Founding Fest returns Saturday

By Elizabeth Crawford Collegian Reporter

Founding Fest will return to the quad on Saturday, Dec. 3 to celebrate Hillsdale’s mission and founding.

Photo booths, free mugs, and hot chocolate will be available to students from 5-9 pm, Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Braden VanDyke said. Alpacas will also join the celebration on the quad.

grees of Arnn project look at pictures and names of 15 random Hillsdale students and identify those they know. Then, the math club runs the results through an algorithm that constructs a path from person to person, connecting friend groups and individuals on a visual map.

“Once we run that, we will be able to look at the matrix and find things like the highest degree, the lowest degree, and the most common degree of separation,” senior Emily Balsbaugh said.

Balsbaugh said the project has shown her Hillsdale is less interconnected than she thought.

“As a senior, one begins to feel that they know everyone on campus,” she said. “Getting random students in the directory and realizing that you don’t know who they are makes campus feel a lot bigger.”

Santis as the 2024 Republican candidate.

“Right now Trump is not popular in College Republican circles across the state, and it seems that they are rallying around DeSantis,” Harmon said. “It remains to be seen if DeSantis will run, but I certainly think he can win in a primary. It’s still very early, so we’ll see.”

In previous years, the handlers have allowed students to pet the alpacas, according to VanDyke.

“They are coming from Lowry’s Little Flock Farm, a local area hobby farm that sells winter clothing products like mittens, socks, hats, etc.,” VanDyke said. “They are a favorite of ours, a very kind family business that we love to work with year after year.”

All the events at Founding Fest seek to bolster community amongst students, faculty, and alumni, VanDyke said.

“Founding Fest engages and draws together the entire college community in what is quickly becoming a favorite amongst the students, faculty, and staff,” VanDyke said.

VanDyke said he is the primary coordinator of the event, as he books vendors, sets up catering menus, communicates between departments, and shops for decorations.

“I enjoy working with people that come from all different walks of campus that bring a variety of perspectives and ideas to the table,” said senior and 1844 Society Vice President of Marketing Jack Hammons. “I love the comradery of Founding Fest. The aesthetic and the environment is very nice between the fire pits, the hot chocolate, and the alpacas.”

Junior and Vice President of Social Media Grace Gottwalt said she enjoys the teamwork and the planning which goes into the event.

“My favorite part about organizing the event has been seeing everything come together,” Gottwalt said. “From a memory of last year’s Founding Fest and Philanthropy Week to deciding what new things to bring and fan favorites to keep for an anticipated great evening on the quad.”

Sophomore clears bat from library

By Logan Washburn City News Editor

A bat interrupted students in the library on Tuesday night.

The animal flew into Mossey Library’s Heritage Room just after 8 p.m. It took several laps around the room until several men ushered the bat through the doorway.

“I was working, and then, all of a sudden, I hear screaming and I turn around,” said senior Abigail Yi, who was working at the reference desk. “I was like, ‘There shouldn’t

Barron created and hosted “Catholicism,” an award-winning documentary series that appeared on PBS in 2011. He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas and is a bestselling author on theology and spiritual life.

Associate Professor of English Dwight Lindley said he is excited to have Barron speak.

“He is one of the most intelligent Christian public intellectuals we have right now,” Lindley said. “He’s a well-spoken man and knows what is actually important in a collegiate valedictory address: to be screaming coming from the Heritage Room.’ And then several people run out, and then the bat flies out.”

When the bat left the Heritage Room, it landed behind the reference desk on the wall above the printers, Yi said. At that point, Yi went to Library Director Maurine McCourry, who called security.

Before security could arrive, however, sophomore Jude Doer stepped in to remove the animal.

“I’ve seen videos of people catching things,” Doer quote great poets and philosophers and give the audience a rousing good exhortation to high and holy living.”

Professor of History

Kenneth Calvert said he appreciates Barron’s ability to share the gospel in the modern world.

“I have a number of friends who literally came to Jesus — not even just Catholicism — but literally came to Jesus because of listening to Robert Barron,” Calvert said. “On that side of things, I'm really impressed by him and really appreciate so much of what he's done. He's been able to reach the culture in some important ways.” said. “I just caught him in a sweatshirt."

Calvert added he has complicated opinions about Barron and his work.

Doer said he made sure the bat did not bite him.

He said he grew up around animals and has never feared bats.

“I just didn’t want to hurt the bat,” Doer said. He took the bat outside, where he set it free.

McCourry said bats are an issue in the library.

“It comes and goes. My predecessor actually had a box on a stick, and he would go catch the bats,” McCourry said. “But I don’t really want to go catch them.”

“On the other hand, it's always dangerous to engulf yourself in the culture,” Calvert said. “Sometimes I feel like he's a little too ‘pop-culture-bishop.’ That bothers me sometimes. He does have a tendency to water down some of the more difficult doctrines.

I don't know how helpful that is.” College chaplain Adam Rick said he has wanted to bring Barron to campus for a long time.

“Bishop Barron is one of the great Christian teachers and evangelists of our time,” Rick said. “I think he fits in quite well with the culture we strive to foster at Hillsdale. I am thrilled that we’re finally bringing him to campus.”

Courtesy | Carmen Wyatt-Hayes

Obit from A1

Barrios took over one of Wyatt-Hayes’ classes after her mother became sick.

“We were halfway into the semester, and Javier agreed to teach the class for me,” Wyatt-Hayes said.

“This was no small thing in that, unlike many professors at Hillsdale, he lived in Ypsilanti.”

Barrios made the more than hour long commute four days a week to teach Wyatt-Hayes’ 9 a.m. class so that she could stay home with her mother, who was battling cancer.

Even at the end of his life, Barrios continued uplifting others, Puvogel said.

“Even when his cancer incapacitated him and robbed him of his career, he was deeply concerned about the wellbeing of others,” Stechschulte said.

Spanish Department Chair Todd Mack said despite Barrios’ own suffering, he always asked about others.

“He knew what he was facing, and he never complained about it,” Mack said. “He just was interested in other people.”

Puvogel and Wyatt-Hayes visited Barrios at his home in his final months. They said his selfless and generous personality remained constant even as he continued to suffer.

“He had given us a gift,” Wyatt-Hayes said. “We thought we were giving him a gift by visiting him, and he had given us a gift by the very person he was.”

Barrios will be missed for his enthusiasm as a professor and for his compassion for others, Stechschulte said.

“The world is just a tiny bit of a sadder place now that he’s gone,” Mack said.

Gray said the new studio will provide an easier and more comfortable place to work with faculty, Gray said.

“It will allow us to film video more efficiently, which could result in an increase in the number of videos produced,” Gray said.

The visual media department often has to go to other places on campus to record when there is not enough space, Waters said.

“Instead of going into the Heritage Room, we could recreate that in a studio so that you can shoot an interview without disrupting college life, which is always our goal,” he said.

Once the college receives additional funding, the work will begin on the second part of the project: accomodating an increasing number of marketing and media personnel who moved to the Stanton Building from Moss Hall. With the radio station and the podcast team planning to move to Stanton, it will further limit the office space there.

“They are crammed in one spot,” Péwé said. “In the long term, it would be really helpful to have more office space down there.”

While the college usually waits to get full funding for projects, the board of trustees decided to continue to fundraise for the $7.8 million needed for the entire project.

Waters said the ultimate goal of the larger studio is to further the college’s mission.

“It’s less about being able to have walls that look like the Heritage Room,” Waters said. “It is more about the desire to teach more people.”

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