Collegian 02.13.2025

Arnn receives Heritage award

By Skye Graham Collegian Reporter

Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn recently received The Heritage Foundation’s Great American Award at its Awakening 2025 Conference Jan. 10 in Sea Island, Georgia.

“As our country endures battles over our history, our language, and even the meaning of America, Larry Arnn’s steadfast belief that ‘all men are created equal and endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights’ has inspired students and faculty, parents and philanthropists, elected leaders and citizens,” said Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts when presenting Arnn with the award.

Arnn was selected to receive this award due to his commitment to educating students on America’s founding principles, according to a Heritage Foundation press release.

Arnn said it is important that Hillsdale remains true to these principles.

“Liberal education is like Christianity,” Arnn said. “Its kingdom is not of this world. It depends upon a government that will protect its desire and right to look for and serve the best things. Hillsdale is a partisan only of the principles and the Constitution that protect its right to pursue its calling. It was built this way from the beginning.”

Arnn said he wants to help students at Hillsdale College defend liberty by understanding human nature.

“To teach Hillsdale students to defend liberty is to help them learn the ways of human nature, to understand the rights found in their nature, to understand the practices that protect these rights, to understand their obligation to help others know these things,” Arnn said.

Arnn has been a trustee of The Heritage Foundation since 2002.

“Honor has more to do with the giver than the recipient,” Arnn said. “I admire the people at Heritage and the Taylor family, who founded the conference and the award that Heritage now manages.”

Victor Davis Hanson named commencement speaker Q&A

By Tayte Christensen Assistant Editor

Victor Davis Hanson will be the commencement speaker for the class of 2025. The provost’s office announced the selection of the historian and political commentator in an email on Feb. 6.

“I am deeply honored to have been invited to present the 2025 Hillsdale College graduation address,” Hanson said in an email to The Collegian. “It marks the high point in a 24-year relationship as a visiting professor with the college, one which has enriched my own life immensely and forged some of the closest friendships with Hillsdale faculty and students of my life.”

As the Wayne and Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College, Hanson teaches courses in military history and classical culture each fall semester.

“Victor is one of the most cited classical scholars, a superb teacher here for many years, a commentator on public affairs of profound influence,” College President Larry Arnn said in an email to The Collegian. “He brings depth to everything he thinks and says. He is also a fine man who works hard, keeps his

word, and serves others.”

Popularly known as “VDH,”

Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank on the campus of Stanford University, and is a professor of classics emeritus at California State University, Fresno.

“Hillsdale College has a long tradition of inviting speakers who are not only accomplished in their fields but also deeply committed to the principles of liberty, the Western tradition, and the pursuit of truth. Victor Davis Hanson embodies these ideals,” Provost Christopher VanOrman said.

Hanson is the author of many books, including “The Case for Trump” and “The Second World Wars.” His latest book, published last year, is “The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation.”

“His insights into history, culture, and politics offer invaluable perspectives for our graduating students as they embark on their own journeys,” VanOrman said. “We believe his address will be both intellectually stimulating and inspiring, challenging our graduates to think critically and engage thoughtfully with the world around them.”

Senior Class President Gavin

Listro said the class officers’ process to select Hanson as speaker was lengthy, but he said he is happy with the outcome.

“He is a really great pick, and I am excited to hear what he has to share with our class,” Listro said. “He knows Hillsdale well and he knows some of us who have had a chance to take a class with him, so I expect that he will not disappoint in terms of speaking to the uniqueness of the Hillsdale experience.”

Hanson’s journalism appears in The Wall Street Journal, the Claremont Review of Books, The New Criterion, and The Daily Telegraph. He also con tributes video commentaries to the Daily Signal.

“He’s lived a lot of life and done a lot of great work in his time so there’s a lot of wisdom there that everyone attending can walk away with a little bit of,” Listro said.

Hanson’s extensive expe rience in the realm of educa tion, Arnn said, will benefit commencement attendees and graduates.

“We come to college to grow in intellect and character into fine people,” Arnn said. “We need examples to emulate. Victor provides an example that shines.”

College to demolish Donnybrook house

By Anna Broussard Assistant Editor

The college will raze the on-campus house Donnybrook in the next few years with plans to use the property for administrative purposes, according to Dean of Men Aaron Petersen.

“There’s going to be an administrative building with a multi-use facility, offices, and storage,” Petersen said. According to Petersen, Hillsdale College purchased the

house at 62 Park Street in June 2016, allowing sophomores and juniors from the dorms to live there while still being in a designated on-campus house.

Jonathan Brewer ’10 lived in Donnybrook during his junior and senior years and gave it the name Donnybrook when he lived there his junior year.

“The summer beforehand, I was getting the word of the day in my email, and I got ‘Donnybrook.’ It’s a name for a brawl, or a group of guys fighting in

the street, in Ireland,” Brewer said. “I was like ‘oh, man, we are 10 guys living in a house.’

And that’s a pretty good name and we went for it.”

Brewer said Donnybrook holds fond memories for him and the group that lived there, but it was probably time for the house to stop housing students.

“We played a lot of music there, and had jams, which was fun,” Brewer said. “And we had a lot of visiting writers come by, and after they would do their writing workshop, we would often take them over to the Donnybrook and drink and talk with them.”

Donnybrook, which houses 10 students, has spacious common areas, a basement, and a large backyard and porch, junior Daniel Doyle said.

Doyle, a current resident of Donnybrook, said the house has a way of cultivating tightknit groups of men that has been good for all those living there.

By Catherine Maxwell News Editor

Zach Ponraj was named President’s Ball king.

Do you prefer blackjack or poker? FanDuel.

What’s your favorite children’s book?

“If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” — I relate deeply to the “one impulsive decision spiraling into total chaos” way of life.

Maddie Hornell was named President’s Ball queen.

What book would you add to the Great Books curriculum?

It seems that I lack context in the recent Western Tradition for not having read Martin Buber’s “I and Thou,” but a more literary and another honest answer would be T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets.”

What’s your favorite ’80s song? The ones that come to mind are “Clay Pigeons” by Blaze Foley or “My Favorite Memory” by Merle Haggard.

What’s one activity every Hillsdale student should try before graduating?

Committing to a church home, even if you still have theological questions. Also go foraging for mushrooms, which grow so beautifully in Michigan.

If you were stranded on a deserted island with a Bible

If you were on Jeopardy! what category would you be best at?

Obscure 16th-century German mystics you definitely haven’t heard of. What’s the craziest food you’ve ever tried? Pork. Inshallah.

If you had to live in any time period other than the 21st century, what would you pick?

Obviously, the Roman Empire.

character, who would you want to be stranded with (excluding Jesus)? Easy choice: either John the Baptist or Moses (wilderness skills)

What’s your favorite tree on campus?

This is a terribly cruel question. The Homer (the oak across Galloway Drive from the Dow Hotel) is incredible, but I love the American sweetgums to the left of the Homer because their leaves have spots like my Australian shepherd back home. The saucer magnolia by the eagle statue is incredible for its blooms in the spring and because it has a branch that you can hang both ends of your hammock on, which is a rare treasure. The bald cypress on the edge of the pond in the arb is a favorite, too (it has knees!). The American sycamore growing in the midst of the concrete slab behind the Old Snack Bar is another honorable mention for its resilience and charm.

Michigan’s oldest college newspaper

Zachary Ponraj and Maddie Hornell were crowned the President’s Ball king and queen. Courtesy | Emma Kate Mellors

The sun sets over campus.

Jillian Parks | Collegian

The last men to live in Donnybrook prepare to say goodbye.

Courtesy | Jack Cote

State rep argues for raw milk

By Ally Hall Design Editor

Food security is national security, according to Pennsylvania state Rep. Barb Gleim.

Sponsored by Hillsdale College Republicans, Gleim gave a lecture Feb. 11 titled “American Farmers Under Attack: Fake Meat, Raw Milk & Foreign Ownership.” Gleim presented a number of challenges American farmers and consumers currently face in agriculture production and maintenance.

“We have China, Iran, and North Korea as our top three foreign adversaries,” Gleim said. “We don’t want any of them owning farmland in our states, but we also don’t want them owning farmland within three or four miles of a military installation.”

Gleim used the example of Smithfield Foods, a Chinese-owned packaged meat company based in Indiana, to support her point about foreign adversaries playing a controlling role in American agriculture.

“As of last year, there’s over 600 acres owned just in the state of Pennsylvania by China directly,” Gleim said. “Smithfield Foods is wholly owned by China. They control 25% of our pork in the United States.”

Aside from foreign affairs, Gleim also touched on a number of topics including the uptick in cases of bird flu, the new push for fake meat, the merits of drinking raw milk, and her experience as a representative on the forefront of agricultural policy.

“For so long, agriculture has not been a part of the infrastructure discussion in the United States,” Gleim said. “Now we are starting to include agriculture as a critical infrastructure that we need to protect.”

With the inclusion of agriculture in national policy conversations and cultural discourse comes criticism as well. According to Gleim, raw milk and real meat are “under attack” in America by left-leaning representatives and movements.

“You can see under this Green New Deal some of the green initiatives that they’re running that they want to try to somehow curtail beef because they think it’s bad for the environment,” Gleim said. “But I can tell you right now that there is nothing that can help the environment more than farms: grass, trees, anything that naturally grows and emits oxygen that helps curb the carbon they’re so concerned about.”

Gleim asserted that raw milk is one of the best things consumers can drink.

“It has every vitamin in it

Hillsdale professors discuss tariffs

By Sarah Katherine Sisk Senior Reporter

President Donald Trump launched new tariffs on three major U.S. trading partners this month, wielding trade policy as leverage to combat the fentanyl crisis.

Several Hillsdale economics professors weighed in on the potential impacts of these new tariffs. Though they can lead to increased prices in the short run for American consumers and businesses, the professors agreed the tariffs serve as a strategic tool to pressure trading partners into addressing the fentanyl crisis.

versaries and reducing reliance on potentially hostile nations for critical defense technologies. They can also serve as a source of tax revenue and protect certain domestic industries from foreign competition.

Furthermore, Martin said tariffs act as a powerful negotiating tool. They can be used to secure concessions from trading partners, such as persuading them to lower their own tariffs or to make other favorable adjustments. This strategic use of tariffs is designed to strengthen the U.S. position in international trade negotiations, according to Martin.

nomics Roger Butters said if the goal is to minimize material want, more trade is good because trade creates wealth.

To pursue more trade for the sake of itself would be foolish, according to Butters. In this context, using trade as a negotiation tool may be the cheapest way to achieve the stated objective. While tariffs do not explicitly create wealth, they can be significantly less costly than war, Butters said.

predominantly onto China.

“I suspect something like this will happen,” Steele said. “This is what statesmanship and the art of the deal is about.”

Steele said Trump supports genuine free trade.

“At the 2018 G-7 meeting, Trump suggested that everyone simultaneously drop all trade restrictions,” Steele said. “The hypocrites accusing him of sabotaging trade had zero interest in this.”

Tyler O’Neil ’12, managing editor at The Daily Signal, said he was happy to see Arnn receive the award.

“Larry P. Arnn truly is a

that you could want,” Gleim said. “When you pasteurize raw milk, yes, you can take out some of the bacteria in it, but you’re also taking out some of the good ingredients in it — it has microbials. It has all sorts of great things for your body. I think everybody should be drinking it.”

Pasteurization, a method developed by Louis Pasteur in 1864, involves heating dairy products to a certain temperature for a set period of time depending on the amount, type of product, and level of desired pasteurization. The goal of pasteurization is to kill disease-causing microorganisms found in raw milk like salmonella, E. coli, and listeria.

The FDA advises consumers not to drink raw milk to limit their exposure to some of these microbes, specifically pregnant women, children under five, and people with weaker immune systems.

Sophomore Cate McCartney said she doesn’t drink raw milk regularly, but said she attended the talk for neighboring reasons. In the light of a new Trump administration’s health-related actions, McCartney said she’s been inspired to get back to more “natural foods.”

“I really appreciated hearing Barb’s perspective since she’s a farmer herself, and her experience and passion for the health and strength of American farms is evident,” McCartney said. Associate Professor of English, fellow farmer, and talk attendee Jason Peters stressed the importance of supporting the local economy and farming communities.

“The food security issue has another element to it that she wasn’t interested in talking about, or didn’t talk about,” Peters said. “If we’re not taking care of farm communities and if we’re going to just let farm communities die or not going to support small-scale farmers, family then we’ve got another security issue. That’s not going to go away just because we tell China they can’t buy the property next to a military installation.”

To Gleim, the most pressing issue facing agriculture now is the lack of budding young farmers.

“If you haven’t heard in the news, we are aging out,” Gleim said. “The average age of a farmer in the United States I believe now is 55. We really need your generation and younger to get involved, and we’ve got to figure that out not on a state level, but on a national level. We have to figure out how to make that affordable and a life-sustaining type of vocation for you all.”

great American, and those of us lucky enough to have studied under him know both his dedication to truth and the way he’ll spur you on to further learning with a twinkle in his eye,” O’Neil said. “It took

How to: Advertise with The Collegian

nstanish@hillsdale.edu.

The measures would impose a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on Chinese goods. Trump agreed to delay the Canadian and Mexican tariffs for 30 days after both nations promised enhanced border security measures and strengthened efforts against fentanyl trafficking into the United States.

China has announced retaliatory measures since, including a 15% tariff on U.S. coal and natural gas imports and 10% tariffs on crude oil and agricultural machinery, according to The Daily Caller. China also filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization, claiming the U.S. tariffs violate international trade rules.

“As with any policy decision, there are tradeoffs,” Director of Economics and Professor of Political Economy Gary Wolfram said.

Associate Professor of Economics Christopher Martin agreed that tariffs have a mix of costs and benefits.

On the beneficial side, Martin said tariffs can bolster national defense by weakening ad-

Martin explained that tariffs don’t reduce the trade deficit, which is more a reflection of the balance between savings and investment in the economy. To lower the deficit, the U.S. would need to increase savings, reduce borrowing, or make itself less appealing for investment.

It is important to note that imports don’t inherently lower GDP, according to Martin. While imports are subtracted from the GDP calculation, this is merely to avoid double counting, as import spending is already included in consumption, investment, and government spending figures. Imports can even support GDP by providing necessary materials for other production, Martin said.

“Trade restrictions are always costly; they cannot make a country wealthier,” Associate Professor of Economics Charles Steele said. “However, as both Adam Smith and Ludwig von Mises pointed out, they can have a useful role as foreign policy and defense tools if used judiciously and wisely. Smith says this is the role of the crafty statesman.”

Associate Professor of Eco-

“One thing people forget is trade creates wealth, but you have no duty to trade with someone that will use the wealth that gets created to destroy you,” Butters said. “It is completely legitimate to refuse to trade with people that seek your destruction.”

Trump is using tariffs as a useful foreign policy tool, according to Steele.

“That’s why the tariffs on Canada and Mexico were immediately put on hold as soon as their respective leaders promised to actually crack down on fentanyl trafficking into the U.S.,” Steele said.

China’s economy is very weak, according to Steele. The precise impact of the tariffs remains uncertain; however, Steele said he expects these economic measures to impose difficulties on them.

“The Chinese Communist Party is a threat to the United States and the world,” Steele said. “This will hurt them.”

Steele referenced a recent study from economists at Iowa State University, which concluded that if the U.S. engages in a tariff war with China independently, American consumers will primarily bear the costs. If the U.S. can get the European Union to join the efforts, however, the financial burden shifts

Wolfram added that while tariffs are generally harmful to the economy, it’s possible that “the threat of tariffs may result in other countries lowering their tariffs and other restrictions on U.S. goods, and thus Trump’s threat may end up with lower tariffs worldwide.”

Steele said Trump’s recent tariffs are entirely different from the Smoot-Hawley tariffs.

The Smoot-Hawley tariffs, enacted in 1930, were a series of protectionist trade policies that imposed high taxes on thousands of imported goods, contributing to a global trade war and exacerbating the Great Depression.

“This is not even vaguely like the Smoot-Hawley tariffs,” Steele said. “Trump is using targeted tariffs and offers conditions under which the tariffs can be averted. This is a foreign policy tool.”

During his first term, Trump also leveraged tariffs as negotiating tools, especially against China, according to the Daily Caller. As global markets adjust to Trump’s recent actions, the effectiveness of using trade policy to address drug trafficking will unfold. But as Wolfram notes, quoting former New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra, “It’s tough to make predictions. Especially about the future.”

Library to host Gatsby book discussion

By Gemma Flores Collegian Reporter

While it won’t be one of Jay Gatsby’s raucous parties, F. Scott Fitzgerald fans are invited to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of “The Great Gatsby” in a book discussion on Feb. 26.

The discussion, hosted by Mossey Library staff, will take place at 12:00 p.m. in the Heritage Room and include a pizza lunch and snacks, according to Public Services Librarian Brenna Wade. The discussions are facilitated by Wade but are mostly student-led.

“It’s really informal,” Wade said. “It’s mostly just a way for people to have lunch and chat about a book. It’s open to anyone. Usually, with the discus-

sions, we get people in there because they like the book, or it’s a favorite.”

“The Great Gatsby” was published in April 1925. It follows the story of the ambitious Jay Gatsby on a quest to win back the admiration of his long-lost love, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby loses himself in the quest for Daisy’s affection, culminating in the book’s dramatic ending. The work explores the ideas of the “American dream” and the pitfalls of a capitalistic society.

Wade said the library hosts a book discussion once every semester to foster community among the students and professors. It started in 2012 when Suzanne Collins’s “The Hunger Games” came out. Wade said she wanted to capitalize on the popularity of the novel at the

time.

“I try to pair the book discussions with notable anniversaries or things like that,” Wade said. “I did ‘Anne of Green Gables’ last semester for the 150th birthday of L. M. Montgomery. April is the one-hundredth anniversary of ‘The Great Gatsby,’ so I figured that would be a good time to feature it.”

Freshman Ashlyn Unangst said she is interested in attending the book discussion and admires Fitzgerald’s novel.

“I think the overarching theme of living in the past is so interesting,” Unangst said.

“I also love F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing and how his descriptions are so memorable, like how he describes Daisy’s voice as notes in a song that will never be sung again and being

filled with money.” Wade said she is not a fan of “The Great Gatsby,” though she can appreciate the work for its impact on American literature.

“The characters aren’t necessarily good people,” Wade said. “I’m the type of person who likes more idealized characters who uphold high ideals and morals. The characters in this are much more flawed.”

Wade said she hopes those who don’t like the book will attend, too.

“I am waiting for the day when someone comes in because they hate it, and then we can have a rollicking discussion about it,” Wade said.

Adventure club to ice fish

By Francesca Cella Collegian Reporter

The Hillsdale College Outdoor Adventures Club will take 15 students ice fishing at Baw Beese Lake Feb. 15.

“It’s free fishing weekend, that’s the attraction,” sophomore TJ Korotzer said.

Fishing license requirements are waived on Feb. 15 and 16 for all species of fish, according to the State of Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Senior Anna Coln, the

hard work for Dr. Arnn to raise Hillsdale out of its crisis and turn it into the behemoth for classical learning it is today.”

O’Neil said Arnn helped spur on his passion for learn-

club’s president, said free fishing weekend is a great chance for people to try a new hobby.

“When else do you get to go ice fishing for free, if you don’t know how to do it?” Coln said.

“This is a cool opportunity.”

Coln said club members are excited to take advantage of the weekend.

“Last semester we were coming up with the events that we wanted to do this semester, and TJ suggested ice fishing and said he knew somebody who had equipment and could teach us how to do it,” Coln

ing, even in his first days at Hillsdale.

O’Neil said he took Arnn’s Winston Churchill class, and he said Arnn’s lively conversations with students around the tables in the dining hall

said. “Everyone on the board thought it was a great idea and would be super fun.”

Korotzer said Corey Murray, news reporter for the Hillsdale Daily News, is helping run the event.

“He’s providing the gear and the expertise,” Korotzer said. “I’m from California. I don’t even know what ice is.”

Although attendance has been low at previous club events, the ice fishing trip is full and has a waitlist, Coln said.

“We are limiting the group

showed Arnn’s commitment to Hillsdale and its students.

“He would engage in lighthearted banter with men and women 40 years his junior, poking fun at their youthful passions and encourag -

at 15 because of safety and the amount of equipment,” Korotzer said.

Coln said she is optimistic that the ice will be thick enough for the event.

“It takes a long time for the ice to melt, especially if it’s been cold for a long time,” Coln said. “So if there’s a warm day or two after weeks of cold, it won’t do anything.”

Coln said it is looking like it will be a great trip.

“As long as people dress warmly, I think they’ll really enjoy it,” Coln said.

ing them to engage in deeper learning,” O’Neil said. “He knew how to have a good time and help others enjoy themselves, while prioritizing the high ideals of a classical education.”

Arnn from A1

Hillsdale College Republicans President Josiah Jones attended Pennsylvania state Rep. Barb Gleim’s lecture. Ally Hall | Collegian

Author lectures on bringing back practice of civility

By Catherine Maxwell News Editor

Adopting civility in daily life could heal our divided society, said Alexandra Hudson in her Feb. 10 lecture “The Soul of Civility,” also the title of her latest book.

Hudson, the founder of the online community Civic Renaissance and 2020 Robert Novak Journalism Fellow, gave the lecture as part of a book tour spanning five countries and more than 60 cities. Hudson said the world needs less politeness and more civility.

“Politeness is technique. It’s external stuff — what we say, what we do,” Hudson said. “Civility is internal. It’s a disposition of the heart. It’s a way of seeing others as our moral equals, worthy of a bare minimum of respect just by virtue of our shared moral status as members of the

human community.”

Hudson said her parents taught her civility and intellectual curiosity, but the “utterly toxic” work environment in the U.S. Department of Education disillusioned her of her belief in natural societal civility. She spent a “soul-crushing” year working at the department before she and her husband moved to Indiana.

“I’ve come to realize that my experience in government was a microcosm of the deep divisions in our world and our country right now,” Hudson said. Hudson said the experience at the department revealed two extremes in the way people interact and relate with each other.

“On one hand, there was a contingent that was bellicose and hostile. They were willing to step on anyone and steamroll anyone in order to get ahead and get what they wanted,” Hudson said. “The other contingent was

polished and poised and polite. I thought these were my people, but they would smile and flatter me one moment and then stab me and others in the back the next.”

Hudson said she realized both extremes dehumanize people: the first by bullying and the second by manipulating. Politeness is not a solution because it “papers over differences” between individuals.

“The goal is not to eradicate difference,” Hudson said. “It’s to peacefully coexist, perhaps even thrive in light of difference, which is why civility is indispensable to a free and flourishing society and democracy.”

Hudson said her book is about navigating life in a society with competing visions of the good.

One of the best ways to practice civility, she said, is through “porching,” a term based on an experience with a woman from church inviting Hudson and others to gather on the woman’s veranda.

“This was her quiet revolution of saying, ‘I can’t control what’s happening in Washington, who’s president, or even what’s happening down the street at city hall, whether my roads get paved or plowed,’” Hudson said. “‘But I can control myself, and I want to choose to make my community better, stronger, and more beautiful.’”

Hudson said “porching” is about turning people from outsiders into insiders.

“People across the country, across the world, are doing the

same thing and saying, ‘I can’t change the world, but I can change myself,’” Hudson said. “There’s tremendous subversive power in that.”

Hudson said her journey with civility came in part from her mother, Judi Vankevich, known as “Judi the Manners Lady.”

For more than 30 years, Vankevich has taught children about manners through music, live concerts, and published books. Hudson grew up touring North America with her mother, and now Vankevich is helping Hudson with her book tour.

“ We need to win our children, and teaching manners and civility starts with reaching our children with truth,” Vankevich said. “It’s entertainment with a purpose.”

Senior Anna Maisonville said she found Hudson’s lecture encouraging.

“We hear a lot of depressing and abstract conversations about our world today, but I appreciated a very tangible vision for how we as individuals can help heal our society,” Maisonville said. Hudson said restoring civility would bring back a tradition that stretches back to the ancient Greeks.

“I encourage you to keep that in mind that we can’t change the world, but we can change ourselves,” Husdon said. “If we choose to reclaim the soul of civility, we might be able to heal our broken world, or at least make it a little more gentle, for ourselves and for future generations.”

College Republicans to host Presidents Day celebration

By Hannah Foster Collegian Freelancer

Hillsdale College Republicans will celebrate Presidents Day with a Trump impersonation contest Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. in the Searle Center.

According to College Republicans Communications Chair and freshman Kathryn Vieceli, faculty will judge the impersonation contest, including Associate Dean of Men Jeffery Rogers. The event is intended to celebrate all that the American presidents have accomplished for the nation.

“The two main things we’re going to have are a Trump impersonation contest and presidential jeopardy

“You get to learn how to function with other people in the house without an RA,” Doyle said. “It was a great learning experience for everybody, and it was good for young men.”

Doyle said he had heard rumors that Donnybrook was no longer an on-campus option for students looking to move out of the dorms, which was later confirmed by the deans.

“We got an email from the dean’s office as a house informing us that we wouldn’t be able to live there for the next semester, which was sad,” Doyle said. According to Doyle, Donnybrook was a place for sophomore and junior men in the Simpson Residence where a few could move to if they did not receive off-campus permission.

“It was a good option for people who wanted to live not in the dorms, but didn’t yet have off campus permission, or didn’t want to go off

— very random presidential trivia, fun facts you wouldn’t think about,” Vieceli said. “Some are kind of quirky, but you get a cool prize if you win.”

Vieceli said the winners of the contests will receive a prize related to Trump.

“You’ll get a prize for each of the different contests,” Vieceli said. “It’s a unique Trump artifact.”

Vieceli said this event serves as a remembrance for the legacy of the presidents.

“It requires going back honoring the presidents that were influential — George Washington, Abraham Lincoln — and there’s so many more to be discussed, but especially Presidents Day is

campus and they still wanted to be on campus.” Doyle said.

“We all came from Simpson, and some people don’t want to stay in the dorms all year, but that also doesn’t mean they necessarily want to join Greek life.”

According to Petersen, with the acquisition of the on-campus houses such as Hill House, Chase and Kempton residences, and the College Park Townhomes, students have a lot of options before going off campus.

“It was an unintended consequence to lose off-campus permissions for juniors and to have so many juniors denied off campus, but we must be good stewards and fill our beds,” Petersen said.

As many sophomores and juniors live in on-campus housing, it creates a great environment for juniors to be -

celebrating the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln,” Vieceli said. “We’re also celebrating our newest presidential victory, which is Trump.”

Sophomore Michael Rupe, a member of College Republicans, said he plans to attend the event and is excited for the Trump impersonation contest.

“I’m thinking of putting my name into the ring,” Rupe said. “I do have a couple other friends that are interested in doing it. They have really funny Trump impersonations so I don’t know if I’ll win.”

Vieceli said she is excited for this event because it is a fun way to celebrate the nation with other students there.

“It’s about appreciating

come strong student leaders, Petersen said.

“Juniors are really dynamic leaders, sophomores are high energy, but not as much experience,” Petersen said. “Junior leadership is really a sweet spot, and so an unintended consequence is that I actually have more of our really powerful leaders on campus now, but it wasn’t by design.”

Sophomore Trevor Hall,

where you’re at by honoring and knowing where you came from,” Vieceli said. “There were great leaders in the past that have given us the freedom and the beautiful life we have today.”

Rupe said the event will help students appreciate the presidents in the way that Americans should.

“We at College Republicans like to celebrate the good things that make America America,” Rupe said. “Part of that is recognizing the great men that have made America. It’s a good thing to celebrate, especially at a college like Hillsdale.”

who had hoped to live in Donnybrook next school year, said the house has a long legacy of great culture and will be sad to see it go.

“It was definitely a net positive to the campus,” Hall said.

“I also think for the younger Simpson guys, it gives them an opportunity to look over at Donnybrook and see a lot of independent upperclassmen as his role models.”

By Tayte Christensen Assistant Editor

The Supreme Court has acquired too much power as the supposed referee of all constitutional disputes, Associate Professor of Government Bradley Watson said in a speech hosted by Career Services Feb. 7.

Watson, who teaches law and constitution for Hillsdale’s Van Andel Graduate School of Government in Washington, D.C., gave a lecture titled “Progressive Jurisprudence and the Crisis of Constitutionalism.” He said a modern understanding of the Constitution is shaped by progressivism, and it is the result of American philosopher John Dewey’s transformation of Charles Darwin’s model of natural selection into a social science.

“These doctrines have led to a very new view of constitutionalism that looks forward rather than backward,” Watson said.

Darwin’s ideas of natural selection were used to equate politics and jurisprudence with the natural sciences, Watson said.

“Together with their direct offshoot, social Darwinism and pragmatism had by the early 20th century coalesced into this powerful intellectual cocktail of progressivism which would radically influence the thought and the programmatic

jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, and continues to impact political and jurisprudence to this day.

“Progressive jurisprudence nowadays has largely divorced itself, rhetorically at least, from its Darwinian roots,” Watson said. Today, political and social philosophies themselves have changed and expanded the meaning of truth, which Watson said means “truth” is now constantly in flux.

“The progressive intellectual synthesis always emphasizes evolution, experimentation, pragmatic and instrumental reason,” Watson said. “At some point, social Darwinism melds with that uniquely American philosophy, pragmatism, which suggests pragmatic experimentation to get to the next most interesting thing.” Abraham Lincoln, according to Watson, believed it was necessary to look to the past in order to solve constitutional problems in the present day. Watson said this led Lincoln to agree with Plato and Aristotle in asserting that negative change in a society is always a possibility.

“For him, history is not destined to unfold in an ever more egalitarian democratic direction, because democracy itself, because of its indissoluble link with the passions, is always combustible,” Watson said. “Moral and political regress are as likely as progress,

political leaders,” Watson said.

According to Watson, incorporating these ideas led to viewing a society as something that must constantly change in order to survive. This idea, Watson said, challenged the Western belief that superior ideas were those that were static and unchangeable.

“All changes in the Greek understanding — the old Western understanding — were understood, according to Dewey, to be within the metes and bounds of fixed truth,” Watson said. “Nature as a whole comes to be understood as a realization of purpose. It has a telos, an end, and a purpose. That’s a big problem if you believe in change.”

Watson said these progressive ideas view society as an organism that must constantly change.

“To look backward for the social Darwinist to an old-fashioned, musty, dusty 18th-century constitution or any other fixed or otherwise obsolete standard of political ‘right’ reflects a kind of death wish,” Watson said. “Society can’t thrive by looking backward.”

According to Watson, these progressive ideas influenced the likes of presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as the

haps moremore, there are certain fixed principles beyond which progress is simply impossible.”

Sophomore Jonah Swartz said Watson’s discussion of progressivism as a result of science was something he hadn’t considered.

“I enjoyed how he illustrated the development of progressivism as an intellectual idea, and not just a political idea — something that was underneath the political changes and something that swept in a lot more of an efficacious way,” Swartz said. Watson said while many in power today want the ability to change the Constitution, it is important to the document’s integrity that it remain as the Founders intended, which junior Ashley Poole said she appreciated.

“I thought Dr. Watson’s delineation of the different views of history is important, where you have history as something to be moved by men, versus Lincoln’s vision of finite human nature that we can’t change like there are some unchangeable things,” Poole said. “We often don’t think about the unchangeable because it is uncomfortable, but that’s the central premise of a written constitution.”

The first Donnybrook residents lived in the house circa 2009. Courtesy | Jonathan Brewer

Alexandra Hudson recently published a book on civility. Catherine Maxwell | Collegian

Associate Professor of Government Bradley Watson said progressivism shapes the modern view of the Constitution. Tayte Christensen | Collegian

Opinions

The Collegian Weekly

The opinion of the Collegian editorial staff

(517) 607-2415

Online : www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Editor-in-Chief | Jillian Parks

Managing Editor | Isaac Green

Senior Editor | Michaela Estruth

Outreach Director | Olivia Pero

Design Editor | Ally Hall

News Editor | Catherine Maxwell

Opinions Editor | Caroline Kurt

City News Editor | Thomas McKenna

Sports Editor | Jacob Beckwith

Culture Editor | Colman Rowan

Features Editor | Kamden Mulder

Social Media Assistant | Sam Otting

Circulation Manager | Lauren Bixler

Assistant Editors | Megan Li | Tayte Christensen | Christina Lewis | Alessia Sandala | Zachary Chen | Eleanor Whitaker | Anna Broussard | Ellie Fromm | Ty Ruddy

Ad Manager | Nathan Stanish

Puzzle Editor | Matthew Tolbert

Illustrator | Maggie O’Connor

Faculty Advisers | John J. Miller | Maria Servold

The editors welcome Letters to the Editor but reserve the right to edit submissions for clarity, length, and style. Letters should be 450 words or less and include your name and number. Send submissions to the Opinions Editor at ckurt@hillsdale.edu before Saturday at 3 p.m.

Single-sex wins

By Caroline Kurt Opinions Editor

Female athletes, religious AFemale athletes, religious Americans, and culture warriors are celebrating President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order “Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.”

“Ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women,” the order read, citing women’s domestic-abuse shelters and workplace showers as newly-protected spaces.

Here’s another reason to cheer: This order has the potential to protect the very existence of single-sex spaces. Advocates for this measure highlight locker rooms and bathrooms as the hallmark examples of single-sex environments we need to guard. But single-sex schools and programs are vulnerable too, and just as important to the health of our country.

A graduate of seven years of all-girls education, I am one of the 19% of American adults who have attended a single-sex school at some point. My experience attests to the importance of this option for American children. A fully female environment — the janitor and school chaplain were the only men in the building — cultivated deep friendships amid the most tumultuous years of adolescence, gave us a multitude of female role models, and allowed our teachers to tailor classes to the ways we learned best. The same happened at the all-boys school our brothers and friends attended.

Studies have found single-sex classrooms or schools reduce distractions and the pressure of negative gender stereotypes, as well as enhance student focus and confidence, all things I observed in my own life. At my school, girls who were more athletic or interested in math and sciences were encouraged in their interests, not shamed. There was

Be romantic, celebrate Valentine’s Day

We have lost enchantment. Gone are the days of chivalry. Gone is the era of sacred mystery. Gone is the age of wonder.

That’s why you should celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Think of it as a chance to learn from the faith of St. Valentine. Moreover, it’s a moment to enjoy a cultural-

ly-sanctioned time to remind your boyfriend or girlfriend what he or she means to you. It’s an opportunity to reclaim the glory of the everyday by sacralizing an otherwise ordinary day.

Buy roses. Get someone chocolate. Ask out your crush from class. Valentine’s Day shouldn’t be commercial

and sappy, though — it’s an opportunity to intentionally slow down your world and appreciate the goods of marriage, family, and the opposite sex. It’s not about pink hearts: It’s about recalling that even the most seemingly quotidian loves are never truly mundane. Whether one admits it or not, everyone’s a romantic at heart. So take tomorrow to remind yourself that the world remains enchanted, because love has and always will animate it. The haters are wrong — life may be a vale of tears, but it’s still a bed of roses. Valentine’s Day is a chance to enjoy them.

less drama than you’d expect.

Single-sex environments have their own pitfalls, and ours was no exception. But the virtues of this environment shaped who I am today, preparing me and my classmates well for the world beyond our school.

Now imagine a biologically-male transgender student had applied to our school, been denied, and claimed this was transphobic discrimination — not an impossibility in the relatively liberal area of my school. If he and his parents had sued, it could potentially have bankrupted our school. If we’d been forced to admit him, even if the student used the male bathroom and locker room, it would have undercut the very mission of the school.

Before this year, a well-organized campaign could have threatened the very existence of small single-sex schools across America — much like the gay-rights advocates who threatened to put baker Jack Phillips out of business before his multiple Colorado and U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

The same goes for single-sex summer camps, athletic programs, and trips. Even here at Hillsdale, we benefit from single-sex dorms, workout classes, and events. Only by culturally and legally recognizing two biologically-determined sexes can we preserve the delicate security of single-sex environments and guard them for future generations.

As Luke Miller argued in last week’s edition of The Collegian (“Stating the obvious is protecting your church”), this measure needs to become a permanent law passed by Congress to endure beyond this administration. As voters, and as voices in American public discourse, we need to lend it our support.

Trump’s order doesn’t only guard the future of female athletics, Christian institutions, and safe locker rooms. It determines which programs and educational opportunities we will be able to offer to our children one day. Whatever your political persuasions, this is something to celebrate.

Caroline Kurt is a junior studying English.

By Malia Thibado Collegian Reporter

Everyone should agree, across the aisle: America needs to invest in Greenland.

Greenland is a Danish territory whose location is critical for American national security and offers an untapped wealth of resources and economic growth mutually beneficial to both countries.

In light of recent Chinese and Russian economic and military aggression in the Arctic, the U.S. has renewed its interest in Greenland because of its geographical location and rich mineral deposits. It serves as the buffer between North America and its largest adversaries: Russia, China, and North Korea. Greenland also has deposits of 39 out of 50 minerals critical for the growth of national security and economy.

President Donald Trump has spoken about his desire to buy Greenland since 2019, and since winning re-election, has reiterated his goal many times.

“We need Greenland for national security purposes,” Trump said at a press conference in January. “We need it for national security that’s for the free world. I’m talking about protecting the free world.”

Trump has received pushback from Denmark, Greenland, and groups in the U.S., who propose everything from alternative trade and association agreements to maintaining the status quo.

“Our country’s sovereignty

and independence are non-negotiable,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede said in December. “We are not for sale and never will be for sale.”

Though Trump did not rule out militarily forcing American influence over Greenland, the American people and Congress would likely veto any military operations on the island, which American allies and enemies would see as decisive proof of America’s belligerence.

Many of Trump’s possible actions are predicated on Greenland gaining independence from Denmark. This could be achieved through a vote in the Danish Parliament and a referendum of the people of Greenland — 67.7% of whom support independence, including the current prime minister.

One alternative to outright buying the island is for Greenland to enter into a Compact of Free Association with the U.S., which would both preserve Greenland’s independence and secure American security and economic interests. In return, the U.S. would be obliged to subsidize the island and grant its citizens access to American federal programs and job opportunities.

John Rahbek-Clemensen, associate professor at the Royal Danish Defense College, wrote in a national security magazine that even a U.S. free association deal would be too strong a commitment. Rahkbek-Clemensen believes any overt move toward an American CoFA offer or outright

purchase would strain its alliance with Denmark and other European allies. He thinks this, as well, would display American disregard for foreign nations’ sovereignty.

Both Rahbek-Clemensen and Otto Svensden of the Center of Strategic International Studies argue the U.S. has already achieved its national security goals in Greenland.

A 1951 military cooperation agreement with Denmark allows the U.S. to create and maintain military infrastructure in Greenland, as it has done with the Pituffik Space Base (formerly known as the Thule Air Base).

Any purchase or official association with Greenland would increase America’s burden from its current $50 million investment to at least $700 million, though miniscule compared to America’s $820 billion military budget.

The CSIS analysis, however, focuses on maintaining America’s relationship with Denmark. When — and this is a when, not if — Greenland declares independence, it will lose its tie to Denmark. Countries like Russia and China will look like beneficial trade partners, especially China with its Belt and Road Initiative, which connects and develops countries to enlarge China’s global influence.

The best option for America to take advantage of Greenland’s assets and guard it from our adversaries is to make overtures of friendship to both Greenland and Denmark by including them in the North

American Aerospace Defense Command and Greenland in the U.S. Mexico-Canada Agreement.

By bringing Greenland and Denmark into another mutual defense alliance, the U.S. could pacify its European allies while simultaneously creating a reason to become more involved in Greenland’s civilian and military infrastructures. The free trade offered by the USMCA would increase private U.S. business interest in Greenland, thus benefiting Greenland and providing Americans a new business frontier, especially for mining. Greenland’s plentiful minerals include lithium and cobalt, rare earth metals essential for batteries and electronic vehicles.

By the time Greenland fully decouples from Denmark, it will be so entangled in beneficial American defense and trade agreements that it won’t be able to take Russian or Chinese bribes if it wanted.

Trump would then be responsible for expanding trade, improving national security, and strengthening alliances all over the free world. Both America and Greenland would both be stronger for it.

Malia Thibado is a junior studying international studies in business and foreign language.

You should be tithing in college America must invest in Greenland

By Jillian Parks Editor-in-Chief

The name “Craze” was a fitting title for the name of my church’s annual Vacation Bible School. With beach balls the size of a Kia Soul and extravagant giveaways at the end of each day, as a 12-year-old volunteer, I could not help but start to rethink my weekly tithe.

If 10% of my chore allowance and birthday money was going to fund beach balls and some kid’s second Nintendo switch, maybe I ought to just keep it for myself.

I expressed this sentiment to my dad, who reminded me the money was never really mine in the first place. Once I had a car, I began attending a different church — only partially fueled by my uneasiness about Craze — where I tithe regularly to this day. Even so, tithing can be difficult for me.

The Bible does not say Christians should start tithing, or giving 10% of their earnings to the church, when they make a respectable salary. It also does not say Chris-

tians are only to tithe when they are personally happy with the state of the church. College students should be regularly and proportionately giving to their local church or parish, and giving generously in addition to that, especially when it feels the most difficult.

The first person to give a tithe — 10% of his war plunder to Melchizedek — was Abraham, as recorded in Genesis 14:20. This voluntary expression of gratitude and reverence occurred long before the law was established.

Leviticus 27:30-32 outlines the necessity of giving a tenth of one’s income — land, livestock, harvest — declaring that “every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.”

While giving to charitable organizations is noble and generous, you should direct your tithe to the church.

As Rev. Christopher Brauns once told me, the church is as much God’s plan for this stage of redemptive history as the ark was for

Noah’s. There was nothing wrong with Noah helping people out, but his committed focus was the ark. The church — leaky as it may be, with conditions that aren’t particularly ideal — is God’s boat for this age. To be unimpressed by some of the choices of the American church is not reason enough to abandon ship.

There is another important point of opposition: students holding tightly to the money they have and choosing not to tithe because they’ve erroneously assumed it will insulate them from harm more effectively than obeying the Bible’s commands. This is a common pitfall, one most Christians fall into daily. Nevertheless, the paradox of tithing is as more is given, more is received. This may not be in terms of money — although I can support this claim anecdotally. It may very well be in terms of humility, an increased spirit of generosity, and a litany of other virtues that arise when one is anchored in the comfort of Christ alone. People who

tithe tend to express how much they have truly received by giving. Tithing won’t ensure salvation, nor will refraining send someone to hell. Legalism won’t propel the kind of generous spirit tithing aims to form. The Pharisees, who tithed consistently, are paradigmatic examples of this. We must tithe without becoming haughty or arrogant. A cheerful, sacrificial gift is both a signifier and the fruit of faith. From Abraham’s righteousness in Genesis to the faith of the healed leper in Luke, the Bible is a grand story of God rewarding the faithfulness of those who consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. For where your treasure is, Jesus says, there your heart will be also.

Jillian Parks is a senior studying Rhetoric and Media.

Defund partisan public broadcasting

Frederick Woodward Collegian Reporter

As conservatives strive to curtail operations at the U.S. Agency for International Development, they should stay on offense and defund other examples of government philanthropy gone wrong.

Priority number one: public broadcasting.

GOP congressman Greg Steube of Tennessee introduced legislation earlier this week to abolish USAID. With other prominent Republican lawmakers like representatives Chip Roy (Texas) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) rallying behind this idea, now is the time to harness this momentum and defund another federally funded hobby-horse of the liberal establishment: public broadcasting

National public radio in particular — and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in general, which oversees NPR and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) — are prime examples of Great Society-era programs whose original mission has become obsolete, and whose current form has mutated to become just another mouthpiece for a comfortably entrenched liberal establishment.

In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law legislation establishing the CPB,

which was ostensibly intended to meet a need for universal access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications services. In 2025, however, this need no longer exists — and has not for quite some time.

CPB’s mission, according to the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, is supposedly to be a non-partisan organization, with a “strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature.” As the record will show, however, for the self-styled “steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting,” this has been far from the case.

As Mike Gonzales, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, noted earlier this year, “Yamiche Alcindor, PBS’s White House correspondent between 2018 and 2022, used her public broadcasting job to practice activism for far-left causes rather than journalism.”

Gonzales went on to observe, citing a study from the Media Research Center, “PBS staff used 162 variations of ‘far-right’ labels and only six ‘far-left’ labels, an astounding ratio of 27 to 1.”

The study also documented a specific breakdown of these terms in relation to then-presidential candidate Trump. “PBS staff and guests employed 17 total “fascist” labels of Don -

America faces bigger problems than TikTok

By Skye Graham Collegian Reporter

If President Donald Trump can’t negotiate a deal to keep TikTok on the U.S. market before April 5, the government will ban the popular social-media app nationwide.

For all the problems TikTok may pose — whether real or fake — it is one of the few alternatives to Meta’s domination of the public square, and the government ought to protect it based on that fact alone.

According to a study done by Morgan Stanley, Meta would be the biggest beneficiary of a TikTok ban in the United States. This study found Meta could capture an extra 30 to 60 cents per share in 2026. Similarly, Morgan Stanley found YouTube could see a massive increase in profits if TikTok is banned.

Meta — which owns Facebook and Instagram — has taken up a large portion of the social media marketplace for years. While Meta has promised to remove partisan “fact-checking” from its platform, the company has been undeniably involved in suppressing information, particularly regarding politics.

Recently, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted his company suppressed conservative voices when it came to immigration and gender.

“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any administration in either direction — and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”

Because Instagram and Facebook took up so much of the social media market,

ald Trump,” the study found, “compared to three for Kamala Harris as “communist,” with two of those three denying she was one.”

For CPB and its $535 million budget, though, left-wing bias is business as usual.

As Ian Ritz reported on behalf of The Epoch Times, senior executives at NPR had been caught on video denigrating conservative political groups even as far back as 2011, leading to several resignations from the then-board of directors, but no subsequent amelioration of the underlying liberal ethos at the organization.

Consider, for example, the fact that NPR’s current — not former — president stated in a 2022 TED talk, “I think our reverence for the truth might have become a bit of a distraction that is preventing us from finding consensus and getting important things done.”

Without a doubt, NPR — in fact, the whole CPB — represents a prime example of government initiatives that should have their funding and workforce dispersed by a motivated new Trump administration and a mission-aligned Congress.

As newly-appointed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr wrote earlier this year, “I do not see a reason why Congress should continue sending taxpayer

dollars to NPR and PBS given the changes in the media marketplace since the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.”

President Trump should direct his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to audit the entirety of CPB’s funding and balance sheets, examining them for fraud.

As Americans living in 2025, it’s time for us finally to separate ourselves from our nostalgic view of public broadcasting. In a culture that has long-since departed from traditional communication channels, it’s time to realize that the forms of media that CPB was created to promote are obsolete.

And, if that’s not enough, the program as it is currently organized has become subject to mission drift and is now functioning as a left-wing mouthpiece. NPR’s original purpose is no longer relevant. Its current form is harmful to Americans. Public funding of NPR, PBS, and the entire CPB must go. Only in the absence of what amounts in effect to state-sponsored journalism will truly independent sources of facts and stories emerge in a relevant manner.

Reflections of a Galloway Lover

Thursday Night

Real men don’t flirt — or kiss — or sigh. They fall in love like a tough guy. Raw eggs they eat; they run at Feast. And talk to girls — just once — at least.

Conundrum

some people may have never seen information that counteracted the corporations’ narrative surrounding these issues. With a TikTok ban in place, these companies would have even more power over the public, with little competition.

Whether or not the company is openly involved in censorship now, recent history proves allowing companies such as Meta to control what Americans think and feel can have serious consequences.

Whenever one company gains complete control over the spread of ideas, it can be dangerous, as that company has the power to either uplift or censor ideas at whim.

In principle, there is no problem with wanting TikTok to be owned by an American company. The government should work to make that a reality, provided it allows TikTok to continue running in the meantime and prevents the takeover of the public square by other large social media companies. Rather than focusing on the perceived national security threat that TikTok may or may not pose, the government should take stock of the domestic threat that comes from companies like YouTube and Facebook gaining outsize control of the flow of information. It is up to individuals whether they want to risk giving information to China by using TikTok. We’d be better off focusing our time and energies on America’s biggest problems. TikTok isn’t one of them.

Skye Graham is a sophomore studying history.

She’s Protestant: I like her face.

Dare I go out With Hannah Grace?

Hillsdating has its time and place

By Rachel Schroder Collegian Freelancer

Hillsdating gets a bad rap. It provides the fun of dating without intentional clarity, so it should. Saga isn’t that romantic anyway.

But Hillsdating has gotten one thing right: Getting to know people doesn’t have to be serious from day 1.

Romantic mingling before becoming official is nothing new. While before the 1920’s “calling” on a girl at her home was the norm, by the mid-20th century young men and women began getting to know each other through dates outside the home. Though the motivation for going on many dates was often influenced by a desire to appear popular, the practice of going on dates rose in the preWorld War II years.

Hillsdale could learn from this tradition. While removing spouse-searching from the family environment brought its own problems, getting to know a variety of the opposite sex allowed and continues to allow young people to understand which qualities they do and do not want in a spouse. The alternative — seen in the many women I know who have rarely, if ever, been asked out — is not knowing what you want (because you haven’t had the chance to date) and having no options anyway (also, because you haven’t had the chance to date).

As a second semester senior, I have only been asked out on one official date on campus. When I was living in D.C. during my WHIP semester, however, my experience was vastly different. As a friend of mine recently noted, Hillsdale is like a high school co-op. In the real world, people actually date.

Many women at Hillsdale desire a career yet still believe that marriage and motherhood is their vocational priority. I have realized that some Hillsdale men are discouraged from

dating by female ambition because they see this in competition with future maternal priorities. Men on campus can recognize motherly desires and simultaneously appreciate career skillsets, which can be excellent preparation for future family responsibilities.

Dates at Hillsdale seem serious because students take their vocations seriously. This is good, but a Rough Draft date isn’t closing any doors on your vocation. It’s just coffee. Overthinking dates makes guys less willing to ask for dates, and girls less willing to accept them. It doesn’t have to be this way. People should be less bashful and realize that it’s not weird to flirt, even if it’s not reciprocated. People are flattered when someone notices them, even if it’s someone they don’t want to date. And going on a date with someone does not mean you must commit to a second.

The virtue of dating is found in the balance between serious vocational discernment and mindless mingling. Many Hillsdalians realize the evil of hookup culture and surely wish to avoid it. Yet we don’t need to make dating so serious that it paralyzes the development of friendship.

Dating can be both intentional and casual. Traditional “calling” achieves the first, and Hillsdating achieves the second. Healthy dating should land somewhere in between.

Male-female friendships have a natural progression. Hillsdating should lead to emotional transparency and progress to commitment. A beautiful relationship blooms when two people mutually acknowledge their sentiments, and then develop them. This Valentine’s Day, Hillsdale restaurants will fill with couples who started out Hillsdating. That’s a reason for hope.

Rachel Schroder is a senior studying history.

Marxism or America: Choose one

By James Joski Collegian Freelancer

Americans rarely associate Marxist critical theory with the right, but a recent political stunt shattered this presumption. To think that there can be America and Marxism is a fallacy: It is either Marxism or America.

On Nov. 18, American Reformer published “The Liberal Consensus and the New Christian Right,” an article by young conservative Marcus Carlson.

“A rising spirit is haunting America,” Carlson wrote, “the spirit of a true Christian Right.”

Carlson outlined a history of oppression experienced by the “true Right” at the hands of the “Post War Liberal Establishment” — a coalition of Marxists, liberals, false conservatives and many more — who, in the wake of World War II, created a new world order that repressed the “true Right.”

Carlson claimed there were two results. By repressing the “true Right,” these groups had acknowledged them as a threat. Secondly, because of this repression, it was time for the “true Right” to overthrow the old world order and bring about their own.

Karl Marx couldn’t be more proud, because these aren’t the words of a Marcus Carlson. They are primarily his own: “A spectre is haunting Europe,” Marx once wrote, “the spectre of Communism.” In one of the most overlooked political stunts of 2024, political commentator James Lindsay, famous for his exposure of Marxist infiltration within the Left, tricked the American Reformer into publishing a

reworded copy of the “Communist Manifesto.” He did this by using an alias — Marcus Carlson. The success of this hoax was his proof that the fringes of the conservative movement were harboring Marxist thought.

“They considered a lightly modified excerpt from the ‘Communist Manifesto’ to be a ‘powerful article’ for who they are and what they think,” Lindsay wrote in a New Discourses article on the stunt.

Surprisingly, the American Reformer didn’t fully deny this.

“While we were unaware of its authorship and motive,” an editor’s note disclaimed at the start of the article, “it is still a reasonable aggregation of some New Right ideas.”

In an ironic twist, the American Reformer claimed Lindsay had helped it. By replacing the Maxist ideology with its own, it argued, Lindsay had empowered its beliefs with Marx’s persuasive rhetoric.

The American Reformer proved Lindsay right. Marxist methodology — which, importantly, differs from communist beliefs — had become a tool of some on the Right.

To combat the woke Left, the thinkers of the American Reformer had adopted the same treacherous oppressed-versus-oppressor worldview as their rivals. They had become what they sought to destroy.

Such a phenomenon is not novel: Fascism was a perversion of communist methodology mixed with nationalism. Yet both of these groups were atheist. The self-described Christians of the American Reformer are not.

And from this fact they

form their counter-argument: There is nothing wrong with employing Marxist strategies when they are employed for the “right reason” of making America into a “fully Christian” nation. What a “fully Christian nation” looks like is not something they specify in detail.

There must be zero tolerance for such jargon. Marxist thought has no place in America. It is anti-American, it is anti-Christian, and it destroys our communities.

The preamble of the Constitution reads,“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union.”

The word “more” is critical to understanding why Marxism is so dangerous for our nation. Marxism states that after the oppressor is overthrown, perfection will be achieved. Yet no country that has adopted this mindset — Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, or Maoist China — has ever reaped such fruits. Perfection isn’t attainable in this world, and expecting to achieve it only creates problems.

This nation will never be perfect, but we’ll be damned if we don’t try to improve it. That is what the Constitution meant when it said “more perfect.”

This is also why Marxism cannot coexist with Christianity.

The Bible tells us to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s, and to place our treasures in heaven, not this world. Marxism’s promise of a material paradise on earth is incompatible with the Christian spiritual paradise. Christians should seek to improve the world, while understanding the world won’t be perfect. Finally, Marxism is toxic to

our communities, the foundation of this country. Only two groups exist for the Marxist: oppressor and oppressed. Marxism squashes the Christian belief in human dignity and the American belief in civic life. There is no dialogue between citizens, only war between factions. We should seek to improve America through Christian values, but we go wrong when we do that by force. We have seen where that goes. Christ did, too.

The Pharisees and Sadduccees imposed moral rules on the people, scoffing at them if they failed to align with their vision of a perfect society. Christ challenged them, valuing the free will of his people. They repaid him by defaming and killing him.

To change this nation, we must change hearts. Compelling behavior by the scepter would have disastrous results. If everything wrong with this nation is what has followed World War II, then to go back would mean we would lose gains in environmental protections, racial tolerance, and scientific advancement. This was done before, rejecting the “new order” for an “older one.” It was called Mao’s Great Leap Forward. It didn’t end well.

We don’t need to nor can we return to the past. What we need is to move forward, informed by the past. Remember to keep Marxism out of the future as we remember its past. We either choose Marxism’s future or America’s future. We can’t choose both.

James Joski is a freshman studying the liberal arts.

Frederick Woodward is a sophomore studying political economy.

City News

Chick-fil-A to open in Jackson this spring

By Joshua Mistry Fast Food Correspondent

Students could taste a No. 1 with the lemonade at the Chick-fil-A location in Jackson when it opens this spring.

Aaron Dimick, public information officer and spokesperson for the City of Jackson, said construction is progressing on the restaurant.

“Chick-fil-A has reported that they are working toward a spring 2025 opening,“ Diminick said. “We have not heard an exact date on when the doors will open. Everything appears to be moving along well. Signage is up and exterior features like the drive-thru are taking shape.”

The new location will be 15 minutes closer than the current closest Chick-fil-A in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Tim Wells, associate vice president for administrative affairs at Hillsdale College, said the college will continue to work with the Chick-Fil-A in Battle Creek to bring sandwiches to the dining hall occasionally during the semester.

“The college does not have plans to expand with a physical location at Hillsdale,” Wells said. “We value the partnership

we’ve built with the team at the Battle Creek store and currently don’t have any plans to alter that partnership at this time.”

Dimick said the city of Jackson has worked with the restaurant to ensure its location blends well with its surroundings as it brings in 80-120 new jobs.

“Some residents have expressed concern about the Chick-fil-A drive-thru backing up traffic onto North West Avenue,” Dimick said. “The City of Jackson, however, worked with the developer to make changes to the site plan so the restaurant has an extended drivethru to prevent traffic congestion.”

Junior Cameron Frye said he is excited about the closer Chick-fil-A but it is still far away.

“Obviously I‘m happy for it, but it‘s not close enough,” Frye said. “Over 45 minutes away, what a dirty rotten trick to play.”

Frye, who worked at a Chick-fil-A during high school, expressed how much the restaurant means to him.

“There‘s only two things I need in my life,” Frye said. “The cross and my Chick-fil-A sauce.”

‘A small business killer’: Restaurants brace as wage hikes loom

Local owners and servers fear Feb. 21 minimum wage hike, new paid leave rules

By Thomas McKenna City News Editor

Several local restaurants plan to raise menu prices if a Feb. 21 statewide minimum wage and paid leave increase takes effect as some lawmakers said Wednesday they were close to a deal to slow the wage hikes.

The changes would increase payroll costs for restaurants.

Lisa Slade, owner of Finish Line Family Restaurant, said she is preparing to raise her prices.

“It is forcing us to put a price increase on our menu, and possibly another one within six months,” Slade said. “We will see how things go with the first increase.”

Mitch Spangler, owner of Spangler’s Family Restaurant in Jonesville, said he is already updating his menus. He expects breakfast items will cost 10-15% more, and his payroll will go up 20-30%.

“It’s going to be pretty much straight across the board,” Spangler said.

The state minimum wage is set to increase from $10.33 to $12.48 next week after a Michigan Supreme Court ruling in August. Businesses would also need to provide more paid sick leave benefits for part-time workers.

The new law would also gradually increase the minimum wage for workers who receive tips to match the minimum for other workers, eliminating the difference known as the “tip credit.” Under the current system, if an employee’s total earnings don’t meet the regular minimum, employers must still cover the difference. The lower minimum would jump more than 50% from $3.93 to $5.99

next Thursday.

But local servers told The Collegian the scheduled wage hike would drop their total earnings, since their tips would decrease by more than their wages would increase.

“I think it will honestly discourage tipping across the board,” said Jolenta Dangerfield, a waitress at Finish Line Family Restaurant.

With only nine days until the new wage hikes and paid

leave standards take effect, lawmakers are still working toward a deal to soften the blow of the new laws.

“There have been a lot of phone calls, meetings, and internal negotiations going on over the past 10 days to try to come to some kind of compromise,” said John McNamara, vice president of government affairs for the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association. “I think the tip credit and minimum wage are in a pretty solid spot. Earned sick time still has a fair amount of work to do.”

The higher labor expenses would add to rising egg costs. Spangler pointed to a Michigan law that took effect Jan. 1, which mandated all eggs must come from cage-free suppliers.

“Egg costs have doubled overnight,” Spangler said. “Then all the servers’ wages are going up and the other base pay is going up for everyone else. So it’s all got to happen. I’m not locked in on the amounts, but I am updating the menu currently and figuring out where I’m going to start.”

In addition to the minimum wage increases, businesses will be compelled to provide 72 hours of paid sick leave per year, which would require no

prior notice or doctor’s note.

Slade called the new paid leave mandate “a small business killer,” and said she thinks the new benefit standards should

were “slim to none, and none has a foot out the door.”

“They don’t have the votes in their own caucus right now,” Bellino told The Collegian. “There are 19 Democrats in the Senate. They’ve got only six or seven votes. So they’ve got to get a bill that we like. It’s okay — a little bit — but still bad for Michigan. We’re not going to vote yes on that.” The Republican-controlled Michigan House passed a bill earlier this month to keep the tip credit but allow the minimum wage for other workers to increase to $12 next Thursday, and then rise gradually to $14.97 in 2029. McNamara said the MRLA supports the Republican House’s bill. But the bill has stalled in the Democrat-controlled Michigan Senate. Another bill, sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Kevin Hertel, would raise the minimum wage to $14.97 by 2027 — two years earlier than the Republican proposal — then raise the tipped minimum to

not apply to businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

“I think it will force small businesses to shut their doors over time,” Slade said.

While lawmakers said Wednesday they are making progress, State Sen. Joseph Bellino, a Republican who represents part of Hillsdale County, said the chances of putting legislation on the governor’s desk by Feb. 21 to stop the changes

60% of the state minimum wage within 10 years.

Hertel said negotiators are “close” to a compromise, according to the Detroit News. Bellino said many restaurants could be forced to close.

“They’ll cut employees,” Bellino said. “Most of them will stay in business, but they will make changes so that there’s less employees, or less hours and employees.”

The Jackson Chick-fil-A will be 15 minutes closer to Hillsdale. Graphic by the City News Team

Jolenta Dangerfield takes orders at Finish Line Family Restaurant. Thomas McKenna | Collegian

Mitch Spangler will need to raise prices after the wage hike. Thomas McKenna | Collegian

Aubrey Bumpus pours coffee at Spangler’s Family Restaurant in August. Thomas McKenna | Collegian

Mayor aims to remove flouride from water

By Frederick Woodward Collegian Reporter

Acting Mayor Joshua Paladino said his top priority is to remove fluoride from the city’s water, and City Manager David Mackie said he will support the plan’s execution.

Paladino, a 28-year-old Hillsdale College graduate, has placed this objective at the top of the list of priorities after former mayor Adam Stockford ’15 resigned in December and Paladino became mayor. He said he intends to rethink the city’s approach to water quality entirely.

“If your people are sick — mentally, physically — then the government is not doing its job,” Paladino told The Collegian in a December interview. “That obligation is increased by the fact that the city government manages its own utilities, so that obligation is directly on us. I don’t see any federal or state requirement that we have to put fluoride in the water, and I think we now have mounting evidence that this is harmful.”

Douglas Dobrozsi, director of Hillsdale College’s scientific laboratories and a former pharmaceutical engineer, said the science community is rethinking adding fluoride to drinking water. He cited multiple recent studies, including those from the European Public Health Association and the American Medical Association, that he said showed how high fluoride during pregnancy or early infant life impaired neurological development.

Fluoride can occur naturally in water in Michigan and, when added to drinking water, can prevent tooth decay and provide other health benefits, according to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. The Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention calls water fluoridation one of the most important public health accomplishments of the 20th century.

But Dobrozsi disagrees.

“The history of municipal water fluoridation begins at a time when dental cavities were a very big health problem,” Dobrozsi said. “It really wasn’t all that carefully thought through, an opinion I can offer as a drug delivery scientist, with the benefit of hindsight. Fluoride is regulated as a drug by the Food and Drug Administration. So it is not being dramatic to say a drug is being added to the water supply.”

below the 0.7 mg/L threshold that the — the generally acceptable maximum in the U.S. for fluoride supplementation, according to Dobrozsi.

Paladino said this number is still too high.

“I don’t see any federal or state requirement that we have to have any fluoride in the water,” Paladino said. “I think we now have mounting evidence that this is harmful enough to remove. So that’s going to be a top priority.”

In addition to fluoride, Paladino said he is also concerned about other foreign substances in Hillsdale’s water supply, such as trihalomethanes. According to the National

“I would just like to get chemicals out of our lives as much as possible.”

Paladino said he needs the support of Hillsdale city officials for any major action.

According to David Mackie, city manager and director of the board of public utilities, the city is committed to working with Paladino and the city council.

“The City of Hillsdale meets all state and federal water quality standards,” Mackie said. “Mayor Pro-Tem Paladino has expressed his interest in exploring ways to further improve our water quality. He has also emphasized the importance of collaborating with the council to establish goals and priorities for the city. City staff are committed to supporting the council as they define the direction and initiatives that will best serve our community.”

Compared to the national average, the fluoride level that the city reports annually is around 0.5 mg/L, which is

Library of Medicine’s Encyclopedia of Toxicology, trihalomethanes are chemicals generated as a by-product of chlorine treatment of water.

Paladino said he is concerned about the trihalomethane chemical, chloroform, as there is no legal limit to how much of this substance could be in Hillsdale residents’ water. The chemical has been associated with inhibited kidney function, among other side effects, according to the Encyclopedia of Toxicology.

Paladino said the acceptable level of chloroform in drinking water is around four parts per billion, and Hillsdale’s number is closer to 34 parts per billion.

“Trihalomethanes as reported on the city’s water quality report are on the higher side compared to other municipalities in Michigan,” Dobrozsi said. “The city must test for them and there are maximum

City to hold at least 3 elections in 15 months

allowed levels which on a pretty small number of tests the water in Hillsdale did exceed.”

Paladino said this is a reason to begin reforming the city’s approach to water quality and stated that he supports a sediment filtration-based approach, which would use physical filters to purify resident’s drinking water. Paladino also said he is interested in exploring the possibility of an additional wave-based purification element, using ultraviolet rays to further purify water.

“I would just like to get chemicals out of our lives as much as possible,” he said.

Paladino said improving Hillsdale’s water quality is the first step to revitalizing the City of Hillsdale.

“I want to shift the goal posts of success slightly, or maybe quite a bit,” Paladino said. “And one of the top things I want to focus on is the health of the citizens. The power of a mayor is to secure the common good, and one of the central things to this will be the health of our citizens.”

Paladino also said he hopes to implement the other points of his plan. Ending Special Assessment Districts and funding homeless housing through private charity are part of Paladino’s policy priorities for the rest of his term. Paladino told The Collegian last month he plans to run for mayor at the August special election.

“I’m trying to figure out how everything works and implement what is best for the citizens as a whole,” Paladino said. “We’re not trying to create a tourist destination. We’re trying to create a good place for people to live, to work, to worship, to raise families, to educate themselves and their children.”

Murder Mystery Night coming

By Kathryn Vieceli Collegian Freelancer

Dinnergoers can solve a mystery at the Dawn Theater on Valentine’s Day while raising money for a downtown mural.

The Heritage Association of Hillsdale County is hosting its first 1920s Mafia Marriage Murder Mystery Night called “Death of a Gangster,” starring The Murder Mystery Co. from ABC’s Shark Tank. The Murder Mystery Night will be on Feb. 14 from 6-10 p.m. at the Dawn Theater.

According to Connie Sexton, a founding member of the Heritage Association of Hillsdale County, money raised from the Murder Mystery Night will fund a three-panel mural covering the air conditioning unit behind Hillsdale City Hall.

“Our mission is to promote the heritage of Hillsdale and educate the community with beautiful reminders for the present and future community,” Sexton said.

“The mural will depict downtown Hillsdale in the 1840s or 1850s,” Sexton said.

According to Sexton, the mural will depict Baw Beese Lake, Chief Baw Beese’s daughter Winona — referred to as the “princess of Hillsdale” — and Hillsdale College’s Central Hall. There will also be a rolling steam train with smoke coming out of it, symbolizing Hillsdale’s industrial heritage. Additionally, the mural will feature old-fashioned cars driving through downtown.

Sexton said she hopes the mural will be completed by May if the necessary funds are received.

The night will include four actors from The Murder Mystery Co. The company

appeared on Shark Tank, an entrepreneurship show, on March 15, 2024.

“The actors will meet the guests and pick out people to play roles,” Sexton said. “We will find out who did it, and the murderer will be revealed.”

According to Sexton, once the murderer is identified, Heather Elaine, owner of Fetched Dog Grooming, will perform 1920s jazz music, in which people can swing dance for the remainder of the night.

In addition to the murder mystery and dinner, John Novak of Kryptowerx Photography will offer “Mug Shots” with your valentine. Each photo costs an additional $10. Novak is the director of transportation for the Hillsdale College Fleet and Shuttle Service.

Tickets can be purchased at Fetched Dog Grooming or on the Heritage Association of Hillsdale County’s Facebook page.

Hillsdale Hospital, WCSR Radio, Hillsdale Renaissance, Women’s Life Insurance, and Aeroswift Printing will contribute to the fundraising event.

The Heritage Association of Hillsdale County is a non-profit organization that hosts fundraisers throughout the year to support the community and other projects. Sexton and Heather Tritchka are the founding members of the Heritage Association of Hillsdale County.

“Each ticket costs $60, which includes a four-course Italian dinner of salad, garlic bread, your choice between three different kinds of pasta, an individualized charcuterie box, and ‘death by chocolate’ cupcakes, with beverages provided,” Sexton said.

By Skye Graham Collegian Reporter

Sushi chef Van tha Nawl goes to work at Meijer every morning at 6 a.m. to prepare fresh sushi for the day.

“The sushi chef in the Hillsdale store prepares hand-rolled, fresh sushi daily, using fresh tuna, salmon, and shrimp,” Store Director Kelly Quintana said. “They also offer vegetarian and vegan options.”

Nawl is an employee of ACE Sushi Franchise, a California-based sushi company with more than 1,000 locations in the United States. He has worked for the company since last year, and was trained by ACE to make sushi.

The sushi chef was born and raised in Myanmar, and came to the United States in 2009. He currently lives near Hillsdale with his family.

“ACE Sushi Franchise has partnered with Meijer for a couple years now,” Nawl said. “We try to have a chef and sushi in every Meijer.”

Some of the sushi rolls Nawl prepares each morning

include the California roll, the salmon roll, the golden dragon roll, and the spicy tuna roll. Each Wednesday at Meijer in Hillsdale, the store offers a deal on select sushi rolls for only $5. According to Quintana, Wednesday is the most popular day for sushi. The California crunch roll — containing imitation crab, avocado, and cucumber, topped with crispy breadcrumbs — is the best selling sushi item at the Hillsdale location, Quintana said.

“It’s pretty good,” Idstein said. “Although I wish they used panko tempura instead of the corn-flaky stuff they use right now.”

Senior Emma De Nooy said she likes the sushi at Meijer, but prefers to eat it earlier in the day because the chef prepares it fresh in the mornings.

Senior Abigail Idstein said she loves the texture of the California crunch roll.

“I think it’s pretty good if you’re looking for a sushi fix,” De Nooy said. “The price for what you get is fairly reasonable. The rice is the worst part since it gets mushy as it sits, so I try to buy it earlier in the day.”

The most popular day for sushi at Meijer is Wednesday, when the store offers rolls for $5. Christina Lewis | Collegian

The spicy California roll. Christina Lewis | Collegian

Women's Basketball

McDonald hits 1,000, Chargers split games

By Cassandra DeVries Collegian Reporter

Hillsdale’s women’s basketball team lost to Kentucky Wesleyan College 71-68 on Feb. 8 and senior Lauren McDonald scored the 1,000th point of her collegiate career. The Chargers also beat Thomas More University 6559 on Feb. 6.

“We had two travel games this week, and we knew that it was going to be a challenging week going into it,” head coach Brianna Brennan said.

In the Kentucky Wesleyan game, McDonald tallied 17 points and 12 rebounds.

The Chargers trailed Kentucky Wesleyan by close to 11 points for most of the game but made a run at the start of the fourth quarter to close the gap.

Hillsdale went ahead 6665 after a basket from senior Marilyn Popplewell, but a 3-pointer gave Kentucky Wesleyan the lead back, and they maintained it for the rest of the game.

“It was competitive the whole time, but we had some

Games

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defensive breakdowns,” McCormick said.

The Wildcats also improved their rebounding since their last matchup against the Chargers a week prior, scoring 22 points off 13 offensive rebounds.

“That was not our best game,” McDonald said. “Our post player, Savannah Smith, was out because she rolled her ankle in our Thursday game. She would have made a big difference.”

The Chargers won their Thursday game against Thomas More 65-59.

“We were down for most of the game and had to battle from behind,” McCormick said. “That was a fun one to win.”

Hillsdale is now 12-3 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference and 15-7 overall. The Chargers are still in third place in G-MAC rankings.

The Chargers have five conference games remaining and will play at Tiffin University on Feb. 13.

Chargers open season with losses to Lee Baseball

By Elaine Kutas Collegian Reporter

The baseball team went winless in a three-game opening series on the road against the Lee University Vikings in Tennessee.

During Friday’s opening game, the Chargers climbed back from an 8-0 deficit with three runs in the fourth inning, getting them back in the game. Entering the ninth inning, the Chargers were down 14-4, but again closed the gap to 14-10 with six runs, including threestraight RBI singles from sophomore Rocco Tenuta and seniors Zak Kent and Augie Hutchison.

Hutchison led the Chargers from the plate, going three for five with a triple, a solo home run and four RBIs.

approach was to do anything to get on base and let the next guy hit. It ultimately wasn’t enough, but I was proud of the guys for fighting until the last out.”

The first game of the double-header on Saturday was

and freshman Collin Lange held Lee from scoring for three innings.

In the nightcap, the Chargers nearly recovered from a 7-1 deficit, but came up short with a 7-5 final score after the seven-inning game. Lee

“I was thankful for the guys before me grinding out at-bats to make it possible for me to come up in that situation,” Kent said. “It’s hard when you are losing big for the third straight game, but we kept fighting and I was able to put a good swing on the ball.”

“We had to adjust at the plate and get some guys into scoring position,” Hutchison said. “In the fourth inning, we got some guys on base and were able to capitalize to get a few runs on the board and in the ninth inning, the team's

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a 10-0 shutout for Lee. The Chargers fell behind eight runs in the first three innings.

Senior Brandon Scott took the loss for the Chargers, pitching four innings and striking out five batters. Relief appearances by sophomore Winston Delp

scored five runs in the fourth inning, widening the gap from a 2-1 to a 7-1 deficit. Hillsdale responded with four runs in the top of the fifth inning, including a two-out grand slam by Kent, bringing it to a 7-5 gap.

Sports Feature

Freshman Gaard Swensen added a triple after Kent’s grand slam, but the Chargers were unable to pull ahead in the seventh inning.

“On Saturday I got my first collegiate hit and it was nice to get this out of the way, because earlier in the series their defense had made two diving catches against me,” Swensen said. “I was starting to get a little frustrated, but knew the hits would come if I kept putting good swings on the ball and sure enough, I was able to get a hold on one and drive it over the outfielder's head to lead off the game.” Hillsdale will play University of Indianapolis and Lewis University in a weekend series Feb. 21-23 in Marion, Illinois.

Haas breaks school records in multiple field events

By Anna Broussard Assistant Editor

Junior Ben Haas already holds the school record for weight throw, and he added a second Hillsdale record with his indoor shot put mark at the Akron invitational on Jan. 31.

“Ben has been a top competitor in the weight throw since his freshman season,” Jessica Bridenthal, associate head men and women's track and field coach said. “The biggest change this year is the impact he is having in shot put; number one in the country in weight and number two in the country in shot put is very impressive. There are very few throwers who can compete in both events at that level.”

Haas said the original indoor shot put record, 17.83 meters, was thrown in 2012 by Nate English ‘12. Haas marked the new record with a 18.67 meter throw.

In NCAA Division II, Haas now ranks number one in weight throw, and number two in shot put.

According to Haas, his marks in both weight throw and shot put have been exciting to see after the years of work he has put in.

“I'm really happy that my shot put is going well. I've been at it for four years, and it is finally paying off, so it's exciting to be able to do that,” Haas said.

Bridenthal said Haas is both an exceptional athlete and a leader for the whole team.

“He does a great job as a mentor to our younger throwers and is always quick to take them under his wing,” Bridenthal said.

Senior and teammate Cass Dobrowolski and teammate said Haas has set an example for the work it takes to succeed as a collegiate athlete.

“Ben is the type of person that you see at practice every day, and he's always giving it his all and he's always trying to help the people around him,” Dobrowolski said.

“There's absolutely no one more deserving to be breaking as many records and doing so well.”

Bridenthal said from the first time she met Haas at training camp, she knew he would have a fruitful college career.

“From the first throw I saw Ben take I knew he was special,” Bridenthal said.

As the G-MAC Championships for indoor season approach at the end of February, Haas said he is looking forward to competing with other top athletes in the event and continuing to train for nationals.

“The person who is number one in shot put is from Grand Valley University, so I'm going to see him for the next two weeks,” Haas said. “I am just focusing on training and looking forward to nationals.”

Brithendal said she expects to see Haas break more records.

“I think a national title is only a few weeks away. He has been putting in the work and I feel very confident in his ability to compete,” Brithendal said. “There are very few young men who are more dedicated, more talented, or even close to as great of an athlete and person as Ben. I am nothing but grateful to be a part of his journey.”

“In 2020, I pulled him aside at the end of the camp and told him that he could be an All-American thrower and do some pretty special things if he decided that was what he wanted. I knew he could do incredible things if he was given the right opportunity.”

Haas receives a Field Athlete of the Week award last year. COURTESY | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

Senior Will Shannon during a game last spring.

COURTESY | Reva Ludwig

Caitlin Splain reaches 1,000 points

By Grace Novak Collegian Reporter

Senior Caitlin Splain became the 21st Hillsdale women’s basketball player to score 1,000 points when she drilled a three against Cedarville University Jan. 30.

“I knew I was probably gonna get it. I was super stressed that whole entire week,” Splain said. “During the game, I was more concerned about winning, but in my head, I'm still like, ‘Okay, I'm eight points away, six points away….’”

According to Splain, as soon as the ball left her hands, she heard the shouts of her teammates who could already see that it was going

to go in. All at once, the fans in the Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena lifted up signs with the number “1,000” on them that Hillsdale staff had handed out in anticipation of the moment.

“I had been sitting at 10 points for a while, and I was like, ‘Okay, I need a three,’ and my coach was like, ‘we're gonna get you a three, we'll get you an open one,’ and I just kept trying to make one,” Splain said. “I remember that one, we had a fast break, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be perfect, I don't miss these.’ And that's exactly what happened.’”

Head coach Brianna Brennan said that it has been rewarding to watch Splain grow as a shooter and all-around player throughout her four years at Hillsdale.

“She is a very driven student-athlete,” Brennan said. “The milestone is a testament to hard work and dedication.”

Junior Payton Adkins said that she and Splain had a running pre-game joke about how close she was to her goal for the weeks leading up to this game. On the night that she officially checked 1,000 points off of her bucket list, the joke became a reality.

“There was no need to joke about a goal because I knew she was going to break a real one that night,” Adkins said.

Sports Feature

“When she did I was jumping up and down higher than I think I ever have.”

As a shooting guard, Splain has been shooting three-pointers all four years at Hillsdale.

According to Splain, she started playing early in her freshman year and hit a career-high seven three-pointers during her second-ever Hillsdale game. Without that opportunity to start playing so soon, she said that reaching 1,000 points would have been much harder.

“Caitlin's strengths on the team includes being an elite shooter,” Brennan said. “She has always had a ‘next shot’ mentality which has helped her become the lethal shooter she is.”

Splain’s parents, who travel from Columbus, Ohio, for every game, took her to Rosalie’s to celebrate this accomplishment.

Her mom had been particularly stressed on Splain’s behalf as she approached her 1,000th point.

“My mom actually left during the fourth quarter because she was so stressed,” Splain said. “I was looking at the stands, and I saw my dad and by the look on his face, you could tell he was so stressed for me.”

Before coming to Hillsdale, Splain played varsity at

her high school, as well as for a competitive travel team. She said that she chose Hillsdale for the academics, but absolutely loves the basketball she gets to play here.

“Everyone always told me that you have to love the school more than you love your sport,” Splain said. “I mostly chose Hillsdale for the academics, but I also love the coaches and love the program, and so it worked out in both aspects.”

After graduating, Splain is hoping to play basketball internationally during a gap year before entering medical school.

“I’ve realized I don’t really want to stop playing basketball, but I don’t really have a choice,” Splain said.

According to Splain, playing at Hillsdale has helped her to mature both on and off of the court as a team leader.

“I’ve never been the most outspoken person,” Splain said. “I don’t really say much, but I would say that the way I play is how I contribute to the team with my leadership skills. I do it more through action than I do through words.”

Splain’s teammates were quick to show their support for the accomplishment. According to Splain, they brought in a cookie cake and some posters to celebrate af-

ter jumping up and down on the bench when she made her shot.

“[I love] just seeing her grow so much on and off the court, but also the energy she brings,” Adkins said. “She’s one of the first people to do some crazy celebration and scream and chest bump you. She's one of your biggest cheerleaders.”

Splain’s name will already stand out in Hillsdale women’s basketball records; however, she still has the opportunity to accomplish one more goal as her final season winds to an end.

“I am close to the career three-point record at Hillsdale for made threes over 4 years,” Splain said. “So hopefully I'll get that. I'm 12 threes away!”

Splain said she will look back on her 1,000th point as

one of the biggest highlights of her basketball career at Hillsdale.

“Being a college athlete is hard. You have your highs and lows, so to be able to do all of that and accomplish a goal that not many achieve in high school let alone college is just incredible,” Adkins said. “I am just so proud and overjoyed for her.” Brennan said she is confident in Splain’s future based on her character both on and off of the court.

“I know that she will excel in med school and thrive in her professional life too,” Brennan said. “She will be very successful in whatever path life takes her.”

Former Hillsdale athletes carrying on the tradition as staff

By Gabe Themar Collegian Reporter

Not only is Hillsdale filled with bright young students, but the college is also teaming with alumni who put their talents and skills gained from their time on campus to work as directors, deans, and professors.

Senior Director of Alumni Marketing Doug Goodnough ‘90, Director of Employer Relations Sharon Kinsler-Rupp ‘90, and Dean of Men Aaron Petersen ‘96 are three of the many Hillsdale alumni continuing their careers at their alma mater.

Goodnough was a member of Delta Sigma Phi and the sports editor of The Collegian in addition to playing baseball during his time on campus.

Goodnough earned Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference All-Conference Honors three times (as a sophomore, junior, and

senior) in his career with the Chargers as a first baseman and pitcher.

Among his favorite memories from baseball include the team’s yearly trip down to the Detroit Tigers’ spring training facilities at Henley Field in Lakeland, Florida.

“Those trips were always special,” Goodnough said.

“Especially when our vehicle usually broke down somewhere on I-75.”

After graduation, Goodnough remained on campus to be an assistant baseball coach as well as the sports editor of the Hillsdale Daily News until 1996. In February of 2022, Goodnough returned as the director of alumni marketing.

“It is a privilege to be back,” Goodnough said.

“When Hillsdale calls, you answer, and I am thrilled to be back furthering the mission of the College.”

Kinsler-Rupp was a member of Pi Beta Phi as well as

a contributing member of women’s cross country and track teams, competing in the 5-kilometer, 1500-meter, 3000-meter, 5000-meter, and relay races.

During her career, Kinsler-Rupp and her teammates won four cross country, four indoor, and four outdoor track and field GLIAC Championships.

Individually, Kinsler arrived at Hillsdale and was almost immediately a top 25 national runner. She placed 12th in the NAIA District 23 Championship in cross country her senior year. Kinsler also was also a three-time NAIA All-American runner, with her only year not earning honors coming in her sophomore year, which ended prematurely due to injury.

She also qualified for multiple indoor and outdoor national championship meets throughout her career. Her fondest memories during her running career were the

relationships and bonds she made with her teammates.

“These are my people,” Kinsler said. “We still hangout and to this day we are all very close.”

Kinsler also attributes this family she made on campus as her reason for returning to Hillsdale to work for career services in Jan. 2020.

“This place always seemed like home to me,” Kinsler said.

Aaron Petersen joined Delta Sigma Phi, served as a resident assistant in Simpson Residence, and played varsity football and baseball for the Chargers. During his collegiate football career, he earned all-conference honors as a tight end and helped the Chargers win an NCAA Midwest Intercollegiate Football Conference Championship in 1992.

His favorite memory on the field was catching two touchdowns in a comeback victory over rival Grand Val -

ley State University on Oct. 15, 1994.

“We were down two scores,” Petersen said. “We had two big plays, one was the ‘Hillsdale Special’ and the quarterback threw it into the endzone to me. The other one was the ‘Delaware Special,’ which normally gets thrown to the wide receiver, but when coach called the play, my quarterback looked and pointed at me, and sure enough, he threw another touchdown pass to me. That was a fun game to win.”

On the mound, Petersen also earned all-conference honors and contributed as a right-handed pitcher, designated hitter, first baseman, and outfielder. His favorite memory from baseball came late in a game during his freshman year.

“I came in as a relief pitcher in the top of the 7th inning, up 2-1, and I gave up a hit to make it 3-2,” Petersen said. “In the bottom of the

7th, I came back up to bat with a couple runners on, I was still upset that I let down the starting pitcher who was a senior pitching his last game. The opposing pitcher made a mistake and I hit one to the wall. It drove in two runs and we won the game. That senior still teases me to this day that I stole his last win from him.”

After graduation, Petersen taught science and coached football and baseball at Grand Rapids Catholic Central high school before returning to Hillsdale as the dean of men in Jan. 2001. He says that Hillsdale’s excellence and uniqueness were big factors in his decision to return to his alma mater.

“It really is a special place,” Petersen said. “I remember thinking that there's not too many places where you can get a top-tier education, be able to play two sports, join a fraternity, and be a resident assistant.”

Charger chatter

Winston Delp, BaseBall

Do you have any pre-game superstitions? If so, what are they?

Before I throw, I like to contort my body into the weirdest positions I can think of in the hopes that I will become more mobile.

What's it like having a building named after your family on campus?

I have heard it so many times I am now desensitized to my own name.

Compiled by Daniel Johnson

If you knew you had one year left on Earth, what would you do?

I’d Hunt down Elon Musk to get me to Mars in a year.

What's the biggest animal you're confident you could kill with your bare hands?

A T. rex if I had 10 teammates with me and two weeks to prepare.

Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

Splain takes a shot during a home game.

COURTESY | Caitlin Splain

Splain after breaking 1,000 points.

COURTESY | Caitlin Splain

Charger Sports

Track and Field

More meets, more marks for Chargers

By Joshua Mistry Collegian Reporter

Charger athlete of the week, senior Ben Haas, won the elite weight throw at the Jud Logan Lightgiver Invitational hosted by Ashland University on Friday.

Four Chargers also set new provisional qualifying marks while others competed at the Mike Lints Alumni Meet hosted by Grand Valley State University on Saturday.

Hass won the elite weight throw with a mark of 20.58 meters at Ashland University, a provisional qualifying mark. At GVSU, he placed third in the elite weight throw with a mark of 19.69 meters and took sixth in the elite shot put with a mark of 16.78 meters, both provisional qualifying marks as well.

Senior Cass Dobrowolski placed second in the high jump with a clearance of 2.05 meters, a provisional qualifying mark.

"This is the part in the season where you finally get to feel your body again,” Dobrowolski said. “We spend the front part of the season building and maintaining strength, but now we get to start more explosive training."

On the track, Hillsdale had several great finishes at Ashland. Freshman Allison Kuzma won the 5,000 meter run in a personal best time of 17:18.13. Freshman Evyn Humphrey also ran a great 3,000 meter race, placing third in 9:54.08, less than a second off a provisional mark in that event as well.

Freshman Sarah Chappelle took fifth in the 60-meter hurdles with a personal best time of 8.89.

"It has been a long season of training and we saw lots of things that point toward us having a great competition at G-MACs, even if our results this weekend don't seem to agree," Dobrowolski said. "But it is super promising that we got to see snippets of good from everyone."

Seniors Nicole Marshall and Reese Dragovich, sophomore Zoe Burke, and Humphrey placed second in the distance medley relay with a time of 11:48.02, a provisional qualifying mark which currently ranks as the ninth fastest time in NCAA Division II.

"The mark is definitely a starting point, and we are hoping to improve the time to increase the likelihood of qualifying for and compet -

ing at the NCAA Championships," Marshall said. Burke and Dragovich came back the next day and teamed with junior Francesca Federici and senior Josee Behling to place third in the 4x400-meter relay, improving their provisional qualifying time in the event to 3:48.57 and moving up to 19th in the nation in the NCAA DII rankings. Freshman Baelyn Zitzmann also improved her provisional qualifying mark in the pentathlon, racking up a score of 3,419 across five events and winning the 800 meter run in the pentathlon in 2:21.42. Her personal best score now ranks 25th in the nation at the NCAA DII level.

Junior Lucy Minning placed fourth in the 200-meter dash with a personal best of 24.60 seconds, earning the first NCAA DII provisional qualifying time of her career. Minning also ran a personal best in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.68.

"I feel really excited because I know I can do a lot better and I have a lot of momentum," Minning said.

"This is probably the hardest I’ve ever pushed myself in training. The workouts are very taxing and I’ve done two-day meets almost every weekend so I am pretty tired, but the fact that I am still getting PRs means I’ll be ready to go even faster once we taper before G-MACs."

In the field at GVSU, senior Grace Chen had a personal best in the triple jump with a mark of 11.31 meters to place fifth. Senior Katie Sayles won the weight throw with a mark of 18.97 meters, a provisional qualifying mark but one that doesn't improve on her best mark this season, and also placed third in the shot put with a throw of 13.41 meters.

Freshman Olivia Newsome took fourth in the weight throw, earning a provisional qualifying mark with her throw of 17.96 meters.

"The majority of the team will agree, this is the best we have felt all season, and it’s only going to get better as we get to G-MACs and Nationals," Dobrowolski said.

The Chargers will compete next in the Big Meet at Grand Valley State University Friday and Saturday while a smaller group will compete at the Tiffin Open at Tiffin University on Saturday.

Women's Tennis

Chargers command the court

By Tayte Christensen Assistant Editor

The women’s tennis team picked up its first wins of the season at home this weekend, defeating Lake Superior State and Edinboro University. Against Lake Superior Feb. 8, the team went 6-1, and against Edinboro, the Chargers were undefeated in every set in their 7-0 victory Feb. 9.

“It was a complete team effort,” head coach Nikki Walbright said. “Every girl got a win for the team in both matches which is really hard to do against solid teams.”

In the Chargers’ win over the Scots, head coach Nikki Walbright secured her 100th match victory as a college coach.

Softball

In doubles play, the Chargers were undefeated the entire weekend. In doubles play against Lake Superior, the Chargers won all matches with a 6-3 score.

In singles against Lake Superior, the Chargers dropped only one match. Sophomore Ané Dannhauser increased her season’s undefeated streak, defeating Lake Superior’s Madeline Whip 6-1 and 6-2. Freshmen Briana Rees and Julia Zlateva also won their singles matches, winning 6-4, 6-2, and 6-0, 6-2, respectively. Senior Libby McGivern played the only three-set match of the day, winning 7-5, 5-7, and 10-4.

Against Edinboro in doubles, No. 1 doubles Dannhauser and senior Courtney Rittel triumphed 6-1, and No. 3 pair juniors Megan Hackman and Bella Spinazze

walked away with a 6-0 win. No. 2 team Rees and McGivern also won, with a 6-3 score.

“I was there to support Libby and Bella,” senior Makenna Banbury said.“I was proud of how they played.”

The Chargers won all six single play matches against Edinboro and denied the Scots more than three game wins in a set. At No. 1 singles, Dannauser went 6-0 and 6-1, and in No. 2 singles, McGivern went 6-2, 6-2.

“Libby absolutely dominated in her game,” senior Audrey Hundsbedt said. “It was so fun to watch.”

Rees won against Sofia Benito 6-0, 6-3 in No. 3 singles, and in No. 5 singles, Zlateva soared to a 6-1, 6-1 victory.

Walbright, who stepped

out of retirement to coach the 2024-25 season, said she was excited for the team’s dominant singles wins and said she was especially proud of Rees and Zlateva in their singles victories.

“They both performed with no nerves and looked very confident on court which can be hard to do this early in their first season,” Walbright said. Rittel won No. 4 singles 6-2, 6-2, while Spinazze won No. 6 singles 6-2, 6-0. The Chargers, now 2-1, will face Davenport University at home Feb. 15.

“The team is in a really good place, very supportive of each other, and working really hard,” Walbright said. “I am so proud of them.”

Softball kicks off season with a view

By Ellie Fromm Assistant Editor

Head coach Kyle Gross became the winningest coach in Charger softball history on Feb. 3 in a game against the Ferris State University Bulldogs at the Hawaii Invitational. The team went 4-4 in their week of competition, and Gross now has 163 career Charger wins.

“During that game, it never hit my brain,” Gross said. “I got the game ball for that one, and I was overcome with emotions that I didn’t think I would. I didn’t even think of it before the trip. On the way home from that game, I just thought of a bunch of former players, and even reached out, because they were reaching out to me. It was pretty neat.”

Lewis said. “It was a sweet moment as he thanked all of us and we are all so grateful that we get to be a part of his success.”

The Chargers fell to the Lewis University Charlies on Feb. 3 7-6, playing eight innings. Later that day they beat the Bulldogs 8-7, the

Silverswords 14-11 on Feb. 6. On Feb. 7 they rematched the Lopers, this time falling 7-6 in 10 innings, and beat the Hawaii Pacific University Sharks 6-5.

“Our record, 4-4, I would have loved to see us come out of there above .500,”

Gross said. “But overall, I’m

game where Gross achieved his record-setting 161st win.

happy with being above that against our in-region teams and the Hawaii teams.”

Junior Taylor Lewis said the team was aware that Gross would break the win record.

“The team was super excited for Coach Kyle when he broke the win record,”

On Feb. 4 they had a rematch against the Charlies, beating them 3-2, and played the University of Nebraska at Kearney Lopers, losing 5-4.

The Chargers then fell to the University of Hawaii at Hilo Vulcans 6-2 and defeated the Chaminade University

According to Gross, this is the first time the team has traveled to Hawaii to compete.

Gross agreed and said he had a great experience coaching in Hawaii.

“I loved the time that I was in Hawaii, and the fact that I got to do the sport I am passionate about on top of it made the trip even better to me,” Gross said.

The Chargers are ranked first in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference’s Preseason Coaches Poll. The Chargers will travel to Rosemont, Illinois, to compete in the Lewis Dome Invite Feb. 21-23.

“Looking ahead, we want to cut down on some of our mistakes,” Gross said. “We have five games next weekend in Chicago and we traditionally have struggled at the Dome. We want to come out of there with an over-.500 record.”

Senior Joni Russell said she enjoyed playing in Hawaii, and that it was a rare opportunity. “It was 78 degrees and sunny everyday,” Russell said. “The ocean was in the background, along with mountains and the occasional rainbow. It was such a peaceful environment to play in.”

From left to right: senior Courtney Rittel, freshman Briana Rees, and senior Libby McGivern.

Courtesy | Kenneth Gaudet

Hillsdale softball enjoying their victories with a view in Hawaii.

COURTESY | KYLE GROSS

C U L T U R E

Rough Draft carries on Friday night jazz tradition

By Megan Li Assistant Editor

It was Friday night, but sophomore Ava Jolley couldn’t relax just yet — she had a paper to write.

There were few places better to do it than Rough Draft. The coffee shop’s foyer on the evening of Feb. 7 was populated by students hunched over laptops. The baristas leaned chatting against the counter lined with drink syrups and fairy lights. But the environment was far from quiet, for it was past 7 p.m., and live jazz had begun.

David Youngman and Dave Turner were positioned by the couches. Turner was surrounded by a drum set and Youngman held a guitar hooked up to an amplifier. This was community jazz, a group of Hillsdale musicians headed by Youngman that meets at Rough Draft on certain nights to jam.

“I love jazz, and Hillsdale just feels like a jazz community,” Youngman said. “I knew there were musicians around. I wanted opportunities for people to play, also inspiring young players to play. I have kids who are in middle school and high school, and I just feel like they don’t get a lot of inspiration with music.”

That evening, Youngman and Turner largely played jazz standards. A small child with a head of red hair hopped and waved her arms on the couches beside them.

Jolley, sitting at a table directly across from the musicians, had a perfect view of the performance. Every once in a while, she would look up from her reading to watch, or to applaud quietly. On her regular visits to the coffee shop, Jolley said she already listens to instrumental jazz through her headphones while she is working.

“When it’s live, it’s even better, because you’re there with it, and you’re experiencing the music real time, which is really fun,” Jolley said.

Jolley said Youngman and Turner’s performance helped her focus better on her work as well.

“They did some improv songs that were really vibey — I wasn’t head-banging, but I was head-bobbing while I was doing my research for a Dr. Smith paper,” Jolley said. “Plus, I also got a really good coffee. So I was, like, locked in. Jazz is for academic weapons and caffeine-enjoyers.” Youngman has been playing the guitar for 30 years, and he

was a professional musician for 15 years. He started community jazz as a “local jazz gig,” where he could just drive down the street and make music.

“I don’t do that anymore, but I just thought it was nice to do that stuff, but not all the travel,” Youngman said.

Two or three years ago, Youngman had contacted Rough Draft’s owner, Marty Hubbard, about starting community jazz at the coffee shop.

“We wanted it to be a bridge between the college and the community, and we wanted conversations between those two groups of folks to happen at Rough Draft,” Hubbard said. “Ideally, that was our plan, and music was a part of it.”

Youngman said the improvisation of jazz creates a type of emotional connection between the two musicians participating in it.

“To me, improvised music is the most honest music you can make, because if you play a pre-rehearsed song, it’s a pre-rehearsed emotion and interaction with people. That’s saying, ‘here’s what I’m going to talk about.’ But when you take an improvised piece, it’s like, ‘I don’t know what I’m gonna say, but we’re gonna have a conversation,’” Youngman said. “We

play off of the room, or we play off of each other. It could depend on how each other’s feeling, what they’re thinking.” Turner said not knowing what the other person will play lends to the satisfaction of good improvisation.

“He has a better idea of what I’m gonna play, just because mine’s pretty basic,” Turner said. “But there’s times in the songs where everything just comes together, and then it’s almost humorous. It’s almost funny because somehow, you’re thinking the same thing and didn’t even know it, but he just did it. And that’s a really cool thing.”

Youngman said the group also takes song suggestions when there are enough musicians to play.

“We would take the prompts — a story or a situation that people would give us, and then we would try to play something that has the effect of that situation,” Youngman said. “I like that kind of stuff. It’s very challenging and interesting.”

Hubbard, who owns the 42 Union building, opened Rough Draft in April 2017 with her daughter, Carly Hubbard ’16, and her other daughter, Caitlyn Larsen ’12 now runs it. From the beginning, they’ve had jam

sessions, and it’s worked into the community jazz.

“We’ve had lots of different genres — jazz just somehow has stuck,” Hubbard said. “It’s a very relaxed atmosphere aesthetically, so it lends itself to the casualness of jazz. And actually, surprisingly, it’s got pretty good acoustics, which I really worried about.”

According to Hubbard, Andrew Fink ’06, former representative of the 35th District in the Michigan House of Representatives; Francis Steiner, professor of biology; and Sam Knecht, professor of art; have made appearances at the community jam sessions.

Hubbard first reached out to Dan Palmer, Hillsdale’s adjunct instructor of music and friend of Youngman’s, who started bringing his students to play at the coffee shop.

Brendan Amerman ’17, who is married to Carly Hubbard and one of the first baristas at Rough Draft, was one of Palmer’s students.

“There’s a lot of former students of his in the area, so they’ll show up and he’ll be like, ‘Hey, you, get up here,’” Youngman said.

And eventually, Youngman himself came along.

“David Youngman ap -

proached me and said, ‘Hey, can I bring in people from the community who just want to get together and jam?’ And of course, I said, ‘Absolutely.’ Who’s gonna say no to that?” Hubbard said.

Youngman encourages any musicians who are interested in jamming to come join them.

“They can play one song, they can play multiple or they can just see where they’re at,” Youngman said. “There’s just a sense of freedom here to do that, I guess.”

Hubbard remains in awe of the fact that her dream of Rough Draft, as a place of coffee, music, and community, is a reality.

“I’m just honored beyond words, and my heart soars when it happens,” Hubbard said. “When I hear the music, when I see the musicians, when people come in to be fed by the music, it’s everything.” Community jazz will take place later this month on Feb. 21 and 28 from 7 to 9 p.m., according to Youngman. The student band, Schizmatics, will play Feb. 15 from 7 to 9 p.m. Anyone who is interested in being notified about the community jazz schedule can email David Youngman at david-youngman@hotmail.com.

Art department hosts annual colloquium

Anna Broussard Assistant Editor

Thomas Brown solved a mystery of an old painting and a songbird after visiting an art museum in Portugal.

The painting, which depicts a bright red cardinal held in Joseph of the Holy family’s hand in the 1602 painting, is by Alessandro Allori called the “Rest on the Flight into Egypt.” Brown began to wonder: how did the small bird end up in Allori’s European studio? Brown, an art history lecturer at Rutgers University, presented as the keynote speaker at the Hillsdale College art department’s second annual art colloquium Feb. 8. He spoke about his research in a talk titled, “The Pisa Cardinalilio.” Following Brown’s talk, seniors Rachel Moeller, Emily Hardy, and junior Maggie McWhinnie presented their art research.

“My background made it easy to see that I was looking at something unusual, something whose existence I wouldn’t have expected,” Brown said. “I took some pictures and moved on, and the next day, I flew home to New York. It was only a few months later, but I began trying to answer the questions the painting presented me with.”

The questions were about the cardinal, which originates in eastern North America and parts of Mexico, and is clothed in deep red feathers and was named after the Roman Cath-

olic clergy because of their similarly colored garments.

“From the age of 8 or so, I was a child bird watcher, always pestering my parents to take me to a nature preserve or wherever else I may be able to add a new species to my life list,” Brown said. “My favorite book which I read and reread was called ‘Collect: Ask for Birdman,’ a bird watchers account of an attempt to see 700 species in one year of birding in the U.S. and Canada.”

Brown said after seeing the painting at The Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon, Portugal, he researched Allori and the question of how a North American bird wound up in a European painting.

“There is not a great deal of scholarship on Alessandro Allori, who was a pupil of Angela Bronzino and was one of the most prominent painters in Florence in the second half of the 16th century,” Brown said.

After years of investigating Allori’s correspondence, education, and background, Brown discovered the small bird had been shipped across the Atlantic to artists in either Pisa or Florence.

“The cardinal seemed grafted into the painting; its feet do not quite occupy the same place as the hand that holds it in a near grip. Still, Allori was given vitality. He could have seen it, either by visiting Pisa or else if the cardinal was sent on to Florence or to the aviary at Pratolina,” Brown said. “If he did not, he may have used

as his source another drawing from life that has been lost. What is clear is that, unlike the Pietra Dura, Allori’s version is not based on ferocious watercolor. Allori is not known today for being attentive to birds, but he should be.”

Junior Claire Lashaway said Brown’s research was both inspiring and encouraging to continue her own art history research.

“He decided to focus on what was like searching for a needle in a haystack,” Lasha way said. “It took him close to a year’s worth of research — not just by staying close to the art object itself, but by digging into history and all the correspondence that went around and into that painting. It was very fascinating because I love see ing history link up with the visual art that comes from the time period.”

ing all these students do stellar papers, I felt like it was a shame to just grade that and put it in a drawer and nobody else gets to see that besides me.”

Lashaway said the colloquium allows students to express their research to their peers and experts in the art history field.

“The colloquium is intended to share all the findings of art history research, whether your spe -

Assistant Professor of Art Christina Chakalova said the annual event is intended to provide students with the opportunity to present their scholarly work in a professional way.

“Primarily, there are so many students here who are thinking about graduate school, and it’s extremely important to have opportunities like that on your résumé,” Chakalova said. “When I ended up teaching here and hav-

cialty be in me-

dieval art history or Baroque art history, it’s just a chance for anyone on campus or in any school that get in the U.S. or nationally to come together and present their papers and research and findings with each other,” Lashaway said. Lashaway, who was on the student panel for planning the event, along with seniors Madelyn Bunch and Eleanor Vaughn, said the event featured three Hillsdale students who showcased their own art

history research.

“We sent a call out to schools all around the U.S. and we also sent the call out to students on campus,” Lashaway said. “But this year, only students on our campus responded.”

McWhinnie, who presented on Thomas Cole’s landscape

addition to the art department, it’s such a good opportunity to bring a historian to talk about the piece.” Lashaway said the colloquium was an opportunity to see how far one can go with just simple art analysis.

“The biggest takeaway is being inspired to continue on

portrait and its contribution to Jacksonian America through developing national identity, said the colloquium was a good way to learn from other art historians.

“I thought it was great and I had such a fun time,” McWhinnie said. “It is a great

my art history research trajectory because I always found it fascinating,” Lashaway said. “It’s really awesome to hear somebody from a prestigious university showing us his methods and what he’s come to and then talking with us like peers.”

David Youngman (left) and Dave Turner (right) play jazz at Rough Draft. Megan Li | Collegian

The Pisa Cardinalilio, by allesandro Allori. COURTESY | Thomas Brown

C U L T U R E

Super Bowl halftime show dissed more than Drake

By Jillian Parks Editor-in-Chief

The Eagles weren’t the only winners this Super Bowl Sunday. Though rapper and Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar did declare a final victory in his public sparring with competitor Drake during the halftime show this year, reducing the entire show to a diss misses the larger point of his set.

Uncle Samuel L. Jackson began the Super Bowl halftime show by declaring that “this is the great American game.”

The headlining rapper used the Apple Music Super Bowl LIX halftime performance to tell a story about the hoops, cheat codes, and concessions tied to being black in America, while also urging black Americans to end the game.

Lamar made history as the first solo rap artist to headline the show.

In a press conference hosted by Apple Music in the days leading up to the show, Lamar said, “I think I’ve always been

very open about storytelling through all my catalog and my history of music. And I’ve always had a passion about bringing that on whatever stage I’m on.”

And a story he delivered. The stage was divided into four quadrants marked with an X, a square, a triangle, and a circle, mirroring the buttons on a Playstation controller.

The dancers were dressed in monochrome sweats — red, white, or blue. During his song “Humble,” the dancers formed an American flag with Lamar at the center. But throughout the performance, the dancers remained segregated and separated into matching color groups or lines.

The choreography as a whole was unified but not uniform, and aside from select moments with simple, crisp movement, the dancing as a whole was authentically energetic and powerful because of that.

After his first two songs — “Bodies” and “Squabble Up” from his most recent album,

titled “GNX,” released Nov. 22, 2024 — Jackson reprimanded the singer, saying the performance was “too ghetto” and asked if he really knew “how to play the game.”

Jackson went on throughout the set to guide Lamar in the direction America wants him to go. He deducted one life for the “old culture cheat code” of bringing his “homeboys” with him. Then, after “All the Stars” featuring an appearance by R&B singer SZA, he cheered with approval, triumphantly declaring, “That’s what America wants, nice and calm.”

The show showed Lamar toying with balance of past lives and future promises, chronicling Lamar’s lived cultural experiences alongside with the hustle of trying to remain culturally relevant and producing quality work.

Maybe I’m a part of the problem, but SZA’s portion of the halftime show, albeit nice and calm, was my favorite part. After a playful tease of Lamar’s hit diss track “Not Like Us,” the

shot pans over to SZA posed like an elegant cake topper. She delivered nothing short of a vocally stunning performance. More can be expected of the duo at their joint Grand National Tour, starting in April, on the heels of two wildly successful albums released last year.

After a lot of public discourse about whether or not Lamar would perform “Not Like Us” amidst multiple lawsuits, Lamar approached the end of his set and launched into his five-time Grammy award winning song “Not Like Us.”

In a shot now immortalized on social media and made into thousands of different memes, Lamar turns, smiles right at the camera, and recites the lyric “Say Drake, I hear you like ‘em young.” After a few more taunting bars, one could hear the audience loudly and proudly join him in on his “a minor” lyric. Lamar even wore a silver “a” chain, which many speculate to be in reference to the infamous lyric.

Serena Williams, who al -

The Weeknd album reflects on addiction

By Austin Gergens Collegian Freelancer

While mentioning The Weeknd in conversation can spur nostalgia for his energetic and meme-worthy Super Bowl LV performance, his latest album’s ethos departs in piece from his former ones.

“Hurry Up Tomorrow” released Jan. 31, and considered the third album in the trilogy of albums following “Dawn FM” in 2022 and “After Hours” in 2020, now holds the title for his longest with 22 tracks.

Abel Tesfaye, known as The Weeknd, has brought fans Billboard No.1 Top 100 songs like “Blinding Lights,” “Can’t Feel My Face,” and “Starboy,” proving that his R&B music can appeal to a wide audience.

Previous albums addressed the ample challenges present in romantic relationships, but a darker strain of introspection and heavily implied substance abuse dominates the majority of the new album’s tracks.

The initial song, “Cry for

synth-laden contemplation of his own ephemeral nature as well as his profound loneliness without his would-be lover, eventually questioning “Are you real, or are you an illusion?” and responding “Cause I fear your love’s my delusion.”

About halfway into the song, drums are introduced which lift the tone, though The Weeknd’s mediations about the afterlife, his prospective relationship, and sleep demons continue to trend toward despair.

The Weeknd’s use of the pulsating synthesizer makes multiple appearances in the R&B-dominant album, though he does dabble in rap a few times.

Several of the early songs focus on calling out to his former lover, bemoaning the many tears he’s shed, and the once idyllic vision of life together, though he quickly comes to accept this is no longer reality. This realization coincides with heightened references to substances leading ludic listeners to see that a

forthcoming performance in which he sought reconciliation with his former flame via a subtle dial tone and wall phone voicemail sound.

“Laughing Reflections” mimics the same dial tone sound and features a message with what initially sounds like a woman’s voice.

“I know you’re up,” the voice on the answer machine declares, “You think I don’t know you’re staying up all night, cooped up in that hotel

As the message proceeds, the speaker interjects statements of care about his condition and alludes to a relapse in drugs. All the while her words are punctuated by the sound of the listener vacillating between slurping sips and swirling ice in a cup while the soft whimpers of tears fill the foreground. Her voice slowly becomes distorted more and more until it is only Travis

Other notable guests on the album include: Annitta, Justice, Florence + The Machine, Lana Del Rey, Playboi Carti, and Giorgio Moroder.

His seeming callback to the song “Escape from LA” on the “After Hours” album, which featured a boisterous Tesfaye who brashly described a sexual encounter with his “side” woman in the studio before he proclaims he wants to leave the city, makes a sharp transition with his song “Take

legedly dated Drake and broke his heart around 2015, has a few seconds of screen time showcasing her crip-walking, a dance move originating in 1970s Compton area where both Williams and Lamar are from. Though she’s received some backlash for the dance moves’ affiliation with gangs, it was one detail in a much larger show about hometown roots, familial loyalty, and pride.

The element that confounds, or maybe nuances, Lamar’s message is the fact that Drake is mixed-race with an African American father and a Jewish mother. In saying Drake is “not like us,” Lamar is also highlighting the divides not only outside but from within the black community.

Lamar’s “Not Like Us” lyrics reject the Toronto native as a “colleague” and instead pin him as a “colonizer” in a hip-hop world now identified predominately by the American west and east coasts. The accusations of Drake’s predator status are only part of the larger diss.

Lamar included his hits while still making room for songs that serve his message the best. At the beginning of the show, Lamar states, “The revolution ‘bout to be televised. You picked the right time, but the wrong guy.” This references Gil Scott-Heron’s 1971 song, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, which was a cultural critique following the civil rights movement. Harkening back to this line, Lamar repeated the line “turn his TV off” at the end of his performance repeatedly until the lights in the audience spelled out “Game Over.” This could be a reference to it being game over for Drake, as Kendrick clearly won their beef with a Grammy sweep — a complete shift in the industry’s perception of his opponent — and a halftime show reaching 113 million viewers. This could be in reference to black Americans refusing to play the game and standing up to the government in some way. No matter what, Drake was clearly not invited to play in the first place.

Professor to join quartet

By James Joski Collegian Reporter

The Arianna String Quartet will perform in Markel Auditorium Saturday, Feb. 15, at 8:00 p.m. Tickets must be reserved at either boxoffice@hillsdale. edu or calling the number 517607-2848.

The quartet will also be teaching a master class Friday night with students from the music department.

The song offers a sharp inversion of the former by means of his tone, rhetoric, and message: that he deeply misses Los Angeles and hates being all alone.

Religious appropriations and imagery riddle the album, ranging from baptism to the Apostle Paul, and confessions to declarations of demons. These appear to be more than ornamental until the final track, the album’s namesake, where that intuition is confirmed.

Much like reading only the Inferno presents a incomplete understanding of Dante, listening through the the entire album is necessary to recognize Tesfaye’s eventual revelation:

“No, I need Heaven after life, I want Heaven, when I die.”

With just under two weeks since the album’s release, the album has demonstrably had great initial success, raising The Weeknd’s Spotify monthly listener count from 118.29 million in late January to a career high of 124.20 million on Feb. 12, according to data from ROSTR.

The Weeknd has also earned the biggest U.S. sales week of his career according to Chart Data on X.

“.@theweeknd’s ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ earns the biggest first week US unit sales debut for any album since @taylorswift13’s ‘THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT,’” Chart Data said on social media.

While “Hurry Up Tomorrow” does not warrant breaking your Exodus 90 fast, the now somber “Starboy” may be looking up, despite all the weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Composed of members John McGrosso and Jane Price on the violin, Joanna Mendoza on the viola, and Kurt Baldwin on the cello, the quartet has performed across the globe and has built a reputation for a formidable level of mastery in performance.

Artist-teacher of Collaborative Piano Daniel Kuehler will join the group for the second half of the show.

“It is a dream come true,” Kuehler said. “I looked up to them as men tors.”

A ’14 graduate of University of Missouri-St. Louis, Kuehler has known the Arianna Quartet since he be gan college in 2010.

“We had a small music department, but it was a very familial atmosphere,” Kuehler said. “I knew anytime they would hear me perform they would just be so supportive. It was wonderful.”

grow a lot from this performance.”

The first half of the program will consist of two string quartets, one composed by Haydn and another by Shostakovich. The second half will be solely filled by Cesar Franck’s “Piano Quartet in F Minor, Op 10,” featuring Kuehler. The first piece by Haydn will be a start both literally and metaphorically. As inventor of the quartet, he would inspire Shostakovich centuries later. This quartet was one of Haydn’s most famous.

“It’s nice, light, elegant, and witty,” Kuehler said. “Haydn was a jokester, so there’s a lot of humor.”

Dimitri Shostakovich’s “String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor” will provide a sharp contrast to this.

The quartet members were just as impressed with Kuehler, noting his humor, humility, and dedication.

“We aren’t surprised that we are colleagues now,” Baldwin said.

Although the quartet and Kuehler were not in close contact after Kuehler’s graduation, little had changed when they met at the Steinway Extravaganza Concert hosted by the college in 2023. It was there that Kuehler pitched the idea to them to come play at Hillsdale.

“This has always been a dream of mine to play with them, ever since I was an undergrad,” Kuehler said. “They are musicians of the highest caliber, and I know that I’ll

“It is dedicated to the victims of fascism coming out of the Stalin period in Russia,” Baldwin said. “The whole piece and what that movement is about is like humanity coming apart at its seams.” Kuehler described it a little differently, calling it classical rock and roll for the speed and intensity of the string parts.

“They are shredding,” he said.

The final piece by Franck will be the grand finale.

“It keeps you on the edge of your seat,” Kuehler said. “It is some of the most psychologically terrorizing music. It is a real thrill.”

Despite only playing for the second half, Kuehler will have his work cut out for him.

“He’ll be playing more notes Saturday night than I will play,” Baldwin said.

Despite the challenge, the performers are looking forward to sharing the pieces with the audience.

Baldwin said he hopes people will come to be enriched by the thrill of the concert.

“The power of music is one of those irrepressible things that has to be experienced live.”

Me Back to LA.”

Left to right: Joanna Mendoza, John McGrosso, Jane Price, Kurt Baldwin COURTESY | Kurt Baldwin The

“Hurry Up Tomorrow” album cover COURTESY | Instagram

C U L T U R

Blind leading the blind: Critic bashes art world

By Grace Brennan Collegian Freelancer

Art critics aren’t doing their jobs, according to art critic William Newton in his talk titled “Pens and Swords: The Dangerous Career of the Art Critic” given on Feb 6.

According to Newton, one of the biggest problems with art criticism today is few are brave enough to write the truth. Because of this hesitancy the art critic gives way to what the artist wants to hear.

“I believe that this is what is currently going on with art criticism today. Most of it is garbage, and the reason that it is garbage is because most of it has become sycophantic, repetitive types of conversations, and it is not real writ -

ing,” Newton said. William Newton previously reviewed art at The Federalist and now writes for the U.S. edition of The Spectator World Magazine. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, the University of Notre Dame Law School, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. He was invited to speak by the art and journalism departments.

According to Newton, the art world is losing integrity and critics are feeding into it, giving flattery where flattery is not due.

“It’s the illustration of the parable of the blind leading the blind, that is the nature of art criticism today,” Newton said showing a photo of the painting “The Blind Leading

the Blind” by Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. “This is a very good representation of what you’re going to see in the art press, because it’s all about a bunch of people parroting one another and not actually having independent ideas, and not actually sticking their neck out there and saying what they really think, because they don’t want to be rejected by the art establishment.”

Newton retold the story of the conflict between popular artist of the 19th century, Édouard Manet and the art critic who insulted him, Louis Edmond Duranty. Duranty’s opinion and criticism of Manet as an artist resulted in a duel.

“This is an important moment in art history because the art critic is starting to realize that he actually has a dangerous job,” he said.

According to Newton, the career of an art critic is just as dangerous as it once was when a writer’s pen led to a duel. Newton said it is a burden to be one of the only art critics who knows it is dangerous, yet continues to write with honesty.

“It is very sad that I’m one of the only people who can do this, because I’m a decent writer, but I’m not a particularly great one, and I feel the burden of that.” Newton said.

Newton was one of the few art critics who criticized the President Eisenhower Memorial in Washington D.C. “This is one of the worst things in Washington D.C. and that’s saying something,” Newton said.

“I feel as a writer that I owe it to my audience to be honest with them,” Newton said.

Sophomore Sophie Marshall said she agreed with Newton’s point.

“Why write about it if you’re not going to be honest,” she said. “Be honest with what you think whether or not the artist likes what you say.”

Newton said one of the biggest problems in the world of art criticism today is that critics are rewriting press releases and talking about their favorite featured paintings, rather than actually analyzing and critiquing the exhibits. Many contemporary art critics don’t even see the exhibit before they write the article about it.

“The person who has written the article will not mention anything about the exhibition itself,” Newton said. “They will tell you ‘see the show’ but they don’t actually see the show.”

According to Newton a

good art critic will have integrity, which means he will respect the artists by going to their exhibits and carefully thinking about what kind of art they have put on display, and they will give their honest opinion about the art all the while being respectful.

“Don’t just be mean for the sake of being mean, because that’s easy,” Newton said. “But if you’re going to criticize then do it in a way that makes sense.”

Junior Emily Garnes, art minor, said the relationship between the artist and the critic is important for the growth of the artist.

“There is a difference between good criticism and bad criticism; good criticism, a good artist should be thankful for,” Garnes said.“Because whether or not you agree with the criticism there is going to be a shred of truth in it.”

According to Newton the

artist himself should have integrity by being bold and sticking to his style, rather than fearing what art critics might say.

“Have the principle and the courage of your own convictions to be able to say, ‘This is what I am, if you don’t like my work then go find somebody else and if that means that I have to wait longer to get a client so be it,’” Newton said. “I think that’s what artistic integrity is.”

Newton gave attendees three pieces of advice to aspiring art critics: move to an art capital such as London or New York, self-educate, and take risks.

“If you’re going to write real criticism, like the kind that’s going to get you stabbed by Manet because he doesn’t like what you put in the newspaper, stick your neck out there, go for it,” Newton said.

William Newton presents the photo “The Blind Leading the Blind” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Jillian Parks | Collegian

“Hommage à Delacroix” by Henri Fantin-Latour. Courtesy | Wikimedia Commons

F E A T U R E S

RA: More than just a job Young alum ghts cancer

By Olivia Pero OUTREACH DIRECTOR

When there was no music during church on the rst Sunday Domine Clemons ’20 spent at a cancer center in Houston, she said she decided to start singing during communion, and everyone immediately joined in.

Clemons said afterward she asked the priest if she could make a pamphlet of music for the next week.

“So I did, and last week we had ve songs,” Clemons said. “I just added that [music] back in because everybody at this hospital is going through the same thing.”

Clemons was diagnosed in January with acute myeloid leukemia as well as a genetic mutation called MECOM Rearrangement, Clemons said. Only 20,000 people a year are diagnosed with just AML, and of those 20,000 people, less than 1% also have MECOM rearrangement.

Clemons is now living at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for treatment, as it is one of the few facilities that deals with this form of leukemia.

“It’s super rare and aggressive,” Clemons said. “It can come on in a matter of weeks, and without treatment, my doctors gave me the life expectancy of six months to a year.”

Clemons said even with treatment it’s an aggressive cancer that doesn’t respond well to chemo.

“My only option is chemo, which I’m going through right now and a stem cell transplant,” Clemons said.

Professor of Economics Ivan Pongracic said the GoFundMe fundraiser that Clemons’ sister set up will support her very expensive treatment at the cancer center.

“She has to live there for the foreseeable future — I think she said at least six to 12 months,” Pongracic said.

e GoFundMe has currently raised more than $157,000, but Pongracic said Clemons is still looking for donations because this is an extremely expensive treatment.

“The donations help us to o set some of the medical bills because going into all this, I didn’t have typical health insurance at the time of diagnosis because I’m 26 and self-employed,” Clemons said.

Clemons said she is part of a Christian health sharing ministry, but it may not end up covering her.

“I’m just so grateful for anybody who is moved to help with our cause,” Clemons said. “I really could have never foreseen such a rare and

aggressive diagnosis at 26, so just thank you.”

Clemons said she has been able to get spiritual direction at the cancer center which has a small chapel in the hospital.

“I’m a Catholic, so they’ve been able to bring me daily communion,” Clemons said.

“It’s de nitely been a time of growth, I would say, for my own spiritual life.”

ere’s a piano in the chapel, Clemons said, so she frequently goes there just to play the piano and sing.

Pongracic said he was Clemons’ advisor when she was a student at Hillsdale.

“We talked a lot about life and music — we both love music,” Pongracic said. “My happiest memories with Domine are really just chatting in my o ce but also seeing her perform.”

Pongracic said three occasions stand out to him when he watched Clemons perform.

“There was Battle of the Bands where she sang as part of a band, and she was just phenomenal,” Pongracic said. “ ere was Centralhallpalooza, and when she graduated in 2020 during the pandemic.”

Pongracic said Hillsdale was one of only two academic institutions to hold a commencement ceremony during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

“We held an outdoor commencement ceremony, which was incredibly moving, incredibly emotional, and one of the most special events that I’ve experienced in my life, never mind at Hillsdale College,” Pongracic said.

Clemons sang as part of the choir for that commencement ceremony, Pongracic said.

“It was right as the sun had set, and the sky was just deep, deep blue, and they sang ‘America the Beautiful,’” Pongracic said.

James Holleman, professor of music, choirs, and orchestra, said Clemons was a student in his choir and chamber choir for all of her years at Hillsdale, and she was a selected winner of the concerto/ aria competition.

“I had the pleasure of conducting her two arias in our orchestra concert in October 2020,” Holleman said. “She graduated in May 2020 and came back in the fall to perform, as our spring concert was canceled due to the COVID shutdown.”

Clemons became a professional musician in the past 15 months or so in Naples, Florida, Pongracic said. at was a er rst working for Erika Donalds, wife of Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, who runs an educational service that works with charter schools.

“She had an engagement

with a local restaurant where she would sing along to backing tracks three nights a week or something like that,” Pongracic said. “She was also part of a band that played at weddings and di erent kinds of events like that.”

Pongracic said this was a highly professional band.

“She seemed like she was nally on the path to do the thing she was meant to do, and then she got this news,” Pongracic said.

Pongracic said Clemons released a version of “Ave Maria” on all the major streaming platforms around six to nine months ago.

“She’s got a very deep and profound faith in God,” Pongracic said. “I really believe she can pull through this, and the less she can worry about the nancial parts of it, the more strength she will have to be able to focus on battling the illness and overcoming it.”

Clemons said she wants to share that she has peace that God has a bigger plan in place for her.

“ ere have been so many daily hurdles from insurance to the whole stem cell transplant, which is a beast of its own,” Clemons said. “It feels like there’s constant little battles we keep having to overcome, but I do feel like God has a plan.”

Clemons said she is so grateful to the Hillsdale community.

“Five years later, it’s amazing to know that we really are a family,” Clemons said. “Everything they say when you’re at Hillsdale is true. I just had a girl’s night Zoom call with six of my best friends from Hillsdale a couple days ago. It really doesn’t go away.”

Holleman said those who contribute to the GoFundMe will be supporting a gi ed, kind, young person who is in the prime stages of her career as a vocalist.

“I encourage those that can give, do,” Holleman said. “Domine is a gi to our world. She is God’s little birdie.”

Clemons said people looking to donate to her treatment through a check can email her at domine.clemons@ outlook.com. ose wanting to donate through the GoFundMe can do so by visiting this website, https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-domines-treatment-of-rare-leukemia.

“Anybody who is considering a donation, I just want to thank them from the bottom of my heart because this is such a shocking time for my family,” Clemons said. “We’ve really been so blessed to have such a supportive community around us.”

By Abigail Leigh COLLEGIAN FREELANCER

While serving as a resident assistant in Simpson Residence, junior Ezra Phillips learned one of the most valuable lessons about leadership.

“I have de nitely learned the necessity of leading by example. We can’t teach the residents to be good men if we don’t model it ourselves,” Phillips said.

RAs are essential for the functionality and community of a dorm, Phillips said.

Dean of Men Aaron Petersen said he recognizes consistent characteristics in successful RAs, like humility and a sense of humor.

“ e obvious exception to this is our current senior student house director at Niedfeldt, Harrison Layman. He’s not very funny but he thinks he is,” Petersen said.

According to junior Catherine Graham, head RA of McIntyre Residence, the role of an RA demands odd hours, leadership skills, and an inexhaustible social battery, said.

“It is what you make of it,” Graham said. “The primary job description is to build community and be a fun person.”

Building community in a freshman dorm can be a lot of work, but it includes pancake breakfasts, co ee dates, and various events planned during homecoming, said Graham.

According to Graham, without scheduled hours to clock in and clock out, the weeks leading up to homecoming force RAs to put their nose to the grindstone.

The hard work required during Mock Rock — a campus-wide dance o between dorms, sororities, and fraternities during homecoming week — can tire RAs merely at its mention.

“If you’re a choreographer for Mock Rock, your life is just put on hold,” Graham said. “Homecoming becomes your life for the three weeks prior.”

But for Phillips, homecoming is one of his most cherished seasons on the job.

“ e best part of being an RA is getting involved in those leadership roles,” Phillips said.

“ e place you see that best is at homecoming. Mock Rock for Simpson is brutal, and people look at you to make things happen.”

Benzing Residence RA and sophomore Sarah Morris said RAs must prepare themselves for the enthusiasm and leadership that the job calls for. is includes the regular late night shi s sitting at the dorm’s front desk.

For Morris, it’s one of her favorite parts of the job.

“Sitting desk in Benzing just means hanging out in the lobby for a whole evening and having fun with residents,” Morris said.

Graham disagrees — she

never expected to lose so much sleep over her role.

“ e worst part of being an RA is having to sit up until midnight,” Graham said. “I can’t do it anymore. I’m old.”

According to Associate Dean of Women Stephanie Gravel, being an RA is not a job, it’s a lifestyle.

“Pray over the work to be done and understand it’s not a 9-to-5 job where you clock in and out,” Gravel said. “You need to be willing to live the RA Life.”

According to the deans, the hiring process for RAs looks slightly different than for a typical campus job. An RA may be hired based on his or her enthusiasm, compassion, organization, and strong work ethic, as opposed to the length of his or her resume.

Being a successful RA requires the ability to make your work your life, according to Gravel.

ose looking to serve as an RA must rst understand that the bulk of the work to be done is o the clock, she said. e paycheck is tailored to time spent on duty, but the majority of the job happens o duty.

“You can’t go in thinking that your job is when you’re on duty. If you’re in it for the money, it’s a terrible job,” Phillips said. “If you’re in it to be a mentor and a role model, then the money doesn’t matter and the experience is priceless.”

Domine Clemons poses with Larry Arnn. COURTESY | DOMINE CLEMONS

Freshman girls cook in McIntyre Residence. COURTESY | HARISHMA ATHYSIVAM

F E A T U R E S

President’s Ball court hitches ride in Cybertruck

By Kamden Mulder FEATURES EDITOR

A few seniors, lucky enough to be nominated as President’s Ball king or queen, traded the rst hour of President’s Ball for a reception at College President Larry Arnn’s house — a reception that featured a ride in Arnn’s new Cybertruck.

“I was hoping he’d give us a ride, so I asked a question about the Cybertruck to get him going. My plan worked,” said senior and President’s Ball king Zach Ponraj.

Most of the students in attendance rode in the Cybertruck, including senior and President’s Ball queen Maddie Hornell.

“Dr. Arnn sharing the experience of his truck — which he likes so much — was indescribably dear to me. His ability to be so learned and yet so incredibly warm and relational is such a comfort in the midst of intellectual weariness and such a blessing to the soul,” Hornell said. “Every time I get to interact with him, I’m struck by his magnanimity (to be read in the Aristotelian sense).”

Speaking of Aristotle, Arnn told Ponraj there’s no competition between his love for the ancient philosopher and his new car.

“I asked Dr. Arnn if he liked his Cybertruck more than he liked Aristotle. He said, ‘No; Aristotle is not a toy,’” Ponraj said.

What is the ride like? Well, Hornell echoes Arnn’s experience.

“Just like Dr. Arnn said it would be: ‘like a cocoon,’” Hornell said. “I asked how it holds up in this weather, and he said that the only problem with the weather in his truck is that he can’t tell that the roads are icy. Of course, I asked the natural next question, and apparently, it holds up really well on Ball Road, too.”

The reception, featuring drinks and hors d’oeuvres, included both Arnn and his wife — Penny Arnn — as well as other college faculty. Although the Cybertruck stole the show, seniors in attendance recount the opportunity to converse with faculty in such an intimate setting.

Senior Anna Maisonville

said she was honored to attend the reception at Broadlawn.

“We were there for about an hour before we were driven to the Searle Center to walk out on stage,” Maisonville said. “Some professors and the deans were there at the reception as well, and I enjoyed speaking with them and re ecting on my time at Hillsdale with them.”

Maisonville, Ponraj, and Hornell all said they appreciated the opportunity to engage with college faculty outside of the classroom.

“It was so sweet to have conversations with some professors outside of the context of the classroom,” Maisonville said. “I have a class with Dr. Lambert this semester, but it was awesome to chat with her for a bit not in o ce hours — and also see the beautiful dress she wore.”

The event, according to Hornell, was beautiful.

“There was a gorgeous spread of food, but I really only ate a couple of dried apricots from the charcuterie because I was a bit nervous. A woman named Vee was serv-

ing drinks at a small bar; she felt really honored to be a part of the event and to get to make friends at the college,” Hornell said.

Ponraj did not indulge in the dried apricots but discovered his new favorite drink.

“I asked the bartender to make me her favorite drink. I believe it’s called a ‘Greyhound.’” Ponraj said. “It was insane.”

According to Hornell, the Cybertruck episode was the most memorable experience of the night.

In e Collegian’s previous reporting on the Cybertruck, sophomore Aaron Grossman said he thinks Arnn should “arrive at President’s Ball in his Cybertruck.”

According to Ponraj, chivalry paid o .

“We let the girls ride rst, but they took so long that by the time they got back, we had to leave for Searle,” Ponraj said. “Luckily, Dr. Arnn came through, chau euring us in the Cybertruck. It was absolutely iconic.”

By Michaela Estruth SENIOR EDITOR

Days a er alumna Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell ’24 reported on the dismantling of volunteer re- ghting units during her California res coverage for the Daily Signal, the units’ social media sites disappeared.

e Daily Signal published Mitchell’s story Jan. 16, and national media outlets featured her story.

On Jan. 20, the website and social media accounts for a state re response group she reported on — Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook — disappeared, Mitchell said.

After more reporting, Mitchell discovered California Gov. Gavin Newsom held “an emergency meeting” to address the situation brought up by her reporting.

“We’re all really happy that we can uncover a new angle about the fire situation and

shed some more light about what the state of California can do in the future to keep the res from getting so bad,” Mitchell said in an interview with e Collegian.

While reporting in California, a member of the California State Guard told Mitchell that a Newsom-appointed adjutant general of the California Military Department had dismantled the California State Guard’s Emergency Response Command, which consisted of two highly trained teams that would respond to help citizens during a wild re.

“[ e teams] were part of the State Guard, a military reserve force of volunteers that supports the California National Guard. e units were largely made of police o cers, retired police chief, retired re ghters, and California highway patrol o cers,” Mitchell reported. Mitchell reported that the political leanings of the New-

som-appointed general predisposed him to discriminate against these volunteer units.

“[He] has a history of marching in LGBTQ pride parades and was investigated for alleged antisemitism against a subordinate,” Mitchell reported in her Daily Signal article.

Mitchell said reporting this government dismantling of the response teams was detrimental to citizens who lost homes and complained of the insufcient re response. She said many people couldn’t access their homes or neighborhood due to tra c and road closures.

e teams could have helped in these areas, she said.

As a reporter, Mitchell said she could access restricted areas, even if homeowners couldn’t.

“Members of the media could get anywhere by showing their press badges,” Mitchell said. “We took a tour with the fire department and saw

active ames. ere was terrible wreckage. In many places all that remained were replaces.”

News Producer at the Daily Signal Tim Kennedy, who traveled to California with Mitchell, said when covering natural catastrophes, it is important to hear from the individuals most a ected.

“Elizabeth and I arrived in Los Angeles less than a week a er the Palisades wildre burned down most of the scenery along L.A.’s fabled Paci c Coast Highway,” Kennedy said. “We attended several wildre victim town hall meetings. Of those we spoke with, many expressed frustration over the lack of transparency from local o cials in the rst week following the res.” Mitchell said she never anticipated the angle she uncovered, especially since she had not planned on traveling to California to cover the res.

Hillsdale alumna exposes California fire mismanagement

we had ideas for how to cover the wild res,” Mitchell said. “I jokingly said we could go. She thought it was a good idea.

Two days before we left, my co-worker and I were assigned the trip.”

Maria Servold, assistant director of the Dow Journalism Program, said Mitchell’s tenacity is one of her many qualities that make her a good reporter.

“My editor-in-chief asked if

“I’m not at all surprised her writing is having an impact on the world in a good way,” Servold said. “She is a smart, energetic, hard working reporter, and I’m so happy to see her succeeding.”

Servold said Mitchell excelled during her time at Hillsdale, especially in her role as editor-in-chief of e Collegian.

“Editors have di erent qualities that make them great,” Servold said. “One of her great qualities is her nose for news. She has a good sense of what’s

interesting and can quickly pull together a good story.” Mitchell said she interned with e Daily Signal during her semester in D.C. for the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program. e following year, she was a contributor to e Daily Signal. She then began a year-long fellowship with Daily Signal in June, and became a full-time reporter Jan. 6, Mitchell said.

Servold said she is delighted, but not surprised, to see Mitchell’s success as a reporter so quickly a er graduation.

“We’re proud of all our graduates, but we are especially proud when so quickly a er they graduate, they are doing such great work,” Servold said. “It’s bittersweet when people like her graduate, but we want our students to go out into the world and succeed. So it’s always fun to keep up with them and see how well they’re doing.”

Larry Arnn leaves Broadlawn in his Cybertruck. COURTESY | ZACH PONRAJ

Fire trucks and equipment in California.

COURTESY | ELIZABETH TROUTMAN MITCHELL

Sarah Mckeown (back left), Michaela Estruth (back right), Maddie Hornell (left), and Livia Dodd (right) ride in the Crybertruck. COURTESY | ZACH PONRAJ

Arnn drives his Cybertruck to President’s Ball. COURTESY | ZACH PONRAJ