11.2.17 Hillsdale Collegian

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Michigan’s oldest college newspaper

Vol. 141 Issue 9 - November 2, 2017

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#LeafingtheDale photo competition winner

Caroline Hennekes | Courtesy

Caroline Hennekes won the Student Activities Board’s #LeafingtheDale photo contest. “This photo was taken the first morning — ­­ and my first time — of camping at Sleeping Bear Dunes. Despite the cold, getting out and hiking, breathing in fresh air, and exploring Northern Michigan’s beauty was such an incredible reminder that there is more,” she said. “That more beauty is waiting to be discovered. That creation sings with joy. That leaves and seasons change, and we grow with them. But most importantly, I was reminded to live for something bigger and outside myself, to strive to display God’s glory. It was the three worst nights of sleep, but the best days of adventure.” See B6 to read more about the Outdoor Adventures Club trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

New program certifies ’18 grads for public school teaching

By | Katherine Scheu Associate Editor Michigan public and charter schools could not hire even one graduate of Hillsdale College’s classical or early childhood education programs this past spring. That’s about to change. As Michigan education policy mandates, teachers must earn their certification from the state to work at any public or charter school. Hillsdale’s education programs do not facilitate students’ state certification as of 2009, so graduates in search of teaching jobs in Michigan look to private institutions. But the Michigan Department of Education approved a new program in August, Michigan Teachers of Tomorrow, which offers a solution to college graduates who want to teach in public institutions but lack the certification. “It is absolutely possible for a Hillsdale College graduate to

finish college in May and enter into the classroom by August as the teacher of record if they are determined to do so,” Teachers of Tomorrow Michigan Program Director Robert Brooks said in an email. Michigan Teachers of Tomorrow is an alternative certification program provider through which college graduates earn an Interim Teaching Certificate after completing more than 300 hours of online coursework, according to its website. When students emerge from traditional teacher preparation programs, like the ones Michigan State University and the University of Michigan run, the state grants them a provisional teaching certificate. Hillsdale once offered the same kind of program, but three people handled the same amount of paperwork and administrative tasks entire teams dealt with at bigger schools. When the Department of Education increased its expec-

tations, Hillsdale’s education department discontinued the program. “What Teachers of Tomorrow does is it adds another layer below the provisional, and it’s called an interim certification,” said Dan Coupland, education department chairman and dean of faculty. The interim certificate is valid for three years. Other than a shorter period of validity, no differences exist between the two certificates. “To a local school district, it doesn’t matter,” Coupland said. “All teachers need is some kind of a certification, whether it’s interim, provisional, or professional.” Michigan Teachers of Tomorrow would make a career in public education possible for any graduating senior, if the program accepts them. Although most Hillsdale students elect to pursue jobs in classical schools, Coupland said, a few consider public education.

Web developer remembered as kind, problem-solver

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started with our program,” Brooks said. “That student will be very familiar with our initial online Classroom Readiness training, and they will be able to get through that training quite quickly with that knowledge they already possess.” Hillsdale’s classical education minor bases itself in the seven classical liberal arts and the philosophy of education. Some students also complete the Liberal Arts Teacher Apprenticeship, which gives them hands-on experience in local classrooms. “Students with past experience tend to be more comfortable with the coursework and are already acclimated to a lot of the material that we will cover with them as well so everything is a smoother transition for the candidate,” Brooks said. Registrar Douglas McArthur used to serve as the college’s teacher certification officer when Hillsdale offered

the certification program. “On the positive, these programs appear to be less costly and less administratively burdensome for participants,” McArthur said. The program costs about $5,500, a price participants pay off over the course of 15 months. “On the negative, these programs don’t result in a graduate degree, as many post-baccalaureate programs from traditional colleges and universities do,” McArthur said. “Finally, programs like T of T are subject to the challenges of any new thing, and their track record of effectiveness and efficiency is still being established and evaluated.” Students interested in Michigan Teachers of Tomorrow can visit https://michigan. teachersoftomorrow.org or call 866-411-076 for more information.

Lang aids in astronomical discovery

Matthew Weber passed away Monday, Oct. 23. He is survived by his wife, Amy, and son, Jonah. Amy Weber | Courtesy

By | Jordyn Pair News Editor Matt Weber was known for fixing things. Whether he was problem solving as the senior web developer for the Hillsdale College information technology services department or simply tinkering with a broken garage door opener at home, Weber always knew how to approach a problem with patience. Matthew Weber died on Monday, Oct. 23, after a threeyear battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife, Amy, and 5-year-old son, Jonah. “He enjoyed when things didn’t go 100 percent right, and he had to think about it,” Amy Weber said. “He could take things apart and get them to work again.” Matthew Weber joined Hillsdale’s ITS in November 2010. Co-workers describe him as open, intelligent, and friendly. “He was always quick to help somebody out,” said Jim Clark, who joined ITS as a

“Most people who come to Hillsdale and graduate from Hillsdale want to be involved in the same kind of thing,” he said. “They came to Hillsdale for a liberal-arts education, so I’d imagine they want to provide that kind of education in their own classrooms, and so they go to a classical school.” To gain admission into Michigan Teachers of Tomorrow, candidates must have graduated from college with a GPA of 2.95 or higher, passed a subject-area exam relevant to the field they wish to teach, and taken any Michigan basic skills test such as the ACT or SAT, according to Brooks. The program does not require its applicants to have earned any type of degree in education, though Brooks said any prior study of education will help new teachers as they enter the classroom. “If a student completes the classical education minor at Hillsdale, that would help out the student to initially get

systems analyst in 2015. Weber was also open about his struggles with cancer, Clark said. “The last week that he came in was the best I’ve ever seen him,” Clark said. “I saw him at his best. That’s how I like to remember him.” The department was quick to rally around Weber, after his diagnosis in 2014, gathering each morning at 8 a.m. to pray in the ITS training room. “We’re open about our faith here at Hillsdale. We’re believers in Christ, and we don’t hide that,” said Kevin Maurer, the information system manager in ITS. “We were able to pray openly with him at work. We did that for years.” Faith was important to the Weber family, and they ensured Jonah attended Vacation Bible School this summer at College Baptist Church, even after Matthew Weber was too sick to attend regularly. “Matt had no doubts about where he was going,” his wife said. “There’s comfort in that.” Ben Cuthbert, the pastor at College Baptist, agreed:

“Matt was a man who trusted in Christ and wanted to be the best husband and father he could be with his days on Earth.” In addition to characteristics like problem solver and Christian, Weber proudly proclaimed another one, as well. “He was a self-proclaimed nerd,” his wife said, laughing softly. She would often buy him shirts “only fellow nerds would understand,” she added. And after seeing the ergonomic mouse he brought from home and his novelty office lighting, it was a title his co-workers applied to him, as well. “I mean, who has a Tetris lamp?” Maurer said. “You only get that stuff from nerds.” Ultimately, though, Amy Weber remembers her husband as a “good-hearted person.” “If you ask anybody’s spouse what’s special about them,” she said, “they would say everything.”

By | Brooke Conrad Assistant Editor Although the solar eclipse in August received a great deal of national attention, few people were aware of an exceedingly larger astronomical that occurred the same week. The event was the long-expected detection of a neutron star merger, announced by members of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory on Oct. 16. Assistant Professor of Physics and LIGO member Ryan Lang attended the press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Lang said it was exciting to be a part of the discovery, which one LIGO member referred to as the “holy grail of high-energy astrophysics.”

“I think I kind of teared up a little bit,” Lang said. “I was just like, ‘Wow, this is really happening.’” Many scientists, according to Lang, are calling the Aug. 17 event “one of the most significant astronomical discoveries ever,” because the collision produced light waves in addition to gravitational waves. The resulting plethora of data allows scientists to learn more about how the universe is expanding, and how some of the Earth’s heavier elements such as gold, silver, platinum, and uranium may have been formed by an ancient, nearby neutron star collision. “It literally and figuratively is a gold mine of stuff,” Lang said. “People are going to be studying this for a long time.”

Neutron stars are incredibly dense objects, containing the mass of Mount Everest in the size of a teaspoon, and range from 12 to 15 miles across. Although LIGO’s first four detections involved gravitational waves emitted from black hole collisions, scientists had expected this fifth detection for a much longer time. “People started going: ‘Well, what about the neutron stars? You always promised us neutron stars,’” Lang said. “It wasn’t inconsistent yet that we hadn’t seen any; if we had gone another 10 years and didn’t see any, then it would be. But it’s still nice to just get it in the bag.”

By | Jo Kroeker Features Editor The Hillsdale College women’s cross country team dashed to the front of the pack during the G-MAC Conference Championships, finishing in first place, jumping to eighth in national Division II rankings, and claiming two conference distinctions. “They won very handily,” said coach Andrew Towne, who won G-MAC Coach of the Year. “I know for us we felt like this was a much more accurate picture of who we are, so we’re excited for regionals,” which takes places on Saturday in Cedarville, Ohio. Of the nine members of the 14-runner team who ran at

the Oct. 21 meet in Nashville, five came in the top 11 and seven came in the top 20. The top five were senior Hannah McIntyre, second; G-MAC freshman of the year Maryssa Depies, fourth; sophomore Arena Lewis, fifth; freshman Christina Sawyer, eighth; and junior Allysen Eads, 10th. “The week leading up to it, we were all joking: ‘Oh, we’re going to destroy the G-MAC, but we all kind of knew we had a chance of winning,’” said Lewis, who beat her personal record by 25 seconds. “Our goal was to have our top five in the top 12, and we achieved it. We weren’t doubtful, but it was a scary goal and a great booster for the team overall.”

By 18 points, the women outpaced the second-place team Walsh, one of their fiercest opponents, which was ranked ninth before the meet and dropped to 10th. In the Midwest Region, the Charger women are now just behind Grand Valley State University, a former rival in the GLIAC. Although Lewis said she shot for a higher place than fifth, she said: “Anybody to lose to, two teammates is the best way to go.” Lewis predicted, according to Depies, that she would win G-MAC freshman of the year — the distinction for the top-placing freshman at the meet.

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Women’s Cross Country wins G-MAC

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News Hillsdale College among top 10 for lowest student debt www.hillsdalecollegian.com

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The school ranked sixth for schools with the lowest amount of debt per student, according to LendEDU By | Brendan Clarey Senior Writer Hillsdale College was recently named among the 10 Michigan colleges with the lowest student debt. Hillsdale ranked sixth in the comparison of colleges and universities with the lowest amount of average student debt per borrower, according to the report that came out earlier this month from LendEDU. “Hillsdale College gives the average student borrower $26,941 in student loan debt, the sixth lowest average figure in Michigan,” the report reads. “Hillsdale College’s average debt per borrower figure has experienced a year-over-year decrease of 5.92 percent.” Concordia University Ann Arbor is ranked first for lowest average debt per bor-

rower, with an average debt of $20,641, according to the report. The next four schools are University of Michigan, Kuyper College, University of Michigan-Dearborn, and Olivet College. There’s a reason why Hillsdale’s debt is lower than many Michigan colleges, according to Rich Moeggenberg, Hillsdale’s Financial Aid Director. “It certainly speaks to our commitment to fund scholarship monies, look at the budget and the average gift aid, and compare our costs to other four-year privates: our billed costs, when compared to other four year private institutions, in general, is pretty cheap,” Moeggenberg said. “We’ve made a commitment to replace federal and state fundings since 1986, and because of the generosity of friends of the college, there

is a significant amount of scholarship money we use to attract students in the form of merit-based money,” Moeggenberg continued. “We’re competitive,” Moeggenberg said. “We attract students who have strong academic backgrounds, especially in recent years. It’s not easy to get into Hillsdale anymore, and I think that assessment for merit-based monies remains very competitive. We have many students qualifying for merit-based scholarships as they matriculate.” According to the report, Michigan colleges are more

“It hurts, but it’s more manageable than most people graduating from other colleges.”

Politics, meet pavement College Republicans teaches grassroots activism

By | Nolan Ryan Collegian Reporter Hitting the pavement and talking to constituents can make or break political campaigns. But talking to voters isn’t just something for public officials. Volunteers often are involved with district campaigning, including college students. More than 15 Hillsdale College students joined in the Michigan Republican Party’s Day of Action on Oct. 14. College Republican students spent a couple of hours walking around to houses in the city of Hillsdale to take a survey about the political beliefs and concerns of the residents. Junior Ross Hatley, president of Hillsdale College Republicans, had a hand in organizing the Hillsdale Day of Action and said student volunteers knocked on over 380 doors across the entire city. “The primary focus was asking the community what they thought were pressing issues on a national level, but also on a local level,” Hatley said. “This is really what College Republicans is about. Our mission statement is ‘Create, Connect, Change’: create events to connect Hillsdale College students to the political arena to change the country. An important part of that is not just the principles we learn in class but also just reaching out to the folks that are out there.” Freshman Madeline Peltzer, who is on the board of trustees for College Republicans, said it is important for the College Republicans to stay connected with local and state

politics, especially with the voters themselves. One of the goals with the survey, she said, was to provide information to the Michigan GOP. “We are partnering with the Michigan Republican Party to try to retain control of the House and Senate, which the Democrats are trying to get a majority in,” Peltzer said. “This poll was to try and get a sense of the demographics of what the concerns are of Hillsdale County in particular.” Peltzer said the canvassing was encouraging because most people believe Michigan “is on the right track, especially economically.” Joe Weaver, Michigan GOP Regional Field Director for Southeast Michigan, was the state contact for Hillsdale’s College Republicans chapter. “Ross Hatley and I worked together to build an opportunity to boost local activism within the Hillsdale area generally and within his chapter more specifically,” Weaver said. “We also wanted to better understand community priorities as we move forward into the election cycle.” The Day of Action, Weaver said, is a benefit for local communities by creating a method for citizens to voice concerns and opinions. It also allows students the ability to make a “positive impact within their organization and the broader community,” he said. Hatley emphasized the importance of practicing politics outside of the classroom. Practicality was a big part of the Day of Action. “Being able to interact, that’s what the essence of politics is, and that’s an ingre-

expensive than most other states: “As an entire state, Michigan’s average debt per student borrower figure currently stands at $30,327,

dient you don’t necessarily get from the classroom,” he said. “District walking, beating the pavement, and putting in hours shows that you know what you believe is right, and moreover, you’re willing to do something. If we know what is right, we ought to be acting that way. District walking really is the practice of politics, on the local level especially.” Peltzer echoed some of Hatley’s thoughts on college students’ participation with off-campus issues. Being from Arizona, she said the district canvassing was good for her to begin getting an understanding of Michigan politics. “Personally, I think it’s really important as students to get out of the ‘college bubble’ sometimes,” she said. “Hillsdale is wonderful, and I love it, and I love the people and the campus, but it’s easy to get stuck in our own world and not connect with real life, real families, real issues. I think it’s really good for keeping perspective.” Weaver noted the importance for students to have an understanding of their communities concerns. “Understanding the concerns of our communities is critical for elections on all fronts and at every level,” Weaver said. “Listening, understanding and educating are all very important throughout the election cycle.” The time commitment for students was relatively light, as they spent two hours walking around the neighborhoods in Hillsdale. “Everybody was back in time for the football game,” Hatley said with a grin.

The College Republicans meet to prepare for the Day of Action. College Republicans | Facebook

which is the 11th highest figure in the entire country.” “Michigan’s average debt per borrower figure has increased 1.81 percent yearover-year,” the report continues. “Also, 64 percent of all

college graduates from the state of Michigan leave their school holding some amount of student loan debt.” And Hillsdale students are not exempt from student loans, as much as the Financial Aid office helps. Marketing major Joshua Liebhauser ’18 is going to graduate with student debt, but not as much as he would at other private institutions. “I wanted [the student loans] to be less than what I owe, but my tuition is covered by all of my grants and scholarships,” Liebhauser said. “The debt I’ve been taking on for the last year and a half has been for rent, which is unavoidable.” Liebhauser plans to get a job in marketing and pay off his debt within five or six years, but the reason he was able to attend Hillsdale was

the amount of financial aid he received. Liebhauser has three different kinds of financial aid that help him pay for college and which drew him to Hillsdale instead of of colleges like Grove City and Patrick Henry College. “It wasn’t the cheapest, though,” Liebhauser said. “I had a full-ride scholarship from a state school in Indiana.” Liebhauser understands some debt may be unavoidable but better than many other students. “It hurts, but it’s more manageable than most people graduating from other colleges,” Liebhauser said. “I was careful with my choice of major.”

Hillsdale College demolished the women’s basketball house on Union Street to make room for a new residence hall. Brittany Gray | Courtesy

More than a house Women’s basketball team moves for the new dorm By | Breana Noble Editor-in-Chief Curious about the age of her college-owned off-campus house, senior Michele Boykin and her housemates, all of whom play for the women’s basketball team, did a Google search on their small house at 262 Union St. “We found it was built in 1920, and we thought, ‘Wow, that’s cool; it’s almost 100 years old,’” Boykin said. “We were joking around that after we graduate, we would come back and throw a party for the house.” That dream came to an end this summer, however, when Hillsdale College tore down the affectionately named Vacation Home to make room for a new residence hall. The dean’s office worked with the women expecting to live in the house this academic year to find a new space to live — and accommodate their teammates. “It was the basketball house,” Boykin said. “We tried to keep it with the team so that it’s a place where we can all hang out. Our teammates were welcome at any time and would just show up all the time.” The new dorm will sit across the street from the Roche Sports Complex next to Benzing Residence. The $3.2 million project will

create 55 additional beds for upperclassman women to keep more students living on campus in anticipation of Galloway Residence renovations. The new building also will feature a coffee house and outdoor patio. The dean’s office reached out to Boykin, senior Allie Dittmer, and junior Brittany Gray about the plans to tear down the Vacation Home in early summer. The deans offered housing accommodations at 311 Hillsdale St., which the college recently acquired, Associate Dean of Women Rebekah Dell said. Located across from the Pi Beta Phi house near McIntyre Residence, the white house has earned the name the Retirement Home from its new residents. “It’s a working relationship to make sure we have the best housing available for our students,” said Dell, who added that maintenance helped move furniture and belongings from the old house into the new one. “We’re glad it was such a smooth transition.” The new basketball house is more modern and is larger than the one on Union Street, which is helpful for when the entire team comes to visit, Boykin said. The women said it was the time they spent with their teammates in the Vacation Home that made it special.

Decorated with “Still on Vacation” signs, it was the team’s getaway when games kept them on campus during breaks. Boykin said the house held many bonfires, team dinners, and movie nights, as well as a family-style Thanksgiving meal last year. “Over Christmas break, we would just come together and have two couches, lay a futon on the floor, wrap up in blankets, and watch all these movies,” Gray said. “It was great.” After keeping the Vacation Home within the basketball team for the past three years, the women said they are looking forward to creating new memories in the Retirement Home. They said they, however, do miss the proximity to the sports complex. “We’re grateful to have the house, but what was especially nice was the location,” Boykin said. “We would have to wake up at 6:15 a.m. for morning lifts, and the sports complex was right there.” Although the Vacation Home may no longer stand on campus, the women said they treasure those moments with their teammates. “I had so many great memories there,” Gray said. “I’ll always remember the cute little house at 262 Union. It’s gone but not forgotten.”

See HillsdaleCollegian.com for a gallery of Christ Chapel’s construction progress. Kayla Stetzel | Collegian

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brief: Conference to focus In Series for on West’s lastest book seniors starts By | Michael Bautista Collegian Freelancer

The Mock Trial team participated at a tournament at Case Western last month. Alex Yun | Courtesy

Mock Trial hones skill at Case Western By | Philip Berntson Collegian Reporter The Hillsdale mock trial teams participated in the 10th Annual Spartan Throwdown Invitational at Case Western University, placing 7th and 27th. Team 1106 took 7th place with a record of five wins and three losses, while Team 1107 snagged 27th with a record of two wins, five losses, and one tie. While not as strong a showing as their previous tournament, the teams squared off against some of their toughest opponents yet, including Case Western University, Eastern Michigan University, and University of Chicago. Sophomore Andrew Simpson, team captain of Team 1107, was optimistic about their future performance in tournaments. “I was very impressed to see the improvement that our freshman members have been making.” Simpson said. “We have a lot of talent on our team in regards to the public speaking abilities of

our members, and it showed.” Simpson said the team planned on making some changes and improvements before the next tournament. “There are, of course, areas that need to be worked on,” Simpson said. “We are looking to make our defense theory clearer for the judges to understand, and improve our teams’ cross-examinations. But otherwise, we are sitting in a good position for the rest of invitational season.” Sophomore Daniel Henreckson, an attorney for Team 1106, said he was happy the team could gain some crucial experience so early in the season. “The teams we faced were all of a higher caliber than almost every team we faced at the last tournament in MSU,” Henreckson said. “The point of the invitational season is to give the new members practice and to develop our case theories and performances to be the best they can be by Regionals next semester. Winning is secondary. It’s a great boost to morale and

means we’re doing something right, but it’s not the goal at this point.” Freshman Andrew Shaffer participated in Mock Trial in high school and now contributes as an attorney for Team 1106. “Our prosecution needs some improvement,” Shaffer said. “We are going to try to make it flashier: more demonstratives, timelines, and things to show to the judges. As of now, we are just kind of talking. It looks a lot better if you’re able to put it in front the their faces.” The team will be heading to University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne for another tournament this month. Shaffer has high hopes for the rest of the invitational. “It’s a little disappointing not to place within the top three, but I thought that the teams we faced at this tournament were a lot better,” Shaffer said. “The experience we got from that is going to be a lot more helpful moving forward in the season.”

Debaters qualify for finals By | Rowan Mcowan Collegian Reporter Sophomore Hannah Johnson and freshman TJ Wilson made debate finals at Clarion University in Pennsylvania on Oct. 21-22. Johnson won second place debater and debate speaker in the open division, facing a debater from Central Michigan University in the final round. Johnson argued against Supreme Court decision Utah v. Strieff, which allows illegally obtained evidence to be used in court. The current decision opens the door for police to erase their Fourth Amendment violations, Johnson said. Wilson won second place debater and first place debate speaker in the novice division. He proposed police be required to obtain approval from their local governments and communities to obtain military surplus weapons. Johnson and Wilson both

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Members of the debate team made finals at Clario University. Andrew Dykstal | Courtesy

went undefeated in preliminary rounds. Sophomore Henrey Deese won fourth place debater and freshman Jadon Buzzard won fifth place debater in the open division. In the novice division, freshman Carl Miller won third debater and second speaker, freshman Dan Grifferty won fourth debater and third speaker, and freshman Justin Politzer won fifth debater and fifth speaker. Johnson defeated her final round opponent in a preliminary round where she had to

defend the president’s power to pardon people. Buzzard faced an opponent who argued that the federal government should abolish all police in the United States. Deese said the team bonded a lot during the competition. “We just had a great time,” Deese said. “We spent a lot of time together since the tournament was short on both days. Nobody slept on either of the van rides because we were just talking the entire time.”

the purposes stated in those principles: “to secure these rights,” as the Declaration of

Professor of Politics Thomas West’s new book has propelled him to the status of “the nation’s foremost expert” on the American founding, according to scholarly reviewers of his work. The book, “The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom,” was The conference will focus on Professor released in May. of Politics Thomas West’s newest book. Hillsdale Amazon College will host a conference Nov. 3 and 4 Independence puts it. sponsored by the Van Andel West said he has been Graduate School of Statesworking on his book since manship featuring West, as 1983, when he first began to well as three panels covering take the political theory of topics such as natural rights, the founding seriously. He bethe Founders’ views on came certain that he wanted marriage and the family, and to write “The Political Thethe Founders on markets and ory” by the later 1980s and regulations. The conference started to write full chapters will begin with the keynote by the 2000s. address by West in the Searle The organizer of the Center at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 3 conference, Ronald Pestritto, and continue in Lane with the expressed great admiration panel discussions the followfor West’s work and accoming day. plishments. Conference participants in“Dr. West is one of the clude scholars from Louisiana leading scholars of the AmerState University, the Howard ican founding in our time,” Center for Family, Religion, he said. “The book is meticand Society, the University ulously researched and is an of Notre Dame, the Liberty incredibly impressive achieveFund, as well as members of ment — one that will garner the Hillsdale faculty. the respect of West’s allies and West is the Paul Ermine critics alike.” Potter and Dawn Tibbetts Those reviewing West’s Potter Professor of Politics at book were effusive in their Hillsdale College, and teaches praise of his work. Professor American government and Luigi Bradizza of Salve Regina Political Philosophy. He said University was particularly his goal for writing his book complimentative, saying that was twofold. “if conservatives come to “The basic point of the accept West’s key argument book is to give an overview connecting natural right and of the basic principles of the virtue, he might succeed in founding and their meaning, bringing about an intellectual like natural rights, consent of reconfiguration on the Right.” the governing, state of nature, Pestritto’s goals for the conamong others,” he said. ference are to have a benefiWest said he feels his work cial promotion and discussion separates the correct views of the important issues raised from the incorrect in the curin the book. He also hopes rent scholarly community. to foster an appreciation of “This book is really directWest’s book outside of the ed towards scholars and takes Hillsdale community, as well on all the major voices of the as encourage conversation scholarly community who among Hillsdale faculty have something important to who have interest in the U.S. say about the founders,” West Founding. said. “I go through all the West believes that the areas where I think they get topics covered in his book it right and the areas where I should be important to all don’t think they get it right.” Americans, saying that the He said his second purAmerican Founding turned pose for writing the book is “western civilization into a to show what public policy truly novus ordo seclorum — and laws had to be adopted in a new order for the ages.” order for government to fulfill

Professor wins grant to hold philosophy reading group By | Jo Kroeker Features Editor Hillsdale College is one of 25 colleges and universities to receive a $3,000, privately-funded grant for Christian philosophy education. Interested students, faculty, and residents can attend a reading group on Christian analytic philosopher Alvin Plantinga, where they will read his seminal book, “Warranted Christian Belief.” Students who want to receive credit for the once-a-week class can register for it as a Collegiate Scholars Program seminar. The grant buys up to 30 books, funds travel expenses for speakers, and provides food and drink. Plantinga received the Templeton Prize, a $1.4 million award granted to living people who have made contributions to life’s spiritual dimension, according to the

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group’s website. In honor of this award, the John Templeton Foundation awarded the Society of Christian Philosophers, of which Plantinga was a founding member, $88,000 — enough for 25 grants. Past recipients represent an intersection of faiths and include activists, monks, and academic philosophers. “In many ways, Plantinga is someone people point to as making it possible to have the renaissance in Christian philosophy we’re enjoying right now,” assistant professor of philosophy Ian Church said. “It really is an exciting time to be doing philosophy from a Christian perspective — there’s a lot of energy, a lot of activity going on that’s in part due to figures like Plantinga.” SCP is charged with administering this reading group part because Plantinga taught at Calvin College and was an integral part of the philosophy

Election drama continues over Russian involvement Investigation into Russia’s handling in the 2016 election continues. Paul Manafort, a former Trump campaign manager who was taken into custody Monday, was charged with laundering more than $18 million in work funds for a pro-Russia party in Ukraine -Compiled by Josephine von Dohlen with offshore accounts.

things to know from this week

department, SCP department assistant Phoebe Landrum said. “This was just a way the Templeton Foundation decided to honor him,” Landrum said. The SCP required each applying school have a host, a space to meet, the philosophy department chair’s signature, and a guarantee that at least 50 percent of the reading material would be Plantinga’s. At the SCP’s next fall conference, members will evaluate the success of the groups based on how grants were allocated and on student testimonies of the group and exploration of Plantinga’s research. This is not the first time Hillsdale has felt Plantinga’s influence, however: the philosopher himself spoke at the college a couple of times, philosophy chairman Thomas Burke said in an email. Burke wrote his second dis-

FBI to release JFK assasination documents All FBI files about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy will be released in the coming weeks. All documents were not released last week because, according to the White House, the FBI and CIA was still working to reexamine some remaining files.

sertation on Plantinga’s epistemology. He said Plantinga has developed the most thorough and convincing responses to the problem of evil, the most common argument against God’s existence. “Students who take this course will discover that analytic philosophy provides extremely powerful tools with which to defend traditional philosophical and theological beliefs,” Burke said. Through contemporary philosophy, he added, students can explore and develop traditional views of God, man, and salvation, strengthen their faith, and give powerful rational responses to arguments against traditional faith. This was not always the case, according to Church. He said early 20th century philosophy was extremely hostile to Christianity, forcing many faithful philosophers to go underground or work at

Eight dead after terrorist attack in NYC on Tuesday On Tuesday, a man drove 20 blocks down a bike path in Lower Manhattan, killing at least eight and injuring 12. Federal authorities are investigating a potential terrorist attack. The mayor of New York has called the event an “act of terror,” in a news conference.

Christian colleges. The “death” of logical positivism, however, opened up the possibility for Christian philosophers like Plantinga to make the case for why Christian belief might be warranted and justified. Plantinga’s approach is careful and methodological, even “boringly thorough,” Church said, borrowing how Plantinga self-described his style, much like Church’s own approach. Although Church spent part of his doctoral thesis arguing why Plantinga’s definition of knowledge is wrong, he said he still likes the philosopher’s general picture. “I resist having anyone that’s sort of too much my philosophical hero — I resist sort of hero-worship positions — but if anyone is someone I look to and admire the most, it’s mostly likely someone like Plantinga,” Church said.

Detroit firefighters squelch flames on Halloween night Detroit firefighters put out 21 fires on Halloween eve, almost three times the nightly average, which is eight. The Detroit News reported of the 21 fires Monday, 13 were houses or garages set in flames, with the others mostly trash or car fires.

By | Joel Meng Collegian Reporter

Seniors looking to work on their digital appeal can head to Rough Draft on Nov. 2 for advice on how to look their best on the internet. “We want to teach students how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and related platforms,” Assistant Director of Career Services Sophia Donohoe said. Career Services decided to start this series as the senior class each year typically needs assistance with employment, as well as in other aspects. Seniors are encouraged to pre-register on Handshake for the event, although it is not required. Doors open at 8:30 p.m., and attendees can purchase their first drink at half-price. Donohoe said many potential employers review the web presence of prospective employees, and photos of drunkenness or drug use can hurt one’s ability to get a job. She said social media is a valuable tool for finding jobs, based on her experience with her first internship, which she found on Facebook. This event is the first in a series directed toward helping seniors prepare for life after Hillsdale. Upcoming events focus on interview tips, financial soundness, and what people wish they knew before graduation. “Career services decided to start this series as the senior class each year typically needs assistance with employment, as well as in other aspects,” senior and career services employee Maria Theisen said in an email. “For example, current juniors or underclassmen are not yet concerned with how to budget once graduating, but the seniors very likely are.”

Governor to visit campus By | Katarzyna Ignatik Collegian Reporter

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts will speak at Hillsdale on Nov. 6 on “Taming the Leviathan: Reducing the Size and Scope of Government.” The Omicron Delta Kappa leadership honorary and the President’s Office organized the 12pm luncheon lecture, which will take place in the Searle Center. Students were asked to RSVP for the talk and subsequent luncheon by October 27. President of ODK senior Michael Lucchese, said the idea occurred to him while he was visiting friends in Nebraska. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a sitting U.S. governor on campus,” Lucchese said. Hillsdale alumnus Taylor Gage ‘10, who was a member of ODK during his Hillsdale years, is the director of strategic communications for the governor and suggested the visit to Lucchese. “Gov. Ricketts is a leader in an actual community,” Lucchese said of Gage’s reasons for recommending the visit. “He is sympathetic to Hillsdale’s mission, though he’s never been here. And, we have lots of students from Nebraska.” Freshman Patrick Winter comes from Nebraska and will be meeting with Gov. Ricketts during the visit. “While I’m nervous about the meet-and-greet, I’m glad that Gov. Ricketts is supportive of the Nebraska clan,” Winter said. Lucchese said that in addition to talking about government size, Gov. Ricketts will also speak to leadership in the state government and his experience in the business world prior to politics.

Netflix cancels ‘House of Card’ after Spacey scandal Netflix announced Monday the show will end following the upcoming sixth season following scandals surrounding Kevin Spacey, one of the show’s lead actors. The show was Netflix’s first original series and premiered in 2013, paving the way for the popularity of streaming TV shows.


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Consider Hillsdale’s direction when voting for mayor The opinion of The Collegian editorial staff

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Online: www.hillsdalecollegian.com Editor-in-Chief | Breana Noble Associate and Design Editor | Katherine Scheu News Editor | Jordyn Pair City News Editor | Kaylee McGhee Opinions Editor | Joshua J. Paladino Sports Editor | Stevan Bennett Jr. Culture Editor | Madeline Fry Science & Tech Editor | Madeleine Jepsen Features Editor | Jo Kroeker Web Editor | Chandler Lasch Web Manager | Kolbe Conger Photo Editor | Matthew Kendrick Senior Writers | Brendan Clarey | Michael Lucchese | Hannah Niemeier | Joe Pappalardo Circulation Managers | Finnegan Cleary Ad Managers | Danny Drummond | Matthew Montgomery Assistant Editors | Nicole Ault | Brooke Conrad | Josephine von Dohlen | S. Nathaniel Grime | Scott McClallen | Mark Naida | Nic Rowan | Crystal Schupbach | Anna Timmis 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 jpaladino@hilldale.edu before Saturday at 3 p.m.

Students require freedom of speech to properly learn

Hillsdale residents will decide whether to keep Mayor Scott Sessions or replace him with City Councilman Adam Stockford on Tuesday. Voters should ask themselves three key questions: Has the City of Hillsdale seen improvement under the mayor’s leadership? Is there a plan in place that addresses citizens’ concerns and aids the city’s growth? And could the challenger do better at raising the standard of living in Hillsdale? The first question can be answered in part by looking at the city’s economic growth. More than 58 small businesses have opened in Hillsdale within the past five years, many of which were funded through federal grants. Not all have stayed open, but some — like

Handmade Sandwiches and Beverages and Rough Draft Coffee and Cocktails — are still thriving. Both candidates are in favor of using federal grants such as those from theTax Increment Finance Authority. This is a slippery slope, however, for businesses that often find it hard to maintain foot traffic — when the federal funding runs out, they are hard-pressed to stay open. The drug epidemic must also be addressed. The majority of patients Hillsdale Hospital sees on a daily basis have methamphetamine or opioid-related issues, according to Shirley Curtis, emergency department manager at Hillsdale Hospital. The city has seen more than four heroin-related deaths in the past two years,

and statistically, the problem appears to be getting worse. Residents are right to expect the leadership to provide a safer and better community — tackling this problem needs to be a priority. In regards to the second question: No mayor could have solved all of Hillsdale’s problems in four years. But a coherent, effective plan to give Hillsdale a brighter future is vital, and the mayor needs to be at its head. Many residents continue to vocalize concerns about issues that affect their day-to-day lives, such as deteriorating roads and job availability. The mayor needs to take an active role in listening to these concerns, and then act on them. To answer the third ques-

tion, the quality of life in Hillsdale is far from what it should be. The city’s poverty rate is dismal, with 37.5 percent of residents living below the poverty level — compared to the state’s 20.2 percent, according to the State of Michigan. Both candidates have shown an emphatic desire to fix this, but residents must decide who is better suited to lead the charge. The City of Hillsdale is in need of strong and effective leadership. On Tuesday, residents have the opportunity to elect a mayor that will provide this. If Hillsdale’s growth is to continue, citizens from every corner of the city must pull together and make it happen.

Ideals and vocation aren’t the same thing By | Mark Naida Assistant Editor When I decided to work and live on a communal farm that produces organic vegetables in the summer of 2016, I anticipated finding my vocation in a state of pastoral bliss. Instead, I found humility. I will be honest, the decision to move to the farm was fueled by reading a lot of agrarian literature and idealism. At the time I was telling people that I was going to go be a farmer after graduation and that my degree didn’t matter. I looked down on my family and friends who used smartphones. I went to escape, to get a slice of the good life. The past semester I had entrenched myself in Wendell Berry and Blake’s pastoral poetry. They promised freedom through hard work and a relationship with nature. They said everything I wanted to hear as I struggled against the distractions of having a phone, a laptop, a television. I had decided to turn against the modern world and live my life out in the open, in freedom.

way for the SPLC to tarnish By | Razi Lane Special to The Collegian the organization’s reputation without addressing its arguWe human beings are pements for religious freedom. culiar creatures. Modern language is used as a In addition to reason, scythe against political dissenreflection, and contemplation rather than as a medium tion, we have been blessed for productive debate. with the ability to deliberate A similar phenomenon is through language. Conversadescribed by George Orwell tions form friendships, settle in “1984.” Orwell described disputes, and from them the a fictional world governed liberal arts spring to life. by “newspeak,” a language Hillsdale College students are devised by the English Socialbenefactors of an academic ist, or “Ingsoc,” Party, which environment that champions predisposed its speakers to intellectual liberty to pursue the party’s ideology. In the truth both within and beyond book’s “Appendix on Newthe classroom. Our campus speak,” Orwell explained that rightly affirms that freedom of “the purpose of Newspeak speech and academic freedom was not only to provide a are inextricably wed. medium of expression for the Unlike Hillsdale College, worldview and mental habits other institutions are plagued proper to the devotees of by an insidious doctrine of Ingsoc but to make all other political correctness that modes of thought impossicurtails robust conversation. ble…a thought diverging from In an environment rife with the principles of Newspeak trigger warnings and safe should be unthinkable.” Partispaces, our peers find themsan activists have adopted this By | Cal Abbo selves corralled into ideologexact thesis in the real world ical submission. Rather than under the guise of political Special to The Collegian be exposed to intellectual correctness, a doctrine that The Asian cold war conflict challenge, they are coddled exhorts thinkers to operate originally escalated from two in their own beliefs, steeped from supposedly unquestiondiametrically opposed idein dogma, and unwilling to able political premises such as ologies. A division between entertain other perspectives. “white privilege.” the communist north and Just last year, the Guardian The lesson? He who masthe democratic south primed reported that Yale University ters language also masters the country for civil war. As students started a petition to politics. As a facilitator of casualties eclipsed million abolish a core course requirecordial deliberation, rhetoric after million and up to 30 perment that showcased canonis a blessing; when employed cent of the north’s population ical writers such as Chaucer to quash dissention, however, was slaughtered, a profoundly and Shakespeare. Petitioners it becomes a curse. While deep anti-American sentisubmitted that “it is unaclanguage will not be recapment festered. No, this isn’t ceptable that a Yale student tured overnight, free speech considering studying English advocates should be cognizant Vietnam: it’s North Korea. The historical context of literature might read only of the political strategy that any foreign policy issue is white male authors.” Beyond drives the censorship they critical. Understanding that the freedom of students to condemn. the Korean war still plays a explore the work of other Winning the battle for free vital role in North Korea’s authors on their own time, speech requires more than foreign policy to this day is the petition exacerbated the popular petitions and articcrucial to understanding their already popular notion that ulate conservative speakers concerns. It doesn’t help that academic freedom ends where on college campuses. Conserthe Korean war — dubbed the our feelings begin. vatives across America must “Forgotten War” for good reaThe petition, among an artackle not only their opposon — has largely lapsed from ray of speaker protests across nents’ rhetorical claims but the United States’ historical America, finds its justification also challenge the warrants record. For context, with an in language. Certain words — upon which such claims rely. astonishingly similar popuracist, homophobe, sexist, hatI am proud to say that, at lation size, about six times as er, among others — carry con- Hillsdale College, one need notations that rally protesters many North Koreans were not look beyond dormitories in ways mere name-calling and common areas to see that killed in the Korean War than never could. Because such in the confederacy during our this refreshing method of terms rightfully apply to only reasoning is alive and well. We civil war — over 2 million a sliver of America’s populashould be grateful for the free- people. Though the southern tion, their identification with dom to explore the liberal arts American states have largely conservative organizations is forgiven, North Koreans in pursuit of truth, unfettered both misdirected and slander- by political correctness. haven’t forgotten the conflict ous. as easily. Freedom to engage disThe Southern Poverty Law parate views contributes to a The Korean war, along Center, a progressive legal holistic academic experience with the millions of civilian group, routinely employs this where concepts learned in the deaths for which the United strategy to indict reputable classroom are fortified, debat- States is largely responsible, institutions such as Alliance ed, and mastered. Informed has created a cliché but relDefending Freedom, a socially discussions are laboratories evant attitude of anti-Amerconservative legal organiof learning that merit our icanism.State news often zation with more than 50 participation. Next time attacks U.S. imperialism and victories in the United States you visit the college’s dining dominance worldwide. Supreme Court. hall, introduce yourself and This perspective has culADF’s triumphs include the politely ask to join a table. The minated in a policy labeled landmark Trinity Lutheran conversation might be more ‘deterrence’ — that is, an case in which the Supreme rewarding than you think. exclusively defensive effort Court ruled 7-2 that it is to resist U.S. influence. After unconstitutional for any state Razi Lane is a senior study- assuming this vantage point, to cite religious affiliation for ing Politics and History. He North Korean foreign policy denial of funds to a charter serves as Senior Class Presiis not only coherent, calcuschool. Branding ADF as a dent. lable, and justified, but most “hate group” is a convenient importantly, it emerges with

Then the grueling labor began. We worked from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. each Monday through Friday with an hour break for lunch. At first light, we harvested arugula, asparagus, lettuces, carrots, watermelons - all the good stuff. Later in the day, we hoed between tomato plants strung on trellises in blisteringly hot greenhouses. The tomato plants stained my forearms as dark as my sweat-soaked shirt. But most of the afternoons were spent bent over weeding rows of vegetables. My hamstrings tightened into knots from all the stress. My back ached each morning. But then I got used to it. It was just the cost of a dream. Wednesdays and Saturdays were market days. On those hallowed days of respite we worked from 3 a.m. loading the truck to 4 p.m. unloading. But in the middle was a foray into Ann Arbor where we ate gigantic sandwiches at Zingerman’s Deli for our weekly taste of meat. The more I got to know my coworkers who were slightly strung out on all kinds of substances (LSD, Marjuana,

Opium, Mushrooms were all players) at different times, I realized that they weren’t there for a quaint agricultural lifestyle. They went to find peace, maybe, but they mainly wanted a job and free lodging. Many had been incarcerated and more than a few had money troubles. Don’t get me wrong. These are great people. They welcomed a poetry-loving idealist with open arms and let me listen to Snoop Dogg’s “doggystyle” on repeat as we washed lettuce and root vegetables. But I realized that I had a different life path than them. I had to confront my ideals of a peaceful, agricultural life. My coworkers were living on the farm because it was a decent job. The communal cooking offered the best food any of us had ever eaten, the work kept us in shape, and the nights felt truly restful. But bent over a bed of carrots, I realized that I had something other than food to give the world. My room was actually a partially exposed porch with a stained mattress on the floor and a faux-velvet reading chair in the corner.

As dusk fell, I retreated to my room to read and fill my soul. I constantly craved time to read and write but it always seemed that the setting sun was setting on me. I was fighting time. The work took too much time. Some nights I would stay up reading until 1 or 2 a.m. and I would regret it profoundly the next day. Talent and circumstance often force you to change your ambitions. When I returned to campus after my summer of physical labor and regained the time to read and write and ponder, I felt fulfilled and appreciative of the gifts I have been given. Working on the farm helped me to find a new vocation, but only by showing me that it was not agriculture. I will never regret those hard days bent over vegetable beds and guzzling water from a hose in the sunshine. That summer was formative, part of my past that leads ever into the future. Mark Naida is a senior studying English and French.

American ignorance provokes North Korea precedent. World War II delivered a gift to many smaller countries employing a deterrence strategy against the United States: the nuclear weapon. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld described the effectiveness of deterrence in a 2001 memo. “Universally available WMD technologies can be used to create ‘asymmetric’ responses that cannot defeat our forces, but can deny access to critical areas in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.” He continued, explaining that “‘asymmetric’ approaches can limit our ability to apply military power.”

North Korea state media specifically invoked Iraq and Libya as historical rationalizations for their consistent pursuit of a nuclear weapon. “The Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq and the Gaddafi regime in Libya could not escape the fate of destruction after being deprived of their foundations for nuclear development and giving up nuclear programs of their own accord,” Korean Central News Agency, the official state media, said. Once the two countries abandoned their WMDs or nuclear programs, KCNA asserts, the United States swiftly administered

North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un is defending himself from U.S. regime change. Wikimedia Commons

Current Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats wrote in a 2008 op-ed that “An Islamic Republic of Iran with nuclear weapons capability would be strategically untenable,” citing its increased capacity for deterrence if Iran became a nuclear power. Rumsfeld and Coats both outline the tactical perks for smaller countries that promt them to acquire some sort of WMD. One only needs to look to North Korea itself to understand their angle. After a nuclear test in January 2016,

regime change. Following the logic, North Korea believes the same principle applies to them, but this time there won’t be another victim of U.S. regime change. Lack of context from the media isn’t helping either. The 83 U.S. military bases and 28,500 troops in South Korea ought to aggravate its northern counterpart alone, but the continuation of joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises along the demilitarized zone is also provoking the dictatorial nation. U.S. and South Korean military

bombers fly across the Korean peninsula, threatening to turn north at any time and commence a bombing campaign. Often, North Korean missile tests and ‘threats’ occur as a direct result of U.S. aggression, but news media outlets fail to mentions it. Amid this turmoil, North Korea still pursues a peaceful option. North Korea regularly offers the U.S. and South Korea a proposal involving a cessation of their nuclear program in return for ending military operations along their border. The Telegraph reported on March 9 that “Washington has rejected China’s proposal that North Korea could halt its nuclear weapons program if the U.S. and South Korea suspend military activities in the region.” It’s not just Trump either. The Guardian reported Obama saying on April 24, 2016 that “he does not believe North Korea is sincere in its offer to halt nuclear tests if the U.S. suspends military exercises with South Korea.” These diplomatic efforts seriously undermine the narrative that Kim Jong Un is a madman aspiring to obliterate the United States. Considering all of the international sanctions placed on North Korea, their failed attempts at industrialization and frequent famines aren’t surprising. It’s astonishing, though, that they still seek to work with the United States. Americans, especially those in control of the military, should aim to comprehend North Korean concerns instead of dismissing it as a crazy, power-hungry regime. They should take the perfectly sane, rational, and predictable Kim seriously. Cal Abbo is a freshman studying the liberal arts.


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Who cares about an Oxford Comma? You should. By | Nicole Ault Assistant Editor The City of Hillsdale is so anxious for innovation, it can’t pause for a comma. To complement a new logo, the city is considering a few taglines, including: “Where Tradition, Education and Innovation Thrive.” But if Hillsdale really stands by those values, it should insert the Oxford comma after “education.” The Oxford (or serial) comma precedes the conjunction in a series of terms or phrases — it’s the one after “tigers” in “lions, tigers, and bears.” So named because of its traditional use by the Oxford University Press, the Oxford comma finds support in such grammar heavyweights as “The Chicago Manual of Style”, “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk and E.B. White, and the U.S. Govern-

ment Printing Office style guide. Its opponents include style books of the Associated Press and the New York Times. Those against the comma claim it’s pretentious. It’s clunky. It takes up space and ink and the time it takes to stroke a key. But most style guides argue that the Oxford comma dispels ambiguity. Erasing the Oxford comma can wreak havoc. You can confuse people (“I met two guys, Jane and Sue”), defame people (“I like weirdos, George Washington and Lincoln”), or even commit heresy (“This book is dedicated to my parents, God and Oprah”). Adding a comma makes all the difference. You can also lose a $10 million lawsuit. Last March, truckers sued a dairy company over a contract clause specifying what was exempt

from overtime pay: “the canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of [food products].” Finding no Oxford comma after “shipment,” the truckers argued the clause said they were exempt from packing for distribution, not distribution itself. They won the case, and the dairy company knew the supreme value of the Oxford comma. The lack of an Oxford comma in the Hillsdale tagline probably won’t stir up a lawsuit, and in the case of Hillsdale’s tagline, it doesn’t actually make a difference in meaning. Why not save the ink and space and throw it out? Because meaning isn’t just a technical thing — it’s conveyed in rhythm and flow, too. Grammar is a matter of aesthetics and common sense,

and the Oxford comma keeps it that way. Recent research has explored an increasingly evident connection between grammar and rhythm: People who are sensitive to one are sensitive to the other. A study by a developmental research center at Vanderbilt University found that children who can distinguish musical rhythm are better at grammar. The connection makes sense. Grammar rules aren’t just there for rules’ sake. They create rhythm and that contributes to meaning. Commas make us pause. Dashes make us pause — longer. The pauses convey emphasis and importance. “The ‘rules’ of grammar aren’t rules at all. They’re creative tools for organising and presenting our thoughts, for giving structure to what we mean and giving meaning to the form. You can hear

them, feel them, just like the beat in a song,” writes Saga Briggs, managing editor for an education blog. Read “Tradition, Education and Innovation,” and tradition bears the weight of importance, as if education and innovation must join forces to reach its level. Read “Tradition, Education, and Innovation,” and the importance is evenly distributed. What are we trying to say? The Oxford comma is a breath, a clarifier, and a rhythm maker. In a world where text messages murder punctuation and vowels, it’s a taste of elegance and a nod to tradition. In a culture of breathless activity and impatience, it makes us pause. And, with rhythm, it conveys subtle meaning. Maybe the eagerness to drop the comma comes from a hunger for minimalism, efficiency, and speed common

to our modern culture that we should avoid. In any case, most people would prefer to keep it. A poll by the website FiveThirtyEight found that most Americans — 57 percent — prefer the use of the Oxford comma. Among 18-to-29year-olds, support soared to 79 percent. The City of Hillsdale’s median age, according to 2015 data, is 27.2. And that’s not counting the 1,500 college students who flood the town every year. It’s just a guess, but their nerdy love for grammar and all things Oxford is probably above average. If Hillsdale is about tradition, education, and innovation — and the people — it should stick to this age-old mark of rhythm, sense, and clarity. Nicole Ault is a junior studying economics.

Christians, whether Catholic Schools need year-round calendar or Protestant, should not celebrate the Reformation Orthodox Church. At the By | Regan Meyer Special to The Collegian meeting, the Pope formally The event commonly known as the Protestant Reformation was not a reformation. To reform something is to change or fix problems and abuses. A revolt, on the other hand, is to separate oneself from an institution or to renounce allegiance. Martin Luther aimed to reform the abuses and corruptions in the Catholic Church, of which there were many. Luther instead sparked a revolt that splintered the Christian Church. Regardless of theological views, Christians should view the protestant revolt as a great tragedy in world history. Protestants should not celebrate it as a joyous or hallowed event. Instead Christians should denounce it and treat it with a seriousness that becomes its history. Even if people view the Reformation as a necessary event, they should still treat the Reformation as a tragedy. In 1054, the Great Schism divided the Church into the East and West or Roman Catholic and Orthodox. The Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Church, however, do not celebrate this day as a victory of theological debate. Rather, both churches express sorrow and regret concerning the divisions of the Church. In 2001, Pope John Paul II met Archbishop Christodoulos, the head of the Greek

apologized to the Archbishop for all the violent acts committed against Eastern Christians by Western Christians. The religious leaders also released a joint declaration saying, “We shall do everything in our power, so that the Christian roots of Europe and its Christian soul may be preserved. We condemn all recourse to violence, proselytism and fanaticism, in the name of religion.” Those celebrating Reformation Day should take notes from the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Church. A schism between believers is not to be celebrated. The unity of the Christian Church is vital, now more than ever. Instead of celebrating the small differences that keep us apart, we should observe the key similarities that all Christians possess. The events that followed the nailing of the 95 theses to the Wittenburg door are nothing short of catastrophic. The amount of Christian on Christian violence is appalling. From the Slaughter of the Huguenots in 1572 to the Thirty Years War in 1618, Protestants and Catholics alike faced persecution and death at the hand of their brothers in Christ. The violence continued into the modern age. Christian on Christian violence plagued Northern Ireland

Regan Meyer is a freshman studying the liberal arts.

By | Joshua J. Paladino Opinions Editor Students returning from Fall Break don’t feel rested. Most are already asking how many weeks they have until Thanksgiving Break. A four-day weekend isn’t enough time to decompress — and forget about enjoying quality time with family or catching up with school work. Rushed breaks are a stress in themselves. Schools need to break from the calendar with long summer vacations, so that students have more frequent, shorter breaks that will provide stress-free rest and improve education. An urban legend says summer vacation comes from the agrarian calendar, so that students could help on the family farm. But the majority of farm work occurs during planting and harvesting, which happen when school is in session. Farmers didn’t take the summer off, but their workload was slightly reduced. Schools in farming communities often have their longest breaks during the spring and fall, but they continue during the summer. Summer vacation truly began in the city in the late 1800s. It started because upper-middle-class families went on vacations, unlike the vacations we take today, to escape the blistering heat of summer and the air-conditioner-free classrooms that made the weather even less bearable. For many in the 19th and 20th century, vacations meant moving to a cooler climate for the entire summer. In the United States this led to the 10-week, or longer,

of day-to-day life can distract us to think of it as nothing more than the shortest path between the doors of Kendall and Lane halls. If efficiency is our goal, then there is nothing wrong with that, but perhaps our actions should be guided by more than valueless considerations. The word sacred comes from the Latin sacrare which means to consecrate, immortalize, to set apart. A sacred space is one that is set apart to honor and bring reverence to

something or someone. Hillsdale College is building Christ Chapel as a place set apart to honor and worship God. The Civil War monument was built to the “memory of our heroic dead who fell in defense of the Union.” This is a sacred space. A space that has been set apart to bring honor and reverence to individuals whose selfless actions have made them worthy of deep respect. Among those memorialized there are three generals, three colonels, five lieutenant

colonels, three Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, and hundreds of students from our own college whose actions helped save the Union. The Taft statue and its surrounding area is a space that should be set apart. As such, it should not be used for mundane reasons, nor for any other reason than that for which it was intended except in extraordinary circumstances. Shaving a few seconds off one’s walk from class does not qualify as an extraordinary

circumstance. Perhaps this is much ado about nothing, but in our culture, which increasingly replaces objective value with efficiency, Gen. Kelly’s call to the nation to save the last vestiges of sacredness rings true. Honoring dead American soldiers is important, perhaps we should err on the side of it being more than nothing.

control while shooting films with gun violence. Trump has taken on two of the biggest sports industries — the NBA and the NFL — with strength. When the Golden State Warriors and NBA player Stephen Curry hesitated at the opportunity to visit the White House, Trump immediately revoked their invitation. He doesn’t need them. Lebron James criticized Trump voters, saying “At the end of the day, I don’t think a lot of people was educated.” James’ struggles with simple subject-verb agreement aside, the great irony is that James completed only a high school education. The irony is stunning. Jeffrey Goldberg, The Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, tweeted “The President of

the United States is now in a war with Stephen Curry and LeBron James. This is not a war Trump will win.” Perhaps Goldberg forgets that Lebron James campaigned extensively for Hillary in Ohio, a state which Trump went on to win by about 9 points (after Ohio went blue in both 2008 and 2012). It appears to be a battle Trump can actually win. When Mike Pence walked out of an Indianapolis Colts game after players knelt for the National Anthem, his actions were criticized as a political stunt. But the entire concept of kneeling was a political stunt from the start. The difference is that now the other side is fighting back. After all, anthem protests are wildly unpopular with flyover-state Americans — by

far the biggest source of NFL revenue. Why shouldn’t Pence leave on behalf of the silent majority? After consecutive weeks of massive ratings drops and financial losses in advertising, not to mention the humiliation of Pence’s walkout, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote a letter asking all players to stand for the anthem. This is how you fight a culture war. Can anyone imagine Jeb Bush or John Kasich taking on the NFL? Any quick glance at nflarrest. com is enough to show that these paid athletes are not paradigms of virtue. They are not role models It turns out our elites are some of our worst. Enough of their sanctimony. Enough of their repeated show of disgust for everyday Ameri-

cans, believing themselves to be our moral and intellectual superiors. They are neither. They ought not be respected because they are not respectable. They ought not be honored because they are not honorable. Donald Trump is showing us how to fight back in a culture war, and how to win. He has undermined their unholy priesthood and rebuked their condescension. He has toppled the sacred cow of a group whose hubris knows no bounds. Their ostentatious displays are quickly becoming impotent. If they want to act and play sports, that’s fine. But they need to stick to that.

throughout the twentieth century. It’s useless to point fingers and make claims about who’s to blame for the Reformation. The reality is Catholics and Protestants alike are responsible for the violence that befell Europe after 1517. It doesn’t matter whether Christians believe they are right about baptism or eschatology or predestination, etc. Instead of being a reformation in which peaceful dialogue and debate led to changes, it became a revolt and a bloody one at that. Regardless of your theology, the date October 31, 1517 should be marked with sorrow, regret, and reflection. Christianity is meant to be unified. When Jesus said, “I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church”, he said “church” not “churches.” If Christianity was still one, then as a united force, what could be accomplished? Imagine the estimated 2.2 billion Christians all united, all together. Imagine if we weren’t all preoccupied with debating paedo and credo baptism or eschatology or predestination. The good that would flow from a unified Christian Church would change the world. But Christians live in house divided, and, as told by Mark 3:25, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”

summer vacation. American students have the longest summer breaks in the developed world. European countries take about six to eight weeks for summer vacation. Some say students need summer break so they can vacation with their families, as families did 100 years ago. But very few families need, or want, 10 weeks together. A six-week summer break would allow families to go on vacation (although I’ve never met a family that spends more than two weeks away from home). It would also prevent the wasteful side-effects of summer break. Low-income students lose, on average, two months of reading comprehension skills and one month of math skills over the traditional summer vacation, according to a Johns Hopkins study. Their middle-class counterparts, by comparison, make small gains. By the time low-income children graduate elementary school, they have lost up to two years of education. Teachers have to devote their precious time to reteaching because of summer learning loss, too. According to the National Summer Learning Association, 90 percent of teachers spend between three and six weeks reteaching material forgotten over summer break. A year-round school calendar, in which schools run for four weeks, then take a week or two off, would have students constantly working toward a meaningful, relaxing break. It would also mitigate the nasty side-effects of summer vacation: knowledge loss, couchlock, and worst of all — boredom.

Parents would get some relief, as well. For households with only one parent or two working parents, finding someone to watch children for 10 weeks straight is stressful and expensive. But getting a nanny for a week or two, or simply taking time off work, may be more manageable. Within this framework, schools could still afford longer breaks for summer, Christmas, and Easter. Most states require students to attend class for 36 weeks in a year. With a six-week summer break, schools would have 10 weeks of vacation to spread throughout the year. Summer vacation is useful for high-school and college students who want to take full-time jobs and internships. But changing the school calendar wouldn’t take away those opportunities. With a year-round school year, businesses could still hire during the shorter summer break. Alternatively, students could stay with companies all year but work only during their monthly breaks. Parents, students, and teachers could benefit from a year-round school calendar. Educators could save precious times in the classroom and with that time explore more in-depth material. Students could escape the boredom of long summers, while having more opportunities to rest throughout the year. Parents could more easily prepare for a year-round school schedule, as summer would no longer be a life-altering event. It’s time to leave behind tradition and follow the science.

Hillsdale students should respect the last of America’s sacred spaces vestiges of sacredness in the By | Juan Dávalos Special to The Collegian country, the treatment of dead soldiers. White House Chief of Staff, A sacred place on campus Gen. John Kelly, in an imis the Alpha Kappa Phi statue passioned speech a couple of built in 1895 to “recognize the weeks ago lamented the grow- Civil War honor of more than ing loss of sacredness he has 500 Hillsdale College soldiers seen in America throughout who dutifully answered the his life -- from the treatment call of their country.” Alof women, to life, to religion. though the space where the He addressed the issue monument sits is used in ways during a daily press briefing, that accentuate its sacredness, after being stunned by the like the 9/11 memorial or the news that a member of the unveiling of the Frederick House of Representatives Douglass statue, the business had desecrated one of the last

Juan Dávalos is a graduate student.

Trump shows conservatives how to fight and win a culture war

By | Garrison Grisedale Special to The Collegian The election of President Donald Trump brought a rebirth of the nation-state and government by consent along with some decisive legislative victories—and his supporters expect much more to come. But one of the biggest accomplishments under Trump has not been in politics but in culture: the delegitimization of today’s elites. When the news of Harvey Weinstein broke, it came as a shock to many Americans. But Hollywood wasn’t surprised — everyone already knew. They were just surprised that the story broke. After all, Vulture reported that the New York Times killed the story back in 2004 at the urging of Matt Damon

and Russel Crowe. But should anyone be surprised that an industry saturating American television with sexual immodesty turns out to be a cesspool of gross immorality and perversion? And how many of these Hollywood elites were close personal friends of Weinstein while lecturing America on Trump’s past behavior? Our Hollywood starlets never pass up a chance for hypocritical moral posturing. They decry income inequality while living the most luxurious lifestyles in world history. They lecture us on global warming while zipping around the world in private jets. They criticize our hesitance to accept refugees from volatile nations while staying tucked away in their gated communities. They push gun

Garrison Grisedale is a junior studying politics.


A6 Nov. 2, 2017

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

The interior of McDonald’s was renovated to give it to a contemporary look. Nicole Ault | Collegian

McDonald’s employee Pam Allion stands by the new self-service kiosk to assist customers. Nicole Ault | Collegian

McDonald’s shows off ‘Experience of the Future’ design By | Nicole Ault Assistant Editor Walk into the Hillsdale McDonalds, and you’ll be greeted by a warm smile from employee Pam Allion and the bright LED glow of what McDonald’s calls the “Experience of the Future”: four kiosks with touch screens that allow customers to order food without speaking to an employee behind the counter. After four weeks of renovations this summer, the Hillsdale McDonald’s is breaking ground for McDonald’s locations across the country: According to a corporate McDonald’s press release from March, the company plans to renovate 650 U.S. locations and outfit 2,500 with Experience of the Future technology

by the end of 2017. Out of 543 McDonald’s locations in Michigan, the Hillsdale branch is one of just six to feature the kiosks, said general manager Nicole Chapman. The store began renovating the exterior in August, Chapman said, then closed the interior for remodeling in September, operating just the drive-thru until the lobby reopened on Oct. 13. Besides the kiosks, the interior now sports streamlined, neutrally-toned decor and mapthemed decorations. “It’s more contemporary,” Chapman said, adding that she thinks the kiosks will be attractive to millennials. Some might worry that the kiosks will replace human employees, Chapman noted, but she said she’s hiring 15 more

people. Plus, people don’t have to order at the kiosks; there’s always someone at the front counter, too. Renovations include an updated playland with a new “sparkle table” that lights up when kids sit down at it. The playland will feature interactive tablets soon, Chapman said. Assistant store manager Crystal Miller said customers will soon be able to place mobile orders from their phones and have food delivered to them outside in special parking spots. Exterior renovations won’t be complete until landscapers finish up and overhangs are installed over the drive-thru windows, Chapman said. She said they had to cut down trees around the building

pletely collapse, or to become detached or dislodged,” the notice said. It also referenced “periodic episodes of exterior bricks falling from the structure” as a reason for demolition. The building belongs to Hillsdale resident Jeff Fazekas. Before the city condemned the buildings, he operated his business, Mortgage Management LLC, from it. The Collegian could not reach Fazekas for comment. The notice requires Fazekas to repair or demolish the structure by Jan. 23, 2018. The city will likely delay the mandate while the court hears Fazekas’ case.

Restaurants in Hillsdale County cannot serve liquor on Sundays and must wait till after noon on weekends to serve beer and wine. Wikimedia

Condemned building faces demolition By | Joshua J. Paladino Opinions Editor The Hillsdale Office of Code Enforcement condemned a building on Broad Street and ordered its demolition, pending a court appeal. A notice of violation posted outside 23 and 25 N. Broad St. — just north of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church — declared the building a public safety threat. “The structure located on the premises has been damaged by deterioration, neglect, abandonment, or other cause to such an extent that it is likely to partially or com-

The sign posted on the door of the condemned building, located on Broad Street. Joshua J. Paladino | Collegian

because they were leaking sap on cars. The renovations should be finished in time for the store’s grand opening on Nov. 17, Chapman said. Allion, who’s worked behind the counter and in the drive-thru, is now the “Guest Experience Leader” — refilling coffee, helping people place their kiosk orders, making sure customers are happy with their orders. “The GEL person makes it more personable, and that’s what our goal is,” Allion said. “I like being with the customers, talking to people.” Allion and Chapman both said more customers have come in since the interior reopened -- Chapman guessed as many as 40 new people per day.

Customers have greeted the renovations with mixed reactions. Some expressed disappointment that the trees were cut down, and some thought the minimalist decor looks too industrial. Several said they disliked the smaller play area, which they said didn’t keep their kids entertained for long. But others had more positive views of the changes. Customer James Galloway said the kiosks and ordering area are “clean and user friendly,” and he would use the kiosks in case of a line. He also said he liked the “open view” provided by the new layout. One group of customers comes almost daily — just over a dozen local residents, some of them farmers, who

gather to chat over coffee and breakfast. With the new renovations, it’s hard to find a table big enough for all of them, said Darrel Williams, who’s been coming for about seven years. His friend Gary Stemen acknowledged the same problem, but said there are some positive aspects: It’s bigger and brighter, the service is quicker, and he liked the GEL coming around with coffee refills, he said. Allion said she expects the store will keep regulars like the daily coffee group — and gain new ones. “We have our regulars that come in and like to pick on us,” she said, “and we have new customers who will hopefully become regulars.”

‘Blue laws’ restrict alcohol sales By | Scott McClallen Assistant Editor Little-known Sunday sales laws called “blue laws” prohibit bars and restaurants in Hillsdale County from serving liquor on Sundays. Hillsdale County residents voted in the 1980 general election to prohibit Sunday liquor sales. Almost 40 years later, Hillsdale is the only Michigan city that has not overturned this restriction. Hillsdale County Prosecuting Attorney Neal Brady said the laws have religious origins. “I would guess the laws are probably a compromise dating back to Prohibition,” Brady said. “It’s obviously a moral issue, to try to preserve the Sabbath so that people are less inclined to be intoxicated all day, and to go to church instead.” But today, the law disappoints those who want a margarita on Sunday and frustrates local business owners. El’ Cerrito Manager Louis Vega said about half of the business’s customers ask for hard alcohol on Sundays. “Almost 50 percent of people who come in on Sunday say, ‘I want a margarita’ or ‘It’s been a long week, I want a margarita,’” he said. “Some people get so excited, but I

have to let them down.” Vega said he had not looked into the requirements for changing the law, but Kevin Conant, co-owner of Here’s To You Pub and Grub, said he had. “We tried two elections ago to get 1,400 signatures from registered voters to get the issue on the ballot, but we fell about 600 signatures short,” Conant said. “It’s just hard to find registered voters who actually care. Liquor sales represent about 20 percent of our sales, so 20 percent of every Sunday is a pretty big number.” Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm in 2010 signed Act 213, which changed a state law barring Sunday hard alcohol sales for “both retail establishments and in an establishment deriving more than half of its gross receipts from the sale of food and other goods.” This allowed both kinds of establishment to sell hard alcohol on Sundays starting at 7 a.m. if the business purchased a “Sunday Sales” permit, and if local government allowed it. The Michigan Liquor Control Commission distinguishes between two types of Sunday sales permits for on-premise restaurants: the “A.M.” permit allows the sale of liquor, beer, and wine on Sunday mornings from 7 a.m. until noon, while the “P.M.” permit allows

liquor sales from noon on Sunday to 2:30 a.m. on Monday. Beer and wine can be sold after noon without a permit. But the state law also allows local governments to restrict Sunday liquor sales. In the 1980 general presidential election, Hillsdale County voted to prohibit businesses from serving liquor on Sundays, according to a document provided by Hillsdale County Clerk Marney Kast. The document states Hillsdale County residents voted not to permit the sale of spirits for consumption at establishments “in which the gross receipts derived from the sale of food or other goods and other services sales exceed 50 percent of the total gross receipts.” According to a November 2015 list published by the MLCC, Hillsdale is the only county to prohibit restaurants and bars from serving liquor all day on Sundays, though three villages in Michigan have the same restrictions, and 16 cities, townships, and villages prohibit sales of packaged liquor on Sundays. Other local governments only prohibit Sunday morning liquor sales. Hillsdale Market House also does not need a Sunday permit to sell packaged liquor on Sundays. Michigan is one of 18 states

that monopolize the sale of spirits — meaning beer, wine and liquor. Retail stores must comply with the Michigan Licensing and Regulatory Affairs minimum price list, which sets the minimum selling price for alcohol and product selection, that can change up to four times a year. In addition, liquor licences are costly to acquire. To apply, a business must submit up to 11 forms, pay a $70 nonrefundable inspection fee and an annual $150 license fee, submit proof of property ownership and purchase, and pay an additional fee if requesting multiples permits or licenses. Vega said the complex regulations forced El’ Cerrito to buy two liquor licenses, one for each side of the restaurant. “They considered this side as another restaurant, so they made us get another license, because we were gonna have more hard liquor and beer,” Vega said. Confusing clauses and complex restrictions appear to plague alcohol sales laws in Hillsdale. The police department had to look up the Sunday sales laws when asked about them, and other county officials were uncertain of the restrictions since the MLCC enforces them.


City News

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

A7 Nov. 2, 2017

Corwin Frolick, 1, shows off his scarecrow costume at the annual Halloween party. Joshua J. Paladino | Collegian

Halloween in Hillsdale

Hillsdale High School holds 39th annual Halloween party By | Joshua J. Paladino Opinions Editor

Top to Bottom: Leeland Frolick, 7, poses in his zombie costume; 3-month-old Jordyn June dressed as a chick. Joshua J. Paladino | Collegian

Girls dressed as princesses, boys dressed as zombies, and parents exhausted from latenight costume building came together for the Hillsdale County Halloween Party on Tuesday. The party featured a costume contest, with winners ranging from adorable babies dressed as hens to children in terrifying Grim Reaper outfits. 3-month-old Jordyn June won first prize for babies. Her mother, Brianne June, transformed her stroller into a hen house called “Jordyn’s Chicken Farm,” in which Jordyn sat as a fluffy chicken. Her 10-year-old brother Jaiden June tied for first place in his age group. He dressed as a refrigerator, with his head appearing as if it were being served on a plate. Jaiden tied with 10-year-old Dane Elston, who dressed as a boy who had been captured by the Grim

Reaper. “I really was just trying to scare people and have a creative idea,” Dane said. Another family duo, 7-year-old Leeland Frolick and 1-year-old Corwin Frolick, won the costume contest for their age groups. Leeland dressed as a zombie with flowing gray hair, cuts on his face, and tattered clothes. Corwin came as a scarecrow with straw hair, overalls, and rosy-red cheeks. 6-year-old Hayez Whaley won another first place prize dressed as a homeless man, with a painted on beard and a sign that read, “Will work for candy.” After the costume contest, children enjoyed a magic show by Jim Carmody called “The Adventures of Count Spooky.” Throughout the night volunteers from the St. Anthony’s Knights of Columbus passed out candy, cider, cookies, donuts, and hot dogs. Grand

Knight Matt Shalosky, with help from about 10 volunteers, organized the event. Hillsdale students working with the Liberty Princess Company, which was started by alumna Gianna Marchese ‘17, attended the party dressed as Disney princesses. “A lot of the kids faces, especially with our more popular princesses like Elsa and Anna, really light up when they see us, and that’s fun to see,” junior Caitlin Lowry said. The Hillsdale County Halloween Party began with former Michigan State Police Officer Larry Mielke in 1979. “At the time I was a police officer and the police commander told me I had to put on a Halloween party,” he said. Mielke said he wasn’t given any money, so he talked to the Hillsdale Police Department. They reserved him a building at the Hillsdale County Fairgrounds. Originally, the party had

two parts: A children’s event, with a costume contest and magic show for children, and a dance for teenagers. A few years after Mielke began the tradition of the Hillsdale County Halloween Party, the dance was ended because “teenagers dancing isn’t what it used to be.” The party’s purpose was to get kids off the street and reduce vandalism, so Mielke turned to insurance companies, which could benefit most from a reduction in crime and vandalism. He asked insurance companies for $10 each to sponsor the event and raised $250. Hundreds of kids attended the event that year and for many years following, according to Mielke. This year, he estimates only about 100 to 150 people came. He got the event started 39 years ago, but now Mielke leaves event organization to others.

By | Madeline Fry Culture Editor

“I would say since I was hired in 2001, the drug problem has become more widespread in our county, despite law enforcement efforts,” Hillsdale County Sheriff Sgt. Kevin Bradley said in an email. “Also, we have seen a large shift amongst illicit opiate prescription pill users now becoming heroin addicts. In addition, in the last two years we have seen a large increase in the number drug overdose related deaths in Hillsdale County.” Since Jan. 1, the Hillsdale County Sheriff ’s Office has investigated 48 complaints involving marijuana-related violations, 34 complaints involving methamphetamine-related violations, 10 complaints involving heroin-related violations, six complaints involving synthetic narcotic related violations (typically prescription narcotics), and three complaints involving cocaine-related violations. Both mayoral candidates, Mayor Scott Sessions and City Councilman Adam Stockford, promised, if elected, to promote city law enforcement so it can combat the problem.

Sessions said he plans to ensure the police force has funding for training and equipment. Stockford, who said the police need more resources, added that two other elements could benefit the community. “I think we need more options for addicts, because I don’t think there are enough treatment options in Hillsdale,” he said.”I’d like to see the book thrown at anyone who’s caught selling hard drugs in Hillsdale.” Regarding treatment options, Stockford emphasized that bringing more drugs to the community — through prescription drugs that help users get off illicit drugs — would harm the patients. He would like to see more doctors licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration in the community but not so they could replace drugs with drugs. Sessions said the city police and the county sheriff ’s department work well together. “They share a lot of information,” he said. “It’s very important that the community works all together.”

Healing center offers Drugs continue to plague county medical alternatives By |Abby Liebing Collegian Reporter

Sage green walls, a trickling little water fountain, and a tree on the wall create a soothing atmosphere in the lobby of The Tree of Life New Earth healing center on West Bacon Street. The Tree of Life, which opened at the beginning of July, offers a variety of alternative therapy and healing methods including massage therapy, vibrational therapy, aromatherapy, and Reiki energy. The vibrational therapy is the most popular in Hillsdale, and owners Andrew and Bobbi Weaver have many clients. “We use mostly vibrational-based healing methods,” Weaver said. “That would be with the tuning forks, the Tibetan singing bowls, and with other healing methods, like Reiki. Usually that’s just using energy from a person’s body, like with their hands or something.” Weaver said these methods have ancient roots. “Many ancient cultures have been using tuning forks and the singing Tibetan bowls,” Weaver said. The goal of these different types of therapy is to relax the body, all the way down to the cellular level. “It causes your cells to vibrate at a certain frequency and it actually causes your cells to return back to a state that it normally is in, when it’s not under attack by toxins

in your body or a physical trauma of some sort,” Andrew Weaver said. From there, the tuning forks are used on specific areas of the body where a client has pain. “The tuning forks are actually researched and very well known to be able to reduce inflammation, sometimes immediately,” Weaver said.“Some people walk out of our office with no inflammation and no pain.” Bobbi and Andrew Weaver have found vibrational therapy helps alleviate migraines,

the Cleveland Clinic, I’ve had the cameras up my nose, I’ve done allergists, regular doctors,” Clement said. But after Clement started treatments at the New Earth Healing Center, her sinus problems began disappearing. “The first time Bobbi did this, when I sat up you could feel it all drain out,” Clement said. “And it’s very interesting because in spots that are really congested and plugged you can’t feel the tuning fork. I mean you can see her wack it and see it vibrate, but you can’t feel it. And then as it loosens up, then you can feel it within your skin and how its travelling along your muscles.” The Weavers have also used vibrational therapy to help sports injuries. They said some clients will go directly to the healing center following an injury. “Sports injuries — injuries where there is a physical injury and it’s swelling up and hurting — we’ve had clients call us and say well can you get me in right now? And they come in and left pain free,” Andrew said. Before diving into vibrational therapy, Andrew Weaver served in the U.S. Navy for 22 years and Bobbi was in school for massage therapy. “We stumbled across it. We started with Reiki and energy and we went into Shamanism and it’s just been a journey,” Bobbi Weaver said.

“We use traditional pressure points, acupressure, the meridians, and we’ve been able to stop migraines before they even happen.” inflammation, arthritis, sciatica problems, and even sinuses. “We use traditional pressure points, acupressure, the meridians — we put the forks on certain pressure points and we’ve been able to stop migraines before they even happen,” Andrew said. “We’ve been able to take sinus and certain glands and reduce those down.” One client, Sarah Clement, has been undergoing vibrational therapy to clear her sinus passages. Clement said she has struggled with her sinuses for a long time and has tried many different doctors and treatments for relief. “I’ve been everywhere: to

Over the past few years, deaths from synthetic opioids — drugs that react with opioid receptors to act as pain relievers such as morphine — have risen more than 500 percent. President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis — America’s rapidly escalating rate of drug abuse and drug-related deaths — a public health emergency last week. Now drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans under 50, according to the New York Times. Some 64,000 people died from overdose last year. In Hillsdale County, the drug problem begins primarily with the abuse of marijuana, methamphetamines, and heroin. The Hillsdale County Prosecutor’s Office said it has authorized 192 warrants for complaints involving controlled substance violations since the beginning of the year.


A8 Nov. 2, 2017

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Follow @HDaleSports for live updates and news

Volleyball

Football saturday, oct.

Hillsdale

37

28

Upcoming

saturday, nov. vs.

Malone 1:00 PM Stats

Chance Stewart David Graham Trey Brock Timmy Mills Wyatt Batdorff J.Harlamert

Alderson Broaddus

4

20-36 comp, 253 yrd, 3 td 21 att, 106 yrd, 1 td 9 rec, 124 yrd. 2 td 3 rec, 76 yrd, 1 td 9 tkl, 1 int 10 tkl, 2.5 Sacks

31

Friday, Hillsdale

oct.

20 Walsh

03 00 Saturday, oct. 21 Hillsdale Malone

03 01

Swimming

Women’s Basketball

friday, nov. 3 vs Trevecca naz.

Kills Digs Aces Assists Blocks

Kara Vyletel- 293 Taylor Wiese- 466 Taylor Wiese- 31 Lindsey Mertz- 817 Alyssa Van wienen- 56

Men’s Cross Country

Women’s Cross Country

G-MAC Championships 1st: Walsh- 35 pts 2nd: Malone - 36 pts 4th: Hillsdale - 113 pts

Results

Saturday Nov. 4 NCAA II Midwest Regional at Cedarville, OH 10:30 AM

G-MAC Championships 1st: Hillsdale - 29 2nd: Walsh - 47 3rd: Malone - 67

A new breed of Lion in Motown

By | Mark Naida Assistant Editor When I left Ford Field on Sept. 7, 2008, I decided that the Lions’ quarterback, Jon Kitna, was my hero. After a successful 4-0 preseason, my hometown team suffered a 34-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons due to a Swiss cheese defense that allowed Atlanta running back Michael Turner to run for 220 yards and two touchdowns. But there was hope. Moments in the game, Detroit displayed an explosive offense. Kitna had thrown a 40-yard bomb to a gangly 6-foot, 5-inch, second-year receiver. His name was Calvin Johnson. Over the next eight years he would become one of the greatest receivers in NFL history. Had I only known then. Later that season, Kitna, due to a broken shoulder and a tendency to throw lategame interceptions, would go on the injured reserve list and Dan Orlovsky would replace him. And then, on Oct. 12, when their record stood at 0-5, the Lions finally had their chance. The Lions’ defense contained the Minnesota Vikings and each team scored only a single touchdown. But Orlovsky, having momentarily lost his mind, ran out of the back of his own end zone for a safety. The Lions lost by two points. Consider the misery. Months before, Detroit had just been hit harder than any other American city by the 2008 housing crisis. Five percent of all homes in the city entered into some stage of foreclosure. Negligent homeowners burned empty houses for insurance money. Vandals stripped hot water heaters from basements. After that, the Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, was sent to jail. If all this wasn’t enough, the auto industry was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. And then, Detroit’s

football team had the worst season in professional sports history. A hard year to say the least. But it was then that I learned what it meant to be a fan of the Lions. It means that you are allowed to bemoan each loss. But it also means that you keep a love of underdogs in a secret pocket of your heart. So when the Lions played the Falcons this year and Matthew Stafford threw a touchdown to Golden Tate with 8 seconds left in the game for the win only to have the call overturned by the referees with a 10-second clock runoff, we knew what was coming. The game ended with Stafford holding the football a single yard away from victory. Lions lost. Big deal. This Sunday, Matthew Stafford threw for over 400 yards and even still, the Lions failed to score a single touchdown. The Lions had more yards, fewer turnovers, fewer punts, and fewer penalties. And we still hadn’t found a way to score. This is just how it is to be Lions fan post-2008. Stafford’s arm and our core of acrobatic receivers can make big plays happen. But the points don’t seem to always add up. But the drama seems inherent. Last season, Stafford caused Lions fans to chew their fingernails to bits as he led his team for an NFL-record eight game-winning drives. They were magical games. And this Sunday, as I sit here watching the live update of the game watching the final incomplete pass to Eric Ebron, I lament the fact that this is not one of Stafford’s miraculous endings. And in that lamentation there is at least a sigh of belief. The Lions aren’t leading the NFC North. They may not make the playoffs or win another game this season. But things have improved. When I consider what the 2008 season must have felt like for people who needed something to cheer for, I think of Stafford standing on the 1 yard line, 100 yards away from where Orlovsky tiptoed out of the back of the end zone, scowling at the ref. He can stand there, inches from victory, and after all the years of losing, we can see a new breed of Lion in Motown.

Saturday,

SEASON LEADERS

Results Friday, oct. 20 Calvin College - 86-148 GSVU - 61-165

Upcoming

03 01

7:00 PM saturday, nov. 4 vs ky. Wesleyan 5:00 PM

Results Wednesday, nov. 1 (Exhibition) Hillsdale - 57 Eastern Michigan - 70

Results

Friday, oct. 27 Hillsdale Cedarville

Upcoming

oct.

28

Hillsdale Ohio Dom.

03 01

Upcoming

Sunday, Nov. 5 vs. Olivet/Notre Dame at Hillsdale 1:00 PM

Upcoming Saturday Nov. 4 NCAA II Midwest Regional at Cedarville, OH 10:30 AM

FRITSCHE TAKES THE HELM OF HILLSDALE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL By | Callie Shinkle Collegian Freelancer With his positive attitude, first-year head coach Matt Fritsche is bringing new energy to Hillsdale College women’s basketball, players say. Fritsche will be the third coach in four years for the Chargers. He said he hopes to bring an attitude of improvement and care between players and coaches. “He makes people more confident as players,” senior guard Maddy Reed said. “When he talks about what we need to improve, he says it in a positive way.” Prior to taking the head coaching job at Hillsdale, Fritsche was an assistant at Creighton University and Midland University, as well as head coach at Bellevue West High School in Nebraska. During his tenure at Creighton, the team made the NCAA Women’s Basketball National Tournament each of his four years there. “At Creighton we didn’t lose a transfer for 11 years. I got to experience a really strong culture where the kids and coaches really cared about each other and they loved the school,” Fritsche said. “That’s what this place felt like.” Following four seasons at Creighton, Fritsche realized he wanted to transition from Division I to Division II. “I wanted to be a more present father, and at the

Division I level, I was gone so much. I also wanted to be a head coach and be in charge of my team.” After interviewing at Hillsdale, Fritsche was immediately drawn to the program. “I came to Hillsdale not knowing if I wanted to work here and left here praying I would get the job,” Fritsche said. At Hillsdale, Fritsche hopes to “embrace the process of improving our culture and assuring good experiences for one another.” The players have responded positively to Fritsche’s style of coaching. “We can all tell he is genuine and has a sincere heart,” Reed said. “He is first and foremost worried about how we are as people and got to know us as people and not just players.” Senior forward Jessica De Gree agreed: “He comes to every one of our 6:30 a.m. lifts, which he doesn’t have to do, to cheer us on.” Although they have a new coach, the players don’t want this year to be considered a transition year. “Many people use a transition year as an excuse, but for the seniors, this is our third coach. Every year has been a transition year,” De Gree said. The players, however, have already noticed a change between this season and last. “We can already see that people on the team are generally happier. We look forward to practice,” Reed

said. “At practice with him we definitely get conditioning in, but it is not emotionally draining.” Fritsche is father of two children, Kellen, age 6, and Kinley, age 3. “He is such a family guy,” De Gree said. “Every day he drives his kids to school and says it is his favorite part of

his day.” Fritsche’s kids have also taken to the team. “They love my team. Kellen is pretty sure he is going to marry (junior) Brittany Gray,” Fritsche said. With their new team culture and sense of positivity, the team said it is hopeful for a successful year.

Matt Fritsche is the new head coach of Hillsdale College women’s backetball. Brad Monastiere | Courtesy

Men’s cross country places fourth in G-MACs, prepares for regionals By | Madeleine Jepsen Science & Tech Editor The men’s cross country team may have run the last 8K of the conference season two weeks ago, but they’re still busy preparing for a 10K at Saturday’s Midwest regional meet — a distance the team’s freshmen haven’t raced before. “We’re getting ready to go — a lot of us have cut our mileage down, so we’re ready to race well,” junior Nick Fiene said. “Everyone’s excited for regionals. I know some of the freshmen are a little nervous about moving up to a 10K, and that is an added factor into the race for everyone, but I think it will be pretty exciting. I think our team will be ready and we’ll have a pretty good shot to do

well at regionals.” The team will compete in Cedarville, Ohio, in the regional meet and must place in the top three to secure a spot at the national meet as a team. The team placed fourth at the G-MAC championship meet Oct. 21 in Nashville, Tennessee. “I think we’re in kind of the same boat we were in last year,” assistant coach R.P. White said. “At GLIACs, we didn’t run an ideal race, but the bigger picture is regionals...I think this weekend we’ll run lights-out like we did last year at regionals.” Hillsdale’s top runners at the championship meet — senior Nathan Jones, junior Nick Fiene, and freshman Mark Miller, placed 14th, 15th, and 16th overall with

respective times of 25:56.5, 26:05.0, and 26:10.4. “For the most part, I was very happy with the effort,” White said. “Our top three guys were aggressive right off the line, right from the start.” Also scoring for the Chargers were freshmen Nick Wondaal and Morgan Morrison, who took 31st and 37th place, bringing the team to a total score of 113 points. “We were a little disappointed — we thought we may have had a shot at being in it to win it, but a couple things didn’t go our way,” Fiene said. “We just have some guys with some injuries. That’s been our biggest downfall this season so far, and that affected us at G-MACs.” At the conference meet, Jones earned second-team

all-conference honors, a distinction head coach Andrew Towne said was fitting for the senior legacy captain’s effort and achievement. Despite their fourth-place finish in the conference, Towne said the team remains optimistic for Saturday’s regional meet. “We were really pleased with the men’s effort — they did exactly what we talked about,” Towne said. “We just dealt with some injuries this year and not having all of our pieces together. We didn’t get what we wanted out of that meet, but a year ago, we didn’t at our conference meet either, and regionals went really well. It’s the biggest meet of the year, and I think we’ll get our best performance of the year.”


Sports Women’s basketball opens season with exhibition loss against Eastern Michigan

A9 Nov. 2, 2017

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

By | Nic Rowan Assistant Editor A host of new challenges await the Hillsdale College women’s basketball team in the 2017-18 season, after am 8-12 season last year. For starters, the team finds itself in the G-MAC, a conference which presents a new set of unknown challengers for the Chargers. Secondly, the team picked up a new head coach, Matt Fritsche. Before coming to Hillsdale, Fritsche served as an assistant coach for Creighton University’s women’s basketball team. Before that he coached at Midland University for a year and at Bellevue West High School in Nebraska for 10 years. This season marks Fritsche’s 22nd year of coaching. Additionally, the team brought in new assistant coach Katie Meister. Before joining the Chargers, Meister served as a two-year graduate assistant at Winona State University in Minnesota. She has

experience on the court too; while studying at Augustana University, she started five games as a senior in 201314, averaging five points and four rebounds per game in 17 minutes of court time.. Fritsche said he’s hoping to help continue to foster a sense of community in the team. “The camaraderie among the whole group is probably the reason why we do this,” he said. “The wins and losses can add up, but what’s really important is the process, and we just want to handle that process well.” According to Fritsche, the team has been working on cohesion both offensively and defensively by becoming “a communication team and just stressing unselfish plays.” “We’re very hopeful, but then we’ve only been doing this for two weeks,” Fritsche said. Freshman Clare Mitchell said Fritsche’s positivity and belief in his players has given her confidence in the season. According to Mitchell, prac-

Junior Allie Dewire led the Chargers with 13.8 points-per-game last season. Brendan Miller | Courtesy

tices are fast-paced and every girl works hard to make each other better. “It is very different from high school but I absolutely love the team and all of the girls are so encouraging,” she said. “We all push each other

to be the best we possibly can be and that’s going to help us be successful this year.” The Chargers played Eastern Michigan University in an exhibition match on Nov. 1. The Chargers lost 70-57.

Men’s basketball picked to finish third in G-MAC in preseason coach’s poll By | Mark Naida Assistant Editor When the Hillsdale College men’s basketball team takes the court for its first game of the season on Nov. 3, it will face Michigan State University, one of the top Division I programs in the country, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. Senior guards Stedman Lowry and Ryan Badowski and junior point guard Nate Neveau will lead the team as the captains, but they are not the only Chargers who enter the season with ample experience. Junior forwards Jack Cordes, Gordon Behr, and Nick Czarnowski, along with junior guard Harrison Niego, also bring veteran leadership to the team.

Although the contest with Michigan State is an exhibition game and doesn’t contribute to the team’s overall record, head coach John Tharp said he sees it as a unique experience and learning opportunity for his players. He said playing such an athletic team, with at least four NBA prospects on the roster, will certainly show where the team needs to improve. “There are things that they do with the athletes they have and the length that they have and we are going to be as principle-oriented as we possibly can, but there will be times where it won’t matter,” he said. After a sluggish performance by Michigan State

Last season, senior Ryan Badowski was second for the Chargers with 12.7 points per game lead. Brendan Miller | Courtesy

against Ferris State, who, on Oct. 26, battled against the Spartans and tied at 60-all with seven minutes remaining in the game, sophomore center Matt Fisher thinks they have a shot. “We are gonna have to scratch and claw,” Fisher said. “It is gonna be a battle.” But senior guard Stedman Lowry, who said he is excited to play against Spartan forward Miles Bridges, said he thinks Spartan coach Tom Izzo wanted to light a fire under some of his players. “I feel like Izzo likes to keep these games kind of close so he can chew the guys out,” he said. “That’s just what it seems like.” As for the NBA talent the Chargers will face, including freshman center Jaron Jackson, sophomore forward Miles Bridges, and sophomore forward Nick Ward, Fisher said playing against that quality of player isn’t actually all that new. “You see a lot of these guys at AAU tournaments when you are younger,” he said. “It is funny to see them now and realize that they will be making millions in a couple of months.” Looking beyond Friday’s exhibition game, the Chargers also face the challenge of being the newest team in the G-MAC. “Since the G-MAC started, basketball has been its signature sport,” Tharp said. With Findlay University, No. 20 in the NCAA’s Division II preseason rankings, moving with Hillsdale from the GLIAC and Kentucky Wesleyan University, No. 24, the Chargers have tough rivals both new and old rivals in the conference. Joining Hillsdale College in the move this year to the G-MAC are Findlay Universi-

ty, Lake Erie University, Ohio Dominican University, and Walsh College. Though the change to the G-MAC is a big adjustment for the program, Tharp thinks it’s for the best. “There was a part of me that loved the challenge of the GLIAC, you know, small academic institution playing against the gigantic state schools. Just loved that,” he said. “When the change came, I had mixed emotions. But I knew it was a good change for us, to be with like-minded schools.” Tharp also expressed his excitement at a different brand of basketball that the Chargers are bringing to Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena and other arenas in the midwest. He said that he hopes the Chargers will be better defensively. Tharp also said that the team is going to play more up-tempo basketball. Lowry agrees. “We will be able to play pretty fast this year. We have big guys who run the floor really well and Nate Neveu and Dylan Lowry are both good at pushing the ball,” he said. The Chargers also have two freshman forwards, Tavon Brown and Austen Yarian, who may contribute this season. “They have tremendous upside,” Tharp said. “Each practice you have moments where you say, ‘whoa, these guys are really talented,’ and then they have moments where you realize that they are freshmen and they don’t know what they’re doing.” The Chargers face the Spartans at the Breslin Center on Friday at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $6 and can be purchased online.

STRONG INDIVIDUAL PERFORMACES FOCUS OF SWIM TRI-MEET By | Katherine Scheu Associate Editor

The Chargers may have lost to Calvin College 14886 and Grand Valley State University 165-61 at their Oct. 20 meet, but individual performances by junior Anika Ellingson and sophomore Victoria Addis and two strong relay swims made the competition a success. Head coach Kurt Kirner said he evaluates each meet by the times his swimmers achieve in their races, not by the overall score they receive at the end of the competition. This viewpoint is especially important at an event where the Chargers faced teams with twice as many swimmers, according to senior captain Peyton Bowen. “We like to emphasize the individual victories at this meet every year. It’s great to swim at such a nice pool and get a taste of the competition we’ll be facing at the Calvin Invite in December,” Bowen said. “We just put our heads down and trained extremely hard throughout fall break and will continue to do so throughout the season.” Ellingson said she saw the team’s mental grit as a success of the competition in addition to the handful of standout events. “The team worked really hard in the week leading up to the meet, and I know our times reflected our fatigue levels, but they also reflected

Cross from A1

“It was a big confidence booster overall,” said Depies, who shaved off one minute from her PR despite tripping on a rut in the course on her last lap. Towne cited two related reasons for the victory: Lewis’ return and the most assertiveness the team has had all year. “I think the group feels complete: We had all of our people, and it just felt right,” Towne said. “The girls were more comfortable; they could be more assertive.” According to Towne, seven women rushed to the front of the pack right away and ran like they belonged there — exuding the ease and confidence that is disconcerting to other competitors. Moral soared for other reasons, too. According to Lewis, Molly Oren ’17 surprised the older members by attending the meet, bringing her jokes and releasing the pre-race tension. Overall, the team’s performance harked back to the successes the team had two to three years ago, Towne said. “They did a really good job of being very assertive and executing what we talked about,” Towne said. It also sends the team well positioned to the regional NCAA qualifying meet this weekend. “When you chart things out from the beginning of the year, we’re exactly where we want to be,” Towne said. Three teams from each region and eight at-large teams qualify for nationals. The Chargers’ goal is to place five women in the top 25 and earn one of the three allotted qualifying places.

our perseverance,” Ellingson said. “There were definitely disappointments but I believe I saw a triumph in how mentally tough the team was that day.” Ellingson earned her team its only first place when she finished the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.97. Despite the win, she identified elements of the swim she wants to improve. “I felt that I competed well considering how tired I felt,” Ellingson said. “My 100 Breaststroke felt a little rough and I know coach Kirner and I spoke about a few things I need to work on when I race, such as turn speed and keeping a faster tempo.” Ellingson also brought her specialty stroke to the 200 medley relay and competed with freshman Katherine Heeres, sophomore Catherine Voisin, and junior Suzanne DeTar. They finished second with a time of 1:51.64. After a fall break focused on fine-tuning the team, Bowen said she and her fellow swimmers are ready and motivated for their next meet. “On Sunday, we take on Olivet and Notre Dame here at home,” Bowen said. “We’ve been training relentlessly over the past few weeks, especially here over fall break. We always suffer a substantial loss from diving, but I have confidence in the team’s ability to surpass the expectations placed on us. We want to win.”

That goal is the easiest way of thinking about performance, since Division II still is transitioning to more national head-to-head competition and it is still difficult to track the number of points schools have, Towne said. He added that even officials don’t know exactly how many points each team has. The points Hillsdale accrues from each meet through regionals, plus an overview of the season, determines who goes to nationals. Although the G-MAC Conference Championships is the final G-MAC meet, points from it can still help Hillsdale get a spot on the podium this weekend. Lewis said the team is focused on decreasing time gaps between runners and shooting for second place. “We’re not a shoe-in for nationals, but the workouts show that we’re ready,” Lewis said. Projecting forward, Towne said there won’t be any new strategies. “We can’t reinvent the wheel right now; it’s just a refinement of the process of keeping them healthy,” Towne said. “For us, we’re a little bit different than most staffs. I don’t think that’s just a physical thing. Mental and emotional well-being are really important at this point in the year.” Lewis said it’s great to race again and be a part of a team whose members share in each other’s successes. That mentality relieves the pressure of focusing on her individual performance. “I’m pretty sure none of us run for ourselves,” Lewis said. “We all run for each other and for God, ultimately.”

Charger Chatter: Peyton Bowen When did you start swimming competitively? About 14 years ago, when I was 8. Why got you started in swimming? Basically, I was so uncoordinated that I couldn’t do any other sport properly, so it was kind of a last resort sport. And it was the one I liked, so I stuck with it. What is your dream job? Charger Athletics | Courtesy

Peyton Bowen is a senior from Santa Clarita, California. She is majoring in politics and is a member of the Hillsdale College swim team.

My actual dream job is to be the event planner for inaugural balls. That’s my top-tier actual dream job. Lower than that, just like any type of political event planner.

What is the craziest thing that has happened to you in all your years of swimming? I think I was 14 and I was at a meet. It was a 3-day meet, and in the same meet, I managed to chip my tooth and hyperextend my elbow. And the funny thing is that the event I did both of those in, I still won. I think that’s my craziest swimming story. Do you have any special rituals for before a race? I don’t really have anything too crazy that I do. I guess my pre-race ritual is I always eat Nutella at every meet — I don’t know why — it’s just one of those things. Then I just put my headphones in and walk up behind the block and

try to get pumped up. I try to keep it pretty light and fun before my races because if I get too ‘in the zone’ then I psyche myself out. So I try to have conversations with people and keep it pretty light. What made you choose Hillsdale? It probably started with talk radio — that was number one. It was my parents’ dream school for me. But the funny thing is that I reached out to Hillsdale at the same time that I was reaching out to other schools, and I actually ended up verbally committing to a different school and then left my verbal commitment when I got an offer from Hillsdale. I wanted to go to Hillsdale. It was my top choice.

What is your ideal postrace meal?

Do you have a particular show that you’ll go to?

Maybe like fettuccine alfredo with some chicken, but like a lot of it...Pretty much anything as long as there’s a ton of it. Anything in huge amounts. With lots of Gatorade.

I just started “How to Get Away with Murder.”

What do you do to take time to chill from practice or homework? I spend a lot of my time with friends when I’m not swimming or studying. Because I’m a Chi-O, I spend a lot of time there. When I have time to watch Netflix, I watch Netflix, but I don’t really have much time so it doesn’t really happen that often.

Is there anyone in particular who has inspired you? My first coaches would probably be the people who inspired me the most, because they were there when I was learning how to do everything. My first coach was a 17-year-old senior in high school and I idolized her. I thought she was the coolest person in the entire world. And she was probably the one person who made me start loving swimming. We’re still Facebook friends.

-Compiled by Jacquelyn Eubanks


Charger Charger Chatter Senior Peyton Bowen talks about her early days in the pool, her pre-race routine, her dream job, and what made her come to Hillsdale College. A9

NOV. 2, 2017

Tip-off Men’s and women’s basketball prepare for inaugural seasons in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. A9

New women’s basketball coach Matt Fritsche takes over as the third head coach of Hillsdale College women’s basketball in four years. A8

The Chargers racked up 445 yards of total offense on Saturday against Alderson Broaddus. Todd Lancaster | Courtesy

FOOTBALL WINS WILD TILT IN WEST VIRGINIA By | S. Nathaniel Grime Assistant Editor In their first trip to Alderson Broaddus University in school history, the Hillsdale College Chargers escaped with a 37-31 victory on Saturday, running their record to 5-4 this season and 3-2 in the G-MAC. With the victory, the Chargers move into sole possession of third place in the conference. The University of Findlay and Ohio Dominican University both improved to 5-0 in the G-MAC last weekend, eliminating Hillsdale from conference title contention. After the Chargers scored on their first possession of the game, Alderson Broaddus used scoring plays of 80, 62, and 93 yards to rattle off 21 unanswered points. Hillsdale

faced a 21-7 deficit at the end of the first quarter. “The big plays were where the points came up, otherwise we’re in pretty good shape,” head coach Keith Otterbein said of Hillsdale’s first-quarter defense. “Eliminate a couple of plays, and I was very happy with how the defense played.” Early in the second quarter with a two-score lead, the Battlers attempted to pound the ball in on a 4th-and-goal attempt from Hillsdale’s one yard line. The Chargers stood up the rushing attempt, and sophomore defensive back Jason McDonough stripped the ball loose. Fellow sophomore defensive back Merrick Canada scooped up the fumble and returned it 97 yards for a touchdown, the second consecutive week Hillsdale has scored on defense. “If they score there, that

Sophomore Merrick Canada returned a fumble 97 yards for a touchdown on Saturday in the Chargers’ win over Alderson Broaddus. Todd Lancaster | Courtesy

game could be over,” senior defensive lineman Jordon Harlamert said. “We could have caved in, but we were resilient enough to make a big play.” The scoop-and-score swung the momentum in Hillsdale’s favor, and the next time its defense took the field, senior defensive back Will Jones came away with an interception. The Chargers’ defense has created six turnovers, five of them interceptions, in the last two weeks. McDonough has forced a turnover in three consecutive games. On offense, sophomore running back David Graham carried the ball 21 times for 106 yards and a first-quarter touchdown. His 12 touchdown rushes this season are tied for second-most in the G-MAC. Junior quarterback Chance Stewart completed 20-of36 passes for 253 yards and three touchdowns. With the performance, Stewart moved to fourth all-time for career passing yards in school history, surpassing the 6,000 yard mark on the way. Junior wide receiver Trey Brock caught nine passes for 124 yards and a pair of touchdowns. With 66 receptions this season, Brock now holds the G-MAC record for receptions in a single season, still with two games remaining on the schedule. For the second time this year, he earned the G-MAC Offensive Player of the Week award. “That’ll be something we talk about after the season,” Stewart said of the records. “This is our third year, so we

have a good vibe for each other on the football field. We both know that we’re the most successful when we help each other get going early in games.” Two of Brock’s touchdowns came on Hillsdale’s last drive of the first half and first drive of the second half. His first score, a three-yard reception, brought the Chargers to within three at the break. His second touchdown, a 46-yard catch-and-run, put Hillsdale ahead for the first time in the game. After the quick strike to begin the third quarter, the Chargers didn’t relinquish the lead, although they didn’t put the game out of reach either. “We didn’t put the knockout punch to them in the second half to really seal it and finish a drive,” Otterbein said. “We certainly had some untimely penalties. Instead of just playing, we let that kind of get into our mind a little bit. I think our execution suffered a little bit because of that, and it certainly creates harder down-and-distance situations. The timing of the penalties was unfortunate, but you’ve got to overcome that.” Senior wide receiver Timmy Mills caught his first touchdown pass of the season, a 50-yard heave from Stewart, to increase Hillsdale’s lead to 34-24. Mills said the Chargers ran an identical play earlier in the game where he was open down the field, but it wasn’t until the second time the offense ran the play that the ball came his way. “The safety and the corner both went with Trey, and they just let me go,” Mills said.

“The second time, Chance knew it, and just let it fly.” “The whole thing was kind of a busted play,” Stewart said. “I ended up getting into some empty space, my eyes went down the field to Timmy and sure enough, he was standing five yards from the end zone waving at me, wide open, and it was one of the easiest touchdown passes I could ever ask for.” Mills finished with three catches for 71 yards, his most productive game of the season. The Battlers had their chances in the second half, but Hillsdale’s defense didn’t budge. Junior defensive back Wyatt Batdorff intercepted a pass in the end zone midway through the third quarter to put an end to a scoring threat. “That interception could have been a touchdown for them,” Batdorff said. “In a game decided by six points, it was crucial to get the ball back to the offense.” In the fourth quarter, sophomore defensive lineman Nate Canterbury and senior defensive lineman Casey Schukow teamed up to stop Alderson Broaddus on a 4th-and-1 rushing attempt at midfield. The Battlers’ offense converted only one of its four fourth down attempts in the game. After allowing 142 yards on two rushing touchdowns in the first quarter, Hillsdale held Alderson Broaddus to just 35 yards on the ground in 30 attempts the rest of the game. Harlamert led the defensive unit with 2.5 sacks and 10 total tackles. The Chargers registered five sacks and seven

tackles for loss in the game. “One of our guys would make their quarterback step up, and another guy would be in the right spot at the right time,” Harlamert said. “It was just guys doing their job throughout the whole game. Our gameplan was good, and when we’re in the right spot at the right time, good things happen.” Batdorff made nine tackles, increasing his team-leading total to 81 this season. He ranks second in the G-MAC in tackles. With two more games this season, Hillsdale has its sights fixed on a goal it set two weeks ago. “After we lost to Findlay, we knew the G-MAC championship was probably not going to be out there for us. But what was was a 7-4 record,” Stewart said. “We want the seniors to go out 7-4. That’s what those seniors deserve. You really want to do everything for them.” The Chargers are halfway to their goal of finishing the season with four consecutive victories and a 7-4 mark. Hillsdale hasn’t won seven games in a season since 2012, when it went 7-4. “We’re definitely hitting a stride here,” Mills said. “This has happened before in other seasons, where we finish out very strongly. I credit that to the hard workouts that we go through and the way the coaches coach.” The Chargers return to Hillsdale on Saturday for Senior Day. Kickoff against Malone University (1-7, 1-4) is at 1 p.m.

will compete for a conference title which will be determined over the next four weeks. And finally we are competing for the opportunity to complete in the NCAA tournament which only takes the top eight teams in our region of close to 50 schools.” The Chargers took two more steps toward their goals over fall break, avenging their loss earlier this season to Cedarville and defeating Ohio Dominican the second time this season. Cedarville, currently 10-4 in conference play, beat Hillsdale 3-1 on September 15, but the Chargers turned that score around in a hard-fought victory on October 27. Cedarville’s defense — one of the best blocking teams in the G-MAC — was at the top of its game, tallying 13 blocks and keeping Hillsdale to a .171. The Chargers met this performance with defensive strength of their own, holding the Yellow Jackets to a .139 hitting percentage. Wiese led the defensive effort with 30 digs in the match — a career high, and an unusual accomplishment for any player. Mertz supplied

11 digs and 46 assists, while Langer got a double-double of her own with 14 digs and 11 kills. Vyletel led Hillsdale’s offense against the Yellow Jackets, scoring 17 kills, seven of which came in the final set. VanderWall also competed well at Cedarville, with nine kills and 10 digs. VanderWall attributed the team’s improvement to the relationships the players have built with each other. “I think our all around chemistry and trust on the team has really led us to get into a groove and be able to problem solve more quickly in tense situations,” VanderWall said. “We’re a more seasoned team now, especially for how young we are, which has also helped.” The Chargers concluded their long month away from home with their second win over Ohio Dominican this year on October 28. After losing the first set 19-25, Hillsdale came back to win the next three matches. Though the Panthers scored a .351 hitting percentage in the first match, Hillsdale’s defense stepped

up to the challenge and reduced their overall hitting percentage to a .195. Sophomore middle hitter Veronica O’Connor set new career highs of three solo blocks and two block assists. The Chargers put up a strong fight offensively, too, led by Langer’s season-high 15 kills and VanderWall’s 13 kills and .433 hitting percentage. Freshman Madie Schider scored four aces — a new

career high. Looking ahead to this weekend, the Chargers return home to play Trevecca Nazarene (4-20) on Friday and Kentucky Wesleyan (12-16) on Saturday. “It feels like forever since we have been home, but we are fired up to be back in our gym,” Langer said. “We are looking to play some good volleyball and have some fun.”

After perfect October, volleyball’s win streak at 15 By | Michael Lucchese Assistant Editor Hillsdale volleyball closed out a perfect month with victories over Walsh, Malone, Cedarville, and Ohio Dominican. The Chargers’ record improved to 22-3 overall and 12-2 in conference play. With their impressive record and long streak of wins — the longest since the 2011 season — Hillsdale was ranked third in the NCAA’s Midwest regional rankings. On October 20, the Chargers beat Walsh University in just three sets, scoring 25-7, 25-17, and 22-17. The team had an overall .437 hitting percentage, and kept Walsh to just .140. Junior rightside hitter Paige VanderWall led the offense with 14 kills and no errors — a career high for her. Senior outside hitter Jackie Langer scored 12 kills of her own, and freshman middle hitter Allyssa Van Wienen scored nine kills with a personal hitting percentage of .571. Freshman setter Lindsey Mertz provided the support

Hillsdale’s offense needed for its outstanding performance, with 37 assists and seven digs. “Lindsey was able to move the ball really effectively to get their defense on their heels,” VanderWall said. The Chargers followed up their win over Walsh with another over Malone University the next day — officially securing a spot in the G-MAC playoffs. Hillsdale’s defense put up a strong performance against Walsh, limiting the Pioneers to a .123 hitting percentage. Sophomore libero Taylor Wiese had 27 digs, and Mertz had 42 assists and 17 digs of her own. Junior outside hitter Kara Vyletel tallied a double-double, with 17 digs and 14 kills. Langer, VanderWall, and VanWienen also performed well, scoring 10, 12, and 14 kills respectively. Overall, the team had a .280 hitting percentage and served 10 aces. “Making the G-MAC tournament is only one small step. We are competing for a divisional title which will be determined over the next three weekends,” head coach Chris Gravel said. “Then we

Freshman Allyssa Van Wienen (left) leads the Chargers with 56 blocks this year, while freshman Lindsey Mertz (right) is fourth in sets with 79. MaryKate Drews | Courtesy


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B1 Nov. 2, 2017 Katherine Scheu | Collegian

‘Stranger Things,’ like good music, deserves binging By | Brendan Clarey & Katherine Scheu Senior Writer & Associate Editor Johann Sebastian Bach starts each of his hundreds of fugues the same way: The master composer beckons forth a simple strain of melody before he recapitulates the original tune. From there, he introduces a countermelody, piles on new textures and styles, and reverses the original order of the notes. It all culminates in glorious counterpoint as melodies and countermelodies unite. After last week’s “Stranger Things 2” release, it seems Bach’s 300-year-old style hasn’t lost its power. The show’s creators and writers, the Duffer brothers, assem-

bled Season 2 like Bach wrote his fugues. As themes appear in their work, they overlap and create dissonance until they intertwine in harmonious, revealing unity. The Duffer brothers (identical twins born in the year they set the show) ruined the first season’s tranquil ending as Will Byers, the Upside Down’s Season 1 captive, vomits up a slug-like creature. Such creatures of the Upside Down, a unearthly dimension, wreak havoc on Hawkins, Indiana, as Demodogs (new versions of the Demogorgon) maul their human prey and the shadow monster threatens world destruction. Will Byers and his gaggle of adolescent friends face these monsters and far worse as more of the Upside Down emerges.

The substantive storyline could sell Season 2 without aid, but the Duffer brothers’ craft in presenting that storyline deserves undivided attention. The show draws on many plot lines that coincide with one another and complement each other, especially in the beginning of the season. The initial episodes establish several plotlines and transition between threads until the final two chapters. In the season opener, Eleven’s backstory develops as she peeks through the curtains of her safehouse and finally ventures out on a voyage of self-discovery. Then the focus cuts to Will Byers suffering what doctors diagnose as flashbacks to his time in the Upside Down. Visions of an incredibly destructive force start

to haunt the boy when the story switches over to Nancy and Steve, whose relationship crumbles as they disagree about how to cope with her friend Barbara’s death. Subplots rotate through the episodes just as different instruments further develop a fugue’s motifs. This movement from subplot to subplot maintains the suspense of the show while always driving the story forward, keeping the audience rapt and wanting more. The small-town relationships of the characters force the plots to collide, overlap, and work together to advance the theme. The brief foray into Eleven’s backstory is the only dissonant chord in the show. The different strains are tied together by the proximity of

living in the town together and thematic resemblance, i.e. the power of friendship, family, and romantic love, but Eleven’s backstory doesn’t focus on that. It’s good that the Duffer Brothers are willing to take risks, but the episode seven fieldtrip out of Hawkins doesn’t justify the discordant, big-city feel. Despite straying from the original theme at times, the final episodes present a complex, mesmerizing culmination as the Duffer Brothers achieve glorious counterpoint. The separate plots converge in the final moments for a cathartic resolution made perfect through hours of tormenting suspense. For this to affect a viewing, however, “Stranger Things” fans should watch the season

in as concentrated a period as possible. The name of the show in itself suggests this: Netflix lists the new season as a separate entity from its original — “Stranger Things 2,” rather than “Stranger Things: Season Two.” The difference is subtle but profound. This is not an episodic show as much as it is a nine hour movie. Why would you stop reading a book when you only have eight chapters left? (It’s no coincidence that the episodes are called chapters.) And the teasers at the end of the episodes are so riveting it’s basically impossible to pace yourself anyway, so you might as well do yourself a favor and enjoy the show in one or two sittings if you can. You won’t regret it, at least until grades come out.

Indulge us a moment Alumna argues indulgences could unite Catholics and Protestants By | Nic Rowan Assistant Editor Before you threw out your checkered suspenders, you were the sort of freshman who would loudly snap those elastic hitches against your chest while you argued soteriology until 2 a.m. in the Galloway lobby. It was embarrassing. You, a Catholic, had no understanding of soteriology (it means how-we-get-the-salvation), but you were familiar with the chorus from that “Jesus Christ is My Ninja” video that you found so funny in seventh grade. And here were these Lutherans, alive with the glory of love, explaining that when the Church grants indulgences, it cannot pardon the penalties incurred through sin. The treasures of the Church are not the power to bind and loose sins. No, the true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God. You respond ecuminically. “Hey, well at least we all believe in God.” That’s always a safe feint. With the passing of the Protestant Reformation’s 500th anniversary, it’s even relevant: Sectarian conversation has increasingly focused on trying to find a common ground where Christians can unite against the looming — and too often vaguely defined — threat of modernity. But the recent spurt in ecumenism nearly always seems to be outward facing. The outside world is threatening, and unless the small-o orthodox Christians huddle together, we’re going to be overrun by a mob of Simpletons à la “A Canticle for Leibowitz.” But for Hillsdale alumna Mary C. Moorman ’01, none of this matters. Christians — and specifically Catholics and Lutherans — must find common ground with each other before they can face the world. Her book “Indulgences: Luther, Catholicism,

and the Imputation of Merit” tries to unite the two faiths by arguing that the Catholic Church’s teaching on indulgences is Rome at its most Lutheran. It’s a radical take to be sure (considering it was the issue of indulgences that initially drove Luther from the Church) but Moorman has brought an arsenal of qualifications to justify her claim. Moorman drop-quotes the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s teaching on indulgences, which is: “a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.” Simply put: Indulgences don’t give us grace, but they lessen the punishment we would have to suffer in purgatory otherwise. According to Moorman, Luther took that definition and absolutized it to fit his whole theory of soteriology. For Lutherans, salvation comes to us out of God’s infinite mercy. We don’t cooperate with Christ; Christ acted as a cover for our sins by dying on the cross. Everything we have is freely given. We can do nothing but thank God and do his will. Moorman argues that this view of salvation implicitly unites the Catholic and Protestant traditions because “it is precisely in the practice of indulgences that the Catholic Church explicitly affirms a sense of the mere imputation that is often absolutized in Protestant soteriologies, inasmuch as the logic of the indulgences holds that the external merits by which we are restored through the indulgence are not our own but

See Catholic B2

Senior Madeline Greb drew an ink sketch each day in October. Madeline Greb | Courtesy

Art student draws ‘a small, simple doodle’ a day for Inktober By | Grace Houghton Collegian Freelancer Senior Madeline Greb has inscribed a fall tradition with her “Inktober” drawings. Inspired by an interdisciplinary creativity seminar and her own desire to explore drawing mediums, Greb outlined a plan to draw every day in

October. Creating something everyday seems intimidating, she said, but she started with a month-long goal as an “attainable baby step.” Her steps may have felt small, but she harvested larger lessons. “Part of what makes it seem intimidating...is an internal expectation that you

have to walk away with a masterpiece every day,” she said. “I’ve learned that’s not the case...some days you only have the time and energy for a small, simple doodle. Other days, you’re up for more of a challenge, so you push yourself to try new techniques or improve on a particular aspect of your drawing.”

Greb embraced the challenge with Inktober. Water-based inks and markers are her favorite, because they “afford some malleability even after you put them on the page,” in contrast to graphite or charcoal, which are somewhat fixable. In the end, “What counts is putting your pen on the page.”

Ready, set, write: Students start novels For National Novel Writing Month, members of the Creative Writing Club and others commit to writing a book by the end of November By | Ben Dietderich Collegian Reporter The writer’s eyes stare at the blinking cursor on the screen, clammy hands hovering over the keyboard. “Only 50,000 words to go,” the writer thinks, “time to get to work.” Perhaps you’ve never been tasked with such a lengthy assignment, but if you’re a Hillsdale student, chances are you’ve faced an essay deadline before. The pressure builds until the limitations of time and the seemingly large stakes force you to type. For sophomore Elizabeth Vietor, deadlines are how she plans to write her first novel. With the goal of writing 50,000 words in 30 days — that’s roughly 1,667 words a day — she has set her sights on a task many college students would consider daunting. “It’s just like writing essays

in college,” Vietor said. “The deadline makes you do it no matter how bad or annoying it is. That’s what I enjoy about NaNoWriMo.” Vietor is not alone in her lofty aspirations.The organizers of National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo for short, expect 400,000 writers to participate this year, 70,000 of whom are expected to be K-12 students. Sophomore and president of the Creative Writing Club Isaiah Scheuer said he expects at least 10 Hillsdale students to participate. Though it’s not the first time Hillsdale students have participated in the event, it is the first time Scheuer recalls the writing club promoting it. “I don’t think too many people on campus are aware of National Novel Writing Month, and I think it’s something more people should be aware of,” Scheuer said. “Not

only does it get the club out there, but it also is a way to get NaNoWriMo more publicity on campus.” National Novel Writing Month has been a nonprofit organization since 1999. The website provides writers with pep talks, badges of accomplishments, and a network to meet other writers in their area. Sophomore and published author Jacquelyn Eubanks says fellow writers who enjoyed the experience encouraged her to write her next book this November. This will be Eubanks’ first book written during NaNoWriMo but her eighth novel overall. Three have been published. “In the past I’ve never needed NaNoWriMo, I’ve always been able to get novels written, but because of college this will hopefully be a catalyst to a first draft,” Eubanks said.

Of course, when you’re trying to write an average of 1,667 words a day, there may not be a whole lot of time for careful reflection. For some such as Scheuer, this deters them from participation. “Some people are very good at writing and write out 2,000 words a day, others are more loose in their writing and they write whenever they feel like it,” Scheuer said. “I definitely fall into that second category, so I choose not to participate in the event myself.” Others like Eubanks, who said the first draft is always bad, disagree. “Whether it takes you seven years or a month, it’s still going to be garbage either way,” Eubanks explained. “It’ll be garbage whether you write it in 10 years, or 20, so I think it’s way better to get it all down. You can always edit later.”


Culture www.hillsdalecollegian.com

B2 Nov. 2, 2017

Poet without punctuation visits campus By | Ryan Goff Collegian Freelancer “Meter” may just be another word associated with poems and “syntax” a similarly obscure term, but reading Ellen Bryant Voigt’s latest poems gives these words a fuller understanding, if not a new meaning. As this semester’s second visiting writer through the English department, Voigt will be delivering a lecture entitled, “Lost and Found: On Randall Jarrell and the Use of Repetition,” tonight at 8 p.m. in Dow Rooms A & B. This follows a reading of her work last night. Author of eight volumes of poetry, including the recipient of the Poets’ Prize 2008 and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, “Messenger: New and Selected Poems,” Voigt has a long list of works and achievements. John Somerville, professor

Ali Smith’s “great Brexit” novel is about more than politics. Unsplash

In ‘Autumn,’ friendship leaves imprints like the season By | Mark Naida Assistant Editor Take two people born at opposite ends of the same century, build a bond between them, and let the world rotate and rot around them. That is how Ali Smith constructs her novel “Autumn,” which came out a year ago. The next installation, “Winter,” releases today in the UK, right as the first frost kills off all of autumn’s late-season flowers. In “Autumn,” Daniel Gluck is 101 and Elisabeth Demand is 32, yet a gap of nearly 70 years does not hinder their tender friendship. But around them, the world is spinning itself apart. Brexit has divided their small town outside of London into factions. A fence has even been erected to further accentuate the divisiveness. Immigration policy marks the fence with “GO HOME” and “WE ARE ALREADY HOME THANK YOU” spray-painted alongside each other. Despite the obvious intrigue of the book, Ali Smith uses the political context to explore the power of a bond that transcends the issues of a specific age. The leaves are falling, and Smith, in her first of a four-novel cycle, flexes her writing muscles to produce original and inventive descriptions of autumnal decay reminiscent of John Keat’s “To Autumn,” which Smith nods to several times. And that is only one of the peripheral literary allusions with which Smith places her novel in a tradition of 19th century social literature that aims to encapsulate the spirit of the time. Charles Dickens haunts the novel, the first line of which is a take on the famous beginning of “A Tale of Two Cities.” It reads: “It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times.” Later, as Daniel rests at his care facility, Elisabeth reads him “A Tale of Two Cities.” Though Smith’s novel is not Dickensian in length, she does create characters who ruminate tirelessly on the past. Much of the book consists of Elisabeth’s tender reflections on her friendship with Daniel, like the movies they watched from a projector in his backyard, the long walks they used to take, and his persistent question, “What you reading?”

Like Pip or Abel Magwitch from Dickens’ “Great Expectations,” Smith’s characters contend with their past as Elisabeth and Daniel contemplate a life apart from one another. Daniel, however, is asleep for almost the entire book, experiencing the world through surreal dream sequences. Sections of the book written from his point of view require Smith to use her clear, spare prose to illustrate complex concepts (for example, Daniel imagines a completely white scene upon which he can overlay colors like skin). Displaced in his slumber, Daniel imagines he is in a heaven where he determines the landscape in the first chapter. He continues to experience the eternal while his friend sits beside him and prepares for his death. And as she sits there, Elisabeth contemplates the history of her and Daniel’s friendship. She makes connections between her current life and the world to which Daniel has exposed her. In particular, he loaned her art books that led her to appreciate art and study it in graduate school. She even wrote her dissertation on the first British female pop artist, Pauline Boty, first introduced to her by Daniel. One of the final images Smith employs symbolizes perfectly the effect that Daniel’s life has had on Elisabeth. “The leaves are stuck to the ground with the wet. The ones on the paving are yellow and rotting, wanwood leafmeal. One is so stuck that when it eventually peels away, its leaf shape left behind, shadow of a leaf, will last on the pavement till next spring.” In “Autumn,” both the book and the season, leaves fall, plants wither. In the spring, the snow melts and as we often say: All is new. But Smith realizes that past seasons still leave their imprint. Past relationships form us into the people we are. And a relationship with an elderly person could end up leaving its marks upon habits and lifestyles. As the air adopts its biting chill and snow begins to fall, we will begin to look forward to the next spring. And as we do so, we should consider not only the freshness of the rejuvenated world, but also the things we carry along from seasons long past.

Catholic from B1

are granted to us on account of another.” Maybe so. But not in the way Moorman goes about it. Although she’s clearly done a lot of research, Moorman has written only a “conversation starter.” By recontextualizing the debate over salvation through indulgences, Moorman misses why Luther took issue with the practice in the first place. The dispute over whether the Church had the authority to remit penance was secondary. For Luther, indulgences

of English and director of the Visiting Writers Program, wanted to invite Voigt, whom he considers “a contemporary poet of great distinction,” to campus prior to this semester. “I was, needless to say, delighted when she agreed to a visit this fall,” Somerville said. “My hope now is that many members of our community will take this opportunity to attend her reading and lecture, and in doing so to enjoy her great gifts as a writer and interpreter of poetry.” For those looking for a crash course of her work ahead of her lecture, The New Yorker’s Poetry Podcast features a couple of her poems. Both “Cow” and “Bear” come from her most recent work, “Headwaters,” which has no punctuation and consists of poems in connection to animals. In “Cow,” appearing in April 2014’s podcast, the

last three lines read, “what he needs I think is something truly free of mind / a slab of earth by way of cow by way of fire the surface charred / the juices running pink and red

on the white plate.” Concise and sensory, Voigt’s unique meter relies on repetition of words, slightly slowing yet never stopping until suddenly there are no more.

are bad chiefly because they distract the Christian from his personal relationship with God. Indulgences tempt the faithful with desires to skip out on reparation for sins. The true Christian realizes how wretched he is and does not desire anything except God’s will. Moorman can talk about covenantal relationships and how the Church may be “the bride of Christ,” and how “spousal union means shared authority,” but her arguments don’t answer Luther where he

is most concerned. In both his famous “95 Theses” and “Explanation of the 95 Theses,” Luther recoils with horror that a Christian would desire to gerrymander his way to Heaven with indulgences. The issue of the Church’s authority is essential, but secondary. Trying to make Lutherans accept indulgences is a tough project if you only understand the logic of indulgences as a Catholic would. Moorman — and a hoard of other apologists for the Catholic Church — argue well, but only for

those who already agree with the Catholic Church’s teachings. As I finished the book, I was reminded of that drunk Yale graduate who, last year, tied a student to a chair while shouting “repent and submit to the Pope!” Aghast, his friends watched the spectacle, and the taste of Old Crow was forever ruined. Being right is never enough if you don’t converse with your interlocutors on their terms.

A poet visits campus this week. Ellen Bryant Voigt | Courtesy

Will Joan Didion’s center hold? The new Netflix documentary on the American journalist and novelist reveals and conceals her secrets as carefully as her own writing By | Hannah Niemeier Senior Writer In the last scene of her film memoir, the camera centers on Joan Didion’s hands: gnarled, veined, gripping the hands of her friend as she once held the pen that made her one of the master craftsmen of fiction and nonfiction since the 1960s. In “The Center Will Not Hold,” Didion holds the reins. The Netflix documentary, filmed by Didion’s nephew Griffin Dunne, released Friday, takes its title from a poem by W.B. Yeats — but almost nothing else from outside Joan Didion’s influence. What emerges is a Didion essay writ large. The masterful journalist and novelist is its center, its shaping force, playing both the portrait and the portrait artist, wielding the pen and the interview couch to strike us with the story as she sees it. In “The Center Will Not Hold,” the 82-yearold, 5-foot-nothing writer looms large and enigmatic as ever, concealing her life even as she reveals it. Widely regarded as one of the greatest prose stylists of the 20th century and one of its most fearless writers, Didion has electrified the journalistic scene from the beginning with her impeccable eye for telling detail and with her willingness to enter into her work, yet playing the part of the cool observer. In her first essay collection, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” Didion analyzed a late ’60s counterculture that she believed was more than hippies doing drugs; it was an entire generation of disaffected children. The climax of the titular essay occurs in a closing interview with a young girl who tells Didion she goes to “High Kindergarten”: Her mother has been giving her acid since she was four years old. In the documentary, Didion claims that this interview was “gold,” from a journalist’s point of view. This was Didion’s kind of story, bleak and telling, a bomb to drop at the end of a piece, a picture of her native California’s center slipping. The documentary follows Didion’s life and work by in-

terweaving readings from Didion’s work in her own voice and those of others, anecdotes from friends (generally related in Didion’s presence; her reactions steal the spotlight), and a lengthy personal interview. It focuses less on Didion’s novels and journalism than on her marriage with John Dunne, a fellow writer with a strong personality, editing advice, and mutual belief that nothing in their private life was off limits in their writing (Dunne edited a Didion essay that baldly confessed the two were in Honolulu “in lieu of filing for divorce”). Didion’s adopted daughter Quintana said that as a mother, Didion was alright, but rather aloof. This stuns Didion, who considers her daughter the center of much of her life (and certainly her writing, in her middle period and later in the bleak and beautiful “Blue Nights”). But both positions make sense: Didion’s small family was the core of the writer’s life and the subject of it. Didion’s relationship with John and Quintana come as close to humanizing Didion in what Netflix calls an “intimate documentary.” The documentary builds up to the central event of Didion’s life: the losses of husband and daughter in quick succession in 2003 and 2005. In the aftermath of Dunne’s death, Didion wrote her most well-known work, “The Year of Magical Thinking,” a memoir that confronts the startling reality of death outside the comforts of religious belief. In 2011, Didion did the same with “Blue Nights,” about Quintana. For Didion, the initial loss is not the worst one; it is the fading of their memory, like the sky dimming behind city lights at dusk. This picture of Dunne’s and Quintana’s dusk elicits empathy and admiration for the poetry in her prose. But there is a paradoxical power in writing through one’s grief. On the one hand, she presents a fearless account of staring into the abyss of grief. As she has always done, she writes to understand. Here, she writes to cope. On the other hand, she distances herself through her

Joan Didion conceals her life as she reveals it. Tradlands | Flickr

writing, as she has always done. In presenting her writing through personal pain in “The Year of Magical Thinking,” “Blue Nights,” and now in “The Center Will Not Hold,” Didion crafts an image of herself that is not so empathetic as chivalric. In taking on the drug epidemics of the ’70s, civil wars in Guatemala, and her own grief, Didion is America’s most diminutive knight of letters, our small but mighty wielder of the pen. We love her for it, and rightly. This distancing is the age-old problem of literature. We learn about our own lives from our writers, but we also envy them as they express (and thus seem to understand) the human experience better than we can. Art becomes artifact, and Didion’s life has always been more than a life: it is a drama with herself as the main character, a Stoic heroine who leaves no stone unturned in her search for a story. Didion does not deny the effects of her attempts to fabricate control through writing; she admits that after the loss of the small family that defined much of her writing career, her center nearly did not hold. Her collaborators on the play version of “The Year of Magical Thinking” set up a “Café Didion” to force her to eat after she dwindled to

an alarming 75 pounds. The woman who stared open-eyed into the grave nearly wrote herself into it. The documentary ends with Didion’s 2013 reception of the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal, which plays like Barack Obama’s knighting of an American hero. And of course, she is that. But the Didion of the ’70s drug epidemics and the Guatemalan civil wars — and of her own bleak books on grief — would not see this as the full story. I wonder what Didion is writing now. I wonder what the famously aloof political essayist would think of the regard of President Obama. Probably she would shrug off her accolades in true Didion fashion. Possibly she would use her fame as the vehicle for an impeccably crafted analysis of an administration that could hold its status as cultural authorities more lightly. I chalk the hagiography up to Griffin Dunne, but the core of the story is pure Didion. “The Center Will Not Hold” is much of what we wanted to hear from Didion, and nothing that she did not want us to see. And as a self-portrait of Didion, “The Center Will Not Hold” is true to its subject: clear-eyed to a fault, heroic to the end.


B3 Nov. 2, 2017

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Science & Tech

Crafting a ‘gluten-free’ beer Student brews beer with all the flavor, almost no gluten By | Stevan Bennett Jr. Sports Editor More than 18 million Americans are gluten-sensitive, according to a study published in Digestion magazine. These Americans are forced to avoid foods containing the proteins found in grains such as breads and pastas. Senior biochemistry major Trey VanAken spent his summer researching a process which would remove gluten from the beer so that those with celiac disease and other gluten intolerances or sensitivities could enjoy the grainbased beverage. “What we wanted to do was see if we could brew a beer that was essentially gluten-free, but that also tasted and smelled the same as a normal beer would,” VanAken said. “The other beers that are gluten-free don’t really seem to taste the same.” As part of his research, VanAken ­— with the help of his research adviser, Associate Professor of Chemistry Christopher Hamilton — brewed 10

different American-style pale ales modified with various amounts of grain. In half of these batches, VanAken added the enzyme prolyl endopeptidase, which is known to break down proteins similar to gliadin, the protein in gluten that causes issues for people with gluten sensitivities. After three weeks of fermentation, VanAken tested each of the batches for gluten content. Of the five beers from which VanAken attempted to remove the gluten, two of the beers contained less than 20 parts per million, which is the Food and Drug Administration’s threshold for a product to be considered gluten-free. The FDA requires the gluten-free beers on the market to be marked as “brewed to remove gluten,” rather than “gluten-free.” All of the beers were then tested by various members of the faculty and student body. These taste testers took part in a triangle test in which they were presented with three of VanAken’s beers. Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Courtney Meyet, who was one of the taste testers, said they looked at the overall appearance, aroma, and taste of the beers and were asked if they could identify if one was gluten-free and, if so, which one. “I thought he did a great job,” said Meyet, who brews her own beer with her husband. “I would’ve drank a whole beer. A couple of them were difficult to tell apart. I would say that they were indistinguishable. In a couple of them, you could see the difference...but for the most part, I thought he did a really great job. I’m not even sure if I got them right.” VanAken is the third student in recent years to work in-depth with Hamilton on brewing gluten-free beers. Hamilton, who started brewing his own beer about seven years ago, said the project has gotten more intensive as time goes on, with each student focusing on a different variable. VanAken’s particular variable was the overall protein content in the beers. “At the beginning, when I

Senior Trey VanAken brewed 10 different American-style pale ales to develop gluten-free beer. Trey VanAken | Courtesy

was brewing the beers, I added various amounts of grains, which varied the protein contents in the beer,” VanAken said. “I wanted to see how a varied amount of protein content would affect the enzyme within the beer.” After brewing all of the beer, VanAken tested each sample for the overall gluten content, using a competitive ELISA analysis in which antibodies added to the beer bind to any gliadin present in the beer. The most memorable part of the process for VanAken came at the beginning of the ELISA analysis, when he was preparing the samples for the final test. In adding chemicals to the beer, before pouring them into the plates, he was able to see a color change in

some of the beers, indicating very low levels of gluten. “That was pretty cool for me, because it was like, ‘Hey, we’ve actually done this. We’ve actually achieved a gluten-free beer,’” VanAken said. “It was awesome to see the results of your work in front of you with just a couple of drops of a chemical.” Hamilton said he plans to continue the research and said there are a number of different variables that could be tested next such as using different yeasts in the brewing process. Although the official description of the job called for 40 hours a week from VanAken, he typically spent closer to 50 or 55 hours a week on the project, as brewing beer requires particular care and precision.

“Obviously it’s a little labor-intensive and a little different than a traditional biochemistry project, but it is fun,” Hamilton said. Not only did VanAken learn to brew beer — a hobby he said he would like to continue in the future — he also said the research was gratifying on a personal level. “It’s nice knowing that there is a purpose for what you’re doing,” VanAken said. “I know that what I’ve done is no huge contribution and is by no means going to cure world hunger or something like that, but it’s a small step, and it does raise awareness for the cause. I’ve actually had people reach out to me about this and getting articles out about the cause is more than I even expected out of this.”

Temple speaks on ethical conservation over government regulation By | Joshua J. Paladino Opinions Editor The father of wildlife conservation, Aldo Leopold, quit his high-ranking job with the U.S. Forest Service after four years, following his belief that conservation should come from the private sector. He then became the first professor of wildlife management in the country at the University of Wisconsin. His career culminated with the publication of “A Sand County Almanac,” which laid out the principles that he called the “land ethic.” Stanley Temple, professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, spoke about Leopold’s life and environmental project on Oct. 19 in Phillips Auditorium. The Aldo Leopold Foundation, at which Temple is a senior fellow, carries on Leopold’s ecological project to incorporate and promote an ethical relationship between humans and nature. Temple said Leopold was the “first to think of conservation as having an ethical component.” In the same way human communities require basic ethics to thrive, Leopold thought humans needed ethical rules to live well in an ecological community. Temple said Leopold viewed the development of ecological ethics as “the most pressing ethical

issue” of his time. Leopold attended the Yale School of Forestry and graduated in 1909 in the second class of professionally trained foresters. As one of few schools in the country with this program, Temple said Yale Forestry graduates immediately entered prestigious government jobs in President Theodore Roosevelt’s newly created U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service sent Leopold to manage the New Mexico Territory, where he stayed from 1909 until 1924. During his time there, Leopold believed in a government-managed model of wildlife conservation, as he saw private landowners destroying the environment. “Ultimately, the use of all resources will have to be put under public regulation, regardless of ownership,” he wrote in “Pioneers and Gullies.” In 1924, the Forest Service promoted him to associate director at the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory in Madison. Temple said Leopold felt unhappy in a desk job. Plus, his true passion was in conservation, not forestry. Temple said after Leopold ended his tenure with the Forest Service, his attitude toward conservation and the government’s role in it shifted. “The painless path of incentives and subsidies not only fails to lead us to land conservation, but sometimes actually retards the growth

Conservationist Aldo Leopold at the annual meeting of The Wilderness Society Council in 1946. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | Courtesy

Conservationist Aldo Leopold published a book at the end of his career laying out the principles of what he called “land ethic.” Amazon

of critical intelligence on the whereabouts of alternative routes,” Leopold wrote in Audubon magazine in 1942. Temple said Leopold turned against the government’s method of taxing, regulating, and subsidizing in favor of promoting individual ethics and social stigma. “It is hard to make a man, by pressure of law or money, do a thing which does not spring naturally from his own personal sense of right and wrong,” Leopold said. Senior Andrea Wallace ­— president of the Hillsdale College Conservation Club, which sponsored the event — said conservation is a conservative ideal. “There’s ways we can

achieve ecological reform better through the private market than through public intervention,” Wallace said. “There’s a role for the state to make sure costs are internalized because the Earth is not a private good.” She said the government’s first environmental goals should be to protect private property rights from infringement and to end subsidies that encourage poor land management. Temple characterized Leopold’s philosophical progression as one of a “practical person...not an Ivory Tower type.” In his practicality, Leopold understood the need to combine the different interests involved with wildlife conser-

LIGO from A1

An artist’s illustration of two merging neutron stars. The rippling space-time grid represents gravitational waves that travel out from the collision, while the narrow beams show the bursts of gamma rays that shoot out just seconds after the gravitational waves. There are also whirling clouds of material ejected from the merging stars. NSF/LIGO/Sonoma State University/A. Simonnet | Courtesy

The Download ... Science in the news -Compiled by Madeleine Jepsen

Lang said the conference gave him the opportunity to reconnect with several other LIGO members with whom he had worked in the past. “It’s always good to see people in person,” Lang said. “It kind of revitalizes you.” Around 40 students celebrated LIGO’s recent Nobel Prize in Physics and the neutron star discovery on Oct. 19 in the physics department hallway. Professor of Physics Ken Hayes organized the campuswide gathering, complete with balloons, cake, and “neutron star punch.”

vation: politics, economics, culture, history, and philosophy. Temple said, for example, that Leopold cared deeply about the economic well-being of landowners. He knew that farmers would properly care for their land only if it was economically beneficial. But Temple said Leopold saw a growing disconnect between farmers and landowners in the United States. Leopold dealt with family farmers who had strong personal interests in the longterm well-being of their land. In America today, however, family-owned farms comprise a small percentage of workable land. This creates a problem for Leopold’s land ethic: Landowners have fewer ethical attachments to their land. “Working lands in the U.S. are no longer owned by individuals working on the land,” Temple said. “They’re owned by corporations. There are no multi-generational owners.” Temple said Leopold’s ideas about conserving private land apply even more today, because 2 percent of the U.S. population make decisions for 85 percent of privately owned land. Speaking about how conservation would look in a Leopoldian world, Temple said: “No one is forcing you to do it. No one is coercing you with a subsidy. You’re doing it because you think it’s right.” Temple said he sees evi-

dence of an ethical view of nature all around, such as in the organic and local food movement, where the decision to promote sustainable land practices comes from consumers and producers who want to preserve the environment. Temple said the land ethic can gain consensus if younger generations are immersed in environmental education and experience with nature. In addition to cultivating ethics through a liberal-arts education, Hillsdale College provides experiences in nature through the Slayton Arboretum. “The most important thing is to experience ecosystems like the arb, which allows students to realize the significance of conservation,” said Laurie Rosenberg, Slayton Arboretum program coordinator. Rosenberg said Leopold’s thinking transcends ideological boundaries. “Leopold made other people open their mind to his ideas,” she said. “He was a liberal thinker, and Hillsdale’s liberal education allows you to think clearly about conservation.” While the land ethic has various applications and ideas, Temple said Leopold left us with a golden rule: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

Junior Laura Salo said she looked up the announcement online right after her morning class and was excited to hear about the neutron star discovery. “I ran back down here to learn more, and on my way, I ran into my friend who said that I spoke nonsense for about a minute because I was so excited, just blabbering on about neutron stars, and she didn’t understand a word of what I was saying,” Salo sad. Sophomore mathematics major Jadon Lippincott became a LIGO member at the beginning of the school year and now assists Lang with data analysis.

“I think it’s pretty awesome, as an undergrad, as a sophomore in college, to get to do something like this,” he said. President of the Astronomy Club Chris Scheithauer, a sophomore, said the discovery has drummed up a lot of interest in physics and astronomy on campus. “A lot of people would not expect a sort of small, rural school like Hillsdale College, especially one that is humanities-focused, to be involved in something like this,” he said. “So it’s sort of a great moment not only for science but I think also for the college in particular.”

Study reveals possible origin of scorched exoplanets

Scientists discover new type of predator-prey relationship

Researchers continue work to develop needle-free flu vaccines

Some hot, rocky exoplanets, planets outside Earth’s solar system, may be the cores of former gas giants, according to a new study. Researchers uncovered evidence that the scorched exoplanets came into their current form after winds from nearby stars blew the gassy atmosphere away from the planets. They observed 117 planets near measured stars and studied the planets’ sizes and distance from the stars. Researchers said the findings indicate some of the earth-size exoplanets may not be as similar to Earth as researchers previously thought.

While observing a type of sea slug, scientists discovered a new feeding method they named kleptopredation. In this type of predation, the predator eats both its prey and the prey’s food. The researchers found evidence that the slug consumed both hydroid polyps and the zooplankton the polyps feed on. The researchers said the study, published in Biological Letters, could contribute to a better understanding of marine environments and food chains.

A new method of immunization in clinical trials show promise as replacements for traditional flu shots, according to a study published in The Lancet. The method involves a patch and was tested in a small trial of 100 participants after initial animal testing had positive results. The patch is less invasive than a needle and does not need to be kept cold since the microneedles in the patch keeps the vaccine stable for up to two years. This new method may help provide vaccinations to people in underdeveloped areas.


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Todd Mack, assistant professor of Spanish, with his wife, Betty, and their four children. Todd Mack | Courtesy

Of languages and literature

New professor joins Spanish department By | Madeleine Jepsen Science & Tech Editor Assistant Professor of Spanish Todd Mack has read everything from “Wuthering Heights” to the “Twilight” series, but he said the all-time greatest novel is “Don Quixote” — an opinion he’s willing to debate with anyone. While Mack, who joined joined the Spanish department this fall, said he has always loved literature and stories, it wasn’t until a twoyear mission trip during college that he truly fell in love with Spanish culture and literature. He had studied Spanish in high school but said it was nothing to write home about. “That mission trip was a really huge turning point in my life,” Mack said. After the mission, he returned to his studies at Brigham Young University and switched his major several times, teetering between his interests in history, literature, and language. He ultimately settled on a Spanish major and history minor before earning his master’s degree in Spanish and his doctorate in Iberian and Latin American cultures at Stanford University. As a part of his studies, he learned Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan, the language of Catalonia. “Stanford has this idea that there are all these other languages that are spoken, all these other nations inside of the Iberian peninsula, and they have great literature and have interesting histories that we can learn from and well

developed cultures and traditions,” Mack said. “In order to understand what’s going on in Spain you have to understand the nations and regions that make it up.” For his dissertation, Mack studied contemporary novels on the Spanish Civil War from multiple regions of Spain. “I went to these places out

ing, running, and reading. He produces a podcast — The Protagonist Podcast — with a longtime friend, in which they discuss a character from a story. The medium of the story varies from old TV shows to comic books and novels, and the duo just produced their 150th podcast. Mack said they’ve covered

“Through my classes I’ve been able to help kids see the world in a different way, and that’s a huge privilege...The fact that we’re in this space with an opportunity to think about stuff together, that’s what changes people. ” in the middle of nowhere and talked to people who had read the novels and their experiences reading the novels,” Mack said. “The dissertation was about how where we’re from impacts the way we read and the way we read impacts the way we remember things, so how memory and literature and space are all tied together.” In addition to his teaching, Mack works as a Catalan translator, translating everything from Catalonian science-fiction short stories from the 1890s to modern academic articles. Outside of work, Mack said he enjoys spending time with his wife, Betty, and his four children. He also enjoys hik-

“Jane Eyre,” “The X-Men,” and everything in between. “Every week, we just sit down and have a conversation,” Mack said. “It’s really fun because it forces me to read tons of stuff. I’m constantly being exposed to new stories, and it’s always awesome to find some new thing to love, and that will happen really frequently.” Although “Don Quixote” is Mack’s favorite, he also listed the “Lord of the Rings” and the “Harry Potter” books as excellent stories. “I love a great story, and I’m not opposed to reading just for fun,” he said. “You just read what you can get your hands on.” Mack will teach a Spanish

literature class, The Hero’s Journey, next semester, and is teaching Beginning Spanish and Composition & Grammar Review this fall. In-class activities have ranged from translating song lyrics to Spanish ad-libs, according to senior John Duffy, a student in Mack’s Composition & Grammar Review class. “Dr. Mack legitimately cares about all his students, and he’s really invested in helping us learn the language,” Duffy said. Chairwoman of Spanish Sandra Puvogel said Mack’s engaging personality and hands-on teaching style will help his students learn and practice the Spanish language. “I think he feels that you want to get people using and speaking the language as much as you can, especially since there aren’t a lot of opportunities in Hillsdale for speaking Spanish outside the classroom,” Puvogel said. Mack said his love for teaching supersedes his other academic interests. “As passionate as I am about literature and philosophy, I’m probably more passionate about just teaching and being in class and having the opportunity to reach students,” Mack said. “I think through my classes I’ve been able to help kids see the world in a different way, and that’s a huge privilege. It’s really not me, but the fact that we’re in this space with an opportunity to think about stuff together, that’s what changes people. It’s awesome to be a part of that.”

B4 Nov. 2, 2017

Paint from B6

of mind.” She said at first she found herself caught in the detail of creating an exact copy of what she saw, but then Knecht encouraged her to take a step back from her painting. “He helped me to look deeper than what I could see at the surface,” Dell said. “‘What were the colors? What’s the feeling?’ He taught me to not get caught in realism.” Knecht said artists of his sort like working with the beauty of natural forms, which tend to be solid objects. He said light, even though it has a “spiritual quality,” is as much the subject as any physical object. “It takes time to make a painting... So, we have to go back time and time again. The weather conditions and lighting are going to change. There is another challenge, ‘Can you use memory to make the painting cohesive in its lighting and color effects?’ ” Knecht said. “Inevitably, the painting becomes a visual composite.” Zemaitaitis said that’s her favorite part. “Knecht has always said to us, ‘You have an artistic license; I’m giving you an artistic license to change this how you want,’” she said. “I feel like being outside has really forced us to use our artistic license. If you don’t like the sky that day, you can use the sky you saw the other day.” She also suggested that being outside in a more independent environment makes it easier to focus. “Everybody is spread out, not everyone is holding conversation...inside, there might be more music or more distraction,” Zemaitaitis said. Professor of Art Bryan Springer was also a student of Knecht’s when he studied as an undergraduate at Hillsdale. Now Springer has taught graphic design and various art classes at the college for almost 10 years, including Painting with Pastels, a class offered every other year in the fall, where he implements plein-air stylistics. This year, Springer said, he has a smaller class size so he is able to visit more

locations with his students. He said they took a trip to the railroad tracks behind Burger King where the students worked on painting a red building. Springer said atmospheric perspective is portrayed through value and color. Fall is the perfect time for his students to experience that, he added. “Natural lighting is wonderful because we perceive more color versus studio lighting. Lighting in the studio is not exactly flat, but it’s not as vibrant,” Springer said. “Being outside with so many different objects reflecting so many different rays is a visual feast of color.” He said the changing light source makes it necessary to work quickly. “There might be a freshness to it— a painterly quality —as opposed to being in the studio, where you might labor over contours or small details,” Springer said. Springer explained that working outdoors allows students to use perspectives made famous by the impressionist artists; he said they saw shadows in terms of color. “It requires them to think about how they developed a way to see colors, which may or may not be there, in order to create some depth and dimension,” Springer said. His coffee cup sports a quote from Manet: “Black is not a color.” Like Knecht, Springer capitalizes on giving attention to light and shadows, but working with pastels presents another challenge. “They learn from the impressionistic, atmospheric perspective, but then also learning from the medium to think about optically blending so that there’s a vibrancy without the dull, muddy quality that pastel has the tendency to do if you don’t know how to use it,” Springer said. As the weather starts to prevent the students from working plein-air, Zemaitaitis said she is onto the next challenge, this time inside the studio. “Next thing we have to do is self-portraits in oils,” she said. “Oil painting is a whole different medium.”

When the weather’s nice, students take studio class outside to downtown hillsdale or Slayton Arboretum. Rachel Reynolds | Collegian

More than a name change: ‘politics,’ not ‘political science’ By | Joshua J. Paladino Opinions Editor For most of Hillsdale’s history, students who studied politics graduated with a degree in political science. Now, they graduate with a degree in politics. History and political science existed as one department until 2000. When President Larry Arnn arrived, political science professors separated from the history department and took on a new department name: politics. “Hillsdale makes the claim that its education is based on self-evident truths, which are thus old and new,” Professor of Politics Mickey Craig said in an email. “The decision not to take a quantitative approach to the study of politics is probably the chief reason for calling our major politics rather than political science. We take a great books or classical approach to the study of politics and reject the methodology which dominates the study of politics in higher education today.” Many universities study politics through statistical and mathematical models, which are designed to predict and

produce political outcomes. These departments do not make value judgments about what constitutes the good life. “We want to differentiate ourselves from more common models of political science that claim to be describing behavior without raising the question of justice,” said John Grant, assistant professor of politics. He said political science has, in many ways, received unfair criticism. Grant disagrees with political science insofar as it tries to quantify human behavior. There is, however, another way to view political science: as an application of political philosophy to real world scenarios. In this sense, Grant said he thinks political science is vitally important to the study of politics. “I think we have to demonstrate the relevance of the theory,” he said. “If the theory doesn’t connect to reality or practice, then I don’t know why we’re doing it. Knowledge should serve life in my view.” Grant said the original ancient Greek word for politics — politika — carries the meaning that the study of politics is both philosophical and scientific.

“It can be hard for students to know why they should study Plato, Aristotle, or Aquinas. It’s a reasonable objection,” he said. “We need to work to make sure that stu-

politics but more difficult for ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. This distinction plays out depending on the course. For example, in Intro to

“We want to differentiate ourselves from more commonmodels of political science that claim to be describing behavior without raising the question of justice.” dents see why they’re studying these texts.” Here, a slight divide arises in the politics department. Some professors emphasize political philosophy, while others concentrate on applying theory to contemporary issues. It depends on the professor’s preferences but also on the content of each course. Grant said it’s easier to connect thinkers like Machiavelli and Marx to real world

American Foreign Policy, Grant will spend most class time examining specific foreign policy decisions, with contemporary examples of America’s current involvement in the Middle East. But in Modern Political Philosophy, contemporary applications are less pervasive. Senior Ian McRae, a politics major, said students who study politics should always begin with political philoso-

phy. “The department’s decision to call the major ‘politics’ allows for students to be able to have a greater variety of what they can study,” he said. “The better thing to study as an undergraduate and have a foundation in is political philosophy because politics is informed by it.” He said quantitative methods of political science do not provide an accurate view of politics. “Trying to use quantitative methods to predict and control outcomes in politics is only so useful, and it’s really only useful retrospectively,” McRae said. “Just look at 2016. Political science led people to believe that Brexit would fail and Clinton would win. And look at what happened.” Associate Professor of Politics Kevin Slack tends to focus on political philosophy in his classroom. “In my experience, there is a core of politics students who excel in abstract thought, and enjoy reading more difficult political philosophical texts, but most come to Hillsdale looking to participate in a debate over concrete policies,” Slack said.

In this semester’s 20th and 21st Century Political Philosophy class, Slack guides students through the complex texts of Martin Heidegger, Leo Strauss, Michel Foucault, Noam Chomsky, and more. On a regular day the class won’t mention President Donald Trump or lambaste the federal government. But the students’ constant immersion in the perplexing questions raised by modern philosophers supplants the lack of contemporary political discussions. The debate over whether students should study practical policy questions or political philosophy oftentimes comes down to the professor’s preferred teaching style and the student’s preferred way to learn. Despite differences in teaching styles, the department rejects the mathematical approach to politics that most universities take. The professors are unified in the belief that normative questions, such as the meaning of justice, must set the foundation for a study of politics.


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A5 Nov. 2, 2017

Who cares about an Oxford Comma? You should. By | Nicole Ault Assistant Editor The City of Hillsdale is so anxious for innovation, it can’t pause for a comma. To complement a new logo, the city is considering a few taglines, including: “Where Tradition, Education and Innovation Thrive.” But if Hillsdale really stands by those values, it should insert the Oxford comma after “education.” The Oxford (or serial) comma precedes the conjunction in a series of terms or phrases — it’s the one after “tigers” in “lions, tigers, and bears.” So named because of its traditional use by the Oxford University Press, the Oxford comma finds support in such grammar heavyweights as “The Chicago Manual of Style”, “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk and E.B. White, and the U.S. Govern-

ment Printing Office style guide. Its opponents include style books of the Associated Press and the New York Times. Those against the comma claim it’s pretentious. It’s clunky. It takes up space and ink and the time it takes to stroke a key. But most style guides argue that the Oxford comma dispels ambiguity. Erasing the Oxford comma can wreak havoc. You can confuse people (“I met two guys, Jane and Sue”), defame people (“I like weirdos, George Washington and Lincoln”), or even commit heresy (“This book is dedicated to my parents, God and Oprah”). Adding a comma makes all the difference. You can also lose a $10 million lawsuit. Last March, truckers sued a dairy company over a contract clause specifying what was exempt

from overtime pay: “the canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of [food products].” Finding no Oxford comma after “shipment,” the truckers argued the clause said they were exempt from packing for distribution, not distribution itself. They won the case, and the dairy company knew the supreme value of the Oxford comma. The lack of an Oxford comma in the Hillsdale tagline probably won’t stir up a lawsuit, and in the case of Hillsdale’s tagline, it doesn’t actually make a difference in meaning. Why not save the ink and space and throw it out? Because meaning isn’t just a technical thing — it’s conveyed in rhythm and flow, too. Grammar is a matter of aesthetics and common sense,

and the Oxford comma keeps it that way. Recent research has explored an increasingly evident connection between grammar and rhythm: People who are sensitive to one are sensitive to the other. A study by a developmental research center at Vanderbilt University found that children who can distinguish musical rhythm are better at grammar. The connection makes sense. Grammar rules aren’t just there for rules’ sake. They create rhythm and that contributes to meaning. Commas make us pause. Dashes make us pause — longer. The pauses convey emphasis and importance. “The ‘rules’ of grammar aren’t rules at all. They’re creative tools for organising and presenting our thoughts, for giving structure to what we mean and giving meaning to the form. You can hear

them, feel them, just like the beat in a song,” writes Saga Briggs, managing editor for an education blog. Read “Tradition, Education and Innovation,” and tradition bears the weight of importance, as if education and innovation must join forces to reach its level. Read “Tradition, Education, and Innovation,” and the importance is evenly distributed. What are we trying to say? The Oxford comma is a breath, a clarifier, and a rhythm maker. In a world where text messages murder punctuation and vowels, it’s a taste of elegance and a nod to tradition. In a culture of breathless activity and impatience, it makes us pause. And, with rhythm, it conveys subtle meaning. Maybe the eagerness to drop the comma comes from a hunger for minimalism, efficiency, and speed common

to our modern culture that we should avoid. In any case, most people would prefer to keep it. A poll by the website FiveThirtyEight found that most Americans — 57 percent — prefer the use of the Oxford comma. Among 18-to-29year-olds, support soared to 79 percent. The City of Hillsdale’s median age, according to 2015 data, is 27.2. And that’s not counting the 1,500 college students who flood the town every year. It’s just a guess, but their nerdy love for grammar and all things Oxford is probably above average. If Hillsdale is about tradition, education, and innovation — and the people — it should stick to this age-old mark of rhythm, sense, and clarity. Nicole Ault is a junior studying economics.

Christians, whether Catholic Schools need year-round calendar or Protestant, should not celebrate the Reformation Orthodox Church. At the By | Regan Meyer Special to The Collegian meeting, the Pope formally The event commonly known as the Protestant Reformation was not a reformation. To reform something is to change or fix problems and abuses. A revolt, on the other hand, is to separate oneself from an institution or to renounce allegiance. Martin Luther aimed to reform the abuses and corruptions in the Catholic Church, of which there were many. Luther instead sparked a revolt that splintered the Christian Church. Regardless of theological views, Christians should view the protestant revolt as a great tragedy in world history. Protestants should not celebrate it as a joyous or hallowed event. Instead Christians should denounce it and treat it with a seriousness that becomes its history. Even if people view the Reformation as a necessary event, they should still treat the Reformation as a tragedy. In 1054, the Great Schism divided the Church into the East and West or Roman Catholic and Orthodox. The Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Church, however, do not celebrate this day as a victory of theological debate. Rather, both churches express sorrow and regret concerning the divisions of the Church. In 2001, Pope John Paul II met Archbishop Christodoulos, the head of the Greek

apologized to the Archbishop for all the violent acts committed against Eastern Christians by Western Christians. The religious leaders also released a joint declaration saying, “We shall do everything in our power, so that the Christian roots of Europe and its Christian soul may be preserved. We condemn all recourse to violence, proselytism and fanaticism, in the name of religion.” Those celebrating Reformation Day should take notes from the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Church. A schism between believers is not to be celebrated. The unity of the Christian Church is vital, now more than ever. Instead of celebrating the small differences that keep us apart, we should observe the key similarities that all Christians possess. The events that followed the nailing of the 95 theses to the Wittenburg door are nothing short of catastrophic. The amount of Christian on Christian violence is appalling. From the Slaughter of the Huguenots in 1572 to the Thirty Years War in 1618, Protestants and Catholics alike faced persecution and death at the hand of their brothers in Christ. The violence continued into the modern age. Christian on Christian violence plagued Northern Ireland

students have the longest summer breaks in the developed world. European countries take about six to eight weeks for summer vacation. Some say students need summer break so they can vacation with their families, as families did 100 years ago. But very few families need, or want, 10 weeks together. A six-week summer break would allow families to go on vacation (although I’ve never met a family that spends more than two weeks away from home). It would also prevent the wasteful side-effects of summer break. Low-income students lose, on average, two months of reading comprehension skills and one month of math skills over the traditional summer vacation, according to a Johns Hopkins study. Their middle-class counterparts, by comparison, make small gains. By the time low-income children graduate elementary school, they have lost up to two years of education. Teachers have to devote their precious time to reteaching because of summer learning loss, too. According to the National Summer Learning Association, 90 percent of teachers spend between three and six weeks reteaching material forgotten over summer break. A year-round school calendar, in which schools run for four weeks, then take a week or two off, would have students constantly working toward a meaningful, relaxing break. It would also mitigate the nasty side-effects of summer vacation: knowledge loss, couchlock, and worst of all — boredom. Parents would get some relief, as well. For households

with only one parent or two working parents, finding someone to watch children for 10 weeks straight is stressful and expensive. But getting a nanny for a week or two, or simply taking time off work, may be more manageable. Within this framework, schools could still afford longer breaks for summer, Christmas, and Easter. Most states require students to attend class for 36 weeks in a year. With a six-week summer break, schools would have 10 weeks of vacation to spread throughout the year. Summer vacation is useful for high-school and college students who want to take full-time jobs and internships. But changing the school calendar wouldn’t take away those opportunities. With a year-round school year, businesses could still hire during the shorter summer break. Alternatively, students could stay with companies all year but work only during their monthly breaks. Parents, students, and teachers could benefit from a year-round school calendar. Educators could save precious times in the classroom and with that time explore more in-depth material. Students could escape the boredom of long summers, while having more opportunities to rest throughout the year. Parents could more easily prepare for a year-round school schedule, as summer would no longer be a life-altering event. It’s time to leave behind tradition and follow the science.w

Regan Meyer is a freshman studying the liberal arts.

By | Joshua J. Paladino Opinions Editor Students returning from Fall Break don’t feel rested. Most are already asking how many weeks they have until Thanksgiving Break. A four-day weekend isn’t enough time to decompress — and forget about enjoying quality time with family or catching up with school work. Rushed breaks are a stress in themselves. Schools need to break from the calendar with long summer vacations, so that students have more frequent, shorter breaks that will provide stress-free rest and improve education. An urban legend says summer vacation comes from the agrarian calendar, so that students could help on the family farm. But the majority of farm work occurs during planting and harvesting, which happen when school is in session. Farmers didn’t take the summer off, but their workload was slightly reduced. Schools in farming communities often have their longest breaks during the spring and fall, but they continue during the summer. Summer vacation truly began in the city in the late 1800s. It started because upper-middle-class families went on vacations, unlike the vacations we take today, to escape the blistering heat of summer and the air-conditioner-free classrooms that made the weather even less bearable. For many in the 19th and 20th century, vacations meant moving to a cooler climate for the entire summer. In the United States this led to the 10-week, or longer, summer vacation. American

of day-to-day life can distract us to think of it as nothing more than the shortest path between the doors of Kendall and Lane halls. If efficiency is our goal, then there is nothing wrong with that, but perhaps our actions should be guided by more than valueless considerations. The word sacred comes from the Latin sacrare which means to consecrate, immortalize, to set apart. A sacred space is one that is set apart to honor and bring reverence to

something or someone. Hillsdale College is building Christ Chapel as a place set apart to honor and worship God. The Civil War monument was built to the “memory of our heroic dead who fell in defense of the Union.” This is a sacred space. A space that has been set apart to bring honor and reverence to individuals whose selfless actions have made them worthy of deep respect. Among those memorialized there are three generals, three colonels, five lieutenant

colonels, three Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, and hundreds of students from our own college whose actions helped save the Union. The Taft statue and its surrounding area is a space that should be set apart. As such, it should not be used for mundane reasons, nor for any other reason than that for which it was intended except in extraordinary circumstances. Shaving a few seconds off one’s walk from class does not qualify as an extraordinary

circumstance. Perhaps this is much ado about nothing, but in our culture, which increasingly replaces objective value with efficiency, Gen. Kelly’s call to the nation to save the last vestiges of sacredness rings true. Honoring dead American soldiers is important, perhaps we should err on the side of it being more than nothing.

control while shooting films with gun violence. Trump has taken on two of the biggest sports industries — the NBA and the NFL — with strength. When the Golden State Warriors and NBA player Stephen Curry hesitated at the opportunity to visit the White House, Trump immediately revoked their invitation. He doesn’t need them. Lebron James criticized Trump voters, saying “At the end of the day, I don’t think a lot of people was educated.” James’ struggles with simple subject-verb agreement aside, the great irony is that James completed only a high school education. The irony is stunning. Jeffrey Goldberg, The Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, tweeted “The President of

the United States is now in a war with Stephen Curry and LeBron James. This is not a war Trump will win.” Perhaps Goldberg forgets that Lebron James campaigned extensively for Hillary in Ohio, a state which Trump went on to win by about 9 points (after Ohio went blue in both 2008 and 2012). It appears to be a battle Trump can actually win. When Mike Pence walked out of an Indianapolis Colts game after players knelt for the National Anthem, his actions were criticized as a political stunt. But the entire concept of kneeling was a political stunt from the start. The difference is that now the other side is fighting back. After all, anthem protests are wildly unpopular with flyover-state Americans — by

far the biggest source of NFL revenue. Why shouldn’t Pence leave on behalf of the silent majority? After consecutive weeks of massive ratings drops and financial losses in advertising, not to mention the humiliation of Pence’s walkout, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote a letter asking all players to stand for the anthem. This is how you fight a culture war. Can anyone imagine Jeb Bush or John Kasich taking on the NFL? Any quick glance at nflarrest. com is enough to show that these paid athletes are not paradigms of virtue. They are not role models It turns out our elites are some of our worst. Enough of their sanctimony. Enough of their repeated show of disgust for everyday Ameri-

cans, believing themselves to be our moral and intellectual superiors. They are neither. They ought not be respected because they are not respectable. They ought not be honored because they are not honorable. Donald Trump is showing us how to fight back in a culture war, and how to win. He has undermined their unholy priesthood and rebuked their condescension. He has toppled the sacred cow of a group whose hubris knows no bounds. Their ostentatious displays are quickly becoming impotent. If they want to act and play sports, that’s fine. But they need to stick to that.

throughout the twentieth century. It’s useless to point fingers and make claims about who’s to blame for the Reformation. The reality is Catholics and Protestants alike are responsible for the violence that befell Europe after 1517. It doesn’t matter whether Christians believe they are right about baptism or eschatology or predestination, etc. Instead of being a reformation in which peaceful dialogue and debate led to changes, it became a revolt and a bloody one at that. Regardless of your theology, the date October 31, 1517 should be marked with sorrow, regret, and reflection. Christianity is meant to be unified. When Jesus said, “I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church”, he said “church” not “churches.” If Christianity was still one, then as a united force, what could be accomplished? Imagine the estimated 2.2 billion Christians all united, all together. Imagine if we weren’t all preoccupied with debating paedo and credo baptism or eschatology or predestination. The good that would flow from a unified Christian Church would change the world. But Christians live in house divided, and, as told by Mark 3:25, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”

Joshua J. Paladino is a senior studying politics.

Hillsdale students should respect the last of America’s sacred spaces vestiges of sacredness in the By | Juan Dávalos Special to The Collegian country, the treatment of dead soldiers. White House Chief of Staff, A sacred place on campus Gen. John Kelly, in an imis the Alpha Kappa Phi statue passioned speech a couple of built in 1895 to “recognize the weeks ago lamented the grow- Civil War honor of more than ing loss of sacredness he has 500 Hillsdale College soldiers seen in America throughout who dutifully answered the his life -- from the treatment call of their country.” Alof women, to life, to religion. though the space where the He addressed the issue monument sits is used in ways during a daily press briefing, that accentuate its sacredness, after being stunned by the like the 9/11 memorial or the news that a member of the unveiling of the Frederick House of Representatives Douglass statue, the business had desecrated one of the last

Juan Dávalos is a student in the Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship.

Trump shows conservatives how to fight and win a culture war

By | Garrison Grisedale Special to The Collegian The election of President Donald Trump brought a rebirth of the nation-state and government by consent along with some decisive legislative victories—and his supporters expect much more to come. But one of the biggest accomplishments under Trump has not been in politics but in culture: the delegitimization of today’s elites. When the news of Harvey Weinstein broke, it came as a shock to many Americans. But Hollywood wasn’t surprised — everyone already knew. They were just surprised that the story broke. After all, Vulture reported that the New York Times killed the story back in 2004 at the urging of Matt Damon

and Russel Crowe. But should anyone be surprised that an industry saturating American television with sexual immodesty turns out to be a cesspool of gross immorality and perversion? And how many of these Hollywood elites were close personal friends of Weinstein while lecturing America on Trump’s past behavior? Our Hollywood starlets never pass up a chance for hypocritical moral posturing. They decry income inequality while living the most luxurious lifestyles in world history. They lecture us on global warming while zipping around the world in private jets. They criticize our hesitance to accept refugees from volatile nations while staying tucked away in their gated communities. They push gun

Garrison Grisedale is a junior studying politics.


Nov. 2, 2017

Bidding farewell to fall

On the Outdoor Adventures Club’s excursion up north, students could hike in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Caroline Hennekes | Courtesy

As the last leaves drop, students camp in Sleeping Bear Dunes, paint outside for final time

Plein-air makes perfect By | Crystal Shupbach Assistant Editor

One bright Thursday in October, senior Anna Zemaitaitis exchanged her studio easel and heavy wooden palette for a lightweight easel, cans of mineral spirits, and palette paper and ventured with her classmates to Half Moon Lake Road to capture the canopied dirt roads full of fall color. “We were like, ‘I can’t believe we’re doing this for a class! We’re getting credit for sitting, painting, outside in beautiful weather.’ It made me happy,” Zemaitaitis said. “It makes you more peaceful when you are doing it because you’re using a different part of your brain.” Zemaitaitis is one of many art students at Hillsdale whose classes have been taking minitrips all autumn, discovering new challenges in portraying natural landscapes and smalltown cityscapes. For one project in Oils 2, Professor of Art Samuel Knecht’s advanced oil painting

Students in Oils 2 learn outdoor painting techniques on site in downtown Hillsdale. Rachel Reynolds | Collegian

Outdoor Adventures Club takes fall break hike By | Nicole Ault Assistant Editor

class, Zemaitaitis focused on painting a scene near the railroad tracks behind Rough Draft coffee shop, and set up studio in the Slayton Arboretum earlier in the semester to depict the still-fresh green landscape wrapped in warmth. Knecht explained this technique is called “en plein air,” French for “in the open air.” “I’m a big advocate of art from life, rather than art just for art’s sake,” Knecht said. “When we can, in the teaching studio, we work with live models, but it’s also great to get people out of the building and on location.” Knecht said that one of the biggest lessons learned from working outdoors is the ability to “read and record the colors and light of a scene with some degree of faithfulness.” He emphasizes naturalism and simplification to students in his oils classes. “It’s easy for the novice painter to become overwhelmed with too much

information,” he said. “So the learning curve is to look for a way to simplify things into a pattern and to think about eliminating unimportant detail, getting right down to the essentials.” All of his students made progress during their three outdoor projects, but he said a moment with sophomore Joanna Dell stood out to him. “She was not quite finding her way for the first two sessions at the arboretum. I gave her coaching points, and suddenly, she got it. She began working very broadly and massing information, consolidating big masses of foliage,” Knecht said. Then, Dell’s whole painting gelled. “I found things like the leaves having the same color family — that helped me simplify,” Dell said. “It was able to give me a bit of peace

Hiking, climbing sand dunes, spending frigid nights in tents, and cooking food over a campfire may not be the most comfortable way to spend fall break — but for the 54 students who did, it was a restful change of pace from midterms and papers. “It was nice to kind of disconnect,” freshman Caroline Hennekes said. “Definitely not the best nights of sleep, but it was worth it. The trip was restful in other ways.” For the second year in a row, the Outdoor Adventures Club organized the camping trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a national park near Traverse City, Michigan. Students loaded into 12 cars to drive four-and-a-half hours northeast on Wednesday afternoon, then drove back on Saturday. Students had to pay just $25 each to cover gas, din-

ner for one night, fuel, and firewood, said junior Emma McCormick, Outdoor Adventures Club president. McCormick said 21 more students attended this year, which encouraged her, especially considering the forecast for rain. “It was a great time of bonding,” Hennekes said, noting that huddling around the fire at the campsite was especially fun. “The leaves were just starting to change. It was the perfect weekend, really.” Students chose what they wanted to do there, McCormick said. Some went hiking, climbed sand dunes, and took scenic drives along Lake Michigan. On Saturday, a group drove into Traverse City. Junior Mark Compton said he appreciated the time to bond with other students — especially during hikes up sand dunes. “You have to walk up these giant dunes together, and

you haven’t showered in who knows how long, and you think ‘I guess we have to be friends now,’” he said. “The trip was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be.” Compton said one of his favorite memories was hiking up a dune with friends on the first night and stargazing. “It kind of set the tone for the rest of the trip,” he said. “It was exhausting physically but mentally so refreshing.” McCormick said running down the sand dunes was a fun way to unwind: “You feel like a little kid running down the dunes. They’re super steep, but you don’t have to worry, and you can go so fast, windmilling your arms. You feel like you’re going out of control.” For Hennekes, the trip was her first camping adventure — and not her last, she said. “It’s definitely not going to be my last time camping,” she said. “I wasn’t ready to come back.”

More than 50 students camped at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore with Outdoor Adventures Club. Caroline Hennekes | Courtesy

See Paint B4

Hannah Stevenson By | Jo Kroeker

Who inspired your style?

Dr Gaetano (with permission, of course). It was also an exciting day, because I chose to declare a major in history to celebrate the occasion. I felt it was an extremely appropriate day to do so, on many levels.

I wouldn’t say any particular person inspired my style, but it was inspired by the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

Are you wearing all your Reformation swag or is there more? How long did it take to collect and what’ll be your next acquisition? I started collecting swag about a year ago. There is more that I’m not wearing in the picture, like my sweater. I think the only thing I am missing is pants, so I guess that would be the next acquisition. In addition to boasting all the Luther gear, what else did you do for Reformation Day?

Hannah Stevenson ’20. Collegian | Jo Kroeker

On Reformation Day I handed out Reformation Day pencils, stickers, and copies of the 95 theses in English and Latin. A few copies ended up on the doors of Catholic professors, like

What’s your favorite item of clothing? I have to say I just really love that shirt, which says “Luther is my homeboy” because it pretty much sums up my philosophy of life. I love that dude. He is definitely the bomb.com.

Anything else?

I think that’s all. I was just super excited to celebrate, because I love Martin Luther so much! Hannah Stevenson ’20. Collegian | Jo Kroeker


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