The Mission,” directed by Roland Joffe, more successfully follows the life of a martyr because the 125-minute film can better track the trajectory of sinfulness to holiness.

Each 45-minute episode of that show follows the life of a saint — spending about 30 minutes bringing to life the saint’s story dramatically. The other 15 minutes feature a panel focused on the saint and other general principles of faith connected to the saint.

In the order they were released, the episodes explore saints Joan of Arc, John the Baptist, Sebastian, and Maximilian Kolbe. These four martyrs — saints killed for their faith — range the whole history of Christianity. From John the Baptist, who was born just before Christ, to Maximillian Kolbe, who chose to sacrifice himself in a Nazi concentration camp, Scorsese takes a broad cross section of the history of holiness.

Though well produced and

The path to holiness should be interesting to view, as it is the path for all faithful Christians. It is the path of overcoming the human condition. When someone is persistently faithful, however, it does not make for the best entertainment — at least not for us sinners who may have trouble being inspired by someone who seems to have hardly changed.

Every human will change. Some on purpose, some not. Change is the most interesting thing a person can do. But of course, change can go a vast number of ways. Most people need to change to become holy, but a lot of these saints seemed to be holy without undergoing any change — at least in the way Scorsese presents them.

That said, Scorsese does give a good summary of the lives of the saints. Perhaps I am a bad Catholic for this, but I was unfamiliar with the details of Joan of Arc’s life and watching this show presented her story in an interesting way. Scorsese, and Liah O’Prey, who played Joan, paint a good picture of what the path to martyrdom is like,

even if that picture does not convince the viewer to follow it in any way.

The uninspiring example is unsurprising. Scorsese is not quite trying to convince people to follow in the footsteps of the saints (it seems at least). He said in a November interview with the New York Times that he is a practicing Catholic “at times” and that his faith consists much in dialogues he has had with those in the church.

“For me, it’s time to go back to the perennial values of the church and, which Pope Francis is trying to do, help it evolve to the world of the next century,” he said. “What is the real sense and what is the real truth of Christianity? A lot of people have died for it over the years, and a lot of people have lived a good life because of it. There are values there. What are those values? Can we explore those values and maybe even try to live by them?”

Scorsese’s awkward insecurity in his phrasing suggests that he is not totally convinced by these saints stories even though he may want to be. This becomes more clear in the show’s post-drama section panel.

The panel consists of James Martin, a priest and author, controversial for his approach to reconciling homosexuality and the Catholic faith; Paul Elie, an author and senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs; Mary Karr, a poet and professor of literature at Syracuse University; and Scorsese himself.

Elie is cold and analytical, Karr tends to say things that are not very relevant and different from a Catholic way of thought, and as a result Martin of all people looks reasonable.

Meanwhile, Scorsese seems to search earnestly for answers in the panel. He clearly put a lot

of effort in attempting art, and he wants to know if he really should live by the values of the saints.

Watching the show feels like watching something he made for himself. Did he make it to convince himself to live a saintly life? Maybe so — I certainly hope so. But I did not find it very great. Since it is decidedly not Catholic propaganda, it must be good art to be worthwhile. But that, it does not achieve.

Perhaps Martin Scorsese could learn from C.S. Lewis: “The world does not need more Christian literature. What it needs is more Christians writing good literature.”

If you are still really interested in watching this, then go for it. The St. Sebastian episode is the best of the four. In this one, as with the Kolbe episode, the saint makes more of an active choice to suffer martyrdom than the other two, which makes for better cinema. In the other two, their deaths come by refusing to waver in faith while imprisoned.

Sebastian’s is better than Kolbe’s because first, he was a Roman praetorian guard, which is awesome, and second, Kolbe’s episode focuses too much on coping with his relationship to antisemitism (not to mention the full frontal male nudity) — though Kolbe’s martyrdom is very moving.

Meditating on the lives of the saints can be an excellent form of prayer for Catholics, but Scorsese’s show doesn’t do this well enough. It’s boring.

If you want to know basic things about the saints, then Scorsese’s show will do. But if you want to experience great art or really meditate on the lives of the saints, look elsewhere.

The Academy had spoken: the female pope and transgender musical comedy ultimately lost to the profanity-laden stripper drama, and it wasn’t even close. “Anora” won the night in a landslide. However, I could not help but

think that nothing would have been much gained if “Conclave” or “Emilia Pérez” had won instead. Given their themes and values, Hollywood left no good options between the three front-runners. Con-

sidering how they rigged the system in favor of DEI, this is how they intended it to be after all.

One thing is clear: if this is the standard of greatness in our film industry, the bar must be on the floor. And unfortunately, affirming and rewarding bad art will only encourage more bad art.

Although the ceremony had its worthy moments — namely, the audience’s recognition of the firefighters and emergency personnel who provided aid during the Los Angeles fires, the resounding wins of indie studios and filmmakers, and Kieran Culkin’s notably authentic exchange with his wife after winning best supporting actor — its best awards and highest moments went to movies built around some of the worst themes. The system in place now intends to keep it that way.

As the final speech ended and the curtain closed on this long, occasionally-awkward awards ceremony, nothing could hide the fact of what this night was: the reaffirmation of Hollywood’s shameless degeneracy and the elevation of wokeness to the highest places of the film industry.

Greg Whalen draws hundreds at Dawn

By Anna Broussard Assistant Editor

A standing crowd of more than 250 people packed into the Dawn Theater for senior Greg Whalen’s concert, “An American Story,” Feb. 28.

“It’s cool doing it in my hometown, because it’s tons of people I know,” Whalen said. “Between the students, some of the community vets, and my family it was tons of fun singing for them.”

Whalen performed 19 original songs, many about his experiences in the Marine Corps, accompanied by the Ramblers, a group of local musicians.

“One of the things that we love is highlighting musicians who not only live in the Hillsdale community but grew up here,” Nathan Lehman ’18, a volunteer with the Friends of the Dawn Theater said. “It’s always awesome to have people who you know are transplants in Hillsdale, but it’s another thing entirely when it’s someone who has been part of the community.”

many veterans face, and the deadly military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which Whalen saw firsthand as a Marine at the Kabul International Airport

“I really appreciate what he’s doing with his music, and how he’s not sugar coating it at all,” junior Lulu Celecia said. “It’s raw and honest, and he is being real with the audience.”

The concert took place during parents weekend at the college.

“Especially with all the parents who came here tonight not knowing what they were getting into, there’s not a dry eye in the house anymore,” Celecia said.

Aidan Sullivan, a volunteer with The Friends of the Dawn Theater, said Whalen’s performance helped unite the community.

“It’s raw and honest, and he is being real with the audience.”

“Events like this really draw the community together, because there’s so many people who are connected to Greg,” Sullivan said. “All those tentacles reach out and spread the word, which is super cool.”

Nearly 100 people bought tickets in advance of the event and another 150 bought them at the door, according to Lehman.

“We are delighted to have Greg here and playing in the historic Dawn Theater,” Lehman said. “The Friends of the Dawn exists to support local community events like this.”

Many of Whalen’s song lyrics described his deployment, the difficult homecoming

Whalen said the performance was a great experience, and he intends on doing more events like it in the future.

“I’m just happy with how it went,” Whalen said. “There are little things, obviously, to work on like the band could spend more time playing together. All those guys are truly incredible. They just picked it all up, and all of this music was totally new and my own. So I am super grateful to them.”

Whalen performed with the Ramblers at the Dawn. Anna Broussard | Collegian

A clip from winner of best picture “Anora.” COURTESY | Universal Pictures UK

COURTESY | Wikimedia Commons

Martin Scorsese COURTESY | Wikimedia Commons

F E A T U R E S

Debunking protein pictures: Hillsdale students prove research wrong

By Eleanor Whitaker ASSISTANT EDITOR

Breathing, eating, sleeping, running to Taco Bell in the middle of the night – none of these activities would be possible without molecules called proteins.

Found in every cell of every living thing, proteins are complex, twisty strands of molecules that build cell walls, store energy, defend against infections, and more. If a person is su ering from a disease, chances are, proteins are involved, making them the target of many drug treatments.

In order to develop the right drugs, scientists have to know what the protein looks like, which is a daunting task. e wrong method of imaging proteins might lead to an ine ective drug.

According to Hillsdale College research, this problem might be happening in protein studies today, and current drugs on the market might be completely dysfunctional. Kelli Kazmier, associate professor of chemistry, and Hillsdale students have gathered piles of evidence that one of the most popular methods of imaging proteins is misleading.

“If I had to assess where the eld is right now, it’s probably that people are taking these protein structures as truth, despite how much we published about that,” Kazmier said. “You shouldn’t do that.”

e popular technique used to depict a protein is known as X-ray crystallography. e process requires that scientists “freeze” the proteins into crystal structures, and bounce X-rays off of them. But in order to crystalize proteins, sometimes scientists mutate or change the protein’s molecular structure.

As a result, Kazmier said the protein image is not the same protein that exists naturally, although scientists may treat it like it is natural.

“You are just not talking about the same thing as I am,” Kazmier said. “I’m looking at what the protein looks like. You are changing it to a di erent protein. It’s no longer the same protein anymore when you change its composition.”

Instead, Kazmier is an advocate for an imaging technique called electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy that looks at the protein as it moves in a simulated solution. She said this allows scientists to see the protein as it actually exists and moves instead of frozen and mutated.

“We basically study the dynamics of the system, and then that allows us to take this static picture of what the protein looks like, and imagine what it looks like when it’s doing its job in three dimensions across time,” Kazmier said.

X-ray crystallography data and EPR data should agree, but Kazmier said she and Hillsdale students are nding

that they don’t, indicating that X-ray crystallography scientists are imaging proteins that have been mutated too much.

“So far, what we found, although it’s preliminary, is that both of those mutations completely change the system,” Kazmier said. “ ey break the protein, it’s no longer functional, and it’s not at all representative of what it looks like, so each of those mutations, every single one of them, has a massive deleterious e ect on the function and structure of the protein.”

Kazmier said she thinks X-ray crystallography is very useful, but scientists have to be honest about the mutations they make to proteins.

“I think the scientists I respect, of which there are many, are people in this eld who are like, ‘ e very rst thing I need to tell you is how I’ve modi ed this system, and then you can judge my results. But the very rst thing you must know is that this is a modi ed system,’” Kazmier said.

Since the summer of 2017, a Hillsdale student has partnered with Kazmier to show that X-ray crystallography data for a protein called LeuT doesn’t match Kazmier’s EPR data for the protein.

Spencer Rothfuss ’21, a current doctoral student at Vanderbilt University, conducted his research with Kazmier in the summer of 2020. He investigated how a mutation on a protein called LueT for X-ray

crystallography a ected how the protein moved.

“Many proteins that are really vital for processes and mechanisms that we care about, both for basic science understanding and for clinical disease ghting, are in motion and move,” Rothfuss said. “ ey’re not structural or static, but they’re machines or motors.”

Rothfuss said his research added to the growing body of evidence that mutations on LueT fundamentally change the protein.

“We’re trying to have a very detailed picture available to other scientists of how this protein works,” Rothfuss said. “We found that, in fact, yes, this mutation did change the way the protein functions.”

e research launched Rothfuss into studying proteins on the Ebola virus for his Ph.D. Rothfuss said the Hillsdale education prepared him well for a career as a scientist.

“I came in with less science experience, or less hours in the lab than I maybe would have coming from a di erent school, but I think the things that I that those hours were replaced with were invaluable, and not things that I could make up as easily as I can make up experience in the lab,” Rothfuss said.

Senior Eva Lintereur, who worked on the project over the summer, said LeuT is an important protein to study because it is similar to proteins that transmit signals in the human brain.

“It’s a homologous protein to neurotransmitter sodium supporters, which are found in your neurons and play really important roles in helping your brain communicate with the rest of your body through neural signals,” Lintereur said.

Lintereur said several antidepressant drugs have already been designed to attach to these proteins, making it extremely important that the scientists use protein images cautiously.

“I was trying to gure out if the X-ray data is representing LueT well, because if it’s not, this is the data that they’re creating drugs to help cure these diseases,” Lintereur said. “Are the drugs actually being e ective?”

Kazmier said students like Rothfuss and Lintereur get excited about this project because they want to take revenge on the X-ray crystallographers.

“I always tell students, if you feel like you’re a person that’s motivated by spite, join my lab, which is a joke,” Kazmier said. “No one ever thinks they’re that person. It’s just when they join my lab, they nd out if they are or not.”

Kazmier said the problem of relying on X-ray crystallography methods will become even more of an issue when arti cial intelligence can generate new proteins based on faulty data. AlphaFold is an example of a current AI model that could create awed proteins.

“ e implication is we don’t need to do experiments anymore because AI is as good as experiment. I’m like, you need experiments to call those things out,” Kazmier said.

Kazmier said she wants to move away from a structure-based understanding of proteins toward a sequence-based understanding, which is focused on the composition of the protein. But Kazmier said scientists are resisting this perspective.

“I think what is actually true for proteins, that every single one functions di erently because the structure is not what’s important,” Kazmier said. “ e sequence is what’s important, and every protein has a di erent sequence. When you change the sequence, you change the protein. I would argue sequence equals function. We don’t want that to be true, because then you have to study every protein individually to learn anything about it.”

Lintereur said although she loved the research project, she adored the community of chemistry people she worked with over the summer.

“I really enjoyed research, and the community of students that were there was awesome,” Lintereur said. “It was so awesome. The chemistry department here did a really fantastic job of bringing students together throughout the research process.”

f ea t u r e s

Pothole plague: Repairs increase but complaints remain

By Austin Gergens Collegian Freelancer

Hillsdale should imitate the Roman Empire’s high quality roads, according to Samuel Sadler, a first semester graduate student.

“If you go back to what made the Roman Empire so great, part of it was the fact that they had this great system of roads,” he added, “Having a well done system of roads is the mark of a great empire or a great city.”

But Hillsdale has a bumpy road ahead, students say.

“The potholes in Hillsdale are almost worse than any other city I have been in,” senior Kaeleigh Otting said. “I also seldom see work done on the roads here, which most definitely contributed to the issue.”

Many students living off campus are keenly aware of this plight, especially those living on or near Summit or Howder streets, which are riddled with road scarring.

Otting, who grew up on the west side of the state, estimated the number of runins with potholes during

her eight years of driving on Michigan roads.

“The number of potholes I have hit cannot be tracked on one hand. Alone in my time in Hillsdale easily, I have hit well over 100,” Otting said.

“In my lifetime of driving even more, a thousand even. Most roads have at least one unavoidable one.”

Jason Blake, director of public services for the city of Hillsdale, said during his tenure with the city, the roads have received far more support.

“Over the last seven years, we’ve done more road work than we’ve done in the previous 20, so a lot of these roads are getting better — they’re just so far gone, it’s going to be a long time until we can get them back,” he said.

Despite an increase in road repairs, Blake acknowledged there have been more complaints regarding potholes and estimated that 40% of Hillsdale’s roads rank in the “poor” category, although there have been many improvements.

He also said the city’s responsibility regarding roads

extends roughly 48 miles of roads ranging from highways and local streets.

“We are responsible for the trunk line, which is the highway M-99 and all the major local streets through the city,” Blake said. “In addition to that, we also maintain all the several municipal parking lots, several parks, and then the cemeteries all together.”

The Michigan Department of Transportation offers some tips to minimize damage from these common road obstacles.

“If you spot a pothole ahead and cannot safely steer to avoid it, it is best to slow down, straighten your wheel to hit it squarely, release the brakes, and roll through,” MDOT said in a statement. “This helps to reduce the speed at impact and give your suspension the full range of travel to absorb the impact.”

Sadler said he has limited experience with Michigan roads.

“Michigan hasn’t been that bad, although to be fair, I have only really driven around Hillsdale and then between here and Detroit.”

He expressed how a recent

encounter during his daily route to the gym from Northwest Street has changed his stance from driving normally over ice and snow-covered potholes.

“When the ice melted, I kept seeing people drive around it, and I thought ‘It can’t be that bad’ and so I took it a little too fast,” he added.

“It was a strong jolt. I am definitely swerving around that [next time] but to swerve around it you basically have to go into the other lane.”

Potholes pose particular challenges during the winter time, because when road grade quality asphalt production plants are closed, according to Blake, the city relies on a different road patch mixture called a “cold patch.”

“It’s just really oil with stone in it,” Blake said. “It really is just a temporary patch, because asphalt is not available during the winter months.”

Asphalt is also preferred because of the price difference, and the city already annually spends $72,000 on road repair.

“The [asphalt] material is

about $65 a ton,” Blake said.

“Cold patch in the winter months is a way more expensive product, because the oil runs about $130 a ton.”

The key to a better fix, according to Blake, depends on the size of the pothole.

The size of the pothole depth matters, according to Blake, as he emphasized a shallow hole is like a jar and the patch material can just “push itself out” of the hole.

“You have to have a clean hole where it’s been broomed out or blown out, pick up the rubble, make sure the water is out of the hole,” Blake said.

“And then when you put the material in, regardless, if it’s true asphalt or cold patch, tamping or compacting is key to keep a pothole structurally sound.”

Unlike the ideal road life, which lasts between 20 and 30 years, according to Blake, there is no guarantee that a pothole patch will last more than a winter.

“There’s no guarantee [it will last] because the patch is only going to be as good as what’s around it,” he said. “So even if you fill a hole in and

it’s all cracked up around it, it’s just gonna last until that next spot cracks and turns into a bigger hole, and turns into a bigger hole.”

Once potholes begin to exceed 2 feet in diameter, and approach 4 or 6 feet, the city will complete a “cut square” and replace the entire section of damaged road.

During Blake’s three years serving in his role as director of public services — before he served eight years as a foreman — he shared why he keeps working on this “beautiful town.”

“There’s not a corner in this town that I haven’t helped make better either by beautification, infrastructure, the parks and so forth,” he said. “If we do our job right, we never get thanks, and that’s truly what it means to work for the Department of Public Services department, because if we do our job right, no one really knows.”

Blake encouraged community members to reach out to contact DPS at (517)-4376490, if they are experiencing road issues.

Hillsdale students earn their degrees and paychecks

By Francesca Cella Collegian Reporter

While sophomore Jonah Swartz cooks over a 1500 degree fire at St. Joe’s Café, he often gets chatting with customers.

“These people I’ve never even met are like, ‘How hot is it in there? What are the pizzas like? Tell me about this crust. What’s the sauce like?’” Swartz said. “It’s pretty enjoyable to just see that interaction from the community.”

While many students have jobs on campus, some work at local businesses, where they step aside from school and invest in the Hillsdale community. Sophomore Ellie Dice works as a barista at Rough Draft, and said she appreciates seeing the world outside the college perspective.

“I think it’s really important to have experiences off-campus and outside of your age group to get context,” Dice said. “Especially if college is your whole life, if college isn’t going well, it could be really devastating.”

Besides working as a barista, Dice also sells homemade sourdough to Rough Draft and several other clients. Dice said she enjoys the satisfaction she gets from creating.

“It does feel really lovely two times, three times a week, to make something with my hands and then be able to look at it and say, ‘I made that, and I get to eat it,’” Dice said.

Freshman Catherine Freidenfeld coaches at Hillsdale Gymnastics, Dance, and Cheer Center, and said she likes stepping away from campus.

Freidenfeld said branching outside of campus grows her appreciation for Hillsdale.

“It provides a broader perspective of the world as it functions as a whole because Hillsdale can be so isolated,” Freidenfeld said. “But even within our own town, if you try, you can still have a greater connection to other people in other walks of life that aren’t just from your Hillsdale College community.”

“It really does a world of good for opening your head space and that also lets you focus better on your school and your campus when you are here,” Freidenfeld said.

Getting involved outside of the college prepares students to enter the real world after they graduate, according to Swartz.

“It just gives you that practice of realizing you’re going to work inside a different community,” Swartz said.

Swartz said working at a local business teaches students life skills they cannot learn from their classes.

“It just makes you get out of your comfort zone,” Swartz said. “You have to go walk into real life. Working an on-campus job is really good. An off-campus job, however,

gives you experience putting yourself out there in situations that you may not easily have access to.”

Dice also said the experiences she has at work change the way she looks at life.

“The Walmart delivery people who deliver at Rough Draft a lot of times are Venezuelan and some of them can’t speak any English,” Dice said. “That’s been a cool opportunity to have that perspective

really forced on you that the problems you face in college are not the biggest deal in the world. There are people immigrating from a failed state.”

While Dice said she learns valuable lessons from the people she encounters at work, she also forms friendships with them.

“I really enjoy the social aspect of being at the counter,” Dice said. “There are friends that I have because of Rough Draft — that’s where I met them. They came in more than once, and then we just got chatting.”

While working off-campus allows students to meet new people, it also gives students an opportunity to build relationships with Hillsdale students past and present, according to Swartz.

“I love working with the people there who I wouldn’t really see on a regular day basis but who are somewhat connected with the school,” Swartz said. “The bartender lived at Donnybrook — where I live right now — and we shared stories about it, even though he graduated 10 years ago.”

There’s a sense of fulfillment that comes with doing a job well, according to Swartz.

“I’m glad I’m able to work off-campus and have a job like that where I can take a break from my studies and learn how to do something that’s human,” Swartz said. “And then that shares in beauty. Good pizza is beautiful.”

Potholes on Howder Street.

Ally Hall | Collegian

Sophomore Jonah Swartz works at St. Joe’s Café

Sarah Katherine Sisk | Collegian

Hillsdale student mail room workers keep campus sorted

By Alessia Sandala ASSISTANT EDITOR

Senior Samantha Mandel

puts in her earbuds, blasts Frank Ocean’s alternative R&B music, and picks up a pile of letters — Hillsdale College’s mail doesn’t sort itself.

“I just blast him in my AirPods, and it’s the most calming thing ever because it gives me a little brain break from school work,” Mandel said. “I know I’m being productive, even though I’m sitting down and just sorting the mail. It’s therapeutic in that way.”

Every mail room employee has one goal: ensure the campus receives its letters as quickly as possible. e mail room on the lower level of the student union operates separately from the package center in the Fowler Maintenance Building. ey do, however, face many challenges when ensuring mail gets where it needs to go, according to the student director of the student union and senior Katherine Vander Wall.

“If the address is just that poorly written, we can’t make any sense of it,” Vander Wall said. “It has to go to return to

sender. We can’t do anything about it. Probably 30% has to be returned to the sender.”

Illegible writing on letters isn’t the only problem. Sophomore Isaiah Joiner said the mail room has to deal with wrong addresses and small packages not meant for the mail room.

“ e Hillsdale mail service frequently gives us the wrong letters, so we have a really big return to sender bucket with tons of stu in it,” Joiner said. “We get a lot of mail here that is not for Hillsdale College’s properties. It’s di erent addresses on Hillsdale Street or Union Street.”

Despite the obstacles, Vander Wall said the mail room gets mail out to students with incredible speed and precision.

“We don’t lose stu . We’ve got a system. People will be like, ‘Oh, can I just look around in the bins?’ No, you may not. That’s not how this works,” Vander Wall said. “We don’t lose stu . We’ve never been like, ‘Oh, I just found this letter behind the table.’ It just does not happen. People do not need to worry about their mail getting lost in the union. It, more o en than not, gets lost in the world

somewhere along the way on the mail route.”

Each shi begins with an assessment of what tasks require immediate attention so the more important mail and old mail gets where it needs to go faster, according to Mandel.

“We have a pile of mail that we have to organize each shi , and then a er organizing it, we have to put it into the mailboxes,” Mandel said. “Depending on which one looks more full, we do that task rst. We prioritize that. It’s up to our own discernment on which task to do rst each time.”

While their system typically runs smoothly, Vander Wall said there are always delays at the beginning of each semester as they try to handle the waves of mail that arrived when no one was working.

“I’ll try to work some extra shi s to get that covered, or I’ve got a couple of people who are really great about picking up those extra shi s,” Vander Wall said. “We try to get that under control pretty quickly and we’ll also try to organize it by priority.”

Students can help alleviate the backlog of mail at the be-

ginning of the fall semester by picking up their mail le from the previous semester, according to Vander Wall.

“At the end of summer break, before the new school year, we have to clear all the mailboxes. Any mail that’s le in the little mailboxes in the hallway at the end of the summer has to be put back in a bin,” Vander Wall said. “We then have to take the mail out of that box and re-sort it into their new address because the addresses change every year.”

Vander Wall said she understands the frustration of not receiving an expected letter and the students in the mail room are willing to ensure every letter reaches its proper destination in a timely manner.

“It shouldn’t be more than a few days in general and if someone is looking for a specific piece of mail,” Vander Wall said. “Maybe they know they’re getting a birthday card from their mom, they know they’re getting their driver’s license sent by their parents, or they know they’re getting something important. ey can stop by and give us their name and email address, and we’ll email them as soon as it comes in.”

F E A T U R E S with

By Elaine Kutas COLLEGIAN REPORTER

Senior history major Michaela Estruth from Cincinnati, Ohio, talks Pompeii, her stick shi skills, and Gingerbread Wars.

What was your reaction to being named Outstanding Senior Woman?

I was so humbled, honored, and honestly overwhelmed.

The realization of leaving Hillsdale, a place that has been so formative, hit me hard. I called my mom and walked briskly to e Collegian o ce — the only place on this campus I can count on being alone 90% of the time. I had very similar calls with my sister and my dad, and was filled with such gratitude, knowing that my family has shaped me into the woman I am.

I knew Zach had been named Outstanding Senior Man, because I nosily asked Mary Ann, secretary to Dr. Arnn. But he didn’t know about me. I texted him, asking where he was. He was in o ce hours with Dr. Gae-

tano — classic. I met him outside the library, and we told each other with some laughs and teary eyes. We’ve been friends and fellow history majors since sophomore year, so it was a joy to share in the honor.

Why did you choose Hillsdale?

Stubborn, prideful 16-yearold Michaela was outwardly opposed to Hillsdale. I thought my classical education was sufficient and wanted to break the mold of resembling my older sister in every aspect. But, a er I attended Hillsdale’s studyabroad trip to Italy, the Lord so ened my pride. Turns out, I am a nerd and should just accept it. I applied to colleges amidst the COVID-19 lockdowns, and Hillsdale was the only college who seemed to value me as an individual instead of merely a GPA or CLT score. My acceptance letter was personalized and professional. I was so honored in that moment, and I’m so thankful the Lord graciously humbled me. (Turns out having a wonderful older sister to emulate is a blessing,

the Outstanding Senior Man and Woman

not something to escape.)

What’s the best piece of advice you received at Hillsdale?

Saying no to something is saying yes to something else — even if it’s just extra time for sleep or fun with friends. If it doesn’t bring you life and joy, say no. Honestly, my mom probably said this rst (and still does!), but it’s something I’ve heard a lot here.

What is a book you must have on your shelf?

“A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens.

Favorite place you’ve visited?

Italy, but speci cally Pompeii — I know, it’s morbid.

What’s a fact most people don’t know about you?

I can drive a stick shi . Also, I’m a twin — no we aren’t identical. He’s my brother. Actually, more polar opposite to be honest.

Favorite movie?

Zach Ponraj

As a kid — “Monsters, Inc”— it was an Estruth classic. As an adult — “ at ing You Do” is our family’s comedy. Outside of comedies, I’d say “Hacksaw Ridge” or “1917.”

Favorite memory from Hillsdale?

is question is unfair. Favorites abound from my time here, but I’ll share one. Junior year Gingerbread Wars night was lled with so many gut-straining laughs. Two of my friends and I thought it’d be a good idea to bring the real meaning of Christmas to Gingerbread Wars, so we tried to make a nativity scene. Let’s just say, it verged on sacrilegious. A picture may exist of us with reindeer antlers on our heads and Christmas pjs, pointing at our masterpiece. After that embarrassment, we all piled in a car and blasted Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” e night ended with some deep conversations, as those two friends were anticipating a semester on WHIP. Overall, it encompassed all the aspects of friendship.

Senior history major Zach Ponraj from Tacoma, Washington, talks the gi of Hillsdale, Rotten Tomatoes, and Late Modern Philosophy.

What was your reaction to being named Outstanding Senior Man?

I was very emotional. I called my dad, and we reminisced about the 18-year-old kid who used to call home sobbing during freshman year. e Lord has been so faithful in the years since then.

Why did you choose Hillsdale?

In a lot of ways, I don’t feel like I chose Hillsdale at all, but that the Lord led me here. Hillsdale was the only school I applied to and I committed before even touring, which feels crazy to think about now. Ultimately, it came down to two things: I felt ill-equipped by my high school education and had a deep desire to truly learn, but I also wanted to be in a place with strong spiritual commit-

ments. Hillsdale o ered both.

What’s the best piece of advice you received at Hillsdale?

Two things immediately come to mind. e rst is that each of us represents seven to eight other people who didn’t get accepted to Hillsdale. That statistic is haunting, and it’s always made me want to better steward this incredible gi I’ve been given. e second is an old Collegian article from Feb. 26, 2015, titled “Our Education is a Gi We Must Give to Others,” by Andy Reuss. It’s worth looking up.

What is a book you must have on your shelf?

“ e Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” by John Mark Comer. It deeply resonates with me, and I genuinely believe every Hillsdale student would bene t from reading it.

Favorite place you’ve visited?

Ask me a er spring break!

What’s a fact most people don’t know about you?

I rarely watch a movie if it has less than a 76% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Favorite movie?

My all-time favorite movie is called “About Time.” It’s a beautiful re ection on love, purpose, and even a realistic take on time travel. e relationship between the dad and son always gets me — I’ve never cried so much during a movie as I did the rst time I watched it.

Favorite classes at Hillsdale? e subject matter is de nitely above my cognitive level, but I’m taking Late Modern Philosophy with Dr. Cole right now and it might be the best class I have taken at Hillsdale. Western Heritage II with Dr. Gaetano, Continental Literature with Dr. Jackson, and Philosophy of

Isaiah Joiner sorts mail. ALESSIA SANDALA | COLLEGIAN

Michaela Estruth poses for the camera in 2007. MICHAELA ESTRUTH | COLLEGIAN

Zach Ponraj in 2007. COURTESY | ZACH PONRAJ