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@Collegian_GCC @gcc.collegian The Collegian: The GCC Newspaper Friday, October 29, 2021
Junior runs on libertarian agenda
Students share their opinions
Collegian The Award-Winning Grove City College Student Newspaper
Vol. 107, No. 7
French brings irony and ideas Trueman essay sparks critical response
Sarah Soltis Staff Writer
Political commentator David French brought his conception of American pluralism and guidance on maintaining Christian character in politics to campus last Thursday. French spoke to both a packed morning and evening chapel service and, in between, dined and disFRENCH cussed with a variety of faculty members and students. These included students interested in law school, faculty and staff from the Office for Student Life and Learning and members
of the college’s American Enterprise Institute (AEI), who had read and discussed his recently-published book this fall. French began morning chapel with anecdotes of his undergraduate years at Lipscomb University and of his jolting transition to law school at Harvard University. He then argued that the questions haunting our political sphere, such as those on ending abortion and addressing racial injustice, are “extremely complicated.” Time, care and Christ-like humility, he said, remain vital in dealing “with virtually anything that matters in this culture.” Similar ideas shone out in French’s evening lecture.
After declaring the depth and dangers of polarization in America’s public sphere, French discussed the Christian’s duty to display the fruits of the spirit over fear, regardless of circumstance. AEI councilmember, senior Zachary O’Neil, helped English professor Dr. H. Collin Messer and Chaplain Donald D. Opitz organize French’s visit, spending “about eight hours with him over the course of his visit.” Over dinner, French and AEI-affiliated students discussed French’s book and ideas, American political trends and a recent French family story involving “a dead chipmunk in the toilet.” From the moment O’Neil picked French up at the air-
port on Wednesday until his post-chapel reception ended on Thursday, O’Neil’s first impression of French as a “pretty humble and down-toearth guy” remained uncontested in O’Neil’s mind. “I think he balanced really well intellectual humility and being firm in what he believed, which is a hard balance to get,” O’Neil remarked. Senior Emily Burke, who joined in at the AEI dinner, had a different impression. She said French talked over her and “distastefully” joked about former President Trump during the meal. While Burke “absolutely agrees” with French’s doctrine of love despite political disagreement, she maintains
that “when you look at his Twitter, when you look at the articles he’s writing in The Dispatch, you do not see that doctrine lived out in his rhetoric.” Instead, she said, one sees “the vilification of the unvaccinated” and of “those who truly support traditional values.” Along with love despite disagreement, French advocates a posture of pluralism. As French explained after his evening lecture, pluralism in the public sphere “does not require anybody to abandon their convictions” but “requires you to make room for other people’s convictions.” Embracing pluralism “does not mean becoming a squish” FRENCH 3
AEI scholar discusses Afghanistan Lillian Ford
Contributing Writer
SHARON HERALD
Students from local high schools participate in the BEST robotics competition at the Grove City College Arena on Saturday, Oct. 23.
BEST. Robot. Ever.
Caroline McClellan Contributing Writer
The usual sweaty athletes that walk the Physical Learning Center (PLC) halls were replaced with tiny moving robots this weekend, as the college hosted its annual BEST Robotics competition. This two-day event welcomed robotics teams from 15 different middle and high schools throughout western Pennsylvania and Ohio. The students competed to be one of three teams advancing to the regional competition, junior co-head judge Levi Marasco said. BEST stands for Boosting Engineering Science and Technology and is a “projectbased STEM program” that hosts annual robotics competitions for over 18,000 students at hubs all over the country, according to their website. This competition begins each fall with a kickoff day when participating teams are informed of the game theme
and given a bin of parts with which to construct their robot, sophomore co-head judge Michael Gomez said. He notes that each team of students then has six weeks to build a robot they believe will most effectively complete the tasks in the game, thus earning their team points. Last Friday and Saturday, these teams gathered on campus to present their hard work and test their robot’s effectiveness on the game field. According to Marasco, the competition consists of varying components judged over several days: an engineering notebook submitted before the competition, a marketing presentation and team exhibit judged on Friday night and the game itself, which took place on Saturday. Teams, varying in size from a dozen to 70 members, advance through the seeding round, wild-card round and semi-finals, with four teams competing in the finals. The winner of this final round is awarded the “game award,”
and judges tally the results from all components of the competition to determine who receives the “BEST” award, Gomez said. This year, Cornerstone Christian Prep won the BEST award, and Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy won the game award. These two teams, along with Mentor High School, are headed to the regional competition in Denver, Colo. BEST assumes an approach to engineering unlike other robotics competitions. Electrical and computer engineering professor Dr. Mike Bright, also President of the Board of Directors at BEST Inc., said, “BEST takes a very holistic view of engineering.” He says that this organization helps introduce students to the multidisciplinary skills they will need to succeed in the field of engineering. Grove City College is one of only two BEST local “hubs” in Pa., and the college has hosted this robotics competition every fall since 2010,
according to Bright. This event draws middle and high school students from all over the state, and these kids get the unique opportunity to experience the campus, meet professors and students and learn about the engineering program at the college. In fact, many of the judges are students, professors and alumni of the college, noted Marasco. This year, both of the head judges, Gomez and Marasco, attended the Grove City College hub BEST competition as high school students. Gomez commented on the impact that this competition had on his college decision. “One of the reasons I came to Grove City for electrical engineering was because of the good experience I had here in high school.” He reflected that “getting to meet Dr. Bright and having real engineering experience made me want to pursue that more in college.”
The American Enterprise Institution (AEI) Executive Council invited Dr. Michael Rubin to speak at Sticht Auditorium in Staley Hall of Arts & Letters on Wednesday, Oct. 27, about the current situation in Afghanistan and the resulting effects. Rubin is a RUBIN senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and specialist on Iran, Turkey and several other areas in the Middle East. Along with a Bachelor of Science in biology, he earned his Masters and PhD in history from Yale University. Rubin came to Grove City to discuss issues related to his prolific career in Middle Eastern studies. During the lecture, Rubin noted how purposeless it can be to send money to the governments of the Middle East, because the funding often goes missing and thus never reaches those it is meant to help. Another one of the many issues that Rubin touched upon concerned President Biden’s decision to remove American troops from Afghanistan. According to Rubin, Biden’s reasoning for pulling troops out of the country was “to take us out of this ongoing war.” However, Rubin refuted this remark, explaining that the American troops were there for preventative measures to keep war from starting. Now, with the pull-back of American troops, the preventative measures are gone. As a result, Rubin says that more conflict will likely ensue. AFGHANISTAN 3