Judge speaks on studying law

By Adriana Azarian Collegian Freelancer

and professors get involved in an event that’s athletic related.”

Lopez said they hope the competition will bring campus together.

“It’ll be a great event to go to because you’ll be able to support the area of campus you’re on,” Lopez said. “It’s kind of like mock rock in a way where we want to have that atmosphere and culture where you’re supporting the group that you’re a part of. It’s just a nice way to have friendly competition and see your professors do something outside of teaching your classroom.”

The event will be held at the George C. Roache Sports Complex, according to Patrick.

“Spectators are heavily encouraged,” Patrick said. “There will be pizza.”

According to Oxaal, the winning prize is bragging rights.

“Fame, glory, honor, that’s the prize and that is all you need,” Oxaal said.

Law is one of the best ways to promote a return to America’s founding principles of justice and limited government, according to Judge Kyle Duncan of the 5th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

“Law is really trying to get to the truth of something. I care about how to use the law, the Constitution, statutes, and regulations to order our lives together as a people,” Trump-appointed Duncan said to members of Hillsdale’s chapter of the Federalist Society March 2.

The Federalist Society hosted Duncan and Marc Ayers, an attorney with Bradley Law Firm, to discuss their respective experiences in appellate litigation. With Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Pre-Law Program Nathan Schlueter moderating, Ayers and Duncan responded to questions regarding the role of the appellate procedure within the American legal system.

“In appellate court, one party either wants to get a verdict reversed or affirmed,” Ayers said. “It’s a back-andforth about the law, how we ought to interpret this statute, how to resolve this conflict and this statute.”

According to Duncan, movies and popular culture fail to portray the gravity and sanctity of the legal process.

“It’s in public and there are ceremonials,” Duncan said. “You’re sitting up on a bench in a beautiful courthouse, and that focuses the mind. There’s

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“We weren’t receiving anything for dues we were paying, and nationals, as far as I can tell, has been in a state of disarray for a few years,” Walker said.

Walker said he does not think much will change about the fraternity, but he hopes the organization can become more of a resource on campus for students interested in music.

“I would like to see us holding more music events and being a resource for music equipment for bands,” he said.

“That probably could be something that you reiterate at the beginning of every semester,” Blackwell said. “I think because Hillsdale is the way it is, I don’t feel unsafe.” a ceremony to it, but it’s like a liturgy.”

Senior Stephen Mulcahey said he is unsure the trainings will be effective.

Appellate law is primarily a discussion between a counsel and a randomly selected panel of judges on the interpretation of law, according to Ayers and Duncan.

“From my perspective, the lawyer’s there to help me decide the case, not to make a pretty speech,” Duncan said. “I want the lawyer to tell me something about the case that I didn’t know.”

Circuit judges focus their attention across thousands of cases every year, so the counsel must present his or her cases directly and tactfully, Ayers said.

“As an attorney, you have to identify the real key issue that the judges can understand very quickly because they have thousands of cases they’re churning through, and they’re not going to know the case like you do,” Ayers said. “You have to get to that interesting issue and get them on your side.”

Sophomore Lindsey Stevens attended the discussion and said it revealed more opportunities within the law field.

“Getting to have Judge Duncan come and talk to us and, not dumb it down, but explain further to us and let us hear what the appellate courts do is really beneficial to students looking into law,” Stevens said. “And Mr. Ayers, too, is very involved in the appellate field so having him talk about his personal experience from the attorney’s side was very cool.”

The chapter decided to start the process of splitting from nationals by taking a vote. Berntson said the vote to break from nationals won by a landslide. He said they also voted on their new name, Alpha Mu Phi.

According to Berntson, the disassociation from nationals is not official until Hillsdale administration gives it final approval.

“The next step is to sort it out with the administration,” Berntson said.

He said Dean Petersen is facilitating the administrative can sign up for Alertus with facility code “Hilcol,” and log in with their college credentials.

Péwé said the college can use Alertus and Blackboard to reach students, parents, and staff in an emergency if email is not working, or even if cell towers stop working, like they did on Feb. 21.

According to Stevens, Hillsdale’s connections to individuals in the legal field are useful resources for students pursuing law.

“My favorite thing about the Federalist Society is that so many experts in law are willing to pour in to Hillsdale, specifically in our chapter,” Stevens said. “So it’s very unique that we have this opportunity to hear from such knowledgeable people.”

Ayers discussed the Federalist Society’s work across the nation to re-introduce conservative thinking to left-leaning law schools, particularly regarding discourse on government agencies.

“There is now a huge voice, the Federalist Society, that says we need to rethink the role of federal government and the role of government agencies and how much deference they should get,” Ayers said.

Ayers and Duncan said law-interested students should consider careers within the appellate field. Both said an interest in closely reading and interpreting texts could indicate a future in appellate law.

According to Duncan, knowledge and character are important skills to have in the law field.

“You need a good reason to go to law school,” Duncan said. “One good reason to do it is because we need good people who know what our country is supposed to be founded on to be in the federal government, state governments, and law firms.” tasks of the situation.

Berntson said the chapter already changed its Instagram username to Alpha Mu Phi because the members do not view themselves as Phi Mu Alpha, even though the break from nationals is not official.

“We cherish our chapter culture, that’s why we’re continuing it,” Berntson said. “But we have realized we don’t cherish the national connection anymore, and we don’t want to continue to pay expensive dues for something that we don’t want.” faculty, who should use the Nightlock door stops to lock classroom doors.

“I got to know the organization,” Hollman said. “I got to know who was going to be the new president, and very quickly, from talking about what I did at Hillsdale and all this stuff, I was actually appointed to the board of directors.”

Prior to being involved in CODA, Holleman spent more than 30 years building the Hillsdale music program. He said he chose to do this by opening his orchestra to non-music majors.

“I think his idea to open everything up completely to non-music majors has really made things grow over time,” said Stacey Jones-Garrison, artist-teacher of music.

Jones-Garrison said Holleman is an excellent leader with special abilities in administrative roles.

“One of the reasons he’s made it successful here, I think, is his diplomacy and his willingness to hear, to really listen and to try to find middle ground,” Jones-Garrison said. “That’s what actually helped him build this, to be open minded enough to do things a little bit differently than the way they’re typically done at other colleges to make it work for us here.”

Holleman said his connections with CODA have also been a source of opportunities for the college.

“Our college orchestra in 2017 performed at the national conference, it was at George Mason University in D.C.,” Holleman said. “So we performed at the conference and all these college university orchestra directors are looking at the program, and they were just blown away. Somebody else said about the audition process, they said ‘we need more Hillsdale Colleges performing at our conference.’”

Holleman said other schools were amazed that a college with only five music majors in the orchestra could play such difficult repertoire with such passion. He said that his influence in the organization brought Hillsdale’s excellence in music into the public eye and set a standard for other small colleges.

“I think that he’s been able to share that paradigm at CODA. To really be an advocate for liberal arts, music departments, small colleges, especially,” Jones-Garrison said.

Sophomore Ella Licktenberg, flautist in the orchestra and student member of CODA, said Holleman advocates for Hillsdale and its students.

“I took private conducting lessons with Professor Holleman last semester,” Licktenberg said. “He mentioned that at the conference, they usually have student directors. And although those are usually doctoral students or master’s students, the door is open to undergrad students.”

Lichtenberg said Holleman has encouraged and taught her and many others.

“He’s very supportive, very caring of those in his ensembles, whether they are aware of it or not,” Lichtenberg said. “He does care quite a bit, and he’s very passionate about music and passionate with his work as a conductor, as the director of so many ensembles here on campus, and I’m certain that that also transfers to his position as president of CODA.”

“In the heat of the moment, will it actually make a difference?” Mulcahey said. “I think it’s kind of hard to say if the trainings are adequate or not since they’ve never been put to the test.”

Kellam said during a campus-wide threat, the security office would notify students with the app Alertus, and students could send information to security with the Rave Guardian app.

The school sent several test alerts just before noon on Monday, March 6, reaching students through email and by phone. Péwé said the college was testing Alertus and another notification system through Blackboard.

“We had a scheduled test of the emergency communications systems,” Péwé said. “Anyone who has given us their emergency contact should have received a text or e-mail and we can see what our send success rate was.”

Alertus should display notifications on any phone connected to the app, and any computers on the college’s network should flash the emergency message. According to security handouts, students and staff

“There are tiers of emergencies. Typically something like a power disruption would not utilize Alertus unless internet was down. We would for a tornado or active shooter,” Péwé said. “If we wanted to notify all students, their parents, and all the employees during an emergency, we have the ability to do that.”

He reminded students to update their contact information at https://apps. hillsdale.edu/ContactInfo/ so they can receive emergency alerts.

When students report a threat on campus, Kellam said, security immediately responds to investigate.

“Once we get notified, our staff is going direct to the location to determine the actual threat,” Kellam said. “From there, we determine if the threat is active, and we address it. We go into a lockdown.”

Kellam said the school will enter either a “hard” or “soft” lockdown after a threat is reported. A “hard lockdown” requires the school to shut down during an on-campus threat, and a “soft lockdown” responds to a possible threat in the area while classes may continue. Security will notify staff and

“Once we push the lock buttons, anything with card access locks immediately, and any interior classroom gets locked with Nightlock,” Kellam said. “Anyone that’s outside and can get away, the first thing in ‘run, hide, fight’ is run, right? So we say to get at least three to four blocks away.”

After the threat is gone, Kellam said, the deans will contact RAs and house directors to ask them to account for their students. He said the deans will reach out to parents and notify them of the situation.

“I know parents are always worried about things, but we have to handle the situation first before we can really brief them on it,” he said. “There’s no direct threat here, it’s just that we want to be the best that we can be.”

Kellam encouraged students to act as observers and report anything suspicious to security.

“Even with several of us throughout the day shift, we can’t be everywhere,” Kellam said. “The biggest advantage we have is 2,000 eyes out there.”

Students can call 517-3981522 or use Rave Guardian to report suspicious activity to security, Kellam said.

“We want to be welcoming to students, to people,” Kellam said. “We are as prepared as we can realistically be, and still have it be an institution of learning, not a prison.”