When Adam Stockford was diagnosed with Lyme disease at the age of 23, he was forced to abandon his lifelong dream of professional boxing, but it eventually landed him the title of Hillsdale’s mayor.
Stockford, who resigned as Hillsdale mayor in the fall of 2024, held the position for a term and a half. Five years after the Covid-19 lockdowns, Stockford said he was the first mayor to oppose Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order lockdowns, and he is proud of his efforts in keeping Hillsdale open and improving its financial stability.
“We’re not going to force our restaurants to close down. We’re not going to force our local businesses to,” Stockford said. “It comes back to personal responsibility, the fact that you believe that your constituents are smart and they’re adults and they can make their own decisions.”
See Stockford A7
Radio wins best station third year in a row
By Tayte Christensen Assistant Editor
For the third year in a row, Radio Free Hillsdale WRFH 101.7 FM is the Michigan Association of Broadcasters’ College Audio Station of the Year.
“You never know what to expect going into the awards,” said the station’s General Manager Scot Bertram. “We had a number of finalists this year, so there’s always a chance that you can win, but it’s always unexpected. It’s always a great accomplishment.”
The station’s win, announced March 20 in Lansing, comes with additional awards for individual students, including six in first place, three in second
place, and five in third place. For each individual placement, the studio was given points, leading to its title of station of the year.
Junior Evan Mick won first, second, and third place in the “Sports Feature” category for his entries “Getting to the Game,” “Former Chargers: Isaac TeSlaa,” and “Sibling Rivalry: College Football Edition.”
“I had won two out of the three of the year before, so I was hoping for a nice, clean sweep,” Mick said.
Mick said after receiving nominations for all three places, he felt apathetic, but an interaction with a MAB conference attendee changed his perspective.
“After the ceremony, some guy comes up to me, and he’s like, ‘I’ve been going to these things for a long time and I’ve never seen anybody sweep a category before,’” Mick said. “After that I was like, ‘Maybe that was more impressive than I thought it was.’”
Mick said his third-place entry, “Sibling Rivalry: College Football Edition,” was his favorite to produce. In the five-minute episode, Mick interviewed junior wide receiver Connor Pratt about playing against his brother Aidan, a quarterback for Findlay University.
“They get to play against each other, but they’re never on the field at the same time,” Mick said. “But they do get to
play a sport in college against each other.”
Seniors Michaela Estruth and Gavin Listro won first for “On-Air Personality or Team” for their show “This Week in History.” In the 22-minute show, Estruth and Listro discuss historical trivia.
“They were both interning here at the station this past summer, and one of the things I request they do is create some sort of show to run over the summer, to give us fresh content, and to give them some opportunities to work,” Bertram said.
By Thomas McKenna City News Editor
Believers should remember that worship is “purposefully wasteful,” Bishop Robert Barron said at a lecture in Christ Chapel March 20.
“‘Why are you using so much incense? How much did you pay for that vestment?’ In a way, that’s the point,” Barron said. “I’m trying to be wasteful. I’m trying to be non-economic with the liturgical sacraments.”
Barron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota and founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, has nearly two million YouTube subscribers and three million followers on Facebook. He spoke at the college’s commencement in 2023.
“I believe in your mission,” Barron told the hundreds attending the Drummond Lecture. “In the course of my lifetime, we’ve seen increasing attacks on the fundamental values of the West that have come up out of our political and religious traditions. In a place like this where they’re revered and taught to people to become smart, articulate defenders of those values — I believe in it, and that’s a major reason I’m here.”
Production grows at Homestead College hires new theatre professor
By Carly Moran Senior Reporter
When Hillsdale College bought four acres of the closed Glei’s Orchards and Greenhouses last spring, Campus Recreation Director Ryan Perkins ’22 saw it as a dream come true.
“In the Student Activities Office, we’ve been talking about ways to get students engaged and active outside the classroom,” Perkins said. “‘What are ways we can teach hands-on, practical skills?’ And I’ve had an interest in farming for a while. I worked on a cow farm during one of the summers while I was a student here, and so a couple of things were coming together, just in terms of the idea.”
The Hillsdale Homestead came to life last summer and is expected to expand its operations capacity this spring.
According to Director of Student Programs Rachel Marinko ’22, the homestead only had tomatoes, peppers, and 50 chickens last year. This year, the program expanded to grow basil, dill, thyme, oregano, rosemary, green beans, cucumbers and peas.
“Our mission is threepronged: it’s one, to teach practical, hands-on skills to students. Two, to develop the character of the students. The third would be to teach the full farm-to-table process,” Perkins said.
Students are not paid but can take home eggs and vegetables for their volunteer work. In the future, Perkins said the college may develop the program into a one-credit course. For now, about 25 students work in tandem during morning and evening shifts to collect eggs, feed the chickens, and water plants. Saturdays are focused on larger projects, like building a new chicken coop.
Junior Lulu Celecia has been a volunteer since the start of last fall, and like many of the other students who help on the farm, had no prior experience farming.
“In the winter time it’s as simple as collecting eggs, but last semester we were watering plants and picking some fruits and vegetables,” Celecia said. “Some people came in with loads of experience and others like me had never held a chicken before the homestead.”
Perkins primarily teaches new volunteers how to take care of the property, and then lets them pursue their interests on their own after a short period of training.
“It’s a mix between first walking the students through a few times that they’re out there, and then letting them take some of the ownership, and then providing more mentorship from more of a distance,” Perkins said. “I’m also hoping that we’ll be able to provide students with more
of an opportunity with leadership out here as well, having some sort of shift lead, something like that.”
Those interested in volunteering with the homestead can email Ryan Perkins at rperkins@hillsdale.edu to be placed on a work shift and meet for training. As the project expands, so will the need for volunteers. The Hillsdale Homestead hopes to have up
to 50 students in the years to come.
“Physical labor is an integral part of a liberal arts education, not just a supplement. We can’t separate our physical bodies from our minds and souls, so we need to learn how to live the things we are learning in the classroom,” Marinko said. “The best way to do that is simply to go experience life.”
By Jillian Parks Editor-in-Chief
The Hillsdale College Department of Theatre and Dance hired Joseph Streeter as a tenure-track assistant professor of theatre, specializing in theatre history.
“I am delighted with the students I’ve already met,” Streeter said. “I’ve been struck by the welcoming smiles and probing minds of the Hillsdale students.”
Streeter graduated in 2010 from Adams College in Colorado, where he studied theater and secondary education. He went on to work as a high school English and theater teacher at Alamosa High School in Alamosa, Colorado, until he enrolled at Ohio State University in 2017, completing his master’s degree and Ph.D. in theater performance, history, and theory in 2024.
“He’s an accomplished young scholar,” said Christopher Matsos, chairman and associate professor of theatre.
“His area of specialty is Greek tragedy and comedy, and we thought that aligned really well with what the college is interested in.”
In particular, Streeter studies, adapts, and translates Greek comedy, including work from playwrights such as Aristophanes, Menander, Eupolis, and Cratinus.
“Hillsdale College is one of the few institutions of higher learning in our country today that understands and champions the literary tradition as a source of enduring wisdom and a fount for creative endeavors,” Streeter said. “I look forward to guiding students through these foundational dramatic works and the performance contexts of the past, whether in the classroom or on the stage.”
Junior Moira Kate Forrester said she is looking forward to the expansion of the department with the addition of Streeter.
“He was really personable, and he really loved just talking to people and getting to know them,” Forrester said. “At lunch, he went around, and every time someone joined the table, he made sure to get their name, their class, and what they’re studying.”
Streeter will begin teaching in the fall.
“We’re expanding in a number of different directions, and I say that with all humility and gratitude to students who are interested in doing theater in classes and on stage,” Matsos said. “We have more students interested in a range of classes. I think that the added set of hands will
of
Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
Radio Free Hillsdale WRFH 101.7 FM won MAB’s College Audio Station of the Year award.
Courtesy | Michigan Association of Broadcasters
The sun sets behind Hillsdale Homestead. Courtesy | Lulu Celecia
Junior places second in ultramarathon
150 registered to run.
Bieser finished with a time of 20:49:44 — second place overall and in the 20-29 age group. He averaged 12 minutes and 30 seconds per mile in the Rabid Racoon 100, an annual competition held in Beaver Falls, near Pittsburgh.
Bieser said he has been running since his senior year of high school.
“I was like the fat kid all through high school, and I thought, ‘I don’t like this anymore,’” Bieser said. “So I went out and ran 12 miles trying to lose it all at once. Obviously that didn’t work.”
Bieser started taking long distance running more seriously in February of 2022, and, three years later, he began a nine month training regimen to run a 100-mile trail ultramarathon.
“I started by running 70 miles a week, so 10 miles a day,” Bieser said.
As the race date approached, Bieser said he raised his weekly mileage to 85 and eventually 105 miles.
Junior Katie Edison, President of the Hillsdale Running Club, said Bieser’s work ethic is strong.
“While on our club runs, we only see a fraction of the work and mileage he puts into training,” Edison said. “I think that all the hard work he does when not many people are watching reflects his character.”
Edison said where Bieser has a potential disadvantage in a lack of a high school running background, he makes up for in his willingness to do hard things.
“His enthusiasm for the sport brings a lot of energy to the club and we’ve had new members show up, excited to meet ‘The 100 Mile Guy,’” Edison said.
Associate Professor of Economics Charles Steele, the running club’s faculty advisor, said
Prior to hosting the show, Estruth and Listro hadn’t worked together, according to Estruth. But Bertram said he thought the duo had good chemistry on the air.
“After their second episode aired, I ran into Michaela outside the building here, and I rolled down my window and I said, ‘That show is really good.’ And she was surprised,” Bertram said. “But they won, and I texted her about the win, and I said, ‘Told you it was a good show.’”
Senior Gwen Thompson won first place in the “Music Feature or Special” category for her show “The Timbrel and the Lyre.” This year is Thompson’s second consecutive year winning first in the category.
Historian gives international perspective on Civil War
By Gianna Lodice Collegian Freelancer
The Civil War was much greater than a national conflict between North and South, said English historian, author, and lecturer Jeremy Black in a March 20 speech sponsored by the Center for Military History and Strategy.
“Napoleon III views the Confederacy in a favorable light because it supports Napoleon’s plans in Mexico, whereas the Union is totally against it,” Black said. “Napoleon III comes to the view that it might well be appropriate to act against the Union, but he doesn’t want to act on his own, and he sets out to persuade the British to cooperate with him, and the British cabinet is divided.”
American nation, and Black said the Americans realized not only that intervention might occur, but even more so that the country’s vulnerability invited it.
The most important question of the time, Black said, then became what would occur in America if this intervention happened.
“Now, why and what might have happened are not just things for us to talk about as some kind of parlor game,” he said. “They were what people at the time were actually speculating about.”
Of course, foreign intervention did not end up occuring, Black said.
Abraham Lincoln as his 1864 reelection campaign neared.
“In 1864 Lincoln is very worried, from what we can tell from his correspondence, that he won’t get reelected,” Black said.
Black explained that victories during the Union’s Atlanta campaign in mid-1864 and a failed Confederate counteroffensive helped rally critical Republican support, contributing to Lincoln’s victory.
tions in which the outcome is in some way inevitable, are taking away not just agency from the individuals involved, but are also taking away contingency from the human process,” he said.
Hillsdale’s Director of the Center for Military History and Strategy Mark Moyar said the talk fulfilled his expectations.
have not experienced it, but it is possible, to do it takes not only remarkable training, but a kind of wisdom and self-mastery.”
Bieser said a huge part of a race is a mental game.
“I chose not to listen to music because I couldn’t risk my phone dying, so I had to let my mind wander to anywhere besides that trail,” Bieser said. “I ran scenarios in my head and thought about the week coming up.”
While he was contemplating sitting in class the following Monday, Bieser said he ran a 12.5-mile loop that included a 16,000-foot change in elevation throughout. Bieser said the trail had been rained on the day prior, and with more than 100 runners competing at once, it led to cold and muddy conditions. Bieser said competitors were allowed to have a pace keeper, or someone not in the race running with them, for one lap to give them someone to compete with and keep a specific pace.
“The second to last lap — miles 75 to 87.5 — my mom ran with me as a pacer,” Bieser said. “That was a rollercoaster of a race, and I don’t know if I could have made it the last part without her.”
Bieser crossed the finish line at around 1 a.m. on Sunday, March 15. With his podium finish, Bieser was awarded a silver trophy.
After nearly a full day of running, however, Bieser said he could not be stopped from running even until the next day.
“I tried to procrastinate as long as I could,” Bieser said, “But I went for a short mile jog at around 11:30 that night.”
Bieser also already has plans for his next races.
“My next big race will be the Le Grizz 50 miler in October,” Bieser said. “Followed by another 100-miler during winter break.”
Thompson said she started the podcast during her junior year as an outlet to talk about her passion for folk music and history.
“I needed a vehicle to talk about this that didn’t involve plaguing or distracting my friends,” Thompson said. “So I decided I’m going to speak it into the empty microphone, bottle it up and stick it on a shelf so that I don’t have to bother people.”
Bertram said Thompson’s show has received accolades from several people in the Hillsdale community, including retired Professor of English Michael Jordan and College President Larry Arnn. “I was talking to Dr. Arnn recently, and he was aware of the show and knew what it was about,” Bertram said. “And
In Black’s lecture, based on his newest book “The Civil War,” he discussed how the United States played a surprisingly key role in resolving the global matter which he called “the North American question.”
“The North American question is the aspect of American history that often tends to be missed out,” Black said.
He contended that this aspect is the idea that the American Revolution and the founding of the United States were precarious.
“What the Founding Fathers were writing about was how best to protect a revolutionary settlement, which was threatened in their eyes by the possibility of attack from outside, and maybe of corruption from inside,” Black said. “Both of these are key elements for the Jeffersonian Republicans and for the Federalists, and they go on affecting the next generation.”
Black said the feeling of America’s establishment being constantly in question substantially influenced the war, with foreign intervention threatening both the Union and Confederacy. Continued British and French presence in North America in the mid-19th century put pressure on the young
“In the mid-1860s, the European powers disengaged from North America very rapidly, and the North American question is solved on American terms,” Black said.
But he explained that just how these terms played out introduced further wartime insecurity.
In 1862, the success of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Antietam campaign badly damaged the prevailing public belief in a quickly-approaching Union victory, according to Black. This Southern resilience, he said, became a growing concern for
“One of the difficulties for the South is that it becomes apparent with the 1864 result that the North is going to keep going,” Black said. “It’s not surprising that, therefore, the war comes to an end, but as a result of a really hard, grueling match.”
But Black said his main concern was what would have happened if Lincoln hadn’t won.
“I’m using the term ‘if.’ Bear in mind, that is exactly the terms you see in people’s letters of the period,” Black said. “In other words, it’s not some historian sitting here dreaming up things in the tongue as to what might have happened.”
Ultimately, Black used the international perspective to highlight the fallacy of assuming cut-and-dry patterns when interpreting historical events.
“Those who provide explana-
“It was a great overview of the Civil War, and it gave an international perspective which we are often missing, as we tend to focus so much on the United States,” Moyar said. “He really helped us understand the international geostrategic factors that influenced the war, and especially this question of whether other countries might have intervened.”
Freshman Nayeon Kim said she agreed with Moyar’s appreciation of this perspective, especially considering her experience with American history as a student from abroad.
“I’m not an American citizen; I’m an international student,” Kim said. “It was really interesting to hear about the international aspect of the Civil War and how there are different aspects to the Civil War that I wasn’t able to learn in other U.S. history classes.”
SAB invites students to hockey game
By Austin Gergens Collegian Freelancer
Hillsdale students will have the opportunity to see pucks fly and sticks clash at the Kalamazoo Wings hockey game March 28, hosted by the Student Activities Board.
Junior Emma Kate Mellors, a member of SAB’s media team, said sign-ups opened on Monday and tickets cost $10 for students.
“There will be a set number of spots available, so you just
he said, ‘Tell me more about Gwen Thompson’s show.’ And so I did.”
In a new category this year, junior Hana Connelly took home a win for “Human Trafficking: A Growing Scourge” in the “News Feature” category, sponsored by the Michigan Human Trafficking Commission.
“It was a long form news feature about human trafficking, specifically in Michigan,” Bertram said. “She worked really hard to do an outstanding job getting interviews, getting facts, doing the research, finding a victim testimonial online that we were able to work into the feature itself. That was really outstanding, so it was good to see her win.”
Junior Quinn Delamater won first place for her 60-second feature, titled “A Minute
need to sign up before it fills,” Mellors said.
The Kalamazoo Wings, or the KWings, are a minor-league professional hockey team affiliated with the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League.
Ingrid Dornbirer ’24, director of student affairs, said the trip will give students a good excuse to spend an evening away from campus.
“We always like to give students opportunities to leave campus and explore a sur-
With Quinn” in the “Editorial” category.
“We haven’t had a ton of experience doing specific things like that, which is 60 seconds — very fast. You’ve got to get in, make your point, support your point, and then close in a way that everything makes sense,” Bertram said. “Quinn did an excellent job talking about AI technology.”
In the “Current Events Story” category, sophomores Hershey Athysivam and Stephanie Zamora won for their show “In Media Res” for an episode titled “In Media Res: The Chevron Doctrine.”
Zamora said both she and Athysivam are passionate about court cases and plan to go to law school. Their show, Zamora said, gives the duo the opportunity to tell the story of
rounding area,” Dornbirer said.
“It will be fun not only to support a local hockey team, but also to engage with friends and make some memories.”
This off-campus sporting event will be the first of its kind according to Dornbirer.
“Our trip to the Detroit Tigers game in the fall was a huge success, and we love providing students with the ability to go on off-campus adventures,” Dornbirer said.
Mellors said the event will be a new experience for her.
a legal case while informing the audience of various legal principles.
“We try to tell the story of the case starting from the ‘middle of the action,’ filling in the pieces with simplified legal jargon and a mostly unbiased presentation of both sides of the case,” Zamora said.
Both Athysivam and Zamora credit Bertram for his help getting their show off the ground.
“I didn’t know that Mr. Bertram had even entered our show into the MAB awards,” Zamora said. “When I found out we were finalists I was shocked enough at that, let alone to find out that we had won first place with a show we’d only produced six episodes for. It was certainly a very pleasant surprise.”
“I have never been to a hockey game before, so I am excited to go and see a hockey game in person,” Mellors said. Friday’s game against the South Carolina Stingrays is “Stanley Cup” night according to the team’s website, and many concessions will be on sale for $3. Doors open at 6 p.m. for general admission, with the puck drop at 7 p.m. The SAB bus will leave Hillsdale’s Dow Hotel parking lot at 5 p.m.
Bertram attributed the station’s plethora of awards to the diligent work of the students at the station.
“We’ve developed a really great culture at the station in which people help each other year after year, and there’s an understanding about the level of quality that we expect from students,” Bertram said. “We have a lengthy protocol that everyone goes through before things get on the air. And that’s not to say we don’t have fun at a good time — we do. We have a great time. But there is a seriousness about what we do, because it is a responsibility. We want to make sure we are responsible and our students are creating excellent, compelling, and interesting programs.”
Radio from A1
Historian Jeremy Black provided an international perspective on the American Civil War. Gianna Lodice | Collegian
Junior Oliver Bieser finished in second place in a 100-mile race. Courtesy | Oliver Bieser
By Joseph Peshek Collegian Freelancer
Storage businesses serve students Two scientists lecture on faith
Early in his career at Hillsdale, junior Nathan Rastovac saw a need for convenient, affordable summer storage. Now he and a recent graduate have started separate summer storage businesses to help students deal with the updated storage policy.
An August 2024 email informed students the college would no longer allow summer storage in college housing for those living less than eight hours away. Students who live more than eight hours from campus may store up to one TV and one mini-fridge in college housing under the new policy.
Rastovac’s Storage for Students, along with 2024 graduate James Simpson’s business Dormcrates, seeks to offer storage solutions in light of the new policy.
Rastovac launched his business last summer, before the school announced the storage changes.
“I have a lot of friends who live more than four hours away, and it’s really a hassle monetarily, stress-wise, and family-wise for them to take time off from work and study to move themselves out or even move themselves in,” Rastovac said, adding that students at larger universities often have a variety of summer storage options while students on smaller campuses do not.
Storage for Students is a full-service summer storage business operating in partner-
ship with the Kehoe Initiative for Entrepreneurial Excellence, which began in 2021 as an initiative dedicated to preparing Hillsdale students for entrepreneurial excellence.
Storage for Students sends packing materials to its customers, picks up their items on a designated day, stores the items in a climate-controlled facility, and delivers them back to students on move-in day.
Rastovac said Storage for Students is available to all Hillsdale College students and will serve dorms, Greek houses, and off-campus houses.
Senior Marina Weber said she has worked with Rastovac since last spring and helped design his logo and website.
“Nathan had great ideas when we first met but needed me to bring his vision to life,” Weber said. “It’s been such a fun process getting to work with him and getting to know him better. Nathan brings such an amazing, always-welcoming energy to any social interaction he’s in, but I can especially see this energy when he is talking about and working on Storage for Students.”
Weber said completing Storage for Students’ website and brand identity early last semester has boosted the reach of Rastovac’s company.
“Nathan truly wants the best for the students on our campus and wants to help fulfill a need that we all struggle with, which is summer storage,” Weber said. “Plus, with his head resident assistant background, he really understands what students go
through first hand.”
Rastovac said Storage for Students charges $15 per month for small items including fans, bean bags, and small mini-fridges, $20 for medium items like rugs or large mini-fridges, $25 for large items like armchairs and dressers, and $30 for extra large items including couches, mattresses, and futons.
There are also various discounted bundle options available for students with hoards of belongings to store away, according to Rastovac.
Rastovac said students should take advantage of a 20% discount available until April 1.
For more information, students should visit the Storage for Students website at storageforstudents.shop. After putting in their orders online, students will receive an email with their designated pick-up day to pack their items, and the Storage for Students crew will take it from there.
“We want to be as convenient for the customer as possible,” Rastovac said.
Besides Storage for Students, Hillsdale students can also make use of the recently-created storage service, Dormcrates.
James Simpson ’24 said he started Dormcrates in conjunction with a broader movement within the storage industry. Traditionally, storage companies require customers to bring their belongings to a specified location, but more and more storage companies are beginning to add delivery to their services, according to Simpson.
This is Simpson’s first summer with Dormcrates.
“We provide the students with boxes, tape, and packing materials,” Simpson said.
Customers schedule a pickup time and pack their items. The Dormcrates crew picks up the items, stores them in a secure, climate-controlled facility, and delivers them back to their owners in August, according to Simpson.
“It’s a stress-free option for the students and the families to store their stuff,” Simpson said.
Dormcrates can store a wide assortment of items, from microwaves to futons, Simpson said. The company charges $15 per month for small items, $20 for medium items, $25 for large items, and $30 for extra-large items.
For further questions on pricing or the Dormcrates process, students should consult the Dormcrates website at dormcrates.com.
“We’re not just for dorms, so if you’re at an off-campus house, we can take care of it,” Simpson said. “If you’re at a Greek house, we can take care of it, and we’ll drop anywhere off in Hillsdale within a mile radius free of charge.”
Simpson said students can take advantage of a 20% discount on all Dormcrates products from now until April 1.
“It’s a great idea, especially for the kids who fly back home instead of driving,” freshman James Joski said. “I think that’s amazing because it’s really hard to get large items back home without a car.”
Junior resurrects theology honorary
Theta Alpha Kappa was missing from campus for one year
By Sofie Kellar Collegian Freelancer
The Theta Alpha Kappa theology honorary returned to campus this spring, following an absence of a year.
Junior Aidan Christian said Henry Brunton ’24 introduced him to the theology honorary on the last day of the 2024 spring semester, and now Christian is leading the honorary’s comeback.
“I had never heard of it existing before,” Christian said. “Henry told me on the very last day of his being on campus.”
To join the honorary, national requirements are a 3.5 minimum GPA and at least 12 credit hours in theology.
Christian said the high standards for entry into the honorary coupled with few freshmen hearing about the group hindered the growth of the honorary. Now it has 10 new members. Despite those require -
Barron from A1
Barron said people in the West have forgotten the importance of contemplation and must recover it by making time for leisure. This philosophical act, he said, reaches its highest form in the festivity of worship, where one must put aside practical concerns.
“Celebration is tied to contemplation by which the soul turns to its infinite object and becomes aware of the illimitable horizon of reality as a whole,” Barron said. “To attain this, a sacrifice of time is necessary, a setting aside of a day or a week for impracticality.”
This time of contemplation allows a person to move beyond material concerns and explore how visible reality relates to the invisible, Barron said.
“When I can say, ‘This chapel is real’ and ‘The quadratic formula is real’ — once you make that move — you’ve begun to ask the question after meaning, because you’re won-
ments, Christian said he thinks a lot is possible through the honorary.
“A theology honorary being active on campus would enrich a lot of what we study,” Christian said, adding that the honorary plans to invite speakers, hold essay competitions, and host on-campus conferences.
Despite students’ passion for education at Hillsdale, they are often too busy to travel to conferences, Christian said. The honorary would curtail the problem by having a conference at Hillsdale.
“Hillsdale College students are very busy,” Christian said. “We get invited to conferences a lot but it’s hard to have time to get off campus and go somewhere else for a whole weekend.”
Christian said he sees many ways the various campus honoraries could converse with each other, and junior Autumn Visser, vice president of Theta Alpha Kappa, agrees.
dering what possibly connects these two utterly different realities, one visible, one invisible,” Barron said. “You’ve now begun to ask the philosophical question.”
But this question is not an escape from the world, Barron said, but a more lively, intense experience of things around us. To make his case, Barron turned to the thought of German Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper and his 1948 work, “Leisure as the Basis of Culture.”
“The posing of this philosophical question involves no turning from the world of ordinary experience, but rather the awakening of authentic wonder in regard to it, since it seeks to know the being of things — their essence and ultimate meaning,” Barron said. “It is, Pieper says, ‘an act of marveling.’”
Returning to this practice requires us to make room in our lives for “leisure,” a time to put aside the practical tasks,
“We — theology majors specifically, but Hillsdale students too — love to look at all things ultimately through the lens of theology and how God has created our world, but theology can only go so far without the input of the other disciplines,” said Visser.
Assistant Professor of Theology and the honorary faculty adviser Don Westblade said the honorary exists to create students who are self-aware of their own humanity.
“We’re not vocational so much as we are answering those great questions of the liberal arts,” Westblade said. “Who am I as a person? What does it mean to be human? All those larger questions that you want to answer for yourself before you go off and become a doctor, lawyer, merchant.”
Westblade said he tries not to be too directive with overseeing the honorary.
“There’s some years when the students have just wanted
wonder at creation, and develop a “culture” set apart from the practical.
“Culture is, for Pieper, largely a function of engaging in the philosophical act, and that act is possible only within a context of leisure, which is to say an ambience where the workaday has been at least provisionally set aside,” Barron said.
But formal, ritualized liturgy — once a time for wonder and contemplation — has been in decline, according to Barron. The loss of sense of wonder and meaning beyond material things, Barron said, helps explain the loss of religiosity and the rise of anxiety, depression, and suicide among younger generations.
“It should be obvious to anyone that the abandonment of liturgy, of formalized religious ritual, has had massively deleterious consequences in the West,” Barron said. “Why would we find this puzzling? If people are convinced they have come from nowhere, there are
By Ally Hall Design Editor
A nuclear chemist and a theoretical physicist walk into a lecture hall. They want to talk about God.
Over the past week, several college groups and departments hosted speakers who grappled with the relationship between Christianity and science. Nuclear chemist Jay L. Wile explored the history of science and how its methodology aligns with Christianity. Theoretical physicist Christopher Lee presented on symmetries suggesting intelligent design, discoveries about the origin and evolution of the universe, and what details of Genesis align with these themes.
we teach our students that the scientific method always starts with a question concerning the natural world. If evidence is found that suggests the world is old (or young), it is a question worthy of pursuit. A question of anything in our natural world has merit. If the findings do not align with our belief system, it does not mean that the science is wrong, or that our beliefs are wrong, it just shows that perhaps we don’t understand how they connect.”
On March 24, Lee delivered his lecture “Symmetry, Order and Providence in Creation,” which presented a different perspective.
their scarlet cord, and I leave them alone, but it’s obviously more interesting if they decide to make something out of it,” Westblade said.
If students are not proactive with opportunities like this, they often lose them, Christian said.
“The honorary might just not have been doing much for a while,” Christian said.
“I think if you never really do anything, then people don’t know to join.”
Westblade said the religion department is for students who want to find the runway in life and are drawn toward theological texts to lead them there. The theology honorary provides even more opportunities for students to share and discuss what they’ve learned, according to Westblade.
“If you get a guy like Aidan who wants to make stuff happen, things happen,” Westblade said. “Kudos to him.”
no objective moral values, human nature is utterly fluid, and death is tantamount to annihilation, why are we surprised that a general malaise marks the spirit of the West?”
Senior Justus Hume, a religion and psychology major, said he enjoyed the speech, even though some parts were difficult to understand.
“A lot of it went over my head,” Hume said. “It was also nice to see that other professors were kind of looking confused at a lot of points too, so I wasn’t the only one.”
Hume, who converted to Catholicism last year, said he has listened to many of Barron’s Sunday Homilies online.
“He was pretty influential in my conversion. He has a really amazing way of explaining beautiful but complicated things so simply,” Hume said. “I think a lot of people probably feel that way, hence his massive viewership on YouTube and other social media platforms.”
On March 20, the Apologetics Club and Career Services hosted Wile for his lecture “Christianity and Science: a Match Made in Heaven.” Drawing from his experience as a scientist, a man of faith, and the author of a K-12 scientific homeschool curriculum, Wile offered his perspective on the history of science, primarily focusing on European Christians, and the area of study’s own conceptual genesis.
Wile argued Christians brought something to the beginning of science that the Greeks did not have — an understanding that just as God gave humans laws, he also gave laws to creation.
“We need to figure out these laws, but the question is how,” Wile said. “When it comes to God’s laws for his people, you look at the Bible.
Robert Grosseteste, the bishop of Lincoln in the 1100s, said that we have to develop a method for studying nature just like we developed a method for studying the Bible: theology.”
Wile brought up a wide range of scientists and thinkers over the course of history from John Philoponus to Sir Isaac Newton and honed in on an example of Johannes Kepler’s astronomical work regarding planetary ellipticals.
“Why would you rustle through trial and error to fit equations into data tables for 18 years?” Wile said. “Because he thought he was looking at the image of God. For him, astronomy was a worshipful act. By figuring out these laws, he was able to better understand what he thought was an image of the Trinity.”
Chairwoman and Associatiate Professor of Chemistry Courtney E. Meyet attended Wile’s lecture, and though she said she appreciated Wile’s intent to reach non-scientists, she said she was not impressed by Wile’s response to a student’s question about the age of the Earth.
“While Dr. Wile makes strong, valid points for the pursuit of scientific study by Christians, he seemed to contradict his main point when asked about the age of the earth by a student,” Meyet said in an email. “Citing one study, Dr. Wile quickly discounted the entire area of research pertaining to an old world, stating it, ‘lacked scientific merit.’ At Hillsdale,
Lee is a scientist trained in nuclear and particle physics at California Institute of Technology and now located in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he was the founding president of the New Mexico Chapter of the Society of Catholic Scientists. The Michigan-area Colleges Chapter of the SCS and the John Templeton Foundation sponsored Lee’s visit.
Lee spoke to a Lane lecture hall filled well past capacity with students lining the walls, all in hopes of new wisdom or extra credit. Using the example of the role played by gauge symmetry in Nature giving rise to the presence of photons in electromagnetism as well as the binding forces of protons and neutrons, Lee drew connections to the nature of the Trinity.
“There is no perfect human analogy,” Lee said. “But it’s hard for me not to draw a parallel with the nature of God himself as a Trinity. These are the particles that make up all of you and ordinary matter. They’re governed by this force, which comes from a symmetry, which means that we know there are three things in here. We can rotate them into each other so that they are not individually indistinguishable, and yet you can’t take them apart.”
Wile posed science as a divinely-inspired pursuit rich with tests similar to those of theological study. Lee suggested modern science and the timeline of natural phenomena in the physical universe are not incompatible, but rather affirming of each other. To both Wile and Lee, the study of these fields points to God, whether that be up at the stars or down into a Hydrogen tube.
“For me, everything is represented in this,” Lee said. “Our Lord coming to dwell with us, magnificence of everything: the cosmos, the very particles and forces that are kept bound together by the strong force in our Lord’s sacrifice for us.”
Students said they enjoyed the talks.
“I was impressed by both the immense size of the crowd turnout as well as Dr. Lee’s ability to make his complex examples intelligible to us without overly simplifying them or just pointing to large equations,” senior Jason Lu said.
Lane 124 was standing-room only for Lee’s lecture.
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editors welcome Letters
Letter to the Editor
By Maurine McCourry Guest Writer
The Mossey Library faculty would like to thank the Editorial Staff for their March 20 article, “Give Students The Free Press.” We would very much like to do so! In fact, we have been in discussions with the publisher regarding a subscription since the spring of 2023. We agree that the publication is an important platform and that its content is relevant to our curriculum.
The Free Press is an excellent example of born-digital content with easy access for individuals willing to pay for a subscription. It is not available, however, as an institutional subscription paid for through a library budget. To its credit, the publisher is aware of the issue, and working on setting up that kind of access, but some publishers are either unable or unwilling to do so. It is a serious problem, as it leaves some content unavailable to most
people. Librarians of all sorts are working with publishers to find solutions, but in the meantime, access to information is not what it should be in a free society.
We do expect to be able to offer access to The Free Press in the future and will announce access in the Faculty/ Staff and S.A.O. newsletters as soon as we have it. We are grateful for all suggestions regarding subscriptions and other acquisitions at any time, so please let us know when you notice gaps in the collection. Brandon Hugo (bhugo@ hillsdale.edu) manages the electronic resources and subscriptions, and Aaron Kilgore (akilgore@hillsdale.edu) is in charge of physical book purchases.
Thank you for your help in developing the Library’s collection!
Maurine McCourry is the director of the Mossey Library.
By Lewis Thune Collegian Reporter
Americans often give unflattering descriptions of our country: We’re on the whole a bunch of rich, gun-owning, unilingual, sports-obsessed consumers living among single parents and criminals. The coasts are liberal, the heartland is conservative, we drive everywhere, our big cities are tourist traps, and most of us have never left North America. We even do this regionally and municipally: Midwesterners are quick to volunteer how, with the exception of the lakes in Michigan and Minnesota, no part of the region is distinguishable from another. Every small town has a “historic downtown,” everyone says “ope” as an all-purpose interjection, and an hourlong drive is colloquially “up the road.” I often talk about how my home of Omaha is a large city that tore down every historic part of itself, won’t stop spreading west, and has no major university or professional sports team. And yet, something happens when someone else says it. A righteous indignation swells up in my American heart when a Canadian (or,
When students reached for copies of The Collegian at lunch last Thursday, they grabbed nothing but air. A power outage at our printer led to a late delivery, and the 22nd edition arrived on campus shortly before dinner.
Despite the delayed release, our good name still stands, as we have not failed to deliver a paper to campus on a Thursday in recent memory. The Collegian has taught its writers and editors what it means to meet a deadline. Students are not
just learning journalistic skills at the paper; they are learning what it means to be reliable.
It’s easy to forget when you pick up a paper that you’re reading hours and hours of people's time — time spent interviewing, writing, editing, and designing the paper. Against all odds, amid bad weather, busy weeks, and big life changes, The Collegian staff delivers papers on Thursdays by lunchtime, barring factors like power outages that are outside of human control. It is worth
mentioning that the printing staff did an excellent job of getting the papers to campus much sooner than expected, demonstrating their own commitment to timeliness.
It is all too easy to not show up to an event on time, beg for an extension on a paper, or submit an assignment late when you don’t have an editorial staff waiting on you to do your part and a readership waiting to see your product. Students who continuously struggle with time management gradu-
ally lose the trust of their peers and professors. Then, when a genuine disruption does appear, people will be less likely to extend them much-needed grace — the kind we needed last week. So turn that assignment in on time, even if you know the professor will give you an extension. The habit of timeliness will pay off when power outages or family emergencies make you incapable of fulfilling duties. Life happens, so start being reliable now.
Letter to the Editor
Catholics should defer to the pope on deportation
By Josiah Davidson Collegian Freelancer
A March 20 Collegian article (“Deportation upholds Catholic social teaching”) appealed to the Thomistic principle of ordo amoris or order of love, which Vice President J.D. Vance used to justify his disobedience to the pope on the issue of deportations. This is misguided. When the Papal See rejects deportations of illegal immigrants, it is condemning the indiscriminate nature of the Trump administration’s deportation policies — not condemning deportation ipso facto.
Pope Francis wrote in his Feb. 10 letter to American bishops: “I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of goodwill, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”
The pope’s expression of charity is not outside of the hierarchy articulated by Aquinas, for he writes in the
“Summa Theologica”: “In certain cases one ought, for instance, to succor a stranger, in extreme necessity, rather than one’s own father, if he is not in such urgent need.”
Simply put, in cases of necessity, prudence, not proximity, should reign supreme.
From a Catholic perspective, there is no higher human authority than that of the Vicar of Christ, the pope. Consequently, his prudential judgment is paramount. Ultimately, Roman Catholics do not submit to Vance, President Donald Trump, or the opinions of political columnists. Catholics submit to the pope, who is “lower than God but higher than man, who judges and is judged by no one” (Pope Innocent III, “Sermon on the Consecration of a Pope,” 1198).
Even so, some say the pope ought to stay out of matters pertaining explicitly to politics. However, it is certainly within the pope’s jurisdiction, even most narrowly defined, to judge and correct matters of charity. If not, the neutrality of the papacy is so absolute that it is relegated to
near impotency.
Similarly, some Catholics might argue that political decisions like deportation involve practical considerations in which disagreement is allowed. However, while political matters often fall under the principle of subsidiarity (which states decisions should be made at the most local level possible, only involving higher authorities when necessary), there are times when the pope must intervene to address a glaring moral issue. When he does, Catholics should submit in humility to the authority of Christ’s vicar, not cling to partisanship or pride.
Lastly, it is important to address those who claim the pope’s position on immigration is not binding in the same way as theological dogma. The issue is not whether the teaching is dogmatic, but whether Catholic doctrine affirms the authority of the one who proclaims it — which it does. As Vatican I states, “Both clergy and faithful… are bound to submit to this power by the duty of hierarchical subordination and
true obedience, and this not only in matters concerning faith and morals, but also in those which regard the discipline and government of the church throughout the world.” It is not often in this day and age that the Vicar of Christ sees fit to wade into our muddled politics. When he does, our Catholic response should be to lay down palm fronds of deference before him, rather than dragging his message before a Sanhedrin of political columnists and politicians to pick his teachings apart with an air of pseudo-intellectual individualism, as if secular decrees were impervious to the criticism of the supreme pontiff.
Josiah Davidson is a junior studying politics.
God forbid, a Frenchman) criticizes my country. Those may be rich, gun-owning, unilingual, sports-obsessed consumers, but they are my rich, gun-owning, unilingual, sports-obsessed consumers. We do drive everywhere, but only because that’s absolutely the best way. We don’t need to leave North America, because we’ve already got the states and our snowy and sandy neighbors whom we allow to live next to us.
of thousands of fans every June for the College World Series, and owing to our honest-to-goodness skyscraper, downtown Omaha is visible from 24 miles away. Take that, Lincolners.
cept fossils and some sandhills for the rest of the state. It’s not much to look at from without or within.
The same is true regionally and municipally. That Midwestern downtown is historic: It’s looked the same ever since people were coming through on horses and oxen. Omaha — especially when a resident of its ugly stepsister, Lincoln, criticizes it — is the greatest city anybody’s ever seen. We welcome presidents, we make nationally acclaimed ice cream, we host hundreds
That kind of fierce loyalty ought to be reflected at the state level as well. “Nebraska: the good life, home of Arbor Day,” is what every sign on an inbound road for my home reads. If you were to ask me about my home state, I’d tell you it’s a monotonous plain in the middle of the country with a large city in the far east, a college town 40 minutes west from there, and nothing ex -
But if you, non-Nebraskan, were to tell me that, you’d be wrong. Sure, we don’t have national parks, but we’ve got massive fossil deposits, excellent hunting, and even some impressive waterfalls on the Niobrara River. Our water is direct from the Ogallala Aquifer — and it tastes like water, not like Arkansas rocks or Oklahoma dirt or a Florida swamp. My water is, in fact, better than yours. Yes, the brilliant city of Omaha looks on a map like it’s trying to leave
Nebraska, but that’s because it’s there to stop Iowa from moving further west.
State pride is an American imperative, because the states are the most American part of America. They predate the country itself, and they’re the whole reason it came to be. They gave us the idea of a federalist system and the Senate. They also gave us the Civil War. Yet we’ve long memorialized Confederates who fought out of love and loyalty for their homes, and that’s because everyone can recognize that state pride is a right and noble thing to have. States often represent who we are far better than our regions and localities. I may be from the city, but my first job was on a farm, and my family consumes an entire Nebraskan beef cow every year. As a kid, I knew my senator. I still watch
the University of Nebraska at Lincoln volleyball squad when they make the national championship every year. I’m immensely supportive of companies like Hudl and Nebraska Furniture Mart — and I will defend Runza from its uncultured despisers until death. Our identities are rooted in our home states. It’s an American tradition, a piece of history that appropriately unites and divides us as Americans. Here at Hillsdale, we ought to embrace it just as we do the tradition which brought this nation into existence. State pride shouldn’t be unique to Texas. Your state and mine compose our regions and our nation. They’re our homes, and they deserve the very same pride and defense we give the rest of our homeland — all except Iowa.
Lewis Thune is a junior studying politics.
Illustrated by Maggie O'Connor.
This year, celebrate the Resurrection in Hillsdale
By Michaela Estruth Senior Editor
Given the short “long weekend” students have off for Easter, staying in Hillsdale is our best option.
Since classes don’t end till noon on Friday — worthy of an opinion article of its own — students have about 80 hours total for Easter break. Hours of driving each way cuts into that break significantly, and that’s not even considering potential flights. Students who have to fly home lose at least six hours both ways for travel, not to mention the likely hundreds of dollars on a two-way ticket.
But the money and time factors are not the only reasons for celebrating Easter in Hillsdale. In fact, these components are sub-par to the more important aspects.
Celebrating Easter in Hillsdale allows students to observe Holy Week at the same church or parish. Holy Week services are important rituals of the Christian life that bring each individual through Christ’s final moments before his death.
entrance to Jerusalem on a donkey, as a lamb heading to slaughter, Christ’s fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9, which foretells of the King of the Jews coming on a donkey.
“So [the crowd] took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!’” John 12:13-15 reads. “And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.’”
The next service most churches offer is Maundy Thursday. This Passover service celebrates Christ’s initiation of the Lord’s Supper when he offered the bread and wine before his own sacrifice the next day.
Good Friday recognizes Christ’s death as a sacrifice for man’s sins. Christians grieve this merciful weight in somber
Travel while you’re young
By Megan Li Assistant Editor
When my family lived in Beijing, China, during my middle school years, we traveled around Asia so often that, as unbelievable as it may sound, I got sick of it. I actually threw a fit when my parents announced our next travel itinerary.
After COVID-19 trapped us all at home for months, there was nothing I wanted more than to travel again to satisfy that longing we all share to see the world. After all, if you’re young, there is no better time to fulfill that longing than right now.
Though a college student’s sleep-deprived, caffeine-filled body might not feel like it right now, it is in the best shape it will ever be. It can run on three hours of sleep, operate with a fast metabolism, and adjust quickly to new environments, time zones, and food. There is no age better for traveling to a foreign country. Young tourists get the traveling experience without getting sick from trying new food, battling jet lag, and feeling aches and exhaustion halfway through a touring day. Traveling will not be such a pleasant ride a few years down the road.
Along with possessing a healthy, sprightly body, young people’s worldviews are still developing. Their habits and beliefs are less set than they will become in their thirties and forties.
Not only does traveling enable young travelers to expand that lens through which they see the world, it is also a soul-altering experience. They are far out of their comfort zone in the presence of culture, languages, landscapes, and people so different from
them. But in doing so, they expose themselves to a formative novelty. Young travelers walk the same paths as historical figures, witness the wonder of the diversity with which God created the world, and learn about lifestyles that would have been unfathomable to their imagination. When young travelers meet those whose circumstances are less fortunate, such interactions inspire gratitude and compassion in the heart of the travelers — both important values to instill in one’s youth. Young travelers see people that are also trying to make it in this world, though in very different ways. Through expanding their own horizons and feeding that hunger for knowledge, travel fills young people with love for the wondrous world God created them in. Oftentimes, travel makes the experience of returning home all the sweeter because young people can develop an appreciation for what they already have: the joys of their own homes, and the beauty of a simple, “boring” life. Anyone can travel, but traveling well is another matter. Not everyone knows how to navigate a foreign city, book the right hotels and restaurants, and track down the best places to go. There’s nothing like traveling to force young people to make wise decisions, confront uncomfortable situations, and interact with different kinds of people. Do I brave that sketchy alleyway or walk an extra three minutes to the museum? Eh, time is money. Oh, look — the hotel I booked doesn’t exist. Maybe next time I’ll avoid discount hotel websites. Do I have a good chance of contracting ebola from using this bathroom? Let’s find out — ebola cases aren’t very
prevalent here anyway.
Experiencing such different circumstances can peel back layers to expose our real levels of maturity. Our experience of the world is a mirror to who we are; travel is a journey of self-discovery. As Lawrence Durrell wrote in his essay, “Spirit of Place”: “It is there if you just close your eyes and breath softly through your nose; you will hear the whispered message, for all landscapes ask the same question in the same whisper. ‘I am watching you — are you watching yourself in me?’”
The cost of traveling is certainly an obstacle for college students. But that’s where reasonably weighing costs and benefits comes in, because all good things require some degree of sacrifice. Thanks to my parents’ frugal financial choices when it came to purchasing material possessions, I got the opportunity to travel often. Through budgeting and saving, college students can travel without breaking the bank. It’s not easy, though: They’ve got to really want it.
And what is the pay-off? The privilege of traveling the world, living in different countries, and experiencing the diversity of human culture. It was an experience my parents prized over material possessions, because experience stays in your memories, in stories you tell others, and more importantly, it becomes a part of who you are forever. You may not be rich in possessions, but you can be in experience. Travel while you’re young, before the plague part two dawns on us — you won’t regret it.
Megan Li is a sophomore studying economics.
or silent services.
On Holy Saturday, St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Hillsdale, in union with Catholic churches around the world, celebrates Christ’s resurrection from the grave in an Easter vigil service. The congregation sings and prays into the wee hours of the morning, when all proclaim “Christ is Risen.” New Catholic converts are received into the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil. Easter morning marks a great celebration for, “He is not here, but is Risen!” College Baptist offers a sunrise service at Baw Beese Lake before its traditional morning service.
Many churches, families, and student groups host large brunch feasts in celebration of the end of Lent and the Resurrection of Christ.
Commemorating each of these moments with the same church is an important part of a Christian’s Holy Week. Trav-
eling on Good Friday, while for the good cause of visiting family, often sacrifices the beauty of attending special services that orient the individual to ponder the cross and Christ’s sacrifice.
Holy Week and Easter weekend in Hillsdale are busy, beautiful times. Sharing these fundamental Christian experiences with fellow friends, students, and professors is a bond of the body of Christ.
Plus, Easter falls late this year, so Michigan spring will hopefully be at its peak in mid-April.
Sunny days are ahead, and students can enjoy the warmer weather and fun outdoor activities amidst the Easter Week celebration. Take a five minute trip to Baw Beese Lake for some relaxation instead of a five hour trip for toobrief time with family.
Feast with your Christian brothers and sisters
at Hillsdale this year. The opportunities to do so are limited, and the reward is eternal.
Michaela Estruth is a senior studying history. Illustrated by Maggie O'Connor.
The adventure lies at home
By Lewis Thune Collegian Reporter
Travel is exciting. Travel is accessible and easy. Travel is a constantly-improving global industry. People love to travel. Also, the desire for more travel is misguided.
Most people — and certainly those educated in the liberal arts — recognize that accessible, affordable, easy, and exciting things warrant abundant caution. All humans can excessively indulge in these things, and most are fully aware of it. Most people will freely volunteer that they should consume less TV, or caffeine, or nicotine, or that they should shop or party less.
But rarely if ever does anyone express a need to travel less. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The greater issue is whether people feel they ought to travel more. Because like any good, travel has its time and place, and the urge to exceed both is immense. But it’s an urge that should not be sated.
That’s not because it’s a destructive desire that deserves obliteration. The answer is not to retreat into the hermitage of one’s house for a “staycation.” Humans have always gone outward to seek excitement — it’s just a question of where and by what means. Travel tells you to seek excitement by getting away and spending money.
I’ve lived in Omaha my entire life. I call home a triple-landlocked state of rolling prairies. It’s been nearly a decade since I’ve seen mountains or an ocean. For the majority of my time as a Nebraska resident, I’ve complained about how dull and boring the region is, always wanting to travel more than the occasional family getaway to a wedding or conference.
But a few weeks ago, I found myself accosted by a new and
alarmingly wholesome perspective on my supposedly uninteresting life in the great plains. With it, I found my desire for more travel suddenly lacking, and came to understand that this exact perspective, though I’d never realized it, had been prodding my mind for years. I realized simple excitement helped me combat the times my life felt too tiring, and simply tiring myself helped me combat the times my life felt unexciting. I could satisfy the desire for travel by resting and investing in home.
An exciting life ceases to be tiring. There are plenty of old proverbs about how there’s beauty and excitement everywhere for those with eyes to see. I used to not believe them. As it turns out, they’re completely true.
West Omaha’s endless suburban neighborhoods were depressingly repetitive to me until 2023, when I saw them for the first time from 60 feet up in a tree almost every day over the course of a summer, working 11-hour days in arboriculture. It was the most exhausting work I’d ever done and nonetheless absolutely riveting.
Likewise, the low, rolling prairies of Nebraska were nothing if not boring until this previous spring break, when I saw them from a 20-minute drive away. Having completed a grueling bike ride up the bluffs that overlook a vast portion of the Missouri River Valley, I could see my entire home city, making out literal hundreds of square miles.
Baw Beese Lake was never fun until this fall, when I pushed a fellow Simpson resident from one shore clear across to the other in a boat made from a cardboard box and tape. Excitement is waiting everywhere in creation. When found, tiring
tasks become exhilarating. Just as importantly, a tiring life becomes exciting in its own respect. Almost everyone knows the thrill of accomplishment after successfully juggling a jam-packed schedule. Everyone knows the quality of rest which follows these victories, and the subsequent mellow feeling when we realize there’s no more challenges left to conquer. Like the excitement of creation, these kinds of wonderfully draining tasks often come from outside the self. For the younger me, this was juggling sports and school, something plenty of Hillsdale students do. Volunteering, as many other Hillsdale students know, is another perfect example. In my experience, I spent much of high school swamped with church and church-related volunteering as well as volunteering with children — and I loved it all. And for my entire family, tiring excitement means 20 years of home and garden improvement: tile, drywall, plumbing, paint, sod, mulch, trees and all, with plenty of car maintenance on the side. The door to travel will always be open in its proper time and place when it’s inevitably necessary — that’s what makes it so enjoyable — but the desire for more is a misguided one. That time and money, rest and investment, is better spent at home in the humble disciplines of wonder and work, loving creation and community. And when the time and place is right for travel, that kind of contentment allows its possessor to appreciate new places and experiences for what they are, instead of what home is not.
By Olivia Pero Outreach Director
Other than the few people who still wear masks in every situation, life has largely returned to normal since the introduction of COVID-19 to the world five years ago.
Memory of the COVID-19 shutdown reminds Americans how great the freedom and independence they enjoy is, and, conversely, how powerful the government had grown, wiping out free life as Americans knew it for a few years.
COVID-19 was rightfully a frightening disease in its early days, because people didn’t know if it was dangerous and
to whom exactly it was dangerous. Unfortunately, however, the rules of the pandemic — like masking and social distancing — soon stopped making sense as we learned more about the disease. It can be easy to get comfortable again and forget how viciously the pandemic assaulted Americans’ freedoms now that life has returned to normal. But it’s important for Americans to remain vigilant and prepared to stand up for their freedoms now that they have experienced what it was like to have them denied.
Not only did I lose a normal senior year of high school and sports like every other
student in the country, I also lost a function of my body and consequently a part of the normal human experience the one time I got COVID.
I was a senior in high school. A few days before I noticed I couldn’t taste or smell, I experienced a horribly cold, piercing pain in the cavity between my eyes. Over a meal of pancakes and bacon, I realized I couldn’t taste anything.
I was devastated and immediately concerned I would never regain my sense of taste. Maybe it was just the horror stories I’d heard on the news about a few people losing their sense of taste and smell
for a year. Or maybe I worried the fear into existence.
My parents told me to relax, reassuring me it would probably take the two-week period that was touted as the typical length of time people couldn’t taste or smell. I tried to hasten the process by doing the burned orange trick from TikTok. This involved burning an orange with its skin still on over the flame of a gas stove, then peeling it, mixing it with brown sugar, and eating it. Looking back, I’m embarrassed to say I even tried something that turned out to be such a hoax.
Four years later, as a senior in college, I barely have
my sense of taste and smell. Cigarette smoke smells almost the same as how peanut butter tastes to me, for example, and the taste of peanut butter is not what it once was. I can discern the physicality of foods, like if they’re sweet or salty, but the flavor is either absent or altered.
While I was distraught and cried a lot for the first few months after losing my sense of taste and smell, realizing it wasn’t coming back anytime soon, I have since gotten used to my damaged senses. It’s in the moments when my loss of senses comes up in conversation or I’m reminded of it at a good meal that I think of what
COVID-19 took from me. It was something worthy of grieving at the time when I lost it, but now I take the physical damage COVID-19 did to me as a daily reminder of that era when Americans were not free.
Whether permanently impaired or not, all of us ought to remember we can advocate for freedom and common sense should the moment arise. Thanks a lot, COVID. Have a great birthday.
Olivia Pero is a senior studying politics.
Lewis Thune is a junior studying politics.
City News
Families turn to backyard chickens amid eggflation
As prices rise, more residents raise broods at home but not
By Grace Novak Collegian Reporter
As egg prices soar to a minimum of almost $5 a dozen, raising backyard chickens in Hillsdale has become more popular.
Earlier this month, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said she wants to help citizens raise chickens on their own to combat the climbing prices.
“We also want to make it easier for families to raise bakkyard chickens,” Rollins said in a Fox News interview March 3.
Some Hillsdale families have already started this project and have found the value of raising their own chickens outweighs the ease of simply going to the store. Jonathan Smith, the college’s senior director for
continuous improvement, and his family have kept chickens for around a decade and continue to expand their flock each year. Smith and his wife, Lauren, both alumni of Hillsdale College, said they are certain that the investment of raising chickens is worth it.
“A lot of people tend to be pretty mechanical in their calculations about these things where it’s purely an investment — a value proposition of dollars and cents,” Smith said. “But I think the reality is that it’s more than just a dollars and cents function. It’s also the health and intangible values that it brings to the family.”
Mary Catherine Adams ’16, another Hillsdale local who raises chickens, agreed.
“We see so many pros beyond just saving money,” Adams said. “They bring quite a bit of richness to life.”
As well as providing an enriching lifestyle, Adams said the nutritional benefits of chickens contribute to the value of raising them. The chickens eat and digest insects, which creates nutrient-dense eggs to nourish her family.
“We let them fertilize the garden all winter long because their manure is great fertilizer,” Smith said. “Or if you need an area clear, you can just put them in that area for three or four weeks and it becomes dirt.”
In 2019, the Michigan CageFree Egg Law required all eggs sold in the state to be from cagefree farms, with a few exceptions
for smaller farms. This law took effect in December 2024 and, combined with the recent bird flu outbreaks, has escalated the already rising prices of eggs. In Hillsdale, locals who raise chikkens still face their own kind of regulations.
Michael and Lindy Jordan, a retired Hillsdale English professor and his wife, raised chickens in town for 15 years. They said the chicken regulations are not entirely clear in Hillsdale. For those outside city limits, people are free to have as many chickens as they want. Yet, in town, a law limits residents to six chickens, according to Adams.
“There are some people in the local government who want to change that,” Adams said. “They think this is a worthy effort, and we should be able to feed our families.”
Occasionally, chickens in town can also cause trouble by wandering away into other yards or even the road, according to Jordan.
“Mr. Fine Feathers was a beautiful rooster,” Jordan said. “Dark brown, red, green, and purple. He was beautiful. But he chased our daughter Mary on her bicycle, he challenged people on the sidewalk, and he and I had four or five epic battles.”
Despite the potential inconveniences of unruly chickens, the Smiths said they enjoy the natural routines that come from caring for animals daily. They said it teaches their children the value of growing their own food and gives them hands-on lessons about the power of observation.
“The kids feed the chickens every morning and then go collect their eggs every afternoon,” Smith said. “They have a certain sense of pride because they’re like ‘Hey those are the eggs I collected!’”
Adams agreed that the daily
routine with chickens is highly valuable for both children and parents.
“There’s a sort of rhythm to it that I think is really beautiful and good,” Adams said. “We’re so out of touch with those things in our culture today and so I think chikkens are a little bit of a way that we can enter back into the reality of things.”
hawks prey on chickens, the potential death of chickens is not a major inconvenience and can actually serve to teach children valuable life lessons about mortality.
“It teaches the reality of life and death,” Smith said.
The Adams and Smith children are actively involved in caring for the chickens. The Jordans also said their children experience a vibrant childhood growing up with chickens.
“My favorite story about John and the birds was when he put three of them in a pail and climbed to the top of the black maple tree on the corner of our yard,” Jordan said of one of his sons. “I thought he was going to try to teach them how to fly, but he just wanted to take them on an excursion.”
Smith and Jordan said that while raccoons, dogs, and even
“You get them as baby chicks and it’s fun to bring them home from Tractor Supply, but we’ve raised meat chickens as well, and you have chicken butchering days and so you’ve got to kill them or they will die from other things.”
Raising chickens could potentially save money, but the real value comes from the lifestyle change that chickens bring, according to the Smiths.
“You can’t put a dollar and cent sign on that,” he said. “There are these intangible values about what makes us human that are much more important than ‘Did I save 20 cents on my dozen eggs?’”
Hillsdale lags other counties in expanding jail
space
County jail releases inmates due to overcrowding as officials say they lack funds
By Catherine Maxwell News Editor
As Hillsdale County conti-
nues to release inmates due to lack of space in the county jail, District Judge Megan Stiverson said nearby counties have invested in building more jail space. Although other rural judges are also housing more felons and fewer misdemeanor cases, most local jails are solving their overcrowding problems, Stiverson said.
“Judges from other counties are seeing the same trends in terms of there being more people who committed misdemeanors out on probation and more felons lodged locally,” Stiverson said. “Hillsdale is unique in our issue with our jail. There are other jails around that have had issues or been small, but they all have new jails now.”
The Hillsdale County Jail’s official capacity is 67 inmates, but overcrowding has forced it to hold an average of 75 inmates on any given day, according to Capt. Jason Stiverson, the jail administrator. Although the jail has added portable bunks and uses a multipurpose room to add extra space, the Sheriff’s Office still asks the district court to release inmates.
“Every week, I have to decide who poses the least threat to the public safety in Hillsdale County,” Megan Stiverson told The Collegian in September. “There is no set of rules.”
Like the Hillsdale jail,
neighboring Branch County Jail used to experience overcrowding. But the county solved its problem by building a new facility that opened in 2021, according to Sheriff Fred Blankenship. The new jail can house 202 inmates. In March 2025, it averaged a population in the 70s, according to Jail Administrator Capt. Todd Riley.
Although Branch County Jail has spoken with other jails about housing inmates, Blakenship said inmate counts are generally low.
“Bail reform and sentencing reform here has actually gone the other way,” Blankenship said, referring to a state law requiring more felons to be housed in local jails and expanded probation for misdemeanor offenses. “We don’t have that many inmates in here anymore.”
Blankenship said the new jail cost $25–30 million. The county funded the project through a millage — a property tax — passed in 2018.
“Since we built the new jail, our inmate count has been down drastically,” he said.
The Branch County Jail had experienced overcrowding due to misdemeanors, but Blankenship said it also struggled to house female inmates.
“We had to make a decision to house those females out in other jails,” Blankenship said.
“We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout the years to house inmates out
to other counties.”
Hillsdale County has considered housing its own inmates in other counties, but the cost is prohibitive, Stiverson said.
“The jail doesn’t have that in its budget, and if I order that somebody be lodged at a different location, then it becomes my responsibility,” Stiverson said. “And I certainly don’t have that in my budget, either.”
Stiverson said the problem comes down to available resources.
“There’s some other rural judges who have the same frustrations as I do regarding the number of people that we have
reflected a smaller disparity, with about $600,000 for Hillsdale and around $700,000 for Branch.
The Hillsdale County Board of Commissioners knows the jail needs to be expanded, chairman Mark Wiley told The Collegian in September. But he said relocating the Hillsdale County District Court is their first priority.
“We have more needs than we have money right now, and the jail is definitely on our radar,” Wiley said. “I would like to think that within the next three years we can start addressing the need at the jail.”
Wiley said the board is ac-
“Hillsdale is unique in our issue with our jail. There are other jails around that have had issues or been small, but they all have new jails now.”
in jail or are allowed to put in jail,” she said. “A lot of them have more resources than we do in Hillsdale. We’re incredibly unique.”
The 2025 budget for Hillsdale County Jail is about $1.3 million but around $2.4 million for Branch County Jail. The budgets for the district courts
cepting bids to renovate the building currently occupied by mental health clinic LifeWays.
“As of March 18, we have two bids and are working on a third,” Wiley said.
In the meantime, Stiverson said she relies on the Community Corrections Program to provide risk assessment and
supervision.
Mark Katz, community corrections manager, said he completes risk assessments on individuals prior to arraignment with the judge and makes recommendations for the bond appropriate to the situation. The assessments include a full background check and label individuals low, medium, or high risk.
“Sometimes it’s followed exactly, and sometimes it’s not followed at all,” Katz said. “That’s completely the judge’s decision at that point.”
Katz said violent criminals usually receive a tether, an electronic monitoring bracelet, if out on bond. Community corrections can help fund the tethers through a grant that took effect Oct. 1, 2024.
“We can set up exclusion zones for victims so if the defendant were to get anywhere near the zone, the tether goes off and notifies myself as well as the police,” Katz said.
Community corrections also supervises individuals out on bond, Katz said. The community corrections standard is two contacts per month for high-risk individuals, but Katz said he meets with high-risk individuals one or two times per week.
“I really work hard to keep track of where people are and what they’re doing,” he said.
Katz said his goal is to get people in better positions, in-
cluding helping individuals find housing, treatment for substance abuse, or employment, depending on the issue.
“The goal is to try to work with individuals to not only provide supervision while they’re in the court process, but also to help them start doing something different in their life,” Katz said. Since the community corrections program’s creation in January 2024, it has increased court appearance rates from 68% to 92% and decreased recidivism — the number of people committing crimes after being released — to 0.5%, according to Katz. As of March 2025, the program has completed 357 assessments and has supervised 230 individuals while in the court process.
“We’re keeping people out of jail by following these community corrections programs, but we’re still at overcapacity,” Stiverson said. “Can you imagine where we would be if I wasn’t letting people out at this point?”
Stiverson said she loves the Hillsdale community, but the increased homeless population and drug problems concern her in addition to the overcrowding issues.
“I’m not sure what to do to solve the problem,” she said. “All of my ideas involve money.”
Elijah, Mary Catherine, Margaux, Patrick, Max, and Thomas Smith with their eggs.
Courtesy | Lauren Smith
The Smith children with some of their chickens. Courtesy | Lauren Smith
Mary Catherine Adams with eggs from her chickens. Grace Novak | Collegian
State funding for Dial-a-Ride falters Marshalls, KFC coming soon
City raises fares, adds advertising to offset reduction
By Isabella Doer Senior Reporter
Falling support from the state government threatens Hillsdale’s Dial-a-Ride program as the city raised the subsidized transport’s fares for the second time in two years last month.
Hillsdale officials say they’re doing everything they can to keep the city’s Dial-aRide program afloat as state support declines and costs continue to rise.
Under the new schedule, in-town fares for adults will rise from $3.50 to $5, and fares for children, students, seniors, and individuals with disabilities will climb from $2 to $2.50. For trips to or from designated out-of-town locations, adult fares will move from $5 to $6 with corresponding increases for other riders.
“In Hillsdale, we have three options for dealing with declining transportation funding: increase rates, find alternative funding sources, or spend property tax money to subsidize the service,” Acting Mayor Joshua Paladino said. “We’re doing all three, and we will probably have to continue to do all three for the foreseeable future.”
The city is now subsidizing Dial-a-Ride at a rate of $120,000 to $150,000 a year, according to Paladino. It also recently added bus advertising to help offset the cost to
Stockford from A1
Stockford resigned in December after he said he and his wife had found their “dream house.” But the property was outside of the city limits, and moving out of the town would force Stockford to step down in the middle of his second term.
“I had to make a tough decision,” Stockford said. “We came across a property — a big, beautiful house on a private lake — that not only would fit our family‘s needs, but it happened to be right on this property where my grandad had once owned a restaurant.”
Stockford said he chose family over politics.
“My wife and I have an 18 month old and we’ve got three teenage boys living at home still,” Stockford said. “You don’t get those years back with the little ones. That’s something I didn’t understand completely when I was young and had babies, but now that I’m older, I prioritize family first.”
Stockford said the most challenging part was working with the public’s mistaken expectation of what a mayor can do.
“The hardest part of being mayor was that you don’t have as much authority as what the
the city. But the fare hikes and advertising revenue won’t close the whole funding shortfall.
“The fare increases will not cover the gap. The city will still have to appropriate money from its general fund to cover the costs of the buses,” Ward 1 Councilman Jacob Bruns said. “Furthermore, the city is likely going to have to purchase two more buses in the coming two years, amounting to over $200,000.”
Paladino said the state’s spending priorities are part of the problem.
creased expenditures from $56.8 billion to $83.5 billion,” Paladino said. “Much of this money went to the ruling class’ preferred methods of economic development, including targeted investments in favored legislative districts and direct corporate subsidies.”
Bruns said current budget trends suggest local services will continue to feel the squeeze.
shedding is an older term to reflect those times when a government gets out of a business entirely.”
He said one alternative model, which the Mackinac Center has promoted in the past, involves shifting toward ridesharing platforms.
By Joshua Mistry Fast Food Correspondent
Kentucky Fried Chicken and Marshalls will become the newest chains to add Hillsdale locations soon, but neither store has an opening date yet.
nager Mackie’s first major accomplishments after joining Hillsdale in 2015,” Fry said.
Sam Fry, marketing and economic development director for the City of Hillsdale, said the planned openings indicate the growth of the city.
“Under his leadership, city staff have taken a proactive approach to attracting and supporting new private investment. We want Hillsdale to be known as a businessfriendly community where enterprise can thrive.”
“Municipal concerns are lower on the state’s list of priorities than special-interest handouts,” Paladino said. “State politicians apparently prefer to subsidize high-publicity investments, rather than humbly and simply sending money back to local governments to help with their core functions.”
“State funding has been decreasing because the legislature and governor are appropriating less money to these programs proportionally,” Bruns said. “Meanwhile, they spend money on green energy initiatives that also cost Michiganders more.”
“Municipal concerns are lower on the state’s list of priorities than special-interest handouts.”
The state’s Comprehensive Transportation Fund, which helps pay for services like Dial-a-Ride, is expected to decrease slightly over the next four years.
“Between 2018 and 2024, the state of Michigan has in-
general public believes you might have, but you get held accountable for all the decisions that are made in that,” Stockford said.
But before he was mayor, Stockford was a boxer. He held an undefeated record in house shows, tournaments, and exhibitions during his four years fighting for Irish Hills Boxing Club with the Knights of Columbus. He competed at the Eastern Michigan Golden Gloves tournament and even
With uncertainty surrounding future funding, Michael LaFaive of Mackinac Center for Public Policy said cities across Michigan may need to rethink how they deliver public transportation.
“At times, effective management requires different approaches, including competitive contracting, transportation vouchers or outright load shedding,” LaFaive said. “Load
boxing in 2003.
“It took my prime boxing years away from me, and I had to figure out something else to do with my life,” he said. “So, I ended up going back to school.”
Stockford attended Jackson College and graduated in 2012, at the age of 32, with his associate’s degree in law enforcement, thinking he would become a police officer.
“Public service was really starting to interest me,” Stock-
“The hardest part of being mayor was that you don’t have as much authority as what the general public believes you might have.”
caught the attention of USA Boxing — the national sanctioning committee that oversees amateurs who may become future Olympic boxers.
Before his Lyme disease diagnosis, Stockford said he had severe symptoms including intermittent fevers, joint pain, cloudy vision, and neurological issues. After doctors diagnosed him with late-stage Lyme disease, Stockford quit
ford said. “I wanted to serve the community in some form or fashion.”
In his early 30s, he enrolled at Hillsdale College and graduated with a degree in politics in 2015, at the age of 35.
Immediately following his graduation, Stockford ran for city council because of his frustration with the poor legislation for street repair. He said he opposed the proposed city
“The Mackinac Center has recommended an ‘Uberization’ approach in the past,” LaFaive said. “Instead of providing an expensive busing service, governments could provide digital cards for lowincome riders so they can hail their own, more personalized rides.”
LaFaive also recommended shared ride models such as Uber Pool and Lyft Line, which allow riders heading in the same direction to split the cost of a trip by sharing a vehicle with others.
According to The Hillsdalian Substack, the federal government continues to cover 18% of Dial-a-Ride’s costs annually, but the steady drop in state support has increased the city’s reliance on local funds.
LaFaive said future transportation models may depend more heavily on innovation.
“The future of transportation involves autonomous vehicles and more highly nuanced ride sharing opportunities,” he said. “Far more employment opportunities are available by car than bus, something transit authorities everywhere should consider.”
income tax that would additionally tax residents to fix the roads. Although the proposed bill made it to the ballot, the people of Hillsdale voted against the tax.
After four years as a Ward 1 councilman, Stockford ran for mayor in 2017 against incumbent Scott Sessions.
“I didn’t like the way that he ran the meetings,” Stockford said. “I didn’t like the way he constantly looked to the administration to give him all the answers. I felt like he was a rubber stamp.”
Stockford won every ward and said his main priority was to return local decisions to the people of Hillsdale.
“It was more about the organization of government, to me, than actual policy,” Stockford said. “It was more trying to put authority back into the hands of the people of Hillsdale.”
One of Stockford’s Hillsdale professors, Associate Vice President of External Affairs and Lecturer in Politics Timothy Caspar, said he appreciated Stockford’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns.
“He did an excellent job as mayor, and I was especially grateful that he held that position during the Covid-19 era,” Caspar said. “He kept a calm and steady hand on the tiller when so many others in positions of authority were so eager to sacrifice our freedoms.”
Caspar said he was glad to see Stockford involved in local politics.
“The biggest change was addressing him as ‘Mr. Mayor,’ and I hope he won’t mind if I continue to do so,” Caspar said.
Stockford credited his theory of government to his education at Hillsdale and many of his professors, including former professor of politics and current Ward 2 Councilman William Morrisey.
“Maybe my time at Hillsdale College played into this, but I really subscribe to a bottomup sort of government where most decisions should be made locally,” Stockford said. “The people are the ultimate authority, and when you’re an elected official, you’re an employee of the people. So you answer to the people, and most of the
“Right now, Hillsdale is experiencing significant development, particularly along the Carleton Road commercial corridor,” Fry said.
“There’s real momentum building as businesses take note of the opportunities here and the investments others are making.”
There was a KFC location in Hillsdale before it closed in the 1990s when the Walgreens opened at the intersection of Carleton Road and Fayette Street. According to the Hillsdale Daily News, Fry said KFC has submitted plans for the proposed restaurant to be built on West Carleton Road.
Marshalls plans to open by Kroger on West Carleton Road, where the department store Peebles was formerly located.
This new growth is part of an effort by City Manager David Mackie and city staff to transform Hillsdale, Fry said.
“Much of this began with the arrival of the Meijer supercenter — one of City Ma-
The city is working to expand utility services to match the growing needs of new businesses, Fry said.
“Along Carleton Road, with the addition of Meijer, Aldi, and soon KFC, the Hillsdale Board of Public Utilities is continuing to upgrade the electric distribution system to support both current and future development,” Fry said. “These infrastructure improvements ensure we can meet growing demand and maintain reliable services.”
The city Planning Commission will review the plans for the proposed KFC in April. There is currently no timeline for the proposed Marshalls to open.
“It’s important for the community to understand that these projects not only bring jobs, but also expand our local tax base,” Fry said.
“For a smaller city like Hillsdale, stable, moderate growth is essential to maintain a strong quality of life and to ensure the city can continue delivering the public services residents rely on.”
decisions should be made at a local level.”
Morrisey said Stockford, who took several courses with him, was a stellar student.
“Older than the other students, he seemed to appreciate being at Hillsdale College even more than most of his peers,” Morrisey said. “He had one of the qualities most valuable in a college student: He didn’t think he ‘knew it all.’ He was ready to learn. As a result of his maturity and energy, he was always a solid student, very consistent in his performance.”
Stockford ran for reelection and began his second term as mayor in 2022. He said he is most proud of Hillsdale’s financial situation after his seven years in office.
“Hillsdale is in the best financial shape that it has ever been right now,” Stockford said.
When he was first elected in 2017, the city was struggling to pay the bills week to week. Stockford feared then-Gov. Rick Snyder would appoint an emergency city-mayor in Hillsdale, as he had in other towns. That emergency mayor would be Snyder’s puppet and rob Hillsdale of its autonomy, Stockford said. Stockford, however, managed to keep this from happening and, today, Hillsdale has a multi-million dollar budget surplus. Despite his defense of small
government, Stockford said passing laws by committee can be challenging and slow.
“Doing work by committee is slow and methodical and inefficient, and there’s a reason for that,” Stockford said.
“Our founders set up a form of government where nobody would have too much power. Nobody would be able to just snap their finger and make decisions. But at the same time, it’s very frustrating to have to work in the confines of consensus with not only multiple other elected officials, but then a very strong and robust administrative arm like municipalities have.”
Morrisey said Stockford was a hard-working man and dedicated himself to serving as mayor.
“After he was elected mayor, he asked me to be mayor pro tem,” Morrisey said. “That turned out to be the easiest job I ever had because the mayor pro tem’s only duty is to run the meetings when the mayor is absent, and mayor Stockford was absent exactly once during his six years as mayor. This was characteristic of his work ethic.”
Morrisey said he is glad Stockford is settling into his new home with his family.
“If his little daughter has as much energy as he has, I’m sure she’ll keep him active for years to come,” Morrisey said.
Stockford rides a horse at the Fourth of July parade in 2022. Courtesy | Adam Stockford
Stockford speaks at American Legion Flag Day 2024. Courtesy | Adam Stockford
Softball
Chargers grab pair of wins in first G-MAC showdown
By Ellie Fromm Assistant Editor
Charger softball opened its Great Midwest Athletic Conference season with a doubleheader sweep of the Ursuline College Arrows on March 21. The Chargers won the first game 10-0 in six innings and the second game 11-5.
“We were relaxed at the plate, made adjustments and hit really well,” head coach Kyle Gross said. “I think that is something we've worked on and really want to be known for, they want that to be our approach. They executed that at a good level this weekend.”
The Chargers were scheduled to play the Lake Erie College Storm March 23 but the games were postponed due to weather and field conditions, according to Gross.
Senior Joni Russell, junior Mackenzi Maxson, and freshman Anistyn Foster pitched for the Chargers. Junior Maggie Olaveson and sophomore Sydney Davis each scored four runs.
“Our offense was on fire,” Russell said. “We did really
Games
Math Maze
Difficulty:
A path starts at the top-left corner and exits at the bottom right, only passing through squares orthogonally. The numbers around the border indicate the number of squares in that row or column that the path passes through. It cannot pass through bolded barrier segments, and it never passes through the same square twice.
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).
well against their pitchers and strung together a lot of big hits.”
Junior Taylor Lewis said the conference wins set a good mentality for the team and that they look to use this momentum in their upcoming games.
“During these next few games it will be important for us to keep hitting well and to have a sharper defense,” Lewis said. “These wins will be great for our mentality heading into these next four games.”
The Chargers will play at home at Johnny Williams Field for the coming week of competition. On March 28 they are scheduled to play a doubleheader against the University of Findlay Oilers at 2 pm and 4 pm. The next day, on March 29, they will play the Tiffin University Dragons in a doubleheader at 12 pm and 2 pm. They then face the Davenport University Panthers in a doubleheader at 3 pm and 5 pm.
Golf
Men open spring season with top-ten finish
By Grace Novak Collegian Reporter
Hillsdale golf started its spring season strong March 24 and 25, finishing 7th overall out of 18 teams at the University of Findlay Spring Invite in Richmond, Kentucky.
With a team score of 4-over-par, the players battled through harsh winds to play consistently at Boone’s Trace National Golf Club during the second round on Monday.
Junior Maxwell Burns and sophomore Ryan O’Rourke each finished with a score of 1-over-par, tying them in 24th place out of one hundred golfers. O’Rourke was at the top of the leaderboard halfway through Monday before the wind toughened the playing field.
“My range session was perfect— one of the best I’ve ever had,” O’Rourke said. “I started out really hot on the first round with 5-under out of seven holes. It was a little disappointing as I then kept shooting well but didn’t make many putts.” Burns said that the consistency the team was showing in their playing is a testament
Battleships
to the work they’ve been putting in and is a promising start for the upcoming rest of the season.
“I think this year, we’ve built a culture where it's a little more serious, and we're a little more gritty,” Burns said. “So we expect more out of each other than we have in the past. I think it’s nothing but positive!”
The week got off to a different start than expected due to the injury of sophomore Oliver Marshall which took him off the roster for the tournament, but the team was able to regroup from that and play excellent golf that will set a good tone for the rest of the spring season according to head coach Matthew Thompson.
“That first tournament in the spring is a good chance to see how we've been practicing, so I was excited to see how the guys would do,” Thompson said. “They did great, especially since they played in some super windy conditions. They kept their wits about them, they battled through some adversity, and they did a really, really good job.”
The team has had the advantage of practicing at the brand new Hillsdale golf facility prior to this tournament.
“It’s allowed us to have a lot more practice leading up to the tournament compared to last year,” O’Rourke said. “We’re much closer to around three hours a day of practice which had me feeling a lot
Sports Feature
better about my game going in.”
Last year at this tournament, Hillsdale landed in 10th place. The team scores and the individual scores were better than in past years and showed the progress of the team playing with more grit, according to Burns.
“As far as history goes, if you finish with 4-over, that’s pretty dang good!” Burns said.
Next weekend, the team is traveling to the Music City Invitational in Nashville, Tennessee. The Findlay tournament this week included a strong pool of regional teams while the upcoming Nashville tournament will include some new competition that will make for an exciting tournament, according to coach Thompson.
“One shot per guy per round goes a long way,” coach Thompson said. “So we're just going to keep working on the things that we've been working on. We'll rest for a day and then regroup quickly and get that intensity back up by the end of the week.”
Hinrichs finds success on the track
By Joshua Mistry Collegian Reporter
Redshirt sophomore Christian Hinrichs now balances school, football, and track as he jumps into a new role on the track team.
The Charger football cornerback made the decision last fall to join the track and field team as a jumper, competing in the long and triple jumps.
"I joined this last fall, at the end of the football season. We had our last football game on Saturday, and then our banquet on Sunday, and then I was practicing with track on Monday night, so it was crazy," Hinrichs said.
Hinrichs sought to join the track team after remembering how much he enjoyed it in high school.
"I did track in high school, but I didn't get a ton of time to do it because of COVID-19. My sophomore year was canceled, and most of my junior year was canceled. So I really wanted to come back to that, because my senior year was super fun," Hinrichs said.
Although he enjoys track, Hinrichs said it has been difficult to fit into his schedule.
"We've had lifts for football in the mornings and then practice for track in the afternoons along with film for football," Hinrichs said. "Football is every other day and track is every day, so I skip track on days with football and go to track on days without football. It means I have six practices a week, four lifts, and six hours of film, so it's a lot."
Hinrichs received support from all his coaches, but specifically his head coach, Nate Shreffler.
“Coach Shreffler was a dual sport athlete here as well. He threw for track and played football until he quit track his sophomore year. But I talked to him and he said he wished he went back to throwing after he finished football," Hinrichs said. "It's cool having coaches that were in your exact position, and it's a very Hillsdale unique thing.”
Hinrichs did not have to switch up too much of his training because his events re-
quired a similar style of training to his football position.
"Football and jumping are really similar, because in both you're not going to be running further than 30 or 40 yards," Hinrichs said. "The training for football has a lot more lifting than track does, because for track when you're in season, ideally you want to be in peak form for as long as you can, and then you train in the offseason."
Hinrichs does not see scheduling conflicts in the fall between both sports being an issue as they mostly occupy different times of the year.
"For track there are not any meets until the very end of the football season in the fall, so until then I'll probably just go to a team meeting or two for track and swing by to let them know I'm still training," Hinrichs said.
One difference he has noticed between football and track is how the team interacts with each other.
"The environment on the track team is so different, and I think the main reason why is because it is co-ed," Hinrichs said. "When it's just guys on the football team, I feel there's a lot more of a strong brotherhood. But there's downsides to that, where people aren't always on their best behavior. Track is more chill and everyone is a lot nicer to each other."
Senior Cass Dobrowolski believes Hinrichs has rejuvenated the track team with his
example as a dual sport athlete.
"Christian came with a burst of life for our team. I think it's pretty reasonable to believe that track and football require two different types of attitudes, but it has been great to be able to learn from how he approaches athletics and to be able to share how we treat athletics," Dobrowolski said. Hinrich's demeanor has made him a perfect fit for the jump squad, Dobrowolski said.
"He has fit in great. We have a handful of fun personalities on the jumps squad and he has fit right in with that," Dobrowolski said. "He brings a level of energy and dedication that makes it easy to look up to him."
Senior Ryan Van Havel said Hinrichs has been a great complement to the team.
"He's fit in well, definitely a fun addition. Several times per practice he'll hit one of his emotes which are entertaining for everyone," Van Havel said. Hinrichs also sees track as a tool toward his goal of going to graduate school.
"It will be a lot easier to get into a grad school program using athletics, so hopefully I could find a way to transfer into a masters program and do track at a Division I or Division II school that has a really good economics program," Hinrichs said. "Jumping for track is an awesome way to keep doing sports and continue my education through that."
Senior Charlie Belden at the Hillsdale Invite in Spetember. Courtesy | Tiffany Treppa
Redshirt Sophomore Christian Hinrichs at a track meet in January. Courtesy | Vincent Hill
Haas becomes Hillsdale's second indoor national champion
By Elaine Kutas Collegian Reporter
Senior Ben Haas won the men’s weight throw at the NCAA Division II National Meet on March 14, becoming Hillsdale’s second-ever indoor track and field national champion. Haas won with his first throw of 22.89 meters, or 75 feet 1.25 inches. He now holds the Hillsdale record and Great Midwest Athletic Conference record for the event, yet Haas
Shotgun
didn’t even think he would throw in college until his senior year of high school when his plans changed.
“I decided during my senior football season that I wanted to do track in college and not football,” Haas said.
“Football was really hurting me a lot physically, and I didn't think I could do it for another four years at a high level. Even though I was getting recruited by a lot of schools for football, I decided that it would be best to switch to track for my body
and my brain.”
According to Haas, his parents started pushing him to participate in sports in middle school, and when he joined the track team he decided to learn to throw. Most of his time in track was spent throwing discus and shot put, but he was able to participate in a track club which allowed him to compete in the weight throw during indoor track season. Haas credits his parents with where he is today in his athletic career.
“My parents were my biggest supporters throughout high school,” Haas said. “I had a bunch of different coaches, some coaches very helpful, some not. My parents were my biggest fans because they drove me to a lot of meets in high school and were just there supporting me through everything, even if my coaches couldn't make it to a meet. Having their support early on is honestly the reason I'm able to do what I do right now in college.”
The transition from high school to college athletics, according to Haas, was shocking at first but the changes have helped him progress in ways he didn’t know were possible. After breaking his foot early
on in his freshman year, Haas decided to redshirt that season and is now in his third year of eligibility. He said he will stay to throw another year for the Chargers.
“I broke my foot twice, actually, it healed and then I broke it again,” Haas said. “Considering my life paths, I want to go to physician’s assistant school after I graduate college, and Hillsdale is a rigorous school, so when I decided to take a fifth year, it also helped me spread out my classes to try to keep my GPA higher so I can have a better chance to graduate with a good GPA and apply to grad schools. Also, I love throwing at a high level, so since I can stay here and get a good education and compete in my fifth year, I want to take that opportunity.”
Last season, Haas broke the school record in weight throw for the first time. During the 2025 indoor season, Haas continued to improve and the school record continued to climb.
“I broke the weight record for the first time last year, and I think I broke it two or three times last year,” Haas said. “And then this year, every PR I had in weight was a
new school record. I was happy with how I did the season, how I progressed, and how far I threw. There's still more room to throw farther, so that's what I'm excited for next year as well.”
According to associate head coach Jess Bridenthal, Haas is not only a great athlete, but also a great person.
“Anyone that has had the opportunity to spend time with Ben knows that he is an absolutely incredible person,” Bridenthal said. “He has always been a talented athlete, extremely hard working, and a great friend. He has become an incredible leader and mentor of the team, and he is always one to step in and help the younger athletes which really elevates everyone around him. He is my first national champion as a coach, but with the impact he has on those around him and the example he sets, I doubt he will be the last.”
Senior Cass Dobrowolski has been Haas’s teammate and friend for the past four years, and according to Dobrowolski, Haas’ determination and competitive nature sets him apart.
“Ben is one of the toughest and most resilient people I
know,” Dobrowolski said. “He has been a gifted athlete from the start and has worked his way to the top, but not without struggles. He broke his foot and had to get surgery freshman year after ranking 30th in the nation in the weight throw. He waited and worked for so long to get back to throwing, just to eventually break his foot in the same exact way over the following summer. Ben’s mind is filled with goals that he doesn’t just want to complete, but needs to complete, and you can see how he works toward those goals each and every day.” Haas has already started competing in the 2025 outdoor season, and according to Bridenthal, has lofty goals for outdoor and then his final indoor and outdoor seasons next year.
“I hope Ben continues to go after big goals, like the ever-sought-after double national championship in the weight and the hammer, and continues to develop as a competitor while having a lot of fun,” Bridenthal said.
Chargers place third at DII National Meet
By Alex Deimel Senior Reporter
The Charger shotgun team took third place overall in NCAA Division II after a week-long championship tournament in San Antonio, Texas.
After winning the NCAA DII championships in 2024, the Chargers were beaten this year by Fort Hays State University and William Penn University. William Penn won with a team total of 2,840 targets hit between all six events, while Fort Hays State finished second with 2,836, just ahead of the Chargers, who had 2,822 total.
“It was not our best showing this year,” senior Gavin Drill said. “There were some unfortunate circumstances that took place weather-wise and we struggled to adapt. It was definitely tough to not repeat as champions, but it was still nice to place in the top three and have a podium finish.”
Senior Josh Corbin led
Hillsdale in two of six events, shooting a perfect 100/100 in American Skeet and 95/100 in Sporting Clays. Corbin took fifth place overall among the men with a score of 571.
Junior Jordan Sapp also led Hillsdale in two different events, taking first place among his teammates in the Double American Skeet and Super Sporting Clays events. Sapp, who recently made the USA National Shooting team, was 40th overall among the men with 553 total targets.
Sophomore Luke Johnson and junior Davis Hay finished right behind Sapp in the men’s individual leaderboards. Johnson tied Sapp with 553 total targets, while Hay finished 45th overall with 552 total targets. Johnson finished second among Hillsdale shooters in the Double American Skeet event with 94 total targets, and Hay finished third among Hillsdale shooters in American Skeet and Doubles American Trap events.
“For me it was an overall improvement from last year so I’m glad I could do well and help contribute,” Hay said. “That being said, this competition showed what we need to work on as a team and I’m sad for our seniors who ended their collegiate careers like this.”
Other Charger seniors shooting in their final match for the men were Johnathan Calabrese, Leif Andersen, and Kyle Fleck. Fleck finished 89th overall, while Andersen and Calabrese finished 151st and 171st, respectively.
“It was definitely a tough battle and it's unfortunate to not win back to back,” Calabrese said. “But, it's tough to complain about a podium finish and I can still walk away from my collegiate career with a national championship ring.”
Dale finished with 536 total targets, and took third overall among Hillsdale shooters in Sporting Clays with 84 total targets.
While their season has come to a close, many Chargers will be participating in
On the women’s side, sophomore Madeline Corbin finished eighth overall with 543 total targets, and led Hillsdale in the American Trap event with 98 total targets. Following Corbin was senior Jessica Strasser, who ended her collegiate shotgun career with a 17th place finish, hitting 536 total targets. Freshmen Taylor Dale and Marin McKinney both finished their first national championship shoot placing 33rd and 36th, respectively.
shoots for the Team USA National and Junior National Teams this summer, as Sapp and sophomore Ava Downs have both qualified for the ISSF World Cup shoots in Peru and Argentina later this year.
Charger chatter
Francesca Federici, Track & Field
What is something you wish you could tell your 8-year-old self?
Don't cut a hole in your parents' couch if you want to keep your DS.
If you could invent a holiday, what holiday would you make up?
National Chai Latte Day.
Compiled by Alessia Sandela
What is the worst form of transportation?
Driving because then no one walks, but also flying because I inevitably sit next to someone who's taking up my seat and their seat.
What is the worst movie you have ever seen?
“Spookley the Square Pumpkin."
Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department
Senior Ben Haas competes in shot put in the NCAA Division II Championships.
Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department
The shotgun team at the NCAA Division II Tounament in Texas. Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department
Charger Sports
Women's Tennis
Chargers start undefeated in conference play
By Tayte Christensen Assistant Editor
Chargers women’s tennis kicked off conference play, going undefeated on the road this weekend against Kentucky Wesleyan College and Thomas More University.
Sophomore Ané Dannhauser earned Great Midwest Athletic Conference Player of the Week for her performance over the weekend, going undefeated in her four matches. The award is her third of the season and fourth of her career.
“I’m very proud of Ané for her Player of the Week ac-
Men's Tennis
complishment,” head coach Nikki Walbright said. “With this being the third time, I really think it shows her consistency to remain strong in this position. I am also really proud of the fact that she and Briana Rees, who she has been playing doubles with, were ranked 41st in the nation this week. This is a very tough feat to accomplish with how the ranking system works.”
Both Walbright and Dannhauser said while the award is an individual accolade, it came as a result of the team’s collective work.
On Saturday against the Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers,
Freshmen shine on road
By Jamie Parsons Collegian Reporter
Charger men’s tennis won two away meets over the weekend, moving the team to 8-5 on the overall season and 2-0 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference play.
The Chargers won 6-1 against Kentucky Wesleyan College March 22, snatching the doubles point and winning five of six matches in singles play.
In doubles play, the Chargers won all three matches, with freshmen Sam Plys and Eddie Bergelin at No. 2 doubles and freshmen Ryan Papazov and Rintaro Goda at No. 3 doubles both securing a 6-0 victory.
Plys said his and Bergelin’s doubles strategy is to be very aggressive on the court.
“We prefer to strike first using our communication and speed when constructing points,” Plys said. “Sometimes it is a bit of a rollercoaster but the ride is always fun.”
In singles, sophomore Ellis Klanduch pushed his opponent to a second-set tiebreak at No. 1 singles, winning the tiebreak 8-6 to pull off a 6-1, 7-6, win in the overall match. At No. 6 singles, Plys did not drop a game to win the match 6-0, 6-0.
The Chargers won 4-0 against Thomas More University March 23, winning all three doubles matches to secure the doubles point, and winning the first three singles matches to clinch the win.
In doubles play, sophomore duo Henry Hammond and Klanduch won 6-3 at No. 1 doubles, Plys and Bergelin won 7-5 at No. 2 doubles, and Papazov and Goda won 6-4 at No. 3 doubles.
Head coach Keith Turner said the Chargers are doing a good job of taking care of business in the doubles play, but there is still room for improvement.
“We still need to continue to improve if we're going to get the doubles point against the stronger opponents coming up,” Turner said.
Plys said he and Bergelin have been working on their doubles at practice by playing against different doubles pairs and doing drills to sharpen their tools at the net. He also said he trusts his training and is optimistic that he and Bergelin will have success in future matches.
“So far I would say the hard work has been paying off, and I believe further down the road we will continue to get better and come out of more matches with the win,” Plys said.
In singles play, Klanduch won 6-2, 6-1, at No. 1 singles, Papazov won 6-0, 6-4, at No. 2 singles, and freshman Alexandro Cordero Lopez won 6-2, 6-2, at No. 3 singles to close out the overall match with a win for Hillsdale. The last three matches went unfinished for the sake of time.
Cordero Lopez said the team’s performance over the weekend reflects the team’s improvement from the beginning of the season.
“At the start of the season we were all very nervous, especially with such an inexperienced team,” Cordero Lopez said. “This forced us to step up and be more mature in practice and matches if we want to win, and this has been reflected in our performance in the latest matches.”
The Chargers are scheduled to compete against Walsh University at home March 30. Turner said the match is important because it will give the team a better idea of where they stand in the conference.
“Walsh is going to be a big test for us,” Turner said. “It's the best team we've played in a number of weeks and I'll have a better idea of where we are as a team after this match.”
the Chargers only played three matches due to the Panthers’ lack of healthy players.
In the sole doubles matchup versus the Panthers, Dannhauser and freshman Briana Rees won 6-0.
“The weekend was a great way to start the conference season because it wasn’t the toughest competition but we still had to work for it,” Dannhauser said.
Two of Kentucky Wesleyan’s players were not on the roster, according to Dannhauser, and the Panthers lacked enough players to complete the remaining two doubles matches.
Dannhauser and Rees both took 6-0, 6-0 wins at No. 1 and No. 2 singles against the Panthers, respectively. Senior Courtney Rittel also took a 6-0, 6-0 victory at No. 3 singles.
In Sunday’s match against the Thomas More Saints, the Chargers won 4-0.
Rees and Dannhauser swept again in No. 1 doubles, winning 6-0. Rittel and senior Megan Hackman won 6-1 at No. 2 doubles. Junior Bella Spinazze and senior Libby McGivern did the same at No. 3 doubles, winning 6-1.
“I was so proud of our team on Sunday,” Spinazze said.
“We played so well and had so much energy. Our doubles looked fantastic. Overall it was such a fun weekend with the team.”
In the three singles matches against the Panthers, the Chargers won in two sets.
In No. 1 singles, Dannhauser won 6-3, 6-4.
“I am really happy that I got through Sunday’s match because my opponent was really annoying to play,” Dannhauser said.
McGivern pulled off a 7-5, 7-5 victory in No. 2 singles, and Rees finished the weekend for the Chargers with a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 3 singles.
“In both doubles and singles, everyone stayed intently focused on their own matches while also being an encouraging voice to the other courts around them,” Rittel said. “If we can continue to stay united with high energy and confidence on the court, I think we are going to do really well in conference this year.” Now 8-6 on the season and 2-0 in conference play, the Chargers will face Ursuline College and Walsh University at home this weekend.
Hillsdale wins three of four against ODU
By Elaine Kutas Collegian Reporter
The Hillsdale Chargers baseball team won three of its four games against the Ohio Dominican University Panthers in Columbus, Ohio, during this past weekend's doubleheader series.
During the first game on Saturday, the Chargers secured the win by scoring three runs in the sixth inning after trailing the Panthers 5-4 for two innings. The closing pitcher, sophomore Logan McLaughlin, pitched the ninth inning with two strikeouts and no runs, securing the win for the Chargers. The nightcap on Saturday saw the Panthers emerge with a 10-2 lead by the end of the third inning. Hillsdale worked to come back, scoring twice in the fourth inning but lost the game in seven innings 10-4.
According to coach Ryan
Van Amburg, senior Zak Kent had a standout weekend. In the first two games on Saturday, Kent had six RBIs in his nine appearances at bat. His strength continued to show during the doubleheader on Sunday that Hillsdale swept.
“Last week we put a lot of emphasis on getting jobs done, so I just tried to keep everything simple and do that,” Kent said.
On Sunday, the Chargers won both games, starting the day with ODU scoring two runs to tie the game at 3-3 at the end of the seventh inning, forcing an extra inning. Redshirt sophomore Tyler Tuner brought in ghost runner freshman Gaard Swenson for the first run of the eighth inning, after which Hillsdale scored five more runs, including a two-run double by freshman Billy Porotsky, a two-run single by sophomore Rocco Tenuta, and an RBI single by
Kent to finish the game 9-5. Van Amburg said the beginning of the first game on Sunday was tough, but the pieces fell into place as time went on.
“Jacob Pallo and Aaron Jasiak did an excellent job on the mound, keeping us in the game. In extra innings, the goal is to score at least two runs, doing whatever it takes,” Van Amburg said.
“We demonstrated that when Turner came in and executed a huge squeeze play, not only giving us the lead but also sparking the offense. After that big play, we followed up with five hits and scored six runs, leading us to a victory.”
After securing the first win of the day, the Chargers put up nine runs in the first two innings of the second day. Senior Augie Hutchison got two RBI singles for Hillsdale in the win, Kent hit a two-run single, and Turner and freshman
Will Lehman each got an RBI single as well. Hutchison had a strong weekend, with four RBIs, four hits, and three runs during his 12 at bats. According to Hutchison, the improvement from Saturday to Sunday stemmed from the team’s dedication to both sides of the game, offense and defense.
“Our team plays well when we limit free bags defensively and play aggressively on offense,” Hutchinson said. “Defensively, our pitchers were able to pitch efficiently and limited walks on Sunday. Offensively, we just wanted to put the ball in play as much as possible and force the other team to make plays.” The Chargers will play four games at home this Saturday and Sunday against Thomas More University at 1 pm and 4 pm both days.
Augie Hutchinson at
“Nothing to prove, only to share.”
C U L T U R E
‘Acting the Song’ is art passed down
By Anna Broussard Assistant Editor
Finding one’s voice is the best part of working with students, Malcolm Gets, the Tony-nominated Broadway performer and visiting educator, said during the “Acting the Song” performance on Saturday, March 22.
Alongside Tory Matsos lecturer of theatre and dance, Gets taught an extended masterclass culminating in a student performance with seven students in the Theatre 393 Ensemble course.
The performance featured seniors Fiona Mulley, Samuel Jarzab, Ellie Payne, Charlie Cheng, Emily Griffith; junior Kevin Pynes; and sophomore Maggie Saffian. The performance was put together over the course of a week, according to Matsos.
“I created the ‘Acting the Song’ course in particular, because I was inspired by the work that Malcom was doing at the University of Florida,” she said. “He was teaching a musical theater course, and I would go to the final days of that course, and I loved it so much. I had hoped to capture here even a small bit of what that special course seemed to be for the students.”
The performance, accompanied by Kimberly More on the piano, featured students acting out songs from various musicals and concluded with a group rendition of “I Feel So Much Spring” from “A New Brain.” Highlights included Mulley’s “100 Easy Ways to Lose a Man” from “Wonderful Town,” Pynes’ “Soliloquy” from “Carousel,” and Griffith’s
“I’m the Greatest Star” from “Funny Girl.”
The group of students, according to Gets, was inspiring to work with.
“They’re great individuals, and then, as a collective, very supportive of each other,” Gets said. “ I admit I bring with me a little bit of a bias when I want to go to smaller cities across the country, because I live in New York, and I think ‘well, what about the talent?’ Where is it? Well, there’s talent everywhere. There really is real talent and imagination, and I feel like my involvement in training programs for theater has been just that, while also helping train and develop people, artists, people who value the arts. So it’s more than just doing a TV show or running a show.”
Mulley said the course helped her and others find their voice in a unique way and gave her hope for pursuing life as a performer.
“I went into the masterclass with a lot of nerves,” Mulley said. “I had this idea that he was gonna be really serious, and it would be a lot of pressure. But what I just loved about taking this workshop with him was the joy and the ease and the playfulness of it all.”
According to Mulley, the class as a whole has been about refining the students perspective on connecting acting and singing, but in an interactive and not just informative way.
“Also it was demystifying, the process, he had this method of asking us how we felt and what we thought,” Mulley said. “After each run through,
he would start by asking us what our impressions were. It made us all feel capable.”
For Griffith, the course and Gets has allowed her to understand the famous theater saying from renowned choreographer Ulysses Dove, “nothing to prove, only to share.”
“The course does not focus on the singing itself,” Griffith said. “It focuses on how you are telling the story through the song. Tory always says, ‘You just so happened to be singing,’ so it’s absolutely wonderful.”
Gets and Matsos originally met when they were teaching at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Matsos reached out to Gets, asking him to come to Hillsdale.
“It’s really generous of him to be here and really inspiring,” Matsos said. “It’s come full circle to that time at UF. I love what has been coming up this week.”
Gets taught a similar class at the University of Florida while Matsos and her husband, chairman and professor of theatre Christopher Matsos, worked as his colleagues. Griffith said it made the whole class feel as though they were carrying on a special tradition.
“You pass craft down, and you pass down experiences,” Griffith said. “Getting to work with Malcolm and professor Matsos and having the curriculum passed down to us has been such a gift. It feels like art is an heirloom that we have been handed through this masterclass.”
Pynes said the course impacted his education, and
Gets provided a positive environment of study.
“Malcolm gave me a good new perspective. He had a lot of wisdom that he had learned from other people,” Pynes said. “They’re masters for a reason. They tend to be some of the nicest people that you’ll ever need to talk to. They’re doing it because they care. If they are a master traveling to Hillsdale, Michigan, they care about their students a lot.”
Pynes said Malcom’s perspective helped the students to recognize how their theater education was unique and different from other schools that Gets had visited.
“It gets you out of the Hillsdale ecosystem, you get to see the wider world,” Pynes said. “In fact, you get some assurance that the things that you’re learning really are good, and they’re not just in this little bubble.”
According to Pynes, your theater education, whether from Matsos or Gets, is about where you have come from and should orient toward where you will go, which is not always the case in other theater programs.
“They try to make you sound a certain way, but don’t lose the way that you sound,” Pynes said. “Malcolm was very adamant about that, ‘you have what makes you special.’ Dr. Arnn is always talking about character — the thing that’s etched into you — so I get to carry these tattoos and etchings of my tradition with me as I learn these new things as well.”
Student strings shine in concert
By Elijah Guevara Collegian Freelancer
As the first somber strains of Edward Elgar’s “Nimrod” filled Markel Auditorium on Friday, Mar. 21, the audience held its breath, poised for the music department’s first violin and viola virtuosi concert in five years.
The violin and viola virtuosi, two student groups consisting of violinists and violists, gave a variety of performances, journeying from solo viola and violin performances to spirited, high-energy fiddle tunes.
The 29 student performers, according to the concert’s director and professor of music
Melissa Knecht, are not part of a formal music ensemble and began work on the concert music this past January.
“They’re just good students that go to Hillsdale, practice, and love playing,” Knecht said.
Junior Ellia He opened the soloist lineup with a command-
ing violin performance of “Romanza Andaluza” from Pablo de Sarasate’s “Spanish Dances,” not wasting a measure and playing with elegance, melodic expression, and a room-shaking vibrato that left every ear stunned.
Junior Michael Berry and senior Jay Golden, both experienced fiddlers, had solo moments that added a playful chemistry to the concert.
Berry said his favorite moment of the concert was when the ensemble walked into the aisles from the back of the room, joining Watts’ solo performance of Charles Johnson’s “Dill Pickle Rag” from the audience.
“We were about to go up as a group, and nobody in the audience knew that, and so when we started playing, I could see faces start to light up,” Berry said.
Freshman Aidan Watts played with a stoic, executive
precision in his performance of Henri Wieniawski’s “Scherzo — Tarantelle,” while sophomore Isabelle Ekstrom brought Peter Nero’s “The Hot Canary” to life with humorous facial expressions and bright dynamics, infusing well with the piece’s tricks and double-stops.
“It was fun to watch all the people, especially people who weren’t fiddlers as much, to try and get into the fiddle music and make it a little bit more lively,” Watts said. “Myself included, it was definitely a fun experience to try and get out of my comfort zone that way.”
Senior Bánk Bodor’s viola performance of “Czárdás,” by Vittorio Monti, stood out as a masterful performance amid a night of great musical talent. A thoroughly precise musician, Bodor shaped every note uniquely, carefully tailoring his musical phrasing to bring the listener into every minute expression and emotion.
“I’m honored that I can be in her studio,” said Bodor, who has spent all four years at Hillsdale studying under Knecht. “It’s very difficult to find a professor who is more self-giving than Dr. Knecht because she invests so much time in her students.”
Although five years have passed since the last time she showcased a student ensemble like this, Knecht decided to do one again this year because she felt she had the right students.
“You have to have a lot of students that can play well to put something like this together,” Knecht said. “And this right now, I feel like I have a wonderful class in my studio that has a lot of great training and a great attitude and who love playing.”
Professor’s Picks: Miles Smith IV, assistant professor of history
“The Leopard” by Luchino Visconti’(1963)
It’s a story about the Prince of Salina, a Sicilian aristocrat who watches as Italian unification — the Risorgimento — overtakes Sicily and sweeps aspects of the old order away. The prince’s ward is his nephew, Count Tancredi, who recites the now famous phrase that is associated with the film (and novel): “for everything to stay the same, everything must change.” The story is really about how the two men reconcile themselves to this new reality. Tancredi does it easily. The Prince never quite manages.
“Ants Marching” by Dave Matthews Band (1994)
This is one of Dave Matthews’ early hit songs. It’s a song about monotony and it in so many ways evokes the ennui of the perhaps decadent but certainly prosperous days of the 1990s United States. Matthews says it was about drudgery and how there is a sort of emptiness to the vapid life of Generation Xers who became adults in the years that followed the Cold War. There’s something profound about that, but it also is a somewhat sunny song that alludes to a time where people felt — for better or worse — easy about life. History didn’t end, but there is something still meaningful to those of us who remember the prosperity of the 1990s.
“Moana” (2016)
I spent a lot of my life in tropical places so the island theme is beautiful, but I think what I love about “Moana” is that its a story about self-discovery — which we see a lot of in our day and age, usually with a cheesy modernist message attached to it — that is on a deeper level actually a story of a young person rediscovering the traditions of her people and nation. I’ll never forget the scene where she goes into the cavern and finds the magnificent catamarans her people once used to travel across the seas. “We were voyagers!!” she shouts. I think there is something like that that happens for Americans in our day and age when they discover the history of the American republic.
Smith and his wife Jamie in July 2024 COURTESY | MILES SMITH IV
Author-illustrator encourages artistry at Academy
Aaron
Zenz ’98 gives presentation on fostering creativity no matter how old you are
By Anna Broussard Assistant Editor
Childlike creativity can make a significant difference, said children’s author and illustrator Aaron Zenz ’98 at Hillsdale Academy on March 21.
“It’s great getting kids excited about art and story through my books and school visits,” Zenz said in an email. “If they leave the session and forget all about me but want to go out and make new stuff, to bring good and beautiful things into the world, I’d say ‘mission accomplished!’”
Zenz has written and illustrated nine picture books and illustrated an additional 36 books written by other authors, he said.
“It is a unique space in the publishing world,” Zenz said during his presentation to academy students last week. “Children’s literature is one unique spot where the people that the books are meant for are not the same people who are creating it.”
Zenz said this is less of an issue in his own work because his family inspires most of what he writes and illustrates.
“Our family historically has loved books, so not only do I make books, I like books. Books have good hearts,” Zenz said.
His own children began reviewing books at a young age on their family blog, “Bookie
Woogie,” which quickly became a significant part of the Zenz family’s life.
“Over the course of those
but art kept calling him,” Mowry said in an email. “It’s something we encourage our students to hear. We want them to explore
ily to educate the student. His ability to demonstrate the creative process within his family made a solid application of our
ing for The Collegian, crafting visual stories for student-led talent shows, participating in Daughtrey Gallery juried art ex-
seven years that we had that blog, my kids actually got really famous, way more famous than I was as an author or illustrator, probably ever really,” Zenz said.
“ I would have a new book come out, and people would say ‘he’s the dad of Bookie Woogie kids,’ and that’s what they were the most excited about.”
According to Hillsdale Academy’s director of fine arts, Gail Mowry, bringing Zenz to the academy was meant to inspire the students to pursue art as a profession.
“He spoke of his journey through college not really knowing what he wanted to do,
and learn all disciplines, so they have a better understanding of the good, true, and beautiful around them.”
Mowry said throughout Zenz’s visit with the academy, he spoke to more than 300 students about fostering the creative arts through the liberal arts education in Hillsdale schools such as the academy and college.
“He highlighted how much of his art is done with, or inspired by, his family,” Mowry said. “At the academy, we place a high value on the role of the family. We see the family as the first educators and we, as a school, come alongside the fam-
fine arts department’s desire to have families working together creatively.”
According to Zenz, his education at Hillsdale College shaped much of his passion for creativity and encouraged him to pursue a career in art.
“Hillsdale College provides for both the development of skill sets and the fostering of creativity,” Zenz said. “The training I received in studio classes gave me a great understanding of forms and space and techniques. I then applied these skills practically through a variety of creative opportunities such as writing and draw-
hibits, and creating advertising for the art, theater, and music departments.”
Mowry said Zenz’s visit was beneficial for all the students, particularly for the high school students, as he talked about art as his service to the world.
“Aaron was able to show high school students many ways of expressing creativity while being a positive impact on his community, as well as being able to make a living doing what he is passionate about,” Mowry said.
Academy freshman Emma Summers said Zenz’s talk made her more confident about pur-
Upcoming events...
suing a career in art. “It was definitely interesting,” Summers said. “I know that people have art as a profession. It’s really cool and it would be really fun to do for a job.”
Similarly, Ellie Mowry, who is in 5th grade at the academy, said she was inspired by Zenz.
“I want to go home and make art and books when I get home,” she said. Mowry said that Zenz’s visit was very special for academy students.the students at the academy.
“We were so thankful to have Mr. Zenz come visit. It’s not every day that we get a visit from an author/illustrator of so many books,” Mowry said.
“Our art teacher, Pam Heckel, was the one that suggested bringing him in and prepared all the students for his visit. She really should get a lot of the credit for this enriching day.” For Zenz, the ability to create and impact kids becomes a whole world for the artist and readers.
“The children’s literature world is thriving right now,” Zenz said. “There is a great demand for excellence in story and art, even for the youngest of readers. I love being able to build worlds and characters that bring delight into the lives of children and their families.”
Music fraternity will host Midwest chapters
By Carly Moran Senior Reporter
Music chapters from across the Midwest are coming to Hillsdale for Province Day, hosted by the women’s music fraternity Sigmas Alpha Iota Saturday March 29.
Province Days are designed to unite multiple chapters from one region for bonding, and to highlight the unique culture of the hosting chapter. Multiple province and regional officers will also be in attendance.
“We’ve been planning this since November because there are multiple parts of the day that require lots of prep, including ‘Phlea-phlam,’ which is a time for chapters to sell
crafts, and musical performances when different chapters can present pieces they’ve worked on,” Emily Griffith, chapter president, said.
The day will feature speeches, a chapter history presentation, an Alexander Technique workshop by Lecturer of Theatre and Danceand SAI alumna Tory Matsos, and multiple musical performances, all in McNamara Recital Hall.
According to Griffith, the chapter will perform a group number called “Wild Flowers,” which was a part of its concert last semester. There will also be a small number performed by Tuition and Fees, whose members are all in SAI.
“As far as organizing goes, Emily has been almost exclusively on top of that, communicating with our province officer and everyone who is involved,” senior Phoebe Vanheyningen said. “We are a lucky chapter under fearless leadership.”
This will be the first Province Day Hillsdale’s Mu Chapter has hosted in years since membership recently rapidly expanded under seniors Griffith, Fiona Mulley, and Vanheyningen. After the chapter announced it was closing in the spring of 2022, the three women joined to revive the campus music community.
“When the SAI chapter at Hillsdale announced it was closing, Phoebe, Fiona and I
got together and decided to join in order to help maintain a place for women on campus to explore their love of music,” Griffith said. “And the rest is history, now we have over 30 members.”
Mulley, the current songmaster of the chapter, assisted in planning the media and concert portion of the event.
“There is something so rewarding about being a part of a musical community based on one’s love of music rather than a sense of obligation,” Mulley said.” It has been such a joy to work with and uplift the women I’ve met through SAI by creating music together because we want to, not because we have to.”
Griffith said SAI allows
students to enjoy music without the stress of competition or performance.
“Music is sacred, and through a liberal arts education at Hillsdale, students are able to explore all kinds of art alongside their other studies,” Griffith said. “Music builds character, discipline, and an appreciation for life itself. SAI helps students use the music opportunities Hillsdale provides in a more casual setting that is just as focused on sisterhood as it is on performance.”
Violinist to perform in Conrad Recital Hall
By Daniel Johnson Collegian Reporter
The son of a world-renowned violinist will accompany his father on the piano to perform several duets, including Mozart’s Sonata in E-Flat Major, in the Conrad Recital Hall at 8 p.m. March 29.
“It’s another thing to see father and son, what they do to interact with each other,” Professor of Music Melissa Knecht said. “It’s always an interesting phenomenon, because genetically related people play together in a different way.”
The pair will play a sampling of the music that University of Michigan Professor of Violin Aaron Berofsky has performed with the Chester String Quartet.
“Berofsky is the real thing,” Knecht said. “He’s spent 15 years as chamber musician, and he’s toured throughout the world.”
Knecht said Charles Berofsky, the 24-year-old son of Berofsky, is an accomplished
musician in his own right.
cently grad uat ed from Eastman School of Music,” Knecht said. “Charles was one of the youngest people to win the concerto competition there in the history of Eastman.”
Knecht said the duo will feature a wide variety of music.
Watts, who has previously taken a lesson from Berofsky, said he plans to go to the recital.
“I’m very excited to learn from him again,” Watts said. “He had a lot of good feedback to give on my performance to become a better musician.” According to Watts, the upcoming live performance is a chance to hear familiar music with a greater artistic depth.
“Everyone’s interpretation is slightly different,” Watts said. “You’re listening to the same piece, but one person might decide to shape a phrase differently. It’s definitely a great privilege to hear it from such an experienced performer as Berofsky.”
According to Knecht, this recital is a unique opportunity for students.
“He’s going to be playing Mozart, a modern piece called ‘No Man’s Land Lullaby,’ and pieces from Schumann and Manuel de Falla, Knecht said. Freshman Aiden
“It’s something you can’t always do, and you get to do it for free,” Knecht said. “If you went to other places, you’d have to pay a lot of money to hear this duo play.”
Aaron Berofsky will perform in Conrad Recital Hall. COURTESY | MELISSA KNECHT
Zenz presents to Hillsdale Academy high school students. COLLEGIAN | ANNA BROUSSARD
Announcing the 2025
Robert H. and Susan M. Rewoldt Essay Contest in Politics Organized Through the Politics Department and the Office of the Provost
This essay contest is open to all undergraduate students at Hillsdale College. Essays will be judged by the politics faculty, and the winners will receive monetary prizes:
1st place essay: $5,000
2nd place essay: $3,000
3rd place essay: $1,000
2025 Topic: Consent in Twentieth and Twenty -First Century American Politics
Maximum Essay Length: 1,500 words (longer essays will automatically be disqualified)
Only 1 essay entry will be allowed per student.
The essay must be the student’s own, wholly original work. Essays written for Hillsdale College classes are not eligible.
Please note: Only the first 30 submissions will be accepted.
Rising juniors hope to ditch dorms, few get o -campus permission
By Caroline Kurt OPINIONS EDITOR
All four of sophomore omas Potter’s older siblings received permission to live o campus for their junior years.
ough Potter applied for permission, too, he said he already has a roommate picked out for his third year in Simpson Residence.
“I was originally going to live in Donnybrook,” Potter said. “ en I was told to live in Park Place. And now I’m screwed.”
The college has stated it plans to demolish Donnybrook within the next few years and is considering doing the same for Park Place. Both on-campus houses have traditionally been places for sophomore and junior men to live.
“Last semester, almost the whole semester, I was very content to live in Donnybrook,” Potter said. “I had a good group of friends who I wanted to stay in Donnybrook with.”
hear that Park Place is getting torn down.”
Potter said he is resigned, but not excited, to spend his junior year in Simpson.
“Living in a dorm is not a natural state of living,” Potter said. “It feels like a very liminal state to me. I want to have a house, a place that is mine, with a nice porch, neighbors.”
In a year in which fewer sophomores have received permission to live off campus during their junior years, surprise and disappointment characterize the reactions of students who have and have not received permission.
tants, meaning more seniors (or those with 2022 high school graduation dates) are moving o campus than in recent years.
Junior and Waterman residence assistant Cecilia Jansen said this year, of the 54 women RAs, only 14 of them plan to return as RAs in the coming school year.
“We had the opposite problem last year,” Jansen said. “ ere’s a lot of di erent friend groups that are moving o campus, so a lot of girls who were RAs together on the same teams are wanting to move into the same houses together.”
she said she decided to move o campus with senior friends.
According to Freedman, o -campus culture could stand to grow in the years to come.
“Having real homes to go to and enjoy a meal,” Freedman said, “is really good and makes for more intimate community.”
Sophomore Lucia Bachiochi, who has not yet received permission, said she was interested in living o campus to form stronger relationships with the senior class.
accept her o -campus permission, which she got in the second round.
“Going into the rst round, I didn’t think I was going to get it,” Jolley said. “I don’t have a lot of credits.”
Jolley said she weighed the pros and cons of moving off campus without her fellow sophomores.
“None of my friends have o -campus permission,” Jolley said. “I don’t really know anyone who is of my year.”
For his part, Potter said he anticipates dorm culture su ering as a result of fewer juniors moving o campus.
“If there are people who are reluctantly living inside of dorms that are only there because they couldn’t get o campus, the quality of dorm culture I think will go down, because people aren’t staying there by will, they don’t want to invest in the dorm culture,” Potter said.
Dean of Women Rebekah Bollen said after granting off-campus permission to all students with a high school graduation date of May 2022 or earlier, the deans started working through the list of students with a 2023 graduation date.
Only when Simpson resident assistant applications were closing did Potter hear the news about Donnybrook. Potter said that Dean of Men Aaron Petersen directed him to Park Place.
“He gave me all the statistics for how to get the highest chance of getting in,” Potter said. “ en a week before the housing application opens, we
“The 10 women with the highest Hillsdale credits in that group have received permission,” Bollen said. “We had a very high acceptance rate this year, which impacted our ability to go further down on the request list.”
One factor in the high acceptance rate — the rate of students with a 2022 graduation date who accepted o -campus permission — is a higher-than-usual turnover of resident assis-
Off-campus houses on Manning Street.
According to Dean of Men Aaron Petersen, nine rising junior men have received o -campus permission so far.
For the rising juniors that did receive permission, many look forward to spending more time with senior friends.
Sophomore Evelyn Freedman said she and her friends were initially optimistic they would get o -campus permission.
“It seemed pretty plausible,” Freedman said. “I knew a lot of sophomores who were planning on a whole group of them moving o campus. e expectations were pretty high.”
Freedman received o -campus permission over spring break, a er waiting through two previous rounds. In light of this,
“It seemed like an awesome opportunity to live with a bunch of rising senior women who I don’t necessarily get to spend a lot of time with otherwise,” Bachiochi said. “When only seniors get o campus, it places a distance between the seniors and the juniors.”
Bachiochi said sophomores who receive permission in much later rounds — sometimes as late as April or May — can struggle to accept permission, even if they initially wanted it.
“No one wants to wait that long to gure out if they’re gonna get o campus,” Bachiochi said. “ ey have to make other plans, and even if they get o campus, then they ditch the people they’ve made the plans with.”
Ultimately, Jolley turned down her o er and chose to remain on campus for her junior year.
Sophomore Ava Jolley had a week to decide whether to
“I decided to deny o -campus permission for a few reasons, but mostly because I haven’t really experienced dorm culture outside of Mac since I’ve lived there for two years,” Jolley said. “I want to give somewhere else a try before going o campus.”
Unlike Jolley, sophomore Viola Townsend accepted o -campus permission. Townsend said she didn’t consider applying until a friend o ered her a spot in the o -campus house called e Nest, where she would be the only junior.
“I think it’s healthy to do o campus sooner rather than later, though I do understand the college wants to ll beds,” Townsend said.
According to Potter, he has seen the ways o -campus living has helped his older siblings surround themselves with the right friendships and develop an intentional, responsible culture.
“I’m going to be a junior in college, meaning that I’ve already gone through all the annoyingness of guring out who I want to be my friends,” Potter said. “If you live in a house and you have housemates, you still get to see everyone around campus. But the majority of the time they’re investing in friendships is into relationships you actually want to invest in.” Townsend said she looks forward to living o campus, where she said she anticipates a lot of growth.
“I think it’ll change the way I think about Hillsdale,” Townsend said. “It’ll make me more human in the best possible way.”
Beer, bands, and bees: Professors have passions too
By Jayden Jelso COLLEGIAN REPORTER
On the first day of class, professors o en ask students to share a fun fact about themselves — yet, students rarely ask the professor in return. It turns out that some of them make their own beer, one keeps bees, and a third plays guitar in a surf-rock band.
Douglas Dobrozsi, laboratory director in the chemistry department, has been brewing his own beer for more than ve years.
“Some years ago I was culturing a type of yeast in the lab while studying antifungal drugs,” Dobrozsi said. “That got me thinking about fermentation. I grew up in the ‘germsare-bad-kill-them’ age when the strong message was ‘Kill them, avoid them, and get vaccinated.’ But I realized how many wonderful creations rely on microorganisms for their production.”
Dobrozsi said he likes to cook, a hobby that led to his brewing of beer. Beer brewing is a particular form of cooking, according to Dobrozsi.
“When making a ve gallon batch of beer, a typical home brew size, you grow a huge quantity of yeast,” Dobrozsi said. “ e rst time I saw that at the bottom of the bucket when bottling my rst batch, I was shocked. is is referred to as brewer’s yeast, a waste product of beer brewing that’s so rich in B vitamins that it’s sold as a nutritional supplement and added into pet and livestock feed.”
Dobrozsi said he practiced fermentation with sauerkraut, sourdough bread, and Hungarian summer pickles before moving onto beer.
“I started hanging out on the second Friday of the month in someone’s garage with the Hopsdale Homebrew Club.
Beer was the next thing, and they convinced me that, even if I screwed up, it would still be beer. Over the last ve years, I have probably brewed about eighteen ve-gallon batches,” Dobrozsi said.
Dobrozsi said his beers all have a story behind them.
“I can have the style of beer I want,” Dobrozsi said. “ e cra beer popularity explosion has been wonderful, but there is a lack of breadth of style. I have three di erent Trappist ales in my fridge right now and two Bohemian dark lagers — wonderful beers that are tough or impossible to nd available for purchase.”
Dobrozsi is not the only professor with a passion outside the classroom. Cameron Moore, visiting assistant professor of English, keeps bees.
“My wife and I took a home-
steading class during graduate school,” Moore said. “I remember looking over the curriculum with her, seeing beekeeping as a subject, and thinking, ‘Well there’s something I’m not interested in.’ A er the course, I thought, ‘Wow, bees are awesome, but I can’t imagine I’d ever keep them myself.’”
Moore said the startup process initially seemed daunting, but his friends, who are also beekeepers, helped him get started.
“About six years ago, I was helping my buddy who keeps bees, and while we were loading hives in a truck and getting stung a lot by enraged bees, he said, ‘Hey, you should get bees yourself.’ at was a convincing argument,” Moore said.
Bees keep their hives going by replacing their queen when needed, Moore said.
“When a hive needs a new queen, the bees don’t make just one queen cell; they make a bunch of them, maybe ve to ten, all at the same time,” Moore said. “ e rst queen to emerge immediately goes to the cells of all the other queens and kills them.”
Moore said he has a few hives every year, providing him with just enough honey to either use himself or give away to family and friends.
“It is deeply satisfying to hear the hum of a healthy, working hive,” Moore said. “ at industrious June humming means golden honey in the heart of the dark, long, cold Michigan winter. I really appreciate practices that tie me to the natural cycle of seasons and to the long history of human cultivation and husbandry in response to that cycle.”
While Moore has been keeping bees, Ivan Pongracic, professor of economics, has played in a band for more than 35 years.
“I started playing guitar in rock bands when I was 19 and have been at it almost continuously ever since,” Pongracic said. “I’ve played several different kinds of rock music through the years, but for the past 29 years, it’s been exclusively instrumental surf music, a mostly underground genre originating in the early sixties in southern California. It got a big boost in the mid-nineties from the success of the ‘Pulp Fiction’ movie, which featured many classic surf tracks as part of its soundtrack.”
While the instrumental surf genre is less known to the average music listener, its largest festival is held in Livorno, Italy,
according to Pongracic. Over 10,000 people attend the multiday festival, which Pongracic has performed at.
“ ere are amazing bands from all over the world, including pretty much all European countries, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, and Japan,” Pongracic said. “We’re all connected through various forums and social media groups, and it’s a closely-knit community of enthusiasts that have fallen deeply in love with this music.”
Pongracic said, over the years, he has performed around the world.
“I’ve been closely involved in this global scene since 1995, and it’s taken me not only around the country but even around the world, having played shows from Boston to Fort Lauderdale to Seattle to San Diego, and most points in-between,” Pongracic said. Pongracic said he is very proud of his accomplishments as a musician.
“I have a deep passion for music in addition to my academic interests that I get to pursue at Hillsdale,” Pongracic said. “I wouldn’t have been happy with just one or the other. I really think I’ve needed both in my life.”
Pongracic said he has befriended dozens of people as a result of being in three bands, the Space Cossacks, the Madeira, and the Lords of Atlantis.
“I’ve recorded seven albums of original music, three live albums, and two best-of compilations between my three bands,” Pongracic said. “I’m immensely proud of it all, and I look at it as a major achievement in my life, as much as anything academically related that I’ve been fortunate to also be able to do.”
The members of Lords of Atlantis from left to right: Dane Carter (drummer), Jonpaul Balak (bassist), Ivan Pongracic (guitarist), and Jeremy DeHart (guitarist). COURTESY | IVAN PONGRACIC
F . E . A . T . U . R . E . S
Shared pilgrimage: Senior and mother travel to Italy
By Francesca Cella COLLEGIAN REPORTER
A spontaneous text brought senior Sarah McKeown and her mom on a 10-day pilgrimage to Italy with one of America’s bestknown Catholic priests over spring break.
“I think in so many ways, being a senior, the trip was almost a re ection on life,” McKeown said.
McKeown said her mom jumped at the opportunity when she forwarded her the trip description.
“Within three hours, we had signed up for the trip, and we took some of the last spots, I think,” McKeown said.
Months later, she found herself at a gas station en route to Rome sitting across from Father Mike Schmitz.
Schmitz hosts the #1 ranking “Bible in a Year” podcast in 2022 and the weekly “Fr. Mike Schmitz Podcast” by Ascension Press.
“We’re sitting and eating lunch and he looks over and he’s like, ‘How’s your panino, Sarah?’” McKeown said. “I’m thinking, ‘What is my life right now? I watch you on video every week and you’re asking me how my panino is.’”
McKeown said Schmitz was in uential in her journey back into her faith and speaking with him was one of the highlights of the trip.
“His life is not his own, and yet he serves other people so hopefully and so selflessly,” McKeown said. “He had tourists come up to him and his tour group would be stopped, waiting on him to have a conversa-
tion with someone. And he’s not the guy who simply responds to people. He’s the one who asks them questions and pursues people in a really beautiful way.”
Encountering holiness was a theme of the pilgrimage, McKeown said. While on a tour at the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the group met Cardinal James Harvey, the archpriest of the basilica. Harvey stopped and spoke with them before they walked through one of ve Holy Doors opened in the Jubilee Year to represent the passage into salvation.
“I think that was the most impactful moment of renewal in walking through a Holy Door, because we prayed with him before and you could feel his holiness and his presence,” McKeown said. “Everyone’s desperate to watch him. I think that’s also a really cool thing — there is a deep attraction to holiness that you become a witness to all the time.”
McKeown said visiting the Ponti cal North American College and seeing the seminarians’ devotion to their vocations was inspiring.
“Seeing the joy and the peace of the seminarians was beyond anything comprehensible, nor able to be articulated,” McKeown said. “It calls me deeply to this sense, ‘I want their peace.’ I think one of my biggest takeaways is that I have something that I’m meant to do in this period of time.”
Praying before the body of Carlo Acutis, and being blessed by his relic was particularly poignant for McKeown, who had leukemia until she was 6, the
same disease that Acutis had. Acutis, a computer programmer who died at the age of 15, promoted Eucharistic devotion through his websites and will be the rst millennial canonized this April.
“Being able to sit and pray and look at him was incredible,” McKeown said. “It was a deeply spiritual experience that I never thought I would have, and so bonding with my mom.”
Lara McKeown said one of the most impactful parts of the pilgrimage was being with her daughter.
“I will forever cherish the time with Sarah, sharing in this spiritual journey,” McKeown said in an email. “I’m beyond grateful for the time I’ve been able to be Sarah’s mom, watching her grow up, and now getting ready to graduate from Hillsdale. Nineteen years ago when she became critically ill, I was not sure if she was going to live, or if God was going to call her home. It was very scary and entirely changed my perspective. I fully realized there is a point at which I have no control — we live by God’s plan. So, being with Sarah on this pilgrimage was a blessing in many ways.”
After McKeown and her mom returned to their room each night, they journaled about what they had experienced that day, McKeown said.
“It makes you realize how rich life is when every day you go home and you’re desperately trying to hold on to every detail of every moment, as ‘ is is where I saw joy,’” McKeown said.
Schmitz reminded the pil-
By Christina Lewis ASSISTANT
What
something
I am a rm believer in the power nap.
What’s one thing you think all students should know but don’t?
grims of the purpose of their journey, according to McKeown.
“He said, ‘This journey is not only about your personal spiritual life, but it’s about all the people that you le at home and that aren’t able to be with you. It’s about praying for them and being an intercessor,’” McKeown said.
Senior Charlie Miggins, president of the Catholic Society, said the year of Jubilee is a beautiful time designed for rejoicing.
“It is wonderful that the Catholic church has seasons, and just like the calendar year has seasons of winter, fall, spring, and summer, the Jubilee year is somewhat of a summer type season for the Catholic church, and it’s beautiful that we all get to participate in it together,” Miggins said.
McKeown said she was trying to nish typing up her thoughts on the pilgrimage before she got back to Hillsdale.
“I’m getting o the plane and I’m desperately writing my nal
ology via mentors who were teachers. I was probably 25.
How did you meet your wife?
That the possibility of Christian friendship over the course of college is so much greater than the minutiae of Christian di erence within the collegiate bubble of Hillsdale.
We were friends — just friends — in college. I’m slow on the uptake. Then some years a er college we crossed paths abroad and were married a year to the day therea er.
reflections,” McKeown said. “One of my last notes before I reentered the Hillsdale bubble, because I so wanted to hold on to the feeling of joy that I experienced, was, ‘Lord, may I never forget your presence, your providence, and your propensity to show your immense love and graces.’ And I think that is the best way to sum up my experience, because it was just so fervently witnessing, experiencing, and wanting holiness.”
as the embodiment of the theos-logos vocation.
What is your favorite food?
Hard to beat a good steak, unless it’s overcooked.
What has been your favorite vacation?
With my wife — anything in Italy. With my whole family — in Colorado last summer.
What is one book every student should read?
I wouldn’t put it under “should,” but Luke and Acts are two I wouldn’t want to miss.
Co ee or tea?
Spurious alternative! (Love both)
What did you want to be when you were little? Fighter pilot, and when I got a little older, a chiropractor.
When did you know you wanted to teach?
When I fell in love with the-
If you could have a conversation with any three people, living or dead, who would they be and what would you talk about?
e Apostle Paul, Jean Parisot de Valette, and Abraham Lincoln. I’d like to listen to them talk about courage.
Who is the greatest theologian, in your opinion?
Pretty hard to top Jesus
What is one piece of advice you would give to your college-aged self?
Look up from your book. What is your favorite movie?
Tie between “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Gran Torino.”
EDITOR
Jonathan Mumme, associate professor of theology, talks overcooked steak, advice for his college-aged
Sarah (left) and Lara (right) McKeown pose for a photo in Italy. COURTESY | SARAH MCKEOWN
From left to right: Liza, Miranda, Rachel, Silas, Jonathan, and Lucian Mumme pose for a family photo. COURTESY | JONATHAN MUMME
The Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi in Rome, Italy. COURTESY | SARAH MCKEOWN
