Call and go no more Hilsdale’s only taxi service, Call and Go Now, may go out of business next month, after the company’s insurance more than doubled in price. A6
Commemorating the Civil War Senior Hailey Morgan constructed an exhibit showcasing Hillsdale College’s role in the Civil War. B4
The art of Churchill The British statesman’s paintings are on display in the Daughtrey Art Gallery. B1 Hillsdale College is building Christ Chapel between the Grewockc Student Union and the Dow Leadership Center. The groundbreaking ceremony is set for April 6. Sheila Butler | Courtesy
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Vol. 140 Issue 18 - 16 February 2017
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Chapel groundbreaking scheduled for April By | Breana Noble News Editor
After four years of planning and fundraising, Hillsdale College is finally ready to break ground on the construction of Christ Chapel on April 6 following spring convocation. “The groundbreaking will be a celebration of the original and connected purposes of our college — civil and religious freedom, high learning, and the Christian faith,” President Larry Arnn said in a campus-wide email announcing the ceremony. “Celebrating the groundbreaking at convocation is particularly fitting, as the building will supply a beautiful site for that ceremony.” The college recently reached $24 million in pledges and cash for the project, surpassing the $23.8 million it wanted prior to beginning construction on what is to become one of the most significant buildings on campus, Chief Administrative Officer Rich Péwé said. He said
he hopes the college will have the entire $28.6 million by this time next year. “We will continue to work to raise the remaining amount needed for the building and the operating endowment,” Péwé said in an email. The groundbreaking at the site of the future chapel between the Grewcock Student Union and the Dow Leadership Center will occur after the 11 a.m convocation at College Baptist Church, starting the two-year construction. With room for up to 1,400 people, the chapel will provide space for convocations; orchestral, choir, and other large music performances; major lectures; and commencement, if needed. “The chapel will leaven all the central purposes of the college,” Provost David Whalen said in an email. “It will be a place set aside for prayer and worship, it will bring the college together for learned reflection, it will be a home
ple’s donations have supported the effort, Jack and Jo Babbitt, who suggested the name Christ Chapel for the building, led the initiative, donating the original $12 million, after visiting campus and hearing of the college’s future plans to build a chapel. “It was interesting to me to think that as you look at the campus, you didn’t see the prominence of a place to worship where they could go and just have a quiet meditation time with the Lord,” Jo Babbitt said in a promotional video about the chapel project. “To me, the future is now.” Duncan Stroik, professor of architecture at Notre Dame University and 2016 Arthur Ross Award for architecture done in the classical tradition, designed the 27,000-squareEarly American churches — including King’s Chapel in Boston, St. foot chapel. He has received Paul’s Chapel in New York City, and Christ Church in Philadelphia awards for his designs of Our — inspired the design of Christ Chapel, architect Duncan Stroik Lady of the Most Holy Trinity said. Sheila Butler | Courtesy for music in both prayer and so much, and this is one of the Chapel in Santa Paula, Califorperformance, and it represents reasons the chapel should be so nia,and the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Lathe gratitude of a people who beautiful and so central.” are free. Few things bespeak Although thousands of peo- Crosse, Wisconsin.
See Chapel A3
Brexit’s Nigel Farage to speak on Monday By | Philip H. DeVoe City News Editor
Senior Caleb Gatchell broke the school record in the men’s mile this weekend, with a time of 4:06.31, at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational. With this performance, Gatchell earned the 14th spot on the national list. See story A10 Evan Carter | Collegian
Stroik said he wanted the chapel to be a “cousin” to Central Hall, balancing its Italianate architecture with the colonial styles of early American churches that heavily influenced the designs for the inside of the building. One such inspiration was Christ Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the Founding Fathers worshipped during the Continental Congress. “We wanted to create an architectural constitution by looking back and finding those principles that are timeless and true,” Stroik said. Even the location harkens to the founding period, Stroik said. Although he and the college contemplated many different locations, they decided upon completing the fourth, far side of the Quad. When laying out the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson built the most prominent building on campus, which held a library and classrooms, at the end of a Quad.
Nigel Farage, the former leader of the U.K. Independence Party and the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, will speak on the growing international populist movement Monday at Hillsdale College. “Mr. Farage is a great champion of independence and has fought the centralized bureaucratic state for a long time,” Matt Bell, director of programs for external affairs, said in an email. “In that sense, he defends the same liberty, albeit in a different geographic location, that Hillsdale seeks to defend.” During his first visit to Hillsdale, Farage will deliver a talk titled “The Significance of Brexit and the Trump Victory” at 8 p.m. in the Searle Center for the college’s Churchill Conference, which is centered around the exhibition of the Churchill paintings and mem-
orabilia in the Daughtrey Gallery. Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn said he is personally interested in the connection between former Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the European Union. “Churchill helped to found the EU. Because of that, he was used extensively by the Remain campaign,” Arnn said in an email. “In several things I read, they did not make plain that Churchill did not propose that Britain enter the EU, or the Common Market, nor did he imagine it having the scope it achieved.” Assistant Professor of Politics John Grant agreed, saying Churchill would not have opposed relationships with other countries but would disagree with the role and size of the EU today. “The EU is hostile to Europe,” Grant said. “Brussels [the headquarters of the EU], like Washington, D.C., is not
there to serve the people it represents.” Some have linked the populist revolutions central to President Donald Trump’s victory and Britain’s decision to leave the EU, especially because of Trump and Farage’s close relationship. Nigel Farage, who led the movement for the D u r i n g United Kingdom to leave the European Union, is the 2016 speaking at Hillsdale College on Monday. Gage Skidmore | Flickr U.S. presidential race and since Trump’s spoke in support of Farage beelection, Farage has voiced coming the British ambassador support for Trump, saying he to the U.S., after his election. would have voted for Trump, “I think he’s a great guy, has if he were a U.S. citizen. After very interesting thoughts, and Trump’s victory, Farage was the seems like a man of action, and first British politician to visit that’s what we need,” said freshTrump in his eponymous New man George Roberts, who is York City tower, and Trump f r o m See Farage A2
Society holding 1,844-minute fundraiser By | Thomas Novelly Editor-in-Chief Hillsdale’s 1844 Society is challenging students to raise thousands of dollars for scholarships in just 30 hours starting Thursday and Friday, with its first-ever campus fundraising campaign. “This campaign is not about the college asking Hillsdale students for their money to be put into a general fund,” 1844 Society President senior Mariah Hardy said. “This is about reminding ourselves of what we love about Hillsdale and pondering how we can give back to our peers to ensure that the next generation of Hillsdale students can graduate.” By asking students to doFollow @HDaleCollegian
nate in amounts of $2, $5, $10, and $18.44, members said they hope to raise enough to finance four Ransom Dunn scholarships. Four seniors this year benefit from these need-based scholarships. Bonnie Hough ’84 and her husband, David, have pledged $100,000 to the campaign, and members of the 1844 Society said they want to match the amount. Starting with a social media campaign and online giving at noon on Thursday, 50 students will post pictures and statuses with #payitforward and #1844ever to raise awareness for the 1,844-minute event, in addition to pledging money themselves. Then, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, members of the 1844 Society will collect
online and cash donations in are the Class of 2017 officers. the Grewcock Student Union. Senior Class President Jacob Among the 50 student ad- Thackston said he is eager to help his peers. “That is what’s so great about the Ransom Dunn scholarship,” Thackston said. “It’s a way to help other students stay here and benefit from this great education.” Director of the 1844 Society Colleen McGinness said there isn’t a set goal for the fundraiser but that she is hoping to at least match the $5,000 raised for the Ransom Dunn scholarship last year. “We have a participation goal of 13 percent,” McGinness said. “It sounds small, but only 13 percent of students gave last vocates who will post on social year over the entire academic media and pledging money year. If 13 percent of students
“Most students can give something, even if it’s $5 and they sacrifice a latte that week.”
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give in one 30-hour period, that will be a great success.” Givecampus.com, a crowdfunding website, will allow students to see the fundraising happen in real time. As an incentive, student advocates who donate money and encourage their peers to do likewise will have the chance to win prizes, including a $100 bookstore gift card, $100 Amazon gift card, and an iPad Mini. Members of the 1844 Society said they know it’s not easy for college kids to give money, but McGinness said she’s hopeful with the social media outreach and the incentive of prizes that students will find a reason to participate. “College kids’ pockets are not deep,” McGinness said.
“But, most students can give something, even if it’s $5 and they sacrifice a latte that week. We are wildly blessed by thousands of people around the country who are giving to afford this kind of an education for every student here at Hillsdale.” For Thackston, it’s more than just being thankful for a Hillsdale education, he said; it’s also about creating lifelong stewards of the college. “One of our big duties as senior class officers is to engage the seniors not just now but also give as alumni,” Thackston said. “The students who will be most engaged after graduation are the ones that give.”
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Film and Production Club is now rolling
In brief:
Pursue jobs in Lansing Friday
By | Chandler Lasch Collegian Reporter
By | Nolan Ryan Collegian Freelancer Students looking for a job or internship will have the chance to meet with employers and land an interview by the end of Friday. Job Pursuit is a career fair in Lansing, Michigan, offering job and internship opportunities for students attending Michigan private colleges. The fair will run 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and provide students the ability to make more connections in the career world. The event costs $10, though the career services office will reimburse $5 at the fair, in addition to providing transportation. Job Pursuit provides the opportunity for students to speak with employers from more than 50 companies and participate in 20-minute interviews in the afternoon. Representatives from Aerotek, AT&T, Chemical Bank, DTE Energy, and Prudential Financial will be in attendance to speak with the more than 250 students expected to attend. Director of Career Services Joanna Wiseley said Job Pursuit is a good opportunity for students looking for internships or full-time jobs. Students interested in attending may contact Wiseley in Hillsdale’s career services office, where they can register for the afternoon interviews.
Library art show voting this week By | Jordyn Pair Assistant Editor Mossey Library is honoring more than just the written art this week. Its second annual art show is running through Sunday. The show consists of five pieces in oil, watercolor, and photography. Students and staff can vote on which pieces will be on display for the rest of the semester. “It’s a different venue for the art to be showcased, and I think that it adds a pop of color,” Public Service Librarian Brenna Wade said. The show began last year at the suggestion of student library staff. “I’m glad they started it,” said junior Elyse Hutcheson, a student worker. “I think it’s a really cool thing to have.” Hutcheson submitted her own piece to the show: an oil painting on canvas entitled “All Things Go.” “I painted it in the Slayton Arboretum last semester, over the course of a few weeks, so the leaves changed a lot,” Hutcheson said. “I incorporated some of the older colors and the newer colors as I went through, so that was pretty fun.” Hutcheson said having the show benefits campus artists. “Usually a lot of the pieces will just be sitting,” she said. “You’re just leaving them in your portfolio for whenever you need them.” But the show also benefits campus as a whole, too. “It’s nice to think that you’re making a difference in someone’s life,” Hutcheson said, “that they’ve seen something you’ve created and have enjoyed looking at it. Wade said she has: “It’s extra exposure for the students, and I personally really enjoy looking at it. I can see it from my office, and I think it adds a little bright spot.”
Farage from A1
Portsmouth, England. “We needed a little kick from somewhere, and Farage seemed to give that.” Roberts said he voted to leave the EU, despite being split on the issue. He said he paid attention to both sides of the campaign and ultimately made his decision based on immigration.
A2 16 Feb. 2017
Students participate in a small group discussion following a Christ-focused talk at Crossroad Farm in Reading. Facebook
Crossroads Farm sets new GOALs By | Madeleine Jepsen Assistant Editor
Building relationships with college-aged mentors can change lives for teenagers, whether time is spent playing foosball or having a serious talk about life, according to Dawn Routledge, co-founder and director of operations at Crossroads Farm. Crossroads Farm, a ministry organization dedicated to serving rural teens in Hillsdale County, officially became a GOAL program this semester, after a community member approached Rebekah Dell, associate dean of women and the GOAL Program’s faculty adviser, about grouping it with the other volunteer organizations on campus. Crossroads Farms serves middle-school and highschool students, providing a safe, Christ-centered atmosphere for ministry and relationship-building. Approximately 150 students attend the program each week. “It’s kind of like youth group, but you don’t have to go to church to come,” said sophomore Emily Walker, the Crossroads Farm GOAL Leader. Sunday night gatherings include fun activities and games, as well as music and a Christian-themed talk. Crossroads Farm also added a tutoring session on Thursday nights so students could have a safe after-school spot. GOAL volunteers will have the opportunity to help with both the tutoring sessions and the Sunday night programs. Walker said these tutoring sessions help build bridges for Crossroads students beyond just their homework. “They’re trying to provide help not only with their school work but just to give them a safe environment to go to after school,” Walker said. “It’s not universally the case that the homes aren’t a good environment, but for some, their home really isn’t ideal. To provide that extra time would be really neat.”
Although Crossroads Farm only became a GOAL program this semester, Hillsdale College students have long volunteered there since the program’s founding in 1999. Last year, 10 students regularly volunteered at the farm, although this year, the number dropped to three students. Walker said in addition to the weekly gatherings, the program will also offer one-time volunteer opportunities. Routledge said Crossroads helps teens make good decisions by providing them an opportunity to encounter Christ and build relationships with Crossroads mentors. “We really feel like when we’re engaging a student, every choice they make puts them at a crossroads,” Routledge said. “One choice affects a great deal of things, and we’re hoping they’ll understand that it’s a choice — it’s a choice for Jesus Christ, but it’s also a choice about whether you’re going to do your homework, or try hard at practice, or get along with your parents, even if they aren’t necessarily worthy of modeling.” Crossroads specifically ministers to rural teens, who Routledge said may struggle to find a meaningful heritage. “One of the things that’s lost in rural communities is the rich heritage they have, because generationally, very few have a family farm,” Routledge said. “To understand that where they come from has history and value is really important.” Senior Allison Bieganek, who has volunteered at Crossroads since her freshman year, said Crossroads provides teens with a safe and accepting community. Crossroads volunteers, she said, get the opportunity to build relationships with the teens and their fellow volunteers. “That’s one of the things I love, apart from the ministry aspect,” Bieganek said. “They work to create a sense of community among volunteers and staff. They’re like family.”
Soon, film fans in Hillsdale might not have to travel far to attend an indie film festival, thanks to the Film and Production Club. The new club, approved by Student Federation on Feb. 2, is offering a creative environment for student filmmakers to perfect and showcase their work on campus. Club President senior Kayla Stetzel said the organization’s purpose is to “inform, inspire, encourage, and create.” “This club is really for anyone interested in filmmaking, regardless of prior experience,” Vice President sophomore Jordyn Pair said in an email. “And we need all sorts of people with all sorts of interests. There are so many skills that go into making a movie, and we need people for all of them.” After taking a film production course during the summer, Stetzel decided to bring what she learned back to Hillsdale College, she said. Pair said she had also become interested in starting a film club, so the two joined forces. “I knew we had a lot of stu-
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Churchill to the Oval Office and his warm meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May. Although Arnn said he does not personally know Farage, he looks forward to hearing his thoughts. “He is an important figure in something happening in much of Europe,” Arnn said. “I am interested to meet him, and I expect others are, too.”
exist on campus. “It will allow students to focus on major skill sets involved in production and film and to pool resources and offer a support system as they develop their talents and grow as filmmakers,” Swenson said. Campus clubs normally enter a probationary period for their first semester, which allows them to remain unofficial while Student Federation observes how they operate. However, the federation voted by a two-thirds majority to forgo the wait with the Film and Production Club. “We saw they were in good standing and had a good set of leadership,” Swenson said. “They demonstrated that they could operate as a successful club right away.” Interested students may attend an informational meeting on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Kendall 235, where pizza will be provided. “If you’re interested in writing, shooting, lighting, editing, directing, producing, or anything else remotely related to filmmaking, we would love to have you,” Pair said.
Freshman Ben Dietderich sets up a camera to film a video in the Grewcock Student Union’s formal lounge. Jordyn Pair | Collegian
Debate beats Ivies in first British Parliament competition By | Joe Pappalardo Video Editor Lake-effect snow and two 10-hour car rides left the debate team exhausted, after beating Ivy League competitors in its first British Parliamentary tournament. While the forensics team took home five awards at the Bowling Green State University Invitational Saturday and Sunday, debate team members transformed Hillsdale College’s British Parliamentary Club, which started last semester, into a competitive team at Cornell University’s British Parliamentary tournament. British Parliamentary debate is different from the team’s usual one-on-one and twoon-two debates, because it pits four teams against each other every round. The debate topic is affirmed by the first team, rejected by the second, supported again by the third, and finally rejected by the last pair. Freshman Joel Meng outshined the competition, breaking into the finals in the novice division and placing in the top four of 84 teams. Because of a mix-up in Hillsdale’s lineup, Meng was paired with a student from Patrick Henry, but the two worked together to see the final round of the competition. Doggett said he was impressed with the team’s performance, especially Meng’s.
Students participate in a Christ-centered talk at Crossroads Farm in Reading. Facebook
“The main issue I was sucked into is the immigration fiasco,” Roberts said. “I saw all the troubles Germany was having, France was having, and I didn’t want that coming into England.” Grant said he has already seen steps taken toward a greater relationship between England and the U.S. under Trump, referring to Trump’s decision to return the bust of
dents on campus interested in filmmaking and had a real passion for doing it, but we didn’t have anything like the club,” Stetzel said. The club will hold meetings twice a month, which will be partially informational but largely a chance for students to work on their films together. “Each meeting is going to be focused on particular areas of filmmaking,” Stetzel said. “Like how to compose good shots or how to edit effectively.” Meetings will begin with a short lecture from Stetzel or a guest speaker in the future. Then, students will work on projects, offering critiques or sharing resources. Pair said she is looking forward to opportunities the club will provide to display student work such as a film festival that will occur at least once a year. “It’d be a great way for students to get feedback on their films and have people see them,” Pair said. Student Federation Freshman Rep. Lukas Swenson said he voted to approve the club because it will create a place for students to work together to produce films, providing a service that did not previously
“He’s brilliant, he’s laid-back; there’s that ‘it’ quality about Joel,” Doggett said. “He walks into a room and judges want to believe him. Every format we’ve been into, he’s broken to semifinals or further. It’s just absolutely incredible.” Along with Meng, freshmen Henrey Deese and Rowan Macwan also made progress at the novice level, reaching the quarterfinals. Sophomore Matthew Kendrick returned to the team for the first time this year, breaking to the semifinals with the help of his brother, Kyle, a sophomore at King’s College. Senior Graham Deese and junior Duncan Voyles did not make it far in the open round, because of low scores in early rounds, but the team credited Voyles for leading them in the tournament. “None of what happened would have been possible without Duncan Voyles and Matt Kendrick, who took the British Parliamentary squad from an idea to beating Yale, Princeton, and Columbia in a few months,” Meng said. In Meng’s final round, he was in the second position, the first negative opinion. Doggett said this was a difficult spot, because the judges could easily forget his arguments in the midst of the first and last groups to go. “You have to find a way to distinguish yourself,” Doggett
said. Hillsdale competed against Yale, Princeton, George Washington, Brandeis, Clemson, Columbia, and Cornell universities, as well as Patrick Henry College. Meanwhile, the forensics team entered Bowling Green with three students and left with five awards. Junior Steven Custer placed second in persuasive speaking and fourth in impromptu, while junior Nathan Steinmeyer placed third in radio broadcasting, fourth in impromptu, and fifth in extemporaneous. “I think we were all pretty happy with how we placed,” Steinmeyer said. “There were not as many schools at this tournament as normal, but there were still some that had very good teams, including Notre Dame, Marshall, and Western Kentucky.” While speech team regular Mary Blendermann, a junior, took the week off, Steinmeyer said he rejoined the team this weekend and will compete through the end of the season. Sophomore Nathaniel Turtel did not place but said he introduced his new informative speech about “a German extremist group called the Reichsburger.” The speech team will compete in the novice league’s state finals Saturday.
Hillsdale College’s debate team and British Parliamentary Debate Club competed at Cornell University Saturday and Sunday. Rachel Umaña | Courtesy
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A3 16 Feb. 2017
Sculptor alumna ‘Chasing Michelangelo’ By | Nic Rowan Collegian Reporter
because of that.” Before she became a professional sculptor, Irani majored For sculptor Sarah Hempel in classical studies at Hillsdale Irani ’00, chasing Michelangelo College and practiced many is a life’s work. forms of art, including drawIrani will share her knowl- ing, painting, and, of course, edge of sculpting, when she sculpting. leads a tour to Italy July 3-13, “She was the kind of student tracing the career of the Re- I’d love to work with, because naissance sculptor Michelange- she has imagination, motivalo from the quarries of Pietro- tion, and good observation,” santa in Tuscany to the cities Professor of Art Sam Knecht Florence and Rome, where his said. most famous works are. The Irani’s love of classics and trip costs $3,566, and those art often carried into her extrainterested can apply online at curricular life. As the president clayandchisel.com. of Eta Sigma Phi, the classics honorary, during her junior year, she made the “sacred sash,” a draping that Eta Sigma Phi still uses at its meetings 17 years later. She also handmade Greek-styled dresses for female members of the honorary the same year, when Hillsdale went to its first Eta Sigma Phi national convention in Athens, Georgia. “Since we dressed as Greek women, everybody knew who Hillsdale was,” Irani said. Shortly after she graduated Hillsdale, Irani moved to the Washington, D.C., area, putting her faith in her abilities to become a sculptor of religious pieces. One of the casts of the stations of “I just put everything the cross Sarah Hempel Irani ’00 in my car and drove out to made for Our Lady of Mercy church D.C.,” she said. in Potomac, Mayland. Upon arriving in the naNic Rowan | Collegian tion’s capital, she became a “We’re going to see all of the sculpting apprentice, making sights that most people want to sacred art for the Washington see when they go to Italy any- National Cathedral. ways,” Irani said. “But this trip “I didn’t know anybody or is unique, because we’re going have any friends, so I volunto Pietrosanta. Tourists don’t teered at the Washington Irish go there — it’s still a working festival and fell in with a troupe city.” of Irish dancers — so they were Pietrosanta is one of the few my family,” she said. cities in the world that relies on Some of of the dancers Irani sculpture for its existence. Lo- befriended belonged to the Rocated in the foothills of Apuan man Catholic parish, Our Lady Alps, the mountains’ readily of Mercy, in Potomac, Maryavailable marble has made the land. The parish wanted new town a hub for stonecutters and sculpted stations of the cross, masons since Roman times. and Irani received the commisAs a sculptor who has sion in 2002. Since then, she worked in Pietrosanta herself, has donated two fiberglass casts Irani said the chance to lead a of her Stations of the Cross to tour there will make the trip Hillsdale College. They hang unique. on the wall in the Sage Center “Artists come from all over for the Arts. the world to be there for the After completing her work same reason,” she said. “There’s for Our Lady of Mercy, Irani an incredible vibe to the city received another commision
from the church. This time, she case of the Joseph statue, Irani would sculpt larger-than-life did not carve any of the marble statues of Saint Joseph and the until the artists in Pietrosanta Blessed Virgin Mary. had finished carving the basic “I was 25 at the time, so I figure. She then went to Italy feel like they took a very big to put the finishing touches on risk, and I’m very grateful for the statue herself. Once Irani it,” she said. “It was right after had completed her work, the my birthday, too.” sculptors at Pietrosanta gave To make the figure of Joseph, her a chip of marble to comIrani made a plaster cast of her memorate the occasion. sculpture and then shipped the “I loved working with them mold over to Pietrosanto to — it was one of the highlights have it finished. of my life. Other than, you Irani explained this process know, childbearing, family — is common in the sculpting all that,” she said. community — artists view the Professor of Classics Joseph process as a methodical and Garnjobst said Irani’s love of mathematical art. classics continues to influence “Most people approach the the way she works. art by first making a small clay “Some of her sculpture is model and then a large-scale from Scripture: She’ll take a clay model,” she said. “You passage and bring it to life,” he then take measurements on the said. “It’s kind of the X and Y-axes, but also on the liberal arts put Z-axis, which goes into space. into acCarve until you hit the point. Take measurements over and over again until you have the figure.” Irani said only at the very end of the process will a sculptor get out her chisel and free-form sculpt. Even Michelangelo — arguably the greatest sculptor since the ancient Greeks — did not free-form sculpt until his work was nearing completion. “There are a lot of myths a b o u t Michelangelo — that he whacked at the marble and released the figure within — that’s not true,” Irani said. “Taking a block of marble and hacking at it and trying to get a good image — it’s just not going to happen.” ’00 sculpts a figure. In the Sarah Hempel Irani Sarah Hempel Irani | Courtsy
Alumna discusses the growing, controversial field of genetics By | Katie J. Read Assistant Editor
in genetic counseling. At the time, only 14 of these programs existed, and each accepted no Two years after alumna more than seven students. DeNancie Petrucelli graduated spite the odds, she got in. from Hillsdale College in 1992 Petrucelli is now a senior with a degree in biology, she genetic counselor at the Karapplied to the University of manos Cancer Institute in DeCincinnati’s graduate program troit, Michigan, and works as an associate professor of oncology at Wayne State University. On Monday, she addressed Professor of Biology Bob Miller’s genetics classes, outlining a field expanding so quickly because of developing technology that the 32 genetic counseling programs operating today still fail to meet the demand for professionals. “Genetic counselors are a lot like detectives,” Petrucelli said. “We’re looking for certain clues in family histories that might be linked to a mutation transmitted through the genes.” After genetic counselors investigate their patients’ DNA for genetic mutations — flagged by an unusual number or structure of chromosomes, a change in a single gene, or a change in multiple genes — and Nancie Petrucelli ’92 spoke to students analyze the alteration’s Monday about the growing field of possible consequencgenetics. Ben Block | Collegian es, they generate a list of preventative mea-
sures and solutions addressing the problem. While this is the overall goal of all genetic counselors, the field splits into many subcategories. Counselors can specialize in cardiovascular, genomic, metabolic, neurological, oncological, pediatric, pharmacogenetic, and prenatal counseling. Petrucelli’s focus is cancer. “This talk gave students an idea of what implications genetics has and what kind of jobs are out there,” said Frank Steiner, natural science chair. “This is not just a field up in an ivory tower. Genetics is not just applied to populations but to individuals.” Steiner said the level of human interaction involved with genetic counseling gives professionals a chance to mix the humanities with the sciences. Petrucelli, for example, took several psychology classes at Hillsdale and said genetic counseling allows her to exercise her interest in helping people approach challenges. But this human element also creates ethical complications. “Genetics has the bad reputation of eugenics,” Petrucelli said. “We aren’t trying to create a master race. Our job is to educate patients.” To illustrate this, Petrucelli said when counselors in the prenatal field make a prediction of a child’s genetic condition based on parental DNA, they must present the parents with
all possible next-step options. This includes prenatal diagnosis through the amniotic fluid, conception with a donor egg or sperm, adoption, or pregnancy termination. “Genetic counselors are not allowed to give any bias in their counseling,” junior biology major Lydia Siepel said. “Regardless of their own beliefs,
Kellogg steps in, after Flynn resigns as adviser Michael Flynn resigned his post as national security adviser Monday, because he construed details of a conversation with Russia to Vice President Mike Pence. He is replaced by retired Lt. Gen. Joseph K. Kellogg Jr. Flynn held the office for three weeks.
Rising water levels threatens Calif. dam Water levels have risen in California, because of an increase in rain and snow, which has put stress on the Oroville Dam located north of Sacramento. Around 200,000 people have been evacuated, because officials are worried about the integrity of the dam.
Kim Jong Un allegedly had brother assasinated South Korean spy chief Lee Byung-ho said Wednesday that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un ordered an assassination on his brother. Kim Jong Nam was murdered Monday in Malaysia, and a female suspect has been arrested.
5
things to know from this week
-Compiled by Brendan Clarey
“Genetic counselors are a lot like detectives.” they have to understand that the decision stands with the patient and it is their job to inform them, not lead them to a decision. I think it is critical to expose students to these topics, even though they are difficult to talk about.” Petrucelli said she encourages scientifically inclined students to consider genetic counseling as a career. “I came to Hillsdale knowing exactly what I wanted to be was a veterinarian, which ended up not being what I wanted to do at all,” Petrucelli said. “Keep an open mind, and be open to other opportunities.”
tion.” Garnjobst said he has kept in contact with Irani in the years after she graduated and has attended art shows with her near her home in the Washington, D.C., area. “I like to appreciate the arts,” he said. “And being able to talk to someone who can talk about how an arm can be attached to a sculpture or how difficult it is to deal with drapery on a statue — places I don’t have a full appreciation — she can understand and explain it all.” Irani said she looks forward to bringing her knowledge to life by leading a trip to Italy — and especially to Pietrosanta — because the town has a special place in her life’s work. “To be where Michelangelo stood — it’s a very cool place for me.” she said. “I’ve only been once, but I’m excited to go back.”
Chapel from A1
“I thought that resonates with Hillsdale,” Stroik said. “We wanted to beautify that Quad, to make it even more beautiful and noble.” Stroik said it was a “thrilling” project that came with its own challenges, since the college requested that it fit nearly all of the students yet feel comfortable sitting a few hundred. He said he used columns to create the feeling of an intimate environment with room for more seating in the balconies above. “I’m very excited to see how you use it,” Stroik said. “That’s a crazy idea, to make it comfortable for 300 and the ability to hold 1,300.” Today, few chapels are built on college campuses, Stroik said, adding that the construction of one on Hillsdale’s campus is a symbol for its mission to protect freedom of speech and religion. “We are designing it for the people and for the trinity and for God,” Stroik said. Christ Chapel will also house two pipe organs. The first is being made in Tacoma, Washington, by Paul Fritts. Fritts is known for applying historical organ building principles in crafting his own instruments. The new building will also have a smaller chapel for other religious services. Traditionally, Hillsdale College has had places to hold services. It built College Baptist but has since broken ties with the Free Will Baptists and outgrown the space for campus-wide events. It also has a small chapel in the Knorr Student Center. Arnn told The Collegian the chapel is another step toward restoring the college to its original principles. “The two chief ways of knowing are reason and faith,” Arnn said in a news release. “There has never been a great university that was not heavily concerned with the question of God. There has never been serious Christian practices that were not heavily concerned with learning. This chapel will be a daily reminder of this central fact. It will be where the entire Hillsdale College family can learn, grow, and find inspiration.”
Juniors Macy Mount and Gionna Eden, senior Larissa Clark, and junior Victoria Watson attend the Conservative Political Action Conference. Gionna Eden | Courtesy
CRs scrape together CPAC funds By | Emily Blatter Collegian Reporter The College Republicans will still attend the Conservative Political Action Conference this year, despite Student Fed partially fundings its request. “CPAC is going to happen,” College Republicans acting president junior Madeline Domalakes said. “It was stressful, because we took on extra risks that we really didn’t want to take on. They could have tanked the entire trip…but right now we’re treading water.” Student Fed voted at its Feb. 2 meeting to give the College Republicans only $4,000 of the $5,000 it requested. While the $1,000 difference almost made the trip impossible, club officers spent 10 hours Saturday scrambling to gather funding, they said, and they scraped together enough to bring 42 students to CPAC. “As of Saturday morning, we called the trip off multiple times in our own meeting,” Director of Events junior Peyton Bowen said. “It was down to every single dollar that we have
to our name.” Although 56 students had signed up for the trip originally, only 42 are going, after the College Republicans raised the price from $205 to $218, Domalakes said. It increased the cost to raise more money independently of Student Fed, but PayPal user fees consumed most of the extra revenue while turning prospective attendees away. “It turned a lot of kids away. We couldn’t even fill a full bus,” Director of Events junior Peyton Bowen said. “We were begging people to come to CPAC.” The College Republicans applied for a $1,000 discount on its CPAC tickets, which partially prompted Student Fed to approve only $4,000, representatives said. But the College Republicans is still waiting to find out whether or not it will receive the discount, which is new this year, Domalakes said. Either way, the College Republicans will make the trip happen, Domalakes said. “We’ll figure it out,” she said. “As we have done this entire time, we’ll figure it out. I have absolute trust that, whatever we need to do, we’ll do it.”
Puzder withdraws his name from labor secretary post Andy Puzder withdrew from becoming President Donald Trump’s labor secretary, because of concerns from Republicans in the Senate about aspects of his past, including abuse allegations from his former wife and not paying taxes for an undocumented housekeeper.
Adele wins big at 59th Grammy Awards Adele won five prizes Sunday at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, including three of the top awards. Beyoncé also won two awards and showed off her baby bump on the red carpet. Some artists used the stage to express their views against President Donald Trump.
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World class music is right down the hall — and free
Editor-in-Chief | Thomas Novelly Associate Editor | Kate Patrick News Editor | Breana Noble City News Editor | Philip H. DeVoe Opinions Editor | Jo Kroeker | Anders Hagstrom Sports Editor | Jessie Fox Culture Editor | Hannah Niemeier Features Editor | S.M. Chavey Design Editor | Grace DeSandro Web Editor | Evan Carter Photo Editor | Madeline Barry Senior Writers | Andrew Egger | Nathanael Meadowcroft | Ramona Tausz Circulation Managers | Conor Woodfin | Finn Cleary Ad Managers | Adam Stathakis | Aidan Donovan Assistant Editors | Stevan Bennett, Jr. | Jordyn Pair | Joe Pappalardo | Josh Paladino | Katie Scheu | Tim Pearce | Brendan Clarey | Madeline Jepsen | Michael Lucchese Photographers | Ben Block | Catherine Howard | Emilia Heider | Jordyn Pair | Luke Robson | Andrea Lee | Lauren Schlientz | Madeline Fry | Nicole Ault | Nina Hufford | Rachael Reynolds | Sarah Borger | Zane Miller | Hannah Kwapisz | Sarah Reinsel Faculty Advisers | John J. Miller | Maria Servold The editors welcome Letters to the Editor but reserve the right to edit submissions for clarity, length, and style. Letters should be 450 words or less and include your name and number. Send submissions to jkroeker@hillsdale.edu before Saturday at 3 p.m.
Identity politics to blame for Democrats’ national minority By | Doyle Wang
Special to The Collegian
their target voters instead of valuing them as individuals, they ignored other portions of the American electorate such as the moderate voters in the midwest. The party is now a regional party of arrogant coastal elites constrained along the west and north Atlantic coastlines. The party that now caters to fringe social justice warriors at the universities has abandoned blue collar workers concerned about resurgence of terrorism and disillusioned by Obama’s anemic economic recovery that they voted for. The Women’s March is just one of the myriad examples of the Democrats’ growing hostility towards God, religious freedom, and biblical values. Besides forbidding prolife advocates, the feminist left doubled down on the cultural trends of the 1960s sexual revolution, some protesting half-naked to express their opposition to the new administration and the pro-life Congress. In addition, the left has also labeled religious conservatives homophobic just because they want to use their First Amendment right to freely exercise a religion that disagrees with the left’s views on homosexuality. These practices of hysteria by the Democrats could eventually make non-white evangelical voters ripe targets for Republicans in the future. Though these tactics have worked well against Republicans in the short term, they have certainly have become overdone to the point where even some Obama voters get tired of them. The same tactics that won voters to the Obama coalition are coming back to bite the Democrats. They did not appeal to the “forgotten men and women of America,” which not only include white blue collar moderates and evangelical conservatives but also a larger portion of Hispanics as well as inner city blacks, whose communities have been ruined by failing public schools and increased crime. With a performance slightly improved from Mitt Romney’s among blacks and Hispanics, Trump managed to assemble the diverse coalition that won him the White House and ultimately cemented the Democratic Party’s status as the smallest national minority it has ever been since the 1920s.
In 2008, Barack Obama’s promise of “hope and change” attracted a diverse coalition that won him the White House. Yet the Democratic Party’s tactics of appealing to ethnic minority voters to maintain its slowly diminishing majorities turned against them as they alienated other important voting blocs. As Democrats continued losing down-ballot races, their strategy took a more negative turn. To defend their progressive agenda, they focused more on stirring the negative emotions of racial minorities. Rather than turning out more of these voters, though, this strategy mainly categorized Americans into shallow groups pitted against each other, thus inflaming the tribalist tendencies on both sides of the political spectrum. 2016, Obama’s tumultuous last year as president, saw the rise of radical groups such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the altright, both of which exhibit nationalistic tendencies that disrupted the political arena. While Black Lives Matter activists attacked cops and blocked highways, ardent Trump supporters threatened #NeverTrump conservatives like Erick Erickson and David French during the campaign cycle. In addition, the fiery divisions of identity politics have incited the racist and anti-semitic tendencies of figures and entities of the alt-right such as Milo Yiannopoulos and the infamous Breitbart News. While the antiimmigration sentiment of the alt-right is certainly a problem that the right must deal with, identity politics has not gone as far into the gutter as the negative tactics of the left and the Democrats. Just look at the race for DNC chair. Idaho Democratic Party chair Sally Boynton Brown has made a pitch to the Black Lives Matter movement, stating that her job is to “shut other white people down.” The frontrunner, Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, has held shady ties to the Nation of Islam, whose leader, Louis Farrakhan, has been notorious for making anti-Semitic statements, including one blaming the 9/11 attacks on “lying, murderous Zionist Jews.” As Democrats pandered Mr. Wang is a freshman increasingly to the intending to study politics stereotypical necessities of and history.
and the trek to Sage Center for the Arts. Saturday, an a capella quintet representing Iceland, the Netherlands, and Russia-butmoved-to-New Mexico, took listeners across continents and through history, singing traditional Icelandic, Tibetan, Russian, German, and French (drinking, sometimes) songs, ending with American jazz and pop and an Abba medley encore. The vocalists, on their first American tour, delighted the audience with their hilarious pantomiming, charming accents and (bearded, sometimes) good looks, and left listeners speechless with advanced overtone singing tech-
niques and beautifully blended melodies. Cost for an average performance? $20-$80, depending on the seats and auditorium. Cost for a Hillsdale student? Two hours of your time and the trek to College Baptist Church. At Hillsdale, we have access to once-in-a-lifetime performances, and often, they don’t fill up the small performances spaces we provide. Yes, these events are ticketed, but if you just show up you’re likely to have a spot, without needing to wait. A student’s only motivation for attending these performances shouldn’t be based
on the syllabus of a 100-level art class. Go because these amazing concerts will deliver on their promises to astound, move, and stick with listeners long after the music fades. Cost or “too busy” shouldn’t be excuses either: Concerts are free, and on a Friday night at 8 p.m., are we really doing homework? Take a free study break and profit from the performances of internationally acclaimed musicians who choose to come to rural Michigan. You’ll spend less money than you would on your late-night Taco Bell run and less time than you would sleeping off a lardy naked chicken chalupa.
By Joel Haines
Online: www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Two world-famous performances played for free on campus last weekend but students didn’t take every available seat. Friday, one of the last remaining big band jazz musicians, trumpeter Fred Radke, blared energetic and complex solos with the Hillsdale College Big Band. Between songs, the pin-striped oldie-but-goodie cracked jokes and regaled the audience with stories of his days working with jazz greats like The King Family and Ella Fitzgerald. Cost for an average performance? $25-$50. Cost for a Hillsdale student? Two hours of your time
Outdoor ice rink melts under changing air pressure
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Chance The Rapper a bright light at Grammys By | Nic Rowan Collegian Reporter
When the rhythm and blues artist R. Kelly revisited his old Chicago South Side neighborhood Hyde Park in 2005, he brought his basketball. A summer camp for innercity kids had heard Kelly loved the sport and asked if he would come to their gym, play ball with the kids, and teach them the power of self-reliance. When Kelly showed up one day — wearing Jordans and surrounded by a four-man entourage — the camp played five shrimpy kids against him and his bar-bouncer goons. Outmatched, the kids quickly gave up. “Y’all played like trash out there,” Kelly said afterwards. “I beat you good — cuz I’m the greatest and you nothing.” Then he threw the ball at the rim and left. This behavior is typical of musicians whose talent helps them move out of the inner-city and into the national spotlight. However, we saw a different side of the South Side when Chance the Rapper, who hails from Chatham, won Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance, and Best
Rap Album at the Grammys on Feb. 11. Instead of praising himself — as is common in the rap game — Chance called his talent and popularity a blessing from God. Chance isn’t the first artist to do this. But he may be the first nationally rapper to be thanking God constantly in his work. Before he accepted his awards, Chance performed the song “How Great,” from his new album “Coloring Book.” Chance interpolates lyrics from the popular gospel hymn “How Great is Our God” and performed the song with a full gospel choir decked out in white robes. Like all of the songs on “Coloring Book,” “How Great” gives glory to God and celebrates childlike faith. The performance is scripted and rehearsed, but Chance’s actions later in the show leave little room to doubt his sincerity. When he received the award for Best Rap Album, Chance thanked God again. “I didn’t think we were going to get this award, so I didn’t have anything prepared,” he said. "But I want to thank God for everything that He's accomplished for me, for everything that He went through
with me.” Chance went on to thank other people — his parents, his friends, and all the indie artists out there — but by putting God first, he humbled himself before a higher power. Chance stands in contrast to a number of artists — especially rappers from Chicago’s South Side — who develop unbearable egos because of their talents. R. Kelly is old example — he soiled his public reputation long ago. This decade alone, a whole new host of South Side egomaniacs have crowded the field — Kanye West, Chief Keef, Joey Purp — who thank no one but themselves for their success. It’s not just Chicago. Nearly every popular entertainer out there has an ego problem that bleeds through our TVs at awards ceremonies. Brooklyn rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard drew attention to himself by shouting “Wu Tang is for the children!” when he didn’t get his Grammy in 1998. We all know the story of Kanye West and Taylor Swift at the VMAs in 2009. But the egomania of the music industry may have peaked at this year’s Grammys, even amid Chance’s humility. When British singer Adele’s
discussion of political views because one’s self-identity feels at stake during any given debate. Moreover, this form of discourse pervades politics in general. Such a self-identity with a political view stems from a broadly Cartesian understanding of identity that refers mainly to an immutable and substantial self. Of course, these rhetorical claims also carry a deeper meaning. Although many claim to be "open-minded," everyday experience suggests otherwise. We defend the political identities that we assume with thin rhetorical claims, which mask our inability to discuss politics in an intelligible manner, consider different perspectives, and even “change our minds” on various topics. For example, one of the largest flaws in the political manifestation of the feminist movement is their current attempt to use “empirical data” to demonstrate the need for equality. They want the data to speak for itself and act as the reason to accept their moral claims — yet they often fail to substantiate the rhetorical claims. In general, there is both
a failure to place one’s claims within a coherent tradition and an inability to generate meaningful discourse about the given identities adopted therein. The thinness of the rhetorical claims reveals that political views are more volatile than we believe. The claims typically take place in a vacuum, outside of a tradition or without meaning. The rhetoric and supposedly strong logical argumentation obscure our tendency to associate ourselves with an unchanging identity. Why is it that we tend to identify ourselves with a specific political movement rather than with a more coherent tradition, if you will? Why do we settle for logic or rhetoric without context? There are many differing responses that have been given with respect to why our discourse has become so poor, yet they all seem to be correct in differing and yet related ways. Contemporary virtue ethicist Alasdair MacIntyre focuses on how our moral claims no longer hold the weight they do because they are merely expressions of preference, or, in my interpretation, they are merely articulations of identity.
“25” trumped Beyonce’s “Lemonade,” in the top award categories, insiders called foul. In nearly everyone’s minds, these awards belonged to Beyonce because her music was brash and revolutionary. On the other hand, Adele’s music panders to the J.K. Rowlings of mommyblogs. Queen Bey supporters stepped up with fiery social media posts. Slate magazine condemned Adele for her white-guilt. Even Adele was upset: she apologized on stage to Beyonce and broke the award in half, a failed attempt to restore Beyonce’s honor. From afar, the whole affair seemed wrapped an eerie we’veseen-this-before haze. Whether it be Cee Lo Green’s all-gold costume of himself, or the Beyonce-Adele boondoggle, or the Joy Villa’s “Make America Great Again” dress — there’s always a distasteful shade of soap-box-standing or navelgazing at the Grammys. Thank God for Chance thanking God. Someone needed to stop the madness. Mr. Rowan is a sophomore studying history.
Identity politics’ thin claims impoverish discourse By | William Persson Special to the Collegian One of the few unapproachable topics at Hillsdale is identity politics, demeaned as a lesser form of discourse. At the same time, however, conservatives and liberals alike fall prey to it. Let’s turn to certain claims in contemporary discourse to understand why both sides fail to have healthy discussions: participating in the “Black Lives Matter” movement or saying “I am a feminist,” identifies the person marching or speaking with a specific set of political views. It is definitional as well as rhetorical. Identity politics, at its core, is an identification of the self with some immutable characteristic with which others also identify themselves. It is a departure from a broader understanding of a political life as one aiding in the promotion of various civic virtues to one of factions making claims until their views become standard and the laws of a country change accordingly. It polarizes discourse in America, preventing genuine
Friedrich Nietzsche — who influences MacIntyre in certain respects — discusses our nihilistic culture as one devoid of meaning and proposes how we might overcome this through a creation of meaning, whatever that may mean. What unifies these thinkers is their discussion of a lack of meaning in society that identity politics reveals. Rather than identifying with a coherent tradition or, like Nietzsche, creating meaning for yourself over and against a meaningless society, identity politics stems from a lack of understanding of the self as dispersed; rather, it identifies the self with some immutable characteristic. In so doing, it precludes healthy discourse about the very subjects they aim to defend insofar as it treats them as settled matters of which there can be no further discussion. Discourse is merely a matter of defending one’s views, which are treated more like a “view-from-nowhere.” Mr. Persson is a senior studying philosophy and mathematics.
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www.hillsdalecollegian.com to life, liberty, and property, she deserves to stand among the men and lone British lady on the college’s Liberty Walk. Hillsdale teaches its students that God endowed us with inalienable rights; but women couldn’t exercise these rights until the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment because many men in America’s history threw antiquated Bible verses and ill-informed science against us, conferring our rights to our husbands, hushing our voices, and subduing our
Recognize women’s suffrage
Liberty Walk needs a Susan B. Anthony Statue spirits. (No, really. Preachers even quoted Deuteronomy 22:5 to outlaw pants for women: “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto man; neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.”) In this hostile environment, where men wouldn’t let her speak, Susan spoke anyway, advocating for slaves’ and women’s freedom, political rights and privileges, and equal opportunity for blacks and women in education and industry. The statues on the Liberty Walk bear witness to principled, moral
Results from Pi Phi Speed Dating By Josh Lee
By | Jo Kroeker Opinions Editor Only one statue of a woman stands on Hillsdale College’s Liberty Walk, and she’s an honorary American citizen making bronzy eyes at Ronald Reagan from across the quad. It’s as if the walk forgot the influential women who fought fiercely for liberty with pamphlets, pens, petitions, and parades right here in the United States. But thanks to formidable American stateswomen like Susan B. Anthony, today’s women are free to work, vote, and be independent. Because Susan defended women’s and African-American’s equal right
visionaries who motivated the masses and changed the course of history. Susan too had strength of character she forged toiling in poverty and facing humiliation in her advocacy. It sustained her when newspapers ridiculed her and men shushed her and vaulted her to heights of public opinion decades later. Susan was born into the working class and knew its struggles. Originally from Massachusetts, her family moved to upstate New York. She worked as a school teacher, one of few respectable job for women, accepting cramped living quarters and pittance wages. Once she committed herself to public service, men humiliated her repeatedly: Often nominated as a delegate to abolition and temperance conventions, leaders scorned and turned her away. But Susan steeled herself against moments of defeat, uttering, “Failure is impossible.” She worked tirelessly, demonstrating both an impatience for laziness and clarity of thought as well as overcoming her weaknesses: a tendency toward terse speaking. She traveled the country with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, fundraising and delivering a hundred speeches a year, including one in Hillsdale County. Though Susan did not hold public office, she participated in politics energetically, petitioning Congress on multiple occasions. A fierce abolitionist, she didn’t support President Abraham Lincoln until
Want the solution to Hillsdating? Agree to casual, intentional dates By | Brendan Clarey Assitant Editor Tuesday was Valentine’s Day, a day of romantic opportunity. But just like every other day, myriads of young men and women stare at each other from across tables in Bon Appetít with blank faces trying to hide how they really feel. Stagnant first semester crushes continue to fester with no sign of ever developing into a real relationship. Hillsdale students have created a stifling dating climate that looks very different from the mainstream hookup culture. This “Hillsdating” ignores the problems of modern relationships, and in fact makes the dating landscape more confusing than the culture’s at large. Casual dating is the way out of this mess because it balances relationship direction with moderation. This passivity is a response to the current landscape of American dating culture. We live in a post-God, post-truth society that leaves people wondering where their identity comes from. Many go looking for it in relationships. Society tells young people they can fill the void in their heart with another person. The message that true love leads to happiness dominates romantic comedies, most Disney movies, and much of everything else the film industry produces. To find this happiness, people start looking around for someone who makes them feel good, rather than a family-focused, God-centered marriage. Accepting this point of view allows society to claim someone is worth less if they are not in a relationship, and that mutually loving for one’s own benefit is the highest form of love. Without God, this is best that our society can come up with. The focus of relationships has shifted from the long term to the here and now. These relationships provide
little usable information about their significant others while increasing the dependency the two have on each other. This becomes a vicious cycle of dependency and distress because these people may find someone they believe they love, get married, then file for divorce. Practice makes perfect, and our culture has perfected the art of the break-up. Almost half of all marriages end in divorce. The other side of today’s dating culture as a whole is a “hookup” culture that revels in sex without relationships or relationships for the sake of sex. Hillsdating is an extreme reaction to this aspect of our culture. A direct contrast to Hilldsating, casual dating — eating dinner at a restaurant, going to a park, or watching a movie — is low-stress and well-defined. The intention and
finding someone that has the same goals and desires as oneself increases with meeting more people and getting to know them better. These meetings are minimal in the current dating climate at Hillsdale but flourish under casual dating. Per the Judeo-Christian faith, men are called to lead in marriage, family, and their communities. This starts with relationships before marriage. Men need to be clear about the relationships before they even start. Casual dating is a way for them to take charge. It also allows women to take initiative as well. Nowhere in the Bible does it say women can’t take the first step in a relationship or show their interest. Women have to stop putting so much stock into the possibilities rather than the actualities of relationships. Also, don’t be afraid to be more obvious than you think is necessary: men are often dense when it comes to recognizing interest. After a few dates, perhaps ask where they think the relationship is headed, and make them say what they may not be willing to say outright. Communication is key to casual dating. Because our culture has hardwired the idea that our value is dependant on our relationships, learning that we are incompatible with someone else seems dehumanizing. This is wrong. There is no shame in saying “No” to a second date. It saves everybody time, but it requires brutal honesty. The hardest pill to swallow is the fact that not every love interest will bloom into relationship, but the benefit is that Hillsdale students can focus on starting real relationships founded on communication and directionality. The only way to change the dating climate at Hillsdale is to do something. Go out on a date with someone!
Casual dating allows people to be more honest about their feelings.
direction of the relationship is clear, and both parties agree to it. It allows for people to be more honest about their feelings. The real answer to the problem of what we should do is in the past. Casual dating, the way our parents probably met, is the best approach to navigating today’s relationship jungle, but, like letter writing, it requires practice and patience. We are going to have to start using it in order for it to work. It allows one to get to know more members of the opposite sex before beginning a relationship and investing enormous amounts of time and energy. If it doesn’t work out, than the damage is minimal, and two people can probably still be friends (unless the date was really bad) because the relationship was still Mr. Clarey is a junior studying preliminary. The chances of English and journalism.
he turned the Civil War’s cause into one of freedom for all slaves rather than merely stemming slavery’s spread. After this turning point, Susan mobilized thousands of women to petition the government for a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. “There never can be true peace in
Despite this, Susan’s legacy still unifies the American political spectrum and inspires a diverse body of women and men to involve themselves in politics. Every four years, women proudly stick their “I voted” stickers to her gravestone, and the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life group, claims the advocate because her newspaper refused to run abortifacient ads and published numerous articles from contemporary feminists who denounced the practice. Since 1979, our government has minted a Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. Hillsdale College should go a step further with a statue honoring her sacrifices, inspiring character, and enduring legacy. Susan would join President Lincoln and her long-time friend Frederick Douglass to inspire students to use their education to fight for liberty and equality. In front of Delp Hall, the athletically built, imposing Susan would dare students to take risks if they want to reform politics, to be “anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.”
It’s as if the walk forgot the influential women who fought fiercely for liberty with pamphlets, pens, petitions, and parades right here in the United States.
this Republic,” she said, “until the civil and political equality of every subject of the Government shall be practically established.” After Congress ended discrimination based on race or slave status with the Fifteenth Amendment, many disappointed women used racist rhetoric to argue that women should vote because black men had that right. To her credit, Susan tried to remain friends with Frederick Douglass and kept her associations open to black women, while remaining sensitive to racial tensions in her southern conventions. History doesn’t completely exonerate her, however. Some historians interpret her prioritization of women’s right to vote after the Fifteenth Amendment split to have Ms. Kroeker is a junior studying set back blacks seeking equal rights. Others denounce the deletion of French and journalism. black suffragettes in her encyclopedic “History of Woman Suffrage.”
How to win a Hillsdalian woman in 30 days or less
or if they do comprehend it By | Lauren Blunt Special to the Collegian they do not heed it. These repeated advances make Guys at Hillsdale need to daily interactions on campus remember that persistence is awkward and humiliating for not always a virtue. girls wanting to just be friends. Some of Hillsdale’s men A kind-hearted Hillsdalian act with a relentless sense of woman can feel quite terrible determination when it comes as she turns down good friends to asking girls on dates. Often repeatedly, then has to face obsessed with being gentlemen them regularly in the context of the highest degree, they of a small campus community. seem to think that persistence Although such men may is the key to winning a woman’s have every intent of being heart. However, this makes respectfully determined, the them seem much more like a way it makes the woman Mr. Collins rather than the Mr. they choose to pursue feel is Darcy they aspire to be. anything but pleasant. These Hillsdale fosters a unique, complaints are not a rarity — future-driven mentality that so many girls have reported many men on campus adopt being doggedly pursued that quickly and passionately. Far it stands out as an egregious too often, women — and the problem. art of successfully wooing Hillsdale College has a them — are treated as just distinct environment and another item on guys’ checklist culture, something that its of things they came to students should embrace accomplish before graduation and enjoy. However, how — Pursue the Good, the True, they approach dating and the Beautiful, and the Woman. relationships should reflect the (Watch out: Women can just community in which it takes as easily fall prey to the fervent place. At some campuses, search for a spouse!) women bemoan the lack Relationships are not a game of courageous, initiating and aggressive tactics hurt real men — thankfully, Hillsdale people. Men who refuse to take doesn’t have that problem. no for an answer embarrass Unfortunately, though, a themselves and leave girls Hillsdalian woman faces a in awkward situations. No rejection fatigue that women matter how bluntly a woman at other schools may not: too may put her rejection, many bold and persistent persistent suitors seem not to suitors. The small size of Hillsdale’s comprehend her clear “No,”
Talk money to me:
student body creates a very tight-knit community — a special and treasured aspect of this college. But it also means that, when a girl says no to a date, she is fully aware he is either a friend or someone she will see around regularly. Unlike larger schools where the chances of running into someone more than once are rare, people see each other enough every day to get a decent understanding of their character. The quality and character of the men on campus can and should be applauded. Their intentions are almost always pure. But the way their relentless pursuit of a lifelong partner can make women feel is far from edifying. Because of their good hearts, it is vital that they understand this and alter their ways quickly. The moral of the story, Men of Hillsdale, is that you cannot start a relationship on such a short and aggressive timeline — you need to slow down, be patient, look for hints and clues, and woo more tentatively at first. Stop trying to win a woman, and start enjoying your sisters for who they are —you may be surprised to find the wooing becomes far simpler and more enjoyable. Ms. Blunt is a freshman studying the liberal arts.
Take a paid internship, learn how to manage money By | Kate Patrick Financial Columnist If you’re searching for an internship this summer, prioritize applications for paid internships over the unpaid ones. If you take a paid internship, you will have the valuable opportunity to learn how to manage money. According to a December 2016 National Financial Educators Council report, 57 percent of college graduates plan to move back in with their parents, 56 percent of American adults do not have a budget, 39 percent of American adults have no retirement savings, and 76 percent of college students polled “wish they had more help to prepare for their financial futures.” Don’t be one of those college students who has no clue how to manage debt payments and bills when he graduates. Don’t be one of those new employees who doesn’t understand how to start saving for retirement and match a 401(k). Don’t be one of the 57 percent who moves back in with his parents. Getting a paid internship
could be your key to learning how to budget and taking your financial future into your own hands. If you receive a paycheck from your summer employer, you can get a head start on learning how to live like an adult before you graduate. The good news is that paid internships aren’t difficult to find. If you’re unsure of where to look, start by asking Career Services or your adviser. During my paid internship in Rockford, Illinois last summer, I started my first budget and learned how to plan bill payments around my grocery runs and fill-ups at the gas station. If I hadn’t been paid, not only would I not have been able to take the internship, but I also wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to learn how to live like an independent adult. Treat an internship like your “adulting” test run: you’re employed and paid, you’re living on your own, you have to buy yourself food and pay for transportation. You may not be completely independent yet (odds are mom and dad still pay your health insurance), but taking a paid internship is
a great opportunity for you get a feel for what life will be like after college. If your parents typically give you money to help pay for school, ask them to withhold their charitable gifts for a summer, and see how you do on your own. Try problemsolving by yourself when you experience a shortage of funds: instead of running to mom and dad for money so you can go out Friday night, opt for a night in and budget your money more carefully for the next week. Instead of squandering cash on bars on the weekends, check out the city sights with fellow interns: hit up public parks and museums, attend free events with free food and free alcohol (yes, they do exist). Taking a paid internship and receiving a paycheck is one of the best ways to build good financial habits. Educate yourself. Don’t be financially illiterate. Pursue a paid internship, and you’ll be better prepared for life after graduation. Ms. Patrick is a senior studying history and journalism.
City News www.hillsdalecollegian.com
A6 16 Feb. 2017
Hillsdale County will not participate in MI senate plan to reduce recidivism By | Scott McClallen Collegian Reporter
Charles Ferguson, owner of Call and Go Now taxi service, poses with one of his vehicles in downtown Hillsdale. Breana Noble | Collegian
Call and Go Now taxi service may close next month By | Breana Noble News Editor Despite looking into expanding to Coldwater and other nearby rural communities just weeks ago, Hillsdale’s only taxi service could permanently shift into park next month. Having expanded in one year to a full-service taxi company, Call and Go Now is seeing its insurance more than double. Automotive insurance premiums in Michigan stay high because of the high risk associated with public transportation and Michigan’s no-fault policy, which causes fewer companies to enter the market, said Tracey Moore, an agent at Barrett Insurance in Jonesville, Michigan. Charles “Chopper” Ferguson, owner of Call and Go Now, said he is expecting to keep his business running until March 20, the day before Michigan’s Limousine, Taxicab, and Transportation Network Company Act, signed into law in December, goes into effect. That is, unless he can find the money to pay for his insurance that is increasing from less than $700 per month to more than $1,600. “I’ve been drug by a horse caught up in a stir,” an emotional Ferguson told the Hillsdale City Council at a meeting on Feb. 6. “I beat 11 heart attacks… Nothing has ever af-
fected me like this.” The act requires taxis, as well as limos and transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft, to register with the state of Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. Previously, ride-sharing businesses and taxis registered at the local level, creating different regulations in each community, and the act aims to make those rules uniform, said state Rep. Eric Leutheuser, R-Hillsdale. “The emergence of TNCs made it obvious that we needed some type of structure in the state, so they wouldn’t have to go in and out of a patchwork of regulations,” Leutheuser said. The new law also mandates taxi companies to have $300,000 worth in liability insurance in case of injuries or property damage. Ferguson’s company is registered with the city of Hillsdale, which he said has been supportive of his effort and required $1 million liability insurance. Despite the decrease in the liability amount, his insurance costs have skyrocketed because his business has grown, Moore said. “He was the only driver,” she said. “He had only one vehicle. This year, his whole circumstance has changed. He wanted to expand to a full taxi service. That changes the bot-
Historical marker at Lewis Emery Park may be dedicated by October By | Anna Timmis Collegian Reporter More than 160 years ago, Hillsdale soldiers ran drills in preparation to give their lives for Michigan and the Union during the Civil War where today’s residents relax and enjoy the outdoors. To commemorate their sacrifice, Bill Smith, a native of Hillsdale County, is heading up an effort to establish an historical marker at that site, which is now Lewis Emery Park on State Street. Many officers in the 18th volunteer infantry of 1,062 men were students of Hillsdale College. “The 18th had a lot of Hillsdale and local residents,” Linda Moore, Hillsdale College’s public service
librarian, said. “Six or so had been Hillsdale College students.” Not alone in his efforts, Smith had help with research from Moore and volunteers of Mitchell Resource Center to prove that the park, once called Camp Woodbury, played a part in the war. “We have to send in proof to the Michigan Historical Commission that the regiment’s camp was there so they’re sure that it was an historic place,” Smith said. “It’s a lengthier process than we realized.” After the marker has been approved by the commission as an historic site, it will take another eight months to create the marker itself. He hopes to dedicate the marker in October.
Salvation Army’s new location in downtown Hillsdale. Josephine von Dohlen | Collegian
tom line.” Now, Ferguson has two employees driving for him and two vehicles in operation — a 2011 Dodge van and Kia Forte. Moore said public transportation is a high-risk business, and many refuse to offer the insurance for it, especially in Michigan, which has the highest insurance rates in the country. That is because of its no-fault policy, which requires insurance companies to provide lifetime medical coverage in the case of an accident. “He’s a people hauler,” Moore said. “Your insurance rates are astronomical.” No-fault also complicates insurance business’ entrances into Michigan, Leutheuser said. Only surplus lines insurers offer coverage of public transportation in the state, but since they offer all types of insurances, the premiums are high, Moore said. No niche market insurers, which typically offer lower premiums, that cover taxis have registered with the state, she added. That has left Ferguson stuck, he said. Although he said he is looking into ways to raise the money to cover his insurance, perhaps through advertising and increasing rates, Ferguson said he is hopeful, yet uncertain, that he can find a way to save his business before the March deadline. Ferguson has spoken to
members of city council and Leutheuser about his situation, who are looking into it. “He is doing a service that is a need in this community,” Leutheuser said. “He seems to be a big-hearted guy who is not in it for the money.” Councilman William Morrisey said Call and Go Now provides a valuable service to the community, especially when the city-funded Dial-ARide runs only within city limits and during business hours. Morrisey himself has used the taxi service twice. “They got me to my destination on time, and they did so at a very reasonable cost,” he said in an email. Ferguson said he thought he had found his niche by providing public transportation to rural cities and that he has enjoyed meeting many community members through his business. From driving 30 people to work every day, to picking up seniors for doctor’s appointments for the Department of Health and Human Services, to taking college students to the airport before break, Call and Go Now has provided transportation to those who need it — without turning away a customer, Ferguson said. “I should’ve started charging more sooner, but we’re not here to rip people off,” he said.
On Feb. 2, the Michigan Senate unanimously passed a 21-bill package aimed at reducing recidivism — the tendency of convicted criminals to be reincarcerated — in order to cut long-term prison costs. With an annual average cost of $34,500 per inmate, Michigan’s 42,000 prisoners incarcerated in state prisons, and 64,000 under probation, cost the Michigan Department of Corrections nearly $2 billion — Michigan’s single largest expenditure. Senate Bill 50 proposes a county jail bed savings program that incentivizes county jails to house state prisoners who meet certain requirements. Eligible prisoners must be level one out of six level classifications, they cannot be sentenced for criminal sexual conduct, and they must be serving a fixed sentence. The DOC will reimburse participating counties a negotiable amount — a minimum of $35 per day, per inmate. A level one prisoner costs $80 per day in a MDOC facility. Hillsdale County Sheriff Timothy Parker said Hillsdale County will not participate in the program since the jail fills most of its 67 beds a night, and because $35 per prisoner per day reimbursement is not enough to cover prisoner healthcare. “Public safety is a money-sucking hog. Our department does not generate money — it keeps the public safe,” said Parker. “State facilities have deeper pockets to provide rehabilitation, prison industries, and education opportunities. We don’t even have televi-
sions.” First Judicial Circuit Judge Michael Smith said Hillsdale does not have the resources or room to provide the same services state institutions can. “The $350 received for setting aside ten beds for one day wouldn’t even cover one prisoner’s medical services,” said Smith. “Our county struggles with our annual budget. We have no power to levy taxes — the state does.” The state of Michigan’s criminal justice reform was untouched during the 2016 lame duck session, but will be sent to the House of Representatives, where it will be considered “a top priority,” according to state Speaker of the House Tom Leonard, R-Dewitt Charter Township. Though this plan is under a new name, it is not a new idea. The DOC ran a similar program from Jan. 2015 to Sept. 2016. At the program’s peak, 14 county jails participated. Though the program was terminated in October, it saved the state of Michigan $3.2 million per year. This program intends to ease prison crowding and “to create a strict, stable environment to help reintegrate them into society,” according to bill sponsor Sen. Darwin Booher, R-Evart. Department of Corrections Communications representative Holly Kramer said the DOC is against the program because most county jails have minimal facilities. “Having prisoners potentially spend years where they don’t have access to programming, education, or their support network would be detrimental to their rehabilitation and could lead to a higher likelihood of re-offense,” Kramer said.
“Our department does not generate money — it keeps the public safe.”
Hillsdale Police have no plans to loosen dress code By | Jordyn Pair Assistant Editor Even though dress codes are changing across the U.S., the Hillsdale Police Department and the Hillsdale County Sheriff ’s Office plan on keeping theirs the same. Most notably, the New York City Police Department changed its policy in late December to allow Sikh officers to wear turbans for religious reasons. The NYPD was also sued this summer by Masood Syed, a Muslim officer, who said he was suspended for wearing a beard longer than policy allowed, according to CNN. Departments in Pennsylvania and Kansas have reviewed their tattoo policies. Others in New Orleans; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; and Pinellas Park, Florida simply chose to overlook their tattoo policies, according to Fox News. According to Hillsdale’s of-
ficers, however, it’s a situation that does not apply here. “We strive to be professional and look professional in everything we do,” Hillsdale County Sheriff Timothy Parker said. Dress codes for both the sheriff ’s office and the police department regulate how officers may wear their hair and facial hair, in addition to the uniforms they wear. “It’s a very old policy, it’s not one we really have to enforce,” said Scott Hephner, Hillsdale’s chief of police. “Most of the people comply with it.” Although the policies do have religious accommodations, Hephner said, most who join the police force know what the job entails. “People know what the profession means; they want to be involved in this profession,” he said. “Same as when people go into the military. They know what it’s all about.” Army Ranger veteran and Hillsdale College freshman
Jacob Damec agrees with this mindset in the wake of recent tattoo restrictions in the military. “It is important for soldiers to look like soldiers,” Damec, 22, said. “You don’t represent yourself anymore; you represent the U.S. Army.” Damec said he believes it is a soldier’s responsibility to comply with dress codes. “If your religious beliefs require you wear a beard and turban all the time, it’s not the Army’s job to meet you,” he said. “It’s your job to meet the standard. Why would you join an organization where you have to be clean-cut and shaven?” Protecting the rights of the officers is important, though, said Hephner, although that isn’t currently at the forefront of the discussion. This is largely due to the demographics of the county. Evangelical Protestants are the second-largest religious group in Hillsdale County, coming
second to those who either don’t claim a religion or do not belong to one of the 236 groups listed in the study, according to The Association of Religion Data Archives. “If that did become a concern here, at that time we would have to look at it,” he said. “Just because a policy is old doesn’t mean it’s set in stone, and we revise and update policies continually.” Until there’s an explicit need, the sheriff ’s office and police department don’t plan on changing on this policy. “What they do in New York, what they do in California — that’s why I don’t live in New York or California. I live in Hillsdale County and I’m very proud to live in this community,” Parker said. “As the sheriff of our community, it’s appropriate for me to understand the standards for community, and our community standards are substantially different than what New York City would be.”
Salvation Army moves to new location on Carleton Road By | Josephine von Dohlen Collegian Reporter During a grand opening on Feb. 3, Salvation Army welcomed the city of Hillsdale to a new thrift store location, moving from the Kroger strip mall to Carleton Road. The new location offers more space for products as well as donations. Despite the move, the commitment of Salvation Army to the community remains the same. Gabby Ladd, the main cashier, warmly welcomes shoppers with a smile as they enter. “I love helping people,” Ladd said. “I get to know the community as they come in.” Not only is it the community of people entering the store to shop but also those who in-
vest their time into the store as employees. “I love all the people that I work with,” Ladd said. “It’s a great community.” Ladd specifically mentioned that extra clothes donated to Salvation Army are sent to other countries for assistance. Sarah Raymond, the keyholder of the store, agreed with Ladd. She said her favorite part of working at the store was “the people.” “The store does a lot of good and it’s great to see all the people coming in,” Raymond said. The store is located at 2940 W. Carleton Road, and it is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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Southern Hillsdale County plagued by unusual rise in number of burglaries By | Brooke Conrad Collegian Reporter An unusual number of burglaries have taken place in southern Hillsdale County and surrounding areas over the past two or three months, areas largely populated by the Amish community. “It might have happened once, but not like this,” said Hillsdale County resident Esther Lengacher. “It’s just going on and on.” Several residents in Hillsdale County, Branch County and Steuben County, Indiana, have been reporting burglaries in their areas. Hillsdale County Sheriff Timothy Parker said four of the suspects in those areas have been arrested, and that the burglaries are not all connected. “There are kind of independent operators stealing from Amish and nonAmish,” he said. The main things being stolen, according to several Amish Hillsdale County residents, are guns, chainsaws, and money. At different homes the suspects have stolen between $300 and $1000, and have also taken checks that were previously written and signed, according to Hillsdale County resident Miss Delagrange, who requested that her first name be left anonymous. Hillsdale County resident John Graber said both law enforcement as well as his non-Amish neighbors have been assisting in trying to catch the suspects. “The sheriff ’s department and state police have been taking active roles in investigating and surveillance in the southwest part of the county concerning recent burglaries,” Parker said. The first burglary occurred on a Sunday a little over two months ago, according to Graber. The suspects broke in after the
family had left for church, stealing around $300, guns, two chain saws, and a crossbow. “The door knob, seal, and jam were all broken…every cabinet and closet were broken into, it appears,” he said. Parker said he had not heard any reports of internal home damage along with the burglaries. However, Delagrange said that at one house in Reading, Michigan where a checkbook was stolen, it appeared that the suspects had been hitting doors and walls with wood in an attempt to fend off the residents’ dog. A few residents said there have been several instances of suspicious activity, where a stranger has come up to the house and asked to buy firewood or eggs and then leaves. Delagrange said a visitor even came once on Sunday, when Amish residents do not normally do business. Parker said that after looking back on the past 30 years, the recent events do not seem unusual. “We have seem crime sprees come and go,” he said. “That’s the nature of the business. It’s just this tragic situation where we’ve got people stealing from others, and we’ll work diligently at the situation until we can find them and put them behind bars.” Delagrange said residents in her area are “shocked” by the situation, and Parker said it is unusual for Amish residents to report burglaries to law enforcement as they have been recently. Despite the unsettling nature of the situation, Graber said his community prays for the government and wants to forgive those who have harmed them. “We believe the government is here to punish evil and protect the good,” he said. “We believe in loving our enemies as much as possible, and we hope they will repent from being thieves.”
City News
A7 16 Feb. 2017
Gymnasts Georgia McDowell, Olivia Long, Katherine Darling, and Elizabeth Hamilton, left to right, pose at the Hillsdale Gymnastics, Dance, and Cheer Center. Emily Blatter | Collegian
Students learn to fly at Hillsdale Gymnastics, Dance, and Cheer Center By | Emily Blatter Collegian Reporter Four-year-old beginning cheerleader Riley McNair stood atop her teammates’ shoulders for the first time, eyes squeezed tightly shut. She was terrified. Riley had never been lifted into the air before, and to someone her age, the threeand-a-half feet between her sneakers and the blue-carpeted tumbling floor felt like miles. “Ok, now open your eyes. Look at yourself in the mirror!” her coach said. Riley tentatively opened her eyes, and her face lit up. “I’m flying!” she cried. More and more local kids like Riley are learning how to fly. At Hillsdale Gymnastics, Dance and Cheer Center, they learn skills that lift them off the ground. “I really like the bragging rights at school,” Georgia McDowell, a 14-year-old cheerleader and level 4 gymnast, said. “As long as you can do a backbend, everybody at school is jealous.” The gym offers gymnastics, dance, and cheerleading classes, both at the recreational and competitive level. It is home to girls and boys, from toddlers to early teens. Started by Hillsdale alumna Jill Hardway in 1986, the gym enables local kids to learn the physical, mental and emotional skills sports like gymnastics have to offer. “Any kids that want to try
gymnastics can try, whether it’s someone who has a disability or someone that just doesn’t really listen,” cheerleading coach and Hillsdale College senior Corianna Baier said. “[Hardway’s] really willing to work with a lot of different kinds of kids, and giving them that structure is really good for them.” The gym has two facilities: recreational students take classes on the third floor of the building in downtown Hillsdale that houses the Hunt Club, while competitive students train in a renovated barn on Oak Street. The downtown facility features a rock wall, a zipline, and an inflatable bounce house, in addition to standard gymnastics equipment, Hardway said. “The bounce houses are ideal for aerobic activity,” Hardway said. “Gymnastics is an anaerobic sport, so we love to get them in that bouncer to elevate their heart rate and get them warmed up.” Most kids spend between one and four hours a week in the gym. The lighter workload allows the kids to learn gymnastics and become physically fit without giving up life outside the gym, Hardway said. Although the gymnasts and cheerleaders at the center are involved in activities outside the gym, they said most of their friends are other girls on the team — even girls who are much older than them. “Cheer, especially, is a team sport,” Baier said. “You’re literally letting people lift you
up, and counting on everyone to make it all look good. You have to really trust each other and be good friends with each other, and be supportive.” The older cheerleaders on the team help the younger ones learn and improve, although they were intimidating at first, the younger ones said. “It was really scary, because they were huge compared to us,” cheerleader and ten-yearold Katherine Darling said. Olivia Long, a 10-year-old cheerleader and gymnast at the center, agreed. “We were like ants compared to them,” Olivia said. The cheerleaders and some gymnasts compete while the less experienced children perform in a recital at the end of the year. Georgia said she and her level four teammate could
begin competing as early as this month. “They do really, really well, and they really like it,” Baier said, regarding the girls’ performance in cheer competitions. “They have a lot of fun, putting on all the makeup and the uniforms.” But gymnasts and cheerleaders come away from their sport with more than trophies, muscles and a standing back flip, Hillsdale senior Kat Torres said. “It’s so much bigger than winning, than the glitter in your hair and the competition leotard,” Torres said. “It’s about developing a person, who can go forward in their life with confidence, courage, determination, and dedication, and I feel like I owe that all to the sport.”
Jill Hardway spots gymnast Ariel Skiba on the uneven bars. Emily Blatter | Collegian
Hillsdale students invited to design new logo for county Road Commission By | Nicole Ault Collegian Reporter Most people only dream of seeing their artwork featured on trucks, buildings, and official documents. But for a middle-schooler in Hillsdale County, that dream will become a reality, thanks to the Hillsdale County Road Commission, which has never had an official logo and is inviting local 5th to 8th graders to design one. “We thought it would be cool to incorporate the community as kind of a way to give back to the them,” said Heather Boyd, engineer technician for the commission, who came up with the rules for the con-
test. She added that the commission wants to give students a sense of pride. “How cool is it to be the kid who can say, ‘I designed that logo’?” she said. The designs must incorporate the history of the commission and of Hillsdale County, Boyd said, and students are required to submit essays explaining their entries. They can work alone or in groups and must submit their designs before March 31. After the deadline, Boyd said, the commission’s officials will select a few favorite designs, which will then be posted on Facebook for public voting on April 15. Whichever design receives the most
“likes” wins the contest. “The main thing we wanted to push for is recognition,” Boyd said, noting that there is no monetary award. She said the commission is considering putting the winner’s name on a plaque. Boyd explained that middle schoolers are just the right age group: old enough to produce quality work, but young enough that they wouldn’t have access to graphic design machinery that might give some students an advantage. “Hillsdale County is for the most part a rural county, and some schools might not have the opportunities that larger schools do,” Boyd said. “If we did high school, some schools might have the advantage of
Houses for Rent January 27, 2017
computerized equipment. It’s going to be a little bit more fair across the board in middle school.” Boyd said most schools in the area have expressed interest in participating, and teachers are excited about the project because it integrates multiple subjects. George Bauman, the headmaster of Hillsdale Preparatory School, said this was part of the reason he wanted to do it. “I presented the opportunity to the faculty as a chance to do cross-curricular work,” Bauman said. “Kids don’t learn in a vacuum.” Bauman said about ten students from Hillsdale Preparatory are working on designs for the contest.
“I like that the contest requires the kids to incorporate county history,” he said. “It requires them to do research they might not otherwise do.” Lorie Dickinson, the art teacher at Hillsdale Preparatory, said her students have been working on the logo project in her art class. First, she said, she asked them to draw logos representing themselves. “Then we looked at logos around us,” she said. By studying logos, students are forced to think more closely about line, color, shape, design, and pattern, she said. Dickinson said the contest has been a good way for students to learn more about the commission, noting that her class took time to discuss what
it does for the county. The contest offers not only an artistic challenge but also an opportunity to give, she said. “It’s good for the students to be able to contribute their talents in the community,” she said. Bauman agreed the contest presents students with a oneof-a-kind opportunity. “No matter who wins this, if you have a school student who designs a county logo, that’s something pretty unique and special,” he said. “That logo will be immensely visible in this community.”
Brianna Bennett poses in her Hillsdale Supergirl costume. Facebook
The following houses are for rent for the 2017-2018 school year:
• 85 East Fayette Street - This is a very spacious, five-bedroom, one and one-half bath, fully furnished, and recently renovated Victorian that is oneand -a-half blocks from campus. It is centrally air conditioned, has a large eat-in kitchen with a garbage disposal and dishwasher, separate dining room, living room, parlor, large front porch, deck off of the back, unattached one-car garage, unfinished basement useful for storage, and is equipped with a washer and dryer. The rent is $420 per student per month based upon five student occupants. Available June 1, 2017. • 173 West Street – This is a three-bedroom, one bath Victorian, that is only two blocks from campus. It has been recently updated, is fully furnished, has a separate dining room, living room, and unfinished basement that can be used for storage, and is equipped with a washer and dryer. The lease is $405.00 per student per month based upon three student occupants. A fourth student may be added at a reduced rate if desired. Available June 1, 2017. • 171 West Street – This is a three bedroom, one bath, recently updated, unfurnished Victorian that is two blocks from campus. It has a living room, den, eat-in kitchen, and an unfinished basement available for storage that is equipped with a washer and dryer. The rent is $360 per student per month based upon three student occupants. A fourth student may be added at a reduced rate if desired. Available June 1, 2017. If you are interested please call Berry LeCompte at: 805-736-8421(home) 847-809-4843 (cellphone) 847-809-4829 (cellphone) or email at cblecompte@aol.com.
‘Day with Superheroes’ event will raise money for special needs children and adults By | Josephine von Dohlen Collegian Reporter Hillsdale’s Supergirl will host the Superhero Fun Day event on Feb. 17 in an effort to raise money for a dance geared toward special needs children and adults in the near future. This “carnival-like” party will feature a variety of games and activities, as well as a photo booth, where children in attendance can take pictures with their favorite superheroes. Brianna Bennett, a Hills-
dale resident and the girl behind the Hillsdale Supergirl costume, has a passion for all people with special needs. “My brother is autistic so I grew up taking care of him,” Bennett said. “I have a really big heart for kids and adults with special needs.” She said the special needs dance is one of her favorite events of the year, and she hopes this Superhero Fun Day will raise enough money to cover the entire cost of the dance so they will not have to charge an entrance fee at the
dance. Bennett has participated in other events around Hillsdale as the Hillsdale Supergirl, such as a christmas party with Key Opportunities — a resale shop that mainly hires special needs adults. The Superhero Fun Day will be held at the Hillsdale Youth Center, at 70 Goodrich Ave., from 5 to 8 p.m. An admission fee will be taken at the door, and refreshments and photos with the superheroes will be available for purchase.
A8 16 Feb. 2017
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Sports
Follow @HDaleSports for live updates and news
Women’s Basketball
Men’s Basketball THURSDAY, FEB.
Hillsdale
Upcoming
9
Walsh
102 98
Thursday, feb. 16 vS. lake erie 8:00 pm saTurday, feb. 18 at ohio Dominican 3:00 pm
StatS Stedman Lowry Ryan Badowski Nick Archer Rhett Smith
SATURDAY, FEB.
Hillsdale
11
Tiffin
Track and Field New Records
Caleb Gatchell - Mile - 4:06.31
Swimming
Results
Feb. 8-11 2017 GLIAC Championships 1st - Grand Valley - 812 2nd - Wayne State - 787.5 6th - Hillsdale - 234
22 ptS, 6 reb, 1 aSt 12 ptS, 3 reb, 2 Stl 11 ptS, 1 reb, 1 aSt 12 ptS, 6 reb, 5 aSt
Upcoming
Feb. 18 Hillsdale Tune-Up 9:30 AM
Upcoming
mar. 8-11 NCAA D-II Championships Birmingham, AL 10:30 AM
vs. Alderson-Broaddus Hendersonville, TN Feb. 18 - 6:00 PM, 8:30 PM Feb. 19 - 12:00 pm, 2:30 pm
Feb. 13 Hillsdale - 3 at Lewis - 6
80 69
Makenna Ott Allie Dewire Allie Dittmer Brittany Gray
19 ptS, 4 reb, 1 aSt 14 ptS, 9 reb, 9 aSt 10 ptS, 9 reb, 1 aSt 10 ptS, 5 reb
Upcoming
Feb. 18 at Mercyhurst Erie, PA 4:00 PM
Softball
Results
Feb. 12 Feb. 10 Tex. A&M-Commerce - L, 6-2 West Chester - W, 6-2 California (PA) - L, 3-0 Feb. 11 Catawba - W, 3-2 Trevecca Nazarene - W, 9-1
By | Stevan Bennett Jr. Assistant Editor
The Hillsdale College softball team opened its season in Florida last weekend. The team went 3-2, overcoming Catawba, Trevecca Nazarene, and West Chester. Sarah Klopfer | Courtesy
SOFTBALL LEADS OFF WITH 3-2 WEEKEND IN FLORIDA team played. “Coming together and pulling off that team win really set the tone for the rest of the weekend,” she said. In the next game, the Chargers gained a five-inning 9-1 victory over Trevecca Nazarene. Kastning went 3-for-4, scoring two runs and hitting a double. Senior catcher Cassie Asselta went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Junior first baseman Haley Lawrence and sophomore second baseman Amanda Marra both doubled, and freshman outfielder Victoria Addis had a hit, a run scored, and an RBI. The winning streak continued on Sunday, when Hillsdale answered West Chester’s early 2-0 lead with five runs of their own in the bottom of the third. Marra started the rally with a double that brought Kastning around to home plate. Addis knocked a two-run single with the bases loaded, and sophomore third baseman Jessica Taylor drew a bases-loaded walk. Junior third baseman Kelsey Gockman also got an RBI, and Asselta scored two runs. Kastning had her fourth multi-hit game of the weekend, going 2-for-4 with a triple and a run scored. Both Gordon and freshman pitcher Dana Weidinger saw their first collegiate wins from the mound this weekend. Weidinger, who went 2-1 during the tournament, was named GLIAC Pitcher of the Week. Over the course of the weekend, she had a 13-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and a 1.33 ERA. Kastning, whose .526 batting average earned her a spot on the all-tournament team, said she was pleased with the
Feb. 10 Hillsdale - 9 vs. Cedarville - 0
Tiffin
StatS 19 ptS, 4 Stl, 3 reb 18 ptS, 9 reb, 4 aSt 11 ptS, 8 reb, 2 aSt 9 ptS, 3 reb, 3 Stl
Men’s Tennis
Results
Hillsdale
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Charger baseball looks to carry momentum from historic season
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The Hillsdale College softball team was down to its last out in the bottom of the seventh inning against Catawba on Saturday, and on the 11th pitch of her at-bat, freshman pitcher Erin Gordon struck out. But the Chargers still won the game. “We had two outs, [Shelby Sprouse] on first, Cassie Asselta got hit by a pitch, then we brought Erin Gordon up to pinch-hit. She had an 11-pitch at-bat,” head coach Joe Abraham said. “On the 11th pitch, she swung and missed for strike three, but the pitch hit the dirt.” After the dropped third strike, Gordon ran for first, while Catawba first baseman Kaylee Cook jogged to home plate, thinking the game was over. Though Gordon was tagged, the ball fell out of the first baseman’s glove, leaving Gordon safe at first and the bases loaded. Senior outfielder Bekah Kastning’s linedrive triple scored all three runners on base, giving the Chargers a 3-2 victory — their first at that weekend’s Leadoff Classic Tournament in Clearwater, Florida. “It was one of those times in our game where you say, ‘Okay, now I’ve seen everything,’” Abraham said. Prior to the Catawba game, Hillsdale had lost 6-2 to Texas A&M University-Commerce and 3-0 against California University of Pennsylvania. Assistant coach Riley Johnson said the last-minute rally against Catawba carried over into the next two games the
Walsh
Morgan Blair Allie Dewire Allie Dittmer Makenna Ott
SATURDAY, FEB.
Thursday, feb. 16 vS. lake erie 6:00 pm saTurday, feb. 18 at ohio Dominican 1:00 pm
StatS
Nick Archer Nick Czarnowski Stedman Lowry Nate Neveau
Baseball
By | Madeleine Jepsen Assistant Editor
Hillsdale
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9
85 70 68 71
StatS 27 ptS 25 ptS, 6 reb, 2 aSt 12 ptS, 10 reb, 4 aSt 12 ptS, 4 reb, 4 blk
THURSDAY, FEB.
team’s performance last weekend. “Since our team is so young, I wasn’t sure how the weekend was going to go, and I was very happy with the outcome,” she said. “I was really proud of our team and how we came together after losing the first two games and bounced back to win the next three.” The softball team lost three starters at the end of the season last year, including the two pitchers. Their 26-12 overall record last season earned them a spot in the prestigious Leadoff Classic. “For us to go 3-2 against five teams that all made the NCAA postseason last year, with a roster that includes 10 of our 18 players having never played a day of college softball, it was a fantastic trip,” Abraham said, noting the strong pitching and defensive performances this weekend. Next, the Chargers will compete in a tournament at Southern Indiana University on Feb. 25 and 26, and in Clermont, Florida over spring break before their first in-conference game against Findlay on March 25. Before then, the Chargers will be practicing outdoors as much as possible. The renovated softball stadium is expected to be completed at the end of March, according to Abraham. “We’re just looking to constantly get better,” Abraham said. “It’s hard to put into words how difficult it is for players to go from being in a less-than-ideal indoor practice facility to playing games outdoors against top teams from around the country, and our players really came through.”
Last year, the Hillsdale College baseball team had its best season in program history, advancing to its first ever NCAA tournament and finishing with a record of 32-24. The Chargers, however, will look strikingly different this season, having lost seven of ten starters from last year’s squad. The new-look Chargers will open up their season in Hendersonville, Tennesee, where they will face future GMAC foe Alderson-Broaddus in doubleheaders on both Saturday and Sunday. According to fourth-year head coach Eric Theisen — 2016 GLIAC Coach of the Year — last year’s success doesn’t mean anything coming into this season. He added that they were prepared to lose last year’s large senior class. “That is why we brought this sophomore class in,” he said. “We brought that class in to experience last year and learn from last year’s seniors, so that they would be ready to grab the reigns this year.” He said he believes his guys are excited for a chance to prove themselves and fill fight for now-open starting positions. Junior centerfielder and team captain Ryan O’Hearn echoed this sentiment, and said the team recognizes that its build varies from last year’s. “We understand that we’re a different team this year and bring different qualities,” he said. “We think of ourselves as a little bit of a faster team this year and not as much of power-hitting team.” When O’Hearn refers to last year’s team as a power hitting team, he means a team which hit a GLIAC-leading 68 home runs. For Theisen, however, this year’s team is a chance to ex-
Men’s from A10 of Senior Day celebrations. “I’m really proud of our two seniors. Archer and Smith have done some really good things defensively and offensively,” Tharp said. “We’ll celebrate the seniors this week and everything that they’ve done over the years for us.” The Storm are last in the GLIAC with a 3-15 conference record, but the Chargers know they must keep up their intensity with a tournament berth in sight. The Chargers could still make the playoffs if they go 1-1 this week, but they would need some other games to go their way.
plore more diversity in the lineup. “We’re excited to have some options that we maybe haven’t had in the past,” Theisen said. “We’ve got some speed options, some power options, some righty options, some lefty options, so it’s going to be fun to play around with those.” The Chargers will start the season with nearly a full month of non-conference games. Theisen said they will, of course, do anything to win the games, but will also use them to test some of the various options. “It will give us some opportunities to figure out which combinations give us the best opportunity to win,” he said. Among the most recent graduates are pitcher and first baseman Chris McDonald and outfielder Luke Ortel, both of whom earned All-American honors last season. In addition, Ortel also won GLIAC Player of the Year, tallying more hits than any other collegiate player, at any level. Assistant coach Gordie Theisen — father of Eric Theisen — said the expectations haven’t changed, just because they lost some guys. The team will look to junior second baseman Alex Waltz to fill much of the offensive gap, after starting every game last season, while hitting .322. Waltz said he welcomes the opportunity with open arms. “Last year, I knew my role was to simply get on base, to give the power hitters a chance to score me. But this season, I need to step up and look for RBI’s,” Waltz said. Junior captain Will Kruse will pitch the Charger’s opening game, after starting 14 games last season. This makes Kruse the only returning pitcher who started more than 10 games last season, although sophomore Chris Stewart and junior Phil Carey neared the mark, starting nine and seven
Tharp isn’t tracking the playoff race and where the Chargers stand — he said he doesn’t even want to know. Instead, he’s focusing on his team. “We’ve just got to keep winning. We’ve got to play with that edge,” Tharp said. “As soon as this team relaxes, we can become very soft, very quick, which is not good.” The Chargers are 7-3 since their roster returned to full strength on Jan. 12. “We’re confident right now,” Tharp said. “We’ve got to play with an overall toughness and that sense of urgency. If we can do that, I think this team can do some things.” On Saturday at 3 p.m.,
games, respectively. This season will be the final season for the Chargers in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, before moving to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference next year. O’Hearn said this gives the team a little bit of extra fire in the belly to capture its first-ever GLIAC title. The first month of the season will be especially grueling for Hillsdale, as it travels to Tennessee, Kentucky, southern Illinois, and West Virginia. O’Hearn said the key to staying sane during the ratrace is understanding that any free-time can be used as homework time, be it on the bus or in the hotels. He added that after all of the work done on the football field and in the cages, getting out and playing a real game makes it all worth it. The Chargers will receive a huge spark to the lineup with the eventual return of senior pitcher and first baseman Ethan Wiskur, who broke his hand in the final Charger’s football game of the season. Last season, Wiskur ranked third on the team in batting average, hitting .376. Eric Theisen said Wiskur is week-toweek, but they hope to have the offensive juggernaut back by conference play. According to O’Hearn, Eric Theisen’s message all offseason and preseason has been to play loose, play hard, and play with passion. “He has preached to ‘play aggressive and to have fun,’” O’Hearn said. “He is always kind of harping that he wants us to ‘play sandlot ball.’ Don’t think too much and go out there and play the game that you know how to play.”
Hillsdale will wrap up its regular season at Ohio Dominican — potentially with a chance to clinch a GLIAC Tournament berth. The Panthers will be eliminated from postseason contention if the Chargers beat Lake Erie tonight. The Chargers beat the Panthers 80-71 on Jan. 28. “We’ll take it as any other game,” Lowry said.” We’re ready to go Thursday and Saturday.” Should the Chargers lose a game this week, they might have to wait until next Thursday night when Walsh plays its final game to know if they’ll qualify for the postseason. “I would not enjoy that,” Lowry said.
A9 16 Feb. 2017
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Track from A10
This was McIntyre’s first 3,000-meter race of the season, and she had initially hoped to run a 9:40 going into the weekend. “I wasn’t expecting to run that fast, but it was a really good race. There was a lot of amazing talent,” McIntyre said. “It was good competition and that just carried me.” McIntyre is a three-time All-American from the 2016 season alone — once in the 3,000 meter. “Nationals is just a totally different meet, and so you can never go into it with the mindset of, ‘Oh it’s in the bag,’ because those races are pretty fierce. They’re aggressive. They’re fast,” McIntyre said. “In each race, there’s at least 10 girls who are really capable of being All-American, or top eight. You still have to do the work.” McIntyre’s tentative goal going into this national meet is to place in the top five, but she’s anticipating reevaluating her mindset. So far only five athletes have reached the automatic standard for the 3,000-meter race. Senior Molly Oren also ran the 3,000 meter with her season best of 9:47.74 — meeting the provisional standard and earning the No. 22 spot on the national list. The relays sent to Boston
both performed well, moving up on the national list. The 4x400 relay of freshman Lorina Clemence, juniors Tori Wichman and Ashlee Moran, and senior Allison Duber placed sixth, running their season best of 3:48.36, placing themselves 12th in the nation. The relay has won All-American titles each of the past two years. Towne said two of the athletes had been sick and the relay could have easily run two or three seconds faster. Towne said the team’s 3:48 time is on the border of getting into nationals. “To be in that kind of spot two weeks out from the end of your qualifying period is a pretty good sign,” Towne said. The distance medley relay — former indoor national champions — ran a time of 11:42.60, placing second. Oren, Duber, McIntyre, and junior Hannah Watts are now ranked ninth nationally. In the pole vault, senior Alex Whitford, once again, met the provisional standard, vaulting 11 feet, 11.75 inches. Whitford is currently ranked sixth on the national list. The weekend resulted in six provisional marks and a broken school record for the men in Boston. In the 800 meter, sophomore Tanner Schwannecke met the provisional standard for the third time with a 1:53.50 time. Schwannecke is
ranked 38th on the national list for the event. Senior Caleb Gatchell broke the school record in the men’s mile this weekend with his performance of 4:06.31 at Boston, which also earned him the 14th spot on the national list. “I was hoping to run a little faster at this meet at the beginning of the year, but it wasn’t my best day, so it was kind of just a relief to see that I got [the record],” Gatchell said. Gatchell credits his success in this race to the consistency of four years of good coaching and training. “The key to success at any point is consistency and I thankfully have had four years of consistency,” he said. “So I think even on a day where I’m not feeling my best that strength still gets me places.” Though Gatchell has two All-American titles under his belt, he expressed relief in qualifying for the national meet before conference. Now his focus has shifted to qualifying in the distance medley relay. In the 5,000 meter, senior Joe Newcomb ran his best time of the season — 14:42.10 — and also met the provisional standard for the national meet. Newcomb is now ranked 33rd on the national list. The men’s 4x400 relay run by senior Ty Etchemendy, ju-
niors Lane White and Colby Clark, and freshman Nate Eldridge placed fourth overall with a time of 3:14.89. They are currently ranked 14th in the nation with this provisional time. Junior Jared Schipper placed fifth in the pole vault clearing 16 feet, .75 inches. Again meeting the provisional standard of 15 feet, 3.47 inches, Schipper is ranked No. 11 on the national list. Etchemendy also met the provisional standard for the triple jump, placing seventh overall. An All-American in the event his freshman year, Etchemendy jumped 47 feet, 10.5 inches this weekend and is ranked 27th nationally. This weekend is the annual Tune-Up Meet hosted at the Margot V. Biermann Center on Hillsdale’s campus. “This meet is designed to be what it says it is, a tune-up, if you need it,” Towne said. The track and field athletes very deliberately train and taper so that their peak performance is at the GLIAC conference meet that is in two weeks. “We’re not where we need to be, but we’re headed in the right direction and we’re close,” Towne said.
Junior Tori Wichman (pictured) teamed up with freshman Lorina Clemence, junior Ashlee Moran, and senior Allison Duber for the 4x400 relay, running their season best this weekend in Boston. Matt Kendrick | Collegian
AFTER WINNING WEEKEND, MEN’S TENNIS FALLS TO LEWIS UNIVERSITY By | Scott McClallen Collegian Reporter
With four new players and a year of experience under the team’s belt, the Hillsdale College men’s tennis team toppled Cedarville University during its first spring home match last Friday. Led by head coach Keith Turner, the Chargers went 5-9 last season, their first conference season since resurrection, finishing ninth in the GLIAC. The six-member team played well last year, but is looking forward to the freshmen bringing new depth. “Our freshmen will push the other players to be better. No starting spots are final,” Turner said. One of the Charger’s toughest opponents will be Ferris State, which advanced to the national semifinals in 2016, and will return with its top players. Sophomore Dugan Delp led the team as the only non-freshman last year, and is looking
forward to ramping up play this season. “Our goal was to make the GLIAC tournament, but given our fall performance and the GLIAC playoffs accepting eight teams instead of six, we plan to finish in the top five,” Delp said. “We want a season above .500 — in and out of conference.” The Chargers dropped their final match last season to Findlay 8-1. “We were neck and neck with them in statistics, but Gianpiero Placidi was injured, and we underperformed,” said Delp. “We are a better and stronger team this year.” Last year’s team size forced players to compete in multiple matches, but the new players bring competition to the starting lineup. “Injuries hurt us last year, because everyone had to play singles and doubles, but we have strong freshmen who will keep us on our toes,” Delp said. “I’m looking forward to see how we compete against Cedarville.”
The Charger’s biggest challenge last season was inexperience. “We got our nerves out last season. Now we know what to expect for each team, and we are ready for our tough schedule this season,” Turner said. Delp faced a leadership role the team’s first season, which he said was a challenge with having no collegiate experience. This year, he suspects a large impact from the newest members of the team. “Our freshmen from Croatia, Tennessee, Canada, and Michigan are all strong players and will be breaking into our lineup,” Delp said. Though moving to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference next season, the Chargers still plan to play GLIAC teams in nonconference matches. “It will be nice to pick and choose GLIAC teams we want to play based on how competitive they are,” Delp said. “I think the GMAC will be an opportunity for us to find success, earn regional rankings, and make some playoffs.”
Delp led the Chargers to a 9-0 nonconference win over Cedarville on Friday. The Chargers won six single matches straight-set, while the doubles team won with a combined score of 24-4. Freshman Charlie Adams won at No. 1 singles, 6-4, 6-1. Sophomore Justin Hyman won at No. 2 singles, 6-0, 6-3, and freshman Milan Mirkovic won at No. 3, 6-1, 6-1. Hyman and Delp won at No. 1 doubles, 8-1, while Adams and Ciraci shutout the Yellow Jackets at No. 2 doubles, 8-0. “It was a perfect way to start the season,” Turner said. “I have zero complaints.” The Chargers were defeated 6-3 on Monday at Lewis University in Plainfield, Illinios. Mirkovic won at No. 3 singles, 6-3, 7-5, and freshman Julien Clouette won at No. 6 singles, 6-3, 6-4. The two teamed up to win at No. 3 doubles, 8-7. The Chargers will face Mercyhurst Feb. 18 at Westwood Racquet Club in Richmond, Virginia.
Swim from A10
lifetime best in the 200-yard breastroke race. When Shallman raced the last 50 yards during finals, she said she gave it everything to win her heat in her last individual swim. “When I finished I was able to look into the stands to see my family and high school swim coach, which was pretty special, and my teammates and coaches ran over to hug me and Danielle. That race really stands out in my mind and it is something l’ll always remember,” Shallman said. Every Charger who swam for Hillsdale in the breaststroke races walked away with a personal best. Freshmen, too, clocked record times. Freshmen Allie Matti and Bailey Bickerstaff swam personal best times in the 200-yard backstroke. “When you see your teammates improve that much, it makes you want to pick up the torch and take your team that much farther,” Ellingson said. Senior Kenzi Dickhudt, swam a personal record in her 100-yard breastroke race,
a race she swam for the last time this weekend. “I could not be more happy or proud of my final season. I am now a retired swimmer, but am so grateful for last week, not only my own swims, but also my teammates,” Dickhudt said. Ellingson said she loved the atmosphere of finals. “Everyone was so excited for their teammates even if they didn’t make finals themselves,” Ellingson said. “Attitudes were infectious and people would just build off of each other’s energy, especially during the relays at the end of every night.” Overall, the team agreed the meet was successful. The end of a chapter for many, and just the beginning for some, this season goes down in the books as a win for the Chargers. Now the team already looks onward to the upcoming changes the new season will bring. “Many of our top scorers are returning so the future is very bright as we move into the GMAC next season,” Kirner said.
Women’s basketball falls to Walsh, overcomes Tiffin By | S. M. Chavey Features Editor Following a tough 3-point road loss to Walsh, the Hillsdale College women’s basketball team came out of their four-game losing streak with an 11-point win against Tiffin. With only two games left in the regular season, the team will fight for a spot in the tournament. “We’re taking one game at a time,” head coach Todd Mitmesser said. “At this time of year, it’s win or go home. Each one of these games is pretty much a tournament game for us because if we don’t win, it’s no tournament. We’ve got to do our part and do the best as individuals we can on Thursday and Saturday.” The loss on Thursday against Walsh made it much harder for the Chargers to make the playoffs. Now, their chances are dependent on the successes and failures of other teams in the league. The first time Hillsdale played Walsh, the Cavaliers won by 8 at Hillsdale, but the Chargers still went into the game optimistically. Hillsdale led throughout the first three quarters and was up by as much as 8 at the beginning of the fourth quarter. With 7 minutes to go, the Cavs started hitting their shots, outscoring the Chargers 14-8 to win the game. Walsh made six 3-point shots, in contrast to just one of 10 from Hillsdale, leading to the 3-point win. Though the Chargers lead the league in blocking 3-point
shots and have held teams to just 28 percent according to Mitmesser, they weren’t able to defend the Cavs’ shots. “We struggled with defense and talking,” freshman center Julia Wacker said. “We were too quiet on the court, so that led to a lot of our defensive problems. They ended up just hitting the shots they needed too, and we did not.” Hillsdale finished with a higher field goal percentage and more rebounds, but Walsh made the most of points off of turnovers and scored bench points to aid their victory. Additionally, a bench player entered the game and despite little experience, she hit two 3-point shots, which surprised the Chargers and ultimately aiding the Walsh victory. Despite the loss, several Chargers cranked out impressive stats. Senior guard Morgan Blair scored a season high 19 points and sophomore guard Allie Dewire hit 18 points and snagged 9 rebounds. Junior center Allie Dittmer and sophomore forward Makenna Ott scored 11 and 9 points respectively. “They had really good motion and they kept screening us, and it just took us a while to learn from our mistakes, and that just cost us the game,” junior forward Jessica De Gree said. The Tiffin win on Saturday brought the Chargers back above .500, placing them 1312 overall and 7-11 in the conference. Once again, the Chargers struggled with 3-pointers —
Ott made Hillsdale’s five, in contrast to 13 made by Tiffin. In the rest of the game, however, the Chargers dominated. Hillsdale shot 53 percent from the field (as opposed to 37 percent by Tiffin) and outrebounded the Dragons by 10. The Chargers also beat Tiffin in points in the paint 42-16. “It was nice to see we battled back from that loss at Walsh. Tiffin shot the ball fairly well — they hit a lot of perimeter jump shots — but we did a really good job offensively attacking them, and we made a few key stops that was able to stretch our lead out to double digits. It was nice to see the team fighting through the comeback that Tiffin made and to come out with a road win,” Mitmesser said. Led by Ott with 19 points, four other Chargers also scored double digits: Dewire with 14, and Dittmer, Gray, and Wacker each with 10. Dewire almost landed a triple-double, snagging 9 rebounds and 9 assists. “I think we used a lot of the energy from the [Walsh] loss against the Tiffin team. We had beat them before by 20 so we knew what we were capable of. We didn’t even pull away until the fourth quarter. We had a couple of subs and we went on a run making stops defensively and attacking the basket offensively,” De Gree said. The Chargers will finish season play this week. Thursday night is senior night at home against Lake Erie, and the final game of the season will be at Ohio Dominican on Saturday.
“I think we’re all really determined to finish out the season well and just excit-
ed to show Lake Erie that we can play better than when we played them last time. We’re
very excited to finish and get into postseason,” Wacker said.
Junior center Allie Dewire scored 18 points on Thursday when the Chargers matched up with Walsh last Thursday. Hillsdale fell to the Cavaliers 71-68. Matt Kendrick | Collegian
Charger Baseball set to open season The Chargers will look to carry momentum from last year’s historic season. A8
Drew Bartlett | Courtesy
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Women’s Basketball splits second-tolast weekend The Chargers will take on Lake Erie in their final home game tonight at 6:00 p.m. A9
Softball off to winning start The team went 3-2 at the Leadoff Classic this weekend in Clearwater, Florida. A8
Sarah Klopfer | Courtesy
Matt Kendrick | Collegian
Redshirt freshman point guard Dylan Lowry shoots a free throw during Hillsdale’s win over Ohio Dominican. Matt Kendrick | Collegian
CHARGERS CLOSING IN ON GLIAC TOURNAMENT BERTH By | Nathanael Meadowcroft Stedman Lowry said. “We’re confident and I think it’s lookSenior Writer ing good for us.” The Chargers wouldn’t conTwo victories are all that separate the Hillsdale College trol their destiny if they hadn’t men’s basketball team from a pulled out their gutsiest road win of the season on Feb. 9 at GLIAC Tournament berth. With wins at Walsh and Walsh. Trailing the Cavaliers by a Tiffin last week, Hillsdale leapfrogged the Walsh Cava- half-game in the GLIAC enliers and the Ohio Dominican tering the contest, the CharPanthers in the GLIAC South gers outlasted Walsh 102-98 Division standings. The Char- in overtime to flip their halfgers, one of the hottest teams game deficit into a half-game in the GLIAC, have won three lead. “Our guys walked in there in a row and six of their past seven games to improve to 9-9 knowing the circumstances, in conference play and 13-11 and I think our guys wanted a little revenge from what hapoverall. If they can extend their pened to us here,” head coach winning streak to five games John Tharp said. “We showed a with wins tonight against Lake tremendous amount of toughErie and Saturday at Ohio ness.” Both teams struggled deDominican, the Chargers will earn the right to compete for fensively. Walsh shot 52 percent from the field and 46 perthe GLIAC championship. “We’re feeling as good as cent from the 3-point line, but ever. For a while we didn’t have the Chargers shot 58 percent a full team with some injuries from the field and made 18 and sickness, but now every- 3-pointers in just 33 attempts. “Neither team stopped each one’s clicking and clicking at the right time,” junior guard other particularly well,” Tharp
Sophomore forward Chris Giannakopoulos celebrates a 3-pointer from the bench. Matt Kendrick | Collegian
Track splits for two successful meets By | Jessica Hurley Collegian Reporter Hillsdale College track and field traveled to both Grand Valley State University for the annual Big Meet and Boston University for the David Hemery Valentine Invitational. The weekend resulted in 13 provisional standard performances, one automatic mark, and a broken school record. At Grand Valley, senior Dana Newell placed second and met the provisional standard for the event with a new personal record of 61 feet, four inches. This performance moved Newell up a spot on the national list, and she is now ranked 10th. Junior Rachael Tolsma took fourth, throwing 59 feet, 9.5 inches. She also met the provisional standard, and is ranked 13th. In Boston, the Chargers met 11 provisional standards as well as one automatic standard that guarantees a spot at the national meet. The Chargers travel to Boston only when the national meet is hosted on a banked track. This year, the NCAA Division II national meet will be held in Birmingham, AL. “The Boston meet is good
in that it has a very fast banked track and so not only can you qualify and put yourself in a good position for NCAAs, but you also gain an experience,” head coach Andrew Towne said. “In a year where NCAAs is on a really fast banked track, I think the more you can be prepared for that, the better.” The competition in Boston was comprised of all of the northeast for all divisions and some outside teams from the south as well. Sophomore Allyson Eads hit the provisional mark in the women’s mile with her personal best of 5:00.17, and is ranked 37th on the national list. Junior Hannah McIntyre placed ninth overall in the 3,000 meter and met the automatic standard for the event. The automatic mark is 9:30.44 and ensures a spot at the national meet. McIntyre ran a personal best of 9:28.88 to secure her race at nationals. She is currently ranked fifth in the nation. “The NCAA committee sets the automatic standard to where very few people can reach it and so in general very few people hit it per event,” Towne said.
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said. “Both teams were scoring at an unbelievable pace. So we were disappointed in our defense, obviously, but as I told them, sometimes you’ve just got to outscore people.” All five Hillsdale starters scored in double figures. Lowry led the Chargers with 27 points on 9-of-17 3-point shooting. Junior guard Ryan Badowski was efficient, scoring 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Senior forward Rhett Smith and senior center Nick Archer each scored 12 points, and sophomore point guard Nate Neveau added 11. “We made shots, and sometimes that’s all you need. That’s not the kind of game we really want to play, but we had it going from three,” Lowry said. “It just came down to who was going to make more plays at the end and we did, so we’ll take it.” Hillsdale followed up its tight win over Walsh with a dominant showing at Tiffin. The Chargers raced out to a 4923 halftime lead and cruised to
an 85-70 victory. Hillsdale was so effective in the opening period that the Dragons finished the first 20 minutes with more turnovers (8) than made field goals (6). “We just wanted our defense to be better and our defense was unbelievable in the first half. We were able to quickly get a lead that they were not going to be able to overcome and they kind of quit a little bit,” Lowry said. “It was good to get that one over with quick and not have another stressful overtime game.” After playing a smaller role in the win over Walsh Thursday, Hillsdale’s bench scored 28 points against Tiffin — 26 in the deciding first half. “The real key was our bench,” Tharp said. Tonight, the Chargers will host the Lake Erie Storm at 8 p.m., their final game at Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena this season. Archer and Smith will be honored before tip off as part
second-fastest in school history. A team consisting of sophomore Tiffany Farris, DeTar, Ellingson, and senior Emily Shallman set a school record in the 200-yard IM relay, as well. Kirner placed training buddies Shallman and freshman Danielle LeBleu in 500-yard freestyle races, and both swam NCAA B-cut times. Ellingson said watching Shallman and LeBleu perform in the 500yard freestyle races encour-
aged her. Shallman said her GLIAC experience this year was a good one, albeit bittersweet, as it was her last swim meet of her 11-year swim career. Shallman’s favorite moments from the weekend included competing in finals, breaking the school record in the 200 medley relay with Ellingson, DeTar, and Farris, and watching senior Mae Bass swim a
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Swimmers finish sixth at GLIACs By | Morgan Channels Collegian Reporter
The Hillsdale College women’s swim team took sixth place at the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships on Feb. 8-11, at Saginaw Valley State University. The Chargers finished sixth out of eight women’s teams, and saw many individual successes with new records set. Head coach Kurt Kirner said this meet was the fastest he can remember. He added that the team stepped up their performances, particularly on the third day of the four-day championship. Sophomore Anika Ellingson made two NCAA B-cut times throughout the weekend’s events. She swam a time of 2:20 in the 200-yard breastroke, placing her at fourth in the overall times for the meet. On the third day of the conference, she broke her own school record in the 100-yard breastroke with another B-cut time of 1:02.87, giving her fourth place overall in the championship for that event. “One of my favorite nights was when I re-broke my 100 breaststroke record by about half of a second. I had just missed it by .19 in the morning session and knew I would have to give it my all, so finally breaking the 1:03 barrier in my race was such an amazingly satisfying feeling,” Ellingson said. Sophomore Suzanne De-
Tar achieved personal bests in every single one of her individual races. Her 50-yard freestyle time, also a NCAA B-cut time, placed her as the second fastest in school history. DeTar also broke school records in the 100-yard freestyle race and 100-yard backstroke race, placing her 4th and 5th respectively in school history. Freshman Catherine Voisin swam two personal bests in the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly races. Her time in the 100-yard race fly made her
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Freshman Danielle LeBleu and senior Emily Shallman hug head coach Kurt Kirner after their final 400free relay race of the season. Emily Shallman | Courtesy
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Grace DeSandro | Collegian
Remembering Black History Month: Ida B. Wells, Garrett Morgan, and Nat King Cole The abiding activism of Ida B. Wells
King Cole croons his way into history
By | Jo Kroeker
By | Thomas Novelly
Opinions Editor
“Short but fiery — a proud pistol owner who vowed to ‘sell [her] life as dearly as possible — Ida had guts.”
Editor-in-Chief
ikiCommons
Once-thriving black communities were deteriorating. And Ida B. Wells was witnessing it. The South’s counterrevolution, the fading importance of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the 1893 economic depression turned booming postbellum neighborhoods into ghettos and reignited racial hostility that motivated hundreds of lynchings. Wells burst into this scene during the 1890s with industrious investigative journalism covering lynchings in Memphis, Tennessee, in the aftershock of her good friend’s murder and resulted in an international anti-lynching campaign. In pursuing the story, she fought post-slavery racism and rallied blacks together, laying the groundwork for the early Civil Rights Movement. She, as American activist, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote, helped bring the “fineness” of blacks, especially women, up “through so devilish a fire.” Ida’s parents, freed slaves, sought to stabilize their lives after the Civil War, and joined the community of freed blacks with similar goals, making promising strides forward. After Ida’s parents died during a yellow fever epidemic, Ida dropped out of college and took a rural teaching job at age 16 to support her five siblings. She rode a mule to and from the school each week, co oking, ironing, and washing on the weekends. But soon, she began writing. Smart as a steel trap and as good a writer as any man of the day, Ida became the editor of the Memphis-based Free Speech and Headlight by age 25, and editor-in-chief of the Chicago Conservator by 33. Short but fiery—a proud pistol owner who vowed to “sell [her] life as dearly as possible”— Ida had guts. The lynching of a dear friend ignited Ida’s dogged pursuit of the truth of lynchings in the South. She investigated 728 lynchings that occurred over the decade, talking to eyewitnesses and visiting crime scenes. She found only a third of the murdered blacks were even accused of rape—much less guilty of it. Most were guilty of race prejudice, starting quarrels or threatening whites. She concluded white Southerners used lynching to eliminate blacks competing with them. She defied the then-vogue Victorian ideal for women who were submissive, pure, and ladylike, which divided black and white women along racist and classist lines. American middle and upper class society simultaneously held black women to this standard while denouncing them as naturally more promiscuous (for white men, of course) and therefore unable to achieve this zenith of womanhood. In turn, a mass media hysteria labeled black men at best licentious (for white women, naturally) and at worst, rapists. This in turn sparked mass lynchings of blacks: mostly men, but also women and children. Her findings circulated widely. Reading her column, blacks realized no one was exempt from this new postbellum, insidious racism. But her work inspired and rallied together blacks to fight the threadbare economic and sociological arguments holding them back. As a full-fledged activist, Ida went on multiple international anti-lynching lecture tours, founded the NAACP, and raised a family, settling in Chicago and dedicating 30 years to urban reform. Ida wrote the truth even when it meant facing white intimidation tactics and vindictive legal battles. She committed her life to revealing injustice and racism because, she wrote, “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
Garrett Morgan masks WWI soldiers By | Evan Carter Web Editor
One of the ironies of the “separate, but equal” era of America was the large number of scientific achievements made by black Americans who often had much less access to education than their white counterparts. While George Washington Carver may be the most famous to come from that time, black scientists have been credited with much more than discovering 300 different uses for the peanut. They were responsible for improvements to the telegraph, inventing methods for blood storage, and patenting the first modern stop light. The gas mask, which was one of the most important inventions used by American soldiers during World War I, is largely thanks to black inventor Garrett Morgan. Morgan’s invention saved numerous American lives; at the same time 80 percent of the black troops brought to France didn’t see combat because of racial prejudice. Like many other black scientists during this time, Morgan succeeded in spite of limited educational opportunities — he only received a sixth-grade education — and racial prejudice his entire life. Still, Morgan was fortunate because he was able to hire a private tutor. Between the time he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1895 and 1910, Morgan went from repairing sewing machines to owning several businesses. It was also during this period that his curiosity about the way things work and his ability to fix machinery led him to begin creating inventions of his own. In 1912, Morgan received his first patent for an invention called the safety hood, which was a precursor to the gas mask. Before Morgan’s invention, other safety hood devices were largely a failure: they were difficult to put on, were complex, and unreliable. But Morgan’s invention was simple and reliable. Morgan knew that smoke rises above air, so his device included an intake tube long enough to draw air from near the ground. Remaining smoke was then filtered through a wet sponge. The breathing device sold well with firefighters and rescue workers, but due to the prevailing racial prejudice of the day, Morgan had to hire a white actor to pose as the inventor during presentations of his safety hood. In 1916, Morgan and his brother gained notoriety when they used the breathing devices to enter a tunnel filled with noxious fumes to save two men caught in a tunnel under Lake Erie after a natural gas explosion. But many refused to acknowledge Morgan’s heroism. Then in 1917 his device was modified to carry its own air supply and became the standard-issue gas mask in the U.S. Army in World War I. The 100th anniversary of America’s entrance into World War I will occur in less than two months, and numerous black scientists played an important role in the war effort. Without Garrett Morgan, many thousand more brave souls would have fallen in the fields of France, unable to breathe amidst the haze of mustard gas.
Adele’s tribute to George Michael was human and raw, and she should be commended. Live performance is difficult! My favorite new artist is definitely Chance the Rapper. The fact that an independent artist has won two Grammy awards is not only history but an incredible feat, and Chance is unashamed of the theological and religious threads throughout his music. -Junior Margaret O’Dell
To be honest, Weezer or Panic! At the Disco should have won “Best Rock Album.” Cage the Elephant hasn’t been relevant in years and this was no comeback album. -Senior Katie Cournoyer
Chance the Rapper’s performance on Sunday gives me hope, prone to worry about the culture as I am. Our Christian ancestors without fail found new ways of expressing the faith, taking every thought captive to Christ whether German or Greek or Roman—what do we have today that can bear these signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds? Trump? Google? But here’s Chance, on TV, loving God, showing you how—a God to shout about. It’s all we got, Compiled by Hannah Niemeier and it’s more than enough. -Chris McCaffery ’16
“Winston Churchill Painting the Mill at Dreux,” Paul Maze, 1932 | Churchill Heritage Limited (c) | Courtesy
THE GRAMMYS:
GREAT OR GROAN-WORTHY?
Assistant Editor Bright green trees and the cool blues of a stream enliven a painting of medieval wood and stone homes in an idyllic French country town. “His works were stunning, idealistic—the weight and texture of his brush strokes not unlike that of glazed candy—yet they still carried a serious, mature tone,” sophomore Andrea Wallace said. Wallace wasn’t describing Monet or Renoir—she was describing the art of none other than Sir Winston Churchill. “The Art of Winston Churchill,” on display in the Daughtrey Gallery through March 10, is a testament to Churchill the man and the cause for which he fought. “Churchill claimed that excellence in painting is the same principle as fighting a battle or making a philosophic argument,” Hillsdale College President and Churchill Scholar Larry
Arnn said. “He claimed that painting is more exciting than fighting a battle successfully. Remarkable, from a man who had fought many battles.” Churchill began painting in 1915 after a series of political “The Mill at St.-Georges-Motel,” Winston misfortunes Churchill, c. 1932 | Churchill Heritage Limited left him in an obscure post. He only stopped painting in 1958, when he could no longer hold a paintbrush. “Just to paint is great fun,” Churchill wrote in his essay, “Painting as Pastime.” “The colours are lovely to look at and delicious to squeeze out. Matching them, however crudely, with what you see is fascinating and absolutely absorbing. Try it if you have not done so—before you die.” “I think this one of the most important paragraphs Churchill wrote,” Arnn said. The exhibit is on loan from the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri. However, not all of the pieces travel with the exhibit. “Six of the nine paintings belong to the Sandys family,” Soren Geiger ’13, a research assistant on the Churchill Project, said. “Duncan Sandys married Diana Churchill—Winston’s daughter—which is how they came by the paintings. Two of the family members reached out to us to ask if we’d like to host the exhibit.” Previously, Geiger explained, the exhibit had been on display in California, aboard the Queen Mary, an ocean liner which ferried Allied troops to Europe during World War II See Churchill B2 “Churchill was a great and
CULTURE CORNER
ikiCommons
By | Michael Lucchese
“Cole ... used his voice to show he was not only color blind, but also bipartisan.”
ikiCommons
All things bright and beautiful: Churchill as statesman-artist
When Nat King Cole moved into a rich, predominantly white neighborhood in Los Angeles in 1948, he received many housewarming gifts—including a burning cross in his front yard from the Ku Klux Klan. As recounted in a biography of the famous jazz composer Nelson Riddle, the local property owners association told Cole they didn’t want any “undesirables” living in their part of town. Cole agreed. “Neither do I,” he said to the group of men. “And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I’ll be the first to complain.” Cole’s soft, baritone voice has now become timeless. It’s heard as families gather around the tree every December with his recording of “The Christmas Song” floating through the winter air. It’s heard as travelers drive the lone highway from Chicago to California and the radio of a convertible Mustang blasts “(Get Yo u r Kicks on) Route 66.” And i t ’ s heard as t w o lovers dance as husband and wife, as the wedding D J p l a y s “Unforgett a b l e” over a pair of portable speakers. But in his time, m a n y didn’t cherish his voice, simply because they couldn’t see past the color of his skin. Cole would encounter racism and criticism throughout his musical career, even from fellow African-Americans. Despite being a native Southerner—he was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1919—the most notable moment of discrimination that Cole experienced in his singing career came in 1956, when he came back to the Cotton State. As he was playing a show in Birmingham, Alabama, three men from a white supremacy group began passing around pictures of Cole with his white female fans. They emblazoned the photos with captions such as “Cole and his white women” and “Cole and your daughter.” The same men circulating the photos attempted to rush the stage midway through the performance, causing Cole to fall from his piano bench and seriously injure his back. According to an eyewitness account published later in the Birmingham News, the local police stopped the men before they could capture or harm the singer, and they arrested them. “I can’t understand it,” Cole said in the wake of the assault. “I have not taken part in any protests. Nor have I joined an organization fighting segregation. Why should they attack me?” That was the last time that Cole ever played in the South, but he still continued to play concerts for all-white audiences. As a result, notable voices in the anti-segregation movement condemned Cole. The Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper, called his performances for all-white crowds an “insult to their race.” Thurgood Marshall, then the legal counsel for the NAACP and later an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme court, called him Uncle Tom. A writer in The American Negro, said he was a traitor to his fellow blacks. But Cole continued to use his voice to show he was not only color blind, but also bipartisan. Later that year in 1956, he sang at The Republican National ConventionSee Nat King Cole B2 during General Dwight
Culture www.hillsdalecollegian.com
B2 16 Feb. 2017
on campus this week . . .
“Power, soul, passion”: Radke schools the Big Band By | Katie J. Read Assistant Editor
Fred Radke has lived his whole life on stage, with Gina Funes, his scatin’ soprano spouse, and his two favorite trumpets at his side. So he knows what a good performance takes: “Power. Soul. Passion.” Radke’s lifelong tour dropped him off at the Howard Music Hall last week after he accepted an invite from his good friend Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, over this past summer. He shared two days with the Hillsdale College Big Band, and gave their chops a thorough workout. In rehearsing the band on Feb. 9 and performing with them on their Feb. 10 concert, the renowned trumpeter and
director of the Harry James Orchestra taught the group a thing or two about jazz. “Working with Radke was crazy because he’s the epitome of a professional musician,” senior trumpet player Conor Woodfin said. “He doesn’t expect perfection, but that’s his standard.” Guys like Radke keep their expectations high for a reason—they’ve been to the top, and they worked hard to get there. Radke spent his career jamming with the greats: Anita O’Day, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, The King Family, and Ella Fitzgerald, to name a few. He joined multiple tours with his idol and mentor Harry James, a revered trumpet player from the heyday of the big band era—“Performing
with Harry was like getting a trumpet lesson every night,” he remembered. Years later, he took over the band when it launched its anniversary tours. That’s the gig he’s got now. While his stunner of a resume explains Radke’s prefer-
ence for excellence, the stories he fires off account for his persona. Like the mid-tour flat tire that had him and Gina hiding under a bush: “We’re driving in the north of Thailand, and this is in 1966, so you can imagine how rural and how rough ev-
“Radke spent his career jamming with the greats: Anita O’Day, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, The King Family, and Ella Fitzgerald, to name a few.”
Jazz master Fred Radke and Big Band Director Chris McCourry dueled with their trumpets on Friday night. Stephen Smith | Courtesy
erything is over there.” Under the cover of foliage and dirt, the couple watched a local farmer slide down from his perch atop an elephant’s head to help their chauffeur fix their flat. Then there was the time when he popped an Ambien sleeping pill he eyeballed as a Sudafed moments before curtain and played an entire show in a sedated state of drowsy delirium. But that, that’s nothing compared to the night one of his guys took a breather backstage and leaned against a lever that unleashed the auditorium’s sprinkler system onto an audience in black-tie formal wear: “I opened my eyes and we were in a shower! The first three rows were getting drenched!” “God, there’s so many stories.” Radke’s had a lifetime of
this stuff, of swinging and schmoozing, and now he’s making sure the next generation of jazz can take its turn under the spotlight. He says he can teach anyone to perform—it’s all in the attitude. “If you are convincing with what you do, you’re going to have the audience react to your performance. If you are not convincing, then your audience might not react,” Radke said. “I think when you’re performing you have to make sure you’re in shape physically, mentally, and endurance- and technique-wise. Serious musicians practice everyday. In a way, that shows you what level of performance you should try to achieve.” Radke kicked off the big band’s boot camp with a repertoire overhaul. Prior to, the ensemble had a fortnight to master seven spanking-new charts, as their performance with this world-renowned cat loomed overhead. Then the cat himself arrived on scene. With showtime only a rehearsal away, he passed out two new charts from his band’s personal library. The snappy turnaround proved a good lesson, though. “The band learned in the real world you get less than a week to prep,” Hillsdale College Big Band Director Chris McCourry said. “It was a great reality check.” So that’s where he took the Big Band next. After he had the band’s setlist to his liking, Radke moved on to teach skillful musicianship and persuasive showmanship, two elements of a great performance. For Radke, those are lessons
best taught by example. “I believe this: A band is as strong as its leaders,” Radke said. “If I expect my trumpet players to play a certain way, to play aggressively, then I do it. I have to be able to do it. I don’t expect anybody to be able to do something that I can’t do. When you portray that to students, they say ‘Wow, this guy really plays…We better do our homework.’” For young players, this homework means listening to jazz greats, “the champion players,” and imitating their style and technique, habits Radke stresses. Radke said he spent his formative years spinning records by trumpeting giants like Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. It’s easier nowadays: YouTube lets students study whomever they like. “Young players have an opportunity to watch these cats,” Radke said. “You take your style and their styles, and you put it in a big barrel and mix it all up, and you take it out and that’s your style. You’re influenced by everyone.” Eventually, though, players jump from practice to performance, and that’s what Radke knows best. “I’ve never seen someone that looked so comfortable performing,” Woodfin said. “The stage is his home. His entire life is there.” Radke said a good musician will play with conviction and with feeling. Otherwise, he’ll never convince his audience to participate in the music. When the closing soloist sends his final phrase forth, the art of performing is always in power, soul, and passion.
Radio Free Hillsdale gives free rein for creativity with new student-run radio programs By | Andrew Egger Senior Writer
Last school year, flipping your radio to 101.7 FM would have brought you a 24-hour stream of star-spangled tunes. This year, under the leadership of General Manager Scot Bertram, the student shows WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale are growing into their own. Some shows, like weirdnews hour “Off Topic,” and the aptly named “Science & Ethics,” are rolling into their second semester. Others are launching all the time: “The Michael Lucchese Show” got its start just this week. Between them, they cover an impressive swath of campus life and discussion, from politics to philosophy to music to Hillsdale news to sports. “Off Topic,” the brainchild of sophomores Dylan Strehle, Shadrach Strehle, and Ross Hatley, bills itself as “a place of low-key, low-tension discussion.” In a given broadcast, the three hosts may debate the worth of Taylor Swift in the “Judge Hatley” segment, unpack the Super Bowl’s Stranger Things 2 commercial, and reminisce about the “middle
school emo phase.” “When we first thought of the idea of doing the show, we thought — well, it’s Hillsdale College, everyone’s going to want to do a political talk show, everyone’s going to want to come out and spout their opinions,” Dylan Strehle said. “So the original thought in our minds was, what would be a good antithesis to that? So we thought we would do a morning show, something fun, a little bit of the variety show, nothing too serious.” Weighing in on the more serious side is “Science & Ethics,” a biweekly show in which seniors Lillian Quinones and Madeline Johnson interview Hillsdale professors and outside experts on technology and humane issues. “It kind of capitalizes on our respective strengths: She’s a biochem major, I’m a philosophy major,” Johnson said. “When we know who our guest is, we try to come up with questions that are a mix of just popularizing whatever they’re talking about for a general audience and trying to ask more directly philosophical questions, kind of frame whatever their particular area
is in a way that brings it into conversation with other fields, other disciplines. And then we just have a conversation.” When Quinones wanted to start a show as a project for Bertram’s radio class, she asked Johnson to co-host to represent the philosophical side of the conversation. “I love public radio; I listen to NPR a lot, so just on an aesthetic level I enjoyed the idea of intelligent conversation in a recorded format,” Johnson said. “But also Lily and I have had a lot of conversations and we’re always trying to bridge our disciplines, so the idea of something interdisciplinary was exciting, just learning to talk to different people who have very different basic frameworks.” One of the newest shows to the WRFH roster is junior Dean Sinclair and senior Kayla Stetzel’s “On Air with Stetzel and Sinclair,” the station’s first music program since the initial 24-hour patriotic one. But this show is more likely to feature garage rock from California or dance music from Sweden than John Philip Sousa. “It’s mostly wall-to-wall music with some commentary
Churchill from B1 Nat King Cole from B1 D. Eisenhower’s nomination, and four year laters he sang at the 1960 Democratic National Convention to endorse Senator John F. Kennedy. He would later be an advisor on civil rights to presidents Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Cole died in 1965, though he lived to see the Civil Rights Act pass in Congress a year earlier. Despite criticism from white supremacists as well as black music critics, Cole’s legacy has had the last laugh. During his life he recorded
more than 150 singles that topped charts for country, Billboard Pop, and R&B for Capitol Records. To this day, no one has matched those numbers for Capitol Records. And despite those efforts to kick him off stage in Birmingham, Cole was later inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. The elements of institutional racism eventually faded, but Cole’s voice lives through politics, race, and time.
important man,” Arnn said. “The college is completing and publishing his biography. He loved to paint and was successful at it. He thought the activity fun and also important. We can learn something about statesmanship, art, truth, and beauty from it. So says Churchill.” Geiger said that one of those lessons about statesmanship to be found in Churchill’s painting is how an artist—like the skillful politician—must observe and translate minute details into a bigger picture. Throughout much of his life, Churchill suffered visits from what he called “the black dog” of depression. Some historians have theorized that his artwork was one emotional release that helped him deal with his mental illness. “Churchill’s art is unique, because it is Churchill doing the painting and his works
sprinkled in,” Stetzel said. “We each pick five songs and then we talk about them. There’s a really good mixture of stuff: Dean and I both have very eclectic music tastes, but our tastes at the same time are very distinct from each other.” Stetzel said she has been trying to lay the groundwork for the show since she first heard about the plans to create WRFH, but Sophomores Shadrach and Dylan Strehle and Ross Hatley record their organizational delays show for WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale. Ross Hatley | Courtesy kept them from startshow, “Charger Rundown,” phase where, if you come in ing until this semester. “I needed to find somebody hosted by senior Kat Tor- here and you’ve got a really who is going to be dedicated, res; and “Right Wing & Red good idea, or you believe you will put in the hours, will put Wings,” a show about hockey do, and you’re willing to put in the time, knows a crapton and politics show from junior the work in, you’re going to get a slot. That’s one of the best about music—and, lightbulb, I Jenna Suchyta. The radio station may be things about coming in at this was like, I just described Dean Sinclair,” Stetzel said. “So I blossoming quickly, but Dylan time, is that the reason why reached out to him, and he Strehle stressed that it is still in we exist as a show is, I’m not its infancy — which provides going to sugarcoat it, because was really excited about it.” Other student shows an opportunity for would-be they had no one else.” “Three punks talking about rounding out the roster in- jockeys. “The fact that we’re still nothing considered trailblazclude a Hillsdale history segment, “Wait, What Hap- in the infancy of our station ers?” Hatley said. “How’d that pened?” hosted by juniors means that it’s a great time happen?” Sarah Schutte and Chandler to get involved,” Strehle said. Lasch; a Hillsdale athletics “Because there’s so much space open. We’re still at that accord with what one can learn in studying the man,” Professor of Art Sam Knecht said. “Even though he painted external subjects, the management of art elements in his work invite the sense that each painting is a revelation of his inner spirit.” Despite often being considered an amateur by many professional art critics, Churchill’s art has been well received by Hillsdale’s campus. Particularly, students have praised his paintings for their colorfulness and distinctive impressionistic style. Also on display are artifacts and memorabilia from Churchill’s life, including a top hat signed for an aide’s birthday by Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin Roosevelt; a cigar humidifier given to Churchill by the people of Cuba; and the Union Jack which hung on the stage while Churchill gave his famous “Iron Curtain” speech. The artifacts and the paintings present the vision of
Western culture which Chur- Knecht said, speaking of the chill sought to defend against Churchill paintings on display the threats posed by the twin specifically. “Taken together tyrannies of Nazism and com- his paintings affirm that he munism. was an optimist, despite the “When Civilization reigns, many burdens he bore. There in any country,” Churchill said is reassuring sunlight in abunin a 1938 speech at the Uni- dance in his works. There is versity of Bristol, “a wider and the beauty of locale well-obless harassed life is afforded to served. There is color as opthe masses of the people. The posed to drab.” traditions of the past are cherAt his funeral, Churchill ished, and the inheritance be- had the hymn “I Vow to Thee queathed to us by former wise My Country” played. The or valiant men becomes a rich opening lines are: “I vow to estate to be enjoyed and used thee, my country, all earthby all.” ly things above, / Entire and At one point during the whole and perfect, the service World War II, the director of of my love.” Britain’s National Gallery sugChurchill painted what he gested moving the gallery’s loved. He painted scenes of collection from London to the French countryside and safety in Canada. When he of his home at Chartwell in asked Churchill for permis- southeast England. “The Art sion, Churchill reportedly re- of Winston Churchill” shows fused, and insisted on keeping much about Churchill’s amthe paintings in London to re- bition—that is, to protect the mind the British people why character of Western civilizathey fought. tion. “There is confidence and consistent good cheer, ” Churchill Heritage Limited | Courtesy
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B3 16 Feb. 2017
A criminal’s cave in Hillsdale County By | Mark Naida Freelance Writer
As stories have their way, they get bigger, taller, more true to the intent of the storyteller than to the facts. In local legends, there is often a point of reference. Sometimes it is an island, a hill, a burial ground. In this case, there is a cave. On a cold day in early February, the snow obscured the cave’s entrances, which were outlined in thick blue ice. The Lost Nations Game Area in Hillsdale County falls silent when hunting season ends. The creaking of one tree scraping against another in the wind is the only sound. Underneath the red oak, sugar maple, and beech trees all bereft of leaves for the season, there is no rustling of leaves. The snow soaks up all the sound. Sile Doty’s Cave near Pittsford, Michigan, is named after the infamous thief and murderer. The entrance is by a stream that winds through the bottom of a ravine. According to a Natural
Features Inventory prepared by the Michigan Department of Natural Recourses, the cave has two distinct caverns and three entrances. A dome in the back of the cave hangs almost too low for an average-height man to stand upright. In the winter, ice crowns the entrances and branches into the sandstone gravel that covers the floor of the cave. The cave was not always this size. It used to be large enough to house horses. The Natural Features Inventory said “a larger cave also occurred in the vicinity but was destroyed to prevent the local brigand Sile Doty from using it to hide stolen horses in the mid-1800s.” The residents of the area feared Doty so much they attempted to destroy his hiding places, knowing that they could never capture him for very long. Doty was a self-professed criminal. Born in 1800, he began stealing horseshoes and penknives at a young age just for the thrill of it. Entering his teen years in Bangor, New York, he began to steal animals from
the traps of fur trappers. He sold the furs through an extensive network of thieves in New England and the MidAtlantic. He robbed Senior Angela Bonvissuto danced as Clara in “The banks, broke Nutcracker” for the Nashville Ballet in 2006. Angela into homes, and Bonvissuto | Courtesy traded on the black market. A In the 1800s, notable criminal Sile Doty most likely thrill seeker, he brought a stolen horse to this cave near Hillsdale. eventually led Mark Naida | Collegian 40 miles from Hillsdale. slaves to freeIn August 1849, he found dom in the abolitionist era, not himself in jail again in Hillsdale out of moral concern, but out of for robbing a peddler. Doty had hunger for challenge. In 1846, Doty landed himself been acquainted with the town since its earliest years. The railin jail for stealing a large numroad had reached the town only ber of buffalo robes and several sets of harness. He escaped from six years ago and had undergone tremendous population expanjail and fled to Mexico, joining sion. In many ways, it was a the war effort and stealing from pioneer town, and Doty admired both Mexicans and American it. In his autobiography, Doty soldiers in his pathological always refers to the “congenial” pursuit for adventure. In his life citizens and “kindred spirits” of crime, he lied, counterfeited, with whom he became acquaintstole, and even murdered a man ed when he visited. named Lorenzo Noyes in SteuIn 1866, after having been ben County, Indiana, only about
Senior researches two cardiac drugs By | Madeleine Jepsen Assistant Editor
At least 2.7 million Americans are affected by a heart condition called atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clot, stroke, or heart failure, affects according to the American Heart Association. This summer, senior Emily Nelson helped research the effects of two drugs that, when used in conjunction, may help lower their harmful side effects for heart tissue. Her project, conducted through the Center for Integrative Research on Cardiovascular Aging at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, helped lay the groundwork for future projects involving these drugs. For patients with a history of heart failure, the drug dronedarone can worsen the symptoms of atrial fibrillation, increasing oxidative stress in the heart tissue. Oxidative stress occurs when reactive oxygen atoms, which can cause cellular damage, build up in cells. “The real issue with the drug is it causes oxidative stress, so cells that are already having a hard time have to work even harder to survive,” Nelson said. Nelson used human heart tissue samples collected from patients during surgery and frozen for future research in her project. But before she could test the effects of the two drugs when used together, she first had to dethaw and cultivate the cells, a process Nelson said was delicate and required finesse. In the first few cultures, she started with about half a million cells, but only a fraction survived. “I have to say, the plating and culturing took the longest of anything I had to do,” Nelson said. “It’s defrost it, give it the first treatment, wait a couple hours, do another treatment, let them sit overnight, and then do your drug treatment, which is
Morgan from B4 Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park over the last two summers, which she calls “the frontlines of Civil War history.” Morgan’s project was also inspired in part by Introduction to Public History, a one-credit seminar offered by Professor of History David Stewart which discussed museum curation, living history, archival science, historic sites, and more. Linda Moore, public service librarian, helped Morgan put together the exhibit. “I look at my role as a facilitator,” Moore said. “I can help students find the materials they need to use in the college’s archives.” After the provost’s office secured a cabinet for the display, Morgan set to work collecting the artifacts she needed for the exhibit. Most of them came from the Hillsdale College ar-
Opera from B4
said. “Sometimes that requires a lot of risk and transparency. To perform, we let go of all we want to protect about ourselves. We have to dig deep into our souls.” Nestorak took on multiple roles in each year’s Opera Workshop performances, portraying characters who often had little in common in backto-back scenes. As he honed his talent on stage, he also took a seat in the director’s chair and managed a few “opshop” scenes his senior year. Upon graduating from Hillsdale, Nestorak kept singing for anyone who’d hear him, and successfully auditioned for University of Michigan’s graduate program
Sage from B4
Senior Emily Nelson researched the effects of two drugs used to treat atrial fibrillation. Emily Nelson | Courtesy
another whole day of waiting.” After the cells were treated with the drugs, Nelson used fluorescent dyes to determine the oxidative stress within the mitochondria, where the reactive oxygen atoms originate, and within the larger cell using a specialized microscope for looking at different cross-sections of a 3-D sample. Nelson’s supervisor, Larisa Emelyanova, a research scientist at Aurora, said the project successfully demonstrated the detrimental effects of dronedarone. Additionally, Nelson found that the second drug helped protect the cells from oxidative stress when used in conjunction with dronedarone. “Another interesting thing we noticed was that between older patients versus younger ones, the younger patients had a much better response rate to the two drugs together, whereas chives, although some artifacts — including Captain William Whitney’s saber, which sits on the top shelf of the cabinet — are on loan from the Hillsdale Historical Society. “In the future, we’d like to coordinate with local public history groups to find internships for students interested in public history,” Stewart said. “There’s more than 40 local history organizations within a 30-minute drive from campus, and they all could have great opportunities.” In coming semesters, Moore and Stewart said they hope other students interested in public history will put together exhibits to show on campus. “A lot of people have stopped by Hailey’s display, but I think even more people should,” Moore said. “She set a nice standard for future exhibits on campus.” Morgan’s display revolves around four primary themes — cause, courage, sacrifice, and remembrance.
the older ones still had some trouble,” Nelson said. According to Nelson, researchers at Aurora will continue to examine the effects of these two drugs using fresh heart cells. Nelson’s work contributed preliminary data for the ongoing project. After Nelson’s previous experience shadowing cardiothoracic surgeons two summers ago, she said the research project provided a different type of insight into heartrelated medicine. “It was kind of neat because I got to see the flip side of things,” Nelson said. “After the heart sample comes out, the surgeons seal it up, put it in liquid nitrogen, and then hand it off to the research people. That was where the story ended for me two summers ago, and now I got to see it from the other end.”
“Cannonballs are mighty missiles, but ideas in the possession of a skillful writer or when hurled by the logic of an orator are mightier still,” said John Patterson, a student at Hillsdale during the time of the Civil War who is quoted
with an anecdote from his trucking days. “After your third day of being awake, you don’t wanna sleep,” he said. “You’re in the zone. You just go.” More laughter. Everything is funnier at 1:15 a.m. Sage’s one-year anniversary at Wal-Mart is fast-approaching, and in that year, he said he’s seen the full spectrum of the people of Wal-Mart, from students to cops to religious zealots. Junior Lauren Barlass said she noticed Sage because he seemed unusually pleasant and talkative for someone working the graveyard shift, but now she hopes to run into him on every late-night Wal-Mart run. “I only got to Wal-Mart after midnight if I have a lot of homework and am going to be up for a while longer, and just having a friendly conversation when I’m so stressed can help me feel better,” she said. Sage rings up other night owls frequently: “a few cops, a lot of not-so-classy people. We get some people who don’t bathe like they should. We have a few high-ons…” Business booms and lines pile up during the first and second shifts. Understaffing cuts students going into the military share the same motivation as the Civil War veterans. “I think the Patterson quote really sums up why a lot of Hillsdale students serve in the military, both then and now,” he said. “Hillsdale teaches us
“I always anticipated that you had to go away from campus to learn about the country’s history. This project helped me realize just how much Hillsdale College has contributed.” in one of Morgan’s display cards. “An ideal, when properly aimed, shakes the whole world from center to circumference … Ideas are the great lever by which the world is moved.” Sophomore Josh Bailey, who is pursuing a career in the Marine Corps after graduation, said he and many other Hillsdale
great ideas, and it is our duty to defend that heritage.” In the years leading up to the war, Hillsdale was a seat of abolitionist activity, hosting antislavery speakers like Frederick Douglass, who will soon be honored with a statue on the campus’s Freedom Walk. “When Douglass came to
confined to a cell for 15 years in the State Prison in Jackson, Michigan, Doty was a free man. Shortly after leaving prison, Doty wrote in his autobiography, “Life of Silas Doty, 1800-1876: A forgotten autobiography; the most noted thief and daring burglar of his time,” that he “... went to Coldwater, walked into Lawyer Parson’s barn, saddled his horse and led him out past the house to the street, while they were yet up, got on his back and rode off … For three days I kept this horse secreted in the southern part of Hillsdale County, no one in that region suspected that I had such a thing as a horse.” Without mentioning the cave specifically, he suggested that he hid a large animal without notice on someone else’s land in a location which coincides with the cave, near the border of Pittsford and Jefferson townships in the southern part of the county. That passage is Doty’s only mention of hiding horses in the county, but as the legend of Silas Doty developed, the number rose, the cave grew, the horses became more thoroughly bred. In a book published by the Hillsdale County Historical Society, titled “150 Years In the Hills and Dales,” the author recorded this legend alongside the history: “It is also said that if you go to his cave at night you will find a dead fox and some black walnuts. If you look real hard you will see the ghost of Silas Doty
that is said to haunt the cave, and he is smiling.” According to Tom Ford, the supernatural seems to permeate that patch of woods near Pittsford, Michigan. In an article from the Toledo Blade published in February 1989, Ford wrote that “Two squirrel hunters, in the woods Feb. 6, said they came across extraordinary footprints that have authorities thinking the area is inhabited by either the fabled bigfoot creature or clever pranksters … ‘The tracks we found ran right up to the entrance of Sile Doty’s cave,’ Sergeant Wilmer said. ‘Then they continued on.’” Legends need a point of origin: the echo of a horse’s heavy breathing in a ravine, a cave large enough to enter, a few sets of inhuman footprints. These points allow the mind to understand both the truth of the story and expand it into myth. The genesis is simply that a thief once rode a horse to a cave in Southern Michigan and now people can speak about how Doty’s ghost and bigfoot rendezvous in the very same cave. Songwriter Bob Dylan wrote in his song, “Girl from the North Country,” a few lines that could be said by Doty himself, or howled by his ghost into the dark ravine. “So if you’re travelin’ in the north country fair / Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline / Remember me to one who lives there.”
in opera, where he studied under Professor of Voice George Shirley, the first AfricanAmerican tenor to sing leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. “The University of Michigan’s music program runs like a conservatory program, but it’s at a state school,” he said. “You get high-quality and high-caliber teaching and experiences like you would at a conservatory, but you get it for a state-school price.” Since Nestorak’s graduation from University of Michigan in 2013, he has continued to sing, and sing, and sing. It wasn’t easy. Nestorak said the start of his career was scarily still: “The ball eventually started rolling, but that was after I started taking
every opportunity to sing for whoever I could.” Auditions and performances have zigzagged him from opportunity to opportunity all over the country, and even around the world. Most recently, his rich tenor voice has landed him three contracts at the Toledo Opera, a quick jaunt from his hometown and alma mater. For the past couple months — a long haul in the opera world — he has performed with the voice he discovered in the practice rooms of Howard and trained at the University of Michigan. His next move is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for sure: He’ll always keep singing for whoever will hear him.
the number of open registers down, so the few available cashiers ring up the customers quickly and impersonally. Sage’s third shift is a different story entirely. Late at night, he can be outgoing. His grandmother Linda Snoes, staff assistant for health services at the college, said Sage has been friendly and talkative since he was little. “He just talks to everybody, and he’s very low-profile,” she said. “It’s not bold or anything, but he’s very friendly.” His talkative side puts a positive spin on working odd hours. “That’s what makes it awesome on third shift: You meet these people and you get a chance to figure ’em out a little bit. Just a lot of interesting people who come through.” About a month ago, Sage said a woman came in who said she couldn’t sleep and felt God wanted her to come and pray with and for the people of Wal-Mart. “It was cool, y’know, I believe in God,” he said. “And then she started talking about her church, and I’m just like, ‘Oh that’s the church that I sneak out of the back door…’” Her church is charismatic, with people speaking in tongues and laying prostrate.
“No matter what language you speak you’re supposed to be able to understand them, and uh, I’m yet to go to a church that speaks in tongues and I understand what they’re saying.” After high school, Sage moved away to Novi, Michigan, to pursue digital photography at the Art Institute of Michigan. His grandmother said she always admired his natural eye and talent for nature photography, complimenting his desire to focus the camera himself, even though most cameras are automatic. “There’s awesome sunsets over the lakes we’ve got here, and you’ve got the woods — I grew up in the woods … I’ll get this bolt of inspiration and I’ll take off for a couple hours and just get lost out there. It’s peaceful out there, you find out a lot about yourself, but moreso, God,” Sage said. Family lore has it that when Sage was a newborn, his dad had an epiphany regarding his son’s name, maybe in a dream — but he’s never admitted to it. Regardless, 23 years later, the woods, the third shift, the metaphysical crystal, the daysinto-nights blurred by coffee and nicotine made him the nighttime Sage of Wal-Mart.
campus, he really expressed the true sentiments of the people here,” Morgan said. “His presence really speaks to our legacy as an institution — we’ve always stood firm in our principles, from his time to our own.” Hillsdale College students fought primarily in the 4th and 11th Michigan Infantries, and saw action in a number of pivotal battles, including engagements at Gettysburg and Chattanooga. One story recounted in Morgan’s exhibit describes Asher LaFleur and Moses Luce, classmates from the college serving in the Michigan 4th. In May 1864, LaFleur was shot charging Confederate positions in the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse. As LaFleur went down, Luce ran into enemy fire to rescue his friend. The wounds Luce sustained during this act of heroism cost him his leg. But, for his bravery, Luce was awarded the Medal of
Honor. In an 1861 lecture titled “The Decision of the Hour,” Frederick Douglass wrote, “All progress towards perfection ever made by mankind, and all the blessings which are now enjoyed, are ascribable to some brave and good man, who, catching the illumination of a heaven-born truth, has counted it a joy, precious and unspeakable, to toil, suffer, and often to die for the glorious realization of that heaven-born truth.” Morgan said her display aims to honor the men of Hillsdale College and that “heaven-born truth” for which they fought. “I think it’s a great way to bring to life the ideas and events we learn about in Constitution 101 and American Heritage,” junior Adrienne Carrier said. “I think we need more of this here at Hillsdale. It really gives context to the things we learn about in those classes.”
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
B4 16 Feb. 2017
From hobby to career Hillsdale alumnus pursues opera By | Katie J. Read Assistant Editor Alumnus Nicholas Nestorak ’11 sings opera for a living, and he hasn’t thought of a backup plan. “This profession is unnerving,” Nestorak said. “You never know when your next opportunity or job will come up. If you have a backup plan, you’re most likely going to fall on that. I’ve lived by one rule that my teacher in graduate school taught me: He said, ‘sing for whoever will hear you, no matter who it is.’”
“When he was in middle school, he sang a solo for the first time: ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas,’” Nick Nestorak’s mother, Kathy Nestorak, remembered. “My husband and I ... looked at each other and said, ‘Whose kid is that?’” After that, the young tenor couldn’t stop himself from joining every musical activity available: cello lessons, jazz band, and musicals galore. When Nestorak entered the college from Hillsdale High School, he intended to graduate with a double major in chemistry and cello perfor-
and so desirous to learn. He was an incredible musician on all levels. He was always willing to try new things.” Osmond praised Nestorak for his work ethic —“He was the hardest worker I had at the time,” she said. After he swapped his chemistry major for one in vocal performance, he logged hours in Howard’s basement practice rooms exercising his voice and improving his cello technique. This dedication earned Nestorak a foundation in music that would benefit him throughout his career.
mance. His plan didn’t last long: “I was introduced to opera at Hillsdale,” Nestorak said. “One day my teachers approached me and said ‘Hey, we don’t think you have a successful career with the cello … You might look into going to graduate school for singing.’” Between his lessons in Voice Teacher Melissa “Missy” Osmond’s studio and practice sessions in the basement of Howard Music Hall, Nestorak began to discover the true talent he had once considered a hobby. “I remember I was so impressed with his young tenor sound and musical delivery,” Osmond said. “Nick was always a very curious student
Senior Hailey Morgan created a Civil War exhibit at Mossey Library. Hailey Morgan | Courtesy
This philosophy has steered Nestorak into an education he said he didn’t plan for and a career he can’t map out. But even before his teacher articulated this mantra to him, he had already stumbled upon this secret, the key to a successful opera career: Sing to whoever will listen. Nestorak found his first audience as a child at Hillsdale First United Methodist Church, where he trooped out to the front of the congregation with his friends to sing in the choir. When he moved to Hillsdale’s Davis Middle School, he joined the choir there and found more people who would entertain his developing voice.
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By | Jo Kroeker Opinions Editor
Senior designs Civil War showcase More than 400 students left Hillsdale to fight for the Union — a higher percentage than any other western college. Of those, three became generals, four were awarded Congressional Medals of Honor, and almost 60 died for the cause of the Union. Thanks to senior Hailey Morgan, visitors to the library can now access this information and other Civil War memorabilia that tells an important story about Hillsdale College’s history. Morgan’s exhibit, “Hillsdale
“Missy taught me the basics of singing technique and gave me chances to explore. And I have to nod my hat to my cello professor, David Peshlakai. Even though I went in as a cello major and didn’t pursue it, I learned practices in his lessons that I still use today,” Nestorak said. Hillsdale’s Opera Workshop program played a big part in Nestorak’s musical maturation. Nestorak said the program allowed him to experiment with singing and acting in a safe environment. “As singers, it is our job to move people and take them into a different space in their minds and hearts,” Osmond
Cashiering for the late-night Wal-Mart crowd
Valor and values By | Michael Lucchese Assistant Editor
Alumnus Nicholas Nestorak ‘11 works as an opera performer. Here, he is Albert Herring in “Albert Herring.” Nicholas Nestorak | Courtesy
“As singers, it is our job to move people and take them into a different space in their minds and hearts ... To perform, we let go of all we want to protect about ourselves. We have to dig deep into our souls.”
and the Civil War,” memorializes the valor the men of the college and the community showed during one of the bloodiest wars in American history. “I always anticipated that you had to go away from campus to learn about the country’s history,” Morgan said. “This project helped me realize just how much Hillsdale College has contributed.” Morgan said she began thinking about public history while working as a guide with the National Park Service at the
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Three hours into his graveyard shift at the Jonesville Wal-Mart, Sage Snoes, 23, gets 15 minutes for a coffee and two cigarettes. “I can ring you up if you’re ready,” a blonde cashier named Lena said. “... Unless you want Sage.” “Does that happen a lot?” “Yeah,” she said. Nearby, a young couple who had purchased more than $100 worth of groceries bantered with Sage like old friends. He seemed to know most people who trickled in during the wee hours of what’s called the third shift, from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Short with a mop of brown hair and a white crystal dangling from his neck, Sage welcomes customers with smiles and takes time to talk, trying to figure them out. After working the third shift for a year, he’s become a late-night fixture for local night owls and students on spontaneous Wal-Mart trips. Lena took over for Sage — time for his break. He grabbed his Starbucks drink from a refrigerator and bundled up. “We kind of have to hide in this corner over here,” he said. A door rattled as Jeff, an older employee, lifted it up and stepped outside for a smoke too.
“I’m taking a shortcut out here,” Jeff said. Self-conscious and overly accommodating, he offered to go for a walk once he saw the interview and heard Sage ask whether too much noise would affect the recording. Jeff: “I ain’t good for nothing an’ you know it. I just get by, brother.” Sage: “Don’t we all.” They laughed. “He’s a tall guy, he reaches the top shelf for guys like me,” Sage said. “I do. I love you too, bro,” Jeff replied. Sage picked up the third shift a year ago, but for three and a half years, he’s been providing in-home care to some clients who are close to him. “They needed help and I was there. I got into their system so I can get paid for helpin’ ‘em, but I would’ve helped ‘em anyway. I just like to help people anyways.” He just started advanced manufacturing and applied science classes at Jackson College, too, to have skills that meet current demands while still being able to apply his artistic side as a design engineer. Sage’s balancing act of 48hour work weeks and classes blurs his days together. Monster java energy drinks and cigarettes fuel him more than sleep, he
said. “The way I’ve rationalized keepin’ my days in order, today was, is, Thursday-into-Friday, my Monday is Monday-intoTuesday, Tuesday-into-Wednesday,” he said. “Half the time, I don’t even remember what I had for lunch. My concept of time is just way out there. Seriously, three months have gone by and I’m like, ‘where was I?’” Sage was running on one hour of sleep late Thursday night, early Friday morning. He admitted it gets hard juggling the third shift, eight hours a week of care, and classes, but said his sleep schedule has
adjusted. “I was caught in this limbo where it didn’t matter how much or how little sleep I got, I was just tired anyways,” he said. “Obviously, more than an hour, I function better, but four hours? Once I’m finally awake? That’s probably my best functioning time. Eight or nine? Too much.” He has one day over the weekend to catch up, crashing for anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. Jeff, a gruff, bearded type who began his story with a cigarette drag and grunt, piped in
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Sage Snoes frequently works the graveyard shift from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. at Wal-Mart in Jonesville. Jo Kroeker | Collegian
Weston Boardman By | Anna Timmis
What’s your go-to look? The presidential look.
Favorite place to shop? Men’s Wearhouse. What’s your biggest fashion pet peeve? Wearing black and brown. Period. Amen.
What’s the key to dressing for success in your opinion? If I look good, I feel good. If I got my ice on, I’m chillin’.
Casual or Dressy? Dressy.
Who or what are your style inspirations? I know that if I want to be the part, I have to look the part. Whatever I am trying to achieve, I have to dress up to the occasion. Also, Alex Nester inspires me to be slayful every day. Anna Timmis | Collegian
Do you have a favorite outfit or piece? Navy blue suit, blue suspenders, brown leather shoes, red and blue tie, Republican elephant cufflinks, a racehorse tie tack my grandfather gave me, and my stainless-steel Fossil watch. Weston Boardman | Courtesy