The Hillsdale Collegian 3.21.19

Vol. 142 Issue 22 - March 21, 2019

Michigan’s oldest college newspaper

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Private colleges struggle with enrollment, Hillsdale defies the trend By | Cal Abbo Assistant Editor Private colleges, especially smaller regional schools, are in for a tough decade.

Moody’s Corporation, a financial analysis and credit rating company based in New York City, predicts that 15 private colleges will close each year beginning in 2019.

This represents a drastic increase in closures. According to Moody’s, from 20022011, only 47 private colleges closed — less than five per year. Since then, rising costs, diminishing endowments, and disappearing student interest have pressured many colleges financially. In contrast to a grim prognosis, however, Hillsdale has enjoyed a surge of interest and a healthy growth of its endowment.

In 2018, the college’s acceptance rate was 37 percent, down from 55 percent in 2014, 64 percent in 2007, and 85 percent in 2000, while maintaining similar class sizes, Senior Director of Admissions Zach Miller ’11 said. Its endowment virtually doubled from $295 million in 2011 to $574 million in 2017.

Hillsdale’s endowment per student of $386,000 beats that of several ivy league universities like Cornell, Columbia, and Brown, according to data from College Raptor.

In general, fewer students have enrolled in both public and private higher education institutions since the Great Recession, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Peaking just above 21 million students in 2010, the number of

students enrolled in colleges fell to 19.8 million in 2016, the last year with available data. NCES projects a reversal in the current downward trend, but rising college costs and low birth rates around the country may continue to deter potential students.

Changing demographics, especially in the Midwest, could produce further hardships for private colleges that draw from the region.

Since the Great Recession, birth rates in the U.S. have diminished from a healthy 2.12 births per woman in 2007 to 1.8 in 2016. Additionally, the Midwest lost nearly one million people to domestic emigration alone from 20102015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Miller said about one-third of Hillsdale students come

from the Midwest and, in the future, the college will have to find ways to recruit more students from around the country.

Another problem facing private colleges is cost disparity. The College Board reported the average tuition of a private college for the 2018-19 school year as $25,600 more than public colleges, compared to $20,880 more in 2008. As this number grows, young adults trying to avoid debt may find public colleges more appealing than their private counterparts.

Liberal arts colleges, which constitute most of the closures, have a few options when facing what seems like their demise: consolidate with other colleges, retool to focus on technical job training, or imitate larger schools by add-

ing modern study programs.

Some schools simply can’t handle the pressure. St. Joseph’s College, an Indiana liberal arts institution founded in 1889, closed its doors in the fall of 2017, according to the Chicago Tribune. St. Joseph’s accumulated $27 million of debt before closing, and 900 active students transferred to surrounding schools like Purdue and Marian universities.

The cost of education influences every aspect of the private college crisis. As financial burdens force colleges to cut important programs and raise tuition, fewer students apply and donations move elsewhere. The quality of accepted students plummets, leading to a death spiral of application numbers.

Hillsdale has seen just the opposite. The average high

school GPA for the freshman class of 2000 was 3.56 with an average ACT score just under 24. This year’s freshman class boasts an average GPA of 3.81, scoring 30 on the ACT. Provost David Whalen attributed Hillsdale’s perseverance to its growing nationwide support base, citing financial backing as the key element to its success.

“We are able to charge a very modest tuition, at least compared to many other schools of this caliber and quality,” he said. “In comparison to our peers, Hillsdale is a bargain.”

Most colleges use tuition to cover a portion of the total price tag, using endowments to cover the rest. Hillsdale is no exception.

See Colleges B3

Swimming

Ellingson named sixth All-American in college swim program history By | Danielle Lee Collegian Reporter

Anna Sutherland ’11 died on March 6 and is survived by her husband Edward and their three daughters. Facebook

‘An embodiment of living life faithfully’ Friends, family, professors remember Anna Williams Sutherland ’11 By | Isabella Redjai Assistant Editor Considered a talented journalist, accomplished alumna, dear friend, sister, daughter, and mother, Anna (Williams) Sutherland ’11, at the age of 29, died unexpectedly on Wednesday, March 6, due to a cardiac condition.

“She was a beaming mother and wife of three children, delivering grace, and an embodiment of living life faithfully and her full joy was on display,” said family friend, Joseph Cella.

During her time at Hillsdale College, Sutherland majored in English, and was one of the top 10 in her graduating class. She also served as the president of the Catholic Society her junior year.

Not knowing Sutherland prior to their work together in the Catholic Society, Mary Tillotson ’11 became dear friends with Sutherland, eventually living with her senior year in an off-campus house named “The Grotto,” refer-

encing the grotto in which Saint Bernadette of Lourdes experienced apparitions.

“I remember walking through Grewcock and going to the rosary, and us talking about wanting to marry good, Catholic guys from Michigan,” Tillotson said, “And we both ended up marrying good, Catholic guys from Michigan who were not on our radar during the time.”

After her time at Hillsdale, Sutherland, known for her impressive editing and writing skills, went on to enter the realm of journalism.

To the public and her colleagues, Sutherland was recognized as a skilled journalist.

She worked as a collegiate fellow for one year on the editorial board for USA Today, then as a junior fellow at First Things, and eventually as a founding editor for Institute for Family Studies while continuing freelance work and copyediting.

“By reputation alone, people would turn to her,

and her clear thinking, moral thinking. and her precise eye for editing and writing preceded her,” said family friend, Joseph Cella.

Cella said he introduced Sutherland to Christians in the professional world, communication professionals, and Capitol Hill staff and advocacy organizations, where she came across great opportunities.

“She was offered a job at the Wall Street Journal, but because of life as a mother, she passed on it,” Cella said.

“It was a great opportunity she passed on in order to answer to her ultimate vocation.”

Married to her college boyfriend, Edward “Eddie” Sutherland ’11, and with three daughters – Marie Ann, Rose Colomba, and Grace Faustina – all under the age of 5, Sutherland took pride in caring for her family, especially her young children, according

Ending her senior year with the NCAA Division II Championships, senior Anika Ellingson is now the sixth Hillsdale swimmer since 2014 to achieve All-American status, and her picture will now be showcased in the Roche Sports Complex among the other All-Americans.

Ellingson swam the 100 breastroke and 200 breastroke, finishing in 8th and 22nd, respectively.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to recreate that moment ever,” Ellingson said. “It’s still really surreal that I’m an All-American.”

Head coach Kurt Kirner said he felt good about Ellingson becoming an All-American while going into the events and it would’ve been more surprising if she didn’t win it. Her independent training prepared her for this meet, and with her mentality and focus developed over the years, she was more than ready.

“We gave her so much control and she took all of the preparation and made it into an individual performance objective for her,” Kirner said.

“She was really good at doing all the right things and that built her confidence. We just helped along the way.”

For the last few weeks, Ellingson practiced in the mornings as many times as possible to adjust to the racing schedule. Swimming at

race pace during her trainings helped her the most, which assisted with better turns and perfecting the smaller details, Ellingson said.

“By the time I actually got to the race, my turns, my tempo, and my pullouts felt really good,” Ellingson said. “I went back to rewatch the livestream and Anika Ellingson was named All-American at the I was like, NCAA Division II Championships in Indianapolis, ‘Wow, my Indiana. Zoe Tracey | Courtesy underwater said. “It’s the self-responsible work is really paying off too,’ and everything just seemed to athletes that are intrinsically motivated.” click in both events.”

Her commitment and When Ellingson first came dedication will be missed next onto the team, she hadn’t year Kirner said, and those achieved much, Kirner said. close to her understood how But each year her perforhard she worked. Through her mance continually improved, efforts, Ellingson embraced mainly through her own the sport head-on, reflecting efforts. her strong value of the sport, “It wasn’t like I gave her a and her example is one to special set of skills; it was just follow. allowing her to work within her own capability to become See Ellingson A8 a better swimmer,” Kirner

$320K in salt: the cost Undergrad wins national of a Hillsdale winter See Sutherland A3

theatre scholar award By | Sofia Krusmark Collegian Reporter Walking into Theatre History 302, Eric Rygh had little idea that he would begin an intimate friendship with deceased playwright Richard Wagner—a 14 page friendship.

Senior theatre minor Eric Rygh recently won the ACTF Undergraduate Theatre ScholFollow @HDaleCollegian

ar Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

“I saw the notification on my phone, and I was just in shock,” Rygh said. “I was straight up shocked that I could write a paper that was even worthy of an award like this. But I guess it’s a positive shock. A positive surprise.”

According to the American College Theatre Festival, stu-

By | Carmel Kookogey Culture Editor

dents from across the nation submitted a 10-20 page paper “on any area in the art, craft and/or history of theatre, or a cross-disciplinary topic with the art of theatre featuring as a key area of investigation.”

Rygh’s paper, “‘An Instinctive Dislike’: Staging Wagner’s Implicit Anti-Semitism,” ranked first out of the 27 finalist papers.

See Theatre B2

With record-breaking weather in Hillsdale this winter, the Hillsdale County Road Commission has spent approximately $323,722 on salt alone from January to March. According to the Commission’s Engineering Manager John Sanders, it’s the freezing rain that’s caused the most trouble.

“We had freezing rain three times this year,” Sand-

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

ers said. “Compare that with the last four years when we only had one. And one of the days this year was extremely bad, we had half an inch. That’s a lot of ice.”

By comparison, the county spent just over $200,000 on salt for the 2017-18 year, a little bit above their four year average of $183,000. In total, including salt and sand mix, sand, and labor and equipment costs, Sanders projected approximately $730,000 will be spent on

road maintenance by the end of this winter, compared to their $645,000 yearly average over the last five years.

Sanders said that freezing rain is the worst winter condition to deal with, in terms of keeping the roads clear.

“It requires special needs, compared to snow,” Sanders said. “You have to put your salt down thicker.” So thick, in fact, that the county has purchased 5,888 tons of salt since January.

See Winter A6

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News

March 21, 2019

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College starts new podcast Rising seniors to vote on to promote school mission their senior class officers In brief:

By | Rachel Kookogey Collegian Freelancer

By | Austin Gergens Collegian Reporter Today, rising seniors will have the opportunity to cast their vote for the 20192020 Senior Class Officers beginning at 11 a.m. in the Grewcock Student Union.

Elections will be held today, tomorrow, and Monday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the union. Students will only be able to vote once per position.

Students unable to vote at those times may contact Senior Class Officer Adviser John Quint to vote online before 5 p.m. on Monday, March 25.

Nominees on the ballot are encouraged to campaign however they deem proper to garner support for the election.

“Senior Class Officers have the unique position of impacting seniors’ final year at Hillsdale that most people don’t immediately think about,” Quint said.

Some of the senior class officers’ duties include taking input from their peers, working to provide a thoughtful senior class gift, hosting ample senior socials, and choosing the commencement speaker for their year.

“Being on the board has been such a great experience because it really is a team effort,” said this year’s Fundraising Co-Chair Andie Chandler. “We band together to bring as much fun to the seniors as possible but also to give a gift back to the campus as a thank-you for all it has given us.”

The nominees for president are Adam Buchmann, Charles Adams, Lauren Tunney, and Weston Boardman. The nominees for vice president are Jack McPherson, Joel Meng, Lukas Swenson, and Mollie Dill. Nominees for secretary are Ben Dietderich, Laura Niederbrach, and Reagan Cool. Candidates for the position of treasurer are Lizzie Leathers, Mairead Cooper, Sarah Becker, and Sheridan Michaud. The nominees for social chairman are Caterina Moran, Hadiah Ritchey, Kaitlynn Schenk, Kiara Freeman. The nominees for the fundraising position are Ella Williams, Lillian Schmitz, and Lucy Meckler.

Screening of Moynihan documentary to feature discussion with director By | Madeleine Miller Collegian Reporter Hillsdale College’s Film and Production Club and the Dow Journalism Program are partnering to host a screening of the film “Moynihan” and a subsequent Q&A session with its writer, director, and producer Joseph Dorman.

The event will be held in Lane 125 at 6 p.m. on March 21. As the first full-length documentary on Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “Moynihan” depicts the life and character of the prominent Democratic senator, sociologist, ambassador, and intellectual whose influential work was central

to the development of the 1960s political climate.

Dorman will deliver introductory remarks on Moynihan and the creation of the film before the screening, and he will take questions afterward.

Senior Lydia Reyes, vice president of the Film and Production Club, said it will be an honor to have such an accomplished filmmaker as Dorman on campus, and she hopes the event will be well-attended.

“Anyone with any remote interest in politics, journalism, or film is encouraged to come,” she said.

Sophomore Lynde Leatherwood said she is looking

forward to the opportunity to learn from Dorman.

“I’m very excited to meet someone in the film industry, and look forward to his tips and suggestions on how we can improve our craft,” Leatherwood said.

Senior Adam Cieply, the club’s treasurer, said this will be a unique opportunity to learn about the filmmaking process.

“You can only learn so much from YouTube,” said Cieply. “This is a great opportunity to learn about casting, writing, and filming — something you don’t often get here.”

The Hillsdale College Marketing Department and WRFH 101.7 FM, Hillsdale College’s student-run radio station, have partnered to produce a weekly podcast called “Radio Free Hillsdale Hour.” The show currently airs on about ten radio stations in Michigan, and the podcast can be found on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Google Play.

The show airs weekly, and the college’s goal, according to the original pitch, is to generate over 25,000 subscribers to the podcast and reach a radio listening audience of over 100,000 people within the first calendar year.

Vice President for Marketing Matt Schlientz said the purpose of the show is “to advance and radiate the mission of the college to radio and podcast listeners.”

Given Hillsdale’s success from talk radio, Schlientz said he believes Hillsdale’s supporters will be “predisposed to listen” to the podcast.

Matthew Spalding, associate vice president and dean of educational programs for Hillsdale College in Washington, D.C., said the program is “the coming together of several things: the great radio program on campus, and the growing world of podcast, radio, and all forms of audio news.”

Spalding said many people collaborated in developing the concept, but Bertram is “the mind behind the organization of the show.”

General Manager of WRFH 101.7 FM and host of “Radio Free Hillsdale Hour” Scot Bertram explained that the marketing team mentioned the idea to him when he first came to campus three years ago. It was not until last summer, however, that he was

able to “sharpen those ideas.”

“Nine months ago, I finally had some time to think about it deeply and figure out a format that would be entertaining, repeatable, and sustainable,” Bertram said.

With the help of the marketing team, Bertram developed a program that he said is “largely about highlighting what we do at Hillsdale for the outside world.” He explained that the show has four segments, each of which features a guest.

“None of this is me monologuing,” he said. “I’m there to introduce the guests, ask insightful questions, facilitate the conversation, and find the people that will make for interesting conversations.”

One segment features guests that Bertram called “friends of Hillsdale.” These guests are typically people who have spoken at the Center for Constructive Alternatives lectures or are involved with the The Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship.

“They are people whose thinking and opinions we want to highlight,” Bertram said.

One such guest is Brian Christian, author of “The Most Human Human” and recent guest lecturer on Hillsdale’s campus, who spoke on the future of artificial intelligence in the Feb. 22 edition of the show.

Bertram dedicates the rest of the show to “shining a spotlight on things at campus,” such as the faculty, the Kirby Center, and the Churchill Project. One segment usually features a Hillsdale College professor who speaks on current events.

In the March 1 edition, Spalding visited the show and discussed President Trump’s emergency declaration for the southern border.

“The program is about teaching Hillsdale ideas but also applying Hillsdale ideas in contemporary politics,” Spalding said. “Because my visit was recently after Trump’s speech, we discussed the powers of the executive under the Constitution, especially in regards to Congress.”

A third segment features a guest from various departments of the college who educates the audience on the importance of the liberal arts.

In the March 15 edition, Hillsdale’s Associate Professor of English Dwight Lindley began a series that will be occasionally featured on the show on basic literary concepts .

Schlientz referred to the final segment as a “wild card segment.” The topic of this segment varies from alumni spotlights to recordings of speeches, recent or historical, that coincide with Hillsdale’s mission. For example, in the Feb. 22 edition, the last segment featured a 1994 Center for Constructive Alternatives lecture given by former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The program makes connections between the different parts of Hillsdale’s national community. Bertram said the show “bridges the locations of campus and the Kirby Center.”

Additionally, it ties in the network of Hillsdale alumni.

Bertram has hosted multiple alumni on the show, including Thomas Morrison ’97, who is currently a Republican member of the Illinois General Assembly.

According to the marketing pitch, the plan for the show is to “share the teaching and learning that happens at the college with the rest of America. Success will result in a significant, long-term outlet for the college to reach citizens across the country.”

Alumna talks opportunities, volunteering abroad with Peace Corps Kittie Helmick ’15 provides information and advice to students considering volunteer work By | Elizabeth Bachmann Collegian Reporter Peace Corps volunteer Kittie Helmick ’15, who is teaching English in the South African village Kwazulu-Natal, spoke to students this week about the process of joining the Peace Corps.

Helmick is 9 months into a 27-month tour in South Africa, and she said she is finally beginning to reap the rewards of her work.

“It took us from January to March to learn how to communicate with each other,” Helmick said.

Now her students are able to begin simple projects in

English. They just finished making their own personal American calendars.

Helmick said the progress she is seeing extremely rewarding.

“You are primarily working with local people and helping them develop their resources,” Helmick said.

Career Services organized Helmick’s visit to create an opportunity for students to learn about the Peace Corps, the advantage of participating in the program, and tips for applying.

Helmick laid out the application process for interested students. She explained that, while acceptance is competitive, Hillsdale students are

great candidates. The Peace Corps primarily searches for certain kinds of people and doesn’t require prior experience.

“They are mainly looking for a type of person who is resourceful, enjoys learning, is ready to pick up a new language, and enjoys a new culture,” Helmick said.

Helmick assured interested students that the organization “gives you the tools to prosper, but it is up to you to use them.”

Volunteers can expect around six months of training, including language training, safety training, and job specific training, before they begin to engage in their work.

and showing how to discuss pro-life beliefs with others,” she said.

Erik Halvorson, senior and vice president of Hillsdale College for Life, said there are two areas of focus in the course. Halvorson explained that Christians must understand the theological element of the pro-life argument and also be able to convince unbelievers why life should be valued from a religious point of view.

“It is the fundamental point of Christianity to value human life because human life is made in the image of God,” Halvorson said. “It is a fundamental aspect of Christianity, to love your neighbor.”

Halvorson said Christians often fail to convince those who do not share their religious views of the pro-life message.

“We also cannot impose our faith on someone else.

Many pro-life Christians run into that dilemma,” he said.

“It is really important for us to understand it does not have to be a Christian pro-life argu-

ment, even if — as Christians — it comes back to that. It is important for Christians to make the secular and scientific argument without contradicting their faith.”

There were fifteen students who attended the screening of the first video in the “Life is Best” series. Feedback from event coordinators was encouraging in light of student engagement and interest in the event. Russo said she hopes students can derive some benefits out of the series.

“I hope this series builds intelligent students,” she said.

“The first thing that needs to happen for our country and our society to value life is we need informed people to talk about topics with intelligence.

Hillsdale does so well in arming our students to talk about these issues.”

Hillsdale College for Life welcomes all who are interested and anticipates that more students will attend the video series in the coming weeks.

“We hope as the event gains traction, more will come,” Russo said.

HCFL hosts apologetics training By | Matt Fisher Collegian Freelancer

Hillsdale College for Life began a new series exploring the pro-life argument this Monday. The student club, dedicated to protecting unborn lives from abortion, is hosting a series of video viewings and discussions every Monday during Lent at noon in Lane 124. Pizza and drinks are provided as students watch to a video series produced by Scott Klusendorf, president of the Life Training Institute.

The lectures are designed to educate students on the moral and theological reasons behind the pro-life view, as well as provide them with the tools for talking to non-Christians regarding the pro-life position. Senior Kathleen Russo, president of Hillsdale College for Life, explained why the organization is putting on the series.

“This is a video series and it involves a lot of experts, and the video shows the experts meeting with real students

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She also said the Peace Corps, perhaps due to criticism in the past few years, has cracked down on their safety procedures.

“Peace Corps puts a ton of emphasis on security. They have a dedicated security team who are on call,” Helmick said. “If you report an incident they take it very seriously. They have really doubled down efforts on dealing with incidents.”

Helmick responded to some student questions about the economics of the service with the Peace Corps, explaining that the greatest financial burden was at the front end.

Volunteers have to pay for most of their own vaccines

and medical preparations; however, once training begins, they are provided a place to live, a stipend for living expenses, and the organization also sets aside a fixed sum every month that volunteers receive upon leaving the program. This gives them time to acclimate to life in America while searching for a job.

Freshman Sebrena Geier has been interested in the Peace Corps since elementary school and said Helmick’s talk was helpful in her discernment.

“I’m glad that she answered a lot of the financial questions and made herself very open to contact in the future,” Geier said. “It was also interesting

to hear what her challenges have been and how the Peace Corps has addressed them.”

Senior Suzanne deTar decided to attend the presentation because she will be embarking on her own tour with the Peace Corps this June to Sierra Leone in West Africa, where she will teach general science in secondary schools.

“I loved hearing Helmick speak because I honestly have no idea what I am getting into,” she said. Hearing that she also didn’t, but that she has adjusted and is doing well and has figured out her curriculum helped me to chill out a little bit.”

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News Students spend break on local missions trip, service projects www.hillsdalecollegian.com

By | Emma Cummins Assistant Editor Hillsdale College students participated in the spring break mission trip in Hillsdale and found fellowship, friendship, and the body of Christ. The group started the trip on March 8 and finished on March 14. There were 54 in the group, and everyone was divided into a team with whom they shared testimonies, volunteer duties, and devotional reflections.

“I just saw God’s faithfulness revealed over and over again,” sophomore Caroline Walker said. “It should not have gone as well as it did, honestly. It was by the grace of God that scheduling went the way it did, teams worked out the way they did, that hearts were changed.”

This was Walker’s second time on the mission trip, and the second time only served to renew the original conclusions she had come to on the first trip. Seeing the body of Christ working, unlikely friendships begin, and seeing Christian love work in the hearts of the students and Hillsdale community members were just a few of the things that she experienced on the trip, Walker said.

“It was a renewal of last year but in an even greater way,” she said. “When I’m

March 21, 2019 A3

in a leadership surrender, position, I see all grace, and the applications commubeing made and the nity and teams being made. discipleSeeing how people ship. The with completely devotionals different personfor each alities, people you day were think wouldn’t created work together well, by junior all coming together Gabe Listro around the central and senior idea of Christ’s Calvin Kinglory and showing ney. Achis love was really cording to cool.”

Listro, the During the day, format for the teams visited each one different places included a within Hillsdale to universal either volunteer or prayer, a spend time with scriptural members of the reading, community. Hillsand a dale High Rise, group of schools in the area, Over spring break, 54 Hillsdale students spent their week doing service projects for the local reflective and the local coun- community. At one point, students boarded up houses in Detroit. Gabe Listro | Courtesy questions ty jail were just a for each on it over and over again you learn about sin and the few of the places team to afterwards,” he said. “That one need for repentance,” he said. that the students visiting. discuss. Each night, the stuhit me because I can relate to “OK, so things actually are While volunteering at the dents would attend a talk on these guys.

And yet, they’re in really messed up, and that’s county jail, senior Abraham the theme for each night from a completely different place why we need to turn to God, Paternoster met inmates who the different churches around than I am.” and then we follow that up were roughly the same age Hillsdale.

Volunteering and interwith grace. God loves his as he was. Their disparate The devotionals played acting with the community people and loves the world situations left him unable to a role in grounding Walker demonstrated the healing and is bringing healing and imagine what he would do in throughout the trip. power of Christian principles, redemption and we can be the same situation, but still “It reminds you of what according to Paternoster. instruments of that.” able to find common ground, actual love looks like, what is “You see a lot of brokenThe themes from each he said. this grace that we’re extendness in the community, and night were repentance, “I found myself reflecting ing, what redemption truly

Panel discusses American feminism By | Madeline Peltzer Collegian Reporter Four faculty brought different perspectives on the feminist movement at a panel discussion this week.

On Tuesday night, students, faculty, and professors alike crammed into the Heritage Room for a professorial panel discussion on feminism and its role in America today. Hosted by the Fairfield Society, the event featured Assistant Professor of Classics Laury Ward, Visiting Lecturer of Biology Angelica Pytel, Associate Professor of English Lorraine Murphy, and Assistant Professor of French Anne Theobald.

Mary Kate Boyle, junior and president of the Fairfield Society, said the goal for the panel was to encourage audience members to reconsider their preconceptions of feminism.

“I think there’s an attitude toward feminism on campus that views it in the most radical and vitriolic light and sees that as all feminism is,” Boyle said. “I wanted to promote discussion where we could hear from some respected and thoughtful women and learn that feminism doesn’t have to be liberal and manhating.”

The panel, run as a question-and-answer dialogue moderated by sophomore Kailey Andrew, covered everything from the definition of feminism to gender stereotypes. The panelists based many of their answers off their own experience. For instance, Pytel explained how her childhood shaped her views on feminism and that she associates “positive thoughts” with the term.

“I was raised with the mentality where girls were not

Sutherland

from A1 to close friends and family.

“In her obituary, Eddie added a line about Anna being a mother,” Sutherland’s younger sister Clare Williams said. “And we do write a lot about how Anna loved writing, editing, but at end of day, she loved family the most.”

Sutherland, according to Williams and Tillotson, was always willing to go out of her way for the comfort and conveniences for those she cared most about.

“What has struck me over time about her is if she can give something, she will, whether it’s advice for an essay, sending a care package or birthday gift on time, welcoming a new baby, or going through a hard time,” Williams said. “If she had something to give, she would give it.”

Williams remembered sending her sister her college

forced to conform to certain gender stereotypes as I was growing up and therefore I was free to choose what was best for me as an individual and to express my personal liberty,” she said.

Ward also spoke from personal experience. Sporting a pink shirt with “FEMINIST” emblazoned across the chest, she shared a story about one reaction she received when someone found out she would be speaking at the event.

“I’ve been on a number of panels, and some of been closely related to my field of study, but some have not,” she said. “This is the first panel I’ve been on that I’ve had someone come up to me to ask if I felt like I was an authority to speak on this topic.

I think this shows that the word ‘feminist’ triggers a lot of defensiveness.”

The dialogue broadened into a discussion of equal rights. While the panelists agreed that they had never felt held back or been denied opportunities because of their sex, Pytel said there is “absolutely gender inequality everywhere.” She said she hopes to see that change — especially in politics.

“If we have an equal number of men and women in Congress, it will change the dynamics,” she said. “Women have different priorities — we’re more unity-oriented, more family-oriented. I’m not saying we take over everything; we just need an equal voice. If you’re a man and in power, then, yeah, we’re coming — for half your power.”

Murphy, however, suggested that the culture’s exploitation of women might be a greater issue than an inequality of rights.

“I don’t think we can talk

very long about girls and women flourishing without talking about their relationship with men,” she said. “The hyper-sexualization of women in popular culture is honestly the thing that scares me the most. I think it has a lot to do with women knowing how to relate in healthy, respectful, honorable ways with other women and with men.”

Sophomore Isaac Kirshner attended the discussion.

He said as a male he doesn’t feel threatened by feminism but suggested it’s time for the feminist movement to refine its message, since its basis is “rooted in the idea of the dignity of the human woman.”

“We should preserve the dignity of the human being as an equal person created in the image of God,” he said. “We can reframe the argument into a discussion of why is the human being special and what makes us all special together.

I think there needs to be an inward look into what the movement means today.”

Junior Kathleen Hancock said that while she doesn’t define herself as a feminist, she appreciated the event.

“In the past I’ve been of the opinion that I don’t want to support the movement but rather individuals,” Hancock said. “I think when you take the label of feminism, you get a lot of baggage because of the extreme that is portrayed, especially by Hollywood and the media. It distorts it. The panel was very much focused on the middle ground of what a majority of women who claim to be feminists believe. That was really insightful.”

is,” Walker said. “It helps you stay focused, and not get sidetracked from having to go rake leaves.”

Listro said the devotionals were “the questions I didn’t want to ask myself.”

“I tried to make the questions very direct,” he said.

“In the solitude of silence, we spent two hours reading this text and then sitting in silence. Some of the questions we put in there were, ‘Do you believe God is real?’ and ‘Do you want God to speak to you through this trip?’”

Sophomore Logan Pentecost said the trip showed him how expectations can change.

“I just want to be able to serve God and be able to reach out to people,” Pentecost said. “It’s interesting how in serving God, He is really just working in my heart the entire time. And I was served more than I was able to help.”

Walker also spoke to the great benefit the trip has on college students, who can very easily get stuck in their own world.

“My schedule revolves around me; even when I volunteer, it’s on my terms, like everything that we do here,” she said. “The mission trip pushes you outside of that. It pushes you to acknowledge that there is a greater purpose.”

Schlueter hopes conference will create discussion between conservatives, classical liberals By | Sean Collins Collegian Freelancer Professor of Philosophy and Religion Nathan Schlueter will be speaking at a conference which he helped organize to discuss the relationship between conservatism and classical liberalism.

The event, titled “The Future of Liberalism: A Conversation Among Conservatives,” will take place from April 11-13, hosted by the Center for the Study for Liberal Democracy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and will bring respected conservative thinkers from across the country to the center to discuss how liberalism interacts with America, religion, culture, politics, and markets.

“We are living in a very pivotal time, years in the making, when the West is experiencing a profound identity crisis, not just here in America but also abroad,” Schlueter said in an email.

“Many of the things we take for granted and hold dear are being questioned. How we understand who we are will determine our future.”

The goal of the conference, according to Richard Avramenko, co-director of the CSLD, is “to put serious defenders of the classical liberal tradition in conversation with the best voices representing American

conservatism.”

The idea for the conference began last summer as the result of an ongoing conversation between Schlueter and Mark Mitchell, professor and chairman of the Department of Government at Patrick Henry College, about Patrick Deneen’s book “Why Liberalism Failed,” Schlueter said Deneen’s book represents “an unfortunate and even dangerous turn against politics and America by many conservatives.”

Schlueter and Mitchell continued to discuss Deneen’s book and liberalism in general, and their conversations culminated in the two proposing to Avramenko an event which would convene bastions of conservatism and classical liberalism, with Deneen as the keynote speaker. Avramenko agreed, and Schlueter and Mitchell organized the conference.

It will consist of five panels, each focusing on one dimension of the liberalism-conservatism relationship and featuring two distinguished speakers with opposing viewpoints.

The CSLD has hosted similar conferences before, including conversations about the First and Second Amendments. Each year it also hosts a “Disinvited Dinner” for a prominent speaker who has been disinvited from a speaking engagement due to protest. One of its stated missions is to “ad-

essays while were going. attending She genuinely Hillsdale Colcared, but lege herself. never wanted “I saw a to dig out too little bit of personal of what her coldetails.” leagues saw Both famin her,” Wilily and close liams said. “I friends have sent her a few supported the college essays Williams and and even just Sutherland a few weeks families by ago sent my arranging and resume. She delivering could always meals and by find better helping prewords to use pare memorior find ways al ceremonies, to say things showing the with fewer same special words.” attention Tillotand care that son, along Sutherland with other did for those close friends During her time at Hillsdale, Anna Sutherland’11 majored in English, and she worked in journal- around her. of Sutherland, ism before becoming a mother. Facebook Cella recalls sional and personal life. kind of settled on ‘tact.’ Anna found a word a moment “What was Anna’s suwas genuine in how she to describe this prudence when he saw Sutherland’s perpower? Someone said spoke and was really good that Sutherland had with three young daughters at her editing,” Tillotson said. “We about asking how things words both in her profesMass of Christian Buri-

vance intellectual diversity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by taking ideas seriously that we believe have not always enjoyed sufficient respect on campus,” according to its website.

Although the event’s speakers will be almost exclusively conservative, not all speakers agree on the place of liberalism in America.

D.C. Schindler, associate professor of metaphysics and anthropology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute, will be on a panel to discuss liberalism, conservatism, and religion.

“Liberalism,” he said, “is a co-opting of the virtues of Christianity in abstraction from the theological substance of Christianity. It gives the illusion of protecting Christianity, but in a profound way really undermines it.”

Schlueter hopes the conference, despite the difference in opinion, will ultimately be unifying rather than divisive.

“We are not interested in a polemical debate where each side tries to score points with its followers,” Schlueter said. “There is too much of that today and it’s not very productive. Rather, we are interested in a serious conversation in which we really try to understand points of convergence and difference, with the hope of moving ahead in united way.”

al, which took place at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“In the profundity of the scene of the sadness and loss, the most gripping thing of the mass and funeral home was to see three beautiful girls under 5 without a mom,” Cella said. “There was such a dichotomy and beautiful display of life as Eddie’s sister, who was eight months pregnant, held baby Grace, who was still nursing, and comforted her.”

From her time at Hillsdale, to her short but successful career, and loving family life, Sutherland touched the lives of those she interacted with, and showed both her talents and love to.

“She was a gifted student, a good writer and thinker, but it’s her sweet spirit and smile that I remember best,” Professor of English John Somerville said. “I can see her very clearly in my mind’s eye, as if she’s sitting in my classroom.”

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The Weekly: Education is about more than prestige The opinion of The Collegian editorial staff

(517) 607-2415 Online: www.hillsdalecollegian.com Editor-in-Chief | Nicole Ault Associate Editor | Jordyn Pair News Editor | Nolan Ryan City News Editor | Josephine von Dohlen Opinions Editor | Kaylee McGhee Sports Editor | S. Nathaniel Grime Culture Editor | Carmel Kookogey Features Editor | Brooke Conrad Design Editor | Morgan Channels Web Content Editor | Regan Meyer Web Manager | Timothy Green Photo Editor | Christian Yiu Circulation Manager | Regan Meyer Ad Manager | Cole McNeely Assistant Editors | Emma Cummins | Alexis Daniels | Abby Liebing | Allison Schuster | Calli Townsend | Isabella Redjai | Ryan Goff | Stefan Kleinhenz | Cal Abbo Faculty Advisers | John J. Miller | Maria Servold The editors welcome Letters to the Editor but reserve the right to edit submissions for clarity, length, and style. Letters should be 450 words or less and include your name and number. Send submissions to the Opinions Editor at kmcghee@hilldale.edu before Saturday at 3 p.m.

Conservatives need to take second look at candidate Yang By | Teddy Birkofer is good for the Special to the collegian consumer country.

Andrew Yang, 44, is an entrepreneur from New York with no previous political experience. His social platform is standard Democratic drivel, with promises to protect abortion rights and gay marriage.

He is not overtly Christian, and he rarely references Reagan or the Constitution. He is currently polling in the single digits and has almost no name recognition. Despite this, his campaign has the potential to galvanize conservatism in the upcoming decade, if only conservatives hear Mr. Yang out.

Andrew Yang’s platform could be summed up with one question: What is America going to do about automation? In much the same way that Trump’s 2016 campaign motivated voters on the immigration issue, Yang has thus far focused on one topic: job-stealing robots. Millions of jobs will be lost in the next decade as automation and artificial intelligence expand into every sector of the economy. Retail workers, fast food employees, and truck drivers—some of America’s most common jobs—are all on the ropes. In an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Yang said: “I think it would be insane to just sit back and watch this automation wave overtake our communities and our economy... We need to evolve, we need to start pushing the way we think of economic progress to include how our families are doing, how our children are doing, and things that would actually matter to the American people, because GDP is gonna lead us off a cliff. Robot trucks? Great for GDP! Terrible for many, many American communities.”

As automation continues to push America’s labor-force participation rate down to levels on par with Ecuador, seismic social shifts are bound to occur. Jobless fathers tend not to be good fathers, if they remain in the family picture at all. Labor flight to cities leaves rural communities like Hillsdale County with decreasing populations. Automation makes it increasingly harder for anyone without a college degree to find work, which forces aspiring young workers to shackle themselves with debt in order to attend cesspools of progressive indoctrination. Yet, for some reason, questioning automation and technological advancement is a non-starter for conservatives because deep-seated ideological commitments to the free-market cloud the thinking of the conservative non-profit world.

These talking heads are quick to point out that lower labor costs mean cheaper consumer goods. Conservatism today, for all practical purposes, is synonymous with consumerism: What is good for the

The experience of a state like Michigan proves otherwise. The rising tide has lifted all boats, but some passengers have fallen seasick. As social scientist Charles Murray points out, crime, welfare dependency, illegitimacy, divorce, drug usage, and suicide have all skyrocketed among lower-class whites in recent decades. Income inequality—which Aristotle identifies as one of the chief dangers facing a political community—has increased dramatically and consequently sparked tensions which have led to renewed calls for socialism.

American life expectancy has declined in recent years, and experts are saying America’s nationwide suicide epidemic could be the cause. Indeed, it is doubtful that anyone reading this piece does not know someone who has successfully or unsuccessfully attempted suicide. Unrestricted internet access has physically reshaped our brains, debased our social interactions, and left millions with pornography addictions.

Obesity is ubiquitous, thanks in large part to low-price, low-quality food. Churches are shutting their doors for good as each generation of Americans grows less religious than their fathers.

Our academic institutions no longer seek to inculcate virtue; their only goal is to create marketable alumni.

These social ills have multiple causes, to be sure. But conservatives seem unwilling to consider profit-seeking corporations as suspects in the case at all. Caesar’s wife is above suspicion.

This is where Andrew Yang comes in. If his campaign does nothing else but start a conversation, it will have been a massive success. Can America survive as a nation, in a meaningful sense of that word, without addressing the social ramifications of automation? We have seen what globalism has done. GDP has increased, unemployment, deceitfully defined, hovers at manageable levels, and the NASDAQ shatters records every day. Meanwhile, Americans lose their jobs and towns are hollowed out before drugs, crime, and fatherlessness sweep in. Automation promises to maintain this status quo: profits for shareholders and losses for flyovers. Andrew Yang wants to shake things up. In 2016, America faced a Flight 93 Election. Now that we have the cockpit, let’s not make the mistake of putting the plane on autopilot.

Teddy Birkofer is a junior studying Philosophy and Religion.

The recent news that many wealthy, powerful parents — including celebrities and businessmen — bribed colleges and paid for better test scores to get their children enrolled has held the current news cycle hostage. The scandal reveals a widespread misunderstanding of education’s purpose in our society. Both parents and students need to reevaluate their appreciation for prestigious schools.

According to a U.S. Census Bureau survey from July 2018,

more Americans than ever before — more than 90 percent — have completed high school or higher level education. In today’s society, it seems expected that parents will send their children to college, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but education can easily be treated as a mark of social standing, a sign that you have checked off the right boxes to be considered a good citizen.

Hoping to set their students apart from the crowd, parents can feel the need to get their

children into a prestigious, “name brand” school like Harvard or Princeton. Education, however, is not just about saying you went to a nationally-respected school. The value of education rests in the love of learning and discovering how to live well. If a student attends a university like Harvard but has little care for the wisdom to be found in the classroom, their education will mean little in the long-run.

Victor Davis Hanson writes in a March 19 article for Na-

tional Review that the educational institutions accepting the bribes have sacrificed merit and freedom for agendas. This “pay-to-play fraud,” he says, will continue because “schools...have long ignored merit.” As students, none of us are entitled to admission at a particular school, but we can work to merit such a privilege — something the parents and school officials involved in the admissions scandal sadly missed.

Professors should cold-call in class more Generally, students don’t have By | Gill West special to the collegian to read assignments beforehand.

“If you’re reading Plato correctly, then his argument against Thrasymachus on the nature of justice falls apart,” said my professor. Not exactly how I wanted to start my philosophy oral comps—with an objection I hadn’t considered and couldn’t answer. But with enough prodding, clarification, and backtracking, I eventually reconciled “The Republic” with my written exam. In other words, I understood Plato better because I was put on the spot.

In reflecting on this exam, I realized that Hillsdale professors should cold-call more often.

I don’t mean that we should stick professors on the phones— the phonathons have plenty of enthusiastic moms. Cold-calling in class means calling on a student who hasn’t raised her hand. This method of teaching is popular in law schools, which you might have learned from a woefully unprepared Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde.”

Used properly, cold-calling improves classroom education in at least two ways.

First, cold-calling encourages students to prepare adequately.

Maybe the honor code keeps most people honest, but its effectiveness has its limits and could use additional supports.

As long as students don’t raise their hands, they don’t have to speak, so the incentive to finish the reading is low. The material might be on the exam, but for many exams students can slip by with their notes and a scan of the professor’s favorite passages.

If the professor might cold-call, however, students will prepare for class for fear of humiliation in front of peers and teacher.

Perhaps reading quizzes accomplish the same purpose, but cold-calling is better because it both ensures student preparation and helps students to understand rather than know the material, the latter often being enough for reading quizzes. In my oral exam, for example, my professor asked me about Aquinas’s argument for the soul. On the written test, I had regurgitated the argument almost verbatim, citing the exact same examples as Aquinas. I would’ve aced a reading quiz. But I struggled with my professor’s objection. I didn’t know how Aquinas would answer it, and I couldn’t infer the answer. In other words, I

didn’t understand the argument, though I could recite the proof from memory. By cold-calling—as my professor did—professors force students to defend their interpretation of the text.

Professors can play devil’s advocate, compelling students to fortify their opinions against the strongest objections—or else correct them.

Yet cold-calling is not without its downsides. Some students don’t think well on their feet. When the professor calls on them, they may freeze and seem unprepared even if they’re not. But this is precisely why professors should coldcall—to help students develop the skill of speaking intelligently on (someone else’s) command.

This is valuable not only in class but also in the professional world. For example, no one sees interview questions beforehand.

Yet interviewers expect us to entertain no matter what they ask, whether that be about a time we experienced failure or something more unexpected like your three most influential books. Cold-calling better equips students to respond to the unexpected, a valuable skill in interviews, day-to-day life, and even first dates.

Another more disquieting downside of cold-calling is that

it can cause the students to fear the professor. There is no easy fix to this problem because its solution takes an excellent professor with the right touch.

She must cold-call constructively, aiming to teach rather than embarrass. She determines the kind of atmosphere cold-calling creates, whether that be one of hostility or collaboration. The former eradicates learning; the latter begets it.

There’s a reason Plato wrote dialogues to teach philosophy: because learning is best accomplished cooperatively. We don’t learn primarily by jotting down every word spat from the professor’s mouth; we have to subject our opinions and hers to rigorous criticism. Such criticism reveals whether we should embrace or forsake such opinions. In “The Republic,” Socrates cold-calls Thrasymachus for his definition of justice.

He soon shows the insufficiency of this definition, leaving us all with a better understanding of justice.

But this wouldn’t have been possible without that first coldcall, which forced Thrasymachus to articulate his opinion— and see what was lacking.

Gill West is a senior studying Philosophy and Mathematics.

Volunteer to give back to the Hillsdale community By | Kaitlin Makuski special to the collegian Stepping into the role of GOAL Program leader, I thought the hardest challenge would be coordinating with the community and meeting all of the logistical needs of my program. But the most difficult part of isn’t anything like that: I’s getting students to step away from clubs, sports, studies, and friends to volunteer for just one hour a week.

I entered the GOAL program with a crafted “sales pitch,” or my plea to come volunteer.

Common responses were, “I have class or work right before that,” “Put me on the email list but I can’t commit to anything yet,” and some who said, “That’s my free time.”

When I followed up with other times students could volunteer with my program or other

similar programs, I received similar responses.

Volunteering is not a priority.

I know that it’s difficult to find balance in life at Hillsdale. It’s hard to juggle classes, work, and a social life, and volunteering seems like it might push you over the edge. But we’re not constantly busy. I remember throughout the week the times when I scrolled through Facebook or Instagram mindlessly, wasting 10 minutes here and there. Well, that time adds up.

Giving back to the town seems like something that would come naturally to Hillsdale students. The classes we take teach us the origins of the freedoms we enjoy and the principles of small republican government, but we often ignore one of the key aspects that makes the republican form of government possible: community.

Community is absolutely

essential, if we truly believe that these principles enable human flourishing. Alexander de Tocqueville praised America because of its ability to form these benevolent communities that took care of those who could not take care of themselves. This is something we have lost.

Today we see government programs taking the place of the community, but though we disagree with the idea of welfare programs, we don’t return to what made less government intervention possible: Communities that help those who can’t help themselves.

At their best, Hillsdale’s GOAL programs provide just that: a bridge to the community, establishing connections and teaching us to rely on each other.

The GOAL programs help kids and adults with special needs, women in domestic violence situations, students struggling in

school and at home, and many others in the Hillsdale community.

As a volunteer, I have seen firsthand how government welfare programs hurt the people they are supposed to help.

Volunteering, however, provides an alternative while reinforcing what we learn in class and enriching our time in college.

Volunteering must be a priority for students. It shouldn’t be difficult to get students to volunteer one hour a week. If we truly believe in the principles of self-government we need to do more than just talk about those principles, we need to act on them. There are 22 different GOAL programs; I’m sure one of them is for you.

Kaitlin Makuski is a senior studying American Studies.

Hillsdale students, you are not martyrs By | Carmel Kookogey culture editor

Hillsdale students of all stripes agree: we didn’t choose the easy road. You go home over break and your friends at state schools complain about difficult classes or tough humanities professors, and the voice in your head — however small — says, “Sure, but not Hillsdale tough.”

When they complain about the weather, you think of negative-30-degree windchill and your driveway that still looks like an outdoor hockey rink in March, and you laugh.

Over Christmas break, my family was having lunch with some new friends. The oldest son, a junior at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, didn’t say anything when I made some off-hand comment about Hillsdale being hard, but I could’ve kicked myself a few moments later when he described the physical standards, the academic rigor, and the rituals and protocols of being a midshipman-in-training. As a first-year, he had to yell his rank, serial number, and request

permission to pass every time he rounded a certain corner.

Classes are tough and physical standards are high, but in addition to all this, sailors are held to exacting standards in their appearance and are routinely hazed by older students. They must carry themselves with prestige and earn the honor of the title of the United States Navy.

But it wasn’t the difficulty of the Naval Academy that struck me: having applied to be a Marine Officer Candidate last year, I knew in a small way what military rigor could look like, and I had learned very quickly that the mental obstacle is easily the biggest one to be conquered in becoming any kind of soldier. I didn’t make it to Officer Candidate School because of hearing loss, but if I had, would I have had the mental toughness to complete the two six-week cycles? I don’t know. But this young man, who was maybe a year older than me, had been doing it for over two years. And there I was, complaining about writing papers.

One of our closest family friends is a West Point graduate

and a Colonel in the United States Army Reserves. When he describes returning to school when he was our age, he talks about “the Gloom”: the feeling of impending doom that hangs over every student on the bus ride from the airport and gets heavier the closer he gets to miserably cold, wet, West Point, New York.

It’s not a question of thriving in classes or becoming best friends with roommates that concerns most of these guys, it’s making good grades even when they’ve been on duty out in the freezing rain all night before the test. It’s getting good marks despite playing some pretty audacious pranks, because there’s not much else to do for fun. (We complain that the closest Target is an hour-long drive away, but wouldn’t it be worse to have limits on when we’re allowed to leave campus at all?)

This is not to diminish the difficulty of Hillsdale. It’s also not to say that harder school is better school. What young men and women are put through at the military academies and training programs performs a specific purpose — to prepare

its students for war — which a liberal arts school isn’t and shouldn’t be trying to perform.

But it serves as a reminder that, though we endure difficulty, we are not unique in our struggle.

There are some students whose lives are easier, but there are some whose are much harder, and it would be laughable to suggest otherwise.

Next time you want to complain about the miserable weather in Michigan, remember that you don’t have to stand outside in it for several hours, drilling or patroling or doing a cadence run. If you’re tempted to whine about how hard it is balancing work and classes, remember that you’re not also required to yell out your name and class status and “request permission to pass, sir!” every time you get to Jitters Coffee in Kendall Hall. Instead of thinking about how “hard” you have it, rejoice in the challenge — or as they say in the Marine Corps, “embrace the suck.”

Carmel Kookogey is a sophomore studying Politics and is a George Washington Fellow.

Opinions

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Tuition-free college could create a massive moral hazard By | Erik Halvorson Columnist As the number of Democrats running in the presidential primary approaches the size of a small football team, their specific policy proposals on every issue become even more critical in determining who gets the Democratic nomination. One such proposal that has gained attention, particularly in the college-aged progressive base, is the idea of tuition-free college and student loan cancellation. While Senator Bernie Sanders, I-VT, has led the way since his 2016 presidential run, Senators Cory Booker, D-N.J., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have been quick to follow suit with their own support of “college for all.”

While obviously appealing to young people who carry tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, such policies would exacerbate the existing student loan bubble and create more problems than solutions.

We must avoid this siren song

at all costs.

A college education, just like a house or a car, is an investment that requires a loan to purchase. Such simple transactions, while expensive, make it possible for the average person to live at a higher standard of living than would otherwise be possible in a world without credit. Student loans should be no different.

Unfortunately, however, the policies of well-meaning politicians have corrupted the economic calculus and led to a pattern of graduates weighed down by mountains of student loan debt and unmarketable degrees. Furthermore, student loans carry a more substantial risk for lenders because a college degree cannot be repossessed like a physical commodity such as a house or car.

Politicians have obfuscated his simple economic fact, however, by the doctrine of fairness popular amongst those on the economic and political Left.

This phenomenon, while unintended, is not complex.

Over the last few decades, Democrats and Republicans alike have expanded fed-

Life lessons in Balboa Park

Music is a universal language By | Sofia Krusmark Collegian Reporter

The most trivial places—like the old gravel road—suddenly become a magical scene celeI made sixteen dollars and brating the commonalities we fifty-two cents this spring share with strangers we will break. And, all I did was sit on never see again. And heck, we a worn-off curb and play my know there’s only a few things ukulele. that bring us together. We all Trolling around Balboa clap, we all sing, we all dance, Park in beautiful Southern we all laugh. These simply California, my friend Taryn joys—they’ll never change. and I skipped along the bold But we choose not to grab Spanish fortresses, and burned onto these rare pearls that our pale shoulders in the sun were made to knit us together we thought had abandoned us in community. in cloudy Michigan.

Instead, we stiffly waddle As we ventured in to the around our comfortable life park, we stumbled onto a bubble and quickly speed gravel road—a ragged gravel through the drive-thru, fruslane lasting longer than even trated with the memories the kind emimprinted ployee that on it.

“Music is an effervescent accidentally Kids were gave us cold screaming pearl, an endless firework french fries. as their We forget the parents ran that gloriously surprises name of the behind them dependable pushing the our lives.” mechanic stroller with that changes yet another our tires year baby. Young after year, couples sat laughing, as an but obsess over the “popular” artist sketched the caricature person who just liked our that would be the first picture recent post on Instagram. hung in their new home. Old “It’s a comfortable life,” we couples carelessly strolled the think. But that’s because we path—probably one that they don’t know otherwise. The had walked several times— pearls seem too trivial, almost and yet they couldn’t help but too unimportant to pick up smile and point at the familamidst our lives that we’ve so iar beauty that refreshed the meticulously tailored to be a ‘good ole days.’ stage featuring the same peoThen we had an idea. ple, the same foods, the same Each action quickly folsongs, the same hour routine. lowed the next as we tossed Everyone had somewhere our people-pleasing mindset to go on that day. But for a to the wind. short moment, there was no We pulled out a ukulele fear in standing around a case. ragged curb in front of two “Who cares if we make singing strangers, no hurry money or not,” we thought. to brashly move on to the “Let’s just try.” ‘next thing,’ and no shame in We sat down in the wet singing the song lyrics that we grass, our legs dangling all separately sang in our cars over the two-inch curb that as we bopped to the crackly rimmed the gravel road. We radio. smiled at each other briefly, I will not forget the 74 minglanced at the hurried crowd utes that we sat on that curb. that passed us, oblivious that Brazilian foreign exchange they would soon become our students laid on the grass audience. And then we began beside us, making us feel like to sing. they were in the front row With a shaky hand, I seats at their favorite concert. strummed the opening chords Two little Asian sisters eagerly and as we continued to sing, grabbed our phone and typed we looked up and suddenly in their favorite K-Pop song.

20 people were singing along Suddenly, there were four of with us about how they “want- us sitting on that curb and ed to dance with somebody.” singing. An aspiring little A little boy planted himself ballerina spun in circles and on the curb and bopped his transformed our curbside head to melodies he’d probastreet show into a magnificent bly never heard. A young man stage to showcase her passion. filmed his wife as she clapped These pearls of life were her hands and and shameless- non-existent until we dusted ly danced to the music. An old off our shorts and sat down on woman stood front row and that curb. center, blowing us kisses—she And the sixteen dollars said she was out of money and and fifty cents? It doesn’t even hoped those would be enough. compare.

Music is an effervescent pearl, an endless firework that Sofia Krusmark is a sophsurprises our lives. Drenched omore studying International in peace, music transcends Studies. the caustic conversations that strip us from real community.

eral student loans to allow more young people to attend university. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 20 million students enrolled in American colleges and universities last fall compared to the little more than 15 million who enrolled in the fall of 2000, an increase disproportionate to the rate of population growth.

This is not the whole story, however. The average graduate now leaves their undergraduate institution with a debt of $37,172, according to Josh Mitchell of the Wall Street Journal, an amount more than twice the average college debt in 2002 according to CNN Money. While some may say this is the necessary tradeoff for a better future, 43 percent of recent college graduates report underemployment (working a job that does not require their college degree) in their first job out of college, and of those, two-thirds report still being underemployed five years after graduation according to a 2018 report by the Burning Glass and Strada Institute.

By extending loans to essentially all applicants, the federal government increased the demand for a college education, in part contributing to continually rising tuition prices. With more students willing and able to pay tuition thanks to taxpayer-funded loans, colleges raise prices.

Rather than evaluating the long-term costs of loan repayment versus future earning potential, students are simply attending college because they have been told that is a necessary step towards professional success. Even worse, once students matriculate they are told to follow their passions and study what interests them rather than what they can use to earn money and repay their loans. Long gone are the days of careful calculation of compound interest payments used to determine whether a college education is the correct path. Education should be about much more than technical training with the sole purpose of earning a large salary, but going tens of thousands of dollars into debt to study an unmarketable dis-

cipline is a luxury most people cannot afford.

The college system is already unsustainable system and the proposals of current Democratic presidential candidates threaten to make it even worse. While the propositions of tuition-free college and loan forgiveness by those such as Sens. Sanders, Booker, Harris, and Warren are extremely popular with young voters, they are disastrous.

Just like the 2008 bank bailouts, student loan cancellation and free college would create an enormous moral hazard problem. Rather than holding students accountable for their decisions and expenditures, these proposals would allow students to waste real resources on questionable degrees.

What is more, the resources used to finance the increase in students loans—whether through federal aid or private companies—are often the savings of average Americans, not the excess profits of massive banking conglomerates. Furthermore, these large debts often leave graduates in a worse position than they

started as they work a job which does not necessitate a college degree.

The real problem is the skyrocketing cost of college, not access to loans. If people demonstrate intelligence and hard work throughout high school, they will be able to get a private loan to pay for undergraduate years. And they will choose to take this loan only if they foresee their degrees paying off their loans.

Refusing to hold students responsible for how they invest others’ money will only lead to lower quality of education and worse graduate outcomes.

Common sense tells us that you play differently with house money than you do with your own. Unfortunately, common sense is something the current Democratic primary field lacks. Perhaps a refresher of their undergraduate economics course would help, and why not? The loans certainly are available.

Erik Halvorson is a senior studying Economics.

Yellow vest protesters wreak havoc in Paris By | Kaylee McGhee opinions editor Paris — The world looked on as yellow vest protesters set their city on fire for the eighteenth straight weekend.

Glass littered the streets of the famous Champs-Élysées as luxury store owners shattered their own windows to replace them, and French law enforcement rushed visitors away as a national bank went up in flames.

Men and women in yellow vests, or “gilets jaunes,” flooded the streets of the French capital to face police, who had prepared for the potentially violent protests beforehand by blocking half of the city’s roads with armed barriers and trucks. They were right to do so: Yellow vest protesters met them with stones and glass; the police responded with tear gas and water cannons. Sixty people, including 17 police officers and one fireman, were injured during the outbreak, and nearly 200 people are being held in custody while they await questioning, according to CNN. What began as a protest against French President Emmanuel Macron’s planned gas tax increase has turned into multiple violent confrontations. Despite Macron’s best efforts, the yellow vests refuse to settle the debate civilly, ignoring his pleas for a public debate and channeling their anger into eruptions on the streets.

“No doubt: they are calling for violence and are here to wreak havoc,” French

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner wrote on Twitter as the protests erupted. “Professionals of damage and disorder, equipped and masked, have infiltrated the protests.

My instruction to the police: Respond very firmly to these unacceptable attacks.”

The civil unrest in Paris is pervasive and unsettling. One French wine shop owner in Montmartre told me he is preparing for “another civil war.” And another café employee told me most Parisian residents are “nervous” about what is to come.

But as the protests wear on and the French government moves forward with the tax hike, the “gilets jaunes” have begun bickering among themselves.

They have no real leader — Macron has attempted to negotiate with the group but their demands are as vague as their leadership.

More than 10,000 yellow vests marched on Saturday, compared to the nearly quarter of a million protesters that turned out for their first ever protest on Nov. 17, according to the French Interior Ministry.

Despite this, the yellow vests show no sign of stopping. Their discontent with Macron’s government is rooted in far more than

just a gas tax: This is a classic political uprising in which an urban, popular movement has arisen to stare down the urban elites.

France’s socialist policies, like universal healthcare and free education, are failing the middle and lower classes. French residents outside the cities stretch their incomes to the end of each month, a Parisian resident whose family lives in the countryside told me.

Macron, however, seems unwilling to face reality: He continues to push a leftist agenda that would drive the nation even further into a sinking deficit.

The French president has the right idea. He’s toured the country to talk to citizens and find real solutions. But what he doesn’t understand is that his ideological-driven agenda puts the French people at a disadvantage, both politically and economically.

Organized protests are all too common in France, as citizens take to the streets more often than the voting booths. But the “giles jaunes” look familiar. The discontent and lack of belonging voiced by the yellow vests is rooted in the same grass roots, populist movement that drove Americans to the polls in the 2016 presidential election and the British during the

“The civil unrest in Paris is pervasive and unsettling.”

recent Brexit vote, in which the English chose to leave the European Union.

Whether he’ll admit it or not, Macron’s “great debate” with the yellow vests has become a great debate on the sustainability of socialist policies. But until Macron changes his agenda to prioritize French prosperity and happiness over carbon efficiency and reduction, people will continue to get hurt.

Alas, Macron could learn a thing or two from his fellow Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville.

“After having thus taken each individual one by one into its powerful hands, and having molded him as it pleases, the sovereign power extends its arms over the entire society; it covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated, minute, and uniform rules, which the most original minds and the most vigorous souls cannot break through to go beyond the crowd,” de Tocqueville wrote in “Democracy in America.”

“It does not break wills, but it softens them, bends them and directs them; it rarely forces action, but it constantly opposes your acting,” he continued. “It does not destroy, it prevents birth; it does not tyrannize, it hinders, it represses, it enervates, it extinguishes, it stupefies, and finally it reduces each nation to being nothing more than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”

Letter: Do not jump to conclusions on Venezuela By | Cal Abbo assistant editor In its Feb. 28 edition, The Collegian published an op-ed titled, “Venezuela: A country at the peak of history,” written by Juan Hernandez.

The essay contains outright falsehoods and many more decontextualized assertions that make clear Hernandez’s anti-Maduro bias and failure to carefully evaluate information.

According to Hernandez, “it’s no secret” that Venezuela represents one of the “last bastions” fraught with “socialist ideas.” Later, he wrote, “The hoax of a socialist paradise has been, at last, unmasked.”

Maybe it’s a secret to him, but Venezuela’s economy functions far from a “socialist paradise.” According to The Heritage Foundation, Venezuela’s “overall tax burden equals 14.9 percent of total domestic income.” The overall tax burden in the United States is 26 percent. Similarly, only 18 percent of Venezuela’s labor force works in the public sector, compared to 14 percent in the U.S., 22 percent in France, and 29 percent in Norway. Venezuela’s economy is mostly private,

with a similar public-private distribution to that of Canada and the United Kingdom.

Hernandez’s most egregious error appeared when he characterized a dispute over trucks belonging to the U.S. Agency for International Aid attempting to cross from Colombia into Venezuela.

“The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela led to a massive response from the international community,” Hernandez wrote.

This is true: The international community, including Russia, China, Cuba, and the International Red Cross, has helped Venezuela at different points during its economic crisis. The U.S., on the other hand, only offered “aid” once it announced in January that it would back Juan Guaido, the leader of the legislature, as the president of Venezuela.

Unsurprisingly, President Nicolas Maduro’s administration denied the aid, citing concerns that the aid was not offered in good faith, but rather only for political reasons. The Red Cross agreed with Maduro, saying they wouldn’t participate in aid with political motives.

Finally, journalists and officials also expressed the possibility that USAID could

contain weapon shipments for Venezuelan opposition gangs, which graduated from violent protests a few years ago to attempted assassinations of the president.

Sounds crazy, right? Think again. USAID was caught in 1987 secretly shipping $27 million worth of weapons to the Contras, even after the group had committed mass atrocities throughout Nicaragua. The shipment was led by then-Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams; Abrams was appointed in January to lead the USAID envoy to Venezuela. Hernandez failed to mention any of this.

Even worse, Hernandez recited a fake report — the most credible version of which can be found on Sen. Marco Rubio’s Twitter feed — about the confrontation between the masked youths escorting USAID trucks from Colombia and Venezuelan border security.

“As the trucks crossed the border, two of them were burned down by the Venezuelan dictatorial armed forces,” Hernandez wrote. It’s hard to pin down the origin of this allegation because it’s false.

Two of the trucks did burn, but had Hernandez cared to check anywhere

besides the U.S. state department, he would have found a video of a masked youth, while escorting the trucks, throw a molotov which landed too far from the border security and too close to the USAID. Within minutes, the trucks became engulfed in flames, and the narrative fell into place: “Genocidal dictator” Maduro strikes again.

In Hernandez’s defense, the New York Times reported this story a few weeks after the fact. But the video was available the day of the incident, and it was even reported the day after by non-mainstream investigative outlets.

Since the USAID fiasco, Rubio has made a few other false allegations via Twitter, including a claim that 80 prenatal babies died in a Venezuelan hospital due to a blackout (the hospital has since confirmed no such thing occurred).

While it’s difficult to know what’s happening in Venezuela because of underreporting, that’s no excuse to avoid due diligence. We should strive to tell the truth rather than devising narratives to fit a certain political agenda.

Cal Abbo is a sophomore studying the liberal arts.

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A6 March 21, 2019

Council discusses future housing development

Because of the harsh weather this winter, more than $320,000 was spent in road maintenance — exceeding the five-year average costs. Collegian | Archives

Winter from A1

In addition to needing to use a lot more salt for freezing rain than for snow, Sanders explained that the street crew also has to scrape the roads in order to make them safe for cars.

“Twenty degrees is the perfect temperature for salt to work, to melt the snow and ice on the road,” Sanders said.

“But after 20 degrees the snow and salt will re-freeze instantly, as soon as you melt it.

There’s only so much salt can do. We try to use a little more salt or a little more sand, so people have a little more grit on the road to be able to travel, so when the salt refreezes, the sand is there to help it.”

But with freezing rain, the salt and sand can get wet and freeze together with the salt, making the problem worse.

Hillsdale County Road Commission Area Supervisor Kevin Sanders explained that when the ice gets thick, the main problem is the gravel roads.

“Usually for ice on gravel roads, we use the teeth grates that we use to scrape the gravel roads with in the summer, because it’s a carbine tip that cuts through the ice. It cuts grooves in ice to where we can get traction,” Kevin Sanders said.

He added that once they scrape what they can off, they sand the most dangerous parts: intersections, hills, and curves.

The thick layer of ice also means more manpower is needed.

“Everybody we can get on a piece of equipment, we put in,” Kevin Sanders said.

“During the winter time we also have seasonal positions that we fill, to have more manpower in general.”

“Freezing rain is a whole different animal for us when it comes to maintaining roads,” John Sanders said.

Hillsdale Daily News reported earlier this month that the Road Commission Board spent over $300K for new road equipment to improve the city’s ability to respond to

this kind of extreme weather.

Coupled with the extra salt expenses, the Hillsdale County Road Commission is looking toward a frugal summer.

“We have to look at where we’re at each year. If we have a heavy winter like we had this year, we spend less during the summer. Our entire budget is based on what happens during the winter time,” John Sanders said.

Hillsdale County Road Commissioner Mike Parney confirmed that the road budget is a contingency fund, but said the county is prepared for the expense.

“It’s going to be more than we had budgeted for, but we should be alright paying for it,” Parney said.

John Sanders said that Hillsdale is not the only county who has paid extra to maintain roads this season.

“We had a conference discussing it with the four counties around us: it’s been a tough year for everybody, mainly because of the freezing rain events,” he said.

Annual Hillsdale Idol ‘Unplugged’ to raise funds for School of the Arts By | Josephine von Dohlen City News Editor Hillsdale Idol “Unplugged” will take place on Thursday, March 21 at 7:30 p.m. at Johnny T’s Bistro.

This third-annual event will raise funds to benefit the Hillsdale County School of the Arts, which provides music opportunities for local children.

The evening will include several performances from local artists who will compete for a monetary prize.

Performers at the event will be Russ Kendrick Martin, Isabelle Parell, Ryan Burns and Catherine Coffey, Johnny Murdock, Andrew Fink, Alexander, Timothy, and Susanna Green, and Frank Steiner and

Sam Knecht.

Fink, who has performed the last two years with a bassist, will perform for the first time in a solo performance.

One of the highlights of the evening, according to Fink, is the chance for entertainment.

“It’s an opportunity to hear life, local music that doesn’t come around all the time,” he said in an email.

As a husband, father of a large family, and attorney, Fink said his performances are rare.

“This event works perfectly because it is short set and doubles as an opportunity to hear other performers,” he said.

Senior Isabelle Parell will also be appearing on the

By | Grace Houghton Collegian Reporter Smooth roads will resurface this summer thanks to a grant from the Michigan Department of Agricultural and Rural Development.

The City of Hillsdale received $100,000 under MDARD’s Rural Development Grant, which the city plans to put toward resurfacing Hallett Street from Reading Avenue to the west city limits and replacing a storm drain on the same stretch, according to Economic Development Coordinator Kelly LoPresto.

Jake Hammel, director of the Department of Public Services, expects the 3,200 foot long resurfacing process to start in late April or early May, and be completed by the Fourth of July.

The Hallett Street project was one of 16 projects that qualified for the grant out of 66 proposals, with requests totaling approximately $5 million, according to a news

statement. The grant is a reimbursement grant, Hammel said, meaning that the project must be completed before the funds are applied.

Under the 2019 Rural Development Grant, the MDARD distributed a total of $1,245,500, which required a total of $1.5 million in matching funds by the various recipients.

Out of the 16 projects that qualified for the grant, roughly half received funds approximating $100,000, of which Hillsdale’s Hallett Street project was one.

The total cost of the Hallett Street resurfacing is $468,000, which will be offset by the $100,000 grant and the 30 percent matching funding that the city was required to make under the terms of the grant, and will begin as soon as weather permits and the asphalt plants open, LoPresto said.

The MDARD Rural Development grant applies to communities of population 60,000

stage Thursday. She said that the event is a great way for the community to enjoy the music talent while supporting the local community ­— both among the audience and the other performers.

“I have loved the relationships that the musicians build backstage,” she said in an email. “Everyone who steps on that stage is an authentic, kind, and inspiring musician.

I think the audience vote is such a great idea. It’s fun to get the audience involved in the experience in that way.”

Doors will open at 7 p.m. and tickets are available in advance at Rough Draft for $10 or at the door for $12. Food and drink will be available for purchase at the event.

By | Josephine von Dohlen City News Editor Hillsdale City Council members are seeking to make a deal with Eric Hoffman, member of Wickettstick Holdings LLC, regarding a potential 22-condominium housing development on Barnard Road in Hillsdale Township.

Wickettstick Holdings LLC, a property holding firm, has proposed a 425 agreement between the City of Hillsdale and Hillsdale Township that would extend water and sewer services to the property, but the estimated cost at $436,000 led council members to postpone a decision at Monday’s meeting until other options could be explored.

At Monday’s city council meeting, Hoffman explained that he understood the council’s concern for the cost of the project.

“After we had done some research in applying for this 425 agreement, I have talked to a few City Council members and it has become clear to me that everybody is in favor of expanding the city, but no one wants to pay for it, which I understand,” he said.

Hoffman said that contrary to many council members who he said don’t think the proposed 22 units are realistic, he believes that the number is very feasible.

“I think that is very realistic,” he said. “If I could do more, I probably would.”

Even if only eight units were built in the first five years of the agreement, Hoffman said the city would make $59,000 in taxes.

“That’s paying back the entire loan without raising anyone’s taxes or BPU rates,” he said.

Without even proposing final prices or revealing floor plans, Hoffman said he has seven to eight parties interested in the condos.

“There is a desperate need in the city for condominiums,” Hoffman said. “There are college professors that want to come into town and have nowhere to live. There are retirees that no longer want to maintain an acre lot and do their leaf pickup now in bags.

There are many different reasons as to why people want to put condos in. They don’t have to take care of those things.”

He is confident, Hoffman said, that 22 units could go in and be filled with residents.

“I’m not scared of whether 22 units are going to go in, but I understand your reservations,” Hoffman said. “I think it is a great opportunity to grow the city. There is no other way to grow the city.”

Councilman Bruce Sharp said his main concern was that the starting price to buy one unit is $275,000.

“With the income in Hillsdale County being based at where it is, I find it hard to find people actually moving in there,” Sharp said.

He noted that previous housing projects have not always been successful.

“Here you want us to run a water, sewer line up there and annex it into the city,” Sharp said. “I hold great reservations on that. I am very concerned.

We need to fix the streets in this town.”

If everything does not go as planned, Sharp said, the people would have to pay the price.

“We take $463,000 — that’s what the estimated cost was to run it out there — and that concerns me because if for some reason if this fails, the people at BPU, the users of BPU not only in Hillsdale but in Osseo and Pittsford, all those people are going to pay the cost because we’re going to have to raise the rates,” he said. “That concerns me.”

Councilman Matt Bell said that while he shares Sharp’s concerns, he hopes to be able to reach a balance between the city and the developers.

“The balance to me would be something where the city has part of the risk and the developer holds part of the risk,” Bell said. “We do want to encourage business, we do want to encourage development, and we do want to encourage people to build.”

The council did not reach a final decision regarding the city’s involvement with the proposed development. They requested that both the city manager and the city attorney look into the idea of taking the money from $59,000 in taxes that the city will receive from the condos to pay Hoffman back for the work that he is putting into extending the water and sewer lines. Hoffman said he is willing to front the money if he can get paid back for it.

Discussion will continue after the city manager and the city attorney are able to research legal options for the city.

at the superintendent’s office did not estimate as to when they would know whether the waiver had been approved.

While awaiting approval on the waiver, Hillsdale Community Schools have already adjusted their learning plans and assigned homework for students to prevent students from falling behind or missing critical information in classes, according to Principal Laurie VanOrman of Gier Elementary School.

“We have had to make some adjustments in terms of lesson planning so we can make sure there is a continuation of services for our students,” VanOrman said.

Perhaps the greatest impact of the cancellations have been on Hillsdale families and their daily routines. Emily Flannery, whose children are enrolled in Hillsdale Community Schools, said the snow days have not exactly been a holiday for her family.

“Snow days do throw off our schedule and I have needed to adjust my plans for

the day,” Flannery stated. “I do not work outside the home so it is easier for our family than for other families.”

Despite the inconveniences to family schedules and the extended school year, most parents seem satisfied with the school district’s handling of the snow days.

“There were no complaints filed in our office,” VanOrman said. “I think our parents understand when our roads are too dangerous.”

Flannery was also complimentary of Hillsdale Community Schools’ handling of the cancellations in terms of informing parents of the cancellations in a timely manner.

“I feel like Hillsdale does a great job of notifying families,” she said. “We always know by 6 a.m. that day through a phone call to each of our phones. It is nicer to know the night before, but it’s not always possible to predict if the weather will actually hit.”

Too many snow days may force schools to lengthen academic year

By | Matt Fisher Collegian Reporter Hillsdale Community Schools are feeling the heat after a series of snow day cancellations this year.

Throughout the course of the winter, Hillsdale Community Schools were forced to cancel eight school days due to numerous snowfalls and the ‘polar vortex’ that swept through the midwest with frigid temperatures.

Now, Hillsdale educators and students may be forced to attend two additional days of school at the end of the year; potentially ending the school year on a Monday rather than a Thursday.

The Hillsdale Community Schools Superintendent’s office said a request for a waiver has been filed with the Michigan Department of Education. If the waiver is granted, the state will overlook the additional two snow days that Hillsdale Community Schools took over the six cancelled day limit. The representative

Hillsdale receives grant money for road projects or less, and aims “to promote the sustainability of landbased industries and support infrastructure that benefits rural communities,” according to a news statement. The grant allows individuals, businesses, and local governments ranging from counties to cities to apply for projects that would train workers, boost regional tourism, encourage business development, and develop infrastructure. The Hallett Street project fell in the infrastructure development category, which also includes projects related to bridges, renewable energy, and wastewater, according to the grant guidelines.

“What these grants demonstrate is the commitment of MDARD and the State of Michigan to help ignite impactful projects and efforts in rural communities,” said MDARD Director Gary McDowell in a news statement. “Through targeted investments and matching funds from businesses, local

municipalities and others, we can provide opportunities for thousands of businesses and employees in every corner of the state.”

Though both LoPresto and Hammel said they wasn’t aware if the City of Hillsdale had applied for this specific grant before, they said the city has tried unsuccessfully to apply for grants to repair a bridge on Hallett Street. While some grants require candidates to prove the measurable economic benefit of a project, other grants are written specifically to address fatalities brought about by failed infrastructure. Since no fatalities have occurred as a result of the Hallett Street bridge, the city hasn’t met the criteria for those grants.

Without additional funds, Hammel said that replacing the bridge is impractical, since the bridge is owned by the Michigan Department of Transportation and not by the City of Hillsdale. The cost of replacing the bridge, Hammel

said, “is probably a million dollars. We can contribute to that, but we can’t float that bill. I can’t justify spending street money on something that’s not ours.”

Hammel, however, couldn’t afford to wait any longer on the the Hallett Street project.

“The road is in just such a horrible state of disrepair, and there’s a school and a medical facility and a nice subdivision down there,” he said.

Hammel anticipates the inconvenience of the construction process, and said that even though the project will overlap with the end of the school year as observed by Will Carleton Academy, “Back to school in the fall is way more stressful for parents and children. I’d prefer to bite the bullet and get it done now.”

The time frame for the project is limited by the availability of the contractor, Concord Excavating and Grading, Inc., which the city contracted to repair State Street in 2016, Hammel said.

“We have a history with them, and they’re a quality contractor,” Hammel said.

“For the same reason, however, I can’t force a schedule on him, he’s a quality contractor, and his books are full.”

For the Hallett Street project and others in the City of Hillsdale, Hammel stressed the need to observe construction signage.

“There’s a detour, for everyone’s sake, including yours,” Hammel said. “We don’t do that to annoy or inconvenience you. There are giant holes that can swallow your car, and driving through the construction area slows down you and the workers. We do that for your benefit, and those workers deserve to go home every night. If you have questions, call my office, listen to the radio, read the daily periodicals.”

City News

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The sixth grade brass class poses with their instruments.

Courtesy| Keith Rushing

Band program expands with grant By | Elizabeth Bianchi Collegian Reporter With two generous new donors offering a matchgrant for all donations made to the Hillsdale Community Schools band instrument fund through the Hillsdale County Community Foundation, more and more awareness of the program has echoed through the local community in the past month.

The band instrument fund was set up with the assistance of Hillsdale Community Schools Superintendent Shawn Vondra, Band Director Keith Rushing, and alumnus Richard Eckert. It exists to aid students in attaining instruments as the band program continues its rapid growth.

Eckert, who graduated from Hillsdale High School in 1962, was active in concert band, marching and pep band, and brass ensemble during his time in school. Because of this past personal involvement, Eckert said he believes that “participating in musical organizations provides positive and worthwhile experiences that last a lifetime.” His experience ultimately led to his suggestion to Rushing of

starting a fund through the Hillsdale County Community Foundation to receive donations for the program.

Rushing, who has worked for the school district since 1999, says that the band program has been “a real blessing” for students, particularly those attending Davis Middle School.

“At this point, twenty instruments have been purchased and are in use. We still need more instruments, as several students are not able to participate each year due to the expense of instruments,” Rushing said.

He also said that high school students helping with younger kids has been very beneficial for the program.

“I have been happy to have Chloe Deck, a senior at HHS, help with the Davis Bands for the last two years,” Rushing said. “The students at Davis have really enjoyed learning from Chloe.”

Deck, who has played in several ensembles at Hillsdale College for the last three years and will be going into the United States Marine Corps next year as a clarinet player, is consistently involved in the program and is evidently

passionate about music and her role in the band.

“The band program is important because it allows kids to express themselves through music. Most students have a lot of emotions and cannot express themselves in a positive manner. Fortunately through music the kids are able to take that emotion and play something beautiful; they can express how they feel,” Deck said. “Band is also important because it teaches students another language. Music is not just notes on a page, it’s how we feel and any musician from here to anywhere in the world, we all speak one common language — music.”

Deck was instrumental in the creation of the band instrument fund for a program that she holds to be not only important, but also unique.

“Our program here at Hillsdale Community Schools is unique because we have students from very diverse backgrounds who come together every single day to make music. Everyone in band is accepting of one another and nobody is left out. We encourage students to join band and we do our best to not turn away students who wish

to join. The band instrument fund through the Hillsdale Community Foundation helps raise funds for instruments.

We use these funds to repair and refurbish instruments so they are playable for prospective and current students,” Deck said.

Samuel Webb, another Hillsdale High School senior and current drum captain for the band also said the program was powerful.

“I think the reason our program has grown in recent years is because of the amount of fun others have in band.

Every year band camp comes around, everyone is really excited, even if it means three hours of marching. It’s a fun class. People hear that you can have fun in school and they’ll join the class.”

Donors will match the grant up to $5,000 with the match-grant offer ending on March 31st. Donate online at abouthccf.org by selecting “Hillsdale Band Instrument Fund” or by check, to be sent to the Hillsdale County Community Foundation, P.O. box 276, with an indication of “Hillsdale Band Instrument Fund” on the memo line.

March 21, 2019 A7

Warming center to close for the season next week By | Sutton Dunwoodie Collegian Reporter After a long winter of keeping the homeless people in Hillsdale warm, Share the Warmth of Hillsdale County will be closing its nights-only warming center for the season on March 31.

The warming center is located in the House of Refuge Church on E. Carleton Road, and has been operating seven days a week since Nov. 1. Giving the homeless in Hillsdale somewhere to go when it gets cold, volunteers have manned the center overnight, often providing a warm meal.

This winter there were 105 nights below freezing and 14 nights below zero degrees Fahrenheit in Hillsdale, Director of the Warming Center Penny Myers said.

Cold nights like these put the homeless at increased risk for hypothermia. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, around seven hundred homeless people die annually in the United States from hypothermia.

“What a great thing you did for the community,” Mayor Adam Stockford said to Myers at Monday’s Hillsdale City Council meeting.

“Considering this winter was the so-called polar vortex, it got so cold you may have literally saved lives this winter,”

Stockford said.

In addition to providing basic shelter and food to the homeless, the warming center has free weekly laundry service for the guests and has donated pairs of boots to those in need. During the holiday season, the center even gave holiday stockings to their guests.

“One gentleman said to our volunteers, ‘This is the first time in years that I’ve felt loved or cared for’,” Myers said.

Freshman Mary Greco volunteered at the warming center during the winter, and said she was impressed by the compassion of the volunteers there.

“The people who I have volunteered with are so gracious, they really try to get to know the people who are staying,” Greco said.

“You want to get to know them and care for them because they are human. We’re all human.”

Myers said the operation would not have been possible without the support of the community, and thanked everyone who got involved, including the city government.

“While these people are homeless, they are not any less citizens of our city,” Myers said. “Great cities are judged, not by the lack of needy people in their community, but by their capacity and compassion to care for them.”

“Considering this winter was the so-called polar vortex, it got so cold you may have literally saved lives this winter,” Stockford said.

“Quartermania” raised $10,000 on Saturday for the Black Bear Project. Facebook | Hillsdale County Heritage Association

‘Quartermania’ helps cover cost of bear statue project By | Nicole Ault Editor-In-Chief A “Quartermania” fundraiser held by the Hillsdale County Heritage Association on Saturday raised enough money for Heather Tritchka, an executive board member on the Hillsdale County Heritage Association, to set a completion date for her years-long project: On June 7, she’ll unveil three bronze bear statues by Baw Beese Lake.

“If we hadn’t made enough money, we would have had to push it back to the fall,” Tritchka said.

The auction fundraiser raised $4,949 — and an anonymous donor contributed an additional $5,000 to reach Heritage Association board chair Connie Sexton’s goal of $10,000, Sexton said. The bears, which Tritchka sculpted, are currently at a foundry and the money will go toward finishing the bronzing.

About 105 people attended the fundraiser at 55 Below on Broad Street, though Sexton said she’d only expected 75 or so. Attendees could buy paddles with quarters that

they then used to bid on 65 items — everything from Fitbits to bedding to jewelry. The event also included a silent basket auction, Sexton said.

The association served Coney dogs, chips, and bear-themed cupcakes (and “cubcakes”).

“It was a packed room with high energy,” Tritchka said.

Sexton and Tritchka said the community came together for it. Several local businesses — 55 Below, Simply Hers magazine, CL Real Estate, Jilly Beans Too, Hillsdale Marketing Group, Hillsdale Jewelers, and Moore Insurance — sponsored the event to cover almost the entire cost of the auctioned goods, Sexton said. Members of the Heritage Association’s youth group, mostly middle schoolers, helped run tables. And Woody Horn, the bartender at Pub and Grub, emceed the event.

“Hillsdale is a great community,” Sexton said. “It was a huge success.”

Ben Baldwin, the owner of 55 Below, said he was happy to host the event and bring people to his renovated space (where he hopes to open a bar

soon).

“It worked out the best for both of us,” he said.

The Black Bear project — featuring a mama bear and two cubs — intends to increase “education of indigenous species for the people of Hillsdale,” according to the Heritage Association website.

The bears will greet passersby on the Baw Beese trail and have memorial benches alongside them. The total cost of the project falls just under $95,000, Sexton said.

Tritchka said the association still needs to raise $2,000-$3000 more to finish paying for the bears, but another fundraiser scheduled for May should take care of that. That fundraiser will be a “chair fair”: People can paint chairs and put them around town for others to buy.

Tritchka said she was impressed by others’ help in bringing the project close to completion.

“I just realized the collaboration it takes to pull this off,” she said.

SPORTS

A8 March 21, 2019

Golf

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Chargers begin outdoor season in Florida Chargers finish third in Kentucky By | Ryan Goff assistant editor

By | Ryan Goff assistant editor Following a week of preparation at Pinehurst Resort, the Hillsdale College Chargers finished third over the weekend at the Saginaw Valley State University Spring Invitational in Georgetown, Kentucky.

Shooting an even-par 576, the Chargers beat out fourthplace Drury University by one stroke and fell behind Grand Valley State University and top finisher Ferris State University by three and nine strokes, respectively.

“The team's quality of play was solid,” head coach Nathan Gilchrist said. “They were consistent and eliminated mistakes. That’s why we had a chance to win.”

At the end of the first day, the Chargers found themselves out of the lead by three with a 285, behind Grand Valley and Drury. On the second day, the Chargers tied Grand Valley with a 291.

But while Drury fell out of the shared lead, Ferris shot a 12-under-par 276, the lowest combined score of the tournament, giving them the tournament win. The round was driven by the low medalist Andrew Hammett’s six-under 66.

“It’s tough to beat that, but we played pretty good,” junior Sutton Dunwoodie said. “Our game plan was to stay in contention and not beat ourselves, and I think we did that.”

Individually, senior Liam Purslowe led the team, finishing tied-sixth overall with a three-under 141. Senior Junior Ryan Zetwick finished one stroke behind and tied for 12th. Further down the lineup, the Chargers performed well, limiting mistakes over the two-round tournament. Both days, the Chargers dropped a 75 from their cumulative score, an enviable score to some teams who finished lower in the event.

Besides Hillsdale’s low scorer and this week’s G-MAC Player of the Week, Purslowe, the other tournament standout to Gilchrist was Dunwoodie, who shot a five-over 149 that earned him tied-51st overall.

“Sutton's on-course passion and demeanor was very MONDAY-TUESDAY, MARCH 25-26

MARCH 16-17

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SVSU SPRING INVITATIONAL (21 TEAMS)

1. Ferris State 2. Grand Valley State 3. Hillsdale 4. Drury t5. T revecca N azarene t5. B ellarmine t5. F indlay

refreshing for the team and provided a calming effect for his teammates,” Gilchrist said.

“He is extremely animated while playing.”

Dunwoodie said his oncourse demeanor is really his effort to stay comfortable.

“I just like to go have fun,” Dunwoodie said. “It was nice to out there hitting golf shots.

When I’m out there playing, I’m just trying to be myself.

It’s the best way to avoid getting nervous.”

And he attributed his comfort to a favorable course set-up.

“In general, it was pretty short and not too difficult,” he said.

Before the tournament began, freshman Josh Davenport cracked his driver in a practice round. With no time to replace it, Davenport had no choice but to use coach Gilchrist’s, according to Dunwoodie. It didn’t matter much, as Davenport shot two over in the tournament, with a one-under 71 on Saturday.

Earlier in the week week, the Chargers traveled to North Carolina to prepare for the spring season at Pinehurst Resort.

Home to the famous no.

2 course, which will host the 2019 U.S. Ameteur Championsip in August and recently hosted the U.S. Open Championship in 2014, Pinehurst Resort offers nine courses of challenging fairways and greens that helped the whole team get practice playing outdoors and putting on a real surface.

“The Pinehurst trip was great for the players to get outside and knock off the rust,” Gilchrist said.

The week kicked off the heart of the season for the Chargers, who will play at next week’s Findlay Invitational at the University of Kentucky Golf Club in Lexington, on Monday and Tuesday. | lexington, ky

University of Findlay Invitational SEMIFINAL, from a10 streak from Jan. 31 to Feb. 28, when they defeated eight consecutive conference opponents. The Chargers allowed more than 70 points only twice during the streak, and held opponents to less than 60 points three times.

The Chargers will graduate three senior starters: forward Makenna Ott, guard Allie Dewire, and Gray. All three reached 1,000 career points over the course season — Ott on Nov. 19, Dewire on Jan. 10, and Gray on Feb. 21.

Moving forward, Hillsdale will certainly miss the impact Ott, Dewire, and Gray brought to the floor this season and in the last four years. All three finished in the top 10 in the G-MAC in scoring during the regular season, and were the only trio of teammates in the conference to average at least 12 points per game. Gray led the Chargers in total points scored with more than 400, Dewire in points per game at 14.3, and Ott in shooting percentage at 45 percent.

“We had some seniors that didn’t want their year to be over,” Fritsche said. “We had some younger kids that continued to improve as the year went on. We had a team that really liked each other and had fun being together.”

Freshman guards Grace Touchette and Daffenberg

were the Chargers’ two best players off the bench this season. Both appeared in all 30 games, and Touchette stepped up as the starting point guard early in the season while Dewire recovered from a concussion.

Daffenberg was the team’s fourth-best scorer overall despite not starting a single game. She averaged nearly 17 minutes on the floor per game and scored 9.7 points per game. She scored a season-high 23 points twice, in a loss to Ferris State University on Nov. 19, and a win against Ursuline College on Dec. 18.

She reached double digits in scoring 15 times.

After Gray, Daffenberg was the team’s best threepoint shooting threat, sinking 52 shots from beyond the arc. Daffenberg was also the team’s best overall free throw shooter, shooting 87.5 percent from the stripe during the season. She missed just six free throws all year.

Touchette was the team’s fifth-best scorer, averaging 7.4 points per game while being on the floor for 19 minutes per game. She scored a season-high 20 points in a win against Tiffin University on Dec. 1, and scored in double digits nine times.

Looking ahead to next season, Fritsche said he and the coaching staff want to implement a better strategy for beginning the season strong. A strong showing against non-conference regional teams in November

Over spring break, the Hillsdale College Chargers travelled south to Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, Florida, for three matches against south Florida schools, including the no. 2 ranked Lynn University Knights.

The Chargers dropped their matches against Lynn and Palm Beach Atlantic University, but defeated Broward College in a shortened match. In their Monday match against Lynn, Hillsdale lost 4-0 in a dominant performance by the Knights. On Wednesday, they beat Broward in an exhibition match 5-4 and lost to Palm Beach Atlantic 4-1.

A challenging lineup of matches paired with the team’s first time playing outside this year served as a training week, intended mostly to build experience before conference play.

“When we start travelling

MONDAY, MARCH 11

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0 Hillsdale 4 Broward

Hillsdale 2 L ynn

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St. Mary's (in) (7-4) vs. Hillsdale (6-2) South for G-MAC, a lot times it’s nice enough to play outside but we haven’t even practiced out there,” coach Nikki Walbright said. “Spring break is really important because the game’s a lot different outside.”

Lynn and Palm Beach Atlantic gave Hillsdale tough competition, which Walbright said gave the team a clear vision of what to work on, especially in the closer Palm Beach Atlantic match.

“I feel like it was winnable, but we just weren’t quite ready to win a match like that because they’re definitely a

SCORE

5 Hillsdale 1 4 Palm Beach Atlantic 4

5:30 P.M.

Davis & Elkins (2-8, 0-0) vs. Hillsdale (6-2, 0-0) SATURDAY, MARCH 23

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2:00 P.M.

high-level team,” she said.

“But it gave us something to work on for the rest of the semester. Seeing a team like that reminded us of how hard we need to work for the rest of the semester.”

Even still, Walbright said she could see positives from the Wednesday match.

“Especially playing at no.

1 singles, Cimpeanu played outstanding that day. Just flawless,” she said. “Katie and Halle had great matches, too, but they just weren’t able to finish which was unfortunate.”

The experience of the week

helped prepare the Chargers for tough situations that are crucial points in a match, Walbright said.

“Most of the mental training that you do comes when you actually play other schools and it’s me talking to them on the court,” she said.

The trip didn’t dampen Walbright’s outlook on the conference season that begins this week with Davis & Elkins.

“I feel like we’re at a really good spot. Although we had losses on spring break, we had a really strong February,” she said. “We’ve got more confidence going into conference play this season. Just knowing our team and what we can accomplish, and that we’re super deep makes us feel really strong heading into conference.”

Shotgun to compete at ACUI nationals By | Austin Gergens collegian reporter The Hillsdale College shotgun team spent spring break preparing for the upcoming ACUI competition next week in San Antonio, Texas. The Chargers have the opportunity to win their sixth consecutive Division III Championship.

Hillsdale hosted the Charger Spring Invitational on

ELLINGSON, from a1 “It wasn’t just something to feed her ego, she intrinsically embraced the idea and that’s what her teammates need to do. They need that commitment level,” Kirner said. “You like to have athletes finish at the top and that’s what she did.”

Ellingson said she is grateful for the amount of freedom Kirner gives the team during practices, allowing them take on more self-responsibility and self-awareness. Since he only sees what happens on the surface, the team has to tell to Kirner if they feel something is off, and Ellingson said this strong emphasis on communication helped her the most.

“He wants dialogue and December could have put the Chargers in position to qualify for the NCAA Division II national tournament regardless of their performance in the G-MAC tournament, but Hillsdale was just 1-4 when its conference schedule began.

“If we played two-thirds of the year like we played our last 12 games, we would have been in the regional rankings,” Fritsche said. “We were as good as a couple of those teams that made it in, but our work in the beginning didn’t justify a regional ranking.”

Fritsche and the team were sold on the mindset of “peaking at the end” all season long. The Chargers played their best basketball of the year in February and March, but they didn’t get the opportunity to reach the top of that peak in the national tournament in part because of their slow start to the season.

Reflecting on the “peak at the end” mindset, Fritsche suggested it would be better to think of “climbing to a peak from a plateau” next season instead of “climbing to a peak from a valley.” All signs point to Fritsche and the Chargers emphasizing the quality of their performance early in the season more in 2019-2020.

“We have to figure out a way to be better earlier and be sharper at the beginning of the year than we were and get the kids more ready for

March 16, competing against Grace College. Sophomore Barrett Moore shot 193 clays of 200; the highest score overall. Junior Lucas Pieraccini and sophomore Kylar Kuzio tied, trailing Moore’s score by only one clay.

The previous weekend was a similar experience for the team as they competed at the Lindenwood Invitational in St. Louis, Missouri. After a grueling nine-hour bus ride, between the coaches and swimmers,” Ellingson said.

“He’s really good about trying to give back feedback and he won’t hover over you if you need to do work. The strong communication has helped me the most.”

As advice for her teammates and swimmers in general, Ellingson said appreciating something in the sport everyday helps with remembering why they’re swimming. It’s a love-hate sport, so it’s a process to learn how to have fun with it, and Ellingson thanks her teammates’ support and positivity for reminding her why she swam.

“I came into loving it, hit a big mental wall, and I had to learn again how to love it,” Ellingson said. “Find something you love about it everyday and use that as your reason.”

the season than we have the last two years,” Fritsche said.

In his first two seasons as head coach at Hillsdale, Fritsche has compiled a 3624 record. In the months of November and December, his teams are 13-11, while in January, February, and March, his team has gone 2313 the last two seasons.

While the Chargers are losing more than half of their total offensive production from their three departing senior starters, their incoming freshman class will feature six new faces. Fritsche said he expects to take a “committee” approach in determining how to replace Ott, Dewire, and Gray’s production in the starting lineup next season.

As the door closes on the 2018-2019 season, it tells the tale of two halves: a slow start spurred on by a perfect February and a two-point difference between an early exit from the conference tournament and an opportunity to raise the banner that reads ‘G-MAC tournament champions’ for a second consecutive year. The Chargers fell on the wrong side of the two points.

“As a coach, you obviously want to win all the time, but you want your kids to have a good experience,” Fritsche said. “The first half of the season was a mediocre experience, but the second half was a terrific experience.”

the team shot in some of the worst conditions of the season.

Moore and senior Amanda Klug said they couldn’t decide if it was worse to shoot with lightning delays on Saturday or be buffeted by 30-40 mph winds at night.

“We shot skeet on Saturday in two to six inches of water and we had several 20-minute lighting delays,” freshman Anthony LaMacchia said.

TOURNAMENT, from a10 the Chargers had two close losses against NCAA Division I opponents in exhibition games. They then went 3-3 before beginning conference play.

The Chargers were strong through the month of December, as they won four of five games before winter break.

As January rolled around, the Chargers began what would become an eight-game winning streak that lasted from Jan. 5 through Feb. 2, which led them to a 16-5 overall record and a tie for the no. 1 spot in the G-MAC. The streak included a historic win against Findlay, which senior guard Harrison Niego called that game his favorite memory of the year.

“Just in the manner we did it — in the midst of win streak, different guys step up in key roles — and we did something Hillsdale hadn’t done in a while, so we got to make history,” Niego said.

In the final four minutes of that game, Hillsdale led by only two points, but the Chargers didn’t settle for a small margin of victory.

They went on a 17-8 run to close the game on top, 93-82.

The Chargers achieved much of their success this season amidst many trials.

They started the season without the impact of Yarian and Czarnowski was coming back from an injury.

Not long after Czarnowski was nearing full strength and Yarian returned, Neveau found himself on the bench with an injury of his own. He sat out beginning Dec. 1, but he was back in time to help his team defeat Ohio Dominican University on Jan. 12.

“We faced some adversity this year. From injuries and other things that occurred, the majority of the season our guys fought hard,” Tharp said. “The thing I’m most proud of was that it was truly a team effort for the majority of the year. We had a bunch of guys that stepped up and made plays.”

Tharp said his team was at its best when its number of assists was high and its defensive game was strong;

The team visited the Island Lake Shooting Range in Metro Detroit to receive coaching from Pat Lieske. Lieske was a National Sporting Clays Association champion in 2014 and is the father of former shotgun team member Drew Lieske, who graduated from Hillsdale in 2018.

“He’s really good at fine-tuning the little things,” LaMacchia said. a testament to the team’s depth. On average, three different players would score in double digits.

In the Chargers’ biggest victories of the year, their stats proved Tharp’s theory. During the 79-48 victory against Ohio Valley University on Feb. 21, the Chargers had 20 assists, five steals, and nine blocks.

Against Trevecca Nazarene University on Feb. 28, they tallied 21 assists, seven steals, and four blocks. They also scored 27 points off turnovers, and the bench contributed 36 points to the 78-52 victory.

Hillsdale graduates eight seniors this year, four of who were team captains.

“Those eight seniors took care of so many different little problems,” Tharp said.

“They’re leaders, they solved things. I couldn’t have asked for better guys. They represented us so well, those are big shoes to fill for our young guys.”

Larson said he’s looking forward to filling those shoes.

“I feel with the change of scenery with the change of faces and the new leadership role will keep me motivated,” Larson said. “There’s always something to get better at and strive for.”

The Chargers had three freshman who redshirted this season and three more freshman entering the program next year.

“It’s obviously Larson and Lowry, and Yarian and [sophomore guard] Connor Hill who gave us some good minutes,” Tharp said. “We’re going to have some young guys we haven’t seen yet that will have an opportunity to be good as well.”

Next season the Chargers will look to carry on the team’s strength and depth, as it proved to be a key asset for the 2018-19 team.

“It was awesome, I had a lot of fun. It was a very unique team to be on. A bunch of different guys contributed throughout the year,” Niego said. “It makes it a lot of fun because everyone’s so engaged and invested in how the team does. I tried to enjoy every moment of it. Obviously you wish you could’ve gone farther, but I’ll remember the bus rides and moments in the locker room most.”

Sports

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Softball

March 21, 2019 A9

Chargers struggle during non-conference trip By | Julia Mullins assistant editor

| clearmont, fl

FRIDAY, MARCH 8

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Hillsdale Pitt.-Johnstown THURSDAY, MARCH 14

TUESDAY, MARCH 12

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2 Hillsdale 0 Florida Southern

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Hillsdale Holy Family

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THURSDAY, MARCH 14

TUESDAY, MARCH 12

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6 Ferris State 1 Hillsdale

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| hillsdale, mi 1:00 / 3:30 P.M. Ohio Valley (0-4, 0-4) vs. Hillsdale (6-13, 0-0)

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SUNDAY, MARCH 24

Anna Dixon connects for a hit on March 14 against Ferris State. carly gouge | courtesy

the deficit. Catron flied out to left field to end the game.

March 9: Drury 4, Hillsdale 3 (8 innings) In their second loss of the day, the Chargers fell to the Drury University Panthers in extra innings. The Panthers scored early, picking up two runs in the bottom of the second inning. Sophomore infielder Emma Johnson singled in the top of the fifth inning to score Walters. Later in the fifth inning, Johnson scored on an error by Drury’s second baseman. With a tie game at the end of seven innings, the international tiebreaker rule was put into effect at the start of the eighth inning. Kish, who was the third out in the seventh inning, was placed on second base at the start of the inning. Kish advanced to third with a ground out from San Juan and Taylor walked. Stoner singled and Kish scored an unearned run, giving the Chargers the lead. The Panthers answered with a double to score the runner placed on second followed by a single to score the winning run. Both of the Panthers’ runs in the bottom of the eighth inning were unearned.

March 10: California University of Pennsylvania 5, Hillsdale 0 With just three hits in the game, the Chargers fell to the California University of Pennsylvania Vulcans during their first game on Sunday.

The Vulcans took an early lead, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning and one run in the top of the second inning. During the bottom of the third inning, freshman outfielder Anna Dixon singled, picking up the Chargers’ first hit of the day. In the top of the fourth inning, the Vulcans went on to score another run. Freshman infielder Lauren Renner and Walters had back-to-back singles in the bottom of the fifth inning, but the Chargers couldn’t manufacture a run. Walters started on the mound for the Chargers, facing 17 batters in three innings, allowing five hits and four runs. Sayles came in to pitch at the top of the fourth inning. She faced seven batters, allowed three hits and one run. Weidinger pitched the final three innings of the game, allowing just one hit and no runs.

March 10: Hillsdale 2, Pittsburgh-Johnstown 0 The Chargers picked up their first win of the week against The University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown Mountain Cats. Weidinger dominated on the mound, pitching a complete game

| lakeland, fl

game 2

SATURDAY, MARCH 16

and allowing four hits and no runs against 26 batters. The Chargers picked up eight hits in their second game of the day and came up big in the top of the seventh inning to win the game. Renner led off the top of the seventh inning with a double, and junior outfielder Carlin MacDonald-Gannon came in to pinch run for Renner. Taylor pinch hit for freshman infielder Elaine Townely and hit a single. Marra singled, and MacDonald-Gannon scored the Chargers’ first run of the day. Later in the inning, Cox scored on a passed ball.

March 12: Hillsdale 6, Florida Southern 2 Freshman pitcher Camryn Olson got the start on the mound for the Chargers and pitched 4.2 innings. Olson gave up three hits and two runs. The Florida Southern College Mocs scored one run in the bottom of the first inning and the bottom of the fifth inning. The Chargers earned eight hits on the day and earned their first two runs of the game in the top of the third inning with a single by Marra that scored Stepanenko and Johnson. During the sixth inning, Cox scored on a throwing error, and MacDonald-Gannon scored on a sacrifice fly from Townley. The Chargers earned two more runs in the seventh inning after Stoner singled to the left side, scoring Kish and freshman utility Renee Bielawa.

Walters came in to pitch for relief during the bottom of the fifth inning, allowing just two hits to earn the win.

March 12: Florida Southern 5, Hillsdale 2 Despite picking up 13 hits in their second game against Florida Southern, the Chargers fell because of four fielding errors that allowed the Mocs to score five unearned runs.

“It seemed like the ball just didn’t go our way a lot, between poorly timed errors and a good amount of walks,” Stepanenko said. “The defense and pitching could have been better about making up for each other’s struggles, but I know that’ll come as the season progresses.”

Weidinger pitched the first three innings of the game and gave up six hits and three unearned runs. Walters pitched the final three innings and gave up just one hit but allowed one unearned run in the bottom of the fourth inning and another unearned run in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Chargers scored their only two runs in the top of the fourth inning. Kish

SUNDAY, MARCH 10

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3 California (pa) 2 Hillsdale

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13 | clearmont, fl FINAL

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2 Minnesota Duluth 5 Hillsdale

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singled to left field to score Dixon, and Marra singled down the right field line to score Johnson.

March 13: Minnesota-Duluth 4, Hillsdale 1 Sayles got the start in the circle for the Chargers but gave up three hits and three runs within the first seven batters of the game. Walters pitched the remaining 6.2 innings and gave up five hits and one run. The Chargers’ lone run came from a single to center field by Kish to score Stoner. Both teams had eight hits. Despite four fielding errors committed by the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, the Chargers only produced one run.

March 13: Lock Haven 4, Hillsdale 3 (8 innings) In another game that went into extra innings, the Chargers fell to the Lock Haven University Bald Eagles. Olson got the start in the circle for the Chargers. She faced 30 batters in 7.1 innings, giving up ten hits and four runs. The Bald Eagles got on the board early, scoring one run in the bottom of the first inning and again in the bottom of the fourth inning. Hillsdale waited to respond until the top of the seventh. Taylor singled to left field to score MacDonald-Gannon, and Johnson doubled to right field to score Townley. With a tie game at the end of seven innings, the international tiebreaker rule was put into effect. Wojcik, who was the third out in the seventh inning, was placed on second base at the start of the inning. Gensiejewski popped up to the second baseman for the first out of the inning.

Marra popped up to the right fielder for a fast two outs, but Wojcik advanced to third base. Rathbun reached first on an error by Lock Haven’s center-fielder and Wojcik scored an unearned run. Addis reached first on an error by the third baseman, and Rathbun advanced to second base.

Dixon struck out swinging for the third out. The Bald Eagles scored two runs on a single to win the game.

March 14: Hillsdale 6, Holy Family 1 The Chargers’ powerful offense drove them to a win over the Holy Family University Tigers. Recording ten hits, the Chargers scored early to take the lead in the top of the first inning, as Catron singled to right center to score Kish and Marra. During the top of the second inning, Marra singled to the left side to score

senior outfielder Carly Gouge, and Johnson singled to center field scoring Stepanenko.

Johnson singled again in the top of the fourth inning to score Kish. Later in the fourth, Stoner flied out to right field for a sacrifice fly scoring Marra. The Tigers scored their lone run in the bottom of the fourth inning with a single to right field. Weidinger faced 23 batters in six innings. She allowed just two hits and one run. Sayles pitched the seventh inning and faced just three batters.

March 14: Ferris State 6, Hillsdale 4 Despite 12 hits, two of which were home runs, the Chargers suffered a loss in their game against the Ferris State University Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs scored two runs in the top of the first with a two-run home run from Lexi Hongisto. Walters responded for the Chargers in the bottom of the second inning with a solo home run to left field, but the Bulldogs answered back in the top of the third with another home run. During the top of the fourth inning, the Bulldogs scored two more runs. Hongisto hit another solo home run to left field in the top of the fifth inning.

Dixon singled to right field to score Stepanenko in the bottom of the fifth inning, giving the Chargers a second run. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Catron hit a solo run to center field. Walters flied out for a sacrifice fly to score Wojcik in the bottom of the seventh inning.

March 16: #15 Wayne State 4, Hillsdale 3 (8 innings) In their third game of the trip that went into extra innings, the Chargers fell to the Wayne State University Warriors. In the bottom of the second inning, Stoner doubled down the left field line to score Taylor for their first run of the game. The Warriors answered back, scoring two runs in the top of the third inning. Catron homered to left field in the bottom of the fourth inning to tie the game.

Marra singled to left in the bottom of the fifth inning to score Kish, giving the Chargers the lead. The Warriors scored again in the top of the seventh to tie the game.

The international tiebreaker rule was put into effect at the start of the eighth inning. The Warriors scored one run in the top of the eighth inning to take the lead. Marra, who was the third out in the seventh

4 Hillsdale 3 Indiana (pa)

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13 | clearmont, fl

4 Hillsdale 1 Lock Haven

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6 15 Wayne State (mi) 4 Hillsdale

| hillsdale, mi 1:00 / 3:30 P.M. Ohio Dominican (11-13, 2-0) vs. Hillsdale (6-13, 0-0) SATURDAY, MARCH 23

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3 Concord 4 Hillsdale

6 Hillsdale 2 Florida Southern

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FINAL/8

4 Hillsdale 1 Hillsdale 0 8 Grand Valley State 2 Drury

Ashland Hillsdale SUNDAY, MARCH 10

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The Hillsdale College Chargers went 4-10 during their spring break trip to Clermont, Florida.

“Our record doesn't reflect how well we played,” head coach Kyle Gross said. “The wins were just kind of elusive.

We lost several games by one run and had three extra-inning games, so we just have to work a little harder to win those games.”

During the trip, sophomore outfielder Natalie Stepanenko went 11 for 22 and junior infielder Sam Catron hit two home runs.

Stepanenko said the team chemistry is very strong right now.

“I’ve never been on a team so charged during games and willing to fight for each other,” Stepanenko said. “I was so impressed with how we responded to the adversity of some tough losses at the beginning of the week.”

Freshman outfielder Reagan Gensiejewski said the pitchers looked great all week, and the team will be working on improving their offense in two-out situations leading up to conference games.

“The team is having great quality at bats,” Gensiejewski said. “We are excited to string hits together and produce more runs.”

March 8: Ashland 4, Hillsdale 0 Junior pitcher Dana Weidinger faced 34 batters in seven innings, giving up eight hits and four unearned runs.

The Ashland Eagles’ offense put pressure on the Chargers, scoring three runs in the top of the fourth inning and one run in the top of the seventh, all of which were unearned.

“For the unearned runs, there is always room for improvement and we will be working to make our defense stronger throughout the season,” Gensiejewski said.

The Chargers picked up just two hits. Senior infielder Jessica Taylor hit a double down the left field line in the bottom of the third inning, and sophomore catcher Madison Stoner singled to right center in the bottom of the fourth inning.

March 8: #8 Grand Valley State 2, Hillsdale 1 With just two hits in their second game of the day, the Chargers fell short against the No. 11 Grand Valley State University Lakers. The Lakers took an early lead, scoring one run in the bottom of the first inning. During the top of the third inning, senior outfielder Katie Kish singled to left field, and Catron singled to right field, scoring sophomore outfielder Sarah Wojcik for the team’s lone run on the day.

Junior catcher Syd San Juan singled to left field in the top of the fifth, but the Chargers couldn’t outscore the Lakers.

Grand Valley scored one run in the bottom of the seventh inning to win the game. Sophomore Natalie Walters pitched 6.1 innings for the Chargers, giving up just five hits and two runs.

March 9: Concord 3, Hillsdale 2 Freshman pitcher Julia Sayles got the start on the mound facing 15 batters, giving up two hits, and no runs.

With bases loaded and no outs in the top of the fifth inning, Walters replaced Sayles on the mound, but walked in the first run of the game for the Concord University Mountain Lions. Nine pitches later, Concord scored another run on a wild pitch. Concord went on to score an unearned run in the top of the seventh inning. Entering the bottom of the seventh, the Chargers were down by three runs. Stepanenko pinch hit for junior outfielder Victoria Addis and singled to start the inning.

Stepanenko stole second base, but freshman infielder Morgan Cox flied out to left field for the first out of the inning.

Kish singled, and Stepanenko advanced to third base. Senior infielder Amanda Marra singled to score Stepanenko giving the Chargers their first run of the day. Taylor hit a sacrifice fly to center field scoring Kish and narrowing

FRIDAY, MARCH 8

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inning, was placed on second base at the start of the inning for the Chargers. The Chargers went through three outs in their first three batters and couldn’t score Marra. Dixon flied out to left field for the first out. Johnson flied out to right center for the second out. Catron grounded out to the first baseman to end the game. Weidinger pitched the entire game. She faced 37 batters, allowed 12 hits, and four runs.

March 16: Hillsdale 4, Indiana University of Pennsylvania 3 The Chargers concluded their spring break trip with a win over the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Hawks.

Johnson gave the Chargers an early lead with a single to score Marra in the top of the first inning. The Hawks answered back scoring one run in the bottom of the second inning and then another run in the bottom of the third inning. During the top of the fourth inning, Gensiejewski singled to score Catron, and Kish tripled to score Gensiejewski and Taylor. The Hawks scored just one run in the bottom of the sixth inning, allowing the Chargers to keep their lead. Olson got the start on the mound for the Chargers. In two innings, she faced 10 batters, gave up four hits and one run. Sayles came in to pitch one inning, allowing four hits and one run. Walters came in for relief. In four innings, she faced 17 batters, allowed one hit and one run.

Up Next The Chargers will begin conference play at home on Saturday with a doubleheader against Ohio Dominican University at 1 and 3:30 p.m.

On Sunday, the Chargers will face Ohio Valley University at home in a doubleheader at 1 and 3:30 p.m.

Gross said Ohio Dominican is one of the best teams in the conference.

“Their record also doesn’t reflect how good of a team they are,” Gross said. “They played some tough competition just as we have. It’s the first series of year, and it's going to be a fun one. I'm glad we're at home for it.”

Stepanenko said the team is hoping to bring the energy they gained in Florida back to home.

“I can’t wait to bring the cheers and the rally caps to Hillsdale and show our opponents how much fight we have,” Stepanenko said.

Gross added that the team has learned a lot over spring break.

“We’ve worked hard,” Gross said. “We're ready to play conference now.”

Madison Rathbun swings during a game against Ferris State on March 14. carly gouge | courtesy

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Double trouble: Season ends in narrow the Hackman twins G-MAC semifinal loss Women's Basketball

By | S. Nathaniel Grime sports editor

The Hillsdale College Chargers’ season came to an end on Friday, March 8 in a 72-70 loss to Walsh University in the semifinal round of the G-MAC tournament.

Walsh won the tournament, defeating Kentucky Wesleyan College the next day in the championship game.

Although the Chargers led at the ends of the first three quarters, the Cavaliers outscored Hillsdale 22-15 in the final quarter, and led by as many as seven points with just 37 seconds remaining in the game.

Senior forward Brittany Gray and freshman guard Lauren Daffenberg hit three-pointers on consecutive ensuing possessions however, bringing the Chargers within two, at 72-70. After Walsh botched an opportunity to put the game away at the free throw line with two missed free throws, Hillsdale had

G-MAC TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL FRIDAY, MARCH 8 | north canton, oh

Hillsdale Chargers Walsh Cavaliers one last opportunity to tie the game or take the lead with three seconds left, but couldn’t get a shot to fall.

“Our motion had been so good that we were just going to trust our players there,” head coach Matt Fritsche said.

“I thought our kids just played their butts off and thought they executed their scouting report perfectly and thought their effort and focus was offthe-charts good.”

Gray led the Chargers with 24 points and made six of 12 three-point shots. She finishes the season with 89 three-pointers on the year, a single-season school record.

The Chargers finish the season 17-13 and 14-8 against G-MAC opponents. Walsh defeated Hillsdale during the regular season, 83-56, the

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Chargers’ largest margin of loss all year.

After beginning the year 0-4 and staggering through the first half of the conference schedule with a 6-7 G-MAC record, the Chargers finished the season by winning nine of their final 11 games, including a victory against the University of Findlay in the quarterfinal round of the G-MAC tournament on March 5.

“The season didn’t start off how we wanted, but toward the end we played the best we could and gave it our all,” Gray said. “In that sense, I’m happy about what we accomplished this season.”

Hillsdale enjoyed a season-high eight-game winning

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Men's Basketball

Chargers finish 19-10 after tournament loss By | Calli Townsend assistant editor The Hillsdale College Chargers’ season ended with a 65-59 loss to the Walsh University Cavaliers in the G-MAC tournament semifinal on March 8. They finish with a 19-10 record overall, and went 14-6 against conference opponents.

The Chargers tied the game at 50 with six minutes to go, but they failed to top the Cavaliers who went on a 15-9 run to end the game. They only shot 37 percent from the floor which is only five percent better than their season worst, but they did tie a season-best in turnovers with just four.

Junior guard Dylan Lowry led the team in scoring with 17 points. Sophomore forward Davis Larson led with four assists and two steals.

Sophomore forward Austen Yarian and senior center Nick Czarnowski added 10 and 12 points, respectively.

G-MAC TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL FRIDAY, MARCH 8 | findlay, oh

Hillsdale Chargers Walsh Cavaliers Hillsdale finished third in the regular-season conference standings, behind no. 1 Findlay University and no. 2 Walsh, who played each other in the G-MAC tournament championship and both advanced to the NCAA Division II national tournament.

Larson earned a spot on the G-MAC All-Conference first team. Larson finished the season averaging 12.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.

He was named G-MAC Men’s Basketball Player of the Week on Jan. 21 after scoring 24 points and seven rebounds to beat Findlay on Jan. 19.

“It’s always pretty cool to get recognized for that, but you look at the team success and you wish you could get a team award like a conference

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championship or make it to the NCAA tournament,” Larson said. “It makes me want more, like, ‘What can I get better at?’”

Lowry was named G-MAC second team All-Conference.

Lowry stepped into a large scoring role this year, averaging 13.1 points a game.

“It was the first time those guys started this year,” head coach John Tharp said. “Dylan had to shoulder a ton of responsibility with Nate Neveau being hurt. He had to score the basketball, and so did Davis. I’m proud of those guys and their growth this year.”

The 2018-19 season looked promising from the start, as

By | Rachel Kookogey collegian freelancer

For over a decade, freshmen twins Brian and Sarah Hackman have played together on the tennis court.

This year, they get to continue playing in Hillsdale College Chargers uniforms.

The two attended Wauconda High School in Island Lake, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago. Both were named Most Valuable Player of their tennis teams, and both played No. 1 singles at Wauconda. Brian was team captain of the men’s team, and Sarah was team captain of the women’s team.

“We played other sports, but tennis was different because it was something we could do together,” Sarah said.

She and Brian have played tennis together since they were seven years old. The twins bounce energy off each other and look out for each other through middle school, high school, and now college. ”We were always pretty close,” Brian said, “so we thought it would be a good thing to go to the same school.

There’s a comfort of having family at college. We weren’t going to force it, but it worked out pretty well.”

As the two grew up, they were always in the same practice and were “competitive from the beginning,” according to their mother, Leslie Hackman.

“They were competitive even when they were little,” Leslie said. “It was always about who could rally more balls on the court, or who was taller.”

Brian in particular always wanted to compete against Sarah. Jeff Hackman, the twins’ father, said that Brian is “all boy” and “outwardly competitive,” while Sarah is “quietly competitive” and “stoic.”

As children, the twins were what Sarah described as

see TOURNAMENT, A8

Freshman Brian Hackman s. nathaniel grime | collegian

Freshman Sarah Hackman ryan goff | collegian

“little trouble makers.” They would often take advantage of the fact that there were two of them and only one mom.

They also pulled tricks like hiding under the table to eat hershey kisses from a cookie jar and then stuffing the wrappers under the couch.

Brian and Sarah played their first USTA match at 10 years old. The match was three hours long and the twins were not able to reach their parents at any point in that time span.

Moreover, Sarah’s opponent was a frequent trash-talker.

“Those kind of tournaments definitely made her stronger,” Jeff said.

“It taught Sarah to be resilient,” Leslie said, “To learn how to let things roll off her back off the court as well as on.”

Leslie said for Brian, tennis “gives him structure.”

“Brian is very energetic, so it gives him an outlet for his energy; and a chance to compete, because he loves competition,” Jeff added.

There was certainly a place for both Brian and Sarah in Hillsdale’s athletic department. Head women’s tennis coach Nikki Walbright reached out to Sarah, and head men’s tennis coach Keith Turner had Brian first on his list for a spot on the team.

The day before Walbright sent Sarah a recruiting email, Leslie learned about Hillsdale through research and encouraged her daughter to contact the coach.

“It wasn’t a coincidence,” Leslie said.

At Hillsdale, Sarah’s best friend and teammate Kara Johnson said Sarah “pushes herself and everyone else on the team. She’s had challenges that she uses on the court. In every single thing she does, she’s strong and has a good mindset.”

Johnson is a friend of Brain’s as well.

“We love Brian,” Johnson said. “He is funny, chill and relaxed, but also a hard worker.”

When asked to describe her brother, Sarah said, “Brian is definitely a comedian. He likes to make people laugh and he makes people smile, even if he’s not doing it intentionally, and even if I don’t always like it.”

“Sarah wouldn’t admit it, but she likes putting up with all my shenanigans,” Brian said.

On and off the court, Sarah and Brian’s friendship as twins provides support and encouragement for one another.

“They bring each other up,” Johnson said. “They’re like power twins.”

Sarah and Brian Hackman, now freshmen at Hillsdale College, sign commitments to play tennis at Hillsdale while members of the Waucona High School tennis program. jeff hackman | courtesy

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March 21, 2019

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Collegian | Carmel Kookogey

Culture

Reviving the art of reading aloud By | Anna Timmis Collegian Reporter Whether it’s to the preemie babies in hospital incubators, young children piling onto a couch after dinner, the teenager who just came home from school, the couple on a road trip, or an elderly man with his daughter in a nursing home, there is universal power in reading out loud together. Hearts quiet, minds focus, and breath falls in sync as the reader opens a book and reads the first lines of a chapter.

Meghan Cox Gurdon, the Wall Street Journal’s children’s book editor, recently published a book titled “The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction,” on Jan. 8. Gurdon makes a case for bringing back the practice of reading out loud, especially in our fast-paced digital world. We have audiobooks, educational computer programs for kids, and TV, along with the general distraction of smartphones and tablets. Is reading aloud necessary, Gurdon asks? Is it possible to fight the distraction of our contemporary age? Gurdon says “yes.”

A mother, essayist, critic, and former foreign correspondent, Gurdon is no stranger to the distractions of technology and a busy work schedule, and is honest that taking time to read aloud as a family can be difficult. But while alternatives like audiobooks have benefits, nothing can beat the real human interaction of reading

stories with one another. Gurdon quotes a clinical psychologist who says that reading together in a group creates “a bouquet of neurochemicals.”

“It should not be surprising, then, that the emotional rewards of reading aloud are wildly out of proportion to the effort it takes,” she writes.

This influence begins even before children are old enough to get any literary benefit.

Georgetown University researchers found that premature babies reacted strongly to the voice of their parents reading to them, building the connection between the parents and their children through reading.

The book included many anecdotal stories about children who benefited from being read aloud to. The parents of a teenager with severe autism who could not speak, but communicated through typing, loved when his mother read to him because he loved to be near her and experience the world through books and movies.

Young children learning to speak benefit far more from interaction with their parents than educational programs.

Parents can respond to a child’s gaze and the children have “joint attention” with the adult reading to them. This means we have an enormous responsibility when around children, even babies. They notice if we are more focused on our iPhones than on them.

In ancient Greek tradition,

a “rhapsode,” or a “stitcher of songs,” would recite full epics from memory, such as “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.” For hundreds of years, people read exclusively out loud. Gurdon references Augustine’s “Confessions,” in which he marvels at seeing a bishop reading silently to himself. It confused his soldiers when Alexander the Great once read a letter from his mother silently, instead of out loud. The words on the page are the tools for the storyteller.

Gurdon writes that the reader is another translator, bringing the words to life, and also bringing joy to others.

About 14 percent of adults in the world today are illiterate, but reading out loud gives others access to the delights of the oral tradition. Not only that, but it gives children and adults alike a respect for the past and a knowledge of cultural foundation. The fairy tales we read today have been passed on since the Middle Ages or before.

Gurdon quotes Jack Wang, an English professor at Ithaca College, saying “these stories belong to everyone. It’s not just the Western canon, per se, but everyone can feel a sense of ownership over these classics because these are great human stories.”

Even reading authors whose opinions are taboo today helps us to understand others and the times they lived in.

Through anecdotes and research, as well as personal

experience, Gurdon offers a lovely ritual that draws people together, enriches minds, an alternative to the isolating entertainment technology offers, and the epidemic of loneliness that has struck our world.

She summarizes near the end of the book, “literary art helps us live longer, and enjoying it together out loud makes us smarter, happier, and more contented. It may even be … that being the reader, the rhapsode, is in itself good for the body and soul.”

Q&A with Linda Gregerson, visiting poet By | Carmel Kookogey Culture Editor Linda Gregerson, born and raised in Elgin, Illinois, is a Renaissance scholar, classically trained actor, and science devotee, writes lyric poetry exploring the connections between science and art. She is the Caroline Walker Bynum Distinguished University Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan, where she teaches creative writing and directs the Helen Zell Writers Program. Her poems, which have appeared in The New Yorker and The Best American Poetry, among others

BELOW LEFT: “The Enchanted Hour” by Meghan Cox Gurdon.

Collegian | Anna Timmis

Symphony orchestra takes on 20th-century Russian music of Dmitri Shostakovich

By | Calli Townsend Assistant Editor “I envy the audience being able to hear it all for the first time,” freshman violinist Victoria Nunez said of Shostakovich Symphony No. 5.

The audience will have that chance this Saturday and Sunday as the Hillsdale College Symphony Orchestra will be performing it in the Markel Auditorium. Saturday’s performance will be at 8 p.m., and the Sunday performance begins at 3 p.m.

Russian composer and pianist Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 5 in 1937, and it was first performed on Nov. 21 of that year. The piece has four movements: Moderato, Allegretto, Largo, and Allegro Non Troppo, and it will be performed by 75 orchestra members.

Professor and Music Department Chairman James Holleman called this piece a “monumental work.”

“There’s a lot of historical research done on this piece.

There’s a lot of back and forth on what he meant,” Holleman said. “It’s been interesting for us to study and undertake. It’s difficult, but an amazing piece of music. It’s intense, melancholy and lyric.”

Nunez said the orchestra members have been rehearsing for two hours a day, twice a week this semester, which doesn’t include the time the musicians practice on their own.

Nunez said she is most looking forward to the fourth movement.

“It starts with a mighty rumble, and I sit right in front of the drums. This means I get to experience the soundwaves in such a physical way. My insides literally shake when the drums are at their loudest,” she said.

Three of the top five finishers at the 2019 Annual Student Concerto Aria Competition in the beginning of the semester will perform solos this weekend as well.

The solo performances will

occur before the symphony and will last about 30 minutes, and the symphony will be about 40 minutes, according to Holleman. The other two finishers will perform during the second symphony orchestra in May. Sophomore David Forman will perform Walton’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra on the viola, sophomore Zsanna Bodor will play Mozart’s “Una donna a quindici anni” from “Cosi Fan Tutte” on the soprano, and senior violinist Joshua Brown perform Tchaikovsky’s Concerto for Violin in D minor, op. 35.

“The initial critical response was negative, with one critic saying the violin was ‘beaten black and blue,’” Brown said of Tchaikovsky’s piece. “Today, however, it is one of the best known and loved pieces in the violin repertoire. I’ve wanted to play it for as long as I can remember, so this opportunity to perform it with the orchestra is a dream come true.”

Nunez said she enjoys the piece because of its narrative beauty.

“When you participate in the orchestra, you get to listen to the many strains of music move around you as different sections hand off different parts of the melody or harmony to each other,” Nunez said.

“Listening to a symphony from start to finish is like examining a rich tapestry: every color has a shape, a destination, and a part to play.”

After Saturday’s performance, the Hillsdale College Jazz Combo, Primary Colors, will be performing in the McNamara Rehearsal Hall in the Howard Music Building.

“There will be a dance floor and refreshments,” Holleman said. “People can talk to the orchestra members, listen to jazz, and dance. It’s just a fun event we do after the Saturday concert.”

Tickets can be reserved by emailing boxoffice@hillsdale. edu or calling 517-607-2848.

places, have received multiple literary awards. Gregerson has also published a variety of critical works, including “The Reformation of the Subject: Spenser, Milton, and the English Protestant Epic,” in 1995. Her most recent poetic volume, “Prodigal: New and Selected Poems, 1976-2014,” was published in 2015. In 2014, Gregerson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2015 was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Can you tell me more about your interest in science?

“Where to begin? I think

poetry and scientific inquiry have a great deal in common.

Poetry worth its name is a form of inquiry. And I’m absolutely enraptured by what I understand of the biological sciences and scientific research. My sister was a neuroendocrinologist. And actually, when I was at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the summer before I began my MFA, I had a summer job with a group of neurophysiologists. I was just there as a temp, typing up lecture notes and turning them into actual English, and I was just thrilled with what I was learning. I really do think there’s an enormous amount of sympathy between the

two disciplines. Part of it has to do with wonder. … I am perpetually astonished by the mystery of living in a body that is so much smarter than I am. A body that handles more things, is infinitely more complex — that does things I could not possibly do on purpose, and which I inhabit as a kind of guest.”

“I guess what moves me enormously about scientific inquiry is the gap between what we have by way of cognitive equipment, and what it is that our gaze is directed toward. This of course has been discussed in religious terms as well, the distance See Poet B2

family recipes come from “The Art of Cookery,” which was first published in 1747, or “The Ladies Companion,” from 1753 — but though Martha Washington was familiar with them, she followed only a few of the recipes to the letter, filling her own manuscript cookbook which she would later pass to her granddaughter Nelly Custis, and which the authors consulted heavily in putting together the cookbook.

The book dedicates a whole section to the workings of the Mount Vernon kitchen, too, which sprang to life at 4:30 each morning, and of which Martha Washington was an essential part, though she did not do all her own cooking.

George Washington’s pea soup is so much more than the modern dish of lumpy, green-grey slop that most people envision when they hear the words “pea soup.”

It’s vibrant green, chock full of mint and spinach, and garnished with fresh yellow calendula petals, also known as “pot marigolds.” The tangy

bite of mace weaves between the fresh vegetables and marries with butter and onions in each sweet, clean bite.

(The recipe is originally French, where peas were sown in boxes in order to be ready in early spring, and is a reproduction of a classic Potage St. Germain.)

Fricasseed chicken is another classic we still eat today, though we’ve simplified it. Similar to a white wine chicken, fricasseed chicken is stewed in a broth mixture that includes marjoram, thyme, nutmeg and dry white wine.

The leftover chicken liquids are then thickened with butter, flour, cream, and — very carefully, so that they don’t curdle — whisked eggs. The result is a rich and creamy chicken dish with a lemon-pepper flavor that lingers on the tongue.

The idea of eating the same foods the American founders ate is felicitous to say the least.

It’s one of the things that make food such a pervasive medium: though recipes are recreated multiple times through-

out each era, one bite of “Ragoo of Asparagus” transports you back 250 years in an instant.

And cooking with these old recipes, it’s hard to miss how little has actually changed in those two and a half centuries: at the end of the day, we all still love apple pie, even if our methods of making it are different.

“Apple pie seems to have been a favorite of George Wash“Dining with the Washingtons” by Stephen A. McLeod. Collegian | Carmel ington,” the book Kookogey editors note. “In But what makes the Mount espoused by our founding an August 1779 letter from Vernon recipes so classic is documents, good food tranWest Point inviting friends to not just their age, or even scends time period. What was dine with him, he noted that the American heritage they good for them is still — serenthey might be treated to an dipitously — good today. apple pie. ‘[The cook] has had represent. Each are flavorful recipes in their own right, and the surprising luck to discover that apples will make pyes,’ the create delicious food for any era. Like the traditional values general wrote.”

Great Cookbooks: Dining with the Washingtons By | Carmel Kookogey Culture Editor The first pea soup I ever ate was George Washington’s pea soup. I’ve never had much of a taste for anyone else’s.

On one of multiple summer road trips to Virginia, my family toured Mount Vernon, the beautiful historic home of the first American president George Washington. Rather unsurprisingly, when perusing the gift shop, I asked my dad to buy “Dining with the Washingtons,” a cookbook edited by Stephen A. McLeod and published by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association in 2011.

The cookbook, composed of recipes the Washingtons either used or were likely to have used, boasts not only historically accurate recipes, but also stories about the guests who dined with the Washingtons, what dishes would traditionally be served together, and what a Washington tablescape would have looked like.

Many of Washington’s

Culture

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B2 March 21, 2019

Alumnus’ debut novel ‘The Fractured Prism’ is a fast-paced read for a young audience

By | Julia Mullins Assistant Editor “The Fractured Prism” offers a complex account of a futuristic and dystopian, socialist America through the eyes of 21-year-old Ivan 181375.

2018 alumnus Brendan Noble’s recently self-published book is set 99 years after the Third American Civil War. In this fictional world, a third civil war destroyed an American monarchy and divided the People’s Democratic Republic of Northern Mississippi into color-coded factions. These factions are determined by the “Prism Test.”

“In theory, the Prism Test was meant to determine how ‘beneficial to the collective’ you were through a series of physical, oral, and written examinations. After you took the test on your sixteenth birthday, you were filtered into one of six colored tiers based on your results,” Ivan explains in the book.

Each citizen must wear properly-colored tag earrings as a way of distinguishing status. The lowest ranking members of society are “Red Tags,” government slaves. In increasing order of rank, there are Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple Tags as well.

The “Whites” are royals and do not wear any tags.

Red Tag Ivan, though a slave to the government, is also a lieutenant in the rebel Militia, acting under the codename “Coyote.” But Ivan’s life shifts dramatically after he saves the life of Princess Julia Hughes and in return is hired as her personal bodyguard, much to the dismay of her royalist father, King Hughes.

What starts as the two exchanging flirtatious smiles and subtle laughter turns into a budding, yet forbidden, romance.

Paying tribute to his time at Hillsdale, Noble even adds a reference to Aristotle in the early episodes of Ivan and Julia’s flirting. “[Julia] giggled. ‘I thought you were supposed to be some backwater rebel kid, not Aristotle,’” Noble writes.

Because of his loyalty to both the rebels and royalty, Ivan fears one day he will have to choose “between [his] two loyalties.” Julia begs Ivan to give up his role as Coyote, but Ivan cannot bring himself to abandon the Militia. This conflict of purposes comes to a head in one of Ivan’s nightmares in which he watches helplessly as Coyote kills Julia, and Ivan finally realizes that he cannot keep living two lives.

Throughout the novel, Noble also develops Ivan’s negative attitude toward killing to show that though he is a rebel, he still has a conscience: unlike his fellow Militia members, Ivan does not take pride in killing people. This theme is present in various fighting scenes where Ivan has the opportunity to kill an attacker, but chooses not to.

The Militia’s belief that it is working to change a corrupt a system is upheld throughout the book as a worthy cause.

Ivan reflects: “Each of us was ready to die for what we believed in so that this terrible world could change… we were making the sacrifice for the greater good, or at least, I hoped we were.”

Through her relationship with Ivan, Noble also holds up Julia as a virtuous character who uses her status to

abandoned after attacks like that,” Ivan thinks to himself.

“The law had failed. I gave it a push.”

Noble even briefly addresses social media and the news media through Julia’s observations that “There’s so much ignorance, reinforced by the media.”

In addition to these social issues, Noble also emphasizes the importance of living a temperate and modest lifestyle.

Theatre from A1

“It’s a mark as one of the top undergraduate papers of theatre in the country,” Chairman and Professor of Theatre James Brandon said. “Three of the last four years it has been a Hillsdale College student who has won that award.

Our students come in with formidable weapons at their disposal. They are engaged in the whole academic process, and I think that has characterized all of the students who have won the award.”

Awarded a $1,000 cash prize and an all-expense-paid trip to the National Casey ATCF Festival, Rygh will travel to the Kennedy Center, located in Washington D.C., in May to receive the award.

Aside from networking with other theatre professionals and engaging with workshops, Rygh says he is eager for the opportunity to expand his horizons at the festival.

“I have been floundering around a bit with my career path, so this award is definitely a blessing to have in my back pocket,” Rygh said.

Though the paper began as a simple class assignment, Brandon submitted four papers from his class to the

Poet from B1

Alumnus Brendan Noble recently self-published a young adult novel about a dystopian society. Courtesy | Brendan Noble

defend universal principles about humanity and truth.

She is willing to jeopardize her reputation to preserve her relationship with Ivan and to call for political reform.

Unlike the other royals, Julia recognizes the injustices that the Secret Police of the United People’s Front commit against Red, Orange, and Yellow Tags in this corrupt society, and responds with apparent universalism.

“Everyone is so fake. I hate it,” she says. “The world seems to care more about status than who we are. So many people don’t seem to get that we’re not all that different, you know? White, Purple, Red, whatever. We’re not that different.”

Noble addresses current social issues throughout the novel, such as the problem of hidden sexual assault and the resulting #MeToo movement, which appears when Ivan confronts a rapist.

“At the very least, I could deliver a sliver of justice to the cruel unjust world that we lived in. Not just for Alexandria, but for all the women who felt helpless and

During a party, Ivan observes, “the guests became drunker and drunker, filling the air with senseless noise, the smell of fruity liquor, and heavy cigar smoke. Julia meandered through the crowd, sipping on her one cocktail while others drunk themselves into oblivion. Smart.”

Although some of the descriptions and dialogue feel less natural, most of the characters Noble created for his debut novel are ones readers can sympathize with. Unpredictable actions from some characters throughout the novel keep the reader interested. While some scenes seem perhaps over-dramatized, the overall structure is well-paced: Noble offers a nice balance between scenes packed with dialogue, where the reader learns important information, and action scenes which deliver suspense and excitement.

As only the first book in his series the Prism Files, Noble ends the story in chaos, leaving the reader to wonder about the future awaiting this fragile society.

between the divine transcendence and limited human apprehension, but I don’t think we need to go there to encounter that incredible disproportion in scale. Poetry, in its own way, is after the ineffable, or the difficult to grasp by other means, that which does not readily lend itself to discursive explanation. I don’t think poetry is unreasonable, or anti-reason, or mystical, in any reductive way. But I do think the experience of standing before the world in wonder and wanting to come to what mindfulness we can is a very important stance. In my experience, it’s our common stance, common to poets and scientists alike.

I have been the beneficiary of instruction from people who are exquisitely trained in scientific research. The magic of that research is the combination of aptitudes it requires: capacities for abstract inquiry, for tolerance of provisional thinking, or hypothesis, and also an array of practical skills. The scientist needs to posit some premise in order to formulate her question, and then to design an experiment that might help her refine the question, and she has to be prepared to jettison that hypothesis if her experimental results tell her it’s insufficient.

You have to be invested in order to pursue the question, but you also have to prepare to be corrected. I think that’s also a moral stance. You can’t be not-committed, you must be strongly committed and yet prepared to be corrected.”

Why then did you choose poetry?

“There was, in an odd way, an early kind of tracking. I went to a very small high school in a very small town, and it wasn’t that I was discouraged from pursuing math or science, it was just that different kinds of arts were scheduled up against electives in math in science, and so I had to choose.

Nobody intended that to be a limitation — people were doing the best they could — but it sort of wound up that way. But also, the first way I sort of found myself in the world. I used to look at people and think, ‘How do they do that? They look so intact, and I’m so inchoate!’ — though I didn’t know that word.

Working in the arts was the first way I found some way of having a self, most importantly through acting in theatre, something I continued throughout college. I didn’t write poetry until two or three years after I’d graduated. And I knew nothing about it, I was incredibly bad to begin with. I didn’t know how to read contemporary poetry. I knew how to read John Donne, or I knew how to begin to read John Donne, I absolutely adored John Donne’s work, but I was very baffled by contemporary poetry. So I was a late beginner.

Would you consider your style contemporary, or more

festival competition.

“What might be a B paper in my course might actually win a competition,” Brandon said. “Sure, I’m asking you to follow my directions, but sometimes these papers find a life outside of the classroom.”

Exploring the anti-Semitic themes within Richard Wagner’s play, “The Ring Cycle,” Rygh concluded that one

could stage the play in a modern work and still “properly pay tribute to Wagner but also avoid sending offensive messages to audiences.”

“It’s not easy to take a work that has completely anti-Semitic stereotypes,” Rygh said. “Getting to engage with

the beauty that nonetheless exists in the works, while also realizing that there are problematic, politically-incorrect elements, has certainly been very challenging to engage with. But a crucial life lesson nonetheless.”

Senior Jessica McFarland, who is a theatre major and close friend of Rygh, said the paper is a good reflection of Rygh’s outstanding theatre performance.

“His psychological take on characters is very penetrating,” McFarland said. “He can see right into them, right away. And he’s able to do that on a first read, which is not usual. I think that’s what makes him a good actor.”

For Brandon, the paper proved to be a “revelation” of Rygh’s academic scholarship within the department.

“For a lot of students, it’s hard to think of theatre as an academic discipline. But I think Eric gets that it is,” Brandon said. “He’s become more confident as an actor.

And I think he is all around more engaged in the department. He’s been a valuable and important member of the program and I think that that has gone up each moment he’s been here.”

traditional?

“I think we have to live in our moment. The world may need another John Donne, but a John Donne provided now would not sound like John Donne of the 17th century.

I cannot be John Donne — I would be a very very poor imitation. Which does not mean rejecting our marvelous heritage, at all. The most powerful contestations in art are those which are in conversation with that which has gone before us. They may take a highly subversive stance, but that itself is a form of honor: it’s continuing the conversation. So I deeply believe in history, I think it’s essential to our being in the world and to the production of art of any form. But John Donne wrote in his moment. All the artists I know worth reading wrote in their moment: they were not dead to the world around them. In fact, it’s noticing the world around us that I think poetry gives us the opportunity to do, and demands of us.”

Who are some of the poets who inspire you?

“That’s a question I can never answer. I read as broadly as I possibly can. Some of the first poets I learned how to read at all were the metaphysicals. I learned how to piece out a metaphor, follow a piece of syntax, follow syntax that sometimes seems to be going off the rails and then recuperating itself: I think that’s thrilling. To that extent, that has been an influence. I try to make sure that my language is capacious: that is, I want it to include all forms of diction, both formal and informal, colloquial and otherwise. But I also want sometimes to build a syntactical project that is in danger of collapse, and then recovers itself. I think that’s a cognitive path.”

What your creative process looks like: how do you go about writing a poem?

“It can start almost anywhere. I can start with a piece of language, one I encounter somewhere, something I overheard on the bus, something I saw on a page somewhere, maybe the morning newspaper, something in a piece of language that makes me very distraught or worried: at some level, it’s trying to find momentum that’s already in words. But sometimes it might be a picture, a landscape, a vision of a young child being pushed down the street in a stroller: it can be anything. It can be an emotion, a memory, or a piece of a narrative — it’s really quite diverse. And then I start to try to generate language. It sounds very superstitious, but my earliest drafts must begin in pencil on a yellow legal notepad, in my atrocious handwriting — the fact that I then sometimes go back and have trouble deciphering it seems to me to be useful too, it keeps things kind of fluid. I need to keep it fluid for a while. But then I discard, try something maybe next-door-neighborly to it, say that was the wrong place to begin, I need to start at a different angle. But then finally I

have to start pinning it down, I have to start establishing a very firm syntax, and experiment with a stanza pattern which seems to have the right musical relationship to the syntax. Once I’ve established that, I’m writing into that stanza pattern.”

You’ve also written numerous critical works: is there a particular area or subject that you find yourself coming back to in your analytical writing?

“Poetry. A lot of my scholarship is focused on Milton, and I never lose interest in that body of work, in that historical period and its complicated intersection of radical change, emergent political and epistemological models, and of course, often violent religious struggle: the Reformation in England. The Renaissance came late to England; the Reformation came early. And they intersected in ways they did not elsewhere.”

“I’ve written about Reformation Iconoclasm: it’s a subject that interests me enormously because of its investment in signs, and the sense that they are of urgent importance — in how we use them, how we construe them, how we circulate them, how we understand them. I never stop being fascinated, it’s just too, too wonderful. And of course it’s also a period before what we construe as the separation between science and art, and theology and science, before those firewalls were erected. And I think there’s an enormous amount to be gleaned from that.”

From where do you get inspiration for your writing today? Would you say that you write with a message, to provoke some kind of change, or are you more interested in recording life as you see it?

“I probably wouldn’t put it either way. I certainly don’t think poetry is very good at didacticism. That explicit mission to teach or instill — that’s just not one of the things it’s good for. And stories alone don’t quite capture what I hope to be doing, although I think sometimes a narrative or a fragment of narrative can be a really important component of a poem, as essential as voice, or metaphor, or meter.

I try to make the poem, in the first instance for myself and therefore, I hope, for a reader, an occasion for simple and concentrated noticing. I’m so keenly aware of how much I’m oblivious to, how much passes me by without my paying sufficient attention to it. I don’t want, on my deathbed, to think my life has been all a blur, that it’s been lost on me.

I’m just trying to keep it from being entirely lost on me.

I think shared moments of paying attention are absolutely the most important things human beings can do for one another in any context. And so I also take it very seriously that, insofar as a reader is going to attend to my poem, I take that as an honor, I’m grateful for it, and I want to do justice to that.”

“What might be a B paper in my course might actually win a competition,” Brandon said.”

Features

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Alumnus returns to Hillsdale, opens law firm

Andrew Fink ’06 recently moved back to Hillsdale to open a satellite office of his family’s law practice. Regan Meyer | Collegian

By | Regan Meyer Web Content Editor Andrew Fink ‘06 graduated from Hillsdale College 13 years ago, but echoes of his time at the ’Dale decorate his office: The G.K. Chesterton bust on the coffee table, the watercolor of Central Hall on the conference room wall.

Fink’s alma mater won’t leave him.

Fink is one of the few alumni who have come back to Hillsdale to work in jobs unconnected with the college. Fink used his Hillsdale degree in politics to take six months to work on Rep. Tim Walberg’s campaign, and then another six months to play guitar in the Ann Arbor music scene before enrolling at University of Michigan law school.

“I’m not sure if I always wanted to be a lawyer. I always figured that I would,” Fink said. “It’s kind of the family business. Even though we don’t all work at the same firm, it’s just sort of the default setting for the Fink boys.”

In early 2011, he began active duty in the U.S. Marines following his graduation from law school in 2010.

Upon coming off active duty in 2014, he joined Fink and

Fink Attorneys and Counselors, working with his father, cousin, and uncle. After about three years in the Ann Arbor area, Fink moved his family from Ypsilanti to the Hillsdale area. He established a satellite office of his family’s law practice, Fink and Fink.

“I thought that when we got here we’d kind of have to say no to evenings on campus for events and talks, or that we’d get addicted going to the Sage for concerts,” Fink said.

“That hasn’t happened. We didn’t get less busy here, so we don’t actually have that much more time. When we lived in Ypsi, we were on campus once or twice a semester. It’s probably one or two more times a semester now.”

Fink remembers his time at Hillsdale fondly. Just enough time has passed for campus culture to seem different, but Fink still recognizes the same core values in Hillsdale.

“It seems like it’s a never-ending set of interlocked friend groups,” Fink said.

“There was never a shortage of someone to have a pleasant conversation with. That’s in much shorter supply out in the real world than it was as a Hillsdale student. Finding a good conversation was so easy here.”

While Fink had many good

conversations with his fellow students at Hillsdale, he also connected with many of his professors. Fink and Professor of theology Nathan Schlueter became friends during Fink’s time as a student.

“We’ve stayed really personally close and I’ve always appreciated them as a couple,” Fink said. “The best analogy is an older brother for me and an older sister for Lauren, because they’re halfway between us and our parents.”

“I think Andrew and I both have something of a choleric temperament. Or we’re just German,” Schlueter said.

“In any case, we also quickly discovered lot of common interests, in ideas, music — he’s a very talented musician with a great taste in music — politics, parenting, faith, etc.”

Schlueter also taught Fink’s wife Lauren while she was a student at Hillsdale. Schlueter and his wife are now godparents to Fink’s daughter, Evangeline.

“It was a delight to watch their relationship begin and grow, and to mentor them a bit,” Schlueter said. “Those two have a fun marriage of differences that is a source of inspiration and humor to those who know them.”

Fink himself serves as a sort of mentor as part of the Career Advising Committee for the Hillsdale College Alumni Association Board, working with Career Services.

“Andrew capably represents the views and interests of alumni from the early 2000s,” Director of the Alumni Association Board Grigor Hasted said in an email. “His background as an attorney makes him a particularly valuable resource for pre-law students in our mentoring program.

He takes seriously his responsibilities to the board and he is a particularly articulate, influential, and well-respected contributor to board business.”

As a member of the Career Advising Committee, Fink has seen many students begin their professional careers. He says that while most students are well-liked by their employers, the committee hears one common criticism of Hillsdale grads.

“In some cases, the criticism I hear is that you’re spending too much time on ideas and not enough time emptying the trash,” he said.

“I would never want to discourage Hillsdale kids from being the broad-minded and good-hearted people that they are. But embracing getting your fingernails dirty is part of being a successful worker.”

Historic Hysteria

Another columnist peers ‘Thru the Keyhole’ By | Callie Shinkle Columnist This column has covered a lot of Hillsdale gossip sources, but a look into the archives shows that we are only scratching the surface of the college’s historical tea.

On May 3, 1956, The Collegian first published the column, “Thru the Keyhole.”

This scintillating news source delivered the information that everyone was dying to hear. For example, on Oct. 5, 1956, the column read, “Swain’s Lake was the site of the Delt Sig picnic, for members and their dates. There was music, dancing and a ball game. No one would tell me who played or who won.” That is some fantastic journalism.

The author followed that statement up on Oct. 12, 1956, opening the column with, “‘No news is good news,’ is a phrase I’ve heard often. But after the digging that goes on for social news, any news, to me, would be good.” A gossip column with no gossip is a tough sell.

However, I think “Thru the Keyhole” was just selling itself short. On Oct. 12, 1956, the column delivered this

news: “More results from the mental ability tests were received in the past week.

One fellow looked sadly at his results, then extended his hand to the fellow next to him and said, ‘Shake hands with the only guy with a negative I.Q.’” Do not worry sir, my personal experiences have proven that you are not alone in that bracket.

On Dec. 5, 1957, “Thru the Keyhole” began with this question: “Indigestion, turkey, parties, indigestion, parties . . . does it sound familiar?” I can’t say that it does, but then again my popularity has never been so great that I was invited to numerous Thanksgiving parties the month after Thanksgiving.

On March 19, 1959, the column read, “The Delts held a party at the house Saturday night. Returning for the weekend were Wally Balloo, Joe Disboro, and Dale Rile.

Harry Schwartz had a date for J-Hop! (Last time, Harry, better save this one.)” First of all, I’m happy for you, Harry.

But let us not let that distract us, because I simply cannot believe that Wally Balloo is a real name.

As most gossip columns do, “Thru the Keyhole” had a high readership. On Jan. 7,

1960, The Collegian reported that 45 out of 73 freshmen consistently read the column.

In fact, the column became so popular that on Oct. 12, 1956 “Thru the Keyhole” launched its first and only contest. “Enter the new gala THRU THE KEYHOLE contest. Just finish this sentence in 10,000 words or less: “I read THRU THE KEYHOLE because . . .” Maybe it’s because you enjoy nothing at its very best. Maybe it’s because you can’t read. Whatever your reason is be sure to enter the contest.” Author: stop with that false modesty.

You know you were the most sought after news source of your time.

What was the prize of the contest, you may ask? The column says, “Think of the grand prize — a gold bound volume of THRU THE KEYHOLE.” What a collectable.

“Thru the Keyhole” survived three years before its last piece of gossip was spread. On March 3, 1960 the column lost its spot in The Collegian. However, not to worry. The campus couldn’t survive long without its tea, and “Thru the Keyhole” was soon replaced by yet another gossip column.

Stoub from B4

ever begin an endowed scholarship fund.

“Quite honestly, I thought she just wanted to put a few dollars away after being touched by the scholarships she had received,” CrippsDowney said. “In my wildest dreams, it had never occurred to me that she was going to say, ‘Well, I’m going to start a scholarship in lieu of a car.’”

Upon meeting with Cripps-Downey, Callahan created the guidelines for the scholarship alongside her parents.

“We were able to choose the specifications of a working student, the essay questions that the students wrote, the set the number of recommendation letters and where they came from,” Callahan said. “I was so surprised by the flexibility we had with it.”

The inspiration sprang from their daily dinner conversations.

“We cover so many things between my parents, my brothers, and me,” Callahan said. “Whether it’s what it takes to run a business, what it means to have an education, what it means to give back, and most importantly what it looks like to give back.”

Beginning this May, the Stoub Family Fund will award $1,000 yearly to a student working through high school.

Though Callahan participated in various activities in high school, she said her work experience proved most invaluable.

“You don’t have the same accountability in those volunteer activities that you have in a job,” Callahan said. “Those are all really good things, but I think there is something to be said about those who have the work ethic to buckle down and work hard in the summer.”

Callahan added that work experience is often overlooked in the college schol-

Graham from B4

In the 1960s, the family that owned the cemetery gradually allowed sections of it to become forestland because they did not have a lot of money.

“The family passed away in the 1990s, and the board of directors that were to govern the cemetery also died in the early 2000s,” Fincher said.

When Fincher lived in Philadelphia around 2008, the state of the cemetery was “quite disastrous and actually somewhat dangerous.”

Because of the illegal burials, vandalism, and violence that occured in the overgrown area, the cemetery had become “a big issue for the city,” Fincher said.

In March 2011, the city was informed through news reports and citizen phone calls that Mount Moriah had ended its business operations. From that time to the present, a volunteer organization called Friends of Mount Moriah has worked to restore the area.

“We wanted to clean things up. To make things right,” Ken Smith, board treasurer of the organization, said. “There are 180,000 souls interred in that cemetery, but it was not a place where anyone interested in visiting their loved ones would want to go and do so.”

When researching the current state of the cemetery

Colleges from A1

“The cost per student is above two times the cost of tuition,” Whalen said, adding that donors from across the country make up the difference.

College Board reported the average private college tuition for the 2018-19 school year was nearly $36,000. Hillsdale’s tuition the same year was $27,578, and for a better education than most private colleges, Whalen said.

Institutions can recover from closures, but it’s rare.

Last year, The Indianapolis Star reported that St. Joseph’s successfully restructured its debt while keeping most of its campus. This summer, St. Joseph’s will reopen as a part of Marian, another liberal arts college, and hopes to relocate back to its original campus as soon as 2020.

Other private colleges avoid consolidation and try to solve their issues by emphasizing technical skills and direct

March 21, 2019

B3

arships. Typically, Callahan said, scholarships focus on those who volunteer or pour themselves into countless extracurriculars. By focusing on students who have worked through high school, Callahan said she hopes to “reward them for their sacrifices and work ethic.”

“It’s one of my favorite things seeing other people grow into whatever path they take,” Callahan said. “By paying what I’ve been given forward, I’m able to make it a little bit easier for some people to pursue their dreams and think less about the practical pragmatic part of paying for college. It’s really valuable for people to pursue what they are interested in instead of trying to settle for something that they are capable of, but don’t necessarily love.”

Raising his kids to have a strong work ethic in all that they do, Eric Stoub said he is eager to commend the first scholarship recipient for their hard work throughout high school.

“It’s a little bit of a ‘Well done good and faithful servant,’ ‘You done well kid,’” Eric said. “A lot of our society doesn’t recognize kids that get jobs. And I think there are kids out there that are working and going to school to help provide for their family at home. That’s a huge burden.”

Throughout her college career, Callahan has consistently reached out to her local scholarship donors, whether writing thank you notes or sending a ‘life update.’

Reflecting on a ‘thank you’ note from Callahan, CrippsDowney said the note and Callahan’s picture still hangs in her office as a reminder of, “Yes, this is exactly why we do what we do.”

“She simply showed appreciation that someone had given her a hand and helped her,” Cripps-Downey said.

“This scholarship just reflects on her character as someone

who understands the need and remembers to thank those who meet it. I just hope that after college someone hires her so we don’t lose her from our community.”

Callahan noted that for students at Hillsdale, the opportunity to give back may come sooner than they expect.

“I want other people to start thinking early about when they will be able to give back, even if it’s not financially possible, because you never know when that opportunity will come,” Callahan said. “It came a lot earlier than when I thought it would be able to.”

And, in Callahan’s eyes, you won’t be stuck trying to figure out where to start.

“Once you start thinking about it, you realize how many different places have impacted you and what you are grateful for, and you come up with never-ending places where you want to give back,” Callahan said.

Reflecting on Callahan’s generosity, Cripps-Downey said she hopes many people are impacted by Callahan’s gift — not just the scholarship recipients.

“I hope people see the importance of playing the long game — something that Callie figured out when she said, ‘This scholarship is more important than upgrading my car,’” Cripp Davis said.

“If she can do something like that, can’t we all look at our circumstances and ask, ‘How can I play the long game?

How can I see the immediate, but then choose to reach out to the community and others and do something like she did?’”

“If she can do something like that, can’t we all look at our circumstances and ask, ‘How can I play the long game? How can I see the immediate, but then choose to reach out to the community and others and do something like she did?’”

in the fall of 2018, Fincher discovered on Wikipedia that Graham was one of the notable people buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery.

He reached out to Friends of Mount Moriah to investigate the matter, and the organization helped him find the plot.

The organization had started clearing the area where Graham was buried in 2017, because it was especially full of trash and overgrown trees and shrubs.

Fincher informed Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn of his discovery, and the president’s office decided to send a small group to the cemetery with Fincher, who was willing to use the first half of spring break for the expedition.

“We wanted to follow this up,” president’s office research assistant Soren Geiger said.

“We decided that the right thing to do was to send a team to the college from the cemetery to meet the volunteer organization and demonstrate that we want to care for our first president’s resting place.”

Geiger asked Toates if he wanted to go on the trip because he had been a student of Fincher’s before and has worked in the president’s office for multiple years. Toates was instructed to bring along a friend, so he took his housemate Zabrocki.

The students noted that

Mount Moriah Cemetery was in noticeable disrepair.

Toates said gravestones “had tumbled down the hill and onto the highway that cuts the cemetery in half.”

At Graham’s grave site, the only markers were four stones, each engraved with the letter “G,” at the corners of the 6 by 6 foot plot. “No headstone, no nothing,” Zabrocki said.

“It was just a nondescript patch of ground,” Toates added.

The group did some prodding around the plot to see if they could find any signs of a headstone, but could not find a headstone in the time they had. “More than likely, there is a headstone there, but we couldn’t find it,” Zabrocki said.

Toates said the “main oddity is that there was nothing marking it, and it’s in a rundown area, so any marker or beautification of the spot would be nice.”

Fincher emphasized that it is important to honor the founders of Hillsdale College.

“We went because we really cared about honoring Reverend Graham,” Fincher said.

“At Hillsdale, we talk about our founders all the time.

Graham is someone who is key to our past, so we wanted to generate ideas about what we might do to maintain that link and make sure he gets what he is owed.”

employment, often through a STEM-focused education.

Frameworks like this can work. Merrimack College, a private institution in Massachusetts, shifted its education program to concentrate on STEM and business training rather than the liberal arts it previously offered.

Over the last several years, Merrimack has grown its student population, expanded its campus, and stabilized its finances, which were dire until the recent changes. But in the process, the college lost its liberal arts identity.

“With more than 100 career-focused undergraduate, professional and graduate programs,” Merrimack’s homepage reads, “Merrimack offers you a wide variety of academic options to choose from.”

According to the Boston Globe, “the college uses an outside consultant and computer algorithms to dole out financial aid.”

Pranav Sharma, an analyst from Moody’s, added that

Merrimack is now “run as a business.”

“Most schools are going in a different direction,” Miller said, speaking on colleges focusing on employment training like Merrimack. “I think those who are truly seeking a liberal arts education are going to find places like Hillsdale.”

What makes Hillsdale different? Other universities and colleges think of themselves as “chained to the currents of the day” whereas Hillsdale tries to maintain its founding mission, Whalen said. “Our fidelity to that makes our curriculum and faculty stand out as exemplary of human excellence,” he added. “That moves people, and that’s what college education ought to be about.”

“There are a lot of liberal arts schools getting away from their core and historical missions,” Miller said. “Hillsdale bucks that trend because we are unabashedly mission-centric.”

B4 March 21, 2019 Juniors Calvin Zabrocki and Joe Toates examine the Philadelphia grave of Hillsdale College’s first president, Reverend Daniel McBride Graham. Joshua Fincher | Courtesy

It’s never too soon to give back Student gives up new car to create endowed scholarship for working high school students

By | Sofia Krusmark Collegian Reporter Few college students would dream of turning down a new car — their key to late-night fast food runs and impromptu travel. But for sophomore Callahan Stoub, the dream car can wait.

When Eric Stoub, Callahan Stoub’s father, sold one of his businesses, his first thought was to buy new cars for both Callahan and her brother. But Callahan had a different idea.

“I have a car that works just fine,” she said. “In a way I felt that I didn’t deserve a new car. I didn’t have a need for a new one, and I knew there would be better ways to direct that money.”

Instead, Callahan decided to use the money to create an endowed scholarship fund for students who work through high school in her

hometown of St. Joseph, Michigan. Having received scholarships both in high school and college from a local organization, the Barrion County Community Foundation, Callahan decided to create the scholarship fund in partnership with the foundation.

“The week before my dad called, I got into a really random conversation at lunch about what the average interest rate was for an endowed scholarship,” Callahan said.

“I had the idea for the scholarship since high school, and with this in the back of my mind I was able to calculate how much it would cost to do a yearly $1,000 scholarship.”

Stoub invested $25,000 in a safe stock to create an annual award of $1,000.

“Every year as the market grows there’s a percentage that you just have in profit,” Stoub said. “When you are at

25,000, the margin of growth over the years is enough to provide 1,000 without taking money out of the original chunk.”

As the years go by, Callahan hopes the scholarship can grow.

“The longer you keep it, the more you’ll get out of it,” Stoub said. “If you have a really good year, you might be able to a support a $1,500 scholarship. Over time, since we started this early, It’ll likely be able to split into two at one point, or I could make it a renewable scholarship.”

Lisa Cripps-Downey, director of the community foundation, said she was shocked by Callahan’s scholarship initiative. Though the foundation gives scholarships to over 100 students yearly, Callahan was the first student to

See Stoub B3

Sophomore Callahan Stoub passed up the opportunity for a new car in order to give back to her local community. Callahan Stoub | Courtesy

Professor, students examine newly discovered gravesite of college’s first president

By | Rachel Kookogey Collegian Freelancer The cemetery where the body of Hillsdale College’s first president, Daniel McBride Graham, lies has fallen to disrepair in the past few decades.

After learning of the situation at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Pennsylvania, Visiting Associate Professor of Classics Joshua Fincher took juniors Joe Toates and Calvin Zabrocki to examine the area and see how Hillsdale College could improve it. Because Graham’s plot has no headstone to mark it, the president’s office plans to coordinate with Graham’s descendants in the coming years to place a headstone or plant something near the sight.

Graham was a major figure in the Free Will Baptist movement. Fincher said he was “incredibly devoted to education and to spreading his

denomination’s principles.”

Graham spent a lot of time founding colleges and churches within the denomination. Hillsdale College was one of the first that he helped establish.

In October of 1844, 27-year-old Graham became the first president of Hillsdale College, then called Michigan Central College, in Spring Arbor. The school opened with only five students in a small, deserted, two-room store. He resided there until he moved to Saco, Maine, in 1848 to become a Free Will Baptist minister.

In the time between his two presidencies at Hillsdale College, Graham founded Bates College in Maine and operated the Free Will Baptist Church in New York City. He also spent several years working in real estate.

When President James Calder resigned from his

position at Hillsdale College in 1871 and the first two men to whom the college offered the position declined, the college trustees asked Graham to return.

Graham was very active in fundraising for the college endowment, especially after a fire in 1874 destroyed most of the sole college building. Graham was instrumental in the decision to rebuild campus as multiple buildings so as to prevent such major damage from occurring again. This led to the construction of central hall that is presently on the campus of Hillsdale College.

After his work with the college, Graham moved to Chicago in 1875 to work in real estate again. In 1879, Graham retired near family in Philadelphia, where he died in 1888.

See Graham B3