Collegian 2.22.2024

Reagan statue moved to storage after 12 years on the Quad

week. It is now in storage, awaiting a new location as the college prepares to build the Diana Davis Spencer Graduate School of Education, according to Executive Director of Facilities & Capital Projects Dave Billington.

re -

Student Ministry Board hosts Family Feud event

The Student Ministry Board hosted a “Faith & Family Feud” event last night in the Old Snack Bar. The organization polled Hillsdale students on the following questions leading up to the event.

Compiled by Isaac Green news editor

Which Old Testament character would give the worst dating advice?

1.King David

2. Samson

3. Solomon

4. Jacob/Israel

5. Hosea

6. Judah

Where is your favorite place to pray at Hillsdale?

1. Christ Chapel

2. Outside/Walking

3. My room

4. The Grotto

5. Dow Chapel

Which prophet would be the most popular on Twitter?

1. Elijah

2. Isaiah

3. Jonah

4. Jeremiah

5. John the Baptist

6. Moses

7. Nathan

8. Daniel

If you had to describe God with one word, what would it be?

1. Love/Loving

2. Good

3. Holy

4. All-powerful

5. Indescribable

Which denomination on campus probably has the most “rings by spring”?

1. Catholics

2. Orthodox

3. Anglican

4. Baptists

Who is your favorite Christian theologian?

1. Augustine

2. C.S. Lewis

3. John Paul II

4. Thomas Aquinas

5. Apostle Paul

6. G.K. Chesterton

Construction begins Saturday, March 9, so access to the north quad will be restricted.

Hillsdale College dedicated the statue, sculpted by former Associate Professor of Art Anthony Frudakis, in 2011 in honor of the

centennial of the 40th president’s birthday. Reagan gave a speech at Hillsdale titled “Whatever Happened to Free Enterprise?” in November 1977.

Hillsdale President Larry Arnn told The Collegian the Reagan statue serves as a reminder of one of the college’s four pillars: freedom.

“Among the presidents in this age, the age of modern war and ever-expanding government, Reagan is the best president,” Arnn said. “He had a relationship with the college for decades, and spoke of it several times, including when he visited us here.”

A 1984 photo of Reagan leaning against a White House colonnade inspired the statue.

Sophomore Francesca Federici said she wishes she appreciated the Reagan statue more now that he is gone.

“It looks a little odd having a nice brick walkway with a

nook for a statue and no statue in sight,” she said. “I have many good memories walking by that statue.”

Professor of History Brad Birzer said he believes Reagan is one of America’s three greatest presidents, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

“Reagan was the Ray Bradbury of 20th-century politics — everything he touched became enchanted in some way,” Birzer said. “I certainly see him as the victor of the Cold War, waging the war not with bullets but with an understanding of the dignity of the human person.”

The statue of Reagan is one of eight on the college’s Liberty Walk, which also includes statues of Winston Churchill, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, James Madison, Margaret Thatcher, and George Washington.

Campus reacts to Michigan primary candidates as early voting opens

By Francesca Cella Collegian FreelanCer

Voting is now underway, in Michigan with early in-person voting beginning Feb. 17 for the first time in state history.

“My hope is that a candidate which is currently not on the ballot would somehow emerge,” said Jason Gehrke, assistant professor of history. “I don’t see any candidates that deserve the office. At all. Not even close. ”

Former President Donald Trump visited Michigan this past weekend on the day early voting began.

Gehrke said the lack of virtue among the candidates disqualifies them from the office. More than anything, Gehrke said the responsibility of the American people is to uphold the order of the republic.

“The form of government that we have is unsuited for

vicious people,” he said. “If you can’t do the job, if you’re incompetent, if you’re undignified, if you’re dishonest, all of that matters.”

None of the current options on the ballot come close to meeting the requirements, he said.

Freshman Luke Waters disagreed.

“Trump’s the only viable candidate in this upcoming election,” Waters said. “He has such a strong base that there’s really no argument against him. No one can really take him out. We saw that as everyone consecutively dropped out — they realized that.”

Waters said Trump should be re-elected in 2024 because of his former accomplishments.

“He promised he was going to appoint judges, and that’s what he did,” Waters said.“For Roe, I would be content 10 times over for him being

Institutional Advancement announces staff promotions

By Olivia Pero C ulture editor

Bill Gray ’01 is the new vice president of institutional advancement, assuming the title long held by John Cervini ’74, who has become the executive vice president for institutional advancement.

“Our outreach programs convey the meaning and much of the teaching of the college to vast audiences outside,” said Larry P. Arnn, president of Hillsdale College. “These two men carry that meaning in their characters.”

The institutional advancement department has grown to a point where Cervini, Hillsdale’s longest-serving employee, requires more help managing it, according to Arnn. Gray, the former vice president for marketing, will help Cervini and the institutional advancement team.

Gray will continue to act as the interim vice president for marketing while a replacement is found.

Arnn said Cervini and Gray are two excellent people, now working together in a large, growing, and successful department.

The institutional advancement department does fundraising and outreach work for the college, focusing on building authentic and strong relationships with important donors.

During his time as an undergraduate at Hillsdale, Gray majored in English, served as senior class president, and was editor-in-chief of The Collegian for three semesters. Gray said he is honored and humbled by the trust Arnn and Cervini have placed in him.

“John Cervini is a legend,” Gray said. “For 50 years, his creativity, relentless drive, and love for Hillsdale and its mission have challenged his team to live up to that remarkable standard.”

Gray said Arnn has taught, challenged, and inspired him to become a better servant of that mission.

president. That’s above no new wars, and gas prices, and economy, which are all great.”

Trump currently faces charges for election interference, paying off a sex scandal, and absconding with security documents.

The fact that Trump has been charged with multiple legal counts is an indicator that he is a good candidate, according to Waters. “In this day and age, if the radical left is not trying to imprison you or prohibit people from voting for you, then you’re not dangerous enough,” he said.

Waters said he thinks that while extending the voting period was another move by liberal politicians to have an advantage in the vote, conservatives must take advantage of the extra time.

“Hillsdale has changed a lot since its founding, but one thing hasn’t: its purposes of high learning, faith, character, and freedom,” Gray said.

“I look forward to serving those purposes and the college in this new capacity for years to come.”

David Whalen, associate vice president for curriculum and professor of English, said Cervini and Gray both are relentless on behalf of the college because of their love for it.

“So much of what we all do is made possible by what they do, that our debt of gratitude can never be paid,” Whalen said. “They prefer to remain out of the spotlight, but John’s long service as a mainstay of the college, and Bill’s already invaluable efforts on its behalf

demonstrate their character. It is an honor to work with them.”

Seniors Marie-Therese Romanos and Fernando Bravo (left to right) were named President’s Ball King and Queen on Saturday. Courtesy | s tudent AC tivities Bo A rd

By Elizabeth Troutman e ditor-in- C hie F Maintenance workers

moved the Ronald Reagan statue from its position between the Dow Hotel and Christ Chapel last

Junior Nathan Stanish donned a mustache and bald cap as the host of the event to imitate ‘Family Feud’ host Steve Harvey. Courtesy

Don Tocco to hear student fundraising pitches

By Carly Moran AssistAnt Editor

and businessman Don Tocco is back on campus this week, and he’s looking to give thousands of dollars to Hillsdale clubs and organizations.

The donor will host a fundraising presentation challenge today, beginning at 5 p.m. in the Formal Lounge, where 33 students will give a two to three-minute pitch about their organization’s funding needs.

The judging panel of faculty and staff will award an additional $500 to ‘A’ grade presentations, $325 to ‘B’s, and $150 to ‘C’s. According to Director of Student Programming Rachel Marinko, students will be graded on

three principles: persuasion, donation purpose, and effectiveness.

“Mr. Tocco always begins or ends his time with the students by encouraging them and motivating them to live a life of courage and honor,” Marinko said. “He genuinely cares about how the students live their lives and loves to encourage them. He’s always down for a good conversation and a competitive game of Ping-Pong.”

Tocco is a Michigan businessman who founded the national construction marketing firm Tocco & Associates, Inc. in 1974. Since then, he has become a motivational speaker, both in Michigan elementary schools through his Youth Enrichment Series, as well as at colleges across the country.

He has shared the podium with notable figures such as President Gerald Ford, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and Sen. Bob Dole.

“Ideally, this donation will benefit our philanthropic efforts to give back to the Hillsdale community,” Alpha Tau Omega president and junior Clay Havens said. “Two years ago, esteemed ATO alumnus ‘Money Mike’ Craig won the Tocco challenge, consisting of various athletic competitions and ending with a chess match against Tocco. Don Tocco has been generous to Alpha Tau Omega in the past, and we look forward to connecting with him again this year.”

Tocco has given money to the college for 23 years, most notably through competitive

events. In the past he did sports challenges, where he would compete against students in events like basketball, Ping-Pong, and chess. The presentation challenge is the most recent iteration of this tradition. Like previous years, all participants receive money, but the winners of the competition earn a bonus.

“I am anxious to put my best foot forward,” senior Aruna Harihara, president of the Pre-Professional Society, said. “Ideally, it can get us enough money to get T-shirts, stickers, and pullovers. As different as our members’ career interests are, we all have a unifying goal of serving the community medically in whatever capacity that may be.”

Hungarian minister of culture speaks on Western civilization

By Elyse Apel digitAl Editor

Americans must remember the importance of preserving and fighting for Western civilization, a Hungarian official said in a speech on campus Monday.

“I am really happy to be here at Hillsdale because Hillsdale is a pioneer — and a persevering pioneer in the endeavor of making America a good place where people can live a good life. All the best luck to you, and I am rooting for you,” said Minister of Culture and Innovation János Csák.

Csák is a part of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government, which is known for its family and country-first policies.

The minister started his speech by reflecting on the positive turn Hungary has made culturally and economically in the last few years.

“In a nutshell, I would say we are punching above our weight,” Csák said. “We are an ambitious people.”

Csák said Hungary’s position in Europe can make things difficult politically, but despite that, Hungary is thriving.

“Hungary is not only an open country because of the geography situation, but we are an open economy,” Csák said. “Our exports are equal to our GDP.”

Csák highlighted that the country, which has a population slightly less than that of Michigan, is number 10 in the world on the Economy Complexity Index because of its emphasis on manufacturing and supporting “quality graduates” from its higher education system.

“For us Hungarians, the purpose [of our nation] is really down to earth simple. Our ancestors have been living there for 1,100 years,” Csák said. “We want the Hungarian country to be preserved and stay for another 1,100 years.”

He argued America’s purpose is similar, but American-

“We have to play now by the new rules that have been established by the left,” Waters said. “But I think the longer it’s open, the more opportunity for fraud.”

Gehrke agreed that a lengthened voting period is bound to lead to corruption, but his concern lay more in the overall corruption of American politics.

“I think the extended voting period is a degradation of the activity of voting,” Gehrke said. “A week of voting? It undermines the institution.”

must remember the importance of preserving the connections that hold the country together.

“The first attachment is family. And, actually, if you think about it, identity and culture is passed on to the new generation in educational institutions like schools, universities, and churches,” Csák said. “But predominantly, the biggest impact you will get is from your family. Hence, if you want to preserve your identity, if you want to project it into the future, first you have to support family formation.” While families should come first, and Hungary is prioritizing the issues like increasing the fertility rate of its citizens, it is also the duty of the nation to nurture the citizens’ attachment to the political community, Csák said.

He also emphasized the importance of freedom and laws and customs working hand-inhand.

“There is no individual freedom without constitutional freedom — without the framework of your political entity, such as the laws and customs and other things that enables you to live your individual freedom.”

Timothy Caspar, lecturer of politics and associate vice president for External Affairs, introduced Csák.

“We, and everyone here, are united in another deeper way, by our love of Western civilization and by our love of freedom,” Caspar said. Csák encouraged Americans to band together to preserve the culture.

“If you don’t control your destiny, someone else will,” Csák said.

Senior Sabrina Sherman attended the talk and said while it was engaging and informative, it gave her a different perspective on the situation in America.

“While I was really happy that Hungary is doing so well,” Sherman said, “it was also sad listening to the talk and thinking about how our government is not only not doing things to help traditional families and support the Western heritage and values, but is actively trying to tear it down and make it worse and harder for the average person trying to start their life.”

While she said some aspects of the talk made her discouraged, she left feeling hopeful. “What stood out most to me was a feeling of hope that it is not too late to return to tradition and reverse course on the radical leftist agenda that the West had been barreling towards for years,” Sherman said. “Minister Csák emphasized repeatedly that it will be very difficult, but with hard work it is possible.”

Visiting journalist addresses Taylor Swift, American culture

By Eleanor Whitaker Coll E gi A n rE port E r

All is not well with the American taste in music if Americans think Taylor Swift is a sophisticated artist, according to Mark Hemingway, journalist for The Federalist and Real Clear Investigations.

In a talk titled “Taylor Swift and American Cultural Decline,” Hemingway argued Tuesday night that Swift’s music is not high-level art like Americans and critics have claimed, but a corporate product that appeals to the base emotions of her teenage girl audience.

“The over-the-top celebration of Swift’s success has volumes to say about the stagnation of population,” Hemingway said. “At some point we have to recognize that even if you embrace the winds and pop music, the distance between middlebrow entertainment and the lowest common denominator is enormous.”

The Dow Journalism Program sponsored Hemingway’s talk.

“I think she’s worth paying attention to because something about Swift resonates at the frequency of America, but I’m genuinely not sure her popularity is a testament to her talent,” Hemingway said.

Sophomore Erin Friedenfeld said she thought Hemingway’s criticism of Taylor Swift was balanced.

“I think he was very fair in his argument,” Friedenfeld said. “His overall point was less about how Taylor Swift is public enemy number one, and more about how we need to be more aware about what we’re consuming.”

Hemingway based his talk on an article he wrote for The Federalist in 2023, which he decided to write because he was tired of the constant acclaim for what he sees as poor-quality music.

“Someone who truly deeply cares about the state of music has to stand athwart Taylor Swift yelling ‘What is this crap?’, and it might as well be an intellectually dyspeptic Gen X guy with nothing to lose,” Hemingway said.

Hemingway made sure to acknowledge the Swifties in the room, saying Taylor Swift is excellent at creating appealing music and connecting with her fanbase.

“Anti-Hero” which say: “Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism / Like some kind of congressman?”

Hemingway said the lyrics that demonstrate poetic skill often only deal with one theme: breakups. He cited a lyric from “All Too Well,” which says, “And you call me up again just to break me like a promise / So casually cruel in the name of being honest.”

“And you know what, that’s a pretty good lyric,” Hemingway said. “But in context, ‘All Too Well’ is just another breakup song.”

Hemingway said her music composition is as superficial as her lyrics.

“She’s not just going to the well that runs dry lyrically, she’s also essentially writing the same song over and over,” Hemingway said. “She has about 200 songs in her catalog and 40 of them use roughly the same chord progression.”

According to Hemingway, the popularity of Taylor Swift reflects a decline in the musical tastes of American culture.

“Swift is very, very good at serving audiences that have been conditioned to accept less in terms of musical and lyrical sophistication,” Hemingway said.

Freshman Julia Rentmeester said she agrees with Hemingway that Swift’s songs are morally questionable, but disagrees with his analysis of her songwriting talent.

“I’ve already been critical, heard songs, and realized this is not good music,” Rentmeester said. “These are not good values to be promoting. But on the whole, I think it was a little unfair of him to say that she is a very poor songwriter because I would disagree.”

Friedenfeld said Taylor Swift’s skills are in her ability to communicate emotions through lyrics.

“Hemingway captured how she appeals to the base emotions and very individualistic values in society,” Friedenfeld said. “However, Taylor Swift captures the complexities of the intangible and a lot of the complexities that exist in some more basic things. She is able to dissect exactly what it feels like.”

Friedenfeld said it is important to balance songs that uplift listeners to higher values and songs that only feel good to listen to.

“There are some Taylor Swift songs that I really like, so it is important to be consciously choosing what you are consuming and not identifying with everything,” Friedenfeld said.

“You put a ballot box in a room,” Gehrke said. “You secure the room. You make it socially unacceptable to ask people who they voted for because you are securing the right of the American citizen to vote.”

Freshman Ryan Rodell pointed out the advantages of having a longer voting period, saying it may lead to a higher turnout among conservatives.

Gehrke said voting must be respected rather than informalized.

He also attributed Trump’s motive in having a rally this past weekend to raising voter numbers.

“His goal was probably to remobilize his voter base,” Rodell said. “Secondly, Trump is probably hoping to capitalize on this extended voting period.”

Rodell’s primary concern is that voters put Republicans in the House and Senate. He fears the unwillingness of “left-wing” politicians to compromise endangers people’s rights.

“An extended voting period for conservatives will give them more time to mobilize,” Rodell said. “This could be a good way to mobilize voters, ironically, by making them mad at the voting system.”

“My biggest hope for this election is that either the Senate or the House becomes more Republican,” Rodell said. “Just the fact that there’s such a Democratic majority in the government means that nothing can be done to stop the Democrats.”

Rodell said it seems Republicans will not have the majority, at least in Michigan.

“Realistically, Michigan will probably go blue,” he said. “I would hope they would go red. I don’t really see that unless something drastic changes.”

“If you come into this room prepared to defend the sacred honor of America’s sweetheart, please know that the only direct personal criticism here is a high level critique of Swift’s skills as a songwriter and I hardly think it’s irrational that she’s very popular,” Hemingway said. “I’m perfectly willing to acknowledge that she’s good at what she does.”

But according to Hemingway, what she does includes making billions of dollars, not writing songs worthy of critical acclaim. Hemingway said her song topics and lyrics are defined by self-obsession rather than introspection. “She has almost wholly pioneered a new genre of what an acquaintance of mine calls the ‘bellyaching about a boyfriend’ song,” Hemingway said.

Hemingway said many of her lyrics are terrible and quoted lines from her song

Hemingway said lower music standards will harm our ability to understand ourselves and others. Listening to Swift’s music because it feels good is acceptable, he said, as long as listeners are aware of its message.

“There are things that aren’t inherently good works of art, but for whatever reason, they speak to me, and I think one of the things that you get out of this is even if you are a Swift fan you should be thinking deeply about what you are taking in culturally and the effect that has,” Hemingway said.

Minister of Culture and Innovation János Csák is a part of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government. Elys E Ap E l | Coll E gi A n

Opinions

Letter to the editor: Azerrad’s feminism critique fell short

As a lifelong homemaker and mother of nine children, I should be an easy audience for a talk making “The Case Against Feminism.” Yet Graduate School of Government Assistant Professor David Azerrad’s recent talk left me disappointed and even concerned.

Conservative women do not need to be persuaded that modern feminism — the denial of sex differences, the elevation of career over family, the denigration of motherhood, the celebration of the sexual revolution, the attack on masculinity — is a scourge. That evidence is all around us and has been a frequent subject of conservative writers. They want to know how to properly live out the truth of human equality and sex difference.

America deserves better than Biden

By Malia Thibado Collegian reporter

America cannot afford to be led by someone perceived as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

This is how page five of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report describes President Joe Biden. The report investigated Biden’s purported mishandling of classified documents.

Biden’s mental acuity has long been a major point of contention with Republicans and citizens who doubt his ability to function as leader of the free world, but it is terrifying to see a document written by a Department of Justice official confirm these fears.

The Hur report called Biden’s actual “willfulness” to commit a crime into question due to his advanced age and persistent lapses of memory.

“My memory is fine,” Biden refuted in a press conference on Feb. 8.

In the same speech, he referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as the president of Mexico. Biden implied questions about his memory, including those about the death of his son and his years as vice president, were extra-topical and did not need to be included in the report. The investigation found Biden could not recall the dates of his son’s death nor the years of his vice presidency.

Some of Biden’s other responses to the report were outright lies.

“I did not share classified information,” Biden said when reporters pressed him about his possible mishandling of classified documents.

But according to page 11 of the special counsel report, “at least three times Mr. Biden read from classified entries aloud to his ghostwriter nearly verbatim.”

The document supplements its claims with both the ghostwriter’s audio recordings and transcripts of his meetings with Biden. “None of it was highly classified,” Biden said. “It didn’t have any of that red stuff around the corners.” Officials found boxes of classified documents in

Biden’s garage in Delaware, the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., and the University of Delaware. They were in worndown boxes and unlocked drawers. These documents included top secret information, which an executive order from former President Barack Obama explained “reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security” if disclosed without proper authority.

Biden continued to dodge questions and blunder through the press conference, at one point blaming his staff for placing classified documents in his house.

“I did not know how half the boxes got in my garage until I found out that staff gathered them up, put them together, then took them to the garage,” Biden said.

The staff did take some of Biden’s belongings – his notecards – to the National Archives in adherence to protocol. If Biden’s statement is true, it shows an astounding lack of situational awareness and oversight on his part.

The council report emphasizes that the DOJ decided against prosecuting Biden because of his limited memories, both in 2017 and in 2023. It concluded Biden had mishandled and shared classified documents, but he had not done so with malintent.

If Biden could not be considered willful or liable for prosecution six years ago, how could he be considered competent today?

Biden’s mental state makes a mockery of America’s history and role in the world. As the president meets with antagonistic world leaders, he should represent American interests with strength. Biden is a worn and weak representation of America to its citizens, allies, and enemies.

Malia Thibado is a sophomore studying international business.

Exploring this would require honestly exploring the origins of feminism, including the challenges caused by the industrial revolution, the legal injustices of coverture marriage and barring women from political participation, the lack of opportunities for women in education and professions, and more. It would show why the first

feminists were pro-marriage and pro-family. And it would help the young women in his audience understand they are the beneficiaries of an education that Hillsdale College helped pioneer in 1844 when this path was closed to the vast majority of women. Young conservative women also want to know what an anthropologically sound and socially constructive pro-family women’s movement might look like. Sex is not like race. Parsing how the two halves of the human race are equal and different, each with respect to what involves asking hard questions with profound social and political implications. On these questions, Azerrad shed more heat than light. What should sex difference mean, socially and politically? Azerrad rightly advocated separate spaces for men and women, but which separate spaces are legally or socially warranted, and which are unjust sex discrimination? Other than easy shots at the incoherence and tyranny of the left’s transgender identity politics and blithe assertions that he was “not here to take away anyone’s rights,”

Azerrad didn’t say. He described women’s sports as the “most masculinizing activity that women do,” implying perhaps this is not activity suitable for women. What message did he send to the young women in the audience about the WHIP program which he was ostensibly advocating? Do internships that could lead to wage work in Washington make Hillsdale’s female students unfit for home and motherhood? If not, why?

Fortunately, although Azerrad never mentioned them, there are good scholars doing this work today: Helen Alvare, Mona Charen, Suzanne Venker (Phyllis Schlafly’s niece), Christina Hoff Sommers, Mary Harrington, Helen Roy, Abigail Favale, Rachel Lu, Margaret Harper McCarthy, and legal scholar Erika Bachiochi.

In the end, Azerrad had few positive suggestions other than urging conservatives to make more movies about the joys of motherhood. Yes, respect for motherhood and homemaking need to be restored, but don’t we need to restore marriage first? This also means forming more marriageable, virtu-

ous men, who by definition will be manly gentlemen. In his recent book “Get Married,” social scientist Brad Wilcox shows the modern career-over-family mentality affects both sexes. Due to sexual asymmetry and the needs of young children, which were neither referenced nor explained in the talk, there are real costs when mothers put career over family. But what does putting family first look like for prudent mothers, and what about convincing fathers to abandon their own career-over-family attitudes?

Especially for the conservative young women attending Hillsdale College, Azerrad’s “anti-feminism” is not enough. It might even be counterproductive.

Dating apps aren’t Plan A

He was the kind of guy who called himself a reader but never got beyond the title page. For two hours, we sipped coffee and talked about books, music, and our jobs. We found common ground within the first 15 minutes, but there was no spark in sight. The conception of the event had neutered the excitement of it.

I made it through two hours of a coffee date, the kind of meetup you agree to with a stranger when you’re trying to vet his character. Is he just an average Joe?

Or does this Joe have some bodies in his basement? On the drive home, I decided to delete Hinge.

Dating apps fundamentally reduce people to caricatures of themselves and rob romance of its allure. Even if you leave dates with all your limbs in their rightful places and your pride in place, the apps undermine much of the spontaneous chemistry that is integral to human interaction. It’s time we limit how much we rely on dating apps to find longterm partners.

They work for a few fish in the sea. There are dozens of apps to fit your exact desire: Tinder if you want a quick hookup with your high school bully, Bumble if you’re looking to be friend-zoned, OkCupid if you are in the market for a sugar daddy with a couple of illegitimate children, and so on. For individuals with busy schedules, in socially limiting locations, or living through turbulent phases of life, dating apps offer a way of connecting

with others on their own time. Some people are wary of being approached in public or getting set up by friends. Some people like the ease of interacting with someone virtually before making any in-person commitments. In an increasingly digitized world, it’s no wonder dating apps are so popular.

As of last year, 337 million people use dating apps worldwide, according to the Dating App Report by the Business of Apps. It’s a booming industry with plenty of young people using them as a first action rather than a last resort. Everything else we do, from banking to sending emails to navigating our whereabouts, takes place in apps. Why would love be any different?

But generally, people shouldn’t feel shame about using dating apps. If it weren’t for Hinge in my early years of being a commuter college student, I probably would be engaged at age 19 to a 30-year-old military man in my hometown with divorce looming in a mere handful of years. Sometimes we need to be reminded that worlds exist outside of our immediate environment, but when dating apps become the first step in seeking relationships with others, we risk dehumanizing each other. It is much easier to be judgemental and harsh

when picking apart someone’s online profile than it is to say something to another’s face. It becomes tempting to safeguard ourselves to no return, waiting for the “perfect” profile to come along. Dating apps

don’t bring out the best of us, which is what we usually want to share with potential partners.

Dating apps know they

lack chemistry. They try to revive the excitement of meeting someone in real life with creative prompts for users to respond to. Recently, many platforms like Hinge and Tinder have incorporated voice memo features where users can upload audio instead of text.

But “as seen on my mom’s fridge…” and “my hidden talent is…” go only so far. With a set number of prompts and image galleries, users display their personalities in a very limited fashion. Just as much as my profile likely blended in with the hundreds of other young women in the Colorado Springs area, so did the men who appeared on my screen.

James, Jordan, and Joe all had a picture of a dead fish on their profiles. Max, Connor, and PJ all wanted a girl with a dark sense of humor. Daniel, Mitch, and Caleb all said the “greatest risk” they’ve ever taken was downloading the app. Despite the illusion of diversity, the fish in most seas are astonishingly alike. This isn’t a bad thing. In fact, dating apps place a unique pressure on having to sell yourself as more than you are. Instead of meeting someone at a bar or function where you can immediately bond over a communal activity, you’re having to package yourself into a digitized advertisement. You want to be neat but not a prude. Funny but also serious. Attractive but

not vain. Flirting becomes an exaggerated performance rather than a fun, engaging tool to navigate chemistry.

We’re missing a large part of dating: it is OK to just be a person. But in order to compete with the 30 other individuals lined up in that hour’s slew of faces, there is a pressure to be much more.

Using these apps, we seek intimate partners through the most disconnected means. And we are surprised when the romance an algorithm generated for us isn’t up to par with the stories we read, see, and hear about.

Love is one of life’s most beautiful and complicated experiences, but it’s not guaranteed for everyone. No algorithm can provide that assurance. There is pressure to find it in whatever way we can, even if that means selling ourselves and others short. General ideas of compati -

bility, shared interests, and worldviews can be garnered via a profile and some texts, but people need more than that. So the next time a relationship goes south and it’s time to enter the sea again, leave Hinge as option B. Or C. And if the time comes to re-upload your profile, do so cautiously and intentionally.

Alexandra Hall is a junior studying rhetoric and public address and journalism.

Elizabeth Schlueter is a homemaker and the assistant academic director for CanaVox

The Tinder logo. Courtesy | t inder

The Hinge logo. Courtesy | Hinge

The Bumble logo. Courtesy | bumble

The OkCupid logo. Courtesy | o kCupid

Reject Neuralink: Celebrate human capacity, not telepathy

By Michaela Estruth AssistAnt editor

If you or a loved one suffers from paralysis, one day you may qualify to control computers by merely thinking, according to Elon Musk, founder of Neuralink, a neurotechnology company specializing in brain chip implantation.

Musk announced Jan. 28 that Neuralink had successfully implanted a brain chip in its first human patient, launching human trials at the company.

“Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal,” Musk wrote on X. Musk’s goal is ambitious, but there is a dangerous disconnect. We should not celebrate this as an advancement in science. Instead, we

should fear the results.

Neuralink’s website addresses those with cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, to consider this brain surgery implantation. The implanted chip, called a wireless brain-computer interface, will help people overcome paralysis by allowing them to control external technological devices with their thoughts.

“This research will be the first of its kind to be performed in people and may help us find safer, more effective ways to implant and use our BCI to potentially restore and enhance computer control and other capabilities,” Neuralink’s website says.

But the chip does not restore or enhance. Mind control of a computer or phone is not a natural human abili-

ty, and nothing that has been lost is restored. Furthermore, to enhance something means to build upon an already existing ability, thus requiring mind control to originate in the human mind. This may be shocking, but no such ability exists.

My brother suffers from cerebral palsy. His disability has shaped him and our family for the better. He can’t walk, talk, or move without assistance. But he can laugh. And what joy it brings. His disability is not something to overcome, but instead something to celebrate his unique, miraculous life and the joyful perspective he offers.

In his announcement, Musk named the brain chip Telepathy. This very word choice reveals his ambitions. Musk desires to conquer human limitations, not just disabilities. His larger goal is

mind control.

Musk has implied that in the future, implants will be available even to those without disabilities, according to Laura Cabrera of Pennsylvania State University in the Associated Press. This technology would surpass normal human memory, allowing anyone with an implanted chip to document information and later modify it as desired.

Musk’s endeavors not only attempt human mind control, but also require a dangerous journey to success. In 2022, during animal trials for Neuralink, a monkey died after the implantation in his attempt to control a video game, CNN reported.

Although the FDA has granted permission for human trials, we should be skeptical and cautious. The

Orwell deserves a spot on the Liberty Walk

By Therese Boudreaux CollegiAn FreelAnCer

The question is not whether Hillsdale College should add George Orwell to the Liberty Walk, but why his statue does not stand on campus already.

The purpose of the Liberty Walk is not just to honor great men and women in history but, more specifically, “champions of freedom” who manifest “the importance of education to liberty,” according to the college’s website. Orwell more than fulfills these criteria as a man who spent nearly his entire adult life and career resisting the social and political forces of totalitarianism. People around the world know terms like “Orwellian” and “Big Brother,” even if they have never read Orwell’s novels or essays.

Born Eric Blair in 1903, he took the pen name George Orwell as a tribute to his upbringing in England; George is its patron saint and Orwell is a river near his boyhood home. His early essays condemned imperialism, which he witnessed close up during his first job as an officer with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma.

After quitting that profession in disgust, Orwell spent a year purposefully living in poverty, which he wrote about in his 1933 book “Down and Out in Paris and London.” Orwell identified as a “socialist” in the sense that he believed no one should live under tyranny, whether the tyrant was an economy that sees human beings as disposable or a traditional political dictatorship.

These experiences, along with his participation as a Republican soldier in the Spanish Civil War, cemented Orwell’s hatred of all forms of oppression, both from the left and from the right.

Orwell rebuked Soviet Communism’s false promises and true horrors in his 1945 novel “Animal Farm,” the book which propelled him to fame. But perhaps his best work, and the one most important to our politics today, is his essay “Politics and the English Language,” published in 1946. In it, Orwell describes the very battle institutions like Hillsdale are currently fighting most fiercely, involving the distortion of language and its political consequences.

When the definition of a word becomes muddled and malformed, he wrote, people lose their ability to think clearly. “Since you don’t know what fascism is, how can you struggle against fascism?” Orwell wrote. “[T]he present political chaos is connected with the decay of language.” If words can mean anything, then it becomes possible “to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.” This theme underlies his best-known work “1984,” a dystopian novel portraying a dictatorship that holds power because of its manipulation of political language. Published in 1949 (shortly before Orwell’s death), the book displays one of Orwell’s key themes: freedom, especially freedom of speech, is necessary to keep the human spirit alive.

The most striking element of the regime’s rule is how it has systematically changed the English language so that the citizens have no words to articulate ideas about liberty, beauty, or rebellion — concepts that would constitute “thoughtcrime.” Without the vocabulary, they can’t even think about these things.

The character O’Brien, a member of the “Thought Police,” lays this out to the protagonist Winston Smith during an interrogation: “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”

In the end, Winston’s spirit breaks through this method; as Orwell summarized in his famous essay, when “thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”

George Orwell is the most influential voice against tyranny in recent history. He understood that an easily controlled and corrupted populace cannot be free. He showed how quickly politics can devolve into despotism. Just as the writer permanently carved his stance against tyranny into political thought, the college should honor the man behind the legend by adding his statue to the Liberty Walk.

Therese Boudreaux is a senior studying politics and journalism.

promise of overcoming disability and gaining greater mental capacities is not worth the sacrifice of human lives.

Cabrera noted the dangers of any brain surgery, including seizures and hemorrhages.

“Even though they’re using a novel way to implant the device, we just don’t know if it’s truly going to be a safer approach for human patients,” she said to the AP. “We know that he (Musk) has very bold claims. People not really assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the technology is something that I worry about.”

Even for those with disabilities, this project is dangerous and not worth the risk. Mind control will not overcome paralysis or regain lost movement. And attempting to do so only emphasizes the disability.

Musk wants to risk human life in order to overcome what he views as obstacles. But he is blind to the beauty of humanity. We should not celebrate this implant as a scientific advancement, but we should be ready to mourn human decline.

Michaela

Musk is asking us to join his gamble of life. But at what cost? Our mental abilities are not limitations and do not need a telepathic chip for advancement. Viewing human capacities as something to enhance or overcome misses the greatness of natural abilities.

Letter to the editor: Sing the alma mater, not the fight song

Last week, a writer suggested that the college use the fight song to promote campus unity. As an alumnus who did learn the fight song, I have no desire to subject the current student body to this clumsy text. If we are going to direct our energy to teaching students our college songs, we should teach them our alma mater instead.

In olden days (6 years ago), the college choir’s annual Homecoming tradition included an informal performance in front of the sports complex. Among the repertoire was the fight song. As we fumbled our way through the song, our cringing at “let’s unite anew, come on” and chuckling at “till the unjust few are gone” were as integral to the tradition as the song itself. With the opening of the chapel, the Homecoming traditions have changed, rightfully so, and the choir now sings other, better repertoire. The tune is catchy and original, but the lyrics are not. Let them rest in peace.

But in addition to fight songs, there is another deep tradition in American collegiate sports, and that is the collective singing of the alma mater after games. At most universities, the football team comes to the student section and all the fans sing their alma mater together. Here at Hillsdale, the loudspeakers blare out “Celebrate” immediately following the final whistle, and the handful of students who did come to the game simply disperse. If we wish to unify campus through song, let’s begin by changing that.

The alma mater is part of all the major college ceremonies, but few people know it outside the choir and even fewer sing along. Teaching a song to new freshmen is great, so let’s select a worthwhile song that will make them proud to be at Hillsdale.

Tom Ryskamp is an adjunct instructor of music and a 2019 alumnus of Hillsdale College.

Estruth is a junior studying history and journalism.

Students sing the alma mater. Courtesy | Hillsdale College

George Orwell rose to fame as a critic of totalitarianism. Courtesy | Politi C s/ l etters l ive

City News

Officials investigating seizures among Quincy students

By Logan Washburn Associate Editor

Students in Quincy are suffering seizures and tremors from an unknown cause, prompting an investigation from Quincy Community Schools and health officials.

“While the district has no conclusive evidence regarding the causes of this type of illness at this time, we are committed to addressing these concerns,” said Superintendent Marc Kramer in a letter posted to Facebook Feb. 16.

Parents contacted the district last week with concerns about students suffering from seizures, tremors, and other neurological symptoms, according to Kramer. He said in the letter this is potentially due to “environmental issues” at Quincy High School. Kramer said the district is working with the BranchHillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency to find the cause of the symptoms. The agency’s Public Information Officer Kris Dewey said she could not disclose the number of students being hospitalized or treated for symptoms.

“There are many factors that must be considered within this investigation including things outside of the school environment,” Kramer said. “The school district takes

these concerns seriously and we are actively investigating the reported issues.”

“While the district has no conclusive evidence regarding the causes of this type of illness at this time, we are committed to addressing these concerns”

Parents have contacted the BHSJ Community Health Agency and officials are communicating with the district, according to Dewey. She said the agency is in the first stages of its investigation.

“The investigative process will require the gathering of information, information analysis, and the assistance of families with students who have experienced neurological symptoms which may include seizures, tremors, etc.,” Dewey said.

“Our agency is working hard to ensure the safety and health of the school community,” said Tom Matthew, vice chairman of the BHSJ Community Health Agency.

Parents with children experiencing these symptoms should contact their doctor, Dewey said. Anyone with specific health concerns can contact the BHSJ Community Health Agency at 517-2799561, extension 241.

The district is investigating potential causes such as water and air quality, according to Kramer. He said the district has passed various water tests in recent years and installed filtered water stations, and last year finished a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning project with improved air filtration. Still, Kramer said, the district will inquire about water and air quality testing to determine any issues.

Hillsdale Craft Supply to host card-making class

Last month, the craft shop hosted a Valentine’s Day card

workshop. According

“We enjoy ourselves,” said Sydney Kubien, a representative from Close To My Heart paper company, who teaches the workshop. “We sit around the table and we share our cards. I tell them to color outside the line and each person has their own take on that card.”

Between 1 and 6 p.m, crafters can come in and choose between eight different card kits made by Close to My Heart paper company, said Shelly Mangus, owner of Hill-

cost to complete a card is $4. “We teach you how to do each one of these layers and then put that whole thing together for a finished card,”

Mangus, more than 40 people attended the event.

store will continue to host crafting events on the fourth Sunday of every month. Kubien said she loves watching other people get creative during card crafting events.

“If there is a new person in class, I like to sit one-on-one with them so they can understand what all the different pieces to the card are for, but then I let them take over,” Kubien said. “They might want to become creative. They don’t have to follow my design right

said. “I would go on the hunt for papers that would match the hummingbird. Hummingbirds look for flowers, so I had to have flower paper in there. I play with the paper.” According to Mangus, the event is rooted in her passion for

whether

not, it’s the feeling that that card gives you as you made it.”

Kubien

Community to host baby shower for expectant mothers

By Elizabeth Putlock Collegian Freelancer

A community baby shower will be held for expecting Hillsdale County parents on May 18 at Hillsdale High School from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

“We have a lot of moms who don’t get a baby shower,” said Stefanie Rathburn, director of Hillsdale County Great Start Collaborative. “It’s

intended for anybody in the county who is expecting or who has a baby.”

The event will be hosted by Hillsdale County Great Start Collaborative, an organization that provides resources to assist families with children prenatal through third grade. Rathburn said they hold the baby shower every other year to provide parents and caregivers with support and free resources on pregnancy and infancy. Approximately 25 community agencies are expected to be present at the baby shower, including Hillsdale Hospital and Helping Hands Pregnancy Resource Center. Brief presentations will be given to help educate families on current topics relating to pregnancy and infancy.

Local mother Rachael Johnson attended the baby shower for the first time six years ago and said the event was greatly appreciated by her and her family. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was a blessing all around,” Johnson said. “I was getting ready to have my third baby, so going into that, starting maternity leave, and being the sole provider for our fam-

ily at that time, having a few extra things that I didn’t have to worry about purchasing financially was a relief to me.”

According to Rathburn, every attendee will receive a free door prize and swag bag with supplies, including diapers, with special swag bags for the fathers who also attend the event. Complimentary Pack ‘n Plays will also be provided for every family at the baby

shower. Johnson said she enjoyed being with a community of other supportive moms. “It was just nice to see us all come together in one place and to know that there is a community of moms in this area,” she said. Registration for the event will open mid to late March with more details at greatstarthillsdale.com.

By Eleanor Whitaker Collegian Reporter

Hillsdale Craft Supply is hosting a greeting card workshop Feb. 25.

dale Craft Supply. They will learn how to cut paper with a die cut machine and layer the paper on a greeting card. The

Mangus said.

making

to

The

Craft supply also had a card-making class for Valentine’s Day. Courtesy | FaC ebook

Many cards will be available. Courtesy | FaC ebook

Mangus has a passion for cards. Courtesy | FaC ebook

Kubien loves making greeting cards. Courtesy | FaC ebook

Meijer successful in finding workers while local businesses struggle

By Isabella Helms Collegian Reporter

Meijer says its hiring process is going well, even as other local businesses suffer from labor shortages.

As part of its expansion in Hillsdale, Meijer plans to fill more than 350 positions across various departments. Erin Cataldo, Meijer’s public relations manager, said those employed by the company will receive benefits such as weekly pay, team member discounts, and paid parental leave. Meijer also offers advancement opportunities.

“Hiring is going very well so far, and we’re excited to see the support from the community,” Cataldo said.

Cataldo said Meijer has a history of investing in the areas they serve.

“We are a family-owned company started in Michigan nearly 90 years ago, and we’ve been investing in our communities ever since,” she said.

Meanwhile, local businesses are struggling to find and keep employees.

Dena Walters, owner of the Local Eatery, said perpetual turnover and the impact of external factors like inflation and changing consumer habits make finding and keeping staff difficult.

“There is a lot of time and effort put into hiring someone new; a lot of resources go into it,” Walters said.

Currently, she is looking to expand her team.

“I’m trying to hire some new staff — not to get rid of who I currently have, but just to fill the gap that I have,” Walters said.

The Local Eatery is looking to hire one additional cook and

waitress, Walters said.

In addition, Walter said that the ongoing struggle with staff turnover has been exacerbated by the pandemic and the new competition from marijuana dispensaries in Hillsdale County for labor (although marijuana is not legal in the City of Hillsdale).

a different job that makes more money or they decided to go back to school,” Walters said.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the United States is 3.7% as of January 2024. The BLS reported a higher unemployment rate of 4.3% for Michigan as of December

“Hiring is going very well, and we’re excited to see the support from the community”

“You don’t have to have the qualifications to distribute marijuana, you just have to be trained,” Walters said. “So when the market got flooded with people opening these new marijuana dispensaries, we lost a lot of employees to that.”

Walters’ struggle to find staff willing to work in the demanding conditions of the food service sector mirrors a widespread issue affecting many local businesses.

“The restaurant industry is notoriously tough, and finding dedicated staff has become even harder,” Walters said. “It’s a double-edged sword with inflation rates and people not wanting to work.”

Walters recognized that many quit their jobs for positive reasons.

“One thing I feel like I have been blessed with is that most of the people that I have lost is because they’re reaching out for

2023. The unemployment rate for Hillsdale County is slightly lower at 4.1% as of December 2023, according to the Michigan Department of Technology, Management, and Budget.

Checker Records owner John Spiteri has noticed shifts in customer behavior and the availability of his staff post-pandemic.

“The service industry workforce has been hit really hard with people coming and going ever since the pandemic,” Spiteri said. “If you look around, a lot of restaurants are all in the same position where they’re always looking for help.”

For Spiteri, hiring new employees is time consuming given the training required for a barista at his establishment.

“It takes a while to teach somebody how to make coffee because there’s so many variations,” Spiteri said. “Coffee can be 10 different things to 10 dif-

ferent people, so you have to invest in your baristas for a while and you hope that you’ll get your return back from it.”

Another local business grappling with the pandemic’s aftermath is the Finish Line Family Restaurant, owned by Lisa Slade. “COVID-19 closures and the subsequent labor shortage have hit us hard,” Slade said.

Slade said these problems have made it difficult to find staff.

“We’ve been looking for a cook for a while, probably a year and a half now,” Slade said. “After COVID, it was really hard to get people to apply.”

Slade also said rising food costs are affecting her staffing capabilities and customer dining habits.

“I think that inflation and the price of food — not just what restaurants charge but the price of food in general — has affected how much customers go out to eat,” she said.

Slade said she remains committed to her staff and customers.

“Whenever I have somebody that I cherish, I try to treat them as best I can,” she said, noting that fair pay and good treatment have helped retain her longterm employees.

Having dedicated nearly five decades to the Finish Line, Slade said she finds great fulfillment in the relationships she has built.

“It’s very rewarding,” Slade said. “I love hearing how they love coming back. It’s like we are a part of their life.”

Bruneau is out on bond

By Jacob Beckwith Collegian Reporter

Joseph Bruneau is out on bond from the Hillsdale County Jail, according to Paige Garcia, a clerk for the Hillsdale County Court.

Bruneau was the subject of an email sent by Hillsdale College Security that warned students, faculty, and staff to call 911 if Bruneau approached them. He was arrested and charged with larceny, domestic violence, and resisting arrest last October.

“He posted bond and was released on Feb. 15,” Garcia said.

Among the conditions of Bruneau’s current bond is a no trespass order on Hillsdale College property, according to Joe Kellam, the

college’s director of security and emergency management.

“He has a tether on and there is a geofence around the college that will alert authorities if he enters Hillsdale College property,” Kellam said. “It is important to remember that he is out on bond and is free to walk the city as he pleases.”

Hillsdale County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Jamie Wisniewski said the charges for larceny and resisting arrest are set to move forward into preliminary exams, where the prosecutor will look for probable cause, while the domestic violence case will have a pre-trial hearing in the coming weeks.

Hillsdale airport to open flight school Police Report:

The Collegian compiled a list of recent arrests from the City of Hillsdale Police Department and the Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Office

Feb. 20

By Alessia Sandala Collegian Reporter

Hillsdale Flight Center will open a flight school at the Hillsdale Municipal Airport in early May, offering flight training and airplane rentals.

“I was born and raised in Hillsdale, and I struggled to afford flight training,” said Travis Stebelton, the owner of Hillsdale Flight Center. “I’m not opening this to try to make any money off of it. The plan is to start with an affordable airplane, then any potential profits that we may generate will be rolled back into that airplane for instrumentation upgrades.”

Stebelton said the flight center has purchased its first plane and is waiting for the plane to be inspected for safety.

“My whole goal with this is to make it affordable,” Stebelton said. “So if it’s a cheaper airplane we’re hoping to be more competitive in the region, draw more people in, and make it more affordable. I do anticipate us having one of the lowest rates in the region.”

Students and community members who already have a pilot’s license will be able to rent airplanes after a ride with an instructor, so they can continue to log flight hours, Stebelton said.

“I really need to see how the community reacts to this initial startup phase and see what the interest level is and what the customer base actually ends up looking like,” Stebelton said.

The flight school is a way to bring more traffic to the Hillsdale Municipal Airport, said Airport Manager Ginger Moore.

“We have always wanted a flight school,” Moore said.

Freshman Xavia Valverde said she has always wanted to learn to fly an airplane because of a family connection to airplanes and the thrill of flying, but never thought she would have the opportunity.

“My great-grandpa was a fighter pilot in World War II, and my grandpa was a bush pilot for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and he flew all over Alaska,” Valverde said. “I have always loved flying and want to fly bush planes. I love airplanes and to me the novelty of

flying never wears off, but I never thought that I would get the opportunity to fly in Hillsdale.”

Stebelton said he hopes to make flying a plane achievable for everyone, especially students.

“We want to make it a more realistic opportunity. Depending on how things go in the first six months or so, I’d like to be able to offer scholarships to a few local students to obtain their private pilot license,” Stebelton said.

Junior Graham Wesbury said learning to fly at the Hillsdale Municipal Airport would be perfect for beginner pilots.

“I learned to fly at a controlled field which was just outside of Chicago,” Wesbury said. “The airspace was constantly packed with general aviation aircraft, airliners, and private jets. This would be a far more relaxing way to enjoy the hobby.”

Stebelton said the flight school will also offer 45-minute to one hour introductory flights to young people looking to learn to fly at a much more affordable rate.

The Hillsdale sheriff’s office arrested Brock Ian Adams on a Criminal Bench Warrant for a Contempt of Court.

Feb. 18

Michigan State Police arrested Chase Nicholas Weber for operating while intoxicated.

Feb. 19

Hillsdale police arrested Jeffrey Allen Keller for terroristic threats, domestic violence, and three other charges.

Feb. 18

Michigan State Police arrested Steven Bud Elmendorf on a PPO Violation.

Holy Trinity to hold worship at Methodist church

By Lauren Scott City News Editor

Holy Trinity Anglican Parish will hold its worship at United Methodist Church for the next three months.

“We are undergoing some renovations and will be out of our building for about three months,” said Laura Negus, teacher at Hillsdale Academy and member at Holy Trinity. “Worship time is also changing to 11:15 a.m.”

Hillsdale College sophomore Anna Teply attends Holy Trinity and said she appreciates the members of United Methodist Church.

“It’s really kind of the Methodists to accommodate Holy Trinity during the undercroft renovations, particularly as their building is larger than Holy Trinity,” she said, “which will be great because hopefully everyone will be able to fit in the pews and not need to use extra seating, as we currently have to do in Holy Trinity.”

The flight school will offer airplane rentals. Courtesy | FaC ebook

Bruneau is banned from campus. Courtesy | Jailt raC ker

Sports

Women's Basketball

Chargers split vs. conference foes

By Moira Gleason Assistant Editor

In one of its best offensive performances of the season, the women’s basketball team dominated Cedarville University 8662 at home on Thursday before falling to top-ranked Ashland University 90-59 on Saturday.

Hillsdale’s five-game win streak ended with the loss but the team still holds the seventh spot in the G-MAC with a record of 14-6 overall and 10-6 in G-MAC play.

The Chargers established an edge early against Cedarville, outscoring the Yellowjackets 27-13 in the second quarter to take a 21-point lead into the second half.

Eleven players scored for Hillsdale in the contest, including 42 points from bench players. Although the Chargers went 3-13 from beyond the arc, they made up for it from close by scoring 60 points in the paint and outrebounding Cedarville 53-25.

The team’s ability to share the ball led to their victory, ac-

cording to sophomore Payton Adkins.

“We have been working on connecting with each other and ball movement on a whole new level than when we started back in October,” Adkins said. “We're seeing all sides of the floors and hitting everyone until we get that lapse in the defense and are able to get the shot we want. It also helps that our team has such great chemistry and energy that it carries our offense and defense throughout the game.”

Though Hillsdale held Cedarville to a 33.9% shooting percentage, head coach Brianna Brennan said the team struggled defensively. “We weren't very disciplined and really reverted back to some bad old habits of ours,” Brennan said. “We did get a lot of stops, but it was without the urgency that we normally have so that wasn't ideal. We're nearing tournament time, so this is a point where we have to fine tune the things we're good at in order to play as long as we can in March.”

Five players scored in the double-digits on Thursday. Adkins set a personal best with 10 points, four rebounds, and four assists. Junior Lauren McDonald led the team with a 16 point, 13 rebound double-double, and senior Sydney Mills added 10 points and eight rebounds in only 14 minutes of play. Senior center Olivia Patch tied her career high with 11 points in the contest.

Despite a game-high 21 points from McDonald, Hillsdale could not keep up with defending national champion Ashland University in the senior day game on Saturday.

“They are a really great team and we knew we had everything to gain from just trying to leave everything we had out on the court,” junior Caitlin Splain said. “One of the biggest things we can take away from that game is to not be threatened by who we are playing and play basketball at the level we know we are capable of.” Ashland shot 10-for-18 from deep in the first half on their way to a 25-point halftime lead. The Eagles finished the night shooting 52.9% from the floor and 41.4% from deep.

Brennan said she challenged her team at halftime to continue to battle Ashland regardless of the score.

“I was very proud of our girls fight in the second half,” Brennan said. “Possession by possession we did a much better job defensively, and our offense started to look more fluid too.”

Hillsdale celebrated its three seniors Dani Hohlbein, Mills, and Patch.

Behind McDonald, junior Kendall McCormick contributed seven points, four rebounds, and four assists in the contest, and freshman Savannah Smith added six points and four rebounds.

The Chargers will be on the road this week to face Ohio Dominican tonight at 5:30 p.m. and Findlay on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Adkins said the team is continuing to hone in on its defense in preparation for the final games of the regular season.

“We want to be playing our best basketball come tournament time,” Adkins said. “So to do that we have been really honing in on defense: applying ball pressure, preventing middle drives, good closeouts. All the things that we need to be able to do at a high level to compete at a high level and advance.”

Men's Tennis Hillsdale falls to Edinboro, Mercyhurst

By Emelia Klanduch Collegian Freelancer

The Chargers men’s tennis team faced tough losses to Edinboro University and Mercyhurst University this past weekend.

“We knew we weren’t far away, especially from Edinboro,” freshman Henry Hammond said. “And they beat one of the best teams in our area [Tiffin University]. We weren’t anywhere near our best, and we still almost beat them. I think that gives us a lot of hope.”

On Feb. 17, the Chargers played Edinboro University in Pennsylvania. Senior Sean Barstow and sophomore Aidan Pack won their doubles match. The Edinboro teams won the other two matches, though, and Hillsdale lost the point. Barstow won his singles match. Pack

and freshman Ellis Klanduch played close matches against their opponents. Senior Tyler Conrad also lost to his singles opponent. The singles losses gave Edinboro a 4-1 win over the Chargers.

The following day, the Chargers played Mercyhurst University, winning the doubles point with victories from Barstow and Pack, as well as Hammond and senior Daniel Gilbert.

Hammond scored another Hillsdale win, beating his opponent 6-1, 6-4. Pack and Gilbert both took their singles matches to the third set, but came up short. Barstow, Klanduch, and Conrad also lost their singles matches.

“We played okay, but there is definitely room for improvement,” head coach Keith Turner said. “I'm happy overall with our doubles, but we haven't played a match this

Men's Track and Field

year where all of our singles players have played to the best of their ability.”

Barstow gave his thoughts on the team moving forward.

“As long as we keep improving towards conference season, we’re on a good track,” Barstow said. “It’s good that we’re having a lot of close matches in the beginning here, to give us that experience so we know how to play when those moments come up later.”

The Chargers will face Lake Superior State University and Ferris State University this upcoming weekend, Feb. 24 and 25.

“We just need to win the bigger points at the right times and not let the pressure get to us,” Hammond said.

Haas breaks school record, McCormick wins pole vault

By Joshua Mistry Collegian Reporter

Sophomore Ben Haas set a new school record in the weight throw at the Hillsdale Tune-Up meet Feb. 17, a first-place win earning him the second-best NCAA DII mark, while junior Cass Dobrowolski moved up to the twenty-first best mark nationally in the high jump.

In the field, Haas won the weight throw with a mark of 21.78 meters. Dobrowlski won the high jump with a season-best mark of 2.09 meters giving him a chance at earning a spot in the DII indoor national meet.

Also competing for the Chargers in the field was sophomore Connor McCormick, who won the pole vault with a personal best of 4.76 meters.

On the track, senior Owen Gardner placed first in the 60-meter dash with a personal best time of 7.01, followed by senior Jamahl Burke, who placed

second with a time of 7.11. Senior Joseph Ritzer placed second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.57. Senior Sean Fagan placed second in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.35 seconds. Freshman Rhys Woodard won the 800-meter run with a time of 2:03.40. Junior Richie Johnston placed first in the mile with a time of 4:16.68 and sophomore Emil Schleuter placed third in the mile with a personal best time of 4:31.46.

Senior Drew Ransom placed third in the 60-meter dash and the 200-meter dash, with times of 7.16 and 22.71, respectively.

“There were a lot of personal bests and an even stronger sense of community between position groups as we cheered each other on throughout the meet,” Ransom said.

Also competing for the Chargers in the field was sophomore Connor McCormick, who won the pole vault with a personal best of 4.76 meters.

"I feel really good about my

jumping. G-MACs are coming up this week, and we're all excited," McCormick said. "Right now we're just trying to maintain through the week."

Junior Ryan Van Havel won the long jump with a personal best mark of 5.97 meters.

“It's good to see the results of a whole semester of hard work, patience, and perseverance pay off,” Van Havel said. “We've done the work necessary to compete at 100% and now it's just a matter of maintaining that energy and ensuring we're all rested and well-primed for this weekend.”

The Chargers will race next at in Ashland University at the annual G-MAC Indoor Championship meet Feb. 24-25.

“Once again, we need to make sure we're listening to our bodies and trust that our hard work over the past months has prepared us for success this weekend. There's no doubt in my mind that everybody's worked hard so far, so we should dominate,” Ransom said.

Women's Tennis Chargers grab first win of season

By Isabella Helms Collegian Reporter

The Hillsdale women’s tennis team celebrated its first win of the season with a commanding 6-1 victory over Edinboro University Feb. 17.

Despite facing a 2-5 setback in the match against Mercyhurst University the following day, senior Helana Formentin said that Saturday’s win was just what the team needed.

“Our series of losses at the beginning of the season amidst many hours of practice was starting to deplete our confidence,” Formentin said. “However, we were able to come together as a team on Saturday and get that 6-to-1 win.”

Kicking off the day with a strong start in doubles play Feb. 17, the Chargers took all three doubles matches from the Fighting Scots.

Sophomore Megan Hackman and senior Melanie Zampardo led the effort with a closely contested 7-5 victory in No. 1 doubles. The No. 2 and No. 3 doubles followed suit, with junior Courtney Rittel and freshman Ane Dannhauser beating their opponents 6-4 at the No. 2 spot, while junior Elizabeth McGivern and Formentin’s 6-2 win in No. 3 ensured a clean sweep in doubles play.

“We started the match hot with a 3-0 doubles sweep, and unlike previous matches, kept

that momentum going into singles,” Formentin said. “Every court put everything on the line and we won as a cohesive team.”

The Chargers began singles play with a No. 1 singles loss. They quickly recovered, however, winning the next five matches.

At the No. 2 singles spot, Zampardo led the charge in singles play with a 6-0, 6-3 victory. The winning streak continued with McGivern clinching a 6-3, 6-2 win in the No. 3 position, and Formentin outdoing her opponent 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the No. 4 spot. Rounding out the victories, senior Julia Wagner won 3-6, 6-0, 6-0 in the fifth singles match, and Hackman dominated the No. 6 singles 6-0, 6-1.

“Personally, I didn’t play my best and didn’t get the results I wanted in singles,” Dannhauser said. “But, the team all showed up and played their absolute best. The energy was there, and we competed extremely well once again.”

In their second matchup of the weekend, the Chargers fell to Mercyhurst University.

The Chargers began with a promising start as Hackman and Zampardo claimed a 6-2 win in the opening doubles match. This early advantage, however, wasn’t enough to claim the doubles point, a first for the season, placing Hillsdale in a 1-0 deficit.

In the singles matches, Zampardo celebrated an undefeated

weekend as she achieved a 6-1, 7-6 victory. Additionally, Rittel clinched a 6-3, 6-4 win for the Chargers in the No. 6 singles. Facing notably strong competitors, Formentin said the Chargers struggled to bridge the early deficit and were unable to turn the match around in the end.

“Going into Sunday, we hoped for the same outcome, but came a bit short,” Formentin said. “Regardless of the score, we are hoping to take the positives from it and get to practice this week, determined to get another win.”

The Chargers now stand at 1-4 overall. Looking ahead, the Chargers will face Lake Superior State University on Feb. 24 and Ferris State University on Feb. 25.

“Coming out on top against Edinboro really helped the team’s confidence, so I’m excited for our matches against Lake Superior and Ferris this weekend,” Hackman said.

According to Hackman, the Chargers are building momentum, and they intend to use their recent experiences to achieve success in future matches.

“This past weekend was very good for the team,” Dannhauser said. “This week we are going to work on closing out the tight matches, and winning the important points before this weekend’s upcoming matches.”

Junior Kendall McCormick had 11 points in two games. Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

Junior Cass Dobrowlski won the high jump at the Hillsdale Tune-Up Saturday. Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

Sophomore Ben Haas broke the Hillsdale College record for the weight throw Saturday. Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

Chargers start spring season down south, finish 16th

By Thomas McKenna Sports Editor

The Hillsdale men’s golf started their spring season down south this week, finishing 16th in the Saint Leo Invite on Monday and Tuesday in Dade City, Florida.

Freshman Oliver Marshall and Sophomore Max Burns led the Chargers, scoring 216 and 218, respectively. Both golfers carded low scores in the last round, with Marshall shooting 69 and Burns, a four-under-par 68.

“I hit the ball really well and I putted really well,” Burns said. “The only area where I really struggled was just around the greens, but that was kind of to be expected since it’s been cold so we haven’t really been able to play outside much. That's the first party game to go.” Marshall said the team had not been practicing outside much for the past month due to the frigid Michigan climate, taking most of their reps on an indoor golf simulator instead. “Having not played much golf outside the last month or so, it wasn't a terrible performance,” Marshall said. “Towards the end of the tourna-

Ondracek said her goal was to get the NCAA B cut time at the G-MAC meet.

“I was really anxious and nervous. I wanted to get it in the morning so I could be stress-free at night, but I did not get it, I added a few seconds,” Ondracek said. “So, going into finals, I was like, ‘I just need to try to relax and have fun, but also just go for it.’ Elise and I were head-to-head the whole time. Together we pushed each other to go faster than we would have alone. I was just amazed, and when I saw my time, I was just so happy.”

Junior All-American Megan Clifford also earned a B cut time in the 200-yard butterfly after finishing second with a time of 2:03.65. Three of her freshman teammates also made it to the podium in the 200 butterfly: Callie Lucero in fifth (2:11.96), Inez McNichols in sixth (2:14.28), and Olivia Leathers in seventh (2:15.69). Kirner said Leathers had never swam the 200 butterfly before, at least not at Hillsdale. She added it to her event roster two weeks before the meet.

“So she swims the 200 fly

in practice and we’re like, ‘well you can do that,’” Kirner said. “So we put her in there and she went from a no time, which essentially is the slowest heat, and then made the eight seed, so she ended up in the championship heat.” Ondracek said it was one of her favorite events to watch.

“I love watching Megan Clifford — she is just amazing and she’s an inspiration. She’s a great leader on the team as well, so seeing her hard work in practice come to fruition in her races was great,” she said. “It was the first time Olivia Leathers ever swam the 200 fly and she got into the A final. She was so happy and it was really great to see her do that. I know she worked really hard for it.”

Kirner said the team’s freshmen performed excellently at the meet, with six of the seven making it to the podium in at least one event. He said “team breaststroke” did particularly well. Freshman Lauren Kamp finished third in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:06.42), just between her junior teammates Joanna Burnham in second (1:04.90) and Emma Dickhudt in fourth (1:06.53). “I swam personal best times in every event which I was re-

ment, I started getting some my feel and touch back which was nice.”

Marshall moved to Naples, Florida in third grade, and said he played golf consistently there for all four years of high school. This experience in the Sunshine State made him familiar with water-dominant courses and Bermuda grass — which he said grabs the clubface more when chipping than the Bentgrass often used on northern courses.

“The golf course style is a little different down there, too,” Marshall said. “There’s more water. It’s a little tight -

er off the tee, so a little more penalizing if you hit bad tee shots, which is what I'm used to.”

Marshall said this Floridian familiarity helped him keep up with the competition, mostly comprised of southern teams.

“The teams we were playing against were pretty much all Florida or South teams,” Marshall said. “So they were pretty used to Bermuda, and I'm very familiar with Bermuda and Florida golf. So it was nice to get back to something I’m a little more comfortable with.”

Burns, who grew up in

Lakewood, Washington, said he was less familiar with the South’s Bermuda grass. Still, Burns scored only two strokes off his southern teammate.

“With Bermuda, you can't hit the ground before you hit the ball,” Burns said. “You have to strike the ball first. It tends to shoot out and a lot lower, so it's just harder because there's less room for error.”

ally happy about,” Kamp said. “Being on the podium with Joanna and Emma was one of my favorite moments.”

This meet marked the last competition for the team’s three seniors: Caroline Holmes, Phoebe Johnston, and Sarah Pataniczek.

“They're three of the most outstanding character people I've had in a class,” Kirner said. “These three are just class acts all the way through. It’s such a pleasure to have had them on the team. It has nothing to do with their times and everything to do with the people they are, as far as I'm concerned.

Kirner said Holmes was one of the best individual performers of the meet.

“Caroline Holmes, who really is the heart and soul of our team, she had some best times,” he said. “She is always competing with the best of Findlay and she went out with some of the best swims that I've seen a se-

nior go out with.” Holmes was part of the team that broke a 12-year-old Hillsdale record in the 800-yard freestyle relay. Hillsdale’s team — made of Holmes, Mason, freshman Alyson Early, and Clifford — placed second with a time of 7:39.34 which was a three-second improvement on their seed time and 28 hundredths of a second faster than the previous Hillsdale record.

“We've been after that record for so many years because we always have some pretty decent distance and mid-distance swimmers,” Kirner said. “I had two All-Americans on that relay and two All-Americans on this one, but we ended up beating it by 28 one-hundredths of a second. That was, I mean, everybody just lit up. That third day was unbelievable for us just particularly. We just had a great day and it was capped off by the 800 free relay.”

Holmes also swam the first leg of the 400 freestyle relay, the last event of the meet. Holmes, Mason, Early, and Clifford all contributed to a close second-place finish with a time of 3:32.87, a two-second improvement on their seed time.

“We had resounding second place relays all the way through the meet up until the very last event, which was the only event where we were a third seed and we knew we had to beat Frostburg State to get the silver medal,” Kirner said. “We actually just out-touched Frostburg’s relay for that second place and it had a lot to do, again, with Caroline Holmes having a best time to start out and then just everybody in that relay just swam a heck of a relay and it went right down to the wire.”

He said that race was emotional for the women on the team.

“Part of the reason the girls were in tears was because it was

“I think a lot of it is mentality,” Thompson said. “I think we played a lot of good holes. We have to make sure we’re focused on making the right decisions for an entire 18-hole round and not having any slipups and not letting our emotions get the best of us, leading to some bad decisions.”

“I think the guys did a good job of that,” Thompson said.”

Freshmen Ryan O’Rourke and Robert Thompson shot 226 and 227. Senior Gerry Jones Jr. scored 233. The Chargers will head south again next month to compete in the Ralph Hargett Memorial tournament in Monroe, North Carolina. Head coach Matt Thompson said the Saint Leo Invite this week was the strongest competition of Hillsdale’s season.

Caroline’s last swim and she is such an important part of the team,” Kirner said. “It seems like every year you get to the end of the meet and there are tears to be shed by the women because that's gonna be the last time they swim with those particular teammates.”

The 400 yard free relay was a great way to end a great meet, Kirner said, despite the fact that Findlay won the conference championship overall.

“It's just such a fun sport to coach when you got kids like we got,” he said. “They really kept their heads in the game and I just really enjoyed the idea that it didn't make a difference about the score. They just wanted to get out there and compete and show their best. So even though we were going to the last day and we knew we couldn’t catch them, they were just still doing so awesome all the way through that last relay. So, kudos to my team — I’m proud of them.”

Junior transfer Lucia Ruchti said the meet was a great way to end the challenging season.

“Everyone worked really hard and the hard work definitely paid off at the end. It was very competitive,” she said.

For most Charger swimmers, the season is over. But for the three athletes with NCAA B Cut times — particularly Mason and Clifford — there may be one more opportunity to compete this year.

Kirner said they will know by the middle of next week whether they qualified to compete at the NCAA Division II championships. If they do, they will travel to Geneva, Ohio for the meet which runs March 1316.

Charger chatter

Compiled by Megan Li Grace Wallner, Softball

What is a movie that scarred you as a child?

“The Wizard of Oz.” I was terrified of the scene with the witch and her monkeys — that was so scary when I was five.

What is your favorite smell?

When you walk down the bread aisle of the grocery store. That’s my favorite smell, which is ironic because I can’t eat bread. I’m gluten-free.

What is your favorite thing to eat on campus?

An A.J.'s chicken quesadilla.

What is your favorite song at

the moment?

I’ve been into rock lately. “Jump,” by Van Halen is a song I’ve been listening to a lot.

What is a sport that does not exist but should?

Wall-ball should definitely be a competitive sport, or a game that my siblings and neighbor friends and I used to play when we were little: soccer tennis. It was like the rules of tennis but with a soccer ball and with your feet.

Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

Swim from A10

Junior Megan Clifford finished second in 200-yard butterfly. Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

Senior Phoebe Johnston competed in her last G-MAC Championships. Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

Charger Sports

Walk-off homer gives Hillsdale win to end first series

By Cassandra DeVries Social Media Manager

The Hillsdale baseball team won its series final against Wayne State University 8-6 with a walk-off homerun on Feb. 18. in a four-game series at Ting Stadium in Holly Springs, North Carolina to open their 2024 season.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Chargers were trailing 6-2 when senior outfielder Joe Hardenbergh hit a home run, giving the team the momentum to turn the game around.

“We started 0-3, so the weekend already wasn't off to a great start. We were feeling down a little bit,” senior outfielder Danny Passinault said. “Then Joe had that big hit midway through the game, and relief pitchers Andrew Jones, Paul Brophy, and Chad Stevens came in and kept it close enough for us to make a comeback.”

“I was struggling pretty much all weekend,” Landis said. “It was nice to pull through and turn the luck around.”

right field wall.

“It was a great experience.

In the Thursday game, I had a chance to win it and I didn’t

the plate and two home runs.

Tenuta was three for four and junior outfielder Zak Kent hit two doubles.

Senior starting pitcher Daly Skees went four innings with one strikeout and two walks.

The Chargers scored a combined six runs in the eighth and ninth innings. Senior catcher Jaekob Sallee and freshman infielder Rocco Tenuta loaded the bases with back-to-back singles. Senior first baseman Jeff Landis hit a grand slam to right field, bringing the game to a tie with his 36th career home run.

Swimming and Diving

Chargers take runner-up at G-MAC Championships

really didn’t think I was gonna get it because of that one Findlay girl,” she said. “But then I got it and I was just like, ‘this is amazing.’ Like, this was a dream come true. So it was amazing. It really wrapped up the meet well.”

that put individuals in the running to qualify for the NCAA Championship.

“It was a very good meet,” head coach Kurt Kirner said. “Our freshmen swam exceptionally well. We had six freshmen this year that got into finals, so the future looks very bright because we do have a number of younger kids that are stepping up. They really held their own, so I was very happy with that.”

Freshman Izzy Ondracek won Women’s Freshman of the Meet and junior All-American Elise Mason won Women’s Co-Swimmer of the Meet alongside a Findlay University Athlete. Ondracek said she wasn’t sure she would win Freshman of the Meet because a Findlay athlete had earned almost the same number of points at the conference meet. “It was a shock because I

Both Ondracek and Mason earned NCAA B cut times in the 500-yard freestyle, meaning they may qualify for the NCAA Division II Championship meet taking place in March. Kirner said the 500-yard freestyle was one of the standout swims of the meet. “They went head-to-head with each other with the top two seeds going into finals in the 500 freestyle,” Kirner said. “They ended up going one-two in that, and just watching them, knowing that they trained in their lane every day and they ended up coming out with the two big awards at the end, was really great.”

They finished only two seconds apart, with Mason in first (5:02.96) and Ondracek in second (5:04.32). They both improved their prelims times by more than four seconds.

“The comeback made the 10hour bus ride a lot more fun.”

Junior reliever Andrew George shut out the Warriors with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

In the bottom of the ninth, Hardenbergh returned to the plate, hitting two foul balls before crushing a pitch over the

come up,” Hardenbergh said.

“I decided if I got a chance in another game, I had to take advantage of it. It was a pretty incredible feeling.”

Hardenbergh led Hillsdale’s offense, going three for five at

Senior relief pitchers Chad Stevens and Paul Brophy each pitched two innings, finishing with two strikeouts apiece.

“They slowed Wayne State’s offense down. We crawled back and had a couple of big hits. From there just the energy picked up,” Passinault said. “The comeback made the 10-hour bus ride a lot more fun.”

The Chargers lost the preceding three games against Wayne State 6-5, 7-3, and 10-2. Hillsdale, now 1-3 overall, will travel next weekend to play California University of Pennsylvania in a three-game series.

“We’ve got a lot to work on but I think we’ll have a lot of good opportunities in the future,” Landis said.

Landis said he was impressed by many of the freshman players as well.

“We’re looking forward to carrying momentum from game four to the next weekend,” Passinault said.

Men's Basketball Chargers move up to third in G-MAC standings

Hillsdale upsets Cedarville, Ashland

By Alex Deimel Assistant Editor

The Hillsdale men’s basketball team claimed home victories over two G-MAC conference rivals last week, first beating the Cedarville Yellow Jackets 76-68 Thursday night, then defeating the Ashland Eagles 67-49 on Saturday, which was Senior day.

The Chargers now stand at 4-1 in February, with an 11-6 conference record this season. The new G-MAC point system puts the Chargers third in the G-MAC, just behind Kentucky Wesleyan University and Walsh University. Hillsdale avenged a January loss to Cedarville, putting up 38 points in each half. Almost one-third of those points came from freshman guard Mikey McCollum, who had a career-high 25 points, making 8 of his 12 shot attempts in 25 minutes off of the bench. McCollum now averages 7.7 points per game with a 38.2% field goal per game.

this year, with his first coming from the January loss to the Yellow Jackets. Reuter put up 10 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals. Reuter still leads Hillsdale with 15.5 points per game, 7.3 rebounds per game, and 2.8 assists per game.

Sophomore center C.J. Yarian also played a pivotal role in the victory over Cedarville, finishing the game with 11 points, 7 rebounds, and 1 block.

“These were two big wins for us this week,” Yarian said. “They put us in a better position to get home-court advantage for the GMAC tournament.”

On senior day, the Chargers entered halftime tied with the Eagles 31-3, but stymied Ashland in the second half, allowing only 18 points and a 30% field goal percentage while putting up 36 points.

“We weren’t playing our best in the first half, defensively or offensively, and we were still tied,” Yarian said. “We

“Holding a team to only six shots is great, but doing it against a team that scores about 80 points per game is even better.”

“We shot the ball really well from 3 which helps a lot,” McCollum said. “We did a really good job on the defensive side by not letting them score anything easily. Those wins were huge for our standings coming down the stretch of the year. We’re hitting our stride and starting to play really well together.”

knew that we’d win the game if we played good team defense, which we did. We really didn’t have any adjustments, just that we needed to be grittier. That led to only letting up 18 points in the second half.”

Leading the Chargers in points against Ashland was sophomore guard Ashton Janowski, who finished with 15 points, making 7 of his 9 shot attempts. McCollum had

12 points off of the bench, and senior guard Samuel Vasiu had 11 points.

“In both games, there were a lot of bright spots throughout our lineup,” assistant coach Evan Morrissey said. “Holding a team to only six made shots is great, but doing it against a team that scores about 80 points per game is even better.”

This week, the Chargers are playing on the road. On Thursday, they are headed for Ohio Dominican University, where they will face the Pan-

thers for the first time since December when Hillsdale managed a 60-54 home victory. The Chargers will conclude their regular season with two matchups against the Findlay Oilers, first in Ohio this Saturday, then at home next Thursday.

“Those wins were huge for our standings coming down the stretch of the year,” McCollum said. “We’re hitting our stride and starting to play really well together.”

Junior Emma Dickhudt took fourth in 100-yard breaststroke. Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

C U L T U R E

Vintage Guitar magazine features economics professor

By Quinn Delamater Collegian Reporter

Vintage Guitar magazine

published an article about a Hillsdale College economics professor in its January 2024 issue.

Professor of Economics Ivan Pongracic has been leading a self-proclaimed “double life” dabbling in surf music while simultaneously teaching students economics.

“I do the academic stuff during the day and the music stuff at night,” Pongracic said.

Vintage Guitar magazine is a 37-year-old publication that highlights different kinds of guitars, guitar music genres, and successful guitarists. It covered Pongracic for his guitar playing in the Lords

of Atlantis band, a surf music group. The article, “Lords of Atlantis: Cliché-Free Surf,” featuring Pongracic and his bandmate Jeremy DeHart, highlights the style and technique of the surf supergroup and discusses its production process.

The band recorded its most recent album on campus in the McNamara Rehearsal Hall in Howard Music Hall.

Pongracic is originally from Zagreb, Croatia. He first discovered his passion for guitar 40 years ago when he moved to America and started playing at the young age of 13.

“I got into this surf music thing about 30 years ago in 1994, and I started my first surf band in ’96, and I’ve just been playing surf ever since,”

Pongracic said.

Pongracic has performed in places like Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Seattle, and San Diego. He has been involved with different bands throughout the years, but Lords of Atlantis is his most recent one.

Lords of Atlantis traveled to Livorno, Italy for the Surfer Joe Summer Festival in June 2023, where they were met with a crowd of many surf music enthusiasts.

Pongracic said playing the guitar has become a permanent part of his lifestyle.

“I play every day for probably a couple of hours, and it’s just a part of me,” Pongracic said. “I can’t imagine not doing it. When I’ve gone without playing for a week or two, if I’m traveling or something, I

start to miss it like crazy.”

Pongracic said that he has recognized a connection between his passion for surf guitar music and economics.

“I would consider myself an Austrian economist. Austrian economics is the economics equivalent of surf music,” Pongracic said. “It’s so out of the mainstream and a very obscure genre that almost nobody cares about. Apparently, I’m only interested in doing the most obscure things possible: Austrian economics and surf music.”

Senior economics major Phoebe Johnston said she is familiar with Pongracis’s passion for surf guitar music.

“Listening to Dr. Pongracic’s band at least once is basically a requirement of the econom-

ics major. Even Dr. Clark has played his music as part of his pre-class media,” Johnston

“Apparently, I’m only interested in doing the most obscure things possible: Austrian economics and surf music.”

said. “If you get to know Dr. Pongracic and ask him about his band, it’s really nice because you get to see him get

passionate about something besides hating on the Fed.” Pongracic’s friend and fellow faculty member, Brad Birzer, professor of history, has seen Lords of Atlantis live. “I’m extremely proud of Ivan. He’s one of the finest guitarists I’ve ever heard, and he most definitely has his own style,” Birzer said. “I’d know his playing anywhere. I’m so glad the beauty and excellence of his playing has been recognized by the mainstream. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a topnotch guy, too.”

The Stanley cup craze: It’s about more than hydration now

By Isabella Helms Collegian Reporter

Across the nation, teenage girls and their mothers are braving the night in Target parking lots, as if the fate of their hydration depends on the store’s opening. Their mission? To secure an object much more unassuming than the latest iPhone or gaming console. They’re after a water bottle most popularly known as a Stanley cup, and before you think of ice rinks and hockey sticks, let’s be clear: We’re talking about the latest craze in hydration, not sports. This phenomenon, however, is not just about the allure of possessing this popular item; it’s arguably a reflection of our consumerist, trend-driven society. In other words, the transformation of the Stanley cup from a durable camping thermos to a fashionable drinking accessory is both remarkable and indicative of modern susceptibility to cul-

tural fads.

The Stanley cup obsession reflects the impact trends have on behaviors and desires, revealing that even the most unassuming products can become symbols of social status and identity.

“Despite the fact that the Stanley craze is functionally the same as the other water bottle trends of the past, I am very happy to have one and to be a follower of the trend,” sophomore Elena Hedrick said. The verdict from connoisseurs is unanimous: The Stanley cup has secured its spot in the lineup of female musthaves next to Ugg boots and pumpkin spice lattes. With grandmothers gifting them to their friends and viral videos showing their resilience in car fires, these cups have become a status symbol among women aged 9 to 79.

“Stanleys are modern, classy, and refined,” junior Hannah Arends said. “They appeal not only to young

people, but also to people like my grandma, who is a Stanley owner as well.”

Hedrick said the appeal to Stanley cups is as much about aesthetics as it is about functionality.

“I think what makes it so popular is the same as what made the others popular: It’s functional, cute, and has lots of color options for a variety of vibes,” Hedrick said.

Hedrick said her mom gave her a Stanley cup for Christmas two years ago.

“I love that it has the feel of a cup but the functionality of a water bottle. A big plus for me is that it fits in my car’s cup holder,” Hedrick said.

“I think Stanleys are so popular because they have proven their durability,” Arends said. “We’re coming out of an era of people being obsessed with Hydroflasks, and everyone has the trauma of their Hydroflask getting dented, but with Stanleys, for example, I’ve made it a year without it denting.”

Hedrick said the Stanley

craze is just another iteration of the trend cycles revolving around water bottles.

“Brands like Hydroflask, Yeti, and Stanley essentially all have the same features and purposes, and funnily enough, they all come from outdoor brands,” Hedrick said.

“I am very happy to have one and to be a follower of the trend.”

Founded in 1913 as a camping supply company for rugged outdoorsmen and WWII pilots, Stanley now finds its core demographic amidst teenage girls and their mothers. The resurgence and transformation of this 111-year-old company is particularly fascinating.

At the forefront of this remarkable turnaround is the former CEO of Crocs, Terence Reilly, who assumed leadership at Stanley as the global president in 2020. The company has witnessed an astronomical rise in annual sales from a modest $70 million in 2019 to an impressive $750 million by 2023. The company’s growth can be attributed to the revitalization of the Stanley Quencher, a project spearheaded by Reilly.

Founded in 2017, The Buy Guide, an online shopping blog and Instagram account, significantly amplified the Stanley Quencher’s market presence. Stanley and The Buy Guide partnered shortly after the platform’s launch and featured the Quencher’s side handle, straw, thermal insu -

lation, and dishwasher safety. The partnership with The Buy Guide facilitated Stanley’s foray into affiliate marketing, a move that further expanded its reach and connected the brand more intimately with consumers. This approach leveraged influencer marketing to foster an emotional bond between the brand and its audience, particularly resonating with women. The user-generated content found on social media platforms has contributed to Stanley’s viral success, with consumers sharing their personal experiences with the Quencher online.

The question remains, however, whether these cups are overhyped. Saturday Night Live dubbed them as big dumb cups, saying in a recent skit, “If your car explodes, you won’t survive, but your big dumb cup will.” This satirical jab encapsulates the

“They appeal not only to young people, but also to people like my grandma, who is a Stanley owner as well.”

absurdity of the craze. These cups, which can hold almost an entire bottle of wine, have become a cultural phenomenon, a status symbol, and even a cause for criminal activity.

The allure of the Stanley cup has escalated to the point where thefts have been reported, with one woman arrest -

ed and accused of hoarding $2500 worth of these cups in her car, according to NBC News.

Amid the frenzy for these cups, whispers of lead content and cheap Chinese metal have surfaced. The same Stanley cups women rely on to stay hydrated and stylish may not be much of an upgrade from plastic water bottles. Not only are they relatively heavy, necessitating that quirky handle, but at the bottom lies a stainless steel-covered pellet — the alleged lead culprit.

According to a Stanley spokesperson, “The pellet seals the product’s vacuum insulation and it isn’t accessible unless the stainless steel barrier comes off.”

Despite this assurance, the presence of lead, even if sealed away, is somewhat concerning to many women. Additionally, there is the issue of mold in the cup lids, persisting despite the devoted cleaning efforts of owners.

So, as we sip from our trendy, possibly over-hyped Stanley’s, let’s remember to stay hydrated, yet aware. The line between utility and fad is surprisingly thin, with very few trends actually quenching our thirst for belonging. After all, it’s just a cup — or is it?

Stanley is a 111-year-old camping supply company. Courtesy | Business Insider

C U L T U R E

Academics and artists: creating art as college students

By Francesca Cella Collegian Freelancer

Students at Hillsdale College say they find it worth their time to cultivate their inner artist by working on crafts outside of the classroom.

“Freshman year, I didn’t craft very much,” sophomore Lulu Celecia said. “My crafts were more prank related. We made a cardboard cutout of our head RA, and I took a Guess Who game and created it into Dale Who, putting professors’ faces all over it.”

Celecia said the freshmen have inspired her to do more crafting, and she now enjoys crocheting while sitting desk in Olds Residence.

“It’s so much better to be doing something like crocheting or knitting with your hands as you talk to people,” Celecia said.

Sophomore Veronica Fogo said she uses her spare time to write poetry.

“It’s very fulfilling, and it’s a good time for rest — a fruitful rest,” Fogo said. “Sometimes I wish I could just not do school at all and just write poetry all the time.”

Fogo said she appreciates the way poetry can turn anything into a piece of art.

“It’s also a beautiful way to express what you’re going through in your day-to-day

life,” Fogo said. “It’s different than just journaling or talking to a friend, but it’s a way to bring beauty into your life.”

Fogo said doing crafts in college is not just a source for rest and entertainment in leisure time.

“In a way, it’s an education because my goal is to learn how to write poetry really, really well,” Fogo said.

Similarly, freshman Caleb Diener, a professional wedding photographer and filmmaker, said he appreciates photography not merely as his business, but also as an art.

“The beauty of photography is that it requires learning how to see the world around you differently,” Diener said. “Photographers take ordinary, everyday things that people see and they look at them and present them in a way that’s beautiful.”

Diener said he has noticed his perception of the world is different even when he’s not doing photography.

“I see myself observing nature and people as a photographer, and it makes me more attuned to beauty,” Diener said. “At a school where we’re pursuing truth, goodness, and beauty, working on a craft that helps you see beauty

all around you seems like a worthwhile use of my time.”

Deiner said he thinks using artistic skills is a part of human nature and that making art is innately connected to the liberal arts.

“Honing a craft and working on an art is a deeply human endeavor,” Diener said. “The purpose of a liberal arts education is to make us more human, setting us free, and getting a chance to express and explore those things outside of the classroom is valuable for your development as a person.”

“At a school where we’re pursuing truth, goodness, and beauty, working on a craft that helps you see beauty all around you seems like a worthwhile use of my time.”

“One of the resolutions that I made starting my freshman year was that I was going to write a letter every weekend,” Jansen said. “It’s one of the resolutions that I’ve actually stuck with.”

Jansen said this resolution has made creating art outside of the classroom a

regular activity which she said she prioritizes. “I think it’s really important to be able to cultivate those talents that you have and use them as a gift,” Jansen said.

Taking the smallest thing such as a letter and making it into a beautiful piece of art is not only an opportunity to improve one’s skills, but also to give to others, Jansen said.

Jansen is pen pals with her grandma and younger sisters because she finds it’s an easier way to communicate than

over the phone. They appreciate her pieces of artwork that accompany each letter.

“It’s always really cool seeing my little sisters save the envelopes that I’ve made them or see my grandma comment on the watercolor that I did on her envelope,” Jansen said.

‘The Boys in the Boat’: film features brotherhood in Great Depression

By Faith Senne Collegian Freelancer

“The Boys in the Boat,” released Dec. 25, tells the true story of the men on the University of Washington’s rowing team during the Great Depression. The film centers around Joe

Rantz, one of the eight team members. Desperate for funds to pay his college tuition, Rantz tries out for the rowing team and is accepted for the junior boat, which ironically surpasses the varsity rowing team. Soon enough, Rantz and his teammates find themselves competing in major races in the United States and eventually in the 1936 Olympics. With majestic music and beautiful cinematography, “The Boys in the Boat” immerses the viewer in 1930s Seattle and invests them in the characters. Unlike some movies in which the charac-

ters are flawless or unrelatable, the movie artfully shows each major character’s backstory, building a sense of compassion and camaraderie in the viewer. Not only does the film reveal the individual characters’ lives, it shows the hard work of the team to prepare for races.

In one riveting race scene, Rantz’s boat is several lengths behind the others, and it doesn’t appear it will be able to catch up. The men are tired and struggling, but the boat’s coxswain, Bobby Moch, encourages them to row for everyone who believes in them.

While the film shows only a limited view of Great Depression America, the subtle details are impactful: Rantz’s worn boots with holes, winding soup kitchen lines, and a character’s life in an abandoned truck. The film conveys the realities of living in Great Depression-era America while developing a dream-like environment in which there are only the men and their boat.

“The Boys in the Boat” is first and foremost about brotherhood, perseverance, and teamwork. Some might consider the film to be shallow — there are no tragic

From the minds of Hillsdale’s professors: the song, book, and movie everyone ought to know

“The Ballad of El Goodo” (1972) by Big Star

Arriving the same year as The Raspberries’ debut album and Todd Rundgren’s “Something/Anything?”, Big Star’s “#1 Record” helped usher in the commercially unpopular (at the time) yet highly influential sound of power pop.

“The Ballad of El Goodo” is the best song on that album and one of the finest ever put to vinyl. It’s all here: immaculately recorded acoustic guitars, heavenly harmonies and backing vox, Jody Stephens’s massive drum fills, a wondrous bridge, and lyrics from deep in the soul delivered passionately by Alex Chilton. Big Star kicked open the door for later bands like R.E.M., Cheap Trick, The Replacements, and The Lemonheads.

Compiled by Jacob Beckwith Collegian Reporter

“Free to Choose: A Personal Statement” (1980) by Milton and Rose Friedman

I graduated high school without taking a course on economics. I then graduated college without taking a course on economics. Once I entered the professional world, I quickly realized how little I knew about the subject and set about the task of self-education. “Free to Choose” is where I started. I was captivated by Friedman’s clear and direct writing on economics, freedom, and the relationship between the two. So many chapters have continued relevance today, including sections on incentives, the welfare state, school choice, the role of government agencies, and inflation. It’s not the same as sitting in a classroom with Dr. Wolfram, I’m sure, but it was exactly what I was looking for at the time.

“Broadcast News” (1987) directed by James L. Brooks

James L. Brooks directed, wrote, and produced this romantic comedy-drama, which also doubles as among the best films ever made about journalism. Brooks spent the better part of two years researching the industry and talking to people who worked inside of it, so he’s able to get many small details right, particularly the personality quirks of those attracted to the job. It’s a perfect movie, front-to-back, with three flawless leads (William Hurt, Holly Hunter, and Albert Brooks) and an impeccable supporting cast. I notice something new to love each time I see it. Albert Brooks missing out on the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor was a travesty.

death scenes or mind-blowing twists — but it’s deep and wholesome. It tells the story of a few characters’ lives, backstories, hopes, and dreams. It’s not simply about the rowing team — it’s about the team members who rowed as one. It’s also about the individuals who encouraged them to keep at it, even if the circumstances did not seem hopeful. The rowers find joy in each other, no matter how troubled their home lives are. In watching “The Boys in the Boat,” the viewer feels like they are also on the team and part of their brotherhood.

Sophomore Cecilia Jansen said letter writing is a way for her to practice her artistic skills and share them with other people.

Scot Bertram interviews then-University of Miami in Florida football star Jarrett Payton. Courtesy | Scot Bertram

The characters escape the hardships of the Great Depression through rowing. Courtesy | Variety Freshman Caleb Diener said he observes nature as a photographer, which makes him more in tune with beauty. Courtesy | Caleb Diener

FEATURES Mission abroad: Latter-day Saints serve outside Hillsdale

By Moira Gleason Assistant Edtior

While many Hillsdale students avoid leaving campus even for a semester abroad, a small group of students and professors have intentionally stepped away from their studies for two years to serve a higher calling.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Hillsdale, whose numbers fluctuate in the single digits from year to year, regularly practice their religion like any Christian denomination on campus. They attend a two-hour worship service at the Jonesville Ward on Sunday, participate in a weekly scripture study called Institute, and pray together throughout the week. But the Latter-day Saints share one thing that sets them apart from other religious groups: most serve a mission.

“Mission life is very demanding,” Associate Professor of Spanish Todd Mack said. “For two years you are completely dedicated to serving God and his children. Missionaries wake up early, and they spend their days doing service or preaching the gospel.”

Young church members between the ages of 18 and 25 may volunteer to serve an 18-month or two-year mission at one of more than 400 missionary sites around the world, according to the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints website. After a brief time of training, missionaries are sent out in pairs to do humanitarian work and share the gospel.

“Nothing in my life makes any sense without understanding my mission,” Mack said. Missionaries have very little say in where they serve, according to Mack.

“In our church, we don’t choose where to serve, we simply apply to be a missionary, and an assignment comes,” Mack said. “For example, my father served in Japan. My

brothers served in Holland and Paraguay. My sister was a missionary in Anaheim, California. I have friends that served in Fiji, and Mexico, and the Philippines and in a number of other places all over the world.”

Mack, the current bishop of the Jonesville Ward, spent two years from 2001-2003 as a missionary in Madrid, Spain, an experience that led him to study and teach Spanish.

Life on mission is rigorous but rewarding, Mack said. Restrictions on music, books, and activities yield time for prayer, study of the scriptures, and service.

“Imagine if every young man and woman took 18 months or two years of their life between high school and college to completely dedicate themselves to spiritual growth and serving God’s children,” Mack said. “I think college would be really different.”

For Associate Professor of Economics Roger Butters, those two years changed everything. Butters left college from 1989 to 1991 to serve his mission in Northeast Brazil, where he worked in Fortaleza, Teresina, and Natal.

“Everything I am, everything I have become is the consequence of that experience,” Butters said.

Butters lived on $30 per month as a missionary, called his family only three times per year, and shared the total poverty of those he was living with.

On Christmas day, 1989, the power went out in the missionaries’ house.

“We had no water in the house, we had no lights, we didn’t have any air conditioning anyway,” Butters said. “We had no food because the new government had just come into power and had frozen all the bank accounts, and so we had no money, no food.

For that entire month, I ate one meal a day and that was because Brazilian families fed

us.”

Butters said he came face to face with the suffering of the Brazilian people when he visited a children’s hospital in Fortaleza.

“I walked into that children’s hospital, a starry-eyed young man who liked to write poetry, kind of a romantic,” Butters said. “What I saw in that children’s hospital — I haven’t written any poetry since.”

Walking with the Brazilian people, visiting their homes, and sharing in their poverty opened him up to the suffering in the world.

“It was in Brazil that I learned and understood what it meant to love other people,”

“Nothing in my life makes any sense without understanding my mission.”

Butters said.

It also led him to his current academic discipline. “We get so used to the idea of our wealth. We take it for granted that being rich and comfortable is just how things are, and they aren’t,” Butters said. “The reason I got into economics is because in economics I found an explanation of how to solve the problem of poverty.”

Butters goes back to Brazil every chance he gets and plans to spend part of his sabbatical next year in Teresina doing humanitarian work. Missions looked different for sophomore Nathan Scoffield and juniors Benjamin and Joshua Burnett, who served recently within the U.S. Scoffield worked with the Navajo Native American tribe in the Four Corners. from 2013-2015.

“Imagine two years straight, every day you get up at the same time, and you have the same purpose every day, and that’s all you do,” Scoffield said. “In that two years, there’s no question what that purpose is. It’s to bring the gospel to people because they need it. It’s so satisfying, and it’s so hard at the same time.”

Though many people turned him away, Scoffield said he was struck by those he encountered who were lonely and starving for spiritual direction.

“You see in those people something that you don’t see in people that don’t feel like they need help,” he said. “You see into their soul a little bit. That’s a really sacred thing because you get to see this is God’s child.”

Scoffiled said he grew through the challenge of reaching out to others every day and offering them the gospel.

“That was transformative to me, learning to find joy in not thinking about myself,” Scoffield said.

Benjamin saw COVID change the mission field when he served in Denver, Colorado, after one semester at Hillsdale.

When he started his mission, Burnett and his companions knocked on doors or talked to people in the street. While many were receptive to their message, others said they were too busy to talk, turned them away, or made jokes.

“You learn to laugh as a missionary because there are just crazy things that happen,” Burnett said. “When we found people to teach, they were often very interested. And of course, it’s everybody’s choice if they want to know more about Christ’s restored gospel, so we respect that. Along the way, we just got to share.”

COVID quickly changed the work for Burnett and his companions.

“It helped open our eyes to other ways to find people

who are seeking to know more about Christ or find people to serve — lots of online stuff, social media, making videos to uplift people,” he said. “We weren’t sure what to do because we were inside our doors. Eventually we learned there were ways to still reach people even if we can’t be physically around them.”

Joshua learned Arabic in six months when he was assigned to San Diego, California, to minister to Iraqi and Syrian refugees during the fallout of COVID in 2021 and 2022.

Though it was hard to leave the friends he made in his first year at Hillsdale, Joshua said what he gained was worth it.

“If this is something that matters to me, I wanted to share that with other people,” he said. “I grew a lot as a person. I grew a lot also in my faith, trying to push myself as a person.”

He said his daily life involved prayer, study, and community service. Most of his work focused on building the congregation, helping with Sunday school classes, and teaching English.

Unlike the missionaries of previous generations, Joshua and his companions regularly used the internet and social

media for ministry. When a man from Egypt living in Russia wanted to know more about the church, other missionaries in Russia connected him with Joshua through Facebook because he spoke Arabic. They have kept up ever since.

“He’s probably one of my favorite people ever that I know,” Joshua said. “Meeting him and helping him at that time was really a fantastic experience.”

The Burnetts agreed the transition back to Hillsdale was difficult, especially because their classmates were seniors when they returned.

Other Hillsdale students often have questions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to Benjamin. He said they also often have incorrect assumptions about what Latter-day Saints believe. Regardless, the questions fellow students ask can lead to fruitful discussion.

“I’m really grateful I came here because it allows me to see more of what other people believe. I definitely saw it before. I saw it on my mission,” Burnett said. “But I’ve had conversations where they are wanting to know more. Either way, I’m grateful to share.”

Q&A: Outstanding senior man and woman

By Ty Ruddy Collegian Reporter

Benjamin Hinrichs and Helen Schlueter were selected as Outstanding Man and Woman of the Class of 2024. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Ben Hinrichs

Why did you choose Hillsdale?

There were three schools I was looking at. The first was a beautiful college on a mountain next to the ocean in California. The next was an academic school like Hillsdale that consisted of four years of core study, but it was not a christian school. Neither school offered football. Hillsdale did, and I visited here last. At the time I had all but decided that I was going to attend the school in California, but when I visited by myself during a drizzly week in February of my senior year, I noticed that the only complaint from the students was that everyone always worked so hard. I was drawn to the rigor of Hillsdale’s curriculum and the friendliness of those students I met when I visited. Football was an awesome bonus.

What are some ways in which you have encountered faith on campus?

A way that faith here is different from other places is how people of all faith backgrounds understand the necessity and beauty of following God. They all show each other a great amount of kindness in that pursuit even though there are so many small disagreements along the way. I see this kindness in conversation all over campus and in the way people treat one another.

What was your reaction to being named Outstanding Senior Man? I was shocked at first. I am not as academically inclined as some of the other candidates, so I thought it was a great honor that the professors saw something outstanding in me. I loved the college before it ever loved me so I am excited about the chance to give back.

What piece of advice from a professor has stuck with you?

In capstone this year, Dr. Martin said, “When you see the forces of evil arrayed, grimacing in front of you like orcs and other monsters; and when you feel them on the inside, you must think: ‘We shall give them battle nonetheless.’”

Taylor Swift: Yay or Nay? Nay! Thumbs Down.

Which character from “The Chronicles of Narnia” has had the greatest impact on the way you live and why? Puddleglum. He has taught me to see through cynicism and darkness and understand that there is light in the world.

Helen Schlueter

What is something about campus culture that surprised you?

I knew when I was a senior in high school that Hillsdale would be intellectually rigorous. I wasn’t sure what quality of friendships I would find. I was not prepared for the depth and range of friendships that I would find here, both in class and outside of class, from clubs and activities.

How have friendships here impacted you?

I was drawn to the academic life of Hillsdale, and I came to realize that the friendship side of Hillsdale was something I had to work for almost as much as my classes. We are tempted to wrap ourselves in our work here, but there was a point during my sophomore year when I realized that what I was learning from my class texts needed to be translated into my social life.

What is one thing you’d like underclassmen to know?

The Hillsdale education ultimately shows you how to build culture and how to feast. I am drawing a lot from a book called “Leisure: The Basis of Culture” by Josef Pieper. He says that the idea of resting in things that are good in themselves is man’s end. That is an encounter with the divine. He connects culture and leisure. As Hillsdale students, we have those things before us, but we also have the responsibility to own that and take it with us and give back to campus.

Lord of the Rings books or movies?

Books for sure.

Reflecting on the past four years, how you have grown, how you have matured, and who you have become?

Fundamentally it comes down to the friendships that surround intellectual life. I have been blown away by the way in which the things we read become ensouled in conversation. And for that, I will be forever grateful.

Butters and his companion, Paulo Machado, spent Christmas in Brazil while on mission in 1989. Courtesy | Roger Butters

Hinrichs believes the A.J.’s breakfast power bowl is the best food item offered at the college.

Courtesy | Benjamin Hinrichs Schlueter prefers Wendy’s Frosties to McFlurries.

Courtesy | Helen Schlueter

By Alexandra Hall Design Editor

FEATURES

Subway surfing to fame: Hannah Allen ranks No.

1

Shelf readers organize books in Mossey

shelving and to be continually neatening up the appearance of the items on the shelf,” Allen said.

Freshman library worker

Christine Stanton sits crosslegged in the children’s section of the library. She studies the call numbers of each book and compares them to each other. Occasionally, she removes a book and places it in a different spot, then marks the paper on her clipboard. As she goes, she adjusts the books so all the spines are flush.

Stanton is a shelf reader, and her job is essential to keep the library organized. She makes sure books are shelved where they belong.

The practice began this spring to replace the library’s previous organization process called “shelf revision,” Allen said.

Shelf revision involved shelving books horizontally with their spines up and pages facing the bottom of the shelf. Student workers would scan the shelves for books in “revised position,” double check the call numbers, and reorient them into the proper position.

Allen said the librarians decided to stop shelf revision for multiple reasons.

Senior Hannah Allen is a woman in STEM, a former president of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, and she works at a local veterinary clinic. She was also ranked first nationally in the mobile video game Subway Surfer on Jan. 23.

“Over Christmas break, I got bored,” Allen said. “I’m really grateful to my parents for giving me not only an education but also the couch to sit on to play Subway Surfers over break. I played it years before, but I really got into it over break.”

Subway Surfers is an endless-runner, single-player mobile game run by two private gaming companies in Denmark. After making its debut in 2012, Subway Surfers has become the most downloaded mobile game of the decade with more than 1.5 billion downloads. Due to its popularity, one of the game’s developers, SYBO Games, has launched an animated series based on the game.

“If I had to explain Subway Surfers to a Victorian child, I’d have to explain a lot of things first — like the iPhone,” Allen said. “But the whole premise is that you’re doing graffiti and getting chased. You try to run and not get hit by subways by jumping over other subways and other obstacles. You collect coins along the way.”

Allen’s alter ego is a glowing blue skeleton called “Bob the Blob,” which is only one of her many characters.

“I’ve gotten to the point where everything is upgraded,” Allen said. “I just have like hundreds of thousands of coins just sitting there. So sometimes I buy a surfboard or another accessory.”

Last July, two teenage boys died in separate subway surfing incidents in New York City. In one instance, one boy died and another was critically injured after falling while the two were riding atop the Man-

“I’m really grateful to my parents for giving me not only an education but also the couch to sit on to play Subway Surfer over break.”

But sometimes, even Bob the Blob slips up.

Whether she gets caught by the cop chasing her, gets hit by a subway, or trips on a roadblock, defeat is central to Allen’s climb to the top charts. “I get angry,” Allen said. “Like if I’m having a really good run and I lose that, I become visibly upset.”

Junior Kaeleigh Otting has seen Allen in the midst of these losses but says her biggest worry is Allen’s belief that she, herself, can subway surf.

“I told her: ‘do not try to do that in real life,’” Otting said. “You cannot subway surf. The roof clearance is very minimal in some spots. I know I’m not good enough to do that in real life, but Hannah says she’s the exception.” Although it may sound humorous, lives have been lost in this pursuit.

hattan-bound L train when it entered a tunnel. Since 2022, there have been more than 66 subway surfing incidents in New York City.

“Subway surfing,” the act of riding atop train cars, has been around since 1904 when New York City’s subway system opened. But local law enforcement has blamed social media apps such as TikTok for popularizing the antics.

Other peers are not as concerned as Otting, and some like junior Tatum Linde even envy Allen’s tal ent.

“After hearing she was first, I decided it

would be my mission to beat her and prove that playing Subway Surfers is actually not difficult,” Linde wrote in an email. “I have yet to even come close, which is why I humbly write this quote for the Collegian and will gladly confirm her victory. As someone who spent hours trying to beat her, Hannah Allen proves to be unbeatable.”

As she nears post-graduate life, Allen is assessing her hobby.

“At this point, it’s an addiction,” Allen confessed. “People will come up and talk to me and I’ll tell them I can’t have a deep conversation with them because I’m playing. And yes, they understand, but they are definitely confused.”

But despite her self-confessed addiction, Allen said her Subway Surfers habit will not affect

“I think it’ll only enhance my future,” Allen said. “You know, that’s another thing to put on your resume: number one in the nation on Subway

QUICK HITS with HOLLY HOBBS

Even now when I visit as an adult, I feel transported.

Do you have any hidden talents?

What is your favorite childhood memory? Vacationing at Walt Disney World — it was an early opportunity to experience willing suspension of disbelief.

I’m not sure if it is a talent, but I do enjoy creating floral arrangements for my friends and family. Flowers are immediate and remind me to stay focused on the present. At the same time, my great-grandparents were bulb farmers from the Netherlands and working with flowers helps me feel connected to my past.

What is your favorite word and why?

Juxtaposition. When creating, I find that beauty resides in contrast.

If you were to write a book, what would it be about? It would be about the modern dance technique of Martha Graham. I have been fortunate to practice and teach her tech-

nique for more than 20 years — the difficulty and nuances fascinate me.

What books are you reading right now?

Typically, I read two books at once, one dance book of some type and something nondance related. I am currently reading “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst” by Robert M. Sapolsky and “The Boy from Kyiv: Alexei Ratmansky’s Life in Ballet” by Marina Harss.

What is one interesting fact about yourself?

Some find it interesting that I coached Olympic bronze medalist ice dancers Maia and Alex Shibutani. They are two-time U.S. champions and three-time world medalists.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?

Helping students find their

creative voice and witnessing their development as performers, choreographers, and teachers.

What trait most defines who you are?

Determination. No one can have a career in dance without it.

What motivates you?

Movement is my great motivator. I am unable to stay still for long. When I need to think something through I walk, dance, or practice yoga.

How have your students influenced you as a teacher?

My students push me to be a better teacher, I thrive off their talent and seemingly never-ending energy. I’m constantly thinking of new ways to challenge them and thereby myself.

“Shelf reading is part of everybody’s duties,” Public Service Librarian George Allen said. “The collections are under constant review.”

Stanton said while some student workers find shelf reading tedious, she enjoys it.

“I like listening to music, sitting down here, and going through the books,” she said. “It just depends on the person.”

Shelf reading is just one of the ways the library keeps books organized. According to Allen, the books are sorted and checked multiple times before being shelved, and student workers shelf read the entire collection to ensure books are not misplaced.

“We actually have two logs going at a time so that there are always two places moving continually throughout the collection,” Allen said. “When they get to the end of the collection, they’ll just start over and go through it all again.”

When books are returned to the library, they enter the sorting room, where workers organize them by call number and location. Then they move the books to a cart, still arranged by call number, which is double-checked before being taken to be shelved. Shelf reading serves as an extra precaution and neatening process after books have been shelved.

“For every student worker in circulation, their eyes and hands are being trained to become acquainted with how things are to be arranged on the shelf to catch errors in

“It’s bad for the materials themselves to sit too long on the shelf like that,” Allen said.

“If that happens too long or too frequently, the block of text begins to pull away from the spine and it causes binding issues.”

Allen said also this shelving style created aesthetic issues and practical issues — the mismatched shelving looked unsightly, and the hidden call numbers made it harder for patrons to find books.

“The other consideration was that none of the other librarians are actually aware of any other library that engages in this practice,” Allen said. “Shelf reading itself is considered standard practice throughout the profession.”

Sophomore student library worker Carolyn Spangler said she prefers shelf reading to the older practice.

“Once you get into the mindset of where you are in the section of books you’re going through, those numbers are passing through your head. You don’t have to constantly readjust to a different section as you would if you were revising,” she said. “It’s more of a thorough process.” Spangler said shelf reading has helped her become more familiar with how the library works.

“It is very energy consuming,” she said. “But it’s very interesting to see how the library system works, and I’ve learned a lot too.”

Allen often plays a