Hillsdale Collegian 8.29.18

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Michigan’s oldest college newspaper

Vol. 142 Issue 1 - August 29, 2018

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Hillsdale College has officially been reaccredited for another 10 years. Nicole Ault | Collegian

Hillsdale College earns 10-year reaccreditation By | Nicole Ault Editor-in-Chief After months of gathering documents and wrangling Hillsdale College’s identity into online essay forms, Hillsdale College faculty and staff reaped their reward: The Higher Learning Commission, a private regional accreditor, reaffirmed the college’s accreditation for 10 years in May 2018. The reaccreditation upholds Hillsdale’s status as a “legitimate institution whose education is serious and noteworthy,” said Hillsdale College Provost David Whalen. “We’re very glad and relieved that we got a good accreditation report and a full 10-year term extension, so we won’t have to worry about that again for a while,” said Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn. “The people who came for this accreditation visit were delightful, and we’re grateful to them, and they gave us an excellent report, which is justice, but also good to see.” Besides affirming the school’s educational legitimacy, accreditation means Hillsdale graduates are eligible for graduate and professional schools, and it pleases parents

of prospective students who seek an accredited institution, Whalen said. It also is important symbolically, he added, as “an example of a robust independent civil institution, privately organized, that bespeaks the integrity and health of postsecondary learning in the United States.” But the process has changed since the early days of accreditation and even since Hillsdale’s previous reaffirmation in 2007-2008. For the latest reaccreditation process, a committee of Hillsdale’s faculty and staff pulled together an assurance argument, a 30,000-word set of essays responding to five “core component” criteria required by the HLC. After months of culling data and documentation and editing, the college submitted the essays in December 2017 in online box forms corresponding to each core component: the college’s mission, ethical conduct, quality of education, improvement of education, and plans for future effectiveness. The method was more clinical than that of 2007, when the college submitted a book with color photographs and a

more narrative style called a “self study,” said George Allen, Hilllsdale’s director of institutional research. The HLC’s peer reviewers did get a deeper view of Hillsdale in January 2018 when they visited campus after reading the assurance argument. During their visit, they met with administration, faculty, and students, spot checked files, and held open hearings where faculty, students, and staff could comment on various aspects of the college, Allen said. The college then waited till May to receive official notification that the HLC had reaffirmed its accreditation. In contrast with previous methods, Arnn said the new one offers “less room for you to put your case together.” But Hillsdale’s provost office, deans, and department heads pulled it off, Arnn said: “We imported the entire fundamental arguments of Hillsdale College into our accreditation report, and we’re all pretty good at that around here.” About a century ago, accreditation’s “purpose was for colleges to join together in a league and evaluate each other and report on each other’s service to the mission of each

Bon Appétit to go strawless by 2019 straws. But since paper straws eventually see a strawless By | Julie Havlak come with a heftier price tag lid similar to those used by Collegian Reporter and a tendency to get soggy, Starbucks, which are made The summer of plastic Bon Appétit is considering of recyclable plastic, Persson straw bans might be over, but other options, Persson said. said. Hillsdale College students will Popular alternatives in“It may seem a like a still have to stop sucking. clude steel straws and comsmall step toward fighting Bon Appétit Management postable straws. Neither are the world’s plastic pollution Company will stop offering perfect substitutes, as steel problem, but we think it is plastic straws by September straws often go missing, while an important symbolic one 2019. to get people The movethinking about ment to rid both what single-use the environment plastic disposable and consumers’ items they really beverages of plastic need,” Bonnie straws swept Powell, Bon through the United Appétit’s director States during the of communicasummer. Seattle tions, said in an banned plastic email. “And since straws, restaurants we’re doing it across the nation company-wide, followed suit, and that’s almost 17 now the strawless million plastic movement—somestraws that won’t times referred to as end up in landfill #StopSucking—has or the oceans.” come to Hillsdale. The decision “Taking steps to to banish plastic reduce single use straws came on plastics seemed like the heels of cola pretty obvious lege campuses’ decision,” Bon straws bans on Appétit Marketthe West Coast, ing Coordinator said Persson. William Persson Disability said. “It’s not advocates have really sustainable protested the to keep producing bans on plastic that much plastic, straws, saying especially when that alternatives Bon Appétit will be opting for strawless lids or another most straws are fail to provide alternative by 2019. Alexis Nester | Collegian not recyclable. So the flexibility and from a food service compostable straws require convenience of plastic straws, perspective, that’s a small step specific temperatures and which can help those with you can take towards more compost bins to break down. impaired motor control. changes.” If Bon Appétit’s coffee Bon Appétit still has a Bon Appétit might substisupplier Zingerman’s Coffee stock of plastic straws to use tute paper straws for plastic cooperates, students could up, so students will not imme-

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institution,” Arnn said. “So they’re to come in and find out are you doing what you say you do. It was all keyed off what your mission is.” With the creation of the U.S. Department of Education in 1979, accreditors, which are private organizations, have “gradually become regulatory bodies because of the force of government behind them,” he said. The Department of Education now uses accreditation as the gatekeeper for offering federal financial aid, meaning accreditors not only hold schools to their own standards but to the standards of the government as well, Allen said. “It’s very unfair,” Arnn said, that Hillsdale must submit to these federal regulations through accreditors though it refuses to accept federal funds. Additional federal regulations—which have grown over the past two decades— have not affected practice or policy at Hillsdale College, Allen said. Mainly, they’ve just caused a headache, compiling additional forms and paperwork. For a while, Hillsdale was largely exempt from federal

regulations because it doesn’t take federal funds, but in recent years, the Department of Education has borne down on accreditors, threatening their status if they don’t hold all schools to certain regulations—like meeting a specific definition of a credit hour and having a particular student-grievance reporting procedure, Whalen said. Arnn said accreditation ought to look more like what it did in the old days, when colleges evaluated each other without the influence of government regulation. “I think if you returned it to what it was, it would be vibrant again. Colleges are naturally interested in each other,” he said. “And you know, the old practice still mostly followed is they picked people from colleges like yours and so they know a lot and they see a lot and they bring a lot of ideas. Why is this third party that’s not in the college business laying down criteria?” Some change may be in the making: The Department of Education initiated a rulemaking process this year proposing to amend regulations on accreditors. But regulations are harder to abolish

than create, Whalen said. For now, Hillsdale College has more paperwork on its hands. The HLC requested an interim report, due Oct. 1, with a policy plan for Hillsdale’s documentation of faculty credentials. During its visit, the HLC discovered that some Hillsdale faculty files did not include transcripts -- an issue Arnn said would probably not prove problematic due to the stringent requirements for hiring at Hillsdale. Hillsdale also has to prepare for the next round of accreditation by updating its assurance argument for further review by August 2021. Though mostly creating compliance costs now, further regulations that affect institutional practice could pose a danger to the college, Arnn said. “It would take a long time for them to mess the college up, probably,” he said. “But the college is ambitious to last a long time. And so if something happens that would mess it up eventually, that’s tragic.”

The renovations to the top floor of Lane Hall will serve as faculty offices for assistant and adjunct professors. Isabella Redjai | Collegian

Lane Hall’s top floor renovated into offices By | Isabella Redjai Assistant Editor Stumbling into the top floor of Lane Hall last spring semester, one might find antique furniture, stacks of vintage composites, or photographs of Central Hall. Now the space has been replaced by new offices for assistant and adjunct professors. As assistant and adjunct professors have shared offices and exhausted the space in Delp Hall and across campus, the administration found the space available in the attic of Lane could be repurposed. “This spring the provost’s office notified me of the need of more full-time faculty offices for the fall semester,” said Chief Administrative Officer Richard Péwé. “The work started in June and concluded a few weeks ago after the fire marshal approval.” Foulke Construction is running the new renovations and has replicated the layout of Kendall Hall’s fourth floor offices, but with a twist. “Rather than create two more seminar classrooms, which according to room-use data were not needed, the college created two sizable spaces for adjunct faculty,” Péwé said.

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“Lane will have room for 10 full-time offices and about 12 to 15 spaces for adjuncts.” Additionally, one private office is available for testing and private meetings with students. The increased number of spaces for adjuncts will not result in an expanded faculty, though, according to Péwé. As professors move their belongings to the new space, they appear to be optimistic for the change. Final constructions are underway, and instructors have yet to officially move into their new offices. “I know that we are running out of room in Delp for office space, so this change was necessary,” Assistant Professor of English Andrew Brown said. “As long as I can conduct my office hours and meet with students, I have no problem with the change. I will do everything I can to make it work.” The furniture for the new offices was scheduled to arrive on Friday, Aug. 24, bringing the project closer to completion. As this new furniture comes in and the archives go out, Hillsdale’s antiquated art and furniture have found new homes.

“Some materials — museum-like objects, paintings, chairs, and other things — that we physically want to keep but don’t need to keep out are in a climate-controlled area in Jackson,” Mossey Library Public Service Librarian Linda Moore said. Certain archival items from various time periods of the college’s existence, such as extra Winona yearbooks, original college catalogues, and photographs, were moved to the Fowler Maintenance building for the library’s easy access. Other items, which could be used for the library’s archive collections and exhibits — for example, the poet Will Carleton’s exhibit, currently in progress — were moved to the library for the project’s purposes. “Although some of the items from Lane’s attic still need to be added to the database, the thing is, the most important documents and photographs are digitally available to students on our online archives,” Moore said. To visit Mossey Library’s online archives, visit www.lib. hillsdale.edu/archives. Look for The Hillsdale Collegian


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August 29, 2018

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Orchestra places second in national competition By | Anna Timmis Culture Editor

The Hillsdale College Symphony Orchestra has long provided beauty and culture to campus through its challenging yet lovely performances. But in the last couple years, it has gained well-earned national recognition. In July, American Prize awarded Hillsdale’s orchestra second place in the college division of its nationwide arts competition. Davidson College Symphony Orchestra in Davidson, North Carolina, beat out Hillsdale for first place, but Hillsdale came in ahead of College of William and Mary Symphony Orchestra based in Williamsburg, Virginia. The competition is based on application. Orchestras can send recordings of performances two years old and

newer. Last year was the first time Director of Music James Holleman submitted recordings from 2015 through 2017 concerts. “They’re looking for quality arts in the country, where you wouldn’t expect it, or it doesn’t get recognized,” Holleman said. He said the American Prize judges professional, university, community, and youth orchestras, as well as composers, vocal performers, and more. The Hillsdale College Symphony Orchestra had won a spot on the stage at the College Orchestra Directors Association Conference and was the smallest college ever to perform there. “I thought, ‘Why not throw our hat in the ring and see what happens?’” Holleman said. So Holleman decided to

The Hillsdale College Symphony Orchestra placed second in the annual American Prize competition. James Holleman | Courtesy

apply for the American Prize. Founded in 2009, The American Prize is a series of competitions, administered by a nonprofit organization in Connecticut called Hat City

Music Theater, according to the American Prize blog. Junior Sara Becker has participated in the orchestra since she was a freshman and held the position of second

violin during the 2017-2018 year. She said the last couple years have been exciting for the orchestra as members have grown in community and talented new members have been recruited. “It’s nice recognition for the program, and really nice recognition of the work the students put into it, balancing with difficult academics,” Holleman said. “They’re mostly not music majors, so it’s just really nice recognition for all those efforts and spirit.” Becker said winning the award reflected on that unique dynamic of Hillsdale’s orchestra, in which students join simply because they enjoy music. “You can be excellent in all different areas,” she said. “The mentality I see encouraged throughout the college is, if you’re going to do something,

do it well.” Heather Woodhouse, ’18, was a principal flutist, as well as picillo player. “You’re there because you love it,” she said. “An instrument is something they put in your hand in elementary school or some later time, and it’s like a wand. You can do crazy things with it. Why would you want to stop?” She said that the prize was won through a team effort. Last year, she said, the members learned to listen to each other more. Holleman said that while national recognition has come in the last couple years, it has been a long process of building the program that has brought recent success. “Anybody who’s been a member shares in this,” he said.

Hillsdale Collegian ranked 5th-best college newspaper

The new women’s dorm, which is yet unnamed, houses 55 residents and will feature a student-run coffee shop. Carmel Kookogey | Collegian

New dorm provides welcoming community, campus coffee shop By | Carmel Kookogey Assistant Editor The new women’s dorm still needs a name, but the women living in it are excited to share their space. Construction on the dormitory, the first new dorm on campus since 2005, is complete, and while finishing touches are still needed, 55 residents now call it home. “The temporary name is ‘New Dorm’ while we wait for a friend of the college to give a

residence halls, Benzing and Mauck, hoping to build “an overall Hillsdale community, rather than just the New Dorm’s community.” “We’re focused on our residents, but also working outward,” Pynes said. “While we build up the dorm, we really want to encourage the girls to build up each other as well.” As a part of this initiative, the dorm’s coffee shop, which is separate from Bon Appétit, will also be run and staffed by

Penny’s, New Dorm’s coffee shop, will feature a “European experience.” Carmel Kokogey | Collegian

donation towards this specifically,” New Dorm House Director Rosemary Pynes explained, adding that the dorm would then be named for the donor. Despite the lack of a name, however, the new dormitory is full of warmth and appeal. Complete with Penny’s, a coffee shop opening next week, and surrounded by a large outdoor space with a fire pit, Pynes says they want the areas to be open “for all the women’s dorm residents over here to use.” Pynes described her desire to cultivate relationships between the new dorm and the neighboring women’s

students. Manager Emily Barnum, ’18, called this “a unique enterprise.” Associate Dean of Women Rebekah Dell explained that this concept of a dorm coffee shop has “been suggested on and off for years,” but the new dorm was the “perfect opportunity” to implement it. Named for President Larry Arnn’s wife, Penny, it is set to be a study spot with high-quality coffee, emulating Penny Arnn’s hospitality. “She is the picture of warmth and hospitality and grace and virtue,” Barnum said. Penny’s, which will be supplied by Uncommon Coffee out of Saugatuck, Mich., is a

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“slower” alternative to A.J.’s Cafe, Barnum says. “We want to offer food items that are not available at A.J.’s and Jitters,” she said. “We also want to serve a tiny bitesized snack or cookie with every drink, kind of a European experience. It’s not just about meeting your caffeine needs. It’s less utilitarian, and more about the experience.” Barnum also says an espresso bar will include stools so students can talk to their baristas, and she confirmed that Liberty Bucks will be accepted at the new dorm’s coffee shop. Dell explained that the dorm was built to allow more sophomores to continue living in a dorm community. She said that the community bathrooms were a central part of this initiative. “Committees found that the community is strongest in the dorms that have community bathrooms… They tended to have the tightest groups with great support. We know, though, that not everyone wants a community bathroom, so then we looked at our upperclassmen offerings. We realized that we actually did not offer many upperclassman female options with community bathrooms,” Dell said. She added that the biggest goal of the dorm is to foster a “homelike environment.” “We want this to be a space where community, fellowship, and friendship grow, an opportunity not only for the upperclassmen living there… but also that this be a residence hall that freshmen are welcomed into, so that we can foster as much as we are able that idea of mentorship, and upperclassmen supporting underclassmen,” Dell said. Barnum agreed. “We’re really hoping that it will help foster community on campus, and that everyone will feel welcome there,” she said.

By | Nolan Ryan News Editor The Hillsdale Collegian scored fifth-best college newspaper and Hillsdale students’ community-service involvement placed No. 4 in the nation in the Princeton Review’s latest annual Best 384 Colleges survey. A national survey of college students that collects data on everything from classroom value to student life, the Princeton Review’s 2019 ranking placed Hillsdale within the top 20 colleges in a dozen of 62 categories, including “professors get high marks” and “most accessible professors.” “The regard students have for the rigor, substance, and beauty of their learning here indicates something of the richness of a Hillsdale education,” Hillsdale College Provost David Whalen said in an email. “Rankings can never capture the reality, and the Princeton lists can have their quirks. But it is heartwarming to see the College appreciated for what it is and for all the efforts that make its work possible.” The Collegian improved its 2019 ranking from No. 9 in 2017 and No. 7 in 2018. Maria Servold, assistant director of the Dow Journalism program, said she believes The Collegian’s success is due to the character of Hillsdale’s students. “Because we have such high-quality students, when those students do journalism, it’s high-quality journalism,” she said. “We’ve had really good student editors. They put in place benchmarks and goals for staff. That’s what inspires the staff to do a good job.” While it helps inform students and faculty, The Collegian’s primary purpose is to serve as a “teaching tool” for journalism students, said John Miller, director of Hillsdale’s Dow Journalism Program. “This is a great testament to the hard work of our students in making our newspaper an excellent publication,”

Straws

from A1 diately notice the change. “Right now we are at this stance where we are not going to give them to you. They will be there, but it’s up to you to take them,” said Persson. “Come September of next year, we will not be offering plastic unless you have a disability and need to use a plastic straw.” Other restaurants that removed plastic straws have dealt with confused or cross customers. A few A.J.’s workers quietly admitted to liking plastic straws, but so far there has been almost no student response. “Usually everything we do is contentious, so I was surprised,” said Persson, re-

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Miller said. “It’s wonderful to get the recognition of Princeton Review.” The ranking for Hillsdale students’ community-service efforts made the biggest jump, from No. 9 last year to No. 4 this year. Associate Dean of Men Jeffery Rogers credits the ever-growing community presence to students hearing about programs by word of mouth. “I think the GOAL [Great Opportunities for Assistance and Leadership] program leaders have taken the opportunity to engage students,” Rogers said. “The Hillsdale community has a lot of great needs out there. I don’t think you could go to Hillsdale and not see the need, and not want to help.” Senior Lu Townley, the GOAL program coordinator for the 2017-2018 school year, said she attributes the ranking to the GOAL leaders’ passion and hard work that “finally paid off.” As GOAL program director this year, she said she plans to improve marketing and publicity on campus and get every student to volunteer at least once. Associate Dean of Women Rebekah Dell says the rankings may draw in more students who are passionate about using their time to serve the broader community. This is part of the education outside the classroom that the college promotes, she said. “It is an exciting result to see because I do see on a regular basis that our students are very interested in investing in the community,” she said. Junior Celina McGowan says volunteering is beneficial for college students in that it allows them to give back to the community. “Volunteering is one way students can choose to look outside of themselves and choose to think about the community,” she said. Beyond that, McGowan says it is important for her faith that she and others care for those with disadvantages. “There’s a lot of people

ferring to the backlash over the to-go cups. The movement has attracted criticism from cynics. Those on the right have dismissed it as “virtue-signaling,” and those on the left have argued it doesn’t do enough to rid the environment of plastics. “I think plastic straws are perhaps overhyped,” said Erin Flaherty, Conservation Club secretary. “People have just chosen plastic straws as a representative thing. But [when] people who don’t use straws but don’t keep in mind the other plastic they are using, it doesn’t make sense to me.” But Flaherty said she still

who have invested in my education,” she said. “It makes sense to me that I should, in turn, both study hard and give those opportunities to other people.” Though its rankings for professors dropped slightly from last year, Hillsdale remained among the top 20 schools in the nation with the best and most accessible instructors, placing ninth for “professors get high marks” and 16th for “most accessible professors.” Dell said she hasn’t seen a shift in the student-faculty culture. “I’m continuing to hear positive things,” Dell said, adding that it is the student experience more than rankings that drives the school, its instructors, and its students. Hillsdale’s professors provide good role models for the students, McGowan says, adding that they often display good qualities to students both inside and outside the classroom, “Having these people that you can talk to about a lot of different things in a mild mentorship way is not just important, but I think it’s hard to be a healthy person if you’re just interacting with people your own age all the time,” she said. “To have professors you look up to in their personal life, as well as in their classroom and their office hours, to have that sort of role model is something that really benefits the students of Hillsdale.” The college’s other top 20 rankings included No. 3 for most conservative students; No. 5 for most religious students; No. 9 for most politically-active students; and No. 16 for “college city gets low marks.” Rogers says the college’s mission and daily student life don’t change based on its rankings with the Princeton Review, but it’s good to see that recognition. “It’s a validation of what we’re doing at Hillsdale,” he said. “We don’t need it, but it does speak to [the fact that] wour students are happy.”

appreciates the change. “Things like straws are consumed a lot by marine wildlife and that’s really harmful to the environment,” Flaherty said. “Reducing the amount of plastic we use here in Hillsdale and especially in the cafeteria is a really cool way that we as a school can impact and help preserve our planet.”

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Online: www.hillsdalecollegian.com Editor-in-Chief | Nicole Ault Associate Editor | Jordyn Pair News Editor | Nolan Ryan City News Editor | Josephine Von Dohlen Opinions Editor | Kaylee McGhee Sports Editor | S. Nathaniel Grime Culture Editor | Anna Timmis Science & Tech Editor | Crystal Schupbach Features Editor | Brooke Conrad Design Editor | Morgan Channels Web Content Editor | Regan Meyer Web Manager | Timothy Green Photo Editor | Christian Yiu Columnist | Nic Rowan Circulation Manager | Regan Meyer Ad Manager | Cole McNeely Assistant Editors | Cal Abbo | Alexis Daniels | Ryan Goff | Stefan Kleinhenz | Carmel Kookogey | Abby Liebing | Alexis Nester | Isabella Redjai | Allison Schuster | Calli Townsend 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 kmcghee@hilldale.edu before Saturday at 3 p.m.

Subscribe to your local newspaper By | Jordyn Pair Associate Editor I’m tired of writing for clicks. I’m tired of aggregating Tweets and writing blurbs about viral videos. I’m tired of monitoring Google Trends and scrolling through the latest hashtag and writing headlines around the most searchable keywords. But writing for clicks is what they pay me to do. The most difficult lesson I’ve learned during my journalism education is that a newspaper is a business. Hard-hitting, reported stories are what we’re trained to look for and write, but nowadays, readers want the listen to this content. Clickbait pays the bills. As journalists, we like to think of ourselves as people who do good. We expose corruption, give a voice to the voiceless, and tell stories that make a reader feel nice. But that journalism — a romanticized, Watergate-esque kind — has been traded for trendy headlines and meaningless anecdotes. And as the digital age progresses, so has readers’ expectations of free content. People curse paywalls or wrinkle their noses at article limits on their favorite news site. Some just skim the headlines. Enter, clickbait. List articles (or “listicles”), write-ups about popular content, or even reposts of viral videos draw in readers, and, therefore, ad revenue. Outlets like Buzzfeed have excelled in this, pumping out listicles like “21 Things You Should Never Do At Tim Hortons” and quizzes that reveal “What You Should Major In, Based On Your Fave Cartoon Foods” (for the record, I should apparently be in musical theater). Although Buzzfeed isn’t a full-time news outlet, similar pieces have been showing up on the websites of publications like The New York Times and Time. Hiring writers for clickbait articles to stay afloat means less resources for solid reporting, but the alternative is often worse — not doing so means a newspaper might go under. Mid-market newspapers don’t always have the resources like those of The New York Times and rely on ad revenue to draw eyeballs. That’s why it’s important to subscribe to your local newspaper. Local newspapers are vital to the wellbeing of every community, but national outlets are slowly driving them out of business. Mega media organizations can afford to sacrifice quality for quantity,

but local papers can’t. And that’s a good thing. Local papers like The Detroit News or Hillsdale Daily News provide a more nuanced approach to local issues, simply because the reporters are more familiar with the area. They are also more likely to stay on top of issues important to residents, like the Flint water crisis. It’s a subject national outlets dropped months ago. The Detroit News had a story about it just last week. Paying for a subscription keeps outlets important to your local area in business and helps them manage resources to cover important

“Local newspapers are vital to the wellbeing of every community, but national outlets are slowly driving them out of business. Mega media organizations can afford to sacrifice quality for quantity, but local papers can’t.” stories. Most local outlets are not expensive either. And at $4.30 a month for an all-access digital subscription, The Detroit News is worth just a little more than the coffee you’d drink with it in the morning. Journalists shouldn’t have to worry about writing viral trending stories just to keep their paper in the black. They should be able to keep their focus on important local issues. Keep us from writing clickbait. Subscribe to your local newspaper. Jordyn Pair is a senior studing rhetoric and public address as well as sociology.

To our readers, thank you

The opinion of The Collegian editorial staff Recording what happens at Hillsdale College is a privilege we do not take for granted. A few weeks ago, The Hillsdale Collegian was ranked the fifth-best college newspaper in the nation by the Princeton Review — four ranks higher than in last year’s annual survey. Student-based surveys determined the ranking, so

we have you, the readers, to thank. As Hillsdale College’s student-run newspaper, our mission is to educate students in journalism and inform campus of pertinent issues and serious topics. We strive to connect campus and community through meaningful stories. And we hope

that what we do will make a difference. As students, we are learning as well. Reporting and writing is often a challenging task, and we thank each faculty and community member who has taken the time to speak with and assist us. If you are interested in the Collegian or the Dow Journal-

ism Program, we invite you to attend our weekly assignment meetings on Mondays at 7 p.m. You’ll have the opportunity to report for us hands-on while improving your writing. It’s challenging, but rewarding. And as our new ranking shows, it’s meaningful to Hillsdale.

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That for which we stand: Remember Hillsdale’s tradition By | Brad Birzer Professor of History One of the greatest aspects of college life is the embrace of tradition. Those traditions come in varying forms, shades, colors, hues, and amounts of pride. Mascots, scarves, jackets, victory marches, alma maters. You’ve probably never met a graduate of Texas A&M or the University of Notre Dame without immediately knowing — because that person has probably signaled it, quietly and not so quietly — that he or she attended that institution. Rings, clothing, songs, lingo, and even personality are stamped on each and everyone of them. This is just as true at Hillsdale as it is at Notre Dame or Texas A&M, we just don’t shout it as loudly as the members of those communities. After all, think about our origins. Founded in 1844 by those who embraced intelligent piety and an evangelical Christianity, the institution sought much that was radical but deeply humane in that chaotic upheaval of a decade. From day one, this college allowed anyone —regardless of the accidents of birth — to attend. Astounding, really. Not only could those of African descent participate fully in every aspect of college life, but women, too, were allowed the privilege of earning a liberal arts degree. Yes, there’s at least one other college in the United States that can claim the admission of women just a bit earlier than we can, but that college restricted its female students to the study of home economics (domestic science) only. In other words, we were the very first college to allow every single person

the potential of being liberal in the absolute best sense of the word, to be liberated from the things of this world and inhabit the life of the mind. It doesn’t stop there. The earliest historian here, Ransom Dunn, furious with the immoral and unethical Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 — which would allow territories to offer a simple majority vote over whether or not some men had the right to enslave other men — helped launch a movement that would ultimately doom the institution of slavery in 1865. Faculty and administrators from Hillsdale followed the age-long Anglo-Saxon tradition of creating their laws under an oak tree. Just as Venus descended upon a grove of oaks to give her son, Aeneas, the weapons of the gods, so these men from Hillsdale met under a grove of oak trees in Jackson, Michigan, and formed the Republican party. When the time came to defend those beliefs, hundreds of Hillsdale men volunteered to serve in Mr. Lincoln’s Army. Like Leonidas and his 300 Spartans at the Gates of Fire, Hillsdale men — members of the 24th Michigan regiment — stood at a bottleneck on the eastern side of a little Lutheran town in Pennsylvania on July 1, 1863. As fate would have it, they met the same end as the 300 Spartans over 2,300 years earlier. Confederate forces which outnumbered them almost ten to one that afternoon mowed down the 24th Michigan in about twenty minutes. The 24th Michigan and their allies had stood so firm, though, that the Confederates, intimidated by what they saw, refused to advance any further

into town. Through their failure, the Confederacy spent a full three days attempting to take the high ground. After 52,000 men had fallen, each side gave up. Though not a clear Union victory, Union forces had prevented rebels from marching through New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Leonidas helped birth the West, and the Hillsdale men helped create “a new birth of freedom.” Molon labe, indeed. The next time you walk between Kendall and Lane, passed the statue of the Civil War soldier — with Lincoln bowing to him and Douglass encouraging him — offer at least a small thanks to the Hillsdale soldiers who gave everything in the cause of constitutionalism and the liberty for all. And, when you have a bit more time, give a much larger thanks. And, never forget, you are connected to that Hillsdale student who fought in Civil War as much as you’re connected to the person who lives in the dorm next to you. When you’re choosing everything from how to behave to your neighbor to how to study or to how to pick a career, make sure you ask yourself if you’re worthy of those who gave everything in 1863. Whatever my own failings — and they are many — I do not let a day of lecturing go by without silently acknowledging what Hillsdale men and women have done, time and time again. It is humbling, and it is inspiring, but, no matter what, I want to be worthy of them. Hillsdale students, indeed, have been performing heroic service to and for the republic since 1844. Don’t ever let

this tradition fail or be found wanting. There’s another tradition we embrace, as important as the one of sacrifice — and this is liberal education. What we teach, what we study, and what we learn has its origins in the very beginnings of philosophy, somewhere around 510 BC in a town that is now on the Turkish coast. Over the last century and a half, all but a handful have neglected this tradition. What was once the means by which educated men and women formed a community bridging time and space has become a relic, a nuisance, and a distortion. Hillsdale, though, knows that true liberalism is about liberation and fulfillment, not esotericism and Gnosticism. Just as Hillsdale embraces universal principles in its own unique way, so every person to ever live is a unique expression of universal truth. Or, as one of my heroes once put it, every person is an unrepeatable center of dignity and freedom. Liberal education never conforms, but it always leavens. So, yes, we have profound traditions. We may not be as loud as Notre Dame or Texas A&M, but we most certainly know who we are and that for which we stand. Whether you’ve just arrived here or whether you’ve resided here for several years, embrace the tradition. And, be worthy. The editors invite faculty members to contribute to Office Hours, a weekly column dedicated to promoting relationships between staff and students through the giving of advice and stories. Send submissions to the Opinions Editor at kmcghee@hillsdale.edu.

Remembering John McCain, 1936-2018 By | Nic Rowan Columnist At this point, many people have written deserving tributes to John McCain. And since it is impossible, of course, for an untested 20-year-old to rightly eulogize a man 61 years his senior, who spent six years being tortured in a Viet Cong prison camp — compounded with the additional pain of serving five consecutive terms in the United States Senate as well as flaming out in two presidential campaigns — I’ll leave it to those who actually knew McCain to appraise his career. But I do have one story. In the fall of 2008, the day after McCain and former President Barack Obama addressed the “Joe the Plumber” flap in the final presidential debate at Hofstra University, I’m sitting in the barber’s chair after school watching the news unfold on TV. We all know McCain is not going to win. Obama boasts a tieless charisma and a trendy opposition to American involvement in the Middle East — sure signs he will bulldoze the aging warhawk come November.

When the screen switches to commercials, Ken, my barber, mutes it. For several minutes, all we hear are the warbly overhead tones of MIX 107.3 WASH FM (the best of the 80s, 90s, and the ever-extending today) filtering Blondie’s “The Tide is High” into the otherwise quiet room. Suddenly a McCain-Palin endorsement flashes across the screen, pumping up the white-haired senator and his erstwhile sidekick — the future star of such shows as “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” and “Amazing America with Sarah Palin.” Ken flips the sound back on just in time for us to hear the grating music behind duo’s self-proclaimed call word: mavericks. Ken chuckles: “It’ll never work,” he says. Even then, I knew he was right. McCain was always the wrong sort of outsider to nab the presidency; gadflies never adapt well to the needs of the establishment. But I soon learned that Ken respected McCain — so much, in fact, that he added him to “The Hall of Losers,” a shrine made of political bumper stickers tacked up on the wall under Ken’s other prized possession, a signed

Dick Tracy comic. The Hall of Losers commemorates the men who, in Ken’s mind, were either too crazy or just too unlikable ever to have a shot at the White House. And after 2008, McCain joined the venerable ranks of Howard Dean, Mitt Romney, and Lincoln Chafee. He is the only name to make the list twice, because, as Ken once said, McCain’s gimmicky Straight Talk Express in his 2000 primary run against George W. Bush was crazy and his support for The War on Terror in 2008 — even as the global economy tanked — was detestable. Outside of The Hall of Losers, Ken would rarely weigh in on the constant political gunslinging that pinged around his McLean barber shop, except in that enabled the jabber by often cutting politicos’ hair. After 30 years in the business, Ken understood that D.C. is a town reserved for the winners — and to stay on top, it’s not enough to spit hatred at your enemy. You must understand how the two of you bring each other to deep contemplation. Perhaps this is why McCain holds such a prominent spot in The Hall of Losers. More so than any other major league

American politician today, he was unafraid to make enemies both within his party and without — and above all, he never backed off of a sure-fail plan. Doing otherwise would mean compromising his principles. The late David Foster Wallace — in one of his few still-worthwhile essays — chalked up McCain’s tenacity in the face of loss to his imprisonment in Vietnam. “The fact is that John McCain is a genuine hero of the only kind Vietnam now has to offer, a hero not because of what he did but because of what he suffered – voluntarily, for a Code,” Wallace wrote. “This gives him the moral authority both to utter lines about causes beyond self-interest and to expect us, even in this age of Spin and lawyerly cunning, to believe he means them.” And like him or not, McCain always kept true to his code. He leaves a legacy of trenchant opposition to popularity — and that’s just the sort of loser I can respect. Nic Rowan is a senior studying history.


www.hillsdalecollegian.com

A4 August 29, 2018

Teenagers from St. Anthony’s Catholic Church painted a mural in the railroad underpass of West Bacon Street. This side features South Broad Street and the other side features Hillsdale College. Josephine von Dohlen | Collegian

New mural highlights city’s historic architecture By | Josephine von Dohlen City News Editor Several young adults, as part of St. Anthony’s Youth Group Mission Trip, dedicated a week of their summer to rid the community of a graffiti-ridden wall and replace it with something meaningful. A new mural in the underpass of the railroad tracks along West Bacon Street in Hillsdale outlines some of South Broad Street’s buildings, such as the historic St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Stock’s Mill, and local storefronts on one side, and many of the college’s well-recognized buildings on the other. Shannon Petersen ’22, one of the students who worked on the mural as part of the mission trip, said he was hoping to boost some pride in the community by painting

the mural. “For people coming into town, their drive into Hillsdale is going to be that much better,” he said. Petersen worked with Heather Tritchka, a parishioner at St. Anthony’s and the project coordinator for the mission trip, to design the cityscape, combining aspects of the city and structures at the college. Tritchka’s work helped the group get permission from the railroad company to paint the mural in the first place, a task she said she did not initially anticipate. “I heard from the principal at Hillsdale High School that the paperwork was very difficult,” Tritchka said. Working alongside Jake Hammel, Tritchka met with the Michigan Department of Transportation to discuss

adding a mural to the West Bacon Street underpass. After months of discussion and brainstorming on how to avoid nearly $6,500 of required insurance to conduct the project, Tritchka said she came up with the idea that the students working on the mural would be over 18 years of age, and that their feet would never leave the sidewalk. This allowed MDOT to remove the requirements and give Tritchka the go-ahead to begin. With several landmark buildings of the Hillsdale community in the background of the mural, the foreground has paintings of streetlights. The mission trip participants signed their names as the rays of light streaming from the streetlights. Because they used both primer and a paint with sealer, upkeep for the mural should

By | Josephine von Dohlen City News Editor Joseph W. Mauck Elementary School at 113 E. Fayette St. is just one of several vacant buildings in the City of Hillsdale that are being repurposed and filled. Hillsdale College bought Mauck Elementary School for $390,000 on June 1, and the college plans to begin using the building for various purposes while it discerns how to best use the space in the long term. “We are looking at what we can do that is cost effective in the short term to utilize the building until long-term renovations can be made that will address the entire building’s deficiencies,” said Rich Péwé, chief administrative officer at the college. Shawn Vondra, superintendent of Hillsdale Community Schools, said that everything regarding the sale went according to plan. The sale was discussed at meetings of the Hillsdale Community Schools’ Board of Education earlier this spring, and the board’s members voted unanimously to sell the vacant school to the college on March 19, as long as the

transaction was completed. Vondra said the building hadn’t been used since 2010. Mauck Elementary School was closed in 2010 after the close of the school year in efforts to save on costs because of declining enrollment, a previous Collegian article stated. If the college had not purchased the building, Vondra said, the district would have continued using the building for storage, but no other immediate plans were put in place. Now that the college owns the building, it will continue to investigate the building’s present condition and make a plan to determine how space can best be used by the college, including the short term and the long term, Péwé said. “The college definitely has staff space limitations right now and specifically in the area of outreach,” he said. Having full access and more time in the building does give the college a better idea of how the space might be able to be used, according to Péwé. He said the building has given the college several options, as it begins to consider moving into the space over time.

“It would be unlikely for just one department to occupy the whole building,” Péwé said. In the immediate time frame, sports teams will begin practicing in the former elementary school’s gym and the parking lot will be used for the college’s functions, as it has in the past. City Manager David Mackie said that from a city standpoint, he is excited to see Mauck Elementary being repurposed. With the elementary school’s proximity to the college, it seemed to be a great fit, he said. “We want to see buildings filled,” Mackie said. “The longer a building sits vacant, the more difficult and costly it becomes.” Several vacant buildings are being repurposed and filled throughout Hillsdale, Mackie said. Just recently, the city announced that two historic buildings in Hillsdale’s downtown area, the Dawn Theater and the Keefer House, were purchased by Hillsdale’s Tax Increment Finance Authority and C.L. Real Estate and will be turned into a hotel in 2020.

College completes purchase of Mauck Elementary

Mauck Elementary School at 113 E. Fayette Street was purchased by Hillsdale College this summer. Josephine von Dohlen | Collegian

be easy, Tritchka said. Painting the mural on West Bacon Street was just one part of the St. Anthony’s Youth Group Mission Trip. Dozens of children went out into the community and helped individuals in other ways, such as helping the elderly with their yard work, house-cleaning, or building a ramp for a woman outside her home. “This year I feel like we hit more aspects of outreach to the community,” Tritchka said. The mural, however, was one of the most visible projects for the community, she said. Teaching the kids about community service was a large component of the mission trip, which takes place every other year. “It’s about showing kids that you can serve the people down the street,” Emily Blat-

ter, a youth ministry volunteer at St. Anthony’s, said. “It’s opening their eyes to know where they’re needed in their communities.” Blatter said that she witnessed many of the teenagers being moved with how much of an impact they had doing something as simple as helping someone clear their yard. “The mission trip is kid-focused,” she said. “We’re educating the youth and helping them grow.” Petersen said one of his favorite parts of the mission trip wasn’t just helping the community, but developing his faith as well. “I liked being able to go to confession and Mass and just being able to participate in my faith with everybody,” he said. While much of the mission trip’s community work was done by the kids, several

adults in the community donated their time and resources to make sure each project was finished well. Tritchka said that she has heard many positive things from many in the community who have since seen the mural. “For the next year it would be great to hit all parts of community service, in the house, on the yard, and in the community,” Tritchka said. “There is something for absolutely everybody.” Because it was the oldest kids on the mission trip who worked on the mural, Petersen said he saw it as a gift that they got to give to the younger teenagers on the mission trip. “We got to give them something that they can have to remember the trip by, hopefully for a very long time,” he said.

Center for Family Health - Hillsdale on West Carleton Road will close Friday due to low numbers and Hillsdale Hospital will take over the building. Josephine von Dohlen | Collegian

Hillsdale’s Center for Family Health to close By | Josephine von Dohlen City News Editor With the Center for Family Health-Hillsdale on West Carleton Road closing on Friday, the building’s doors will shut, but not for long. Hillsdale Hospital plans to fill the building with specialty services in the near future. “It’s a beautiful building and it’s in a prime location for Hillsdale Hospital,” Jeremiah Hodshire, director of organizational development at Hillsdale Hospital, said. Due to low numbers, the Center for Family Health announced June 19 that the Hillsdale center would close Aug. 31. “We are saddened to close our health center in Hillsdale, and we reached the decision very reluctantly,” Molly Kaser, CEO of the Center for Family Health, said in a news statement. The Center for Family Health opened its Hillsdale location in 2015. The Jackson-based center is federally qualified and brings primary medical care and dental services in Jackson County as

well as medical care to Hillsdale County, according to the center’s website. The center paid fair-market value for the building, since Hillsdale Hospital owned the place and used it for primary care physicians prior to the center opening a location in Hillsdale. Terry Langston, director of communications and advocacy at the Center for Family Health, said that the Hillsdale center provided family medicine services. “They provided all services an individual would need to stay healthy,” he said. Hillsdale Hospital has organized a task force to determine what specialty services will set up office in the building and hopes to have a clearer plan within the next 30 days. Langston said that the center had to bring services to 950 people a year in order to remain open. “We need the number to be financially stable,” he said. A February report from the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, bureau of Community and Health Services had The

Center for Family Health Hillsdale listed as the only federally qualified Health Center provider in Hillsdale County. While Hillsdale’s location of Center for Family Health will close, their patients will not be left behind. Langston said that the center will provide a shuttle service from Hillsdale to the Jackson location for Hillsdale patients. “We will provide transportation at no cost,” Langston said. This will allow patients to continue to receive the level of care that they were previously receiving at the center. “We have seen an increase in Hillsdale primary care sites,” Kaser said. “This, coupled with our own low number of patients being seen at our Hillsdale site, are factors that have resulted in our decision to consolidate our health center sites to make the best use of our resources.” Seven centers within the Center for Family Health will remain open, providing care ranging from primary to dental to prenatal care.


Charger

August 29, 2018 A5

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LOOKING BACK ON HILLSDALE’S FIRST YEAR IN THE G-MAC By | Ryan Goff Assistant Sports Editor The 2017-2018 academic year was the first time in 42 years that Hillsdale College athletics competed in a conference other than the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). Last year marked the school’s switch to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC), an NCAA Division II conference founded in 2011. The Chargers enjoyed a largely successful year, compiling nine G-MAC championships and earning five NCAA Division II Tournament appearances. These successes earned Hillsdale the 2017-2018 G-MAC President’s Cup award, which recognizes the school with the best cumulative conference finish among all of its sports programs. The award was the first of any kind for Hillsdale College. The remarkable run of successes began with the volleyball season, as the team compiled a 28-4 record and went 15-2 in the conference en route to a G-MAC title. From there, the postseason ended in a G-MAC championship and NCAA tournament appearance. Volleyball head coach Chris Gravel saw the championship team as hard-fighting and special, but expects to go further this season. “This will not be an easy task,” Gravel said of the current season’s ambitions. “Our team will need to stay focused and work very hard in games and in practices.” Inside the Roche Sports Complex, the men’s (2110) and women’s (19-11) basketball teams each had winning seasons. The men were G-MAC tournament runner-ups and qualified for the NCAA tournament. The women took down the G-MAC’s top three teams on their way to the conference championship, earning an

HILLSDALE IN THE G-MAC: 2017-2018 YEAR IN REVIEW

9 G-MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS 5 COACHES OF THE YEAR 5 FRESHMEN OF THE YEAR 3 PLAYERS OF THE YEAR automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. On the tennis courts, both the men’s and women’s teams had successful years. After a 14-6 season, the men’s team won the G-MAC Championship over Walsh University, 5-1. “We knew that we would probably have to beat a solid Walsh team three times in order to win the conference and we were able to do that, which wasn’t an easy accomplishment,” men’s tennis head coach Keith Turner said. The upcoming season looks promising for the Chargers, as Dugan Delp `18 was the only senior to graduate and the rest of the team is back for another year. That includes No. 1 singles and last year’s

G-MAC Player of the Year, junior Milan Mirkovich, along with the No. 1 doubles team of junior Charlie Adams and senior Justin Hyman. On the women’s side, the Chargers had a dominant regular season, going undefeated in conference play and beating Walsh in the G-MAC Championship 5-1 for the program’s second conference championship. Last year’s team had no seniors and will be back at full strength this year, eyeing another tournament title. Head coach Nikki Walbright was impressed with the ladies’ transition into the new conference that competes in the spring. “Not only were they able to maintain an NCAA regional ranking all spring, they

Volleyball

Chargers split seasonopening tournament By | Regan Meyer Web Content Editor

Results

thursday, aug.

23

Concordia, St. Paul 3

To be the best, you have Hillsdale 1 to play the best. It’s a lesson friday, aug. 24 the Hillsdale volleyball team Clarion 1 learned this past weekend at Hillsdale 3 the Ferris State University saturday, aug. 25 Invitational in Big Rapids, Winona St. 0 Michigan. Hillsdale 3 The Chargers kicked off saturday, aug. 25 their season with matches against some of the best teams Hillsdale 1 Ferris St. 3 in the country, including Concordia University, St. Paul, but few have had the blessing the defending NCAA Division to have such a strong team II National Champions. to play with for four years “Three out of the four opstraight,” Vyletel said. “Withponents that we played were out the help from middle and nationally ranked teams and right side hitters acting as the team that wasn’t nationally threats and pulling the block, ranked is a regional powI would not have been as sucerhouse,” head coach Chris cessful. I’ve also been blessed Gravel said. with extremely talented setters The Chargers went 2-2 in that were able to put the ball the tournament, beating Clar- in the perfect spot for me.” ion University in four games Moving forward, the and No. 17 Winona State Uni- Chargers don’t plan on being versity in three. They couldn’t content with simply putting quite hold off No. 21 Ferris up a fight against Ferris State State University or No. 1 Con- and Concordia, St. Paul. cordia, St. Paul, dropping both “We’re not going to just say matches in four games. the No. 1 team in the nation “The two we lost, we were beat us,” freshman Margaret in position where we could’ve Deporre said. “We’re going won,” Gravel said. “It was a to practice even harder so we crazy weekend and there were can beat them the next time a lot of good things that came we see them.” out of it. But, anytime we lose, Intensity and readiness is it doesn’t matter who we’re the name of the game for this against. I’m not going to be year’s Chargers, who began happy.” training for the season in early One positive from the August. weekend was a personal “Everybody on this team achievement by senior outside is bought in,” Deporre said. hitter Kara Vyletel. Vyletel “You can see it in every rep, notched her 1,000th career kill every practice, every workout. in the Chargers’ match against Everybody wants to get better Clarion. Vyletel is now one and everybody understands of nine Chargers who have that if one person isn’t 100 recorded at least 1,000 kills in percent bought in, then the their time at Hillsdale. whole program is going to “Few have been able to suffer.” get 1,000 kills in their career, A preseason coaches poll

Upcoming

thursday, aug. 30 vs. Ohio Valley

7 P.M.

friday, aug. 31 vs. Ashland (at Findlay, Ohio)

4:30 P.M.

saturday, sept. 1 vs. Mo-St. Louis (at Findlay, Ohio)

12 P.M.

predicts the Chargers to successfully defend last season’s G-MAC Championship. “We’re hoping to improve from last year. Last year we had to fight from behind all year,” Gravel said. “It’s going to be tough—just the development of our current and new players, and hopefully we stay relatively injury free.” Gravel plans to keep his team focused, taking the season point by point. “A real big focus is staying in the present,” Gravel said. “Right now, we’re all focused on our home opener. We’re going to live in the matches this year. We have a lot of things we need developed by the end of the season, and with a large talented team, sometimes it takes a little time.” The Chargers open their conference schedule at home on Thursday against Ohio Valley University at 7 p.m. Gravel encouraged students to come out and support the team. “We work hard and try to put on a good show,” Gravel said. “We know that winning definitely helps. That’s going to be a byproduct of the effort that we’re going to put forth and our energy on and off the floor.”

balanced their classes and we ended up with seven girls on Dean’s List and a record high team GPA,” Walbright said. Senior Corinne Prost, No. 1 doubles and No. 4 singles starter, enjoyed the later start as well. “The move from a fall to a spring season also helped give us more time to bond, which helped our doubles teams, and play practice matches for an entire semester before competing,” Prost said. For the upcoming season, she is excited for the addition of two new teammates, freshmen Sarah Hackman and Sophia Spinazze. “I’m looking forward to training with the two new faces on our team— it’s always fun to have new teammates,

because each brings their own playing style and personality,” Prost said. Women’s track and field earned the G-MAC triple crown, winning cross country, indoor and outdoor G-MAC championships. Cross country earned three first-team all-conference honors, and indoor and outdoor track combined for 12 individual conference championships. As students were heading home after the spring semester earlier this year, the baseball team made headlines at the G-MAC Championship, outlasting the field in the double elimination tournament and eventually beating Kentucky Wesleyan University in the championship game, earning its first conference

tournament title in program history. Infielder Colin Hites `18 attributes the team’s successes to preparation for the season and trust in his teammates. “What made us find success as a team—and what I believe is changing this program entirely—is trusting that every guy around you is working as hard as they possibly can as well,” Hites said. As for the upcoming year, Hites looks forward to seeing his old team beat the records he helped set last season. He also has some sure bets on a few of his teammates’ stat lines. “It’s cool to see this ship just continue to trend upward, and become a real, legitimate regional power,” Hites said. “[Senior] Steven Ring is going to hit 20 dingers, [Senior] Kevin Monson is going to set the single season walk record, and [Senior] Colin Boerst will win the first-ever G-MAC most beautiful player award.” The softball team’s story followed a similar script. After a dominant regular season (25-16), the team won the G-MAC tournament against Kentucky Wesleyan University to earn a place in the NCAA Midwest Regional Tournament for the first time in program history. The Chargers defeated No. 1 seed Grand Valley State University in their first game before losing to Southern Indiana University and GVSU in the double elimination tournament. In addition to the team successes last year, four different head coaches were awarded five total G-MAC Coach of the Year titles. Three Hillsdale athletes took home G-MAC Player of the Year honors. Five freshmen were named the G-MAC Freshman of the Year in their respective sports. Coming off of numerous program-highs, Hillsdale athletics figure to compete at a championship-caliber level again this academic year.

Softball

Head coach Abraham takes new job at Findlay By | Julia Mullins Collegian Reporter After seven seasons as the head coach for the Hillsdale softball team, Joe Abraham will be leaving the Chargers. He accepted the head coaching position at the University of Toledo, a NCAA Division I program, announced on July 25. The Hillsdale Athletic Department announced late Monday that Abraham’s replacement will be Kyle Gross, who recently coached at NCAA Division I schools Kent State University and Presbyterian College in 20162017 and 2017-2018, respectively. Coincidentally, Gross also coached at Toledo earlier in his career. During his tenure with Hillsdale, Abraham led the Chargers to six 20-win seasons, earning a record of 158-136, making him the second-winningest coach in program history. Abraham earned the GLIAC Coach of the Year award in 2016 after leading the team to a 26-12 record, his best single-season mark at Hillsdale. In 2018, the team’s first year in the G-MAC, he helped the program win its first-ever conference tournament. The 2018 Chargers went on to qualify for the NCAA Division II Regional Tournament, beating Grand Valley State University in their first game before losing their next two. During his time as head coach, seven players earned first-team all-conference honors, and 11 players earned second-team all-conference honors. Senior outfielder Katie

Kish, recipient of first-team all-conference honors, was taken aback when she found out Abraham was leaving. “I did not expect it at all,” Kish said. “I was hoping it was just a bad joke someone was playing on me.” Most players were shocked by Abraham’s departure, but it gives him the chance to explore new opportunities as a head coach. After a successful career at Hillsdale, Abraham explained that becoming the head coach at Toledo gives him the opportunity to accomplish some of his long-term goals. For example, he is now able to move closer to his family in Columbus, Ohio. Moving from a Division II program to a Division I program also offers its own benefits. “It’s a move up, it’s more money, it’s more budget, it’s more everything, and then that’s hard to turn down,” Abraham said. “The only way I would have left Hillsdale, more than likely, would have been for a Division I [school] in Ohio.” While current players were surprised by his decision to leave, most agreed that Abraham is well-deserving of this new opportunity. Senior infielder Amanda Marra summed it up in seven words: “No one deserves it more than him.” The Chargers will use this fall season to overcome the great challenge of the unknown as they prepare for another strong spring season. Kish offered an optimistic take on the situation, looking forward to the new squad. “Our fall season will consist of a lot of transitioning to

a new coach, new freshmen, and new senior leadership, but by spring I anticipate us all being on the same page ready to start where we left off last year with a conference championship,” she said. Each player will miss something different about Abraham’s coaching style, but perhaps what will be missed most of all is his dedication to helping them succeed in the classroom. “He put a lot of trust in his players and gave us the tools we needed to think and play the game for ourselves,” Marra said. “He also took interest in us as people and students and made sure we always had what we needed to succeed.” Senior infielder Jessica Taylor will miss her time with Abraham off the field as much as she will on the field. “My favorite memory about Joe is just sitting in the office and talking with him about non-softball things,” Taylor said. “He was basically our team’s life coach off the field.” Abraham will also miss coaching the Chargers, citing the quality of the players he coached. “The one thing I already miss, and am gonna greatly miss, are the players on the Hillsdale team,” Abraham said. “It’s impossible to duplicate that.” Gross has little time between his hiring and the first time he will lead the Chargers from the dugout. Hillsdale has three games scheduled during the fall before its conference season begins in the spring.


Sports

A6 August 29, 2018

Football

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CHARGERS ARE DARK HORSES TO WIN G-MAC By | S. Nathaniel Grime Sports Editor After compiling its best regular season record in five years, the Hillsdale football team has its sights set even higher in 2018. Hillsdale finished 7-4 and in third place in the G-MAC in 2017. According to a preseason coaches poll, the Chargers are expected to again finish third in the nine-team conference, but by a closer margin. Hillsdale even received one first-place vote. The two teams that finished ahead of Hillsdale last season, Ohio Dominican University and the University of Findlay, are favored to lead the G-MAC again this year. The Chargers begin their season at home on Saturday at 7 p.m. against Mercyhurst University. Hillsdale defeated the Lakers in week one last year, 19-11. The beginning of the regular season marks the end of a three-week summer training camp. Head coach Keith Otterbein was pleased with his team’s effort and attention to detail throughout camp. “Kids showed up locked in. They’re really focused, really geared into what we’re trying to do,” Otterbein said. “We put a lot of information at them, and they were for the most part doing a pretty good job of assignment football and playing hard. There was a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of excitement throughout the whole camp.” If the Chargers are able to surpass ODU and Findlay and win a conference championship in 2018, it will likely be because of their offensive firepower. Senior quarterback Chance Stewart returns for his fourth and final season. In 2017, Stewart threw for a career-high 2,695 yards and tossed 16 touchdowns. He also was valuable when using his legs, adding six more

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touchdowns on the ground, most of which came at the goal line. Stewart will work with an experienced receiving corps led by senior wide receiver Trey Brock. Brock paced the team in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns in 2017, despite a slight regression in his productivity from 2016, when he was an honorable mention All-American. Brock enters the season just 113 receiving yards shy of the school record held by Buffalo Bills wide receiver Andre Holmes `11. In addition to Brock, senior wide receiver Austin Sandusky provides experience and explosiveness at the slot position. After the two senior leaders, the receiving unit is deep, young, and loaded with potential. The group figures to benefit from the veteran leadership of Stewart, Brock, Sandusky, and senior tight end John Brennan. “When you have Trey and when you have Austin Sandusky and when you have John Brennan, those are three older guys that know what to expect,” Stewart said. “So it’s really easy for the younger guys to kind of fall in and understand how things who work for us.” Sophomore wide receivers Konnor Maloney and Alexander Giampietro are just two wideouts Stewart will have among an array of potential targets. “It’s every quarterback’s dream to have multiple weapons like that so it’ll be really exciting,” Stewart said. Balancing the aerial attack will be a solid running game, featuring junior running back David Graham. Graham

came into his own last season, rushing for 1,050 yards and 18 touchdowns. Graham likes the direction the offense seems to be heading with the year about to begin. “We’re solid in all phases of the game. We’re deep at wide receiver, we’re deep at running back, and we’re deep at quarterback,” Graham said. “I’d expect to see some big plays this year and a steady offense once we get it developed.” Both Graham and Stewart will rely on a relatively untested offensive line that returns just two starters. Otterbein said the competition for the remaining three positions will continue into the beginning of the season.

said. “But I got in the race and hung with the pack. I felt really good the last half mile so I wanted to see what I could do and went for it.” Hillsdale track and field head coach Andrew Towne said he is proud of how Oren has developed and how she continues to improve her standings in the steeplechase. Oren was a three-time All-American in the steeplechase at Hillsdale, with national championships in 2015 and 2016. She also holds the GLIAC and the Hillsdale record with a time of 9:50.54 in the event. Her collegiate success earned her many honors in 2015 and 2016: the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division II track Athlete of the Year, the Midwest Region track Athlete of the Year, the GLIAC track Athlete of the Meet, and the GLIAC Commissioner’s Award. Her placement at the U.S. Track and Field Champion-

Emily Oren celebrates at the NACAC games earlier this month. Molly Oren | Courtesy

“Our secondary and linebackers are very skilled. The line has some very good players but they’re also very young,” Batdorff said. “All around, I don’t see any weak spots. I’m looking forward to our defense—I think we might even be better than last year.” The Chargers haven’t won a conference championship since 2011, when they won the regular season GLIAC championship. Their potential suggests they could compete for a G-MAC title in 2018, but Otterbein and his players agree that it all starts with week one against Mercyhurst. “We’re trying to just take it one game at a time. We want

to try and get better at little things every day and always work hard—never take plays off,” Graham said. “We’ve got high hopes for this year, but we can’t get too ahead of ourselves. We’ve got to take care of each game.” As for what to expect on Saturday, Stewart offered a preview. “We’re going to score a lot of points. Football is fun when people are getting into the end zone,” Stewart said. “Come on out and watch some great football because it’s not every year we have a Trey Brock running around or a David Graham in the backfield. It’ll be fun.”

Senior quarterback Chance Stewart threw for a career-high 2,695 yards last season. Todd Lancaster | Courtesy

Hillsdale grad Oren wins silver for Team USA By | Calli Townsend Assistant Sports Editor In the 2016 United States Olympic Trials, Emily Oren `16 placed 30th out of 35 women in the preliminary round of the 3000 meter steeplechase. At the 2017 United States Track and Field Championships, she qualified for finals, placing 12th. This June, Oren really made her mark. The Hillsdale track and field alumna is training and competing professionally for Oiselle, a women’s athletic clothing company. She competed in the 2018 United States Track and Field Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Not only did she qualify for the final heat of the 3000 meter steeplechase, but she placed fifth out of 23 women with a time of 9 minutes and 44.75 seconds. “Before the race, I was thinking seventh would be great and that would be a really good day for me,” Oren

“We’ve had some guys battling it out pretty good,” Otterbein said. “The young guys have done a good job of stepping up and plugging in. We’re going to rotate some guys in and see how they do in the heat of the battle to determine who, in the long run, is going to win those jobs.” The Chargers return a defense that remains mostly intact from last season. Hillsdale shut out its opponent three separate times in 2017. Senior defensive back Wyatt Batdorff, the G-MAC’s leading tackler a year ago, leads the secondary as a team captain this season. He sees potential at every position for the Chargers on defense.

ships earned her a spot to compete for Team USA at the North American Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association Championships in Toronto, Ontario on August 10. She placed second overall in the steeplechase, earning a silver medal with a time of 9:56.66. Despite the time not being a personal best, Oren said it was a great experience, as she placed one spot higher than her seeding. “I got to see what went along with being on a U.S. national team and I got to meet a lot of very talented athletes,” Oren said. “It was good to see how those meets are run internationally by the [International Association for Athletics Federations] as I have not had that experience before, so hopefully down the road I will be prepared for even bigger meets at that stage. It was my first time competing internationally which was very cool but with it being Canada it didn’t feel a ton different other than the fact that other countries were there. When you are racing at meets across the United States you are always racing new people so it just felt like a pretty normal thing.” Oren will continue her training, focusing on events such as the 1500 meter and the 5k. Joe Lynn, who was Oren’s coach during her tenure at Hillsdale, continues to be her coach during her professional career. She said she hopes running fast in those events will increase her speed, strength and confidence. “I was pretty pleased with my season overall,” Oren said. “I felt like the season was a step forward in the sense that I got some good experience, which allows me to have more confidence going into this upcoming season.”

Cross Country

women are defending g-mac champs By | Calli Townsend Assistant Sports Editor This fall, the Hillsdale women’s cross country team will be kicking off its season earlier than ever. The team will be racing at the Jeff Drenth Memorial in Mount Pleasant, Michigan on Friday. The race will be a 5k for the women against several Division I schools. “It will be cool that we can get the jitters and rust busted earlier than ever,” senior Allysen Eads said. An earlier start to the season is not the only change these Chargers will experience. This season brings a few coaching changes in both the cross country and track programs. Women’s assistant coach Samantha Kearney will be replaced by assistant coach R.P. White, who will continue to coach the men’s cross country team as well. “I’m sad to see coach Sam go, obviously, but I’m really excited for the season,” Eads said. “I’m excited that the guys and girls are mixed again with

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10 A.M. the same coach because the mix creates a cool and more chill dynamic which is great.” As the defending conference champions, Hillsdale has a strong chance to repeat its victory, as a recent coaches poll indicates. They received 13 of 14 votes to win the G-MAC title for the second consecutive year. Head coach Andrew Towne said that Eads, along with sophomores Maryssa Depies and Christina Sawyer, will be a few of the team’s key returners. “I think we have a great group of girls. They’ve had really good summer training sessions. I’m excited to get started with our season,” Towne said. “I’m excited to see how Eads does in her final campaign. She’s been to the NCAA national championships for us every year, both in

cross country and in outdoor track. I think her best year is yet in front of her.” Depies, who had a foot injury during the 2018 outdoor track season, is looking forward to competing again. “I’m feeling really excited to race again, it’s been a while since I’ve done that,” Depies said. “I think we have a pretty strong team this year, so I’m hoping we will be able to compete well at the national level.” Despite losing top runners such as Hannah McIntyre, Amanda Reagle, and Kyleigh Edwards, the team is confident in its potential to succeed this season. Much of the team’s strength comes from its seasoned upperclassmen, who are looking forward to helping the three incoming freshmen. “We have a really strong group of upperclassmen which will be helpful in getting our awesome freshmen integrated quickly,” Eads said. “As always, I’m looking forward to the team being very close and I think this will be a special year.”

men follow camp with early start

By | Sutton Dunwoodie Collegian Reporter The Hillsdale men’s cross country team has returned from its preseason running camp and will begin its season Friday at the Jeff Drenth Memorial in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Cross country camp lasted four days and took place at the G. H. Gordon Biological Station in Luther, Michigan. For junior Joseph Humes, preseason camp was a chance to relax and focus on running before the season starts. “At camp, all you have to do is run. You don’t have to worry about work or school or family,” Humes said. “You get to hang out with the team too, which is pretty cool.” Assistant coach R.P. White said camp is the first chance to evaluate the progress the runners have made over the summer. During summer vacation, team members follow individualized training regimens and post their progress online. Humes said summer training is harder because it’s

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10 A.M. done without the comfort of having teammates close for support. “You don’t have people around in the summer, so when you don’t want to run, the voices in your head get really loud,” Humes said. “It definitely becomes more of a mental game than a physical one, but you gotta keep the endgame in mind. If you want to be good, you have to get out and run.” Camp is also the time when the team traditionally picks goals for the season, sophomore Mark Miller said. This year, the team chose not to make any definite goals before the start of the season. “This year we switched it up and just talked about stuff we can improve on, like communication and being up front with each other,” Miller said. “As far as running goes,

we just want to stay healthy and train.” White said the team would make concrete goals later in the season, which will include improving last season’s fourth place finish in the G-MAC Championships. A preseason poll of conference coaches predicts the Chargers will finish third this season. The team usually begins the season later in the semester at the Spartan Invitational on Sept. 14. White said the Jeff Drenth Memorial was added this year as a way to ease the team into the season before the hectic Spartan Invitational. “We usually start off the season at the Michigan State meet. It is a humongous meet, and there are a lot of different colleges from NAIA schools to Division I schools,” White said. “I thought this would be good for the freshmen and for the guys that haven’t raced in a long time because of injuries to just get something under our belt that is not too intimidating, break the rust off and get back in race shape.”


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Salt and Straw Ice Cream perfects crowd management By |Molly Kate Andrews Collegian Freelancer Going out for ice cream is not always a joy. For most people older than 16, and especially for parents, the combination of lines, crowds, and small children with sugar highs transforms a fun Saturday activity into an anxious game of “Don’t-yell-at-someone-else’s-shrieking-child!” When my mom and I arrived at Salt and Straw in the Portland Pearl District to find a line stretching out the door and around the corner, we each took a deep breath and prepared ourselves to endure at least a half hour of shoving, sweating, and whining. We expected mayhem and misery. We were in the vacation spirit, though, and unlikely to deny ourselves anything, especially sweet and quiescently frozen. So we parked ourselves around the corner at the back of the line, little expecting we were about to share the greatest ice cream experience of our lives.

If you ever get the chance, visit the Salt and Straw. Don’t go just because of the quirky atmosphere and wacky flavors like Olive Oil and Lavender. Don’t even go because they let you taste literally every flavor they have before you order. Go and observe the management. First launched as a food cart in 2011 by cousins Kim and Tyler Malek, the local ice cream shop sensationalized the business and has since opened brick-and-mortar locations in Portland, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. The company owner Kim shares their mission on their website: “to create the kind of company that’s fun to support, work for, and partner with.” Their desire to build community shines even in the way their employees run the register. To watch the way those students and teenagers run the operation, managing to make waiting in line an activity and the whole decision-making process a part

of the fun, revolutionizes the idea of food service. This place is foodie-magic. The line moved more quickly than we expected, but we had time to take in our surroundings. Portland during the first weekend in August meant that the maple trees which line the streets created whispering canopies over our heads, and the golden lights from shop windows illuminated the shady sidewalks with a carnival glow. Teenage couples on dates and grandparents with kids to spoil milled around the corners, stopping to listen to a street performer playing “Brown Eyed Girl.” Here was THE hot-summer-hangout-location for Portlandians. The sugary smell of homemade waffle cones spilled out the entrance, anointing us as we crossed the threshold. We picked up menus and perused their extensive list of flavors: Freckled Chocolate Zucchini Bread, Pear and Blue Cheese, Honey Lavender, Arbequina Olive Oil, Strawberry Honey

with Balsamic. When I realized the extent of the decisions I had before me, I silently thanked God for the time in line to weigh the pros and cons. My poor little brain already has trouble making decisions. That’s when a teenager wearing a red head-scarf and a black apron interrupted my thinking to ask, “Can I bring you a sample? I’ll bring them out to you and then you can just order at the counter. Try as many as you like.” Unwilling to waste a good sample on something I wouldn’t like, I ordered something fruity. Once she had both mine and my mom’s sample orders, she zipped away and returned, spoons in hand. She then waited while we tasted, asked us what we thought, and suggested a few more options for us to try. Encouraged by her enthusiasm, we put in a few more orders: Cinnamon Carrot Cake, and Pear and Blue Cheese. Each new flavor surprised and delighted us, and I could see

our waitress-friend sharing in our pleasure as she brought spoon after spoon. This process of tasting and discussing went on until we found ourselves nearing the front of the line. We looked around us, and everyone in the place was smiling and laughing and talking about the various flavors. The employees whisked around, ferrying sugar-laden spoons. Despite the challenge of remembering their patrons’ various orders, they gladly encouraged guests to be brave and try the Olive Oil, promising to bring something tamer as a chaser if they hated it. Now that vacation is over and I’m back at school, I hope the memory of that experience will fortify me against the frustration of meal halls, the coffee bars, and the harrowing lines in the lunchroom. The employees at Salt and Straw made the universality of ice-cream-love a point of connection for people. Deciding on a flavor and waiting in line,

usually a contest of who can get through line the fastest, became a communal activity. Food is a universal necessity, and most often this means we get in one another’s way to get what we need. Meals become a hassle, a burden, an inconvenience interrupting our already busy lives, but this campus and the tables we crowd around in the cafeteria present an opportunity for connection. The shuffling of the omelette line, the crush of too many bodies in a booth, the awkward dance we dance when we collide in the cafeteria, these moments sprinkle the humor of humanity into the basic activities of our lives. These are experiences that we all share that build community. I want to slow down enough to appreciate the time spent from the back of the line to the counter and the people around me, sharing the journey.

Hillsdale students dress for success By | Isabella Redjai Assistant Editor

I was a freshman writing my first article assignment for The Collegian, gathering wisdom from those who had come before.When asking then-senior Jackson Bargenquast ’18 what he wished he knew as a freshman, a part of his answer surprised me: “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” Cliché, perhaps, but it is not uncommon to see students roaming campus in a tweed blazer, pencil skirt, or penny loafers. But then, it hit me. It was my first finals week of freshman year. I threw on the iconic navy-blue Hillsdale crewneck and some slip-on checkered Vans reminiscent of the early 2000s, “No Doubt”, skate culture customary to my West Coast home. Exhausted, I was running on caffeine and an average of 6.23 hours of sleep. I thought I would see the student population sporting similar apparel, so I was surprised to find most individuals more put together than usual. I thought: “How did they have time for that this morning? I expected to see everyone dressed in the bare minimum, in order to cram in some valuable study time.” Then, I was overcome with responses that echoed another sartorial cliché: “Dress to test, they always say!” Maybe there’s something there. After an experiment where individuals were asked to dress in formal or casual attire, Matthew Hutson, reporter for the “Scientific American Mind” online periodical, in his article “Dress for Success: How Clothes Influence Our Performance” writes, “Wearing formal business attire increased abstract thinking—an important aspect of creativity and long-term strategizing. The experiments suggest the effect is related to feelings of power.” Perhaps it is true. Does

dressing well and putting oneself in a posture of success, in spite of the internal reality of fears and feelings, actually push individuals to be outwardly ambitious and thus successful? Students appear to think so. “I remember at least one day last year, when I rolled out of bed on Monday and wanted nothing more than to be able to crawl back under the covers. Instead of just throwing on some sweats and wandering out the door, I showered and put on a suit,” sophomore Colm Maines said. “The whole tenor of the day changed. Suddenly, I felt ready to go. I took my classes seriously, and even studied harder on my homework. I still can’t explain it outside of words like ‘it felt better,’ but I believe it works.” Studies have shown we become who we think and say we are. If we dress as who we want to be, it so happens that we take on the role and move throughout our daily tasks as this character. Karen Pine, author of “Mind What You Wear” and professor at University of Herfordshire, told MailOnline in 2014, “We know our clothes affect other people’s impressions of us.” Later, Pine said, “Now research shows what we wear affects us too. Putting on different clothes creates different thoughts and mental processes.” Ultimately, our clothing choices affect our attitudes toward success as well as our reputations. “I’ve also found that, no matter how crazy life is, putting a little effort into my appearance changes my mindset and makes me feel much more confident and organized than when I throw on a sweatshirt and leggings,” sophomore Madeline Peltzer said. “I’m more alert in class, study harder, and test better when I feel put together.” Affecting both others’ and individuals’ own impressions

of their potential for success, it seems dressing better not only results in positive physical outcomes, but also can result in an appearance of respect between individuals and the matters at hand. “Dressing to test, because it provides you a perfect way of practicing decorum, gives you confidence that you belong in that classroom, makes the professor feel less self-conscious about his own paisley bow-tie, and shows respect to the serious work which you’re setting out to do – that is, killing an exam,” junior Isaac Johnson said. The symbolic interactionism theoretical perspective from sociologist George H. Mead says that individuals choose what particular symbols represent within society, and we interact on the basis of the exchange of the meanings of these symbols. For instance, the symbol of a nice skirt and heels, or a blazer and penny loafers represents to many the idea of intellect, professionalism, and orderliness. Relatedly, students find that dressing well prepares them not only for present tasks but for the real-world careers and futures they wish to pursue post-graduation. Peltzer said, “I know that in the career I hope to pursue after college, professional dress will be the norm, and I think of Hillsdale as the training ground for the next step.” Using these symbols and associating them with ourselves does not just produce different reactions in social settings with others. When an individual has these symbols, they take on the role and stature proper for these symbols, feeling obliged to do them justice. “Professors won’t trust you handling the most valuable, and most dangerous, ideas in the world if you roll out of bed every morning in cargo shorts or sweatpants,” Johnson said.

Assistant Professor of Art Julio Suarez will feature his work at Hillsdale. Courtesy | Julio Suarez

Professional Artist Series kicks off with ‘The Shape of Color’ By | Anna Timmis Culture Editor Julio Suarez, assistant professor of art, sees the world in a series of abstract shapes and colors interacting with each other. “I’m very interested in color, in mixing,” Suarez said. “Everything is made up of color, a mosaic that makes up our visual field.” In his upcoming art show, titled “The Shape of Color,” Suarez will display multiple works from about the last four years that reflect his artistic vision. “His title, ‘The Shape of Color,’ is very telling in regards to his artistic approach,” Professor of Graphic Design Bryan Springer said. “The way

he designs his compositions with light and shadow, and of course, color. He’s been introducing a lot of the same approaches to his teaching and students and we see more of that approach evident in his student work.” Springer said that Suarez believes in a traditional approach to art, and the work his students produces is strong. At the show, which will be located in Daughtrey Gallery in Hillsdale’s Sage Center for the Arts, viewers may see the tactile quality of Suarez’s work, as Springer describes it. “He has a very fresh brush stroke,” Springer said. “The structure of the paint on the canvas also plays a part in his

work.” Held from Sept. 7 to Oct. 15, “The Shape of Color” is the first of the Hillsdale College Art Department’s Professional Artist Series, free annual exhibits open to the public, according to a flyer. An artist’s reception will be Sunday, Sept. 16, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Suarez encourages people to come and see the art for themselves, saying, “It’s important to talk about it, but in the end it’s about looking. I don’t want to say too much. I want the people who look at the show to have their own experience. I would love to have as many people as possible come look at the work and let me know what they think.”


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Science & Tech

Hayden Park becomes site of national radio astronomy project By | Crystal Schupbach SCIENCE & TECH EDITOR Five Hillsdale College students spent five weeks at the end of their summer digging trenches in Hayden Park, soldering cables, programming software, and analyzing data for a special radio astronomy project. Under the supervision of Assistant Professor of Physics Timothy Dolch, the group constructed a radio telescope antenna array, called the Low-Frequency All-Sky Monitor, that will be used by the physics department as a lab. The new station joins four others across the country that communicate with each other, forming a collaborative telescope that detects and reads natural radio emissions coming from the sky. These signals show sudden, short astrophysical changes such as pulses from neutron stars in our own galaxy and possibly others. “When you look at the sky in radio waves, it’s an invisible universe,” Dolch said. “There

is a lot with radio waves that you can not see with your unaided eye … With the right telescope, the night sky would look like a field of fireflies.” The benefit of a system such as this is the ability to observe the sky through radio waves at any time of the day or in any weather condition. Celestial bodies, such as the sun and Jupiter, appear very bright to the monitor due to the radio waves they emit through solar bursts and radio storms, Dolch explained. While the causes of some radio flashes are known, that is not always the case. “People can’t immediately explain the mechanisms which cause all of these explosions...there’s a lot of contending theories,” Dolch said. “This is a real gold mine for theoretical physicists to explain, and maybe even discover, new physics in the process.” Senior Jay Rose is one of the five students working at

the site. He has been using programming and electrical engineering skills at the site by working with the programming language Simulink, a MATLAB software, as well as the telescope’s Field-Programmable Gate Array, which processes incoming signals. Earlier in the summer, Rose spent eight weeks in China working with the National Astronomical Observatory of China (NAOC), where he had an internship at the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in Pingtang, China, the largest radio telescope in the world. The other students include sophomores Philip Andrews, Nathaniel Birzer, Sashabaw Niedbalski, and Caleb Ramette, who worked on construction and technical duties. Ramette explained that the group used a spectrum analyzer to identify radio interference, determining the

quality of the data. “The radio frequency interference (RFI) could be thought of as analogous to light pollution for a telescope that operates in the visible spectrum,” Ramette said. “More RFI presence means that the data collected with the telescope will be limited.” Dolch said that the array often picks up CB radio, FM stations, and activity at nearby houses. If a potential astrophysical signal is detected, the telescope’s computers will then send out alerts to the collaborating stations in West Virginia, Texas, New Mexico, and California. If the other stations notice the same activity, chances are the signals actually indicate some legitimate astrophysical change instead of RFI. The site allows students to explore the increased interest in computer science and engineering at Hillsdale. During the construction of the site, students essentially

practiced electrical engineering techniques. “Now that we have the permanent site in place, it opens so many doors for ourselves and future students to use the instrument to study cutting edge physics like Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), and I think that is pretty attractive to students interested in physics who are considering attending the college,” Andrews said. Dolch said that while this type of station has never been located in a climate as cold as Hillsdale, the construction of the array allows it to work in all seasons, given proper maintenance. “There were more than a few roadblocks along the way, and they were certainly frustrating to come up with and enact solutions for, but my fellow researchers and I, with Dr. Dolch’s guidance, were always able to work together as a team, which was the best part of the research,”

Birzer said. Andrews said he particularly enjoyed when the team rented a Ditch Witch machine, which allowed them to avoid manually digging more than 700 feet of trench to bury the array’s cables, allowing them to efficiently hide the wiring from animals that might otherwise chew them. Dolch said that the station will not only be an educational resource for students in the physics department and his colleagues, but that other students also will have the opportunity to learn from the display. “This is a chance for a small department from a school most people don’t think of as having as strong of sciences as it does to put its name in with research universities many times Hillsdale’s size, in a fast expanding area in physics,” Andrews said.

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Student researchers work on the construction of the Low-Frequency All-Sky Monitor in Hayden Park. Courtesy | Timothy Dolch

Furniture! Couches, desks, loft beds, office chairs, tables and more! Bite-Size Gear! Phone and Pet Widgets! Swords and Knives! visit us at 63 N. Howell Street or call (517) 610-0890 For five weeks, Hillsdale students have worked on the construction and computer programming of a radio astronomy project. Courtesy | Timothy Dolch

The Download ... Science in the News -Compiled by Crystal Schupbach

Team discovers ice on moon’s Researchers confirm decline of surface pollutants in Arctic Circle After 152 countries signed a UnitFindings published in Proceeded Nations treaty at the Stockholm ings of the National Academy of Convention in 2001, many manufacSciences on Aug. 20 explain that a turers banned the use of persistent team of scientists used NASA’s Moon organic pollutants (POPs), harmful Minerology Mapping instrument to chemicals which can cause distress to detect water ice on both the moon’s human and wildlife health. According northern and southern poles. Acto Eureka Alert, a team of internacording to ScienceDaily, the deposits tional researchers published a paper of ice could possibly be ancient. These in Science of the Total Environment dicsoveries mark the first time that confirming that the ban has effecscientists have had evidence of ice on tively lessened pollution in the Arctic the surface of the moon. ecosystem. The agreement now bans the use of more than 33 POPs and is implemented by 182 countries.

New study accurately predicts outbreaks of hand, mouth, and foot disease ScienceNews reports two researchers from the Imperial College in London used 17 years of data from Japan to predict outbreaks of enteroviruses, viruses which can cause symptoms like rashes and blisters. Before this study, it was thought that patterns like this could not be predicted. One of these 18 predictable viruses can cause hand, foot, and mouth disease. China reported three deaths from 34,800 casesof the disease in the month of January alone, as reported by the World Health Organization.

Japanese scientists announce spacecraft landing site on asteroid Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency recently gave news of the chosen landing sites where the spacecraft Hayabusa2 will land on the asteroid Ryugu, according to ScienceNews. The decision, which took place on Aug. 17, required more than 100 team members. The spacecraft body is estimated to land at the end of October, while its two landers called will land earlier. The lander called MASCOT is scheduled to land on Oct. 4, while MINERVA-II will land on the asteroid on Sept. 21.


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Features

August 29, 2018

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Unsung Heroes of Hillsdale:

Monastiere records Charger history tee information on potential inductees, and plans the hall of fame banquet. “He’s so invested in our programs and our kids,” said John Tharp, the Chargers’ head men’s basketball coach, who traded office visits with Monastiere — partly for Monastiere’s M&M stash — since becoming the coach in 2007. “He is kind of ‘Mr. Hillsdale Sports.’” Monastiere joined the Chargers in June 2005, after spending a year and a half as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News. Monastiere has no “average day,” and rarely runs on a 9-to-5 schedule. He works about 40 weekends every year, and the beginning of the school year — with the football and volleyball seasons coinciding — presents a particular time crunch. Shouldering such a load, he’s single-minded in his inspiration. “I’m in this frankly because I love our student athletes at Hillsdale College,” he said. “We bring the best here. You know their character is high, you know they’re high achieving people, and you know they’re going to do just amazing things when they leave here.” Besides promoting them in his job, Monastiere hires students to help cover games, too. Junior Samantha Catron, a softball player who has called stats during games for Monastiere since the fall of her freshman year, said he’s “probably the best boss you could ever have.” Monastiere is considerate of his student workers’ schedules, making sure they have the hours they need but can take time off to focus on academics, Catron said. He trusts student employees, young as they are, which she said she’s grateful for. Junior Paige VanderWall,

By | Nicole Ault Editor-in-Chief Hands shaking, Brad Monastiere marked a “1” in Grand Valley State University’s loss category on the stat sheet from his vantage in the press box. It was Hillsdale College’s 2009 Homecoming football game, and the Chargers had just stamped out Grand Valley’s 48-game winning streak with a 27-24 victory. “I was like, no one’s done this for five years,” Monastiere said. “And I got to do it because our team beat them.” Nine years later, Monastiere remembers that Homecoming as “the perfect day.” Though recording stats at Charger athletic games is just one of many hats Monastiere wears as Hillsdale’s assistant athletic director for media relations and event management — informally titled “sports information director” — he considers it one of the most meaningful. “I very much view myself as a historian, of chronicling what we do across all the sports and having that become part of a permanent record,” he said. Though he’s cornered out of sight in the press box or the basketball table at Charger home games, meticulously recording stats (the one task he won’t delegate), Monastiere is the communication hub for Charger event coordination and promotion. Besides recording stats, Monastiere runs social media for the Chargers, uploads athlete profiles and game recaps to the website, organizes team photos and sorts through game-day photography, and designs home-game programs. He’s also the chairman of Hillsdale’s Athletic Hall of Fame — he coordinates the nominating committee meeting, sends the commit-

a Charger volleyball player, has also called stats for Monastiere and helped him with graphic design work. Monastiere always has food for students before the games where they call stats, she said. “Most all of us come straight from practice, so it’s really thoughtful that he looks out for us and makes sure we get a meal,” VanderWall said in an email. “Just little thoughtful things like that are what make Brad a standout [sports information director] across the board, and I know everyone that works for him appreciates those things!” Though his care for student athletes has held strong during his nearly 14 years at Hillsdale, Monastiere’s job has evolved. When he joined in 2005, a Facebook account required a “.edu” email address, he said. Now, he’s set up the full-fledged social-media suite — Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the Chargers — except for Snapchat, which he said he won’t stoop to. “You have to constantly evolve,” he said. “I’m trying to have recognition of what the fans demand — how do we promote our student athletes in the most effective way?” Tharp affirmed that Monastiere is a huge asset to all the sports teams, constantly looking out for their interests. “You know when there’s big games, Brad’s going to be there one hundred percent,” Tharp said. “He lives and dies with you.” Catron agreed. “I just don’t think people know how much Brad does for the school, and the amount of care he has for student athletes is unbelievable,” Catron said. “You’ll never find a Hillsdale Charger fan like him.”

Brad Monastiere is the assistnat athletic director, where he records statistics for Charger sports. Nicole Ault | Collegian

From South America to Hillsdale, Michigan Diener selected as academy headmaster By | Brooke Conrad Features Editor

It took a move to South America for Hillsdale Academy’s new headmaster David Diener to discover his love for education. After graduating from Wheaton College, Diener was building high-end custom cabinets and doing trim carpentry work for an Amish company in Ohio. For a few years, he and his wife, Brooke, whom he met at Wheaton, had wanted to live overseas, and they ended up moving to Bogotá, Colombia as missionaries, teaching at a Christian international school there. “I realized I love teaching, I love the intellectual engagement that I have with the students, I love the platform for discipleship and for influencing their lives that the classroom offers, and it turned out I was good at it too,” Diener said. They eventually came back to the states so Diener could pursue doctoral degrees in philosophy and philosophy of education at Indiana University . Diener returned to carpentry work in order to fund his post-graduate studies, a trade he learned shortly after his freshman year of high school. Diener began working as the college’s new headmaster in July. Diener is extensively involved in the realm of classical education, serving on the board of directors for the Society for Classical Learning and as a member of SCL’s Alcuin fellowship, a think tank dedicated to researching classical curricula, pedagogy, and culture. He is also a consultant for Classical Academic Press, which provides publishing, media, and consulting services to schools

and homeschools. Former Academy Headmaster Ken Calvert said he had heard of Diener through various networks of classical Christian schools across the nation, noting that Diener is a well-known speaker and nationally-known figure in the classical Christian community. He also said Diener

David Diener was recently named the new headmaster at Hillsdale Academy. David Diener | Courtesy

is very comfortable with rural life, which is “crucial” to the academy position. “He grew up in Michigan and his wife in northern Ohio,” Calvert said in an email. “He knows how to use a chain saw, he can hunt and gut his own deer, and he is very comfortable around farm animals.” Prior to taking his new position as Hillsdale Academy headmaster, Diener served as headmaster for Grace Academy in Georgetown, Texas. Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn said Diener did a “shining job” running the Texas school and that he rose to the top after a “long search” for the right candidate. “He understands education deeply, and we believe rightly. He will bring energy to the academy, which we hope can grow a bit, to the Barney

Charter School project, and to the education program.” Before Grace Academy, Diener turned down a 10-year track philosophy professor job in order to work at a K-12 school because of his firm belief in the classical school model. “I realized the caliber of education happening especially in the high schools of many classical schools is eclipsing, unfortunately, the level of education taking place at many undergraduate institutions,” he said. Diener also emphasizes the deep connections between Christianity and liberal-arts education, something the academy regularly acknowledges through activities like chapel services and prayer. “I think a liberal arts approach to education in a broad sense is intrinsically theological insofar as it asks questions about the ultimate meaning of reality and existence,” he said. “Certainly throughout history there have been many strands of classical education, some explicitly religious and some not, and great good can come about through a liberal arts approach to education, whether it is sacred or secular.” Besides his administrative role at the school, Diener also joined the Hillsdale College faculty and eventually plans to begin teaching. Diener’s two older children attend the academy, and his wife homeschools the younger two. Diener said he looks forward to “building on the great work” performed by Calvert and the others at the academy. “We’re excited to be in Hillsdale and look forward to working at the college and the academy and becoming part of the community,” he said.

The Dum Dum factory is located in Bryan, Ohio. Nic Rowan | Collegian

Pulp Michigan: Lollipop capital of the world By | Nic Rowan Columnist If you’ve ever stuck your head inside a bag of Dum Dums and inhaled with an addict’s gusto, then you know what it’s like to breathe as you drive past the Spangler Candy Company factory in Bryan, Ohio. The manufacturer behind Dum Dums, Saf-T-Pops, Circus Peanuts, and 45 percent of the candy canes sold in the United States, Spangler, anchored itself in Bryan in 1913. The company got its start as a dry goods company in 1906 and gradually focused in on confectionery production, becoming nationally significant in the 1950s with the major marketing campaign surrounding Dum Dum Pops, acquired from the Akron Candy Company in eastern Ohio. Dum Dums are still Spangler’s flagship brand. They account for the stickysweet cotton candy smell that pervades Bryan’s air from the factory floor all the way out to the mural of the company’s familiar mascot, the Dum Dum Drum Man, in the downtown area. Spangler uses the brand’s high profile image to stock its factory store with lollipop-themed t-shirts, socks, frisbees, and many other Dum Dum-tagged doodads. The company also offers a factory tour, aimed at younger children. It features a train wired up with rec room-era TVs and — at least when I took the tour last week — a conductor named Keith whose grits-and-taters voice brings home Spangler’s credo: This is a family company. As the last candy cane manufacturer in the U.S. — even though a little over half of its candy canes are produced in Mexico — Spangler wears its hometown on its sleeve. While many candy companies have merged into conglomerates and headed to Spanish-speaking lands, Spangler still produces 12 million Dum Dums, 1.7 million candy canes, about 1 million Circus Peanuts, and 500,000 Saf-TPops daily in Bryan. Spangler’s family pride is impossible to miss: A museum exhibit on the back wall of the factory’s candy store displays the achievements of four generations of Spangler leadership. The exhibit continues in a small theater behind the candy store that plays a documentary produced inhouse cataloging the company’s history. I walked into

Moore from A10

(Moore would sometimes run 10 miles “cold” during stressful moments in the semester and even participated in a triathlon during her junior year of college.) As she continues to recover, Moore says she has enjoyed her new position in the president’s office so far. She worked in the office as a student writer during her junior and senior year under Institutional Advancement Assistant Stevi Nichols, who recommended she apply for the executive position. “Her maturity and competence allowed for us to trust her with projects of higher importance,” Nichols said. “Madison is both organized and professional, and her steady calmness is an incredible asset for her current position. I have great faith in her ability to serve with

the room just in time to hear the show’s conclusion, which informed the audience that it was thanks to the miracle of the free market economy that a company like Spangler could thrive. In the past two years, however, US trade negotiations with Mexico have threatened both Spangler and the small town it supports. A 2017 trade agreement raising the minimum price on Mexican imported sugar, intended to protect American sugar farmers, is putting pressure on Spangler and other food manufacturers within the U.S. The blow hits Spangler especially hard because of the company’s allegiance to Ohio, even as it weathers an eight percent rise in raw sugar prices. “I’m just very disappointed that the Trump administration didn’t do more to level the playing field, which is something they promised over and over again to do for the American worker,” Spangler CEO Kirk Vashaw told Reuters. “This was an opportunity to do that, and they didn’t.” Vashaw added that the company will not waver from its commitment to stay in Ohio. “If it was all about money, we’d do it all in Mexico,” he said. Vashaw reiterated his pride in keeping the company family-owned and American-centered within the first five minutes of the tour, when he and former Spangler president Dean Spangler came onto one of the fuzzy TVs and thanked tourists for coming out to see the factory. While he spoke, a cartoon Dum Dum Drum Man danced across the scene in a flash animated choreograph that would make even Homestar Runner envious. Once the video ended, Keith drove us through a room filled with enough polyurethane wrappers to choke a school of Dolphins. He explained the history of the company, from when founder Arthur Spangler bought it on the steps of the Defiance, Ohio courthouse in 1906 to 1911 when it produced Cocoanut Balls, its first candy. “We didn’t have all the machinery we have now, so we had to open all the coconuts with a hatchet. I’ve often wondered myself how many fingers that took — but it’s a great mystery — we’ll never know,” he said. Keith wouldn’t drive us in to the kitchen, but he played another video to explain how the jars of syrup we just

passed become Dum Dums. Once again the video features the Dum Dum Drum Man, and the montages of whizzing machinery and sanitized workers in white uniforms reminds of an old Mike Rowe documentary on potato chip production in Nebraska. Before we headed to the packout room to see how Spangler packages and ships (to every bank and nonprofit boardroom in the country no doubt), Keith addressed one of the small children on the tour. “You ever wonder what the Circus Peanut flavor is?” The kid buried his head in his mom’s arm. “What does monkeys like to eat?” Keith asked. The kid popped up. “Bananas!” “That’s right,” Keith said. “We’ve been making them that way for years, and no one knows how they got the banana flavoring.” As we roll past the workers packaging up a fresh batch of candy canes, Keith directs our attention to a series of machines spitting hot Blu Raspberry Dum Dums onto cooling plates. The sound is like thousands of hailstones on a tin roof. “Bryan is a pleasant town to live in” Keith shouted over the din. “You smell Dum Dums every day.” We moved into the next room, passing a giant American flag tacked to the wall and several plaques devoted to the Teamsters on our way out. A female factory worker waved to us. She was operating a packing machine marked with the sign: “Respect the machine, because it doesn’t respect you.” Keith chuckled at all the machines moving at rapid speeds in different parts of the factory. Although they make the manufacturing process faster and more efficient, he said, Spangler still employs about 530 people full-time in Bryan. “But one thing about robots,” Keith laughed again. “They’re always on time and they always pass the drug test.” As the tour ended, Keith parked the train in a room that smelled like the Costco of my childhood. He offered to take our pictures and encouraged us to pick up free samples on the way out. As we left, I read the banner painted under the mural: Bryan, the lollipop capital of the world — a title kept safe for now.

excellence in the president’s office.” Moore says Arnn is “excessively” busy and has the kind of job it “doesn’t seem like you can take a vacation from.” While shadowing Bergen, she learned several helpful strategies for managing his schedule. “She really impressed upon me the importance of carving out time for Dr. Arnn to be a human being and not just the president,” Moore said. “She was always so intentional about respecting his time in that regard and that is something I will remember.” Moore said the thing that really has made the job “outstanding” so far is Arnn himself. “I have never had the pleasure of taking a full-term class with him, but working

with him, I’ve really come to understand that he is a wholly-principled, just, prudent, thoughtful, considerate individual, and it’s an honor to work for him. He’s a great man, and I think that’s really the thing that makes the job delightful.” Though Arnn challenged her in the past with questions like “what is prudence?” Moore said things changed when she graduated. “I think Dr. Arnn likes to ask that question because he wants people to think about it,” she said. “Once you’ve graduated from Hillsdale, you’ve kind of proven, to an extent at least, that you are equipped to think about it on your own.”


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Features

August 29, 2018

A10

Christa LaVoie went hang-gliding in Switzerland. Christa LaVoie | Courtesy

Students make memories while studying abroad in Europe By | Cal Abbo Assistant Editor In Morocco, senior Alexander Green ventured into a small rug and scarf shop. Sitting behind the loom, a man waved to him, and Green walked over. “He started speaking very broken English with me,” Green said, before remembering that Moroccans speak many languages. “I tried speaking Spanish with him even though Arabic was his native language. His eyes widened and he said he knew Spanish much better than English.” The man was happy Green was learning Spanish and thought that Arabic should be his next language. “He then gave me a little rope bracelet made from the same material as his rug. It hasn’t fallen off yet, and I’ll wear it until it does.” Green spent his summer studying abroad in Seville, Spain. “Every day we took a walk into the city as part of the class to see the things we were studying about. I loved

getting to see the hundreds of years of history right in between and beneath the modern buildings.” Part of Seville’s beauty lies in the way people got around, Green said. “The public transit is much closer and easier, but pretty much everyone walks everywhere in Seville. I was able to finish a good chunk of my summer reading on audiobook walking to and from class. Huge perk.” The variety of food also proved different than the average American meal. “They eat tons of fish, and french fries with everything. There was a churro and chocolate stand on the bridge to my neighborhood,” he said. “Hillsdale needs a churro and chocolate stand.” Green spent a weekend in Switzerland with junior Christa Lavoie, who plans to major in German and psychology. Lavoie spent most of her summer in Germany, participating in Hillsdale’s study abroad program in Wurzburg, Germany, after working with kindergarteners for a month. While Lavoie was there, she

described some initial difficulty in immersing herself in the language, culture, and lifestyle. “We signed a pact that we would only speak German with each other,” said Lavoie. After classes, the group often explored the city of Wurzburg together. “One of my favorite ones was the white wine factory,” she explained. Wurzburg is known within Germany as a wine town. “We had wine tasting. That was a unique opportunity, getting to drink four glasses of wine in the span of one hour when it’s your professors giving you the wine,” she laughed. This wasn’t Lavoie’s first time in Germany. She’s a dual citizen of Germany and the U.S., and has family there, but said that figuring it out herself was a totally different experience. LaVoie described “fluchtlinge teezeit,” which translates to refugee teatime, as one of her favorite experiences. “There was a camp of 275 people who are refugees. We’d go and play soccer with them, and bring tea, cakes, and

chocolate,” she said. “That was probably a highlight for most people who went on the trip, just because it was the most meaningful.” Senior Jessica Skoudis studied in Seville alongside Green and worked as an assistant at an English school, teaching children ranging from 4 to 18 years old. “One of the students in my class was constantly picked on. I ended up staying by him most of the time and just talking with him,” she said. “I thought, maybe I’m bothering him or maybe this is annoying him. But at the end, he came up to me, gave me a big hug, and said, ‘thank you so much for being my friend and staying by me.’” In Seville, Skoudis experienced a friendly and affectionate culture, which she contrasted to large American cities like New York. “A couple times I got lost and I was really nervous,” she said. “I would ask for directions and people would tell me exactly where to go. Or, they’d walk to the place with me. I really liked that aspect of it.”

Skoudis described her experience as a mixture of touristry and engagement with local culture. “The first three weeks, I was a tourist. I was going around taking pictures, and everybody knew I was a tourist,” she explained. “After that, I started to get a feel for the city. I started going to places that weren’t as touristy and just felt more integrated into the culture. People started talking to me in Spanish thinking that I was a Spaniard.” Skoudis, majoring in English with minors in classical education and Spanish, studied at the Center for Cross-Cultural Study in conjunction with Hillsdale College. The immersion in the language helped her long term goal of gaining fluency. Other students, like senior Madeline Bragg, got the chance to study at Oxford University. “We had tutorials, in which I met with my professor and one other student,” she said. “The professor would lecture and then give us opportunities to ask questions… Although

I was initially intimidated by the format, I was able to get to know my professor very well and I appreciated receiving such in-depth feedback on my work.” English eating culture is much more relaxed than America’s, according to Bragg. “People generally take a longer time to eat and have drinks, and waiters usually wouldn’t bring your check until you asked for it,” she said. “I also learned that the British really do take their tea seriously.” Each of these students felt they shared special moments with locals or professors that they would never forget. For Lavoie, it happened while visiting the refugee camp. “The most meaningful ten minutes of my time in Germany was teaching a little 5-year-old boy, who was from Syria, how to ride a bike,” she said. “It was meaningful because I felt like I was there in Germany not to just take from the culture, and to not be the tourist. It was meaningful to give back.”

Moore becomes Arnn’s assistant By | Brooke Conrad Features Editor

Junior Christa LaVoie stands over an outlook during her trip abroad this summer. Christa LaVoie | Courtesy

When Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn asked Madi Moore, “What is prudence?” during her junior year, he was so pleased with her answer he told her she could be a professor of Aristotle. Now, as a 2018 graduate, Moore has taken on the position of executive assistant to the president in June, replacing Victoria Bergen, who held the position since 2011. Arnn said Moore was chosen after “an extensive search that produced several promising candidates.” “My own appreciation of her began with the look in her eye,” Arnn said in an email. “It is not easy for work to be fun, but it is important that it be. She has the look of willing and ready about her, a sense of adventure.” Moore grew up in Adrian, Michigan, about a 45-minute drive from Hillsdale. She attended Hillsdale Academy in the first and second grades and eventually chose to attend Hillsdale College after comparing it with other small liberal arts schools. “I was looking for a challenge, and a lot of the schools that I was looking at that had the right profile, which was all in liberal arts and interdisciplinary, didn’t advertise their academic rigor; it wasn’t at the

forefront of their priorities,” Moore said. “And for Hillsdale it clearly was.” Moore took interest in philosophy for a time, but eventually settled on an English major. After taking a Great Books class with Professor of English Ben Whalen, she and a friend wanted to maintain their acquaintance with him, so Whalen suggested they all read a couple novels over the summer and meet back in the fall to discuss them. “It became a tradition. At first we just kind of stopped by his office. Then next year we went out to a picnic table on campus and talked about the books we read, then we went to dinner at his house with Mrs. Whalen too, which was wonderful. It was such a great witness to what’s so great about Hillsdale — the way that education surpasses the classroom.” Another favorite memory was the time she and Meghan Perks ’18 planned an Aquinas-themed scavenger hunt for their friend and classmate, Trinity Wright ’17 after they all struggled together through a particularly challenging course, “Aquinas on God.” “We created a question in the Aquinas style, and it was ‘Whether Trinity is the best of all friends,’ and then we enlisted a bunch of friends of hers and professors she had gotten to know well throughout her college career to offer up responses to that question,

such as ‘It must be true that Trinity is the best of all friends because, XYZ’… She loved it and we had a great time planning it.” In addition to her English major, Moore minored in Latin, played percussion and violin, participated in the wind symphony and chamber orchestra, and joined Pi Beta Phi, serving as vice president of finance during the 2015 calendar year. She also studied abroad in Oxford and interned in the history office at NASA headquarters through the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program. Two months before graduation in the spring of 2018, Moore suffered a rock-climbing accident that fractured her right leg and arm, forcing her to undergo surgery to stabilize her bones with titanium rods. She returned to her home in Adrian and had to discontinue her studies through the rest of the semester. Confined to a wheelchair, Moore made it her goal to be able to walk across the stage at graduation. A week before the ceremony, she began using a cane for short distances and then received her diploma — on her own two feet — and completed her final courses over the summer. Moore recently did away with the cane, finished therapy for her lower body, and said she hopes to start running again soon.

See Moore A9

Madi Moore recently joined the team in Moss Hall as part of President Larry Arnn’s office. Madi Moore | Courtesy


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