The voices of the Hills dale College Chamber
Choir rang through Christ Chapel during Sunday’s Choral Evensong service, debuting music Andrew Maxfield composed for the service.
“Everything came together: the building, the spirit, the vision, the music,” said Professor of Music James Holleman, who con ducted the choir during the
Former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will discuss learning and the state of the education system on Monday at 4 p.m. as part of the Drum mond Lecture series in Christ Chapel.
“Betsy DeVos was a champion of choice in education long before she became the U. S. Secretary of Education,” Chair of the Education Department Dan Coupland said. “As secretary, she challenged the dogma of the educa tion establishment, and its leaders vilified her for it. Regardless, she has stead fastly stood on the side of students and their fami lies.”
The Drummond Lec ture series is designed to address matters of faith, learning, and current events, according to As sociate Vice President for Curriculum David Whalen.
DeVos will touch on her recent book, “Hostages No More: The Fight for Education Freedom and the Future of the American Child,” which covers crit ical race theory in educa tion, COVID-19 pandemic school lockdowns, and how to fix America’s schools.
service.
College President Larry Arnn, who attended the ser vice, said he was impressed with the music and the choir’s performance.
“Professor Holleman was right that the composer is talented,” Arnn said. “The choir performed brilliantly. They brought a beautiful composition to life. The whole thing was a tour de force.”
College Chaplain Adam Rick officiated the service which consisted of hymns,
readings, and prayers. Rick said the evensong service originates from the tradi tion of daily prayer in the church, sometimes referred to as “the liturgy of the hours.”
“It was gorgeous,” Rick said. “It was great to hear the sound bounce off the ceiling and fill the space.”
Holleman said plans to commission music for an evensong service began before the pandemic.
“As we were building the chapel, I approached Dr.
Arnn about commissioning an evensong,” Holleman said. “Evensong is his pas sion and is one of his visions for the use of the chapel for music and sacred music. It got delayed a little with COVID and shutdowns, but it finally came to fruition.”
A Brigham Young University graduate with experience in the compo sition of sacred and other styles of music, Maxfield was commissioned by the college to compose the piec es for the evensong service.
He set the traditional text of the prayers to new music, including the Magnificat (song of Mary), the Nunc Dimittis (song of Simeon), and the Anthem, best de scribed as a song of praise. Only the opening and closing hymns were already set in text and tune.
Maxfield said he had never written music for an evensong service before.
“I've written choral music, but I hadn’t done an evensong service,” Maxfield said. “I was excited for the
chance to add a little tiny link in the chain of other composers that have done that.”
Maxfield said he ap proaches sacred music with an extra degree of caution compared to other types of music.
“It’s not about me,” Maxfield said. “My job as a composer of sacred music is to hold up the text, to serve the text, and to get out of the way.”
While tensions between Russia and Ukraine height ened with President Vlad imir Putin’s hint of nuclear warfare, Hillsdale College hosted its first Center for Constructive Alternatives from Oct 2-5 to discuss Russian history, culture, and modern politics.
A trivia victory Wednes day night launched the BLOC – an alliance of Mauck Residence, Benzing Residence, and the Suites – into first place overall in homecoming standings.
Behind the BLOC, the Off-Campus Coalition is in second, followed by South Side Sweethearts and Greek Row tied for third, and Kappa and WhitWatWay tied for fifth.
“I think if we can place in mock rock and at least one other event, we’ve got a really good shot,” said junior Truman Kjos, who described himself as the “unofficial captain” of the
BLOC trivia team.
The homecoming fes tivities began late Sunday night with a banner drop in the center of the student union. OCC took first place, followed by the Bloc in second and WhitWat Way in third.
Senior Allie Spaccarelli, captain of OCC, said the coalition almost didn’t form this year and wasn’t started until after the Student Activities Board announced the theme. She said one of the strengths of OCC is its voluntary nature.
“One of the things we have on our side is we are a group that has chosen to participate,” Spaccarelli
said. “There’s no top-down force making this happen. We’re a group of people that want to be here and are in it to have the most fun with the people we have.”
Senior Joe Coleman, who helped produce the OCC video which placed fourth, said the first place finish to kick off the week was a confidence boost for the team.
“That was visual proof that we are a force to be reckoned with,” Coleman said.
The OCC music video was a “Twighlight Zone” parody which depicted the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the faking of the moon land
ing. Coleman said the idea “Once the theme dropped, we thought ‘the ’60s, we have to reenact JFK's assassination,’” Cole man said. “‘We just have to. The moon landing, too.’" Spaccarelli and Coleman said they owe a lot of credit to their team members, including senior Han nah Cheng, their banner designer, senior Stephen Pearson, their videogra pher, and senior Nick Treg lia, their video editor.
“We can pull off some next-level stuff,” Coleman said. “When we come to gether, we can make some great things.”
“The theater we are entering has been, in the last century and a half, the single most violent mili tary theater on the entire planet,” said Christopher Caldwell of the Claremont Institute, who spoke at the CCA on Tuesday night.
Professor of European History and Culture at Bard College Sean Mc Meekin began the series with “Russia from 16961917: An Overview,” exam ining Russian history and the changes it experienced under rulers such as Alexis I, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great.
McMeekin used these historical figures to draw parallels to modern Russia.
Stephen Kotkin, author of “Stalin: Waiting for Hit ler, 1929-1941,” spoke Sun day night on “Russia from 1917-1991: An Overview.”
After a childhood of pover ty, Stalin committed himself to social justice, according to Kotkin.
The Legacy Board announced that the 2023 senior class gift will be a renovation of the Slayton Arboretum in honor of its 100th anniversary.
The class of 2023 gath ered in the Searle Center last Friday to hear details about the project which will include a restoration of the firepit, the pond, and the small stone house on the property called the “Little Stone Lab."
Legacy Board member Madison Pyhel said the project could help the Arb become a place where
more students can study, gather, and rest.
“Class of 1872 alumni George and Abby Dunn Slayton gifted Hillsdale the land for Slayton Arbore tum to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their graduation,” Pyhel said.
“It’s only fitting that on the centennial anniversary of the Arboretum’s founding we uphold their legacy and furnish our own.”
Braden VanDyke, as sistant director of alumni relations, said there is not an official finalized cost estimate due to supply chain issues and continued project research.
“However, we believe
the project will land within the $15,000 to $20,000 range,” VanDyke said.
Senior Legacy Board member Tom MacPhee said the Legacy Board wanted to give something that students could enjoy every day but also some thing beautiful.
“We wanted something beautiful, something that might one day find its way onto a Hillsdale postcard or catalog. We wanted a gift that would be memo rable,” MacPhee said.
MacPhee said the Arb is an important part of Hillsdale’s past.
“One hundred years ago, the Arb was the social
spot for Hillsdale stu dents,” he said. “Somehow, over the years, the Arb lost its importance to our student body. In short, we forgot and lost a piece of our tradition.”
The “Little Stone Lab” is a stone building near the waterfall, down the hill from the Arb's main gate. The stone lab was probably the first stone structure built in the Arb in the ear ly to mid-1920s, according to Associate Professor and Biology and Director of Slayton Arboretum Jeffery L. Van Zant.
When Paul Ray woke up one morning and decided to be a lawyer, he had no idea he would one day clerk for an associate Supreme Court justice and serve in former President Donald Trump’s administration.
“I didn’t start thinking about law school before my senior year. I was going to teach English and I sudden ly, quite literally, woke up one morning and said to myself, ‘You should go to law school,’” Ray told students at a Federalist Society event on Sept. 29. “My decision was substantively sound but procedurally unreasonable.”
Ray’s epiphany led him to Harvard Law School, where he served on the Harvard Law Review and later earned clerkships for Judge Debra Ann Livingston of the Unit ed States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2018, Former President Donald Trump appointed Ray to admin istrative positions in both
Gift from A1
It was originally a garden house where gardeners from the community would meet.
While the lab had been used for storage in recent years, the old fireplace and an antiquated bathroom remain.
Van Zant, who was the evening’s keynote speaker, said the committee plans to turn the lab into a year-round meeting space with an eightfoot table, a love seat, and some end tables to go in front of the fireplace.
“We want it to look as quaint from the inside as it does from the outside,” Van Zant said.
The class gift will also revive the old fire pit deep in the woods of the Arb, which
the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
He is now the director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation.
Ray discussed careers in law and how one should decide to attend and succeed in law school at the event, encouraging students to discern their reasons for wanting to be a lawyer well before getting a law degree.
“People will tell you that you can do many things with a law degree and you can and people do, but you shouldn’t go to law school to do any other things,” Ray said. “If you go to law school, you want to be a lawyer. The one reason to go is to become a lawyer.”
Ray proposed an ex periment to help students determine if law school is right for them.
“Imagine yourself and all your friends doing good for families, friends, communi ties in all kinds of different ways. Would you want your way to be a lawyerly way? If the answer is no, I wouldn’t
was built in the late 1920s when the college forbade stu dents from having open fires, according to Van Zant.The fireplace is currently covered with moss and filled with debris and is disused.
“It will be renovated, and we plan to add two stone benches around it,” Van Zant said.
The senior Legacy Board hopes to install one or two floating fountains in the pond in the Arb, which will spray several feet high in different patterns, accord ing to Van Zant. The pond, which is currently covered almost completely with green algae, is home to many fish, including large koi, according to Van Zant.
“We want the pond to look more clean and inviting
go to law school,” he said. “There are an unbelievable number of things that you can do to serve and in which you will be successful. Don’t think you have to become a lawyer to be good.”
About 22% of law students don’t practice law within 10 months of grad uation, according to recent data from the American Bar Association.
“I really enjoyed how he was honest and straight forward about determining your personal motivations for law school,” junior and prospective law student Phoebe Johnston said. “He brought up some good ques tions to consider whether law school is the right path, and they were also helpful for brainstorming answers for personal statements and applications.”
Senior Gabriel Powell, who plans to attend law school next year, said Ray’s categorization of different kinds of law was helpful.
“He made a very good distinction between law lawyers, fact lawyers, and transaction lawyers,” Powell said. “Splitting attorneys up
and less swamp-like,” Van Zant said.
After Bertram A. Bar ber, a biology professor and longtime caretaker of the Arb, died in 1967, the Arb fell into disrepair. The college decided to stop funding the site altogether in 1971. For mer Collegian editor Andrew Nickel ' 71 headed up an effort to revitalize the Arb in the 1970s by sending a special edition of the Collegian to alumni, Van Zant said.
“The college got a lot of positive feedback and started funding it again,” he said.
Senior Class Vice Pres ident Josh Barker said he approves the choice to build permanent spaces that can be used year-round and improve the beauty of the campus.
“I think we might see
into categories is a helpful metric.”
Ray told students only three things matter in law school: getting good grades, good recommendations, and writing for a law review.
He also advised stu dents to go to the best law school possible as long as it is financially viable. If Ray had a choice to attend the #3 ranked school and acquire $300,000 of debt or the #15 ranked school and acquire $50,000 in debt, he said he would choose the top-ranked school. Starting salary at firms that hire from highly ranked schools can be $100,000, which offsets debt significantly, he added.
“Launching your legal career is like getting onto a highway. You need to get on the highway, but there are some ways to do that. It’s not essential that it’s this on ramp or the later one — the important thing to do is to get on one,” he said. “There are all kinds of opportunities to launch yourself. Focus on becoming a really excellent lawyer and the rest of it will follow.”
more events in the Arb, especially smaller gatherings that might prefer the more intimate firepit to the expan sive Chapel Square,” he said. “I think this is an excellent way for our class to make a lasting impact on campus and really improve facilities for everyone.”
Van Zant said with proper funding the projects should be underway soon.
“It would be great if every thing is pretty much complet ed by graduation, but we will certainly be well on our way by graduation,” he said. “They are not that difficult of things to do. It just requires raising the money and getting those things ordered.”
Due to a 22% increase in student enrollment, Hillsdale Academy’s fifth and sixth graders are learning in a tem porary portable classroom.
The academy currently has 50 more students than it did last year, so the adminis tration decided to house the fifth and sixth grade classes in a modular building that could be quickly installed.
“Downstairs is kindergar ten to fourth, and upstairs is primarily seventh to 12th grade, just a few steps away from the fifth and sixth graders in the modular,” said Hillsdale Academy Head master Michael Roberts.
The modular looks small er on the outside than on the inside, fifth-grade teacher Lori Andaloro said.
“I was surprised how spacious the modular was,” she said. “I thought it might have been a little cramped, but we have plenty of room for myself and all the kids.
The fifth and sixth grade students have learned to adapt to the space, Andaloro said.
“The kids have been great,” Andaloro said. “They even look at it as an adven ture, we’re on an adventure and they’ve done great.”
Sixth-grade student Eliz abeth Gray said she doesn’t mind the modular building.
“Basically, it just feels like a classroom that has less windows,” Gray said. “It’s different not seeing classes in the hallways that much,
Homecoming from A1
Kappa Kappa Gamma placed first in the music video competition Tuesday.
Senior Meghan Dudzic, president of the sorority, said the first place finish lifted the spirits of the team after a disappointing sixth place finish in the banner competition.
Motivated by his past, Stalin’s leadership in the Soviet Union was a story of unintended and horrifying consequences, Kotkin said.
On Monday, Professor at Northwestern University Gary Saul Morson lectured on “Tolstoy and Dostoevsky: Lessons from the Russian Classics.”
Morson offered Tolstoy’s assertion that true life is de termined by small changes.
“True life is not lived when great external changes take place,” Morson said.
“When people move about, clash, fight, and slay one another. It is lived only where these tiny, tiny, infinitesimally small alterations take place.”
Morson presented Tolstoy’s example of Raskol nikov in Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.” Raskol nikov was living his true life when “only his consciousness was active,” Morson said.
Morson addressed Tolstoy’s ability to portray his characters.
“Tolstoy understood the human mind better than any professional psychologist
or social scientist who ever lived,” Morson said. “If they understood the mind as well as Tolstoy, they could create a portrait of a person as believ able as Anna Karenina, but none has come close.”
Monday night, concert pianist Hyperion Knight presented “Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff: Creating a Russian Identity in Mu sic,” weaving the history of Russian classical music with live piano performances. He presented the paradox of Russian music with the American disposition toward the Soviet Union.
“For a century, the Russian Soviets were the enemies of everything we hold dear,” Knight said. “And yet, the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff feels as warm and welcoming to us as mother's milk and apple pie.”
Due to travel restrictions, Michael Millerman of the Millerman School appeared in a virtual presentation entitled “Russia Under Putin” on Tuesday afternoon. The lecture focused on the Rus sian philosopher Alexander Dugin's ideological role in Russia's war on Ukraine,”
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Millerman said.
Dugin’s theories, frequent ly echoed by Putin, explore an alternative to Western lib eralism found in a multipolar world. Dugin’s philosophies hinge upon the disintegration of nations, focusing instead on dynamic Russian borders, according to Millerman.
“The ideological dimen sions of Russian foreign policy today is an expression of Dugin,” Millerman said. “The question for the future is whether it will continue to move in that direction or whether political and mili tary events, as well as acts of God, will turn out in favor of unipolarity after all.”
Caldwell concluded the lectures with “Russia and American Foreign Policy Today.” Caldwell said the Ukrainian conflict is far more complex than most Ameri cans seem to think.
“Should the United States pursue the war to ultimate victory, taking Crimea and admitting an ambivalent Ukraine to NATO, it will re quire a Korean style military buildup to hold the ground that we have taken but it will also change the West,” Cald well said.
The CCA closed with a faculty roundtable on Wednesday. Associate Pro fessor of Politics Kevin Slack posed a question about the American people’s say in the decision to become involved with Russia.
“How many of us vot ed on a war in Ukraine? We're talking about possible nuclear holocaust,” Slack said. “If there's one decision, if you had a democracy or some kind of representa tive government that was rooted in the people, people would make a decision as to whether or not we should go to war with Russia. And we are at war with Russia, and we're possibly facing nuclear annihilation.”
Sophomore Clare Wildern said the CCA helped her to understand modern conflicts with Russia better.
“I signed up mainly because of the war between Russia and Ukraine,” sopho more Clare Wildern said. “I wanted to learn more about the war and the overall his tory of Russia. The CCA has been super informative and I’ve learned a ton.”
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“I think there were at least 20 hours put into that banner,” Dudzic said. “It was definitely tough and a little disheartening, but I’m so proud of my girls because I’ve never seen a group of people who bounce back better from disappointment.”
Senior Gabrielle Bes sette, who led the produc tion of the video, said the concept of the video was a
DeVos from A1
Before serving as ed ucation secretary for the Trump administration, the Michigan native advocated for school choice, charter schools, and free speech on campuses.
In 1989, she and her husband founded the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, which donated to charter and Christian schools, organizations sup porting school choice, and various universities and arts foundations. She and her husband, Dick, started All Children Matter in 2003 in support of voucher pro grams. In 2010, she helped found the school choice ad
so it makes more of a class culture.”
Alyssa Mekelburg, another sixth-grader at the academy, said the teachers in the modular help make class more entertaining.
“We have the stairway going back, and Mr. Nolan said we could build igloos from it,” Mekelburg said. “He makes a lot of things more fun.”
The downside of the mod ular is its location because it blocks the academy’s view from the road, Roberts said.
“As you drive down Academy Lane, we have a beautiful setting, then boom,” Roberts said.
The modular will allow the academy to continue to teach while beginning con struction on an addition in the back, Roberts said. Once the addition is completed, the academy can remove the modular and move students back to regular classrooms.
“The modular use is a short term plan,” Roberts said. “We will be in them for at least two years. In the meantime, we are currently looking at plans and strategy for a new addition.”
Sixth-grade teacher Matthew Nolan said he looks forward to the expansion.
“As fun as this modular adventure will be, I think it’s going to be good to be united back in one building again,” sixth-grade teacher Matthew Nolan said. “I’m sure the new construction is going to be beautiful. It’ll add a lot to the grandeur of the school.”
flashback by Jan Brodbeck ‘67, a Kappa alumna.
“We figured we'd have her be the star of the show,” Bessette said. “That's who you see in the first clip as she takes a sip of her Coca Cola, and then flashes back to all the different expe riences that she had as a Kappa in the ’60s that we stage today.”
Remaining in the homecoming week compe tition are minute-to-win-it, volunteer hours, and mock rock. With 600 points still up for grabs, any team is still in the running to take first place.
Kjos said the BLOC is still confident in its ability to bring home a victory.
“We can definitely win this,” Kjos said.
vocacy organization Ameri can Federation for Children.
Whalen said DeVos was chosen as a speaker because of her long-time dedication to faith and learning. DeVos last spoke on Hillsdale’s campus in October 2020.
“Well before her years of service as secretary of educa tion, she worked to liberate the education of children from the choke-hold of self-interested bureaucracies and to promote the rights of parents,” Whalen said. “She is expert and tireless in these things. Moreover, she has always identified her faith as the bedrock of all her efforts. All of this makes her an ide al speaker for these lectures.”
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A local family donated a taxidermied bison, a wild turkey, several species of North American fish, and a black bear to Hillsdale’s Daniel M. Fisk Museum of Natural History.
These gifts came from the Dawson family fol lowing the death of Ray Dawson on Aug. 20, 2021, at the age of 94.
His son, Eric ’92, and grandchildren, Carly Crowley ’05, Chet Crow ley ’09, Justin Mandrelle ’00, and Brad Rumsey ’09, are all Hillsdale College alumni. He is also survived by his wife, Pauline.
Pauline Dawson said her husband had a life long love of the outdoors. He was a farmer, hunter, and respected taxidermist for more than 75 years. He was deliberate when he hunted, which is the hallmark of a responsi ble hunter, according to Pauline.
“When it came to hunt
ing, he was very patient. He would wait and stalk things out, no matter how the weather was,” Pauline said. “He also had such a good memory. He remem bered every shot, where he went, which arrow he used, what the weather was like, and he always knew to go to the right place based on the direc tion of the wind.”
Eric Dawson said his fa ther was well-educated in many aspects of outdoors manship and endeavored to foster this knowledge in his family.
“He was truly an out doorsman in every sense of the word,” Eric said.
Eric said he and his fa ther would fish in Ontario, Canada, and the Western United States. During these trips, Dawson taught his family how to camp safely, no matter what the weather was like or how difficult the conditions were. He also educated them on animal safety, Eric said.
The fish the Dawson
family donated to the college came from some of these trips.
According to Dawson’s hunting journal, he killed the bison on a private ranch in Michigan in 1986 while he was hunting in 20 inches of snow with a recurve bow. He dubbed it “King Kong Bundy,” as he was a fan of professional wrestling.
“The way this hunt went, we saw the tracks of the buffalo the night before that were bedded down in the timber, so we waited until morning to stalk them,” the journal reads. Dawson wrote that he was behind a big pine tree when he shot the bison at 25 yards.
Because of their con nection to Hillsdale, the Dawson family said they thought it was fitting for some of the animals to go to the Fisk Museum.
Eric Dawson said his father respected Hillsdale’s goal to help students to become well-rounded, and he would have been
honored for some of his animals to go to Hillsdale’s collection. Pauline said he always wanted to donate animals to Hillsdale.
“He was always very in tune to the sense of inde pendence that Hillsdale has, and he realized that the liberal arts education that students receive there has many aspects,” Eric said. “These were the same lessons that my dad wanted us to have when we were growing up.”
Professor of Biology and curator of the mu seum Tony Swinehart said he first heard about Dawson and his collection from Dawson’s grandson, Brad Rumsey.
“I used to bug Brad about the possibility of acquiring some of the specimens for our muse um, so it’s a cool story that started nearly 20 years ago and has finally come to fruition,” Swinehart said.
Overbearing bureaucra cy and the suffocation of academic freedom drove associate professors of government Bradley Wat son and Richard Samuel son to Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C. campus, according to the two new faculty members.
“Each of them will enrich and enlighten our undergraduate and gradu ate students and, through them, the city of Wash ington D.C. and likewise our country,” Director of Academic Programs for Hillsdale in D.C. Matthew Mehan said.
Watson and Samuelson joined the Hillsdale faculty in D.C. over the summer. They are each teaching classes this semester at the Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship. Sam uelson is also teaching a course for WHIP students.
Watson taught for 23 years at Saint Vincent Col lege, a private Benedictine college in southwest Penn sylvania. A campus contro versy that received national coverage arose last April over a conference hosted at Saint Vincent by the Center for Political and Economic Thought, a research and public affairs institute di rected by Watson.
The conference last April, titled “Politics, Poli cy, and Panic: Governing in Times of Crisis,” featured nine speakers, including Assistant Professor David Azzerad of Hillsdale Col lege, who spoke on “Black Privilege and Racial Hyste ria in America.” The lecture sparked backlash among students at the college.
“Before the conference ended, I discovered the administration was drafting a formal letter of apology,” Watson said. “They issued
the groveling apology, drafted by senior adminis trative officials at the direc tion of the president of the college. None of this was done with any consultation with me as the longtime director of the center.”
Following the confer ence and apology letter, the college instituted a new policy requiring administrative approval for any speakers invited to college-sponsored events. Watson said the new policy would have interfered with his work at the center.
“This makes it func tionally impossible to run a speaker program, which greatly undermines a center like ours because we had a lot of speakers,” Watson said. “Even if you could imagine the sort of conditions under which that might function effi ciently – getting multi-level approvals for every speak er you want to invite to campus – the implication was clear: certain kinds of topics henceforth would be off limits at Saint Vincent College.”
Watson resigned his po sition as professor of poli tics and Philip M. McKen na chair in American and Western political thought at the college. He said the administration’s actions were the main cause of his departure.
“I decided that I would resign over this rather than try to deal with an admin istration that doesn't un derstand academic freedom or intellectual freedom more broadly,” Watson said.
Watson, who was also a distinguished fellow in jurisprudence at the Hills dale graduate school during the controversy, sought and received a full-time posi tion with Hillsdale. He said it was an abrupt transition over the summer.
“I reached out to see if, on very, very short notice,
there might be a regular position for me at the Washington, D.C., campus,” Watson said. “Through the good graces of Dr. Arnn and Dr. Spalding, I was able to get a full-time position there on only a matter of weeks' notice. I'm very grateful to them for that.”
Samuelson came from the other side of the country, where he taught American history at Cali fornia State University San Bernardino for 25 years. He said education in California is changing, in some ways for better, in others for worse. But what Samuelson said drove him out was the administration’s increasing ly restrictive bureaucracy.
“Things were changing on campus,” Samuelson said. “More and more, we worked for the administra tors. It started off as a legit imate effort to have over sight to make sure that we were doing our jobs. Over time, they started manag ing how we behaved so that they could have some kind of formula to manage how we work.”
Samuelson said he was concerned about his ability to teach as he wished at CSU San Bernardino.
“I was always concerned the way I teach would get me in trouble,” Samuelson said. “But the culture at Hillsdale is much more open to the serious discus sion of serious things.”
Samuelson is teaching a class this semester on the American Founding and Constitution, as well as a one-credit course on John Adams at the graduate school with Kirby Professor in Constitutional Govern ment Matthew Spalding.
Samuelson is also teaching a class for WHIP students titled “Constitu tional Conflicts in the Early Republic.” He described himself as a historian surrounded by political
theorists and said he hopes to bring his historical per spective to the classroom.
“I seek to understand what happened,” Samu elson said. “The theory is part of that story.”
Junior Olivia Hajicek, who is majoring in history, said she is enjoying Samu elson’s mix of history and political theory in class.
“If you want to under stand history from a more philosophical perspective and also understand the American ideals and trends supported by a historical perspective, I think his class has really helped me put that together,” Hajicek said.
Watson is teaching a course on constitutional jurisprudence this semes ter. He said he is bring ing his focus on primary documents he used at Saint Vincent to his teaching at the Hillsdale graduate school.
“Virtually every course I've ever taught has been centered around primary sources,” Watson said. “I don't use textbooks. The great books of Western civilization and the great writings of the American political tradition became sort of a motto in our de partment.”
Watson says his story is similar to the many others of faculty who have left positions due to infringe ments on academic free dom.
“My name is now just another name in the long, sad list of people who've been canceled in one way or the other,” Watson said. “I’d describe myself as a kind of intellectual refu gee. Hillsdale, in addition to its considerable virtues, is a serious place that has also become something of a home for intellectual refugees.”
The corruption in Ameri can foreign policy contribut ed to the conflict in Ukraine, Politics Department Chair John Grant said in a debate with defense contractor Daniel Fata.
Professor of History Paul Rahe moderated the debate hosted by the Alexander Hamilton Society in the Heritage Room on Thursday, Sept. 29.
Fata, vice president of defense for Lockheed Martin, pushed for an interventionist policy, arguing the Unit ed States should not allow Ukraine to lose to Russia. He emphasized the ideals of democracy, transatlantic co operation, and international rules-based order.
Grant said America has no business in Ukraine, and national interests should take priority over international interests. He criticized Amer ican foreign policy toward Russia, including recent antagonistic sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which he said are an example of the United States overex erting its influence.
“Our ruling class seems to think a perfect harmony of interest among different nations in the world could be obtained if only everyone would act the way we want them to,” Grant said.
Fata said he disagreed that focusing on one issue means having to disregard another one.
“I don't think it's an eitheror-choice that while we have an issue at home, we have to
stop paying attention to the rest of the world,” Fata said.
Grant noted the role America played in creating the current government of Ukraine, including the 2014 CIA-backed coup that ousted Russia-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych and destabilized Ukraine. He also cited the comments made by former Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, as well as Hunter Biden’s position on the board of Burisma in Ukraine.
“We have our stains on us,” Fata responded, “but the world still looks to us.”
Fata said American inter ests were not directly at stake as a result of the Ukrainian invasion, but if Russia were to overtake Ukraine, it would share a border with multiple NATO member states. Fata said he was concerned Russia could eventually cut off American access to the Black Sea, but doubts the war in Ukraine will lead to a nuclear conflict and Grant agreed.
“I think we should be concerned, although I don't know how likely it is,'' Grant said.
Both agreed the ideal end to the conflict in Ukraine is a peace treaty negotiated between Russia and Ukraine.
Junior Liam Martin said he wondered what Fata meant by rule-based interna tional order.
“I would have liked for Mr. Fata to have explained what exactly he meant by rulesbased international order,” Martin said. “To me, the term tends to be grossly undefined and meaningless.”
Future military leaders should train for war by playing tabletop wargames, Assistant Professor of Edu cation Erik Ellis said during a lecture on Friday, Sept. 30.
The lecture, “Playing with History: Tabletop Warga mes as an Historiographical Exercise,” took place in the Heritage Room as a part of the “Our Faculty, After Hours” series sponsored by Mossey Library.
Tabletop wargaming, a genre of board games devel oped by the Prussian army in the 19th century, involves simulating historical or fic tional battles with figurines.
According to Ellis, warga ming was the most popular form of entertainment in the 1970s and has recently been experiencing a renaissance.
Ellis said he prefers to play tabletop wargames — physical board games — rather than computer wargames. Tabletop warga mes may represent maps of Western Europe or a specific country overlaid with a hexagon grid.
“People are unaware that there are still physical board games because most people think that it has all been transitioned to video games,” Ellis said.
According to Ellis, rule books are often hundreds of pages, so it’s easier to play wargames on a computer.
An intimate connection to the game process is lost when people play wargames on computers, however, Ellis said. A computer will be able to run the program and adjudicate the results without any levels of human
error that could skew the interpretation.
“It was found that using computers produced a type of strategic thinking that was overly deterministic and not supple,” Ellis said. “Real life war isn't deterministic. We want to have our fu ture military leaders think through the process, look at a table, apply results, and work through the math.”
Tabletop wargame design er and CIA analyst, Volko Ruhnke, started a wargame club at West Point, which cadets found to be helpful for learning strategy.
“Ruhnke specifically works on counterinsurgency warfare strategy,” Ellis said.
“For a long time, people didn’t know how to model counterinsurgency warfare because it doesn’t follow the same rules as conventional warfare. Ruhnke broke the code on that.”
Sophomore Maya Toman said she attended Ellis’ lecture because she knew that what ever topic he spoke about would be interesting.
“I really like Dr. Ellis,” To man said. “He comes to some of the Latin lunches that I attend and is fluent in Latin. I have almost never heard him speak English before. I came to this lecture because I knew he would be fascinating to listen to on whatever topic he spoke about.”
Freshman David Cathel said he was surprised Ellis knows so much about war games.
“I would never have guessed that Dr. Ellis does all of this,” Cathel said. “I imagine wargames are one of those things where you either love it or hate it and have to try it first.”
When an event reach es the point that SAB members are breaking up a fight, that’s probably a sign that it’s gone too far. Whether you think the Chi Os pushed first, or you think Galloway men were too jazzed about shoving women, home coming has been a little too heated in its first few days.
Typically, homecoming is a chance to celebrate the college with alumni
and friends through a bout of spirited competi tions. One might assume that this would give dif ferent groups a chance to interact with one another and represent Hillsdale as a united front at the big game on Saturday.
So far, however, this year’s homecoming has been filled with rage and gossip. Not only were there screaming matches and physical altercations at the banner drop, but it
was hard to walk through any part of campus yes terday without hearing everyone’s opinions on other group’s videos.
Homecoming is one of the only times where certain organizations really get to band together and represent themselves.
It’s not every day that the members of the Off-Cam pus Coalition get to join forces. It makes sense that people are excited for the events, but that’s
no excuse for violence or slander.
If a team put in more effort than yours did, or the judge’s saw something special in their product, it’s not the end of the world. These are the kids you go to classes with, pass in the cafeteria, and will walk with at grad uation. Let’s not make enemies over minute-towin-it.
During a banquet in honor of Christopher Co lumbus, a young Spanish nobleman pointed out that if Columbus hadn’t found the New World, someone else would have.
According to legend, Columbus picked up an egg and asked the party which one of them could make it stand on its end. Every man at the table tried and failed.
Finally, Columbus broke the shell of the egg on its end and stood it upright.
The company protested that any of them could have done the same; Columbus replied that something is easy to do once you’ve been shown the way.
Hillsdale College’s Liberty Walk honors men and women like Abraham Lincoln, George Washing ton, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan for their character and contributions to the world, our country, and the mission of the college.
As Columbus Day ap proaches, it’s worth consid ering Columbus an addition to the Liberty Walk. The Spanish Admiral of the Seas, and the discoverer of an entire continent, de serves a place on campus. Columbus was born in Italy in the Republic of Genoa and went to sea at a young age. As the Grena da War came to an end in 1492, Columbus submitted the last of a series of peti tions to the Spanish crown. He wanted to cross the Atlantic to look for a new path to the East Indies.
That same year, he was given three ships and he left
Castille in August landing in the Bahamas on Oct. 12.
He made three voyages to the Americas in total, exploring Trinidad, South America, and Central America and became the
Columbus was removed from his post after the colonists complained to the Spanish crown about his and his family’s leadership.
Today, most historians believe his political enemies
the natives. George Tinker and Mark Freeland, schol ars in religious theological studies and American Indi an studies at Iliff School for Theology, have even called it “an American holocaust.”
ed in the Americas long before European settlers arrived; Columbus’ prac tice of it was certainly not new. While it is true that violence was frequently an issue in the colonies Co
the Spaniards in the area, John Hiraschauer wrote in National Review in 2019.
Columbus’ voyage may have introduced strains of disease to the New World, but he can hardly be blamed for stepping off the Santa Maria without a hazmat suit and a clear understanding of germs – which weren’t discovered for another 200 years.
In a world of greed, ambition, disease, and vio lence, Columbus was a man of courage who deserves to be honored on Hillsdale’s Liberty Walk.
Like the figures already portrayed around campus, Columbus dedicated him self to pursuing the liberal arts, especially subjects in the quadrivium including astronomy and geography. Although he never received formal training, his selftaught skills would enable him to discover the New World.
Columbus was also a man of deep faith, believing that God had chosen him to evangelize the indige nous people. According to legend, he called his men to prayer every half hour during their voyage across the Atlantic.
In contrast to the world, he lived in and despite his flaws and defects, Colum bus’ actions demonstrate his faith in God and his intrepid boldness.
governor of Hispaniola. While he focused on fur ther exploration, he left the governorship of Hispaniola to family members, who failed to act when their Spanish compatriots com mitted atrocities against the indigenous people.
manufactured many of the accusations. He died in Spain in 1504.
Many American blame Columbus for introducing slavery and disease to the native population. They criticize accounts of the apparent brutality against
These condemnations fail to address Columbus’ role in the Spanish conquest of the New World, or to place him in his historical context. They also do not account for his actions as a man of character and faith. Violent slavery exist
lumbus established, he was rarely directly responsible for them.
In fact, Columbus not only adopted an indige nous boy, but he also urged mercy after Indians had burned down a Spanish settlement, exterminating
Hillsdale’s Liberty Walk is missing this dauntless explorer, it’s time to honor the man who discovered our continent.
Aubrey Gulick is a se nior studying history and journalism. She is a senior reporter at the Collegian.
If you’re experiencing sensory decline, difficulty paying attention, physical or emotional illnesses, near-sightedness, or a Vita min D deficiency, you may suffer from Nature Deficit Disorder.
Coined by internation al best-selling author and journalist Richard Louv in his 2005 book, “Last Child in the Woods,” Nature Defi cit Disorder is a non-med ical term referring to the symptoms experienced by children and adults who fail to spend sufficient time outdoors. Louv argued increased urbanization has alienated Americans from nature, slowing childhood sensory development and feeding adult mental illness.
“As young people spend less of their lives in natural
surroundings, their senses narrow, both physiologically and psychologically,” Louv wrote.
The Outdoor Industry Association’s report in 2019 revealed that almost half of the U.S. population participates in no outdoor recreation, and outdoor ex cursions taken by children decreased by 15% between 2018 and 2012. Increased obesity, anxiety, and depres sion rates resulting from NDD suggest America is becoming an indoor nation.
Luckily, there’s a simple solution: spend at least two hours outside each week.
The average college stu dent spends between one and five hours per week on social media, a University of California, Los Angeles study said. Students should repurpose these hours to time in nature.
People who spend two hours a week in “green spaces” like parks are more likely to report physical, mental, and emotional health than those who don’t, according to a 2019 study conducted by the European Centre for Environment & Human Health at the Uni versity of Exeter.
“It’s well-known that get ting outdoors in nature can be good for people’s health and well-being, but until now we’ve not been able to say how much is enough,” said social-psychologist Matthew White, who led the study. “Two hours a week is hopefully a realistic target for many people, es pecially given that it can be spread over an entire week to get the benefit.”
My dad has told me many stories of him and his brother spending their
summers wading through Florida swamps in search of snakes and turtles to bring home as pets. Every morn ing, he went into the woods to look for wildlife, collect fallen branches to build tree forts, and build bonfires.
Free of parental supervision, he and the neighborhood kids played pick-up games of baseball and had orange fights in local orange groves. Children like my dad once spent sunrise to sunset outdoors, not coming inside until dinner.
Now, children above the age of 8 are more likely to be able to identify charac ters from the videogame Pokemon than species of plants or animals, a University of Cambridge study discovered. Instead of collecting reptiles like my dad did, kids collect Pokemon cards. Children
are no longer entertained by forests, rivers, and lakes, but by TVs, phones, and videogames.
“The more high-tech we become,” Louv said, “the more nature we need.”
Last summer, I went on a long hike with a friend in Northern Minnesota. We climbed over tall rock struc tures, explored waterfalls, collected rocks and shells from the beach, and dove into ice-cold Lake Superior. I saw the positive effect of nature on my own health as I felt my immersion in nature washing away layers of stress.
But is spending time in the great outdoors plausible in northern winters? Outdoor activi ties such as sledding and cross-country skiing are fun ways to be outside even when temperatures
drop. Spending two hours outside per week bundled up for a snowy hike with friends can prevent NDD from setting in during the winter months.
“The future will belong to the nature-smart — those individuals, families, businesses, and political leaders who develop a deeper understanding of the transformative power of the natural world and who balance the virtual with the real,” Louv said.
Regardless of where you live, the prescription to cure Nature Deficit Disorder is easy to find. All it takes is a weekly dose of the outdoors.
Elizabeth Troutman is a junior studying politics and journalism. She is an editor at the Collegian.
If you ever want to make quick enemies, try dropping the line “everyone should go to therapy.”
You’ll get scoffed at by those who have severe substance abuse problems, run through romantic partners like songs on a Spotify playlist, and who can’t communicate even if their life depends on it.
You do not need severe trauma in order to benefit from regular therapy sessions. You just have to be human.
Therapy offers a chance for an individual to express them selves without judgment. You are given a slot of time you can fill however you choose. You can talk about deep family trau ma, or how what your friend said last week made you upset. Your therapist’s job is to offer hypotheses, help you identify patterns, recognize why you interact with life the way that you do, and offer advice as to how to better yourself.
The biggest misconception when it comes to therapy is that you will be “fixed.” But there isn’t a set number of sessions that will leave you reborn and highly intuitive, ready to approach every new challenge with ease. We are constantly being affected by life, and healing is a cyclic process. In order for therapy to benefit someone, they have to be willing to be vulnerable–a state we culturally seem to have lost touch with.
It is a lot easier to choose numbness, and there have never been more superficial opportunities to fill that void.
Therapy is often viewed as being geared toward women, who are encouraged to interact with their emotional side, de spite often being dismissed for being too “dramatic.” In turn, there seems to be a trend of emotionally intelligent women who are equipped with med ical terminology and a whole toolbox of coping mechanisms. As a result, we’re faced with
men who have yet to even be gin to understand themselves. I think this propels an age-old trend of women being seen as hospitals for broken men.
This dynamic is not het erosexually exclusive. Women can be just as broken and just as destructive in rela tionships. But since women are given more opportunities and encouragement to share those grievances, I think we’re having one conversation in two different languages.
When the topic of mental health comes up, specifically in conservative hot spots like Hillsdale, men will bring up the argument that they are statistically more likely to commit suicide than women. This argument usually flour ishes under the lens of exam ining feminism and its societal effects. And yet, there is still a general widespread hesitance toward treatment.
We don’t need more “manly men.” We need more healed people.
There are many factors that affect someone’s decision to go to therapy or not, but if you’ve ever thought about giving therapy a go, consider this a sign to follow through on it. Working on yourself doesn’t just help you. It’s a service to those around you. When you are better able to examine yourself, you can ex amine others through a more empathetic gaze.
Hillsdale College offers counseling services through the health center. College is a time of sleep deprivation, insane caffeine intake, and experimenting in all realms of life. There’s no shame in asking for support when you need it.
Alexandra Hall is a sophomore studying rheto ric and public address and journalism and biology. She is an assistant editor at the Collegian.
Vice President Kamala Harris stirred up contro versy last week with her claim that the southern border is secure, drawing ridicule from conserva tive pundits as well as some Texas Democrats.
Yet few commenters have considered that she might genuinely mean what she says: the border is exactly as secure as Democrats intend.
Over the last year, according to internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, a record 1.8 million people were en countered illegally crossing the southern border, com pared to only 3.6 million births in the United States.
When combined with the average of 1 million legal immigrants per year, this means that nearly 45% of population growth this year will be from immigra tion, even without count ing illegal immigrants who the border patrol did not encounter.
These demographics benefit Democrats, even while they are disastrous
for average Americans.
Among Hispanic im migrants, 70-80%vote Democrat regularly, and as Democrats continue to oppose voter ID in many states, unknown numbers of illegal immigrants could vote in future elections.
Due to the dominant legal doctrine of birthright citizenship, all children born to illegal immigrant parents on U.S. soil are eligible to vote. According to Pew Research, children of immigrants favor Dem ocrats by double digits in every single region in America.
Within a generation, the face of America will change drastically, and the country moved far to the left even of where it currently is. Harris and her allies have no incentive to pump the brakes on immigration. Immigrants, for the Biden administra tion, are not foreigners to be vetted and made subject to America’s laws. are future voters needing to be welcomed.
Claims like those made by Harris should not come as a surprise.
Neither should Americans be shocked at the recent report from the New York Post that the Biden admin istration has been flying illegal immigrants by night into swing states such as Florida and Pennsylvania.
The Biden administra tion’s immigration policy has not been a failure, it has succeeded in its prima ry objective: to gain more voters for Democrats. The consequence is disaster for ordinary Americans.
In addition to changing the American cultural and political makeup, high levels of immigration bring with them more unem ployment, lower wages, higher costs, and increased levels of drugs and crime. Fox News reported in July that the number of crimes committed by illegal im migrants soared in 2021, with assaults rising 400%, murders rising 1,900%, and drug charges rising 453%.
Average Americans are now looking around their once-flourishing middle class communities and having to face skyrocketing crime, homelessness, and
unemployment. But for the political and economic elites who favor this immi gration policy these issues aren’t a concern.
When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard a few weeks ago, the response of the pro-immigration left was a desperate attempt to hide their upper-class NIMBYism in faux social justice outrage. Democrats are more than willing to reap the benefits of unfet tered immigration, but it has become clear that the consequences will be borne by the American middle class.
When Harris, Home land Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, or other representatives of the Biden administration say the border is secure they are not lying. They are telling ordinary Americans that unrestricted immi gration is here to stay, and that those Americans, not Democrats, have to pay the price.
Liam Martin is a junior studying history.
Life in a democracy de volved in the past several years. A stream of im moral, corrupt politicians keep flowing through Washington, D.C., pro ducing more paparazzi pieces than policy.
Random millionaires leap into the spotlight, raise small fortunes from wealthy donors, spout the right talking points, and waltz into political office.
The scandals won’t pop out until a decade or so into their political career. It’s times like these when monarchy starts to look good again.
A few centuries ago, citizens didn’t wait expectantly for the next politician to leap out of the shadows. They had a steady line of kings and queens to observe and obey. Sure, a coup or rev olution shook things up occasionally, but that was just extra excitement.
The best excitement America had was a group of disorderly right-wing ers storming the capitol. Is that the best democracy can do for excitement in politics?
The benefits don’t just extend to adults either.
When Queen Elizabeth II died, British students got an entire week off of school. When was the last time American students got a week off of school for an American pres ident? Never. We only get one day for George Washington.
Many critics of mon archy claim choosing a ruler through succession fails to . At least in an election, the people can choose their leader to avoid incompetency or tyranny. That sounds nice, but consider a couple of examples. Seventy-threeyear-old Charles III, new ly minted king of England, is the oldest monarch to start his reign. That’s still five years younger than President Joe Biden was
at the start of his term.
Remember which one of those was elected?
But maybe you think the age and mental capaci ty of a ruler doesn’t matter so long as they don’t do anything terrible.
Just imagine a world where we have kings and queens again. Instead of focusing on singers’ ward robe and actor drama, we could focus on royal ward robes and royal drama.
Rather than obsess over who will win the next Su per Bowl, we could obsess over which monarch will throw the football at the next Super Bowl.
No more dreading Thanksgiving dinner for fear of political debates, no more disconnecting the telephone to avoid tele marketers and fundraisers, and no more Facebook arguments between soccer moms. It’s a win-win-win.
Don’t take my word for it, ask a former president.
President John Adams once called democracy bloodier “than either aris tocracy or monarchy.” He would know, he watched a democracy fight a mon archy.
Now’s the time to bring back monarchy and kick start a renaissance of roy alty. Pick a random couple from a sparsely-populated state like Wyoming or Montana and designate them the new royal family. Turn the White House into the White Castle and transform the Secret Service into the Sovereign Service.
If everything falls to pieces, organize a simple revolution and resurrect democracy. Every gov ernment needs a fallback. Right now, this country needs a drastic update and monarchy deserves a second chance.
Nathan Stanish is a soph omore studing the liberal arts and journalism.
Hillsdale College is under attack.
The media and public education bureaucrats are working together to cre ate a false narrative about Hillsdale College. They would like the public to think the college teaches right-wing extremism, but the truth is far differ ent.
Enemies of school choice and quality ed ucation have long seen Hillsdale as a threat and an easy target. The media has always expressed interest in the college, perhaps because it does not teach that boys can be girls or that America is ir redeemably stained by an “original sin” of racism.
Many recent attacks began in July when Phil Williams, a reporter with Nashville News Channel 5, published footage of Hillsdale College Pres ident Larry Arnn at an event with Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who requested Hillsdale begin 50 charter schools in the state.
“Education is easy, you don’t have to know any thing,” Arnn said in the deceptively-edited foot age, which showed only small clips of his remarks. “The teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country.”
News Channel 5, how ever, left out important context.
“My wife is English, and she is a gardener, bigtime,” Arnn said at the
event. “She doesn’t talk about what she is going to do to these plants. She talks about what they need. Because if you give them what they need, they will grow.”
Since the footage leaked, various Tennes see school boards have barred Hillsdale-affil iated charter schools from operating in their districts, denying families the opportunity to obtain a high-quality classical education.
On Sept. 29, Hillsdale withdrew three of its charter school applica tions, which were being considered by the state board of education. But Williams apparently miss es the college, as he made an Oct. 3 radio appear ance to continue discuss ing the “Hillsdale charter school controversy.”
The national media has long seen Hillsdale as an easy target, with outlets like Salon calling the school “far right” and The Daily Beast deriding Hillsdale’s “trash Amer ican citizenship course.”
Even local media in places like South Dakota and Florida have set their sights on the college.
Media outlets nation wide have simply recy cled information about Hillsdale over and over again. The content of these “groundbreaking” reports is already public knowledge.
Hillsdale has long placed itself in the public spotlight. It reaches more than 6 million subscrib ers with its publication
Imprimis, offers free online classes, and hosts prominent conservative speakers such as Jus tice Amy Coney Barrett and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
classical civics education.
The classes are far beyond what I ever ex pected as a student. Great books like “The Odyssey,” Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” and “The Aeneid” have
own lives, and by exten sion, to pursue goodness for the nation.
Those in power, es pecially in the education bureaucracy, see limited government as a threat to their livelihoods. When Hillsdale teaches students that America is essential ly good though imperfect, it’s pushing politics in the classroom. This common unifying idea through out American history is suddenly taking it too far. But those who consider Hillsdale too political should reflect on what they’ve been pushing for more than a decade.
The same ones that ac cuse Hillsdale of pushing politics have been prac ticing critical race theory in the classroom – at first openly, and then covertly when parents began to find out. Today, they have incorporated radical gen der ideology to promote “inclusiveness.” Make no mistake: teaching politi cal, often-explicit mate rial includes no one, but it does exclude parents from their children’s education.
Independence.” Which one sounds like politics, and which one sounds like education?
The national contro versy around Hillsdale is completely fabricated.
The media continues to publish piece after piece, rehashing content that has always been in the open. One finds it difficult to see this for anything other than an effort to stoke panic over the college to further an ti-parent and anti-school choice agendas. Hillsdale is no shadowy group working to subvert public education – it simply stands in the way of ava rice and ambition.
Too many journalists, products of a broken ed ucation system, fail to see past their own subjective realities. When they see any nonconforming insti tution, it’s an anomaly, a spectacle of “extremism.”
Many members of the ed ucation bureaucracy and the media target institu tions that stand in their way. This has happened to Hillsdale.
Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C. campus is a hub for conservatism in the cap ital. Not to mention, the college’s K-12 program offers classical education resources like the 1776 Curriculum to charter schools across the nation.
Hillsdale is clear about its intent to restore Amer ica’s once-prominent Constitution, along with an honest, apolitical, and
taught me about virtues like courage, justice, and piety, along with human nature’s imperfections.
The professors, always open to students, invest in my life and those of my friends. Most stu dents have had similar experiences. Hillsdale is no factory of “far right” extremists, but a school that teaches students to pursue goodness in their
Consider this curric ulum guidance for New Jersey second graders: “Discuss the range of ways people express gen der and how gender-role stereotypes may limit be havior.” Now, review the goal of Hillsdale’s 1776 Curriculum: “Knowledge and understanding of American history and of the American republic as governed by the Constitu tion and morally ground ed in the Declaration of
Conserving the rich tradition of self-gover nance is not extreme. It is one of the most stable and sane things in today’s tumultuous world. Hills dale will continue to offer classical education, “pur suing truth and defending liberty” even when it brings backlash.
Logan Washburn is a junior studying politics and journalism. He is an editor at the Collegian.
Eric Doden ’92 recently approached the Hillsdale County Commissioners with hopes of reviving business across downtown Hillsdale.
According to County Commissioner Doug Ingles, Doden offered to buy the Hillsdale County Courthouse Annex in September.
“Mr. Doden presented a purchase offer to the commissioners, but we have not made a decision on that purchase offer. He did not disclose final plans, so we’ll see how it goes,” Ingles said.
Ingles said he does not know when or how the County Commissioners will decide on Doden’s proposal.
Doden was the Head of Economic Development in Indiana, where he is now running for governor as a Republican. He hopes to use his company Pago USA to
revitalize rust belt towns like Hillsdale.
“We strongly believe in public and private partnerships that result in the public gaining something they could not otherwise,” Pago USA’s website reads.
According to Pago, once the project is completed, local businesses then own the buildings, which returns capital back to the community.
“Once completed, the revitalized village could be purchased by a downtown trust, community foundation, or not-for-profit that would allow the community to own and operate their village,” the company’s website said. “This would permit the village to pay taxes and be continually improved while giving the entire community a sense of pride and respect.”
The term “pago” comes from the Latin word for village, which reflects Doden’s interest in small town America.
Some residents will face thousands of dollars in new taxes as the city council approved a road reconstruction project in the Westwood area on Monday night, amid resistance from locals and council members.
The council approved the project in a 6-3 vote, with Mayor Adam Stockford, Councilman Ray Briner, and Councilwoman Cindy Pratt in opposition.
The project spans much of Ward 3, encompassing Westwood Drive, Sumac Drive, Picardy Place, Azalea Court, Corona Circle, Scenic Drive, and Cold Springs Circle, in addition to Westwood Street from Cold Springs Circle to Lewis Street and Highland and Glendale Avenues from Westwood Street to Bacon Street.
Residents packed into city hall to voice support and opposition of the special assessment district, which would help fund the project, and will be aided by bond sales. The $6.5 million reconstruction project will ultimately cost residents in the Westwood area up to $5,000 over 10 years for each parcel of land owned.
Councilman Bruce Sharp compared the current state of the roads to that of a third-world country. Several residents said the roads’ poor design and maintenance had caused frequent flooding and expensive repairs.
“Within 200 yards of our home, there have been five properties that had to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to correct surface level flooding that got into our basements,” Westwood resident Ed Swanson said. “In our case, it cost us $18,000 out of our pocket.”
Tom Stiverson, another Ward 3 resident, said he has lived in the area for 47 years and watched the road crumble.
“I’ve seen Sumac Drive deteriorate down to nothing,” Stiverson said. “Right now, we would be better off with a dirt road. Then, if it rained, it would at least be smooth.”
Assistant Professor of History Jason Gehrke said the roads pose a safety hazard to children.
“I have five children. The first day we moved into the house we bought, my daughter wiped out on her bike,” Gehrke said. “We also drive through a crater every day to work.”
The $6.5 million project
includes complete road reconstruction, sewer, storm drain, and utility work, according to City Engineer Kristin Bauer. While the special assessment district will cover about $420,000 of the project’s total cost, City Manager David Mackie said the city would cover the remaining $6.5 million by issuing bonds.
The bond issuance resolution to authorize the city to sell bonds to fund the $6.5 million road reconstruction project passed 8-1, with Stockford in opposition.
City Clerk Katy Price said she received 18 letters opposing the special assessment district and five in favor. Critics of the project said the assessment is an immoral and unfair tax on a public good.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy Ian Church said the special assessment district would put a real financial burden on his family, as he owns two and one-third lots of land.
“We are just not in a position to pay that lump sum, and the prospect of having to pay that much with 6% interest isn’t any better for us,” Church said.
Scott Wiseley said the amount of traffic in the Westwood area creates unique circumstances.
“Come sit for a day in our neighborhood and see the amount of traffic that runs through there,” Wiseley said. “I just cannot wrap my head around why we would need to pay for all of that when we aren’t the only ones using it.”
Mackie said the city would only complete the project in stages over 20 years if the special assessment district failed.
“I understand many people are paying taxes and say ‘where do the taxes go?’” Councilman Bill Zeiser said. “But as the city manager outlined, the city’s share of the taxes is not that much, and then of that share, which is a relative pittance, 65% goes toward police and fire.”
Zeiser said he supported the special assessment district because the city exhausted all alternative means of funding the project. Ultimately, he said, he could not withhold his vote in good conscience knowing of the road conditions.
Stockford said he voted against the district as residents said they believed they would get their streets fixed when they voted for a road improvement levy in 2021.
Charging a special assessment on top of the levy, he said, would burden taxpayers more.
“I’m a kid that grew up in small town Indiana, in Auburn and Butler,” Doden said. “I accepted that things were declining.”
After his time at Hillsdale, however, Doden said he grew from apathetic to proactive. Post-graduation, he became the president of the Indiana Development Corporation, as well as the founding partner of Domo Development LLC and Venture LLC.
Doden then partnered with Eric Shields, a coworker at the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and the manager of Cardinal Strategies, an economic development consulting group, to create Pago USA.
“It takes a team effort,” Shields said. “Everyone in the community is going to have a chance to help and build a vibrant place, possibly some of the best small towns in the Midwest.”
Pago USA prides itself in restoring “core buildings” in
24 to 36 months, allowing for a mixed-use business district. Once construction is completed, residents purchase or lease the buildings and create revenue of their own.
“You want to create 10 restaurants, 10 shops, and 10 entertainment venues per town,” Doden said. “Those will then be curated by the owners of the building and the entrepreneurs.”
Funding is obtained through a team of investors, negotiations with current property owners and tenants, and various county, state, and federal grants. These funding sources help pay for construction and consulting fees. In return, ownership of the buildings is given to the community for profit.
Van Wert, Ohio, is the location of one of Doden’s previous projects.
Seth Baker, the chairman of the Van Wert County Foundation, partnered with Pago USA with the goal of revitalizing
the small town under the project title “Van Wert Forward.”
“We had too big of a project to handle, with legal obstructions,” Baker said. “We looked for other property owners and had a conversation about a full block project. In March of 2019, it was Eric Doden who approached us and pitched the idea of the entire downtown all at once.”
In the beginning of 2019, the two groups worked with Van Wert residents and leaders to approve the plans.
“Pago served as a consultant,” Baker said. “We’re just like any small town. I don’t know where Hillsdale is on its development, but we’ve been in the process for two decades now. The city council, the county board, various foundations have all helped make this happen.”
The project was set to begin in June 2019. Since
then, Pago USA has been renovating 35 buildings in downtown Van Wert. While COVID-19 created some setbacks, the groups still expect to finish efficiently.
“I think it’s worth it as a community to have the big conversation,” Baker said. “I remember we’d rolled our eyes initially thinking it was too big to accomplish. You have to have an appetite for change and the unknown. We control our destiny.”
Pago USA and Van Wert Forward both work with impact investments, which both parties describe as “moving investing from Wall Street to Main Street.” Plans for Hillsdale’s downtown are still under development, but Pago USA hopes to deliver profound results.
“There’s no one waiting in the wings to save your community,” Baker said.
“Your state won’t, major corporations won’t. You must.”
A new painting business has just hit $1 million in annual revenue, and now the alumna who started it seeks to expand into masonry, drywall, spray insulation, and housekeeping over the next few years.
“I'm just an entrepreneur at heart,” said Lauren Fink ’07, who founded Apex Painting last year. “I think about what people need and what would make their life easier, like what's missing.”
The company started with Fink and one painter. Now it employs 16 people, and the yard signs that feature a neon-green paint brush and advertise its work are visible all over the community.
“I've always loved running things – having lots of irons in the fire and having to kind of keep it all going,” Fink said.
Fink said she learned an appreciation for the fundamentals of business growing up, as her father was a businessman and CEO of hospitals nationwide. She started thinking of business ideas at the age of 7, selling snacks to her brother and his friends.
“I'm just an entrepreneur at heart,” she said. “I think about what people need and what would make their life easier, like what's missing.”
At age 15, she started a window washing business during the hot summers in her hometown of Phoenix. When she worked a journalism internship there after her junior year of college, Fink baked and delivered chocolate Bundt cakes to the magazine’s subscribers.
As a Hillsdale College student, Fink majored in English and served as the Hillsdale Collegian’s news editor her senior year. She said the skills she learned at the Collegian carry over to entrepreneurship.
“Putting out a paper every week is very complicated, a lot to think about,” Fink said. “The days are never the same anywhere, so it's not monotonous ever.”
After graduating in 2007, Fink worked in journalism for 15 years. When she and her husband, Republican state Rep. Andrew Fink, moved back to Hillsdale in 2017, she immediately started brainstorming potential business ideas. After toying with the idea of opening a donut shop, Fink decided to start a paint business because of the demand for house painting in Hillsdale.
“I came from an artistic family and we always did all our own painting, inside and outside,” Fink said. “That’s not to say I was a professional, but I could see that being a possibility.”
To learn about the field, Fink said she studied the trade by attending conferences, watching YouTube videos, and reading books. Her business model is to enable Hillsdale’s tradesmen and women to do their work while she handles calls, billing, and insurance.
“I want to be able to put tradesmen and women into the field so they can paint or do carpentry or whatever we're doing,” she said. “They can make good money and
Apex Painting. Wismar let Fink shadow him to learn the ins-and-outs of professional painting, and he helped with Apex’s first few jobs.
Fink said the shortage of professional painters can lead to low standards in the field. She seeks to run a business with “real integrity.”
“We pay all of our taxes, we have insurance, I have coverage for all of my employees,” Fink said. “I have auto coverage for every time they're driving a car on the clock. If they fall off a ladder, they're covered. Our tools are all insured. They get paid every Friday, every week of the year.”
Fink said her favorite parts of the job are
friendly business. Fink said journalism prepared her for the pressure of balancing business and family life. Just as she delegated tasks as a Collegian editor, she has learned to rely on her community, she said.
“There are times where I feel inadequate to do both of these jobs well,” she said, “but with good resources and good staff and the ability to delegate and communicate, you can do things because you shouldn't be doing all of it yourself anyway.”
Fink’s 12-year-old daughter, Evangeline, said she admires her mother’s work.
“I like how it's not one of those huge businesses,” Evangeline said. “It's kind of like that little small business in that little small town.”
In March, Fink bought Apex Painting’s first building at 64 E. Hallett St. She said the purchase was motivated by the need for a place to store tiles for the Keefer House Hotel restoration project. Tom Wilson, the builder on the Keefer project, said Fink and her team are professional and detail-oriented.
“She's not afraid to ask questions,” Wilson said. “She wants to make sure that she gets the vision just as well as I do. And she's a great teammate. I'm really looking forward to letting her skills shine when we have the opening and everybody can see what I see — her talent and her team's talent.”
have a stable job.”
She interviewed her first employee, painter Heather Ryan, in May 2021. For the next six months, Fink painted three to four days per week. After about four months, she started to make a profit. As the business gained more capital and Fink hired more painters, she turned to administration, sales, estimating, marketing, and customer care, though sometimes she still pitches in with the painting.
“If I have some time to kill in beautiful weather, I'll get out and grab a paint brush and help the team,” she said.
Apex typically serves around five clients at a time. One of them, retired Hillsdale professor Daniel York, said working with Apex Painting was like working with family.
“I trusted them completely, and they went beyond my expectations,” York said.
Steve Wismar, a long-time Hillsdale County painter who recently retired, helped Fink launch her business, she said. She discussed the paint trade with him in April 2021, and he encouraged her to meet the demand in the county with
customer service and being a job provider to her seven employees and nine subcontractors. Employees range from ages 21 to 51, and six of the 16 employees are women. Most of the women have not worked alongside other female painters before, Fink said.
“In the paint trade, women make up a small percentage,” she said. “There’s a real need for women to have safe and professional workplaces where they are going to be treated in a way that is appropriate.”
Fink said she credits project manager Billy Fry for Apex’s recent spike in monthly revenue. Fry was promoted from a foreman to project manager earlier this year.
“Lauren pushes all of us to try to always get better at whatever we're trying to do and not just settle for where we're at,” Fry said. “She is a great person to work for. She cares about her employees. She cares about our customer service, also.”
Fink said that as a mother of five children, she seeks to run a family-
As for her journalistic roots, Fink said she never plans to stop writing. Soon, she will present a 20-page paper relating craftsmanship and creation at Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center of Ethics and Culture. Fink said working for the Collegian and in local journalism helped her develop an eye for color and design, and prepared her to ask clients questions to develop estimates.
“I’ve been interested in what makes something look symmetrical or makes the colors work together for a long time,” Fink said. “Bringing that into architectural coatings –paints used on the exteriors and interiors of buildings –was a very natural transition and one of my favorite parts of my job.”
Fink said she values a side of painting few recognize.
“Painting is such a part of people's lives,” Fink said. “They often are in a place of change and they want their home to reflect that. The human element of it – it's very emotional.”
A historic locomotive made its last stop of the year in Hillsdale on Oct. 1.
“It’s a lot of work,” said Carl Lyvers, the engine’s fireman. “It’s a labor of love, because you couldn’t pay me enough to do this.”
The Indiana Northeastern Railroad Company’s Engine 765 left Edon, Ohio, at 9 a.m. and arrived in Hillsdale just before noon. The train, which can carry 450 people, was sold out like its previous August trips, according to Kelly LoPresto, the city’s grants and economic development manager.
Zac Maierle, a Grace College student from Elkhart, Indiana, said he bought his ticket after seeing a Ft. Wayne Railroad Historical Society post about the trip on Facebook.
“I’m like, ‘I can take a Saturday off of college to come and do a train ride,’” he said. “I’m a big train guy.”
Maierle said he always wanted to ride a locomotive.
“The little kid in me came out,” he said. “I’ve been
wanting to do this absolutely forever, and now at 22, it’s something I’m crossing off my bucket list.”
The City of Hillsdale and the Rotary Club of Hillsdale set up a tent across the street from the Hillsdale Brewing Company, where city employees and volunteers gave visitors directions.
LoPresto said the college offered bus tours, and visitors took advantage of the Hillsdale County Farmers Market.
“This time, we do have a shuttle to downtown, just to
make it easier for people,” she said.
Heather Tritchka, who works in admissions, and Professor of Chemistry Mark Nussbaum also volunteered at the tent with the Rotary Club. Tritchka said she volunteered to help visitors navigate local businesses.
“We thought it would be nice to have people on the ground that could direct people uptown,” she said. “We’re acting as wayfinders.”
Nussbaum said the Rotary Club also offered maps and information about the town.
During the engine’s previous stop in Hillsdale, Nussbaum said, he and his grandchildren rode the Little River Railroad to Coldwater and Quincy.
The train stop attracted Hillsdale residents to the tracks. Local artist David Youngman set up a table where he sold paintings, and used an easel in the street to sketch the train.
Youngman said during the engine’s previous trip, organizers asked him to paint for them, though he had never painted trains before. But he soon found he enjoyed it.
The Hillsdale County Fair entertained as many as 100,000 fairgoers last week, according to Fair Manager Lori Hull.
The event, which ran from Sept. 27 to Oct. 2, featured live country music, pig races, and a farm magician.
“The most fun thing about the fair is seeing things people that you know have entered,” said Brent Falke, a Hillsdale College alumnus and IT employee who enters fair competitions each year. “It's fun to see the talents people have in the community.”
The fair hosted 710 vendors, which is fewer than in past years, according to Fair Manager Lori Hull.
The fair helped raise awareness about businesses like Sarah Ansett's new company Rocks, Minerals, and More, which will open later this month.
“People seem excited about having a rock and mineral
shop in Hillsdale. They said I had a good selection and good prices,” Ansett said. “It's nice to have that kind of feedback so I know what I'm doing right and what I can improve on.”
Other vendors showed off timber art, macrame, cartoon portraiture, and silk shirts. Several contests featured home items, culinary arts, wine and beer, and photography.
There were vegetable shows and a pumpkin competition, in which a pumpkin weighing 924 lbs. won first place. The fair also featured a haystack competition, and this year’s show animals included goats, cows, and swine.
“Everybody loves the goats,” Falke said. “There's also something really fun about swimming pigs.”
Falke has been competing against his wife in the baking contest for 18 years. This year the couple chose to face-off in the angel food cake baking contest. After the previous year's winner chooses the new category, they practice their baking up until the fair.
“There's something about
the fair that brings out the competition in us,” said Falke.
Falke's children, Sadie, 11, and Parker, 13, competed with their parents in the gourd basket display and against each other in baking, photography, and lego creations. Sadie got a blue ribbon in decorated cupcakes.
Grandstand events featured an International Demo Derby, a Bump-and-Run Demo, and a Western Days Ministry Rodeo, according to Hull. Monster trucks performed tricks on Saturday such as jumping over walls and flying off ramps, Falke said.
“One driver did something I've never seen before, he balanced it on its front tires like a handstand for about 20 to 30 seconds,” Falke said. “It was very impressive.”
There are some events Falke said were tucked in the corners of the fair that people often miss, such as the fundraisers, the Donut Hut, and the 4-H Kitchen.
The fair featured two antique museums, the Little White House of the Hill and
the Faire Museum.
The Little White House on the Hill, given to the Hillsdale Historical Society 10 years ago, contains items from the 1850s, when the fair first opened.
Joanne Marowellin, who manages the museum, was thankful for volunteers who have improved the building. Marowellin is a member of the Daughters of American Revolution.
“We want to help people know how Hillsdale County has been in the past,” Marowellin said.
The Faire Museum was restored from a restaurant and has been running for four years.
When Falke was younger he rarely went to the fair, but after he started living in town he said he realized how special the fair is to people in the county.
“The fair brings together people from all over the county, not just Hillsdale,” Falke said. “It's fun to see the different types of people here.”
Police in the city of Hillsdale will soon have ballistic shields to protect themselves from shooters, and are considering radio system upgrades.
“We’ve got a lot of safety equipment, a lot of people trained for this,” Hillsdale Police Chief Scott Hephner said. “This is just the last little bit.”
The City Council approved the purchase of five new ballistic shields on Sept. 19, according to Hephner. He also advised the council of the need to upgrade the police radio system, Councilman Greg Stuchell said.
According to Hephner, the ballistic shields will be strong enough to withstand
rifle fire. They cost a total of around $31,000, he said, but the money will come from the department’s budget, so no additional spending was required.
The police department found “a gap” in its response to potential active-shooter situations, Hephner said, which prompted officials to consider purchasing ballistic shields. He said officials did not make this decision in response to threats at local schools this spring.
“It was more of doing some research regarding things nationally,” he said.
Police have also been working with schools to prepare for a potential activeshooter situation, Hephner said. Officers attend staff meetings, and school officials inform police of recent developments and survival
strategies.
“They know what we’re going to be doing when we get there,” Hephner said. “They’re always coming up with things you should do to ensure your best case of survivability.”
When school is not in session, according to Hephner, district leadership offers their buildings for police training.
Hephner said aging police radios also pose a safety concern. Officers in the city of Hillsdale frequently run across interference or lose signal while on the job.
“We’re trying to upgrade; everybody else already has,” Hephner said. “It’s a public safety issue.”
The police department currently uses a VHF radio system, he said, while the state and surrounding counties operate on a newer
“tried and true” 800 MHz system. This makes it difficult to communicate with agencies outside the county, which Hephner said puts officers on a “VHF island.”
“We may not be able to communicate with outside resources,” Stuchell said.
The city council and police department are exploring funding options, according to Stuchell, such as drawing from a budget surplus or state grant.
“Public safety, as far as the city and council, they’re always taking that very seriously,” Councilman Tony Vear ‘82 said.
A recent bond proposal to install an 800 MHz radio system across the county failed. Hephner said the proposal would require $11 million in funding.
“I just love the people aspect,” Youngman said.
Daniel Meckstroth, father to Margee Meckstroth ’05, has volunteered with Indiana Northeastern for 10 years. He said he worked on trains for three summers in college, and has taken them as a lifelong interest. Meckstroth said he loves working on Engine 765, which runs at 4,000 horsepower and weighs more than 400 lbs.
“It gives me something to do in retirement. It gives me goosebumps just to be able to serve,” he said. “I mean, there’s something about railroading that attracts people.”
The locomotive has been everywhere, Lyvers said, including places like New York City; Chicago; St. Louis, Missouri and Huntington, West Virginia. But Lyvers said he enjoys the Hillsdale trip more than most places.
“It’s a nice ride, it’s scenic,” he said. “Most of the time when you’re riding behind the train, you’re looking at everybody’s dump.”
Indiana Northeastern has a “mutually beneficial” agreement to continue the
Hillsdale trips for three more years, according to Lyvers. Lyvers said he worked in a hospital for years, but began working on the train in 1977 after seeing the national Freedom Train in 1975, which celebrated the nation’s bicentennial.
“I saw the guys hanging out of their crew car and said, ‘I want to do that,’” Lyvers said. “It took me about five years and I found this. They were in the process of rebuilding, and I’ve been with it ever since.”
Lyvers considers working on the train his “dirty job,” he said. He said unlike his hospital job, when something frustrates him, he can “take a cutting torch or a wrench to it.”
Lyvers said he is willing to make sacrifices to keep the locomotive running.
“I like to watch the old people with tears, remembering what they used to do, and the young kids who are just totally enthralled,” he said. “That’s what makes all the grief and the sleepless nights worth it.”
Jax Kar Wash is continuing to upgrade faculties in the coming month, following its purchase and takeover of Oasis Car Wash on Carleton Street in April.
“There are a lot of changes that are coming,” manager Bill Buehrle said.
Buehrle said the car wash will install new tire brushes and new car wash features, like ceramic coating and “dry and shine.”
“The dryer system will be completely different,” Buehrle said. “The dryers will be telescopic and come really close to the sides of the vehicle.”
Jax Kar Wash was founded by Jack Milen as National Car Wash in 1950 in Detroit, according to its website. The wash, which was located on the corner of 6 Mile and Meyers Roads, was open 24 hours a day and cost $1. The wash remains a family-owned business with Jack’s sons, Mike, Bruce, and Tony, and his grandson Jason running the business after him. The Jax Kar Wash Rewards Program gives customers the 11th wash free, and a free birthday wash.
Before 2022, Jax grew to nine car washes and detailing centers in the greater Detroit area.
But this year, a group of investors from an equity firm began expanding the company in February 2022, according to Floating Manager Dave Brady.
“They were looking to double our locations by the end of the year,” Brady said.
“Instead, we have already tripled.”
This has included buying out and absorbing Oasis’ five locations, including its Hillsdale location, as well as Michigan-based Super Wash’s 11 locations and Jilly’s Car Wash’s five locations in Wisconsin.
“We are talking about moving into Ohio and Indiana and everywhere in between,” Brady said.
Buehrle, who worked for Oasis for more than 10 years, said he has enjoyed working for Jax even as he has had to adapt to some changes.
“I have nothing negative whatsoever,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier with how they have helped.”
Buehrle said all Oasis services will formally switch over to Jax plans by Oct. 21.
During this time of transition, Jax is offering a promotion during the month of October. All customers who select a monthly unlimited wash plan above $30 per month will get two months of free car washes, according to Brady.
“You won’t get charged until Jan. 5,” Buehrle said.
Customers can sign up for this deal online, over the phone, or by coming to the car wash, where Jax provides membership services advisers to stand by the pay machines and answer any questions, Buehrle said.
“Our company motto is ‘the customer is always right,'” Buehrle said. “We will rewash the car and spend the extra time to make sure the customer is happy.”
Hillsdale County residents are taking advantage of local alternatives, as Michigan’s food prices increased nearly 14% in the last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The increase in state food prices surpassed the national average by about 5%.
Locals are turning to the Hillsdale County Farmers Market, which offers a venue where local producers sell bread, vegetables, meats, dairy products, and much more.
Colleen Fadden, who shops at the market, says she saves money by purchasing fresh local products.
Fadden said she loves the fall weather, but hates the time of year because it means markets and gardens start closing down. She said she visits the grocery store more frequently now that prices have risen, but she buys less per trip so that individual bills are smaller.
Local resident Katie Stockdale said price increases affect her family’s decisions, such as when to buy seasonal food, how much to drive, and
whether to buy non essential items.
“You quickly realize that you don’t actually need certain things,” Stockdale said. “We strategically time our gas tanks to empty at the same time so that we can simultaneously use our gas discount at Kroger to maximize our savings. Inseason food is cheaper due to greater abundance, so we try to shop according to the time of year.”
A vendor at the farmers market, Ted Landel, sells succulents and cacti. He said rising prices aren’t just
affecting shoppers; they’re also damaging the farming industry because farms’ resource costs are increasing,
about 14%, or $650 per acre, over the past year.
but their revenue is not. The USDA estimates the price of farmland has increased by
“I’m opting for the store brand as opposed to my favorite small business that I normally support, because it’s not cost effective anymore,” Jessi Snyder, another farmer’s market shopper, said. “I have a family, and when you’re feeding a whole family, you have to figure out how to stretch your dollar.” Hillsdale County is home to about 750 businesses, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Small businesses could lose customer support in favor of larger businesses.
Hillsdale residents have a few suggestions for reducing spending to counteract inflated prices. Fadden proposed planting gardens and shopping locally. Landel is turning to Dollar Tree for dry goods. Snyder hunts and preserves meat.
Price hikes may not continue forever. International Monetary Fund data shows inflation rates may have hit their peak this year, and it predicts rates will drop as sharply as they rose.
“You have to figure out how to stretch your dollar.”
The men’s golf team took fourth place in the Kyle Ryman Memorial Invitational Monday and Tuesday, with senior Drew Gandy taking second place individually.
“We had some bright spots,” said head coach Matt Thompson. “We did some things well, and there are still some things we’ve got to clean up if we want to keep trudging in the right direction.”
The Chargers shot 888 to take fourth in the 13 team field. Leading the lineup was senior Ger ry Jones Jr., who shot an even-par 216 to tie for fourth-place overall in the tournament. Jones said he was pleased with his performance.
“I'm pretty proud of how I played, especial
ly bouncing back after the second round which was pretty rough,” Jones said. “Being able to have a bogey-free final round and finish the tournament at even-par total and get a top five felt pretty nice.”
Not in the lineup for this tournament, Gandy competed individually and took second place in the tournament. His score of 213 left him three strokes under-par, his best perfor mance at the invitational to date. Gandy said the performance was a wel come confidence booster after a rough start to his fall season.
“Coming down the stretch, I put myself in a position to win the tourna ment,” Gandy said. “That's all you can really ask for go ing into the last nine holes. That was both exciting and a good experience.”
Thompson said he was
glad to see Gandy have a breakout performance.
“He's been working re ally hard for a long time,” Thompson said. “It was re ally cool to see everything
room for improvement on its putting and chipping.
“It always comes down to our short game,” Thompson said. “Our chipping and putting tends to be where we give away strokes with a three-putt here and there.”
The Chargers will compete in Michigan for the first time next week end, traveling to Stoatin Brae Golf Club in Augusta, Michigan, to play in the Panther Invitational Oct. 15 and 16.
I am all for college foot ball and always have been. In fact, I prefer it to NFL football. But I see problems with the emerging mega conference landscape.
fall into place. I know he's felt like he's been due for a tournament like that. It was cool to see him play that well and contend to win a tournament.”
Both Thompson and Jones said the team had
“I think we have a good opportunity in these last couple of events to go into the winter and spring with some momentum,” Thompson said. “I think we can clean up some of the small details. If every body can just save a stroke here and there, we’re look ing pretty good.”
The rising formula makes sense in terms of markets, and there are certainly big winners finan cially in big football. Why wouldn't the University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles leave the PAC12, high school football's best conference, for one that promotes competition and, more importantly, offers very large TV deals?
The pact is also mutually beneficial because the Big Ten has now acquired as sets in the booming market of Los Angeles. It is corpo rate genius in a sport that is primarily a business. But if it continues (and it will), college football as we know it will cease to exist. Will fans just be fed another league and players' careers? Well, most will fatigue.
The current constituents of the NCAA are the Power 5 conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, ACC, and, increasingly less powerful, the PAC-12), as well as various smaller conferences and a few independents. Programs used to build on the talent they recruited, but when tight transfer regulations gave way, the transfer portal made leav ing convenient for talented upstarts like Quinn Ewers to make a name for them selves, as well as for lagging stars like Spencer Rattler to salvage their career. Since
2021, college players have been able to profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). In the age of high transferability, this obviously enables high-end players to seek not only the best teams, but also teams which will allow them to make the most money.
With high-level players able to move on a yearly basis, the market explodes and the transfer portal essentially becomes free agency. Lower-level players will be out of a scholar ship and even mid-level starters will have trouble finding roles in otherwise lucrative situations. Thus, programs no longer need to use recruitment as the only foundation for suc cess. They can now easily manipulate the market to entice stars with promising talent by offering highways to attractive NIL deals. This problem has already come to fruition at Texas A&M, and it is doubtful that they will be the last school to take those liberties. The fact that performers should be paid is not lost on me. I understand that. But the NCAA is entering dan gerous waters by treating a small class of hyper-tal ented college athletes as professionals.
Talented players will be drawn to profitable pro grams and profitable pro grams will be drawn to ex pansive markets. They will join those conferences that provide a route to them.
Likewise, large conferences will look to grow their size by reaching out to profit able programs which will spark an explosion destined to destroy tradition.
When sophomores Seth Capelli and Charlie Albus took over leadership of the club baseball team this past spring, there was very little to be excited about.
“It was definitely a sand lot operation,” Albus said.
The Hillsdale men’s tennis team finished their fall season strong last weekend, with junior Brennan Cimpeanu earning his second G-MAC player of the week for the fall season at the G-MAC Invitational against Walsh University and host school Northwood University.
“The day before the tour nament we found out that Findlay pulled out and that Tiffin wasn't going to be there either, taking some of the grandeur out of the event,” senior Tyler Conrad said. “This weekend makes me feel like we have a lot to prove this spring. We didn't go out and dominate the tournament as expected, so we have a lot of work to do in the offseason, so we can show we are the top team in the G-MAC.”
The home match against the Indiana Tech Warriors on Sept. 25 set the Chargers up for a successful G-MAC Invitational with a strong performance and a final score of 4-3. In doubles, Cimpeanu and junior Sean Barstow won their match.
“Our strength was our
singles matches since we won 4 out of the 6,” freshman Nik Wastcoat said. “Our weakness was doubles where we had some small problems and many mistakes that won't happen again.”
Cimpeanu at No. 1 singles, Conrad at No. 2 singles, Barstow at No. 4 singles, and Wastcoat at No. 6 singles all came out with wins for the Chargers.
“Personally I did very well,” Wastcoat said. “I had made some big mistakes in the doubles match and we ended up losing doubles, so I am very proud of myself for being able to shake that off and clinch the win for the team. For the upcoming invi tational I want to improve my decision making on court and make less small mistakes.”
At the Invitational on Friday, Sept. 30, Cimpeanu beat both opposing schools’ No. 1 singles players: North wood (6-3, 6-4) and Walsh (7-6 (5), 6-2). On Saturday, he also came away with a victory against Walsh (6-3, 6-1). Because of his strong performance, he was named G-MAC player of the week.
“This was the first time we’ve had this tournament,”
senior Bogdan Janicijevic said. “It went okay, but not great. We gotta do better. However Brennan did amaz ing as he won all his matches and thus deservedly got G-MAC player of the week.”
Barstow finished 2-1 in singles, beating both his Walsh and Northwood oppo nents on Friday. Junior Daniel Gilbert, Wastcoat, freshman Lennart Kober, and Janici jevic all claimed a victory in their singles matches.
“We had a lot of problems last year so we lost a bunch of matches, which we were not used to,” Janicijevic said. “We have to practice a lot and get that confidence back, and then surely we will have a great season, and be one of the biggest contenders for the conference title.”
Cimpeanu and Barstow beat the No. 1 doubles teams for both Walsh and Northwood. The other three doubles teams finished 1-1 with Conrad and freshman Aidan Pack picking up a win against Walsh. Senior Brian Hackman and Wastcoat and Gilbert and Kober picked up wins against Northwood.
“Walsh and Northwood have better teams than
expected, and our team didn't play its best,” Conrad said. “This is the first year of this invitational existing, so hopefully it goes better in the future. I played alright per sonally. I lost 3 close singles matches against some of the best in the G-MAC, and won both my doubles matches.”
After October, due to NCAA restrictions, the team’s practice time will be cut down to a maximum of eight hours a week. The Chargers’ first match back will be against Cornerstone University on Feb. 4, 2023.
“This weekend and the entire fall season was okay, so that gives us some confi dence for the spring season,” Janicijevic said. “We are looking much better than last season, however we still gotta work very hard because other G-MAC teams are stronger than ever. Brian is coming back from an injury so he will be a huge addition when he is at 100%. The freshmen are also doing well and they keep improving, so I believe we will be very good by the time spring season comes.”
“There were no tryouts, uniforms, helmets or bats.
Practice rarely happened, and the only opponents the club could find were through a men’s league in Ann Arbor.”
Senior Ethan Tong said their competitions are very different from week to week.
“Sometimes we would play a squad of guys in their twenties, most of whom were picking up a bat for the first time,” Tong said. “Other weeks we would face a team of former minor leaguers in their seventies who were still throwing fastballs in the eighties.”
Playing in this fall league required the club to travel to Ann Arbor every Sunday for a double-header, often taking up most of the day.
“It was just too much of a commitment for most guys,” Capelli said. “Because of this we rarely had enough to field a full team.”
The club has competed in the Ann Arbor league since its founding in 2014, with the number of students participating varying greatly every year. Sometimes nearly twenty players would make the trek, while other games Hillsdale was forced to forfeit.
That all changed this spring when Capelli and Albus took over the club. They left the Ann Arbor league and started reaching out to other colleges with
club teams in the area. Their focus was to find the bal ance between competitive baseball and a low commit ment club sport.
With only a handful of players planning to return for fall, joining a club league was off the table, and scheduling games without enough players was dan gerous. Albus and Capelli decided to take the risk by scheduling games with near by schools such as Oakland and Adrian College, betting on a large enough freshmen class to fill the gaps in their roster.
Luckily, the class of 2026 delivered, with nearly 20 sign-ups at the Source, and 10 players who have been regularly coming to prac tices.
“I support Charlie and Seth in the new direction they are taking the team,” Tong said. “While it’s been fun playing the older guys, we much prefer playing se riously against other college club teams.”
Along with the schedule changes, uniforms have been ordered, and ball caps are in the works. The team also now has an official practice time and location: 2-4 p.m. at the varsity field on Sundays. The club base ball team is an opportunity for anyone who’s interested in dusting off the glove and hitting a few balls.
Capelli emphasized that the team is always looking for more players.
“Even if you can’t make it to the practices, show up to a game and we’ll get you into an inning,” Capelli said.
Competitive opportuni ties will continue to increase as interest in the club grows, bringing Hillsdale club baseball to new horizons in the coming years.
“If everybody can just save a stroke here and there, we're looking pretty good."
-Matt Thompson
The Hillsdale Chargers football team fell to the Ken tucky Wesleyan Panthers 2731 in a tough road battle for its first in-conference loss of the season.
Hillsdale now falls to 3-2 overall, and sits at third place in the G-MAC standings, behind the Tiffin Dragons and Ashland Eagles, who are 3-0 and 2-0 respectively.
The Chargers were either beating or tied with the Panthers for all but the final 99 seconds of the second half before a late touchdown gave Kentucky its first lead since the second minute of the second quarter.
“I thought we played as physical as we have played, and I thought we had great field position all day through a great perfor mance in the kicking game,”
head coach Keith Otterbein said. “We just missed our opportunities to capture momentum and really seize control of the game. As you go through a game, if you let somebody hang around, what happened can happen.”
Though playing with a broken hand, sophomore wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa still led the team in recep tions and receiving yards, catching six passes for 85 yards. Despite adding no touchdowns to his season total, TeSlaa remains tied for the nation’s lead in receiv ing touchdowns among Division II players. He also ranks third in the nation in receiving yards, with 657 on the season. Even so, Otter bein said the offense’s use of Run Pass Option (RPO) plays resulted in less targets for TeSlaa.
“He made a phenomenal catch on the first drive, that was pretty incredible, kind
of behind the guy’s back, or around him,” Otterbein said.
“We had some plays called to target him, and with the RPO game, sometimes they’re not there, and you hand the ball off.”
The Chargers scored touchdowns on each of their first two drives, both capped off by runs from junior running back Caden Gog gins, who finished the game scoring touchdowns on two of his four carries.
“I think we did super well with running the ball and keeping that momentum in the first half,” senior run ning back Michael Herzog said. “We just had to keep that rolling throughout the second half.”
Herzog led the team in rushing, finishing the game with 18 carries for 81 yards.
On the drive following the Chargers’ second score, the Panthers’ punt was blocked, and sophomore
The Hillsdale College women’s cross country team placed 24th overall at the Louisville Cross Country Classic 5k race on Sept 30 and Oct 1.
The Chargers placed seventh among Division II teams, besting several Divi sion I teams in the process.
“This race is fast and big enough to simulate a nation als race, so the overall team goal was to practice keeping a cool and collected mindset and race competitively in this type of overwhelming setting,” sophomore Liz Wamsley said. “I thought the race went really well. On the whole, the girls executed their race goals and strate gies the way we all wanted to.”
According to Wams ley, the smoothness of the course made it easier to run quicker.
“The course was very flat and fast,” Wamsley said. “We did two large loops and then an extra 1k to the finish. There was one treacherous dip that was a bit scary to do with the number of people in the race, but thankfully everyone kept their footing.”
Wamsley finished first for Hillsdale, taking 51st overall at a time of 17:38.5. It was a close finish, with the
runners before and after her crossed the line with times that differed only by frac tions of a second.
“I wanted to treat this race like a Nationals race and place in the top 50,” Wamsley said. “Coach White also wanted us to go into the race with the mindset that we would be satisfied with our efforts no matter the outcome of the race and grateful for the opportunity to race. I think that helped put us in a confident head space for this race.”
Junior Gwynne Riley fin ished second for Hillsdale, taking 75th overall with a time of 17:54.4. Junior Meg Scheske followed close behind, finishing 3rd for Hillsdale and 78th overall with a time of 17:56.4.
“Two important moments during the race were when I came up on my teammates Gwynne and then Meg,” Wamsley said. “The race had a lot of people and went out very fast, so I lost sight of my teammates almost immediately and had no idea where people were in the race. Seeing both of my teammates navigating the packed race with confidence really helped me keep a handle on my emotions during the race and just run it competitively.”
Sophomore Kayla Loescher finished 4th for
Hillsdale at 230th overall, crossing the finish line at 18:57.1. Sophomore Vera Thompson finished 5th for Hillsdale and 255th overall, taking a time of 19:07.7.
Junior Natalie Martinson finished 6th for Hillsdale, taking 283rd overall with a time of 19:20.5. Martinson said while she didn’t achieve her personal goal for this meet, she thought the team performed well.
“It was a very competitive meet and there were a lot of runners around the same pace,” Martinson said. “It didn’t spread out until after halfway, so the first mile we were very focused on getting around people and not get ting buried in the race.”
Next week, the women’s cross country team will race in the Lucian Rosa Invite in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The race will be on Oct. 8 and will take place at the Parkside Course.
“For the next meet, one goal is to familiarize ourselves with the course because Kenosha will be holding the Regionals meet this year,” Riley said. “We ran at the Kenosha meet last year and were initially shocked by the degree of hills on the course, so know ing how tough the course is beforehand, we hope to run faster times.”
running back Jack Robinson returned the loose ball 37 yards for Hillsdale’s third touchdown of the day.
After halftime, however, the Chargers offense never found the end zone again. Hillsdale turned the ball over three times in the sec ond half, including two of fifth-year senior quarterback Luke Keller’s three intercep tions.
“The fact that it was three picks wasn’t it, but the fact that he missed some of his throws that he normally would make, those are the things that you’ve got to worry about” Otterbein said.
A Panthers touchdown with under ten minutes to play tied the score, and after a three-and-out from Hillsdale, an interception by freshman defensive back Vince Francescone gave the Chargers the ball back on Kentucky’s nine yard-line.
“They ran a little bit of
a boot action out toward us, faked the hand off, and booted it around,” Fran cescone said. “I had a guy coming toward my flat but I saw the quarterback eyeing down the guy behind me, so I just dropped off my guy and stepped in there.”
The Chargers, however, were unable to capitalize, picking up just two yards in three plays before regaining the lead with a field goal from sophomore Julian Lee.
The following drive, the Panthers used eight plays to march 75 yards and score a touchdown with under two minutes left to play. Though the Chargers’ defense forced a turnover on downs in between, interceptions on back-to-back drives sealed Hillsdale’s first G-MAC loss of the season.
“We just didn’t make plays when we needed to make plays this weekend,” Francescone said. “We're
looking forward to moving on to the next one. We’ve got a big one coming up and I think everyone’s ready to go for this one.”
The Chargers will be facing off against the conference-leading Drag ons this weekend for their Homecoming game. Tiffin is second in the G-MAC in scoring both offensively and defensively, and lead the conference in rushing de fense. The game is set to kick off at 4 p.m. on Saturday in Frank “Muddy” Water Stadium.
“They’ve got dudes,” Ot terbein said. “They’ve got a really good quarterback who throws it well. They’ve got good skill, especially their wide receiver #1. They’ve got a really good running back, who is very very difficult to bring down, and they’re the complete package when it comes to the defensive side of the ball.”
The Hillsdale softball team played four games this weekend, beating the Con cordia University Ann Arbor Cardinals and the Division I Valparaiso University Cru saders.
On Saturday, the team played a doubleheader against the Crusaders at Valparai so University, winning the first game 3-2 and losing the second 3-0.
On Sunday the team trav eled to Concordia University Ann Arbor where they played the Concordia Cardinals and the Lansing Community Col lege Stars. In the first game the team beat Concordia 10-9. In the second game the team lost 9-8 to the Lansing Community College Stars.
The team was scheduled to travel to the University of Northwestern Ohio on Saturday instead of Valparaiso University, but that double header was canceled.
“On Saturday, we played well in both games,” head coach Kyle Gross said. “Our defense was really on top of things which helped us win the first game. We did a good job holding our own against a Division I team.”
Sophomore outfielder Ol ivia Latimer said Sunday was exciting because both of the
games were high scoring.
“We had a lot of innings when we were on offense where we scored multiple runs,” Latimer said. “It was really great to see the team being able to manufacture multiple runs in an inning because that just makes it so much easier for our pitchers. When we are more relaxed we're able to score runs offen sively and that's the name of the game.” Latimer was third on the team for doubles last spring, with 16 runs batted in.
Sophomore pitcher Joni Russell pitched the entire first game against the Crusaders.
“She only gave up four or five hits,” Gross said. “How ever, we made a critical error at the end of the first game that gave Valparaiso two runs so they had the tagging run on second base but two outs and Joni struck out the final batter.”
Gross said despite the er ror, the defense has improved since the last games.
“Our defense was really solid,” Gross said. “We had to play really good defense or else Valparaiso was going to score a lot of runs with play after play. Our defense was there for it.”
According to Gross, the team’s pitching was not strong on Sunday but the offense came alive.
“It’s typical for pitching to not be as strong in the fall,” Gross said. “We'll be working on getting consistent with our pitching for the spring.”
Russel said that pitching for an entire game can be a challenge.
“Honestly, I was really shocked that I pitched the entire game because I haven't pitched a full game since May,” Russel said. “During practice, we only pitch one or two innings so getting thrown for seven innings at once was hard but I did it. Overall, I'm hitting spots really well.”
Last spring, Russel had the second most strikeouts in the G-MAC, with a posting of 160.
Gross said this weekend was the first time the team has traveled this year, giving the freshmen a chance to see what it's like to be on the road with the team.
“Overall I feel like we're starting out at a much better position than we started out last year in the fall,” Latimer said. “It's really exciting to see how we've already built up to a higher point this fall than we were last fall. That speaks really well for our potential in the spring.”
The team will play their last fall game at 5 p.m. on Oct. 21 at Michigan State Universi ty against the Michigan State University Spartans.
After five hard fought sets, the Hillsdale volleyball team dropped its first in-con ference match since 2017, breaking a 92-match win streak last Friday night before rebounding with a four-set win on Saturday.
Prior to Friday’s loss, the team had won 78 straight regular season G-MAC matches as well as 14 straight postseason matches against G-MAC opponents.
The Chargers played in road matches against the Ce darville Yellowjackets and the Ohio Dominican Panthers on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, losing 2-3 to the Yellowjackets and picking up a 3-1 win over the Panthers. The split leaves Hillsdale with a 15-3 record, 8-1 in conference.
“I wouldn't say we had our best day, but Cedarville played extremely well,” head coach Chris Gravel said. “They were the better team that day, so we don’t want to take anything away from them.”
The Chargers came out strong against the Yellowjack ets with a decisive 25-11 first set win, but, as has been the case several times this season, they failed to control the sec ond set in the same manner.
Cedarville took the next two sets 25-17 and 27-25, forcing the Chargers into a tough spot down 1-2 heading into the fourth set.
Hillsdale was able to stave off defeat, winning that set 26-24, but ultimately came up short with a 15-11 loss in the fifth set. The Chargers, how ever, did see some strong per formances. Sophomore libero Alli Wiese finished with 38 digs, a single match personal best and just two shy of the program record set by her sister and current assistant coach, Taylor, in 2019. Soph omore outside hitter Marilyn Popplewell led the team in kills, tallying a single–match personal best at 19.
Following this weekend’s matches Wiese is averaging nearly the same number of digs per set, 5.37, as she did last year when she set the program’s single season dig record with 5.38 digs per set.
“It was definitely a tough loss for the team, but I think we can learn a lot from it, and apply what we learned to future matches and practice,” senior middle hitter Linnea Larson said. “I think the team is feeling driven to improve this week in practice and prepare for the rest of the season.”
The loss marks the end of an impressive streak that
began on Sept. 15, 2017, when the Chargers last fell in a similar 5-set match to the same team. But, according to sophomore setter Lauren Pas saglia, the team is approach
ing the loss with a positive mindset.
“Obviously, no one wants to lose or be the team that breaks the streak but now that it’s happened there’s al
most a pressure lifted off the team’s shoulders,” Passaglia said. “We now get an oppor tunity to start a new winning streak and continue to work to our potential without the fear of losing.”
On Saturday the Chargers were given a chance to pick themselves back up against Ohio Dominican, and, de spite a first set loss, were able to sweep sets two through four and finish out the week end with a win.
“The mindset was that we were going to take out our agressions on Ohio Domin ican, but it didn't quite work out that way,” Gravel said. “It was still a match where we were struggling a little bit, but we made a lot of good plays in key situations and were able to walk away with a win.”
Larson said that the team was able to secure the win due to the mental strength and tenacity of the players even after the tough loss the day before.
“On Saturday against Ohio Dominican, we came out a little timid, but ultimately in the second set and for the rest of the game, we had a champion mindset,” Larson said. “It was ultimately our energy and mindset that won that game.”
This week the Chargers
will prepare for matches on Oct. 7 and 8 against the Tiffin Dragons and Ashland Eagles.
“We're going back to watch a lot of film,” Gravel said. “We’ll be doing indi vidual sessions with people about their game and looking at what they might not realize that could be considered wasted movement.”
Gravel also said that the team will keep working to maintain the peak physical condition that has aided them so far in the season.
“We’re going to continue to work on being the fittest and strongest team out there so we can outlast teams,” Gravel said. “A lot of teams when they play a game like we did on Friday, don't have a whole lot the next day. But we were still able to take care of business whereas Cedar ville did not, they lost the next day.”
The tough weekend, ac cording to Passaglia, will only provide more fuel for motiva tion moving forward.
“This weekend is going to be another challenging weekend,” Passaglia said. “But after experiencing a loss the team is more motivated than ever to continue to push each other and work even harder.”
When I sat down for my first internship lunch in Washington, D.C., the last thing I expected to need was knowledge of sports. I had brushed up on the news, studied politics, and went shopping for business professional outfits. But no one at lunch was talking about President Biden or inflation. They were talking about the previous night’s baseball game.
There can be a mindset at Hillsdale that sports don’t matter in the real world. I’ve heard countless students say that they’re busy studying and don’t care about watching games. But besides the entertain ment and fun of sports, there’s a purely practical reason to care about them: your future career. No amount of studying Aris totle will make up for the awkward silence when a coworker asks you which team you back in the AFC playoffs and you’re won dering what sport they’re talking about.
According to Gallup, more than half of Ameri cans consider themselves to be sports fans, making sports a natural topic of
conversation. Even com mon office jargon and cliches are sports-related:“ dropped the ball,” “knocked it out of the park,” and “utility player.” Sports are brought up constantly in business, at the water cool er, during office lunches, and post-work bar nights.
Sports unify as much as they divide. Despite geographic differences and team rivalries, talking about and watching sports bonds people. Besides sports jerseys, what other type of clothing makes total strangers cheer or boo as you walk past?
Even better than know ing sports is playing them. A stunning 90% of Fortune 500 CEOs play golf and 80% of business profession als agree that playing golf helps establish contacts, according to research from Syracuse University. Of those surveyed, 93% said playing golf with a business associate helps establish closer relationships.
Of course, not everyone will like sports or want to play them. But it’s worth knowing even a minimal amount about them.
Lack of sports knowledge in the workplace is such a com mon problem that sports caster Jen Mueller even
wrote a book about it, “Talk Sporty to Me.” In it, she demonstrates how to use sports lingo in profession al settings to further your career.
“Mueller suggested sports haters spend five minutes a day (or even five minutes a week!) tuning in to the top sports head lines to have a baseline awareness of what’s cul turally relevant,” MSNBC reported. “All it takes is being able to deliver one 15-second sports headline to show that you pay some attention.”
As my internship pro gressed, I realized what a huge disadvantage it was to not follow sports. I found that at the end of the day, people in politics and business rarely want to dis cuss politics and business. Sports provide a break, entertainment, and a con stantly fresh topic. I started to follow big games and occasionally donned my Pittsburgh gear–and soon learned that a Pirates jersey elicits more sympathy than celebration.
While I may never be a mega-fan, three internships in Boston and D.C. have shown me the importance of sports in the last place I expected: the office.
Homecoming week activities are in full swing and the traditional photo contest has a bit of a Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” to it this year. Replacing the photo competition from years past, teams created music videos featuring their favorite ’60s artists.
The women of Kappa Kappa Gamma are far from blue about their first victory of the homecoming festivi
ties, now wouldn’t it be nice to have a bottle of Kappa Coke at this weekend’s game? Recreating an iconic Coke ad of the ’60s, Kappa showcased its cinematogra phy and created a compel ling piece of art. Greek Row and Chi Omega delivered fun perfor mances as well. Serenading their members with The Beach Boys, some notewor thy aspects were the use of Chi O colors for the actress es’ blazers and the dedicated
acting of the lovely southern, Midwest, and northern ladies. From Greek Row, costumes were refreshingly accurate and speed limits were possibly obeyed, even while blasting Led Zeppelin and driving through cam pus. Simpson’s jailbreak was definitely underrated. With its grand opening stunt of a member swinging on a sheet and falling from a balco ny, their use of Elvis was surprisingly unique among the submissions despite the
recent film release.
The Beatles, however, made a consistent appear ance in the ’60s-themed activity, appearing in several of the submissions. The Bloc was spot on with its walk across one of the campus’ crosswalks, recreating the boy band’s famous album cover for “Abbey Road.” The women of New Dorm also get points for their resource ful use of their beloved campus coffee shop Penny’s, and their featuring of its
namesake and her bulldogs, Penny Arnn. McIntyre, sing ing “Eleanor Rigby,” resonat ed with the student body’s daily struggle in the lunch lines, wondering where on earth their friends have disappeared to. Niedfeldt’s joy ride around the skies of Hillsdale was definitely a di amond in the rough and the features of planes, trains, and automobiles definitely made this a personal favorite. The Off-Campus Coalition deliv ered an impressive plot line,
taking us on a dramatic trip through the historical events of the decade.
Last, and quite frankly, maybe least, the men of Alpha Tau Omega kept us all entertained with their stacked cast made up of some of the fraternity’s most popular faces that had genuine smiles plastered on them, a refreshing reminder that this is all fun and games. Each video is featured on the corresponding group’s Instagram page.
Childers discards the traits that made him famous
By Maddy Welsh Assistant EditorMaybe good dogs do go to heaven, but mediocre ones probably don’t. And Tyler Childer’s new album “Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?” is mediocre at best.
At first glance, Childers’ fifth studio album, which hit streaming services Sept. 30, seems promis ingly meaty, with 24 tracks and 108 minutes of listen ing time. But a closer look reveals it’s just eight songs performed three ways on three albums.
It’s an unoriginal at tempt at originality that Childers doesn’t need to make. His music is wellloved precisely because it has such a classic sound – so his shot at a more modern style alien ates the fans who love his music for what it is.
One of the songs is a cov er: “Old Country Church,” first per formed by Hank Wil liams. One is a slower rendition of the tit ular track from his chart-top ping 2017 album “Purgatory,” and two more are purely instrumental. In other words, there are only four original tracks with vocals, and one of the four is the single “Angel Band” which listeners had already heard.
Childers regularly performs covers and his 2020 album “Long Vio lent History” was mostly instrumental. But covers and instrumental tracks are not his strength. His highly acclaimed album “Purgatory” has 10 beau tiful, original tracks. Fans were hoping for another highly original album of the same caliber as “Purga tory” and Childers deliv
ered only mediocrity with “Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?”
For an example of Childers’ lyric abilities, Childers sings “Tattoos” in the third track of “Purga tory” about his struggles with drugs and alcohol and how it has harmed his relationships: “Flint strikes out to pierce the dark / Cause a flame from just one spark / Fill the room with smoke so harsh / She exhales a memory.”
On the surface, this line says he’s smoking to get high and forget the woman he’s not with anymore. But it also implies the woman was a spark in his dark life. In her absence, his life is hazy again, like a room full of smoke.
the woods of West Virginia with soothingly repetitive melodies and the constant hum of his voice like foot steps on leaves.
The nail in the coffin of the album’s shortcom ings is the fact that the “Hallelujah” and “Jubilee” versions of each song are nearly indistinguishable. The “Jubilee” versions fea ture some artificial horn sounds and a few samples of gritty, vintage audio bites, but otherwise they’re the same as their smooth er, groovier “Hallelujah” counterparts. It calls into question what the purpose of a triple album is if the repeat tracks are hardly different from each other.
It’s time to dust off the Doc Martens, pull the fish nets out of the back of your drawer, and post angsty lyrics on your social media. The 1975 is back with a new era, and this time, it’s promising.
The 1975 is coming out with their fifth full-length album, “Being Funny in a Foreign Language” on Oct. 14 via Dirty Hit Records. The fourth single, “All I Need to Hear” is a hopeful teaser to the upcoming release and resembles their old work.
“All I Need to Hear” is a classic love song. It’s a refreshing listen after what they’ve done for the past two albums. Highlighting post modern themes and apoc alyptic sentiments, they’ve sounded like over-produced dumping grounds for lead singer Matt Healy’s techno logical musings.
Healy rolls on his back in this song, displaying his belly for the world to see. The song is sweet and simple, claiming that everything is meaning less to the singer except for the love of his significant other. For someone who has been open with his struggles with drug abuse, this song feels like an antidote to the semi-public suffering fans have been witness to.
The chorus rings, “‘Cause I don’t need music in my ears/ I don’t need the crowds and the cheers/ Oh, just tell me you love me/ ‘Cause that’s all that I need to hear.”
“All I Need to Hear” is about as 180 degrees of a turn from “Robbers” as you can get.
Judging from this song alone, “Being Funny in a For eign Language” will reveal an evolution of The 1975. Their future has been far from unpromising, but the past two albums have left many old fans in the valley between guilty pleasure music and Stockholm-Syndrome-style affection.
Nothing on “Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?” comes close to this.
The central problem with “Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?” of the apparent belief that, in music, different means better. The new album is unique from Childers’ usual sound, but not in a good way. It’s just a failed experiment in originality.
Many appealing ele ments of Childers’ style are still present in “Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?” like his raw vocals and heavy references to classic bluegrass songs. There’s also still a wandering ele ment to his sound. “Shake the Frost,” for example, sounds like a walk through
The “Joyful Noise” versions of the songs are incredibly distinct from the “Hallelujah” and “Jubi lee” versions – but not in a good way. Childers’ signature style is an earthy Appalachian bluegrass country sound. It sets him apart from his modern country counter parts. The “Joyful Noise” songs are an overpro duced mess of electronic instru mentation and poor attempts at sampling.
The new tracks on “Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?” are not enjoy able, if a little slow. But they’re lost in translation. With so few of them and the attempt to make a triple album falling short, this album was a huge let down for listeners.
Childers’ is vying for novelty, but what made him novel before was his adherence to tradition in a world that wants to discard it.
“All I Need to Hear” definitively marks The 1975’s redemption arc.
This track shows the apparent maturity of the group’s thematic focuses. “Robbers,” a track from their debut album, and a favorite among fans, is famous for its telling of a modern Bon nie-and-Clyde-esque heist gone wrong. It has more layers than a Michigander in January and contains so many darker elements to fatal attractions.
Although it’s normal to dismiss The 1975 as a boy band that emerged from the depths of early social media, they’re unironically special. Each era they produce is rich with apt lyricism, interesting sonic elements, and theatri cal storytelling. Even though each stage might not be every devoted fan’s cup of tea, this next one will likely possess all of these signature elements. Only, it might go back to The 1975’s roots with fresh eyes and a newfound sense of sin cerity (despite being scary).
If you’ve worked in a restaurant, you’ve probably had a crush on a line cook. You know the type: he’s a little bit sleazy, smells like cigarettes, and probably has a criminal record, but he brings you free food with an irresistible smile. Hulu’s summer release “The Bear” captures the gritty details of the restaurant business while wrestling with complex family dynamics.
The show centers on Carmen Berzatto, or “Car my,” an accomplished chef who worked and studied at some of the top restau rants in the world. When his older brother Michael commits suicide, Carmy is left in charge of the family restaurant, an Italian beef sandwich shop in Chica go. He returns to the city, completely estranged from his family, and struggles to manage the failing business. The workplace is hostile. The food is mediocre. The health inspector is on his tail.
In the first 10 minutes of the first episode, I realized “The Bear,” was unlike any show I had seen. Carmy sits at a disheveled desk with a duct-taped phone receiver up to his ear. He brushes off comments about Michael’s death as he tries to negotiate a discount on an order for beef. As the scene unfolds, the viewer immediately understands the mood of the show: abrasive, contradicto ry, and cruelly funny.
The series verges on hyperrealism, as the camera tracks a slamming door on its hinges, bubbling oil as it sautés onions, and the sweat trickling down a character’s face. It places the viewer directly in the kitchen under a haze of smoke and a volley of expletives. The cam erawork is fast, the sound effects are loud, and the cuts are jarring.
“The Bear” most notably features Jeremy Allen White, who initially gained fame for his role as Lip Gallagher on Showtime’s “Shameless.” Other actors have come to newfound fame, especial ly Ayo Edebiri, who plays Sydney, the bright line cook who joins Carmy in his efforts to revitalize the restaurant.
Director Christopher Storer is an expert in com edy specials, working with famed comics like Ramy Youssef and Bo Burnham.
“The Bear” is his first dram edy. It highlights his abilities as a producer and director while displaying his ambi tions as a writer. “The Bear” shows Storer’s ability to do it all.
It took off upon its release, gaining traction among film fanatics and then with the general public.
I personally wasn’t con vinced by the posts on my Twitter feed, but I caved when some of my friends encouraged me to watch it. I immediately understood the hype. At only eight episodes long, each about 25 minutes, the show is easily accessible.
Many publications, most notably Rolling Stone and The Guardian, have praised it incessantly and argue that it’s the most accurate depic tion of the service industry to date. Since its release, it has maintained a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“The Bear’’ has been renewed for another season, set to release in 2023, and my hopes are high for more screaming contests over to-go orders, Radiohead montages, and endless repe titions of “Yes, chef.”
It’s impossible to dis cuss this show’s reception without mentioning the Twitter mania over Jeremy Allen White. Carmy has an irresistible appeal, but whether that is due to his long hair, tattoos, or emo tional instability, no one can say. He is the poster child of angst, down to lighting a cigarette over a stovetop and walking through the city soundtracked to Sufjan Stevens’s “Chicago.”
Image aside, though, his character is carefully crafted. Carmy is a world-renowned cook who leaves the luxury of fine dining to return to the streets of his home city. He deals with the tragic loss of his brother, the struggling finances of the restaurant, the incessant conflict among his employees, and the ongoing process of nursing familial relationships back to life. White gives an incredi bly refreshing performance during an age in which most television feels unoriginal.
It wasn’t until senior Carson Bell watched a fifth grader take his first defensive charge inbasketball that he real ized just how much hisinvolvement in the GOAL Community Sports Program meant to youngathletes in the communi ty. Bell ran onto the court to congratulate the player whose big smile said it all:he was both shocked and overjoyed at his growthin basketball.
“It’s tough to get kids to take charge, especially at thatage,” Bell said. “I had been trying toteach him to take a charge in practice, and when he finallydid it all on his own, we were both reallyexcited.”
During the academic year, Hillsdale studentsvolunteer to either coach or assist a youth sports team through the GOAL Community Sportsprogram. They offer volleyball, basketball,soccer, and more in order to draw young athletes together from the sur rounding area. Bell, the program leader, wanted to support the greater Hillsdale area through his passion for sports. Draw ing on his experience as a volunteer coach in high school, the GOAL sports program appealed to Bell as an opportunity to continue partici pating in the sporthe loved.
“When I came to Hillsdale, I found this program right away because Iknew I wanted to stay involved with the community and do it in a way that I could give back in an area I was passionate about,” Bell said.
Volunteering as aGOAL coaches, students are able to pass on their knowledge and passion for sports to the chil dren in the community.Bell noted that the most rewarding aspect of coaching is being able to witness player improve ment throughout the season.
“It’s really fulfilling because you get to seethe kids at the start of the program and watch them progress through
out the season,” Bell said.
“At the beginning of theseason, some kids can’t even make a layup, but then by the end of the season, they’re making layups pretty consistently.
It’s a lot of fun to see their growth and see when something finally clicks or they score their first bucket and their parents go crazy.”
them life lessons through practice, even though you’re obviously not there to be a parent figure,teaches them teamwork, respect, and listeningskills.”
Junior Annaliese Oev erman said she is looking forward to volunteeringas a basketball coach again this year. She saidvolunteers also build rela tionships with the parentsand families of their team members.
“Being able to be partof the broader Hills dale community and interact with parents from public schools, Hillsdale Academy, orthe charter schools is really fun because I don’t normally really get a chance to dothat,” Oeverman said.
Sophomore Elijah Redding agreed withthe relational benefits of volunteering as a GOALcoach.
Bell noted how the student coaches benefit from the experience in a unique way.
“If people are willing to put in the time com mitment, it’s mutuallybeneficial,” Bell said. “It’s really fulfilling for us, and it’s really helpful for thekids as well.”
“It was great getting to know the parents of the team and I definitely felt like I was making an im pact on the kids by being a blessing and showing that I cared,” Reddingsaid. “I think they can definitely tell when thecoach wants to be there and wants to make a dif ference. The environment was completely filled with fun. I think the kids really enjoyed going to basket ball practice.”
Redding said his favorite memory was a basketball game wherehis team was down 18-4 at halftime.
“The offensive output, as you cansee, was incredible,” he said, “but we stormed back in the second half, only giving up five points and eventually win ning the game. The kids were super excited and that definitely made myweekend.”
Although Maxfield spent hours and hours composing the music, he said he had not heard a choir sing the pieces until rehearsal last“IFriday.
work really hard on my inner ear sothat I can imagine thesounds,” Maxfield said. “When I write music, sometimes I’ll sit at a piano because my fingers are part of my instrument so to speak. Sometimes, I’ll take my score and go sit on a couch away from the piano. I don’t start with a computer. I try to lean on my aural imagination as much as possible.”
Even when the final sheet music makes it to the choir and the or ganist, not every detailis ironed out.
of the text,” Stauff said. “Andrew also seemed to like the idea there.
That’s just one of the spots where we worked to match the organ accompaniment to thetext while also balanc ing with the singers.”
This wasn’t the first time the college had premiered music composed by AndrewMaxfield. Holleman said the chamber choir premiered a piece ofMaxfield’s music last December.
and not a penny to us.”Maxfield said he had been struck during his visit by how fortunateHillsdale students are.
“What a bunch of lucky students to be able to hang out in a little paradise likethis and be able to engage your heads, your hearts, and your spirits all in the same enterprise of learning,”Maxfield said. “What a blessing that is.”
The GOAL sports pro gram aims at more than just the physical wellnessof kids in the Hillsdale community, Bell ex plained that it also strives to develop players’ heartsand minds as well.
“Some of these kids come from tougher back grounds where they don’t have parents who are as involved…they don’t havethe time to teach them basic skills,” Bell said.
“Just being able to teach
Redding agreed that his time spent volunteer ing as a GOAL basketballcoach was more full of fun and excitement, laughter, and team growth than anythingelse.
“After a couple months of my coaching,” he said,“I wouldn’t say they were ready for the NBA, but they were close.”
Professor of Mu sic Derek Stauff, who accompanied the choir on the organ during the service, said he adjusted the sound on the organ throughout the performance in order to enhance the impact of certain parts in the music.
Stauff gave one particular example in which he adjusted the stops – which allow or prevent air from en tering the pipes of an organ – to emphasizethe line “and the rich he hath sent empty away.”
“I chose a stop combination that sounded hollow, anemic, and a bit distant, hoping it would capture a sense
“I called him last summer and said, ‘hey, I’m programming. What do you have?’”Holleman said. “He says, ‘I got this piece that was supposed to have a world premiere with a professional group and it got can celed by COVID. Do you want to premiereit?’ I said sure. So he gave it to us and wedid it in our December concert.”
The evensong servicealso won’t be the col lege’s last performance of Maxfield’s compositions. The orchestra is set to premiere another one of the composer’s pieces in February, according to Holleman, though this piece was not commissioned by the college. Hollemansaid Maxfield received a commission from the Barlow Endowment for the piece.
“This outside group is paying him,” Holleman said. “He’s writing a brand new piece for our symphony orches tra that we’re going to perform in February,
Freshman OlyviaOeverman, a member of the chamber choir, said she thought theservice was beautiful.
“After learning all the songs in only a month or so, hearing the choir pull all of the hard work together with the organ was so satisfying,” Oevermansaid. “Being in the beautiful chapel alsoadded another level of reverent ambience to the worship of the holyGod.”
Freshman Colman Rowan, who was in attendance, said he was intrigued by the ser vice.
“It was very welldone,” Rowan said. “It was really cool to go to an Anglican service forthe first time.”
Both Holleman and Rick said this is hardly the end for evensong services at the college. Holleman signaled more programming was“There’sincoming.going to bemore to come,” Holle man said.
Compiled by Ty Ruddy Collegian Freelancer
In the spirit of homecoming, we asked professors to share glimpses of their college lives way back whenBrandon remembers his love for Iron Maiden, his passion for birdwatching, and his style staple: hats. James Brandon Chairman and professor of theatre Lindley’s fashion sense is nothing new. In high school, he was known for his colorful pants, pigtails, and “brown/orange Mazda pickup truck. Dwight Lindley Associate professor of English Senior Carson Bell poses with his basketball team. Courtesy | Carson Bell Sophomores Kody Richards and Abigail Gilreath coached volleyball last year. Courtesy | Kody Richards Brandon peruses casettes at a music store. Courtesy | James Brandon Lindley holds his then girlfriend, now wife, Emma, in college. Courtesy | Dwight Lindley Servold
By Maggie Hroncich Editor-In-Chief
There’s an old Hillsdale legend that the stone walls of the Slayton Arboretum aren’t only built of local stones. An observant eye may notice that some of the rocks aren’t rocks in the traditional sense at all–and it was long-rumored that the walls contained various non-native fossils and gem stones. Thanks to the work of Professor of Biology Anthony Swinehart, the legend is con firmed, along with the origins of the fossils.
As the Arb approaches its 100th anniversary, Swinehart, curator of the D. M. Fisk Museum of Natural History, decided it was time to inves tigate.
“It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘if walls could talk,’” Swinehart said. “It was just a legend or a rumor until I finally went out and decided, knowing enough about geology and fossils, to discern which ones could have come from the
local rocks around here and which ones certainly did not. And so I went out there and found a bunch.”
By combing through his torical records of the museum and cross-referencing the information with his fossil expertise, Swinehart began to piece together how the fossils became part of the Arb walls.
It all began with the found ing of Hillsdale College’s mu seum in 1872, which was one of the largest college museums at the time, Swinehart said. It was housed in Knowlton Hall of Science, where Moss Hall now stands. Once the muse um’s founder, Daniel M. Fisk, left the college in 1886, the museum started to decline. In 1910, it caught on fire.
“Most of the specimens survived but the ceiling col lapsed and the building was badly damaged,” Swinehart said. “And the museum and all of its specimens pretty much remained in boxes strewn around campus for four years. Some things were taken and stolen.”
In 1914, the senior class decided to rebuild the muse um as its class gift.
“The other option they were considering was a cluster of electric lights on campus, but they decided to save the museum, which tells you a lot about the value of the museum to the general student body at the time,” Swinehart said. “People would come to visit, we had an Egyptian mummy, colo nial American currency and fossils, minerals, animals, and plants from around the world.”
In the 1920s, Bertram Bar ber, then-chair of the biology
stonework of the Arboretum.”
As Swinehart searched the Arb and found fossils that matched old newspaper articles and museum records, he identified several types of fossils and minerals. He found beryl crystals, likely collected by Fisk and Lee Elias Brown in New Hamp shire in 1881. Swinehart found stalactites, stalagmites, and geodes possibly collect ed in Kentucky by Rev. A.A. Meyers of Hillsdale in 1878. Other finds included chain coral, a gastropod fossil, and
came to be there.”
Barber’s use of fossils in the walls has a surprising upside: it may be the only reason they’re still around today. According to Swine hart, when the college built the Strosacker Science Center in the 1960s, it moved specimens out on the lawn for people to take and then dumped thousands in the garbage, only saving a few for teaching.
“By taking them and using them over there, they didn’t get put out or discarded or collected by anybody else,” VanZant said.
VanZant said he had noticed unusual rocks in the walls long ago. Before Swinehart’s research, howev er, he assumed it was because Barber’s brother and father were both stonemasons and had incorporated non-local rocks.
department and head of the college museum, founded the Arb. He continually added to it through the years, even tually using pieces from the museum in the 1930s.
“The museum at one time had literal tonnage of spec imens,” Swinehart said. “So Barber must’ve decided and had the authority to use some of those museum specimens to incorporate them into the
almandine garnet.
Swinehart wasn’t alone in noticing the Arb’s unique stonework.
“I have often admired many of the specimens while working around the stone structures of the arboretum,” said Angie Girdham, college horticulturist. “It was obvi ous that they were unique and it is certainly interesting to now understand how they
“Quite frankly, as much as I would love to have those in the museum, especially the coral and the ones for which we know a collector, date, and location, they probably would not have survived to the present day had they not been incorporated,” Swine hart said.
Jeffrey VanZant, associ ate professor of biology and director of the Arboretum, agreed with Swinehart that incorporating the fossils into the Arb’s walls could have been what preserved them for so long.
“There’s lots of rockwork that was done over there in the 1920s and ’30s,” VanZant said. “In fact, now that we know where some are, we’re searching for others.”
The precise location of the fossils won’t be publicly dis closed for security reasons, but VanZant and Swinehart both encouraged students to see if they can spot them. While the old legend is now confirmed, there may be more to the mystery—and perhaps fossils in the walls that are yet to be discovered.
On the seventh day, every student scrambles to submit papers and discussion posts. But in the seventh year, pro fessors receive a break from deadlines and grading to take a sabbatical.
Every seven years, profes sors choose between a halfyear or year-long sabbatical. Sometimes, the timing may shift according to depart mental needs, but in the end they always receive time for intentional sabbath.
In Associate Professor of English Dwight Lindley’s case, he opted for just a halfyear of sabbatical in 2019.
“During my sabbatical, I had all these writing plans,” Lindley said. “I did publish some articles, but my wife was pregnant with twins and gave birth that spring.”
The twins joined an al ready large family, so Lindley is no stranger to raising kids. But the new dynamic de manded a lot more attention and help around the house.
“I always said it’s like how you can dribble a basketball just fine,” Lindley said. “You can dribble between your legs, you can run while you’re dribbling. But if somebody gives you two basketballs, you might be able to dribble them both at the same time if you’re really careful and skilled, but for most normal people, like me, it was really hard.”
While anticipating the birth of his twins, Lindley wrote as much as he could before they arrived.
“I knew after that writing was going to be curtailed, which sounds like I’m com plaining, but I think it was really providential that I had a sabbatical then, when we were having twins, because I don’t know how we could have done it,” Lindley said.
Though some professors hardly step foot on campus during their sabbatical, Lind
ley came into his office every day to write.
“Whenever I could, I worked here, just because my house is a hive of activity,” Lindley said. “There’s not a secure place you can go to get away from people. Sometimes in special circumstances, I would put on shotgun ear pro tection and go to a hideaway desk in my house.”
During his sabbatical, Lindley and his wife took a vacation away from the family for the first time. Because of increased family time and flexible schedules, coming back from a sabbatical is a hard adjust ment for some, but for Lindley, it wasn’t too difficult, he said.
“The differ ence between my life and I think a lot of people’s lives is that it’s hard for me to imag ine my life as a lounging-life, resting on the weekends and during sabbat ical. It’s just impossible for me,” Lindley said. “It’s just not the cards that I have drawn. Of course, it’s my own choice. The life that I have and have made for myself is not a life of a lot of leisure and I’m happy that way. I’m glad that I have a lot of children and that I have to fight for every little bit of time to write things.”
Associate Professor of Management Peter Jennings, who is currently on sabbatical, chose to take a full year away because of a sizable research project.
Jennings spends his time researching Hillsdale College and the Civil War, developing a book on the topic and creat ing new classes for a military leadership minor. The college introduced a military history minor this fall, and the new leadership minor will comple ment it, he said.
“Hillsdale College had significant Civil War ex perience. More than 500 of our students served. It’s quite a story that taps into the founding of the college,” Jennings said. “The anchor class for the minor is going to be this Hillsdale College and the Civil War class. Tenta tively, I’m calling it Hillsdale Honor.”
The research project began with Arlan Gilbert, a former history professor who died last year. Gilbert taught from about 1960-2000, Jennings said, and initially began the Civil War research.
and their regiments and I spent the whole week just walking the battlefield and going to where our students fought and where some of them died,” Jennings said. “Now, I’m putting together a Hillsdale College at Get tysburg Battlefield tour. It’s just incredible to walk that ground and go to the exact place where our kids fought and died.”
Jennings plans to create a summer session class that will include one week of learning about the battle at Gettysburg, a second week spent in Gettysburg walk
during his time out of office.
Franklin also took a full year off, but it began with a change of plans, he said. Originally, he had applied for a fellowship in Spain and planned to go there for the semester, but when he didn’t receive the fellowship, his plans abruptly changed.
“It would have been exciting but disruptive to our family to move to Spain for six months, or even a few months,” Franklin said. “What’s interesting and surprising about sabbatical for me is that it was actually a season of discovery, rather than a season of productivity.”
Although Franklin said he accomplished lots of writing and work, the best result was some thing else.
full time instead of teach. “I was like, ‘I think I could do this forever,’” Franklin said. “I certainly flirted with that idea if there was a way that I could write full time. But by the end I didn’t want to do that anymore. There were all these discoveries of what I want to do and also a rediscovery of how much I love teaching.”
Now that Franklin is back from sabbatical, he said he’s incorporated writing into his daily life more than ever be fore, writing for 15-20 min utes almost every morning. Rest is harder to incorporate into a busy academic sched ule, he said.
The Jennings’ befriended Gilbert when they bought his house. Before he died, Gilbert encouraged Jennings to con tinue his research.
“He gave me all of his remaining papers that he had from his research,” Jennings said. “He was very excited to have somebody pick up where his work left off. I’m very honored to pick up that mantle from him.”
At the start of his sabbatical this past summer, Jennings made a trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he mapped out every place Hills dale students fought. Fifty-one students fought at Gettysburg, and two died, one of whom was buried in the national cemetery where Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address.
“I knew all of our kids
ing the grounds, and a third week learning about the legacy of the battle.
Amid his new class work and research, Jennings said he is grateful for the freedom in his schedule, where he can focus on just two things: working on research, and working outside in his yard.
“Probably the best thing is you’re not beholden to any schedule,” Jennings said. “You don’t have to be anywhere at any time. You have a year to yourself. I can just stay here and work and research and then just go out and work outside and work a little bit. That freedom is worth a lot.”
Last year, Kelly Franklin, associate professor of En glish, also experienced the restful freedom of sabbatical
“The primary fruit of it was ac tually this reali zation that I have spent a lot of my years here trying to be somebody else, trying to be any one of my colleagues who have their own gifts and talents. It was over sabbatical I realized, it’s OK to be me, and that I have these other things on my soul to do,” Franklin said.
After this realization, Franklin said he completely took off with writing during his sabbatical. He wrote a ghost story in the fall semes ter and then began trans lating and writing original poems in the spring.
“I heard this voice in my head in the spring that was like, ‘This isn’t important work. What you’re doing is not important work.’ And I just had to recognize that that voice was untrue and that it wasn’t from anybody,” Franklin said.
During his sabbatical, for the first nine or 10 months, Franklin wondered if he could ever realistically write
“My friends the first cou ple months of sabbatical were like, ‘Kelly, you look differ ent.’ Not just because I was wearing different clothes,” Franklin said. “It was some thing about my posture, body language, and face that ex pressed a little bit more rest, freedom, peace.”
Franklin suggested seek ing out ways to rest in our everyday lives, which will look different for everyone.
“It’s a very great privilege to get a year off. That’s just unimaginable in almost any career. I would encourage everybody to find a way to create sabbath opportunities in your life,” Franklin said. “We need that period of rest if we’re going to then go out and do the work that’s on our soul to do.”
Lindley described the essence of sabbatical more simply.
“There’s a funny thing that Dr. Smith talked about during a sabbatical. It’s like going into the sabbati-cave, referencing the old Bat man movies,” Lindley said. “He would always say, ‘’If you need me, I’ll be in the sabbati-cave.’”
By Colman Rowan Collegian Freelancer
Behind the chaos of banner drop and the groove of Mock Rock, one campus group carries the homecom ing teams on their backs: everyone’s friendly neighbor hood resident assistants.
During homecoming, stu dents have the opportunity to contribute as much or as little as they want to their dorm or coalition teams. But resident assistants bear the heavy burden of balancing classes, jobs, sleep, and homecoming activities on top of it all.
Junior Ben Kennedy, a Simpson RA, has been using most of his free time to keep up with homecoming competition but he has not had much trouble getting the residents excited to partici pate. From a crowded lobby for filming the homecoming video, to a packed schedule planning everything, Kenne dy has enjoyed it all. He said homecoming has given the men a greater opportunity to
bond and grow.
“If we all go through something hard together then we come out the other end much better,” Kennedy said.
One of his favorite things has been seeing his residents contribute to the volunteer hours portion of the compe tition.
“You’re busy as heck but everybody’s able to just kind of step out of that for a little bit and enter a different role
the things they are doing to succeed in homecoming.
“Their talents are shin ing through,” Lawson said. “They’re really doing an incredible job.”
What the team lacks in power she said she hopes they’ll make up for in skill, since none of her residents are freshmen, who tend to be more eager to participate.
“You can’t bring as much power as the freshman dorms,” Lawson said.
a Galloway RA, competes in the homecoming coali tion known as Whit-WatWay, consisting of Whitley, Waterman, and Galloway. Kinney said he both laments and rejoices in preparing for homecoming.
“Mock Rock is just killer, super fun, but just a lot. I just started my homework at like 10:30 p.m.,” Kinney said.
He said he loves home coming and finds it both important and enjoyable, particularly for freshmen and building relationships with them as an RA.
By Tracy Wilson Design EditorSamuel Negus, director of program review and accred itation, spends his quick hits talking all things giant rab bits, dorm pranks, and soccer losses. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
If you could have an unconventional pet, what would it be?
where your focus has shifted towards helping out whoever you’re helping out,” Kennedy said.
Senior Kate Lawson, head RA for Mauck Residence, helps lead the charge for her team’s coalition: the BLOC, consisting of Mauck, Ben zing, and the Suites.
She praised her team and
Lawson said she looks forward to participating in the rest of homecoming and hopes the BLOC will win this year.
“One thing I love about homecoming is the op portunity to meet people I wouldn’t have otherwise met,” Lawson said.
Sophomore Max Kinney,
Kinney said he looks back fondly on homecoming last year, even though he broke his foot just before events started and only got 16 hours of sleep during the week.
“It’s fine to miss assign ments for fun sometimes, and this was the one week to have an excuse for that,” Kin ney said. “It was fun for me, but seeing other people get to enjoy it for the first time has been even better.”
Students of local schools recieve a day off to attend county fair
By Olivia Pero Assistant EditorWhen the Hillsdale County Fair rolls around, students in Hillsdale and Jonesville wake up to Ferris Bueller’s dream: a day without school and a rea son to have fun. The difference is that they have the adminis tration’s blessing.
It is traditional for Hillsdale Academy, Hillsdale Com munity Schools, Jonesville Community Schools, and North Adams-Jerome Public Schools to cancel classes on the Monday of fair week. This year, students were given Sept. 26 off school so they could attend the fair and the parade.
“The tradition of our county is that all Hillsdale County schools take Monday off,” Hillsdale Academy Head master Mike Roberts said.
“Monday is free admission day for students. The county even partners with the fair by having a parade on Monday morning, which involves a lot of students.”
Cassandra Farmer, an English teacher and the varsity volleyball coach at Hillsdale High School, grew up in Hills dale County, attending North Adams-Jerome Public Schools.
“We always had the Monday of fair week off when I was growing up, too,” Farmer said. “Dozens and dozens of stu dents from other schools were at the fair on Monday, as well.”
Farmer said it was always a big deal for her and her friends when their parents dropped them off at the fair for the day.
“We had a chance to get a little bit of freedom while we were still in a consolidated place,” she said.
Historically, many kids in the county are very active in 4-H, Roberts said.
4-H is a program for youth 8-19 years old that aims to develop their head, heart, hands, and health. 4-H often involves raising, showing, and selling livestock but it also means showing and selling arts and crafts. Based on how youth place when showing their ani mals or with their art projects, they can earn money.
“For some of our students, it’s a full week of showing at the fair,” Roberts said. “Some students go back and forth
for the day to count as an instructional day,” Weatherwax said. “Such a large percentage of the student body would be attending the fair to show their animals so it’s best to just not have school that day.”
Every school in the coun ty has students contribute to school fair booth exhibition, Roberts said. Academy stu dents in kindergarten through tenth grade all contribute to the school’s fair booth under the direction of art teacher Pam Heckel.
This year, the fair theme was “Stars, Stripes, and Fair
my in terms of the workload.
“We always try to keep our academic rhythm and routine going, but with great flexibility and understanding for our students who need to be out of the building or need extensions on certain major projects,” Roberts said.
According to Farmer, the fair is also a good chance to get some economic movement for local businesses.
“By getting Monday off, there are more people at the fair which is the same reason students get in free on Monday because they’ll spend so much money once they get through that door,” Farmer said.
Roberts said he is proud of the Academy students showing livestock because their hard work extends far beyond the week of the fair.
“They’ve been working for weeks and months to take care of their animals and to prepare for the fair,” he said. “It’s that discipline–putting in the work for a payoff later. For some of these students, recognizing that they can do well financial ly by doing this hard work is important too. Participating in 4-H is a path forward to help save for college.”
My wife and I used to have these Flemish giants. We had one who lived about eight years called the Count of Monte Cristo. He was three feet if he stretched out. Otherwise, my daughter would like a horse or a pony to ride around, but I don’t really trust horses. They’re too persnickety. They’re very elaborate pieces of kit but you never know when they’re going to bite you.
Do you have any hidden hobbies or talents?
I brew my own beer. Peo ple keep telling me I need to do some stand-up comedy but it’s pretty intimidating.
Of all the US states you’ve visited, which is the best and which is the worst?
It’s just an empirical fact that the worst state is Ohio. Ohio is rubbish. The best state is North Carolina. The state has some of everything. The Blue Ridge mountains are just stunning.
Have you ever played a really good prank on someone?
As an undergraduate, I participated in switching two people’s dorm rooms around. That’s a classic.
What is the most memo rable gift you’ve ever given?
When I was a kid, about 13 or 14, I would take a bag of cans of pop to school and sell them to the other kids at a slight markup just to save money to buy my dad a jersey of our beloved soccer team that had “Dad” printed on the back as the player name.
What is one cultural difference you’ve noticed between the UK and the US?
Americans’ willingness to just get on and figure some thing out for themselves versus that sheepish British
mentality of waiting for the man from the government to come and fix things. That’s been the big cultural differ ence for me and probably the reason why I came to America in the first place.
I was raised a Thatcherite conservative and I really hate that sheepish mentality and it is rife in Britain. Gun own ership, too, is a profoundly American idea–that an ordinary person could have the power of life and death in his trouser pocket and be trusted to be sensible with it.
What is one thing that you used to believe that you have since changed your mind about?
When I was a boy I fer vently believed that I would see England win a world cup in my lifetime and it’s not looking good. You put Englishmen with a Three Lions jersey on their chest in a penalty shoot-out, and they’ll find a way to miss the goal. Creative ways. I would have to say at this point that I’ve lost faith.
What is one thing you used to believe that you still believe today?
The abiding value of being forthright. I was raised in a family where no one was ever laboring under any misapprehension about what we thought about anything. My friends would come over to hang out and would say, “Sam, hanging out with you makes so much more sense after I’ve been to your house. Why is your family always arguing about every thing?” Because we think it’s important to be right and if something’s true, it’s worth making sure that everybody knows it. That can get pretty toxic. You can use com mitment to the truth as an excuse to be a real jerk to people. The underlying prin ciple in my formative moral compass was that honesty and integrity and loyalty are the most important guiding principles.
What is one piece of common knowledge you learned way too late in life?
Only a year or so ago, someone pointed out to me that the gasoline icon on the dashboard of your car has a little arrow on it that points to the side that the gas cap is on.
between school and the fair. We also have student athletes juggling schedules.
Thankfully, it’s a four-day week and not a five-day academic week for them.”
According to Jonesville Community Schools Super intendent Erik Weatherwax, scheduling school that day would not count in their yearly total anyway.
“For public schools, you must have 75% of your student body attend school in order
Delights.” The Academy’s art booth placed second. In any given year, the school routinely has around 20 students partic ipate in the fair independently from the art booth.
“I think it’s neat that we put an emphasis on the fair,” Roberts said. “It’s a good education for our students not in 4-H to go to the fair and see their fellow classmates who are participating there.”
According to Roberts, it’s business as usual at the Acade
According to Farmer, the fair is a positive event for the community and is worth tak ing Monday off for school.
“It can be difficult to justify a whole day off of an educa tional day in a school building, but I think that there’s just as much education to be found at the fair,” Farmer said. “Bring ing everyone together at the fair is a great opportunity for students to get some freedom and explore.”
“You can’t bring as much power as the freshmen dorms.”