Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
Vol. 143 Issue 13 - December 5, 2019
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Michigan to reduce car insurance premiums By | Elizabeth Bachmann Assistant Editor After years of mandatory and expensive personal injury protection, Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association reduced its claim fee from $220 to $100 for motorists who choose unlimited medical benefits. For motorists who do not choose unlimited medical care, the fee is completely waived. Changes will take effect July 2020. Michigan legislatures have fulfilled their January 2019 promise to provide better insurance options and reduce fraud and costs for Michigan motorists. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a press release that
she is proud to have garnered bipartisan support “to solve a problem that has been hurting Michigan families for far too long.” “We still have more important work ahead of us, and I have no doubt that we can seize on this momentum to pass a strong, bipartisan budget that fixes the damn roads,” Whitmer said. This claim fee, which previously made Michigan the only state in the country to require PIP, dropped in response to changes in the January 2019 bill, according to Rep. Eric Leutheuser. “The main takeaway from this last announcement is it is a validation of the fact that the reforms we put in
place will bring down costs,” Leutheuser said. “The reduction isn’t something we specified in law, but it is something totally independent in the MCCA. This is what their actuaries determined would be the new fee starting when the law is implemented.” The catastrophic claims fee is regulated by the MCCA, an independent, non-profit organization created by state legislature. The fee covers PIP medical claims that exceeds $580,000. That means, for every PIP claim, an individual’s insurance company pays up to $580,000, but the MCCA covers any expenses beyond that. When the law takes effect in July, Michigan will no
longer be the only state in which motorists are required to purchase PIP. Hillsdale State Farm insurance agent Jason Adcock, though he doesn’t speak on behalf of State Farm, raised fears that cuts to the claim fee will ultimately be offset by increased Medicaid tax coverage. Leutheuser allayed those fears. “I think one of the arguments against the reform is that ultimately all taxpayers would end up footing the bill for all those underinsured. Right now we have the best coverage in the world, if you take that away, the people who need help will eventually exhaust their savings and fall into the Medicaid system,”
Leutheuser said. “The answer to that Catastrophic Claims Fund only takes over after someone has had over half a million dollars worth of care. The vast majority of claims don’t hit that level.” One of the most impactful parts of the bill is that it will fund a new department, purely dedicated to discovering fraud. “Once you reduce fraud, the amount in claims decreases, which means premiums can come down,” Adock said. The bill will also normalize medical rates for insurance companies. Currently, companies pay approximately two to two and a half times more than Medicaid for the same medical procedures.
“Once you bring down the amount insurance companies are paying, then all insurance can come down,” Adock said. “From an insurance standpoint, if we can bring this down, then all insurance will come down naturally in the state of Michigan.” Lawmakers anticipate that this demanditorzation of PIP, coupled with a variety of new options for levels of coverage, will attract big name insurance companies back to Michigan that currently don’t offer plans in the state because of its complicated insurance laws.
Christ Chapel architect speaks on design process By | Lily McHale Collegian Reporter Behind the two-and-ahalf-year project of building Christ Chapel lay a countless number of creative decisions, from where to place it on campus to what it should look like inside and out, said architect Duncan Stroik, who gave a talk on the project on Nov. 25 in Plaster Auditorium. The first question, before thinking about design, was the location of the chapel. Two possibilities included beside Howard Music Hall and in what is now the large parking lot next to Simpson
Residence. “We made the radical proposal to put the chapel at the center of campus on the main axis behind Central Hall in the hopes that this project would lead to the creation of a new quadrangle,” said Stroik, a nationally-renowned architect whose firm is in South Bend, Ind. Stroik said his architectural inspiration came from Christ Church in Philadelphia and St. Martin in the Fields in London. Stroik drew from Christ Church’s classical architecture with its balconies and big windows. St. Martin in the Fields, designed by architect James
Gibbs, combined the portico from antiquity and early Christian churches, with the medieval spire. The architecture aimed to be classical as well as symbolic. He called Hillsdale’s Christ Chapel “much more simple than England but as substantial as Philadelphia. Christ Church was where the founding fathers met when they had the Continental Congress. We’re connecting two buildings and two
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Professor of German Eberhard Geyer in his office. Bryna Destefani | Collegian
Lab director leaves legacy Geyer to retire after 35 of fun lab environment years with German dept. By | Alexis Daniels Web Content Editor When Ted Miller, director of Hillsdale College’s science labs, started at Hillsdale almost 15 years ago, College President Larry Arnn charged Miller with his biggest takeaway from his career at Hillsdale College,“to not blow up the building.” Miller, mostly known as “Mr. T,” retired from his position at the college almost two weeks ago. Miller has enjoyed a lengthy career in Hillsdale’s chemistry department. Before coming to work for the College in 2005, he worked for Dow Chemical Company for 30 years and created more than 20 patents, six of which were commercialized.
“It’s really hard to do,” he said. “It’s a weird statistic, only one of 1000 scientists ever gets one patent. But in the industry, there’s a lot of pressure for you to produce.” Miller’s background at Dow was fitting for his “combined role” of “teaching, lab management, and overseeing student employees in the lab.” “The job was not organized at all when I got here,” he said. “Nobody’s fault, it’s just the way it was. But I’m extremely organized, and my mantra in the beginning was if I organize smart, I’ll never have to do anything.” Director of Biology Frank Steiner said Miller “added a real sense of professionalism to the job.” “He raised the level of his
responsibilities considerably from the previous lab director,” Steiner said in an email. “He also was willing to work with everyone—students, as well as professors—and he was very willing to step outside (when needed) of his job description.” Miller’s replacement will be Doug Brozsci, of whom he could not speak more highly. “The reassuring thing is how great he is,” Miller said. “He’s in his young 60s, and is very athletic.We’re in close contact, and he’s going to be a super replacement.”
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Public Services Librarian Linda Moore, who also handled the archives, is set to retire in January after 44 years of working at Hillsdale College. See A2 for coverage.
Nolan Ryan | Collegian Follow @HDaleCollegian
By | Bryna Destefani Collegian Freelancer When senior German major Emma Eisenman visited Hillsdale as a prospective student, she already had her heart set on attending a different college. Her meeting with the head of the German department during that visit, however, changed her mind. “Dr. Geyer is the reason I am here, and I am so thankful for it. I didn’t know I wanted to come here until I met with him,” Eisenman said. Eberhard Geyer, current chairman and professor of German, and director of German Study Abroad Programs, has taught at Hillsdale for almost 35 years. This semester will be his last, as he retires in December. During his time on campus, Geyer has built the German department from the ground up. “When I started here in 1985, I inherited a German department which was in decline and had some 35 to 40 students total,” Geyer said. Now, the German department is thriving. “This semester, we have 30 students in just one course, the upper level literature class, all of whom are either minors or majors,” he said. “That’s phenomenal.” “The fact that we have three full-time faculty is unusual for even a good college of the size of Hillsdale,” Geyer said. “At many other colleges, unfortunately, German has disappeared. Languages are a bit in trouble, but I think we are doing really well here because of the institutional support, the department’s dedication, and
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the willing and very dedicated liberal arts students we have here at Hillsdale. Hillsdale students can be exposed to such wonderfully crazy works as Faust to be read and discussed in German.” The German department has reached beyond the classroom as well. Assistant Professor of German Stephen Naumann describes how the students carry what they learn in class into their day-to-day lives through conversations in German over lunch and greeting each other in the hallways. Hillsdale’s German department begins the study of literature quite early. Starting at the 201 level, students are already reading a full novel. Upon completion of 202, all students can begin taking the literature courses. Geyer has taught these literature courses, which cover canonical literature from the classical era of Goethe and Schiller, the 19th century and its romanticism, realism, and naturalism, up through the 20th century, reading works by Kafka, Mann, and Zweig. “To my very last teaching day, I will walk into a literature class with a good sense of ‘creative’ panic,” Geyer said. “I have certain key items in mind that need to be discussed, and then I just start talking. Teaching for me is having a conversation with an interested and caring partner.” Junior Kathleen Hess said Geyer’s approach encouraged her to speak more in class. “I fell in love with his class on the first day of freshman year,” Hess said. “He encourages you to talk and has a fun dynamic in class.
For a language setting, that really helps.” Throughout his time at Hillsdale, Geyer has greatly influenced students and faculty alike. Politics professor Mickey Craig described Geyer as “a good man, an outstanding teacher and scholar, and a great friend.” “He instills into his students his own love for literature,” said Naumann. “He has a gift for reaching students with the types of questions and ideas that are in a specific work. We owe an awful lot to him for his hard work and vision in building the program into what it is today.” Many related how much laughter and joy Geyer creates. Despite heavy topics in the literature read in the German department, students say they are able to laugh in class because Geyer brings the stories to life. “There was a scene in the book we were reading that the class just didn’t understand,” said sophomore Tricia Becker. “So Dr. Geyer acted it out. At one point, he acted out a lamp. Afterwards, we all understood the scene so much better. It was really funny, and made it really easy to understand.” French professor Anne Theobald has had an office on the same floor as Geyer for four and a half years. “I think what I will miss most when he retires is his infectious laugh,” she said. “During the two periods of the semester when he
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