9.8.16 Hillsdale Collegian

Page 1

Road trip President Larry Arnn traveled across country on his motorcylce with his son, old friends, and other Hillsdale administrators.

‘Stranger Things’ The new TV series turns ’80s nostalgia and stellar storytelling into a Netflix show well worth binge-watching. B1

B4

New welcome signs spark criticism Hillsdale citizens criticised the decision by the Hillsdale City Council to replace city welcome signs at Tuesday’s council meeting. A6 Madeline Barry | Collegian

9th best college newspaper in U.S.

Michigan’s oldest college newspaper

By | The Collegian Editorial Staff

The Collegian is the ninth best college newspaper in the United States, according to a list released last week by Princeton Review. “The ranking is a tribute to the hard work and excellent journalism of our students, past and present,” said John Miller, director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale. Based on surveys of students across the country, the Princeton Review ranks colleges in 62 categories, publishing the top 20 in each. Hillsdale College placed in seven of

the lists, including, for the first time, Best College Newspaper. The Collegian finished above student newspapers at Yale University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and just below those of Cornell, Brown, Syracuse, and Columbia universities. “All the credit for this recognition goes to our excellent journalism students, who have really improved the quality of The Collegian over the past few years,” said Maria Servold, assistant director of the Dow Journalism Program and Collegian adviser. “I’m also grateful to our readers, who are re-

Freshman recounts time in Israeli special forces

By | Thomas Novelly Editor-in-Chief At 18 years old, the average Hillsdale freshman is typically worrying about Western Heritage, getting enough sleep, and gaining 15 pounds. But when freshman Shavit Rootman was 18 years old, he was memorizing Arabic, sleeping in the sand, and carrying a 30-pound machine gun. “The first time you see combat is always the hardest time,”

crossed his mind. Rootman does not have many relatives - just his father, a 15-year veteran and test pilot in the Israeli Air Force — his mother, his brother, and his sister. Rootman never knew his other family members, but was inspired to serve because of his maternal uncle, who was killed in the Israeli-Jordanian conflict in 1968. “Serving in the army is a big deal in Israel, and it meant a lot to me, especially because

Vol. 140 Issue 2 - 8 September 2016

sponsible for our placement.” Since the Princeton Review began its rankings in 1992, it has asked students to evaluate their school’s newspaper, Princeton Review spokeswoman Amy Briskin said. For the 2017 rankings, students surveyed at various times throughout the academic year responded to the question “How do you rate your campus newspaper?” Senior Shayna Fields said she reads The Collegian nearly every week to know what’s happening on campus and in the city. “The Collegian does a great job of bringing all aspects of

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

the community to our attention,” Fields said. “It’s nice to see Hillsdale’s perspective about what’s going on in the world. I get my world news from other media outlets, but it’s great to see what other students or even my friends are saying about it in The Collegian.” The news garnered national attention with shoutouts from Kimberley Strassel, columnist for The Wall Street Journal and former Eugene C. Pulliam Visiting Fellow in Journalism at Hillsdale, on Twitter and radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh on the air. Princeton Review ranked

Freshman class must take physics, chemistry, logic and reason, religion, and philosophy

Copies of Homer’s “The Illiad” are stacked on shelves in Hillsdale College’s bookstore. The class of 2020 will be the first to complete the new core in its entirety, from taking the Great Books and Heritage courses in separate semesters to the new Classical Logic and Rhetoric class. Jordyn Pair | Collegian

By | Kate Patrick Associate Editor Hillsdale College anticipated a $350,000 budget surplus for fiscal year 2016, but because the college received so many charitable gifts, the surplus was a whopping $5.3 million. Vice President for Finance and Treasurer Patrick Flannery said the college plans to use the surplus money for dorm renovations, contributions to its endowment, and

Rootman said. “But I think the training takes over. You just become robotic about it. You don’t think too much about it, especially when you’re 19 or 20.” Rootman is from Hadera, Israel, and came to Hillsdale to pursue a degree in pre-medicine. The 24-year-old had to delay his college education because of his three years of mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces. Fighting for Israel may have not been a choice for Rootman, but it was a requirement he embraced, and he chose to serve his time with the IDF’s special operations unit “The Duvdevan.” Unlike the United States, Israel requires all 18 year-old men to serve in its military. But, according to Rootman, many avoid service by faking mental or physical disabilities. Rootman said that never even Follow @HDaleCollegian

my mother lost her only brother in the army,” Rootman said. “There was something to fight for.” Rootman excelled in sports and science classes at his high school in Hadera, taking a keen interest in anatomy and physiology. He was also one of the few members of his class who excelled at basketball. When he graduated high school, and IDF recruitment officers began to see what class of the military would best suit the 18-year-old males, Rootman felt drawn to the special forces. “I was always very interested in the physical and close combat aspect of fighting,” he said. “That basically narrowed it down to the Duvdevan for me. I was nervous, but it made me feel better that everyone was required to serve. I felt ready.” But See Israel B3

Hillsdale’s admissions office does use college rankings, like those from the Princeton Review, in its materials. Senior Director of Admissions Zach Miller said The Collegian’s recognition gives more credibility to the college’s assertion that its journalism program is great. “We’ve always thought it was a world-class collegiate paper, and now we just have more proof to that from a very reputable third party,” Zach Miller said. “We’re very excited about that and will continue to market it and also continue to talk about this whenever we can.”

And you thought the core was big

College surplus 15 times greater than originally expected

Freshman Shavit Rootman, a former Israeli army staff sergent, (right) puts his arm around his comrade Ronen near Jerico, Israel, east of Jerusalem. Shavit Rootman | Courtesy

Hillsdale in its best 381 colleges and as a best Midwestern institution. The college was also No. 1 for Future Rotarians and Daughters of the American Revolution, No. 5 for most religious students, No. 6 for Professors Get High Marks, No. 7 for most conservative students, No. 12 for the least amount of marijuana use, No. 14 for most politically active students, No. 15 for students most engaged in community service, and No. 19 in the Stone-Cold Sober Schools category. It was also No. 14 for College City Gets Low Marks and No. 11 for LGBTQ-Unfriendly.

investment in its reserves. The board of trustees will determine the details of how the surplus will be used on Sept. 12 and 13. For fiscal year 2016, which ended in June, the college predicted a much smaller surplus because the stock market performed so poorly. Approximately one third of the college’s budget comes from its endowment, so when the market is down, the college earns less return on its investment.

See Surplus A2

By | Breana Noble News Editor Students in the class of 2020 will be the first to complete the new core curriculum in its entirety. The addition of at least four more required courses than mandated for the classes of 2017-2019 complete the plan set in motion more than five years ago that attempts to “more perfectly execute the purposes in our mission,” Provost David Whalen said. Students must now take a logic and rhetoric class, as well as both religion and philosophy. The curriculum also separates physics and chemistry and removes a standardized test optout for mathematics. “It’s to make students wiser,” President Larry Arnn said in an email. “These disciplines are all fundamental, which means they are approaches to higher knowledge that make and have long made vital contributions. They are features of the original curricula at Hillsdale College and features of the liberal arts as they have been pursued for centuries.” Revamped Western Philosophical and Theological Tradition courses, both now mandatory, look to provide a historical timeline of ideas as well as teach students to think in a philosophic and theological way, said Tom Burke, dean of humanities and chairman of religion and philosophy. “Both have been the main source of ideas that have shaped our country,” Burke said. “All you have to do is

look at the difference between ancient Greek philosophy and Renaissance and early modern philosophy and realize something had to happen in the interim. What happened in the interim was Christian theology.” Additionally, Kirstin Kiledal, professor of rhetoric and public address, and Jeffrey Lehman, assistant professor of education, have reshaped the logic and rhetoric course, a requirement for education minors, to prepare all students with the tools needed to study before they dig deeper into their field, Kiledal said. Although Kiledal and Benjamin Beier, assistant professor of education, are teaching the four sections of Classical Logic and Rhetoric this semester, they are also instructing 22 other professors of all different disciplines to teach the new COR 150, which is not owned by any one academic department. “We really do want to make sure it has this liberal arts flare for starting people off, that it really engages the faculty from all across disciplines and that it serves those disciplines individually as well as us universally as students of the liberal arts,” Kiledal said. The science departments are not exempt from changes, either. The days of taking physics and chemistry in one course as Physical Science for non-science majors are gone. They now must take an entire semester of both fields, though t h e

I had been missing my little involvement in the political world. I think that the club will help me meet that personal desire. I also think the College Democrats is the perfect club to allow a more fully fleshed out understanding of what is a minority view on this campus.” Hutcheson agrees, and said she hopes the club will hold

debates with other campus clubs, including College Republicans and Young Americans for Freedom. “One of the things that needed to be fixed on campus was that there wasn’t a lot of serious treatment of left-wing views,” Hutcheson said. “You don’t ever really see anyone who is See Dems A2

return By | Thomas Novelly many notifications. It was a good feeling to see so much Editor-in-Chief encouragement.” When junior Elyse HutchesThanks to Hutcheson’s inion posted on Facebook that tiative, College Democrats is she was going to bring back back on campus after a nearly the College Democrats club to three-year hiatus. She said she Hillsdale College’s campus, she wasn’t prompted by the upsaid she was prepared for the coming presidential election worst. but rather the need for diverse “I was worried,” Hutcheson campus discourse. More than said. “I didn’t know what was 40 students signed up to join going to happen or how people the newly reactivated club at were going to react.” The Source. Returning from her sumAssistant Professor of mer job that July night, she Rhetoric and Public Address said she was expecting nasty Matthew Doggett accepted remarks and criticisms, if any- Hutcheson’s invite to become thing at all. Instead, she found the faculty adviser of the club strangers encouraging the in May. club, students volunteering to “Growing up, my family has help, and more than 100 likes always been involved in polon Facebook from her friends. itics, and until recently, I had “I thought people would helped my mother in her camjust ignore it,” Hutcheson said. paigns for city council,” Dog“But when I came back from gett said. “Since she left office, my shift, I realized I had so www.hillsdalecollegian.com

See Core A2

Senior Lauren Melcher, junior Elyse Hutcheson, senior Christine Scanlan, senior William Persson, and senior Sam Grinis have reinstated Hillsdale College Democrats. Cat Howard | Collegian Look for The Hillsdale Collegian


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
9.8.16 Hillsdale Collegian by The Hillsdale Collegian - Issuu