Hillsdale Collegian 4.26.18

Michigan’s oldest college newspaper

Vol. 141 Issue 27 - April 26, 2018

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The men’s tennis team poseswith the G-MAC Championship trophy. Dugan Delp | Courtesy

Chargers tennis teams win G-MAC championships Men make history with first conference victory By | Scott McClallen Assistant Editor For the first time in school history, the Hillsdale College men’s tennis team are conference champions.

On Saturday, the Chargers topped the Walsh Cavaliers in Owensboro, Kentucky, to become the 2018 G-MAC tournament champions.

The Chargers blanked No. 4 seed Davis & Elkins University 5-0 during the conference semifinals on Friday.

Hillsdale swept doubles play and then took two singles matches to clench the five points required for a tournament victory.

Junior Justin Hyman and Sophomore Charlie Adams

won No. 1 doubles 8-6. Senior captain Dugan Delp and junior John Ciraci were No. 2 doubles winners 8-3, while sophomore Milan Mirkovic and Adams clenched No. 3 doubles 8-1.

Sophomore Michael Szabo shutout No. 6 singles 6-0, 6-0, while Ciraci took No. 5 singles 6-0, 6-1.

Mirkovic said Hillsdale’s semifinal shutout mentally prepared the Chargers to face No. 3 seed Walsh, who upset No. 2 seed Findlay on Friday, 5-4.

“We won that match 5-0, which was crucial for entering the finals with confidence,” Mirkovic said.

Hillsdale defeated Walsh University 5-1 on Sunday to

claim the title.

The Chargers started off 2-1 in doubles play, with Hyman and Adams shutting out No. 1 doubles 8-0 and Delp and Ciraci fighting for an 8-2 victory at No. 2 doubles. Hillsdale entered singles play three wins away from clenching the championship.

Adams claimed No. 2 singles 6-1, 6-1, his 11th consecutive singles win, followed by Mirkovic’s No. 1 singles win 6-3, 6-1.

Delp, Hillsdale’s lone senior who helped start the team three years ago, grabbed his final Charger victory at No. 4 singles 6-1, 6-0 to clench the trophy.

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The men’s tennis team took first in the G-MAC championship. Dugan Delp | Courtesy

Bergen to leave president’s office By | Carmel Kookogey Collegian Reporter Victoria Bergen’s colleagues describe her as the gatekeeper of the president’s office.

“If she were not so sweet and instantly ready to be helpful to everyone, I would call her the unmoved mover.

She has divine attributes, but not that kind of deity,” College President Larry Arnn said.

Bergen, who serves as the president’s office executive assistant, is leaving at the end

of the summer, after seven years of service. Bergen, who studied political economy while at Hillsdale, has worked in the president’s office since a month after her graduation in 2011. Dean of Women Diane Philipp recommended her for the job at a basketball game at the beginning of her last semester of school.

“She told me there was an opening in the president’s office and that she thought I should apply,” Bergen said. “I thanked her; I thought it was

quite a compliment ,and I was quite inspired by that, but inside I was thinking, ‘Yeah, right, I could never work up there.’ I didn’t really think about it after that.”

Bergen, who was applying for jobs with different political organizations in Washington, D.C., at the time, did not consider the opportunity again until Professor of Law Robert Blackstock suggested the job to her, independent of Philipp.

By | Madeline Fry Culture Editor “Hi, Pastalamizi,” Sue Postle calls from her little apartment off the lobby of Benzing Residence.

Her burnt orange door is flung open, and a bouquet of “thank you” flowers rests on a stool: The women of Benzing have thrown her a surprise party to express their appreciation for her care and commitment as their house mom.

She’s just come in from the side lobby, which she has recently turned into a bedroom for a resident assistant recovering from surgery. While residents pass by, the Benzing

house director calls to them to join them in singing “Tutti Frutti” by Little Richard. The song’s key line: “I got a girl, named Sue, / She knows just what to do.”

She calls all the girls “pastalamizis,” which is a generic term of endearment or mild irritation, depending on the situation.

“Nicknames are terms of endearment,” she says.

It’s not the only way she expresses affection. An Italian, Postle shows love to her residents by singing, laughing, crying, or dancing with them, sometimes all in a moment.

Allison Duber ’17, who

lived in Benzing her sophomore year, says Postle was her “mother away from home.”

“When I came back from indoor track and field nationals, she took my trophy from me and ran it around the entire dorm shouting to everyone about our women’s second place finish. She then proceeded to sing, and I don’t even remember what song it was because I was laughing so hard. She is always the most excited person if you tell her any kind of good news, and she wants everyone to share in the celebration,” Duber said.

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Benzing house director to retire at end of semester

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The women’s tennis team defeated Walsh Univeristy on Saturday to win the G-MAC Championship.

Corinne Prost | Courtesy

Women secure NCAA tournament bid

By | Breana Noble Editor-in-Chief They did it.

The women’s tennis Chargers won their first conference tournament championship since 1983 on Saturday, after defeating the University of Findlay 5-0 on Friday and Walsh University 5-1 on Saturday in Owensboro, Kentucky. It is Hillsdale’s fifth G-MAC championship this academic year.

Ranked No. 47 nationally and No. 6 regionally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, Hillsdale College’s seniorless team earned with its championship victory its first-ever automatic bid into

conference awards in their first-ever G-MAC awards banquet.

The conference named junior Halle Hyman the G-MAC Player of the Year for taking over No. 1 singles and going undefeated in the conference. Overall, the 2015 Freshman of the Year was 22-9 this season.

Hyman’s doubles partner, freshman Hannah Cimpeanu, won G-MAC Freshman of the Year. Cimpeanu fit right into the Chargers’ lineup and has a 24-5 record, the best single-season winning percentage for any Charger player since the program’s 2011 revival.

See Women’s A6

CHP explores the jungle By | Regan Meyer Collegian Reporter Students attending Centrahallapalooza on Saturday will step from Hillsdale College’s cozy campus into the wild depths of the jungle.

The Student Activities Board this week is working to transform the lot next to the Mu Alpha Residence into a jungle complete with live animals in the form of an exotic petting zoo.

SAB team member junior Kendra Lantis said the team chose the theme so that students could immerse themselves in it and dress the part.

“We just loved how fun last year’s space CHP was with having a theme people could dress up to,” Lantis said.

“We didn’t see that as being as crazy and fun as people wanted it to be. We all came up with Welcome to the Jungle together and love that there is a lot of freedom to dress up.”

SAB Creative Team Leader senior Jake Kenyon said students should look forward to many different aspects of CHP. “The theme is amazing,” Kenyon said. “It’s going to be lit because of that. Everyone is going to be all dressed

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the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional tournament on Saturday. The team will head to Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, with a 14-4 overall record and an undefeated 7-0 in the G-MAC. “We kind of dominated this season, going undefeated and sweeping the conference awards,” head coach Nikki Walbright said. “It confirmed the achievements my girls did this year and how hard we worked, which was nice.

It was a really fun way to end the G-MAC play. It’s kind of a new era, a new beginning for us.”

On the evening of April 19, the Chargers swept the

up. There will be a costume contest. It’s going to be a great time with friends and good food. Be prepared to have a great time, and there’s chicken tenders. People need to know that.”

The costume contest will occurr at 9:30 p.m., before the final musical act, electronic dance music group SEEB, performs. Winners will receive a prize that has not yet been determined.

“It will be kind of a hype thing,” senior event coordinator Lyndsey Bice said. “Our crew will be on the lookout for good costumes throughout the day, and then we’ll personally go up to those people on stage. The winner will be based off crowd applause.”

Before SEEB takes the stage, three student bands will perorm their own sets: Penny and the Mandimes, The Village Idiots, and Trophy Wives. Director of Student Activites Ashlyn Landherr said securing SEEB was based on feedback from CHP 2017.

“We brought in the Lost Kings, a DJ act, last year,” Landherr said. “We really liked that and got a lot of good survey feedback from it.

The students knew they wanted to do that type of act again.

We worked with an agent to try and get some ideas. We had to bargain a little bit for sure, but it wasn’t too difficult to bring them here.”

While the music and costumes are a large part of CHP, SAB has planned a variety of different activities to keep students entertained throughout the night.

“We’ll have lots of food,” Lantis said. “There will be lots of things to do with friends, so whether it’s inflatables, face-painting, listening to college bands open up for our main act, there’s going to be a lot of food, a lot of activities, and just a lot of places to enjoy each other’s company.”

As the last SAB event of the year, Landherr said CHP is a great way to celebrate the end of the year.

“It’s just a really fun way for everyone to come together,” Landherr said. “This is an event that everyone goes to.

It’s a great way to build community especially towards the end of the year. It’s the last thing for seniors. For everyone else, it’s the last thing before they go home for the summer. It’s a culmination of everything: all those memories you’ve made throughout the year, all of the relationships that you’ve built.”

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A2 April 26, 2018

Seniors score in top tier on national proficiency exam Members of the Chi Omega sorority helped pack almost 30,000 meals at the Numana meal-packing event on Sunday.

Jenny Lesnau | Courtesy

Students pack nearly 30,000 meals By | Sutton Dunwoodie Collegian Reporter Over the course of a single hour, 120 volunteers packaged 20,982 meals for children in Haiti, enough to feed 83 kids for an entire school year.

Volunteers packaged the meals with the assistance of Numana, Inc., a nonprofit hunger relief organization.

The GOAL Program organized volunteers and raised money for the event, while Numana provided the supplies and expertise needed to make it a success.

The event almost didn’t happen, though. Senior Allison Deckert, director of the GOAL Program, said fundraising difficulties left GOAL scrambling to raise $3,700 in one week to prevent the event’s cancellation. GOAL

was able to raise $4,900 in just seven days, more than enough money to hold the event.

“It was really powerful for me to see God’s faithfulness in the fundraising,” Deckert said.

“It was a panicked week, and just to see all of the donations line up providentially was really powerful.”

At the event, music played constantly, with cheering after every box of 36 meals was fully packed, and a volunteer banging a gong to commemorate the achievement of each new milestone. Jason Hecker, an operations manager for Numana, said the attitude of the volunteers was one of his favorite parts about working this type of event.

“There is nothing better than going to work with someone who has the same

goal of wanting to help as you do,” Hecker said. “It is a very small group of us at the warehouse and we have a blast working with the volunteers.”

While the two most senior officers of GOAL said they were satisfied with the event, GOAL Coordinator Lucile Townley said there is a chance the event will not occur every year.

“My goal would be to alternate this event, where all of the work and good go overseas, with a large-scale volunteer event in Hillsdale County,” Townley said. “Fundraising $6,000 two years in a row is tough, and since GOAL is focused on Hillsdale community service rather than volunteering in general, we would like to alternate it.”

Waterman, Niedfeldt slotted for renovations over summer By | Nolan Ryan Assistant Editor Two dorms will join the wave of renovations sweeping across campus. Waterman and Niedfeldt residences are set to get various features renovated over the course of the summer. These renovations follow a series of updates to several other dormitories.

There is a loose schedule the college keeps for dorm renovations, according to Chief Administrative Officer Richard Péwé.

“We have a schedule which is used as a planning tool,” he said. “We budget accordingly, but adjustments get made.

Sometimes another immediate need will require waiting another year for something else on the schedule.”

Various aspects of dorm renovations run on a timeline.

Every three years, the interiors get painted. From then on, the possible renovations are reviewed at the 10,- 15-, 30-, and 40-year marks. The renovations get more detailed and intense each time.

“Last summer we gave Whitley the 30-year treatment, and this summer we are going to do the same for Niedfeldt,” Péwé said in an email. “Waterman was on the schedule for the summer of 2019, but we moved it up after consulting with Superintendent of Buildings and Utilities Dave Billington and the deans.”

Waterman will be reno-

vated by the college itself, but an outside contractor will be hired to complete the renovations for Niedfeldt, according to Péwé.

“Typically projects that take a few months or more will go to an outside contractor,” he said in an email.

“We get several competitive bids when we go to outside contractors. We balance the scope, cost, and time involved.”

Waterman Head Resident Assistant Chloe Kookogey, a junior, has kept in contact with Dean of Women Diane Philipp and Associate Dean of Women Rebekah Dell about concerns with the dorm. In addition to being the head RA, Kookogey also acts as the student house director, so she has the responsibility to bringing maintenance concerns to the deans and the maintenance office.

“I’ve brought different things to light and raised issues with things that are broken in the house,” she said. “I communicated that to Miss Dell and Dean Philipp.

They’ve had it in the back of their minds for a while, so I don’t think this is anything brand new, but it’s nice to see the ball finally rolling to get these renovations in place.”

Kookogey says the dorm renovations will be a help to Waterman’s community.

“The renovations can’t help, but bring Waterman closer,” she said. “It allows Waterman

to retain all of the charm that it has of a small house. The number of residents will not change; it won’t be expanding.

But several issues that have come up over the years will finally be attended to.”

This summer, Waterman will get new paint, flooring, and kitchen cupboards, as well as remodeled bathrooms, according to Kookogey.

“The bathrooms have been the primary concern,” she said. “It will be so much more convenient to not deal with showers that are perpetually ice cold. All of these things will make living in Waterman a lot more convenient.”

Niedfeldt will be getting similar renovations between semesters, including new carpets. Head Resident Assistant junior Alexander Green said most of the renovations will be in the rooms as opposed to the lobby. Associate Dean of Men Jeffery “Chief ” Rogers informed him of the dorm renovations, which will be a “face-lift,” according to Green.

“It can often be a deterrent to be in the dorm just because of how it looks,” he said. “I lived in Simpson freshman year, so it was nice to have a dorm that was new. I felt really privileged to be in there.

The renovation is going to be really nice for the freshmen coming in, but also for people who don’t know what a new dorm is like. They will be able to have new things.”

Bergen from A1

She then began talking with fellow students who began working in the office after graduation and decided to apply.

“As an undergrad, I always knew that if I could ever work for the college I would, to try and give back in some way, because the college has blessed me in so many areas. So it just proceeded from there,” Bergen said.

Arnn attributed a majority of the efficiency of the president’s office to Bergen’s presence.

“Victoria is a picture of quiet efficiency,” Arnn said in an email. “She seems to have command of everything, and this does not seem very difficult for her. She is blessed with superb judgment.”

He described fellow employees going with “an element of awe” to ask Bergen for help.

Assistant to the President Jaclyn Case, who has worked in the office for two years, said it was Bergen who introduced

Victoria Bergen is leaving her job in the president’s office at the end of the summer. Victoria Bergen | Faceboook

her to most of the other staff.

“If it wasn’t for her, I would still be sitting in the corner, not knowing a lot of faces,” Case said, laughing.

Bergen described her own job as a simple matter of doing whatever needs to be done, from calendar items to larger goals, like the Churchill Project.

“Mainly, I see my role as supporting Dr. Arnn and our office in the mission of Hillsdale. Looking at what Dr. Arnn needs, what Mrs. Arnn needs, or working with senior staff members,” Bergen said.

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But, she said, her favorite task is entertaining.

“I love events and hospitality,” Bergen said. “I’ve been able to work a lot with Mrs. Arnn on different events that the president’s office has put on.”

Bergen’s knack for hospitality extends beyond just Hillsdale events, and Arnn said everyone in the office is “angling for an invitation to dinner.”

“When things are fun, which is often, Victoria enjoys it more than anyone,” Arnn said. “She is a tremendous

By | Breana Noble Editor-in-Chief Graduating Hillsdale College seniors on average scored in the 99th percentile for the third year in a row on a national standardized exam, the college announced on Tuesday.

Fifty students in the class of 2018 were among the 113,924 students nationally who took the Educational Testing Service’s Proficiency Profile, a general education assessment that the college uses internally and for accreditation purposes. Hillsdale students, on average, scored in the 99th percentile overall and in each of the seven subsections.

“Our students are among the top in the nation when it comes to these basic skills,” said Director of Institutional Research George Allen. “This is consistent. Year over year we’re getting the same results.”

Hillsdale’s average score 480.2 of 500 points compared to the national average of 447.0. Although the Hillsdale students taking an exam had a higher average GPA than last year’s (3.51 to 3.47), they scored slightly lower overall (last year’s was 482.4) and in every subsection except the social sciences than the class of 2017.

“The change has been so small, it’s not even significant,”

Allen said. “There’s not a large enough change to be of interest.”

The lowest score from Hillsdale was 437, ranked in the 32nd percentile. The highest was 498, ranked in the 99th percentile.

Senior Maria Theisen said the exam was not particularly challenging.

“I did not by any means think the exam was a breeze, but I felt it was doable,” she said. “Most questions were relatively easy to figure out if I made sure to follow all instructions. Due to my liberal arts background, I was able to approach questions I was unfamiliar with.”

The Proficiency Profile tests students from liberal-arts colleges, state universities, and other institutions of higher education on critical thinking, reading, writing, math, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Hillsdale students scored lowest in writing with 121.9 of 130 and highest in reading with 126.9.

Senior Sarah Kilgore said she enjoys taking standardized tests and that she found this one fairly easy. The results, she said, show the strengths of a liberal-arts curriculum.

“It shows that we’re competent, which is great,” she said.

“It only tests you in a certain number of areas, which we are required to take classes

in. Because of that, we are refreshed and know what we should know.”

College accreditation requires a general assessment component. With changes in the core curriculum three years ago, the college had to come up with a new assessment for this requirement, and it chose the Proficiency Profile. Hillsdale also uses a sophomore self-assessment survey and essay comparisons between freshman and sophomore year for this component.

General assessments help the college to determine if it is lagging anywhere and put forth efforts to pick up any slack, Allen said.

“It’s a dashboard on the car,” he said. “Most of the time everyone’s fine, but sometimes you have to check something out.”

The exam results come as the college awaits its official re-accreditation report from the Higher Learning Commission, Hillsdale’s accreditor.

Allen said the committee that visited and assessed Hillsdale recommended to the commission that it re-accredit the college without any major changes.

“We have a reasonable expectation that we will be re-accredited,” Allen said.

“There’s been no indication of an unfavorable response.”

Postle from A1

At the surprise party, Sue asked the girls to join her in dancing. When “Build Me Up, Buttercup” came on, she stood up on a chair, air microphone in hand.

After the spring semester, Postle will begin working full-time at the guidance department of Hillsdale High School as a school success worker, helping integrate freshmen and fostering peerto-peer mentorship.

“I feel like I’m leaving on a high note,” she says. “I feel like I’ve met so many great girls, awesome girls from different walks of life.”

One of these women, senior Emma Klaserner, was an RA in the dorm her sophomore year and still gets regular meals with Sue in the dining hall.

“Her devotion to the residents of Benzing was evident in each interaction she had with them. Regardless of where they were, Sue met them there and helped them to work through whatever they were struggling with without judgement,” Klaserner said. “Sue has been my greatest mentor here at Hillsdale and has given me an excellent example of what servant leadership is.

I hope that I can emulate her compassion in my own relationships.”

Sue always takes time for each girl in the dorm, but she also had a mission for the residence as a whole: “to make this a home.” cook, at least judged by the things she brings to the office to eat. This capacity means that celebrations, birthdays, holidays, and such are tasty in the president’s office. We will all miss that.”

Arnn said he teases Bergen more than the others in the office do, and has even attempted to match her up with other male employees.

“I have proposed marriage between her and several people over the years, often in the presence of both of them, always with the comment that the young man was unworthy.

Apparently she has agreed with me about their worthiness,” Arnn said.

Despite Arnn’s attempts to set Bergen up, marriage is not the reason for her departure from the president’s office. Bergen will return to her home in Nebraska to commence a three-year study to receive her doctorate in occupational therapy. Bergen attributed this shift of interest in part to watching occupational therapists help her father after an accident a couple of years ago.

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Benzing House Director Sue Postle is retiring after this semester. Emma Vinton | Collegian

A typical experience for first-time visitors to the dorm looks something like this: They push through two heavy doors, take a right, and step into the lobby.

“This is so cozy!” they say.

They can sit on either of two couches, several chairs, and enjoy the travel-themed artwork Sue bought and put up on the wall.

As she sits in her apartment, speckled by pops of orange from the door to a tiny clock, she remembers participating in Mock Rock during the first of her five years in Benzing. She didn’t know what she was getting herself into, and even though she loves all-dorm dance parties, she never danced for Mock Rock again.

She does love parties, though. Thanks to her, Benzing events have developed a reputation (mainly within the dorm and among the “Being able to see how they can truly impact someone’s life really drew me to that field,” she said.

Bergen explained she planned to only work in the president’s office for a couple of years, like most of those who held the position before her. Once there, however, she worked for five years before beginning to contemplate a change.

“A couple of years ago, I was sitting down and asked myself, ‘Victoria, what do you want to do with your life?’” she said. “I knew I wanted to impact people on a more practical and personal level.

All the aspects that I desired in a career were in occupational therapy.”

Case explained that the transition has been in progress since that point, though finding someone to take over Bergen’s role has not been easy.

“It’s got to be the right fit,” Case said. “We’re a big team, we all do parts of projects and are constantly working together, so you really want someone who can fit in to that

men of Galloway) as parties with great decorations and better food.

Junior Abigail Trouwborst says Sue knows how to have a good time.

“Sue always goes above and beyond,” Trouwborst says. “The first time I was working with her on a dorm event, I was on duty that night till 1 a.m., and she stayed up past me and the rest of the team rearranging table decorations because she wanted everything to be perfect for her girls.”

Sue says she loves the traditions she’s built in the dorm, but her best memories are making popcorn and hanging out with her girls.

She may be leaving, but she’ll miss these relationships.

“It has been a privilege,” she says.

Her voice catches as she looks toward the open door. dynamic.”

She added that her respect for Arnn has grown through working for him.

“As a student, I never realized how much Dr. Arnn did.

I think every year that goes by, I gain a new appreciation for all the sacrifices that he makes and how dedicated he is to the college and the students; it’s just incredibly impressive.

Now I know exactly what he does every day, and I would not want his job, let’s put it that way,” she said, laughing.

She also emphasised the importance of getting to know Penny Arnn, President Arnn’s wife.

“Mrs. Arnn is one of the most gracious people I have ever met and a superb hostess.

It’s been really impressive to see what she does as well and the support that she is behind the scenes,” Bergen said.

Afterall, even in the president’s office, Bergen said Hillsdale is about the people.

“I think the thing that I will take away from this job the most are the people that I’ve worked with,” she said.

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Oldest college newspaper, shortest-lived college chapel

Vol. 140 Issue 27 - April 26, 2018, Anno Arnnae

Administration cancels Vice President Pike Penance’s commencement speech

Graduates will observe twenty minutes of silence By | Catherine S. Clarey Ring-By-Spring recipient

Heeding the protests voiced by students and alumni, Hillsdale College President Parry Larnn has revoked his decision to bring Vice President Pike Penance to campus as the 2018 spring commencement speaker. Twenty minutes of silence will herald the graduation in place of the traditional speech.

“After carefully reading each response to our selection of Pike Penance, I have decided the vice president will not be up to the job,” Larnn said. “It matters a great deal to me that our commencement speaker hurts no one’s feelings. I thank those who possessed the courage to speak up and complain about the college’s choice.”

The college scrapped Penance the moment they heard any dissent toward its choice, Larnn said. He and his colleagues did reach out to a few more candidates they thought less anger-inducing: future President Billary Clinton, advancer of virtue Milo Yiannopolis, liberal arts champion

Oprah Winfreecars, and the ghost of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchillsdale.

Of these candidates, only the phantom Churchillsdale responded. He demanded, however, that he deliver his

Vice President Pike Penance will no longer speak at commencement.

Wikimedia Commons

ghoulish address in a fully finished chapel.

Students and alumni said they are thrilled with Larnn’s decision. Not one has voiced any dissent toward the silent ceremony.

“I thank God that Hillsdale College hasn’t cheapened itself

in fraternizing with a lowlife like the vice president,” alumnus Drew Egghead tweeted.

Graduating seniors have unanimously decided to express their gratitude toward Larnn by fastening pins picturing his face to their graduation robes.

“We can show him we love him without having to say it out loud and ruin the silence,” Senior Class President Lazi Rane said. “I’m just so thrilled that the president saw his folly and created such a satisfying solution.”

Assistant Dean of Men Reff Dodjer said he has always thought a period of silence would make a fitting commencement tradition.

“As a soft spoken man myself, I think the inherent solemnity in a period of silence will correspond quite nicely with such a grave moment in young people’s lives,” Dodjer said in an email. “These students do not need encouragement as they march into the next chapter. They need to recognize what a task is set before them and gather their strength as they go into battle.”

Dining hall nearly abandoned with opening of Café Fresco By | Landler Chasch Lunch Break Editor

students get in line around noon, at which point the line sometimes stretches all the Once overcrowded with way to the steps of Central students at lunchtime, the Hall.

Knorr Family Dining Room is Nonetheless, students still often found nearly praised the fresh food empty thanks to options from Café the new grab ‘n’ go Fresco. station Café Fresco.

“I just feel like the Bone Appéfood at Bone Appétit tit Management has really gone downhill Company opened over the last few years,” the café to give stufreshman Reagan Nicols dents an alternasaid. “At Café Fresco, tive lunch option you can get a sandwich, during rush hour water, and cookies. It’s in the dining hall. so different from the “Café Fresco dining hall, and way is working, but more convenient.” it’s working way Meanwhile, student too well,” said Bill ambassadors and proPearson, Bone Ap- Café Fresco opened this week, leaving Bone Appé- spective students have pétit’s marketing tit. Jordun pairliament | Collision the dining hall all to manager at Hillsthemselves at lunchdale. “Before, the time.

“I have a 9:30 a.m. class, but line just filled the hallways of “I saw a bunch of hunKendall, but then Café Fresco I skipped it just so I could be gry-looking students all over really caught on and things got toward the front of the line,” campus,” said Hal Stale, a Coleman said. “There were high-school student from Nea little out of hand.”

Often, students waiting for only about 40 people in front braska. “But when I got to the Café Fresco form a line that of me when I got here this cafeteria, there were only three stretches down the staircase, morning, so it worked out other people. I don’t know into the basement, across the pretty well.” where everyone went.” tunnel, and up the stairs into Pearson said most of the

GPA not only reason women frustrated with men By | J. Pap Blogger Female students are expressing their disgust with men after discovering gender-specific trends in GPA. Women averaged a 3.427 while men failed to perform with just a 3.211.

This difference in GPA is broadened by the fact that women increased from 3.425 in Spring 2017, while men dropped from 3.26. The issue

has driven many female students to come out about their frustrations regarding interactions with the opposite sex.

“I have so much extra time, and I’m so angry with the state of my nonexistent love life that I channel my frustration into my homework,” senior Marie VanStipdonk said.

VanStipdonk was not alone in her lamentations. Others identified the compounding effect visiting hours created in their lackluster romantic ca-

reers.

“Boys only text me at three in the morning, after they’re bored of Fortnite and looking for someone to listen to them blabber about their Physical Wellness Dynamics journal,” freshman Michelle Lookacey said. “If you can’t say hi to me in A.J.’s Café at 3 p.m., what makes you think I’d risk being caught crawling through your window at 3 a.m.?”

The gap in GPA failed to faze male students, many of

whom claimed they weren’t concerned with either women or grades to begin with. A brief lunch room poll showed most men only experienced mild irritation because of their parents’ frequent phone calls regarding their grades.

“I don’t think GPA matters that much,” senior Frank Reynolds said. “Let’s be real, I’m still going to make 30 percent more than my female colleagues no matter how hard they study.”

This is what Hillsdale in California looks like By | JoKro Left-Wing Conspiracist Hillsdale College is looking to start a satellite campus in Sacramento, California, an expansion that has kicked the administration into action and inspired excitement among students.

In addition to preparing syllabi, professors already are brainstorming ways to keep students more interested in what’s happening on the board than the nice weather outside the window.

“Maybe we will hold class in the basement. We can’t let them get too comfortable,” said Art Wright, professor of

politics.

One earth science professor is working on PowerPoints for his core science class, with an entire class period devoted to refuting earthquake deniers.

“We think it’s really important to affirm basic scientific theories before they go and do something crazy, like follow a Facebook page saying earthquakes are caused by stomping giants somewhere,” Professor of Earth Science Ben Stone said.

The dean’s office expressed concern about how living in the land of eternal sunshine would impact the rigorous academic life of students and the high scores students earn on

national tests.

“Without 3-foot snow drifts to keep students inside studying, how will we boost our senior scores to match those of the class of 2017?” Provost Davie Whalie said.

Californian transplant to the Michigan campus Sunshine Winters is considering taking multiple gap years until the satellite campus opens, because she misses the culture of her home state.

“I’m looking forward to recycling being an accepted and normal part of life,” she said.

Bostonian Claire White said she’s ready for perpetual sunshine.

“I’m tired of burning during

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the few summer months we get and turning as white as printer paper in the six months of winter,” she said.

Junior B. Tom Lespitt is ready for the diet change, with more diversity in fresh options.

Although, I don’t know how the Midwesterners will feel about having to expand from their ‘round’ and ‘brown’ food favorites.”

He also is excited for diverse ethnic food options.

“The West Coast just draws so many kinds of people from so many places and walks of life, and there is just so much food to choose from,” he said.

Lane Hall.

Junior Jon Coleman said he had to make a sacrifice so he would have enough time to get lunch at Café Fresco before his 1 p.m. class.

Stray cigarette burns chapel to the ground Smokers deflect blame, again By | Jordun Pairliament Controversy Queen Christ Chapel burned down on Tuesday evening after the wind caught a stray lit cigarette from the colonnade between Mossey Library and the Grewcock Student Union, according to the Hillsdale City Fire Department.

“The chapel might have been saved if anyone had noticed the smoke,” said Scotch Shefner, the City of Hillsdale fire chief. “Unfortunately, the thick cigarette smoke clouded the entire area.”

The chapel’s burning had mixed reactions among students.

“I’m not sure where I’ll get married now,” said freshman Katerina-Mary Smyth. “I had already put my deposit down.”

Others, however, had more positive things to say.

“With the chapel not crowding out the quad, I can finally play Frisbee again,” said junior and member of Mu Alpha Da-

vid Gramm.

Shefner warned against continued smoking outside the union, both to prevent immediate, drastic health risks to both smokers and the entire student body as well as future fires.

“The possibility of fire goes up as long as there are groups of, say, four or five philosophy students consistently congregating immediately outside the doors of the library in a way that is cumbersome and troubling to the passerby,” Shefner said. “You’re not only putting individual students at risk, but also essential campus buildings.”

Some smokers are fighting back against suggestions of amending their habits, however.

“I will continue to smoke in the most public place on campus,” said senior Amanda Owl. “Big brother cannot tell me what to do.”

‘Paleocon Lives Matter’ protests Straussian esotericism By | Eris Instigative Reporter Campus security dispersed a raucous gathering last week of the “Paleocon Lives Matter” group.

It was attempting to occupy Hillsdale College President Parry Larnn’s office to protest a prevalent pattern of systemic Straussian oppression at the college. Several professors from the history department and the Collegiate Scholars program, unlit pipes in hand, marched from Delp Hall to Moss Hall, softly uttering with faint British accents slogans such as “Hey hey ho ho, esoteric reading’s got to go” and other subversive ideas.

The college’s security director said the movement threatens the orderly intergenerational transfer of Western civilization’s cultural inheritance.

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“Look, just because these paleocons are non-ideological doesn’t mean they aren’t barbarians,” he said, blaming them for the recent spate of empty vessels that have been found duct-taped to framed copies of the Gettysburg Address around campus.

This followed weeks of tension culminating in unknown provocateurs erecting a statue of John C. Calhoun in front of Broadlawn in the middle of the night.

But last week’s disruptions at Larnn’s office marked a new level in the conflict. One emeritus history professor offered a critique of the dominant pedagogical paradigm at the college: “You can only listen so many times to these jokers carelessly conflate the ideas of natural law and natural rights, realizing how 30 years down the road it will leave today’s students marooned in a pseudo-community supported

only by abstractions without eventually deciding you have to take action. Of course I believe in the existence of real universals, but they always take it way past any concrete organic experience.”

Administrators and politics professors are solidifying in resistance to the tumult. Several have donned wristbands with the letters “WWJD” on them (“What Would Jaffa Do?”).

One politics professor asked for anonymity due to suspicions that he is a signatory on a manifesto calling on the Allan P. Kirby Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship to secede from the college.

“It’s time to show these agrarians how things are done in the big city,” he said. “We’ve already checked out all the Richard Weaver and Wendell Berry books from the library, and they won’t be returned until this crap calms down.”

To deter further aggression, a pair of 24-hour guards are posted at the Russell Kirk archives, and they pass the time telling each other ghost stories.

As always, there are parts of campus that seem unaffected by the turmoil. One chemistry professor, when asked what her reaction was to the controversy, replied: “About the same as when I saw the sun rise this morning.”

An assistant football coach described his take by stating: “We don’t have time for this.

I have to keep all my players pulling in the same direction, and that includes pre-Nicea Catholics, non-Chalcedon Christians, Reformation literalists, Machiavellian Royalists, Manchester liberals, and even the anarchists on special teams. With a cast of characters like this to manage, I keep the peace by calling myself a ‘fusionist’ even though everyone knows that’s just a way

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of trying to disguise the fact that you haven’t read or comprehended any of the seminal texts.”

The English department also remains largely aloof from the struggle. At a recent department meeting, the most contentious issue was deciding which literary source serves as the best metaphor for the situation. “Hell is empty and all the devils are here” noted one prominent don. A more pious colleague countered with the observation that “the reason there seem to be so many oddballs at Hillsdale is that at Hillsdale we’re still capable of recognizing them.”

At press time, it was unknown whether the economics department would take sides.

A spokesman said in light of President Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal” being added to the college’s Great Books list, the professors were comparing cash offers from

both factions. But it may take more than cash alone for them to align with the Straussians.

As one of the more moderate members of the department remarked: “I’ve always considered myself a pragmatist, so for example I recognize that Lincoln had to do a lot of difficult things. God love him for that. But couldn’t the plaque under the Lincoln statue at least mention that his issue of Greenbacks was patently unconstitutional? Is that too much to ask?”

The Collegian’s inquiries for comment by Larnn’s office were referred to the college’s government relations office.

Its office space, however, apparently has been subleased to the American Greatness blog.

The government relations’ voicemail message said any questions would be answered during regular office hours, which are 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Feb. 29.

Look for The Hillsdale Collision

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

A4 April 26, 2018

Volume One Bookstore to reopen under new name, new management By | Joshua J. Paladino Opinions Editor Volume One Bookstore will reopen as Volume 2 Bookstore next week.

Long-time store owner Richard Wunsch retired at 78 years- old and transferred ownership to Daniel Brown, Emily Wunsch, Sedrich Brown, and Tina Sanchez, who formed an LLC. The new owners are remodeling the store to make it into a community center and bookstore.

“We’re trying to make it a bookstore and an event center, so there will be music and arts — whatever the community really wants,” Daniel Brown said. “We’re trying to give them something to do besides stay home.”

Volume 2 Bookstore will have its grand opening on Friday, May 4 with the theme, “May the 4th be with you.”

“We’re gonna try to celebrate some weird holidays just for fun,” Daniel Brown said.

Volume 2 will have Tarot readings from noon to 4 p.m., face painting from noon to

3 p.m., trivia at 3 p.m., and a raffle at 4 p.m.

The day after the grand opening, Volume 2 Bookstore will hold two bands from Michigan. Ghost in the Attic, a band from Lansing, and Menes Guunah, a Detroit-based band, will perform. Tickets cost $15. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Volume 2 will have local artisans, such as soap makers,

bookstore, although we won’t have the complete inventory accessible to the public,” Daniel Brown said. “We’ll try to keep material on the ground floor that people are interested in.”

Sanchez and Sedrich Brown will manage the store.

Sanchez said she will focus on arts, classes, and events.

“We’re going to clean up the upstairs and have class-

“It’s still going to be a bookstore, although we won’t have the complete inventory accessible to the public.” jewelry makers, painters, and knitters, with whom the public can make art from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 5th.

The bottom floor of the store will have bookcases lining the walls. By taking out bookshelves in the back of the store, the owners made room for a stage and seating.

“It’s still going to be a

rooms available,” Sanchez said. “We’ll have soap making classes, we have artisan friends who make handmade wool socks from sheep that they sheer themselves, and all sorts of stuff like that. We’re hoping to promote local business and artisans.”

The store will also host open mic nights, poetry read-

ings, and musicians.

Wunsch retired after owning the store for about 30 years, according to Daniel Brown.

“He started Volume 2 in the basement of the Keifer House,” he said. “It moved from the basement of the Keifer house out toward the curve at W. Carleton Road and Lewis Street. Then he moved over to the old church that is now the parking lot on the other side of the post office.”

From there, he moved the bookstore into the building where Papa’s Treasure currently operates. In 2006, he moved to the store’s current location.

“He loves books, and he’s always been selling books,” Daniel Brown said. “Before this, he had a bookstore in Ann Arbor called Wooden Spoon Books.”

Daniel said the store has a good manager in Sedrich.

“He’s been doing retail for a long time,” Daniel Brown said.

“He could count back change and run a register by the time he was 9.”

The storefront of Volume One is under construction.

Nic Rowan | Collegian

CAPA, sheriff’s department hold rally against child abuse By | Hannah Niemeier Senior Writer In honor of national Child Abuse Prevention month, the sheriff ’s department and the Hillsdale branch of Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness held a rally at noon Wednesday on the courthouse lawn.

Surrounded by the blue pinwheels that are the symbols of the movement, speakers from law enforcement, the prosecutor’s office, and around 20 community members spoke about their attempts to eradicate child abuse and give every young resident of Hillsdale County “the childhood we want everyone to have,” as CAPA executive director Christie Campbell said.

Hillsdale County Sheriff Timothy Parker spoke about the warning signs and effects of child abuse and neglect.

“I spoke about the ways child abuse bleeds over into society and destroys families, because children who are abused later abuse their children,” Parker said.

Parker and his fellow speakers — CAPA Board

President Megan Stiverson and assistant prosecuting attorney Jamie Wisniewski — discussed the definition of child abuse and neglect, addressed its prevalence in the community, and considered ways to combat it.

“There are 134 kids in our local foster care system,” Wisniewski said. “The majority of them are there because of child abuse and neglect.”

Wisniewski, who handles child abuse and neglect cases for Hillsdale County, said the number of investigations has increased in recent years. In 2017, 684 investigations were opened in three main areas: in the majority, substance abuse was a major factor, followed by domestic abuse and child sexual abuse.

Hillsdale’s CAPA is one of 72 local councils that encourage communities to participate in the nationwide child abuse awareness campaign.

Local businesses and organizations put up blue lights — CAPA’s official color — during the month of April to show their support. “Pinwheel gardens” also popped up on the courthouse lawn and at the sheriff ’s office, the senior center, the state police office

in Jonesville, and some local schools.

“Pinwheels have been our national symbol since 2008,” Campbell said. “Research has shown that they catch people’s attention: they’re whimsical and they remind people of their childhood.”

President Ronald Reagan declared the national CAP month on April 4, 1983: “Child abuse and child neglect continue to threaten the

state levels: In 2017, 90,760 complaints were investigated in the state of Michigan, a number that increased from 70,784 in 2001 to hold steady from 2015 to the present around 90,000. In 2017, 26.017 of those cases were confirmed.

Nationally, 676,000 children suffered abuse in 2016, according to statistics from the Michigan Children’s Trust Fund. That year, 4.1 million

“The biggest thing is to remember that you can make a difference. We want people to speak up and speak out.” lives and health of over a million of our Nation’s children.

Their physical suffering and emotional anguish challenge us, as parents, neighbors, and citizens, to increase our attention to their protection and intensify our efforts to prevent their maltreatment.”

The “one million” estimate seems conservative in light of current numbers on child abuse at the national and

referrals on behalf of 7.4 million children led to investigations numbering approximately 3.5 million.

After CAP month was nationally recognized in 1985, state councils began organizing rallies and drives, as well as providing information and resources for local councils’ awareness campaigns that can be accessed on their website.

The Lansing rally at 11 a.m.

Wednesday included a procession and pinwheel planting event near the steps of the State Capitol.

State and local CAPA centers encourage community members to make a difference by fighting child abuse in three ways: mentorship, advocation for family-centered policies, and donating volunteer hours or financial support to local organizations that support children and families.

“I encourage people to call the office if they’re interested in helping out by volunteering, and we’ll match them with the right program,” Campbell said.

The best way to prevent child abuse and neglect knowing how to detect it, Parker said. Warnings signs include changes in behavior and performance at school, excessive watchfulness or edginess, extreme compliance and passivity, evidence of withdrawal from social situations, and constant presence at school early in the morning and late in the evening because the child fears going home.

On the parents’ side, red flags are lax supervision, lack of concern for the child’s

academic progress or general well-being, denial of the child’s failures in school, encouragement of harsh physical discipline, or excessive dependence on the child for emotional support and attention.

But deciding when to get law enforcement involved can be difficult: “Just because a child exhibits one of these signs, that isn’t doesn’t mean the cause is always abuse,” Parker said. “It’s an accumulation of more than one factor.

If you see multiple signs, then the call goes to 911 and they will send the appropriate law enforcement official.”

In a county with increasing prevalence of child abuse and neglect, Wisniewski said she offered an appeal for foster parents; there are only 48 in the county.

In April and beyond, Campbell said, the best way to support those struggling with child abuse is to increase awareness through social media and volunteering: “The biggest thing is to remember that you can make a difference,” Campbell said. “We want people to speak up and speak out.”

Airport restructures fuel funding under city management By | Nolan Ryan Assistant Editor Hillsdale Municipal Airport has a new means of keeping track of fuel funding.

Control of the fuel changed hands in October 2017 when the city took over the fuel from a private company, Patriot Aviation.

Patriot Aviation acted as a fixed base operator, or FBO. According to Airport Director Ginger Moore, FBOs are private businesses that own and sell the fuel. The FBOs, she said, tend to run maintenance and groundskeeping, charging the city the costs of upkeep.

“We’ve gone to a different model where I work for the city as the manager, and the groundskeeper also works for the city,” Moore said. “The city bought the fuel. We pump the fuel for the city, but the city gets all of the profits.”

The fuel fund acts as a way

for the city to keep track of the money specifically designated for fueling costs.

“When we sell fuel, we put that money into the fund to buy more fuel with and possibly to pay for repairs with the fuel farm,” Moore said. “It’s mainly just a separate fund so the money to buy fuel doesn’t get spent on something else.”

According to Moore, the airport is doing well financially, due to an increase in corporate jets using the airport.

“We’re selling more fuel than we’ve ever sold,” she said. “We sell lots of jet fuel, because lots of jets are coming in. A lot of people think this airport is just for the college, but I’d say three-quarters of the jets coming in have nothing to do with the college.

There’s a lot of business going on that people don’t realize. A lot of businesses are utilizing corporate aircraft more and more so.”

. The Palace Cafe is reopening on weekend night through May 12. Nic Rowan | Collegian

The Palace Cafe reopens on weekend nights By | Nic Rowan City News Editor The Palace Cafe is open late nights on weekends again — but only until the end of the spring 2018 semester.

According to owner Leslie Meredith, she decided to reopen for late nights so students celebrating the end of the year would have a place to go in the dead hours.

“It’s really for the college kids,” she said. “I come from Penn State, where everything is 24/7 going on. There’s not too much going on in the night life here. We just couldn’t stay closed at the end of the year.”

The Palace was open late

the weekend of April 2021, and will be open for the following three weekends, up through the weekend of May 11-12.

“I felt really bad about it,” Meredith said. “I know all the college kids like to come up

after trouble with the employees who worked during those hours. But things have been different this time around, she said.

“We’ve got a new staff, and they’re a lot of fun,” Meredith said. “Everyone gets along,

“I know all the college kids like to come up here after Centralhallapalooza, and I couldn’t not be open for it.” here after Centralhallapalooza, and I couldn’t not be open for it. I’d work those hours myself if I had to.”

Meredith originally ended the late night shift in February

which is really great in this business.”

Meredith said she tries to serve the interests of both college students and local residents equally, but that it is

mostly college students who give The Palace late night business. For this reason, she said she is considering staying open late during the college’s school year and keeping closed late in the summer.

“I love the college,” she said. “In the 12 years I’ve been working here, I’ve only ever had trouble with one student at The Palace.”

Junior Mason Clutter said he is glad The Palace is open late again.

“My favorite food is breakfast food, and it’s nice to once again have a place open all night long,” he said. “In my experience, the people working there are pretty hospitable.

They always check in and keep my coffee cup full.”

Charger

APRIL 26, 2018

BASEBALL TAKES TWO OF THREE G-MAC GAMES FROM ODU Team sits just behind the Panthers for first place in the conference with two weekends of play remaining By | Stevan Bennett Jr. Sports Editor In a heavyweight battle between the two top baseball team’s in the G-MAC, the Hillsdale Chargers (18-23, 15-6 G-MAC) and the nationally ranked Ohio Dominican Panthers (27-10, 14-5 G-MAC) split four games.

The Chargers, however, took two of the three games which count toward conference standings.

“It was a great weekend,” head coach Eric Theisen said.

“Not only because we took two from those guys and stayed in the hunt for first place, but, heck, I wore short sleeves for the first time this year.”

With the weekend behind the two teams, the Chargers sit one win above the Pan-

thers in the win column, but one game below them in the loss column, giving the Panthers a slight edge in win percentage. For Theisen, the weekend served as a preview of a potential postseason

and it’ll be an exciting matchup if and when we see them in the postseason.”

The Chargers pushed three runs across in the very first half inning of the series, with RBIs from juniors Steven

out the years. It’s about how many innings per start they’re getting. What it says is that he’s been efficient and give us a lot of innings and a lot of quality starts.”

runs.

The Chargers trailed until the top of the fourth, when Walts and sophomore Dante Toppi each hit home runs to give the Chargers a 3-2 lead.

Carey’s fantastic outing, and Toth took the mound, shutting down the Panthers to record his second save of the day — a feat for which Theisen commended him.

“It was just nice to see us pitch, hit, and play defense all in the same game. When we can do that, we’ll be at the top of the league.” showdown.

“It’s always fun playing them,” Theisen said. “They’re usually pretty good and pretty competitive and they get a good fan base. It’s always fun to go there and play them

Senior Alex Walts has become a mainstay at thirdbase this season for the Chargers. Trish Verbrugge | Courtesy

Ring and Dylan Lottinville and senior Alex Walts. The Panthers responded with two in the bottom, but the Chargers scored five more between the third and sixth innings, while Ohio Dominican only managed one.

The Panthers mounted a rally late in the game, scoring four runs in the bottom of the ninth. Freshman David Toth, however, came in to record the final out of the game, sealing the game at 8-7 for the Chargers.

Ring and Walts each knocked in another run in the game, while senior Colin Hites and juniors Kevin Monson and Michael Mitchell all tallied an RBI of their own.

Senior Will Kruse tossed 8.1 innings in the game, which was sufficient to break the Hillsdale career innings pitched record, as he now has 276.1 innings under his belt as a Charger.

“He got his first start our third weekend of the year his freshman year, and he didn’t come out of the starting rotation after that,” Theisen said.

“What that speaks on is his efficiency. A starter doesn’t necessarily get any more starts then another through-

Senior Will Kruse set the record for most innings pitched by a Charger in a career this weekend.

Trish Verbrugge | Courtesy

Ohio Dominican opened the scoring in game two with two runs in the bottom of the first inning, but senior Phil Carey took the reins after that, finishing the game having tossed 6.1 innings, allowing only three earned

RBIs from Ring and Lottinville in the fifth pushed it to 5-2, and sophomore Jake Hoover’s first career home run in the seventh opened the lead to 6-2.

After five clean innings, a walk and a double ended

For Carey, the outing was a great opportunity to rebound from his shortest outing of the season the previous week.

“My gameplan every week

See baseball A6

Softball takes both ends from Malone on Friday By | Madeleine Jepsen Science & Tech Editor A pair of 7-4 wins at home against the Malone University Pioneers (12-16, 5-13 G-MAC) advanced the Hillsdale College softball team to fourth in the G-MAC with a 9-5 conference record.

“The doubleheader against Malone was great for us because we had to come back twice, and there was pressure for us to put some runs on the board,” head coach Joe Abraham said. “We showed

that we can string a bunch of hits together and perform in the clutch. Those games were what we’ve been waiting for all year with the way we played.”

After the Pioneers put up three runs in the top of the first, the Chargers tied up the game when heads-up base running from junior shortstop Jessica Taylor and back-toback doubles from freshman pitcher Natalie Walters and sophomore outfielder Victoria Addis brought senior third baseman Kelsey Gockman and Walters home.

“This was one of the first games in a while where we were able to score runs in clutch situations,” junior second baseman Amanda Marra said. “We were finding the gaps and hitting the ball hard, and we’ve kind of had problems doing both at the same time all season.”

The Chargers pushed ahead with three more runs in the fifth inning with RBI singles from sophomore shortstop Sam Catron and freshman first baseman Emma Johnson and a sacrifice fly from

Senior Kelsey Gockman is hitting .345 so far this season. Sarah Klopfer | Courtesy

sophomore catcher Sydney San Juan scored senior first baseman Haley Lawrence.

Malone managed one run in the top of the sixth, but an RBI single from Marra scored junior outfielder Katie Kish, who went 3-for-3 in game one.

“Katie has been doing great,” Johnson said. “Any time she hits the ball, it’s hard. Amanda has also had a lot of hard hits.”

On the mound, freshman pitcher Erin Hunt recorded her tenth win of the season, striking out six Pioneer batters and allowing only four earned runs over the course of the game.

The Chargers started game two with a two-run lead thanks to an RBI double by Addis that scored sophomore shortstop Julia Huebner in the second inning and a solo home run from Addis in the fourth inning. Over the course of the game, Addis went 3-for-3 with 4 RBI and 2 runs scored.

“We had Victoria Addis finally bust out offensively, which was a huge help to the team,” Abraham said. “We just had a whole bunch of people come through with big hits in that doubleheader, and we got the whole lineup going top to bottom.”

Sophomore pitcher Dana Weidinger shutout the Pioneers for the first four innings, allowing a single run in the top of the fifth and striking out four. In the final three innings of the game, Hunt returned to the mound, working her way out of a oneout, bases-loaded situation to record the win.

“Dana Weidinger threw four great innings in game two, but the third time around they started to hit her, so we had to get her out of there,” Abraham said. “Hunt came back on and actually threw her strongest innings.”

The Pioneers put up two runs in the fifth inning to tie

Sophomore Sam Catron is hitting .368 so far this season.

Madeleine Jepsen | Collegian

up the game, and another two in the top of the sixth. The Chargers, however, recovered from the two-run deficit in the bottom of the sixth inning, pushing five runs across — three of which came from 2-out situations — to put the Chargers ahead in the 7-4 win. Taylor went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs and Marra went 2-for4 with two doubles and a run scored. Gockman, Johnson, and freshman catcher Madison Stoner also got hits in the nightcap.

Hillsdale will complete the conference season with four

doubleheaders: one against Cedarville University (2814, 17-3 G-MAC) at home this afternoon at 3:30, and three away against Ursuline University (12-26-1, 7-12-1 G-MAC), Ohio Dominican University (29-16, 15-3 G-MAC), and Alderson Broaddus University (4-28, 3-13 G-MAC).

“I think the biggest thing is just going to be keeping the bats hot,” Marra said. “We’re excited. It’s just going to be a grind and a matter of staying focused and giving it our all.”

Sports

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

April 26, 2018 A6

Track teams compete in California and Michigan Men use meet to prepare for G-MAC Championships By | Regan Meyer Collegian Reporter The men’s track squad split in half to attend two different meets this past weekend.

One part of the team headed to Grand Valley State for the Al Owens Classic, while the other half headed to sunny California for the Mt. SAC Relays. Head coach Andrew Towne said the team performed well at both meets.

“The California meet was really good,” Towne said.

“The whole purpose of a trip like that is to put yourselves in a position to enter a championship season on a good not, or in some cases to start the qualifying process. The secondary purpose was that it's been a terrible spring, so it gave us a chance to get some good weather. I thought the trip went really well.”

The Al Owens Classic saw athletes improving and readying themselves for the

upcoming meets.

“That was a solid meet as well,” Towne said. “We got some kids good opportunities and I feel like we continue to move along the way we need to to get ready for championship season.”

There’s just one more meet before Hillsdale hosts the G-MAC Outdoor Championships. Senior captain Nathan Jones said the team has to be able to balance the busyness of the end of the semester.

“The biggest thing for us is you have to do a good job of managing everything,” Jones said. “Obviously with classes, exams, and everything, there’s a lot going on. It takes a little bit of maturity and you need to recognize what you have to do to be ready to compete. I’m excited. I think we have a lot of guys moving in the right direction and that’s all you can ask.”

Senior Seth Overla said the team is putting in the work to be ready for the end

of the season.

“There are hard parts and there are parts that really suck,” Overla said. “At the end of the day, you and everyone around you has made that same sacrifice and commitment. That’s why track is an individual sport, but at the same time it’s a team sport. In track, the results are transparent. If you didn’t work hard enough, it’s going to show. It's really nice to see that everyone else is putting the same amount of effort as you and you push each other.”

The team is home for the rest of the season, besides the NCAA Championships. This weekend, Hillsdale will host the 52nd Annual Hillsdale College Gina Relays.

“It’s one of the bigger meets in the Midwest during the outdoor season,” Towne said. “We’re always excited to host that. It’s a really high-level meet. We’ll have 1,500 plus people here.”

Charger golf grabs fourth at G-MACs By | Ryan Goff Collegian Reporter

On the heels of a difficult regular season, the Hillsdale College golf team secured a fourth-place finish at the G-MAC Championship.

Eleven teams competed in the three-day, 54 hole tournament held at the par 72 Four Bridges Country Club in Liberty Township, Ohio.

Hillsdale’s team posted a 909 with the following scores: Liam Purslowe 221 (+5), Ryan Zetwick 228 (+12), Henry Hitt 231 (+15), Andy Grayson 232 (+16), and Joe Torres 233 (+17).

Findlay won the Championship shooting 889, followed in second place by

Women's from A1 No winning team, however, is complete without a strong supporting coach. The G-MAC recognized Walbright with its Coach of the Year award. She also received the recognition from the GLIAC for the 2012-2013 season.

“It was really nice,” she said. “It’s obviously a reflection of how hard the team has worked. I couldn’t have done it without the results they’ve earned.”

Hillsdale also secured half of the G-MAC FirstTeam All-Conference slots.

Hyman received the honor for a third year, sophomore Katie Bell moved up from Second-Team All-Conference last year, and Cimpeanu and junior Madeline Bissett received all-conference for the first time.

The G-MAC also named sophomore Kamryn Matthews to Second-Team All-Conference. She had a combined record of 24-6 this season, after winning 11 straight doubles matches with Bissett, who went 25-6.

On Friday, Hillsdale took on the University of Findlay

Trevecca Nazarene, which was seven shots back with a 896. The third place spot was contentious, as Hillsdale finished just one shot behind Kentucky Wesleyan’s 908.

Individually, Hillsdale’s Purslowe finished the Championship with the second-lowest score by one stroke. Shooting an opening round 4-under par 68 in the rain, Purslowe led the Charger team into contention ahead of the last day.

“We stayed in contact with the leaders during the whole tournament, but unfortunately we couldn't get over the line,” Purslowe said. “We made too many unnecessary mistakes on the in the G-MAC tournament semifinals. The weekend prior, Hillsdale had gone 8-1 against the Oilers.

Hyman and Cimpeanu made their comeback, after their No. 1 doubles loss to Findlay. The duo fought hard and changed a 2-5 match set to an 8-5 victory.

“It was a good way to go into singles,” Walbright said. “It really got the team pumped up and ready to go.”

At No. 2 doubles, Bell and junior Corinne Prost won 8-3, and at No. 3, Bissett and Matthews won 8-1.

Under the tournament’s rules, a team needed only to win five courts before the match ended. With three guaranteed already, the Chargers entered singles competition with enthusiasm and confidence, Walbright said.

At No. 5 singles, Matthews finished 6-0, 6-3. Then, in a performance in which she dominated the entire time, according to Walbright, Prost clinched the win for the Chargers, defeating her opponent 6-2, 6-1 at No. 4.

“It was thrilling,” Prost said. “In that moment, I was happy to be competing alongside my teammates. I didn't expect to be the final

final day.”

On the last day, three on the team shot 6-over par 78, Purslowe shot 75, and Grayson shot 2-over par 74. But despite Purslowe’s disappointment, head coach Nate Gilchrist took several positives from the way the team played.

“This past weekend was a great experience for the team. They had a chance to win the conference championship,” Gilchrist said.

“They were tough mentally due to the three days of rain.”

Though not the finish it was hoping for, the team says it hopes to use the tournament as a building point for next season. winning match that Friday to advance us to the finals, but I was proud I had that opportunity to secure the win for the day.”

During Saturday’s finals, the Chargers didn’t let up against the Cavaliers, after defeating them the weekend before 8-1.

Although Cimpeanu and Hyman fell 8-1 at No. 1 doubles, Bell and Prost at No. 2 and Bissett and Matthews at No. 3 made up for it by going 8-0, Walbright said.

“They crushed it and were done,” she said. “At two and three doubles, they were literally flawless. They completely killed it.”

Into singles, Bissett at No. 6 won 6-2, 6-1. At No. 3, Bell followed 6-3, 6-4. Matthews clinched the finals victory at No. 5 6-2, 6-1.

Hillsdale, the No. 6 seed, will face the University of Missouri-St. Louis (14-5, GLVC 5-1), the No. 3 seed, in a quarterfinal match at GVSU on Saturday to kick off its NCAA tournament play.

“It’s kind of what our whole season has prepared us for,” Walbright said. “We’re going in with a good shot to win our first round and try the best we can.”

Women's tennis coach Nikki Walbright won the G-MAC Women's Tennis Coach of the Year award this year after leading the Chargers to a perfect conference season. Breana Noble | Collegian

Several Charger women hit national provisional marks By | Anna Timmis Assistant Editor The women’s track team split this weekend. Those remaining in Michigan competed in the Al Owens Classic hosted by Grand Valley State University. Meanwhile, some had a whirlwind of a weekend on the West Coast: Three days and three meets in California gave the team ample time to show its skill.

There, the Chargers competed with professional and Division I athletes.

Senior Hannah McIntyre said the meet was huge and that athletes go there to challenge themselves.

McIntyre said about 500 athletes competed in the 15k at Asuza Pacific.

“It’s definitely a different atmosphere, Just kind of West Coast atmosphere, big meets, is totally different from the Midwest,” she said.

McIntyre competed well in the 10k at Mount San Antonio College on Thursday night, racing under the lights.

Her performance made her hopeful for Nationals qualification.

“It went well. It was a solid race, and I did what I

Baseball from A5

is just to throw strikes and make them swing at it and get themselves out,” he said.

“I just have to keep in the zone and low and get my guys ground balls and fly balls, and the rest works itself out.”

On Sunday, both teams went scoreless over the first five innings, as sophomore Andrew Verbrugge continued his string of impressive outings. Each team then got one run in the fifth, with the Hillsdale run coming on an RBI single from senior Ryan O’Hearn.

The game was knotted until the eighth, when Lottinville knocked in Hoover on a double. The Hillsdale lead, however, was only a flash, as the Panthers were able to turn only one hit into the four runs in the bottom half of the inning, taking a 5-2 lead.

Hillsdale didn’t go softly into the night, however.

An O’Hearn walk, a Hites single, and a Ring double allowed the Chargers to pull the game to 5-4, but the rally stopped there, as the Panthers grabbed the last of the G-MAC contests.

Verbrugge went 7.1 innings in the game, striking out nine, while allowing four runs, although only one was earned.

For the Chargers, this type of game provides an extra shot of adrenaline.

“We all love playing in tight games,” Monson said.

“We know that we will be playing in tight games the rest of the regular season and then the conference tournament. Even when we’re down late, we believe we can come back at any time.”

There was still one more game, however, between the two teams, although it didn’t

Men's from A1

Head coach Keith Turner said his team performed well under pressure.

“I feel like we played our best when we needed it. So I’m really proud of the guys,” Turner said.

Ciraci agreed and said the team knew they had to play to their own standards.

“It was really fun,” Ciraci said. “We knew we were the No. 1 seed and everyone had a target on our backs and they were coming after us, but everyone played really well. It was a good overall weekend.”

Ciraci said the Chargers were fighting to finish first to claim the final match point of the tournament.

“Even the matches that didn’t finish, we were probably going to win those too,” Ciraci said. “We were dominating.”

On Thursday night, the G-MAC hosted its all-conference award banquet, where Turner was named the 2018 G-MAC Men’s Tennis Coach of the Year. Turner coached

was planning on doing,” she said. “It wasn’t an amazing time, but it should be enough to qualify me for Nationals and it was a solid race. I was happy with it.”

Senior Amanda Reagle broke her personal record in an event she just started running this year, and junior Allyson Eads almost reached a PR in the steeplechase.

“My friend Amanda Reagle had a major PR and that was really awesome,” McIntyre said. “She ran really really well in the 5k. She kind of just started trying that out just this last season of her senior year and she just totally killed it.”

Eads competed in two of the weekend’s meets, at Asuza Pacific and Long Beach State University. She said her focus was Asuza, where she competed in the steeplechase.

“It went well. I ran a second off my PR,” she said.

“I ran a 10:34, which should get me into Nationals, just traditionally, the times that make it.”

Seniors Ashlee Moran and Fiona Shea, and freshmen Kasja Johansson and Zoe Eby made a provo time, 46.88, at Long Beach State. Senior Alexandra Whitford made good

marks in the pole vault.

McIntyre said that even though some of her teammates struggled, the meet offered an opportunity for the team to gain experience.

“That’s all part of the experience, especially freshman year, because those meets are late and they’re intense and it’s a lot to adjust just physically with the time differences and traveling and it can just be a lot to adjust to,” she said. “And so a lot of the girls, everybody accept Arena and I doubled back on Saturday and competed in 1500s.”

But she did compete in the long run.

“We ran to the beach and ran on the beach, and that was really good. So it was a special trip,” McIntyre said.

“It can be a really cool, really unique experience that you don’t always get at regular meets here at home.”

This weekend, Hillsdale is hosting the 52nd Annual Hillsdale College Gina Relays, which Eads said was her favorite meet. While the team had to catch up on rest after the three-hour time change last weekend, Eads said it won’t impact this weekend’s race.

count toward conference standings.

Ohio Dominican scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning and one in the bottom of the third, which stood as the only runs scored in the game, as the Chargers were never able to mount much of an offensive rally.

Sophomore Kolton Rominski had a solid outing, throwing five innings while allowing three runs — two earned.

On Tuesday, the Chargers dropped a non-conference game to the Wayne State Warriors (22-16, 10-9 GLIAC), 10-3. Ring had two RBIs in the effort for the Chargers.

Despite the non-conference losses, assistant coach Jack Murphy said he’s happy with what he saw from his team this weekend.

“It was just nice to see us pitch, hit, and play defense all in the same game,” he said.

“When we can do that, we’ll be at the top of the league.”

The Chargers will head to Siena Heights (18-28, 9-15 WHAC) on Thursday before hosting the Lake Erie Storm (13-20-1, 11-20 G-MAC) for a three-game G-MAC set this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, the Chargers will also celebrate their senior day.

Senior Phil Carey bounced back from his shortest outing of the year against ODU this weekend. Trish Verbrugge | Courtesy

the Charger tennis team to an undefeated conference season as well as the championship title.

Mirkovic was awarded the 2018 G-MAC Tennis Player of the Year. He boasts a combines singles and doubles 22-9 record from 2017-18, and ends the season on a seven-match win streak.

Mirkovic won nine of his last ten singles matches — one of the highest individual winning percentage in program history.

Adams, Delp, and Mirkovic claimed three of the eight spots on the First-Team All-Conference team, while Ciraci, Hyman, and Clouette earned Second-Team All-Conference honors.

Turner reflected further on season highlights.

“Milan Mirkovic really picked up his level this year and became a dominant No. 1 player for us, which has made everyone else’s life a lot easier,” Turner said. “Justin Hyman and Charlie Adams were in the top No. 2 doubles teams in the nation. Beating the No. 2 ranked doubles team in the country from St.

Leo was amazing.”

Turner said Delp has played an essential role for the Chargers.

“Dugan Delp brought high energy all season long and I really appreciate everything he’s done for the team,” Turner said.

Turner said a strong, skilled team made it easier for him to coach.

“In practice, my lower guys can go and still compete against my top guys, which makes practice and my job a lot easier, when we have that much depth, and guys that can hit with a variety of different players in practice,” Turner said. “It’s been a really good year.”

Although the Chargers finished the season 14-6 overall, 8-0 in conference play, and seized the championship title, the team wasn’t eligible for an automatic NCAA tournament bid, because the G-MAC only has five teams.

The Chargers could have been still selected as an atlarge team, but were beat out of the No. 6 NCAA Midwest spot spot by the University of St. Louis, Missouri (12-4).

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

April 26, 2018 A7

Culture

Senior Chandler Ryd (second from right) collaborated with his father, Warren Ryd, and former student Josh Hamilton (left) and assistant Tristan Lyon (right).

Barb Doyle | Courtesy

How to make a short film: A Ryd ‘Into the Plains’ By | Abigail Liebing Assistant Editor After working on the project for more than a year, senior Chandler Ryd is preparing to release his first short film. With the help of former student Josh Hamilton, a few professional actors, and a couple of production companies, “Into the Plains” is almost ready for the big screen.

“Into the Plains” is a 25-minute film written, produced, and directed by Ryd in which he explores the nature of grief through a mother who loses her child and embarks on a road trip.

Hamilton, a former fellow Simpson dormitory resident, said he immediately offered to help with filming and production.

“I agreed to work on the project before I read the script. Chandler is a Simpson man. That means we have a

duty, within reason, to help each other. I have aided Chandler on past projects, and he has aided me,” Hamilton said in an email. “It was clear that the script came from Chandler’s heart, and friends — Simpson boys — support noble endeavors of the heart.”

Even senior Beau Jarett, another former Simpsonite, came on set for a day to help his friend.

With the script done and the crew set, Ryd had to select four cast members. Ryd found his lead actress, Maggie Alexander, a New York-based theater and film actress, through an organization called Breakdown Services. Even though Alexander contacted Ryd two days after the deadline, Ryd let her send a self-taped audition.

“And then it turned out that she was amazing. I saw that one tape and thought, ‘Yes, this is it. This is the one.’

Even just from maybe the

first 10 seconds, I was pretty sold,” Ryd said. “For Anna, the main character, it wasn’t that the other actresses were bad, I just didn’t think that they quite understood the character and they didn’t quite have the subtlety that the role really needed.”

In her preparation for the character, Alexander spent an afternoon decorating a crib with her imaginary child’s name and birthdate and then scraping his name off the wood, tearing the crib apart, and eventually throwing it away.

“I went pretty far down the rabbit hole with this film.

At the end of each filming day, it was hard to shake it off completely,” Alexander said in an email.

But her preparation led to a believable performance that Ryd said he felt captured the character.

After selecting the cast, Ryd

‘Christian art’ or just ‘Christian’?

By | Hannah Niemeier Senior Writer She is a lover of art, a divorcee, a bleeding heart, a sojourner in Rome. He is an Italian, a kindred spirit, a lover of ancient art and aged wine. They fall in love — with each other and with the timeless beauty of the ancient city that brought them together.

This is a novel, published by a Christian press, and one that richly depicts a story of redemption and hope.

Unfortunately, you’ve heard it before.

This is the bare outline of “Unveiling,” a reissue of Suzanne M. Wolfe’s first novel, published under the same title 13 years ago by Paraclete Press, an ecumenical Christian publishing house founded by members of the Benedictine order. It is the sort of art most troubling to me as a Christian and an aspiring artist: the deflated artwork whose lofty goals of Christian uplift are not sustained by its literary merit. “Unveiling” is a deeply felt novel, but not an impressive or even convincing one. Its trite plot, its flat characterization, and its overwrought prose prompt that sad consolation, for both reader and writer, that its “heart is in the right place.”

The novel follows Dr. Rachel Piers, recently divorced and worn thin by her career as a prominent art historian and restorer, to a cathedral in Rome where she restores a long-revered and blackened triptych — and her soul.

The paper-thin plot flutters around a hot-stuff museum director who wants to steal the treasured object of worship for a big nasty museum.

But mostly, the story is about the restoring of Rachel’s heart, through art, through love, to the stirrings (we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves here) of faith. Like Rome itself, “Unveiling” is a “tableau of faith renewed, reaffirmed, reenacted again and again, ad infinitum,” Wolfe writes.

Blessedly, the tableau of Wolfe’s work is much broader than her fiction. Wolfe has published one other novel since the original “Unveiling,” but she has spent much of her career in positions that support the narrative art that she loves: she teaches at Seattle Pacific University. She co-writes books with her husband, Greg, on prayer. She’s

an Anglophile; she studied in Oxford (she’s the co-founder of the C.S. Lewis Society) and is drafting a trilogy of novels set in Elizabethan London.

But Image journal, founded in 1989 with her husband, Greg, is the Wolfe masterwork. As a small magazine of “Art, Faith, Mystery,” it publishes some of the greatest names in writing today: Annie Dillard, Philip Levine, Dana Gioia, Marilynne Robinson, Richard Wilbur, Joy Williams, Christian Wiman, John Updike, and — joy and youthful genius spring eternal — Sufjan Stevens.

How does an outfit like little Seattle-based Image, far from the New York publishing powerhouses, hook big fish like that? Because the Wolfes understand how faith-based art works, as their mission statement claims: “the great art that has emerged from these faith traditions is dramatic, not didactic — incarnational, not abstract.”

Wolfe, then, is the picture of a powerful promoter of art, and the best kind: the art that inspires faith — in itself, in humanity, and at its height, in the divine.

But all this only makes “Unveiling” more distressing: Wolfe writes with motherly and writerly love about her protagonist, who overcomes rape, miscarriage, divorce, abortion to rediscover love with Donati, her fellow art historian. Through her descriptive prose, Wolfe intends that her readers fall in love with Rome, as well. A resurrection story, in full color.

Who could resist it?

Well, anyone who believes Rachel’s meditations are out of character for an as-yet agnostic, or for anyone outside Wolfe’s sermonizing reflections. Too frequently, Wolfe’s novel re-enacts the perennial fall of overtly Christian literature; it slips into didacticism in precisely the way the journal she co-founded tries to avoid.

Unless, of course, the rarefied ground of “Christian novel” justifies Rachel’s rise to the spiritual soapbox. On this interpretation of Christian art, readers are forbidden to turn a deaf (or critical) ear to the rumblings of a human turn toward the divine. Art be damned; a few extra adjectives can be chalked up to enthusiasm. A tin ear for speech never stopped the Spirit. And

let’s be honest: Rapturous reawakenings of faith are refreshing.

I wish I could be so pious in my book-browsing. But I’m a fallen woman and a particular one, and I can’t see past my own artistic standards. The test for Christian art, for me, is the way the writer’s Christianity relates to its artistry, and it appears in the mission statements of the two publishers, Image and Paraclete.

As a “publisher of essential Christian wisdom,” Paraclete takes seriously the work of its namesake, none other than the Holy Ghost himself, since its name means “advocate” or “counselor.”

Paraclete, an ecumentical monastic community of around 300 members, publishes books like “Be Still and Listen: Experience the Presence of God in your Life,” “Catholic Wisdom for a Mother’s Heart,” and “Horses Speak of God.” Visitors to their website can self-segregate by clicking tabs for “Catholic resources” and “Protestant resources.”

Paraclete’s work is devotional, and the devotional nature of Wolfe’s work bleeds through, as well: “This was the grace the triptych bestowed, the significance of the compassion in the face of the Mother as she held her Son, that somehow, mysteriously, she was not merely a passive observer but a participant in the drama of salvation, a drama Adrianna [the triptych’s artist] not only shared but passed on, like a gift, to the viewer,” Wolfe’s Rachel exhorts in a particularly ministerly mood.

The mature Christian faith of the author is on full display here. I respect it. But when it poses as art, it overshadows its subject, and that is a transgression that, to me, borders on sin.

Yet Wolfe’s resurrection and restoration narrative is powerful enough to convince the venerable Annie Dillard: “Unveiling,” she blurbed, “probes the myriad layers of meaning in art, the human soul, and ultimately the world itself.”

Listen to what Dillard writes, not what she blurbs.

For art, read Annie. Follow Henry James or Ernest Hemingway or, hell, Livy himself, to Rome. For the same good you’d get from “Unveiling,” just grab your devotional.

decided to film in his hometown of Colorado Springs over Christmas break. After one rehearsal day to bring all the cast together to talk through the script and get to know each other, they spent four long days of filming.

Ryd originally planned to film independently with the help of Hamilton and a few other friends, but a production company discovered his script online. Access Media Group offered to bring its own professional equipment and help with the filming, all for free.

“A week before shooting I had a production company reach out to me and wanted to help me out. They all volunteered their time and gear for free,” Ryd said. “If I had paid them like a normal job, I would have had to pay them like 15 or 20 grand. And so they were just so generous and I was just so blown away.

And they really helped elevate the scenes that they did shoot with us.”

Even with the help of AMG, the days of filming were intense and not free from hiccups.

The first scene was filmed on a cliff, which meant an hour-and-a-half drive into the mountains and then a race against the setting sun to get the scene filmed. They finished the scene and headed back to Colorado Springs, but Hamilton had left a lens on the cliff. So Ryd and Hamilton had to drive back to the mountains.

“This was at about 9 p.m. that we realized this and we had a 5 a.m. call time for the next shoot day. I get a coffee, he gets a monster and we just drive up into the mountains,” Ryd said.

After finding the lens, then watching the car die on them on the last leg of the trip back

home, Ryd, Hamilton, and the crew still got the next day of shooting done on schedule.

“I was never super stressed about it. It gets to the point when you’re shooting something, just nothing really stresses me because things always go wrong and we always seem to figure stuff out,” Ryd said.

With the filming finished and the edits almost done, the last step is to add the post-production sound, which another professional company offered to do. Ryd hopes to complete “Into the Plains” by late June and to release it at a film festival in the fall.

“It’s going to be way better than I ever thought,” Ryd said.

In the meantime, Ryd is already thinking about his next film.

“Of course there’s another movie,” he said. “I already have it in my head.”

Orchestra to feature three student soloists By | Isabella Redjai Collegian Reporter Experience the works of the great composers and the talents of modern musicians at the annual Hillsdale College Symphony Orchestra performance at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 10 in Markel Auditorium.

Three winners from January’s concerto competition will perform solos with the orchestra: junior Thomas Ryskamp, senior Susena Finegan, and sophomore Keely Rendle.

“Ever since I heard about the concerto competition I have hoped to win,” Ryskamp said. “I’m glad it happened, because it is always fun to play with an orchestra, especially a

good one like Hillsdale’s.”

The symphony orchestra will open with a 16-minute performance of Liszt’s “Les Preludes.” Following this symphonic poem, Ryskamp will perform a piano solo of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, first movement. Ryskamp said he stumbled across the piece when looking at a standard repertoire.

“I listened to it, played through it, and it really appealed to me,” Ryskamp said. “It has a combination of piano and orchestra. Its showy and lyrical passages create a perfect balance.”

Following the senior recognitions, a tradition at the endof-the-year concert, Finegan will sing Menotti’s “Steal me,

sweet thief ” and Donizetti’s “Chacun le sait,” and Rendle will perform Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, first movement.

The symphony orchestra performance will conclude with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 “Overture.” The 18-minute piece serves as a full orchestra “bookend” to the concert, Director of Orchestras and Choirs James Holleman said.

“This year’s symphony orchestra includes a well-balanced program that really plays to the orchestra’s strengths, and gives enough brass, woodwind and strings participation,” Holleman said.

“Don’t wait to get the tickets, though, because tradition tells us there will be a waiting list.”

just trying to get out? So is he sincere or just being a slime ball trying to escape from prison? And is he rightfully accused or wrongly accused?”

In “Wanda’s Visit,” written by playwright Christopher Durang and directed by junior Jessica MacFarlane, life for a suburban couple in their 40s is temporarily disrupted when the husband’s ex-girlfriend from high school stops by to visit.

While the show is a comedy first and foremost, MacFarlane said it also deals with the more serious themes of marriage and long-term partnership — an aspect she said she wanted to balance with the humor as the play’s director.

“I’m trying to walk the line between having that come through and having people still laugh at it,” she said. “The script is great.”

The third of the longer oneact plays, “The Bear” by Anton Chekhov, will be directed by senior Nikolai Dignoti. It tells the story of a boorish man who comes to collect money from a recently widowed woman whose late husband owed the man a debt.

“Even though it’s an 1890s Russian play, it’s very fresh, very witty, very funny,” said Austin Benson, the lighting designer for the festival. “It’s a lot of fun.”

The two student-written one-act plays will be directed by Professor of Theater

George Angell. Both were written last spring for a seminar in playwriting. “Take to the Mountains!” shows what happens when two Mormons knock on the door of a man who thinks he’s Hannibal Barca about to take over Rome. “The Life and Death of George Washington,” another comedy, tells the story of three high-school students who travel back in time to interview George Washington for a history paper. Both Brooke and Austin said they enjoyed seeing some of their favorite pieces that they’ve written come to life onstage.

“My hook when I’m telling people about the show is that George Washington dies twice in 10 minutes,” Austin Benson said.

The plays span a variety of times and themes, and both Buursma and MacFarlane said they have enjoyed the challenge of directing a play and are proud of the effort the actors have put into the show.

Buursma added that “Hello Out There!” has a lasting quality.

“Art is subjective, so regardless of your training, there will be something you can appreciate,” Buursma said.

“There will always be a critic and always be a fan. It might not be everyone’s favorite play, but it’s stuck around since the 1940s, so there’s something to be learned from it. So that’s what we’re setting out to do — to make great art.”

Festival of Student Work offers hardship, hope, and a little humor

By | Madeleine Jepsen Science & Tech Editor George Washington, Mormon missionaries, and an ex-girlfriend from high school will all make an appearance as characters in the Quilhot Black Box Theatre in the Festival of Student Work.

The festival will include three student-directed one-act plays: “Hello Out There!,” “The Bear,” and “Wanda’s Visit.” In between these performances will be two 10-minute plays: “Take to the Mountains!” written by senior Brooke Benson, and “The Life and Death of George Washington,” by junior Austin Benson. All five one-act plays will be performed at 8 p.m.

Thursday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Sage Center for the Arts. Ticket reservations are required.

Although the plays are mostly comedies, “Hello Out There!” by playwright William Saroyan and directed by junior Katherine Buursma deals with more serious themes.

Relatively simple staging contrasts the psychological complexity of the show in which a jail caretaker falls for an accused rapist.

“She starts talking to this young man, and he’s this suave kind of bad boy, and they hit it off,” Buursma said.

“It’s a question of if he’s being sincere and really wants to marry her and take her to San Francisco like he says, or is he

A8 April 26, 2018

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Science & Tech

iFeel Alive Labs combat student stress with games

New psychology department technology teaches students to control heart rate, breathing with games By | Carmel E. Kookogey Collegian Reporter Pursed-lip breathing may be the solution to surviving hell week stress.

The psychology department recently installed new technology that helps students learn how to control their stress.

The technology, a combination of a noninvasive sensors and computer software that reads the sensors’ data, was originally brought to the school for undergraduate research. Now, it is available for students, faculty, and staff to use in a project called the iFeel Alive Labs.

Psychology department chairwoman Kari McArthur said a sale on software and sensors allowed the department to purchase five sets.

“I had used these sensors in my classes and got really positive responses, so I started thinking it might be a really good idea to open up our labs to other people who might be interested,” McArthur said.

“It’s also a good time of the year to do so.”

This biofeedback technology enables the student to see his or her own stress levels on the screen, and by practicing breathing techniques and playing games, they can learn how to control the smoothness or consistency of their

heart rate.

The bluetooth sensor, worn on the finger, measures the physiological responses of the body to stressful situations, such as heart rate, and sweat gland activity ­— responses that students usually cannot detect in themselves.

The software corresponds with the stress level of the students: If their heart rate is uneven, the screen might get darker or the car they are racing will slow down. If, however, by implementing breathing techniques they are able to smooth out their heart rate, the game progresses.

McArthur said her students combined the names of the software, Alive Pioneer, and the sensors, which are from iFeel Labs, to create the name for the project, “iFeel Alive.”

Sophomore Lab Assistant Sydney San Juan said this kind of equipment is more advanced than some of the other biofeedback technology the psychology department has used in the past.

“This technology is not cheap,” San Juan said. “It’s typically used in a clinical setting for someone who is having anxiety, to help them understand their stress in a different way. We’re obviously not clinicians, and this isn’t an alternative to that, but I think it’s cool that we get to use this technology that clearly helps

in some way.”

Freshman Lab Assistant Olivia Manocchio said the sensors can train students to control even minor stresses they did not realize they had.

“I didn’t realize how uneven my breath actually was until I utilized the equipment, and was able to see it. You can’t get that mental training by just reading about the techniques online,” Manocchio said.

The equipment is not, however, a substitute for clinical treatment of anxiety, McArthur said.

“I want to make sure that people know,this is not a substitute for any mental health services. If any students, faculty or staff have any anxiety in their lives, I recommend that they contact the Ambler Health and Wellness Center on campus or their own mental health provider,” she said.

McArthur also pointed out that one 30-minute session will not make a drastic change.

“This is not a one-time deal. Maybe you’ll learn a little bit on your first session, but it’s not designed to be a one-time fix. The more you come in, the more you learn, the greater help it’s going to be,” she said.

Nevertheless, students have said they already noticed a difference in how they are able

Sophomore Briana Dame participated in a 30-minute session in the iFeel Alive Labs, a biofeedback program that uses games to teach breathing techniques. Carmel E. Kookogey | Collegian

to control their heart rate in stressful situations after only using the equipment a few times.

“I definitely think that it does help reduce stress,” Manocchio said. “I’ve noticed an ability to calm myself down when I am anxious or stressed about something. Given Hillsdale’s high-pressure environment, I think it’s important for students to learn how to manage their stress better. I’ve seen students who are having nervous breakdowns, and getting into some very unhealthy

Math department chairman Thomas Treloar uses computer programming in his statistical learning class. Madeleine Jepsen | Collegian

Coding on campus: Students, professors use computer programming for studies, research

habits, and I think that this would help them find better coping methods.”

Sophomore Erin Gordon, who tried the equipment last week, said different breathing techniques are offered in order to figure out which one works best for the individual.

“They give you several different types of breathing to try, and the pursed-lip breathing worked the best for me to help me slow down my heart rate,” Gordon said.

The iFeel Alive Labs are open for all students, faculty,

and staff Monday through Thursday nights from 7-9 p.m. in the Psychology Suite in Kendall Hall until May 8.

Students can sign up ahead of time online for 30-minute sessions through the following link: https://ifeelalive.youcanbook.me.

Since the labs are student-run, McArthur said it is uncertain how long the labs will be open. McArthur said she hopes continue making the equipment available to campus through the upcoming weeks.

Music, microphones, and mathematics: Student to present research project By | Jordyn Pair News Editor Music meets math in senior Justin Rogers’ research. For his senior project, Rogers is attempting to make a computer program that can listen to a tone and identify its note and what instrument made it.

Although it is an area most closely related with voice-totext and speech recognition, such software would have other uses, too.

“I envision something where you can record yourself and an app that can record sheet music for you,” Rogers

successful identifying instruments.

“I’m not sure I would be able to identify instruments that well,” said Mark Panaggio, assistant professor of mathematics and Rogers’ adviser.

Panaggio said the research Rogers is doing is preliminary research that could be used in the future, though there are no plans to do so at this point.

“Solving the problem is not the ultimate goal,” Panaggio said. “It’s about learning.”

Even so, some musicians said that such a program would be useful.

By | Madeleine Jepsen Science & Tech Editor Approximately 120 students on campus have worked on coding projects or used computer programming in one of their classes over the last two years, according to mathematics department chairman Thomas Treloar.

“Over the last two years, we are easily serving a larger number of students with programming opportunities than at any other time in the 15 years that I have been at the college,” Treloar said.

At Hillsdale, computer coding can be found in the classroom setting in courses such as statistical learning, mathematical statistics, numerical analysis, and mathematical modeling.

Computer programming seminars have been offered in the past and will return soon: Assistant Professor of Physics Timothy Dolch said there may be a weekend-long intensive coding course offered this fall and plans to teach a full-length course about the scientific uses of the Python language during the spring 2019 semester.

Students and professors also use coding during research projects.

Dolch said he often spends considerable time with his summer research students as they learn coding for their projects.

“The student sometimes

comes into it not knowing Python, so I’ll spend time teaching them,” he said. “Or if they know Python — that’s the main language I use — then we spend a lot of time working with their skills on it.”

In research, the novelty of a project often will require some sort of coding or adjustment of pre-existing programming, Dolch said. He has used coding in his work with pulsars to screen through enormous amounts of data to find the brightest pulses.

“You end up needing to write some code, or your own program, that goes through every single pulse and does a measurement of how bright it is, and then compares that to the rest of the pulses,” Dolch said. “For a dataset of this size, to break it up into pieces the right way, we had to write our own code.”

Assistant Professor of Physics Ryan Lang’s work with the LIGO collaboration involves making small adjustments to pre-existing codes.

He said it can be a challenge to find the place he wants to modify and to make sure the changes he’s making have the desired effect. Then, he runs the program to see if it works.

Sometimes, simple components are buried behind layers and layers of programming, he said.

The project on which he’s currently working involves modifying programming so

The Download ...

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While studying the structure of an enzyme called a PETase, scientists inadvertently created an enzyme that can digest a common source of plastic pollution: polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. PET can remain in nature for hundreds of years before degrading.

The researchers, whose work is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said they are now improving the enzyme’s efficiency.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death globally, but a new study in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that an immune-activating drug alongside chemotherapy greatly improves survival rates for one of the most common types of lung cancer. Researcher said immunotherapy is gaining traction as a treatment for several types of cancer, and four drugs have been approved so far.

Galaxies with younger stars are flatter in shape than their blobbier counterparts that contain older stars, according to a new study published in Nature Astronomy. Although scientists have long acknowledged a link between the shape and age of a galaxy, researchers said this is the first study to demonstrate that the age-shape connection holds true for galaxies regardless of their shape, age, or mass.

A new type of artificial muscle designed from commercial carbon fibers was reported by researchers in Smart Materials and Structures. The researchers said the artificial muscles, made from fibers coiled with polydimethylsiloxane, could have applications in fields such as robotics, prosthetics, orthotics, and other devices.

Science in the News -Compiled by Madeleine Jepsen

that it can more sensitively detect signals from gravitational waves and distinguish true signals from false positives.

But when Lang has the opportunity to write his own coding, he said the debugging process is much more enjoyable.

“I think it can be really fun to dive in and try to find the bugs,” Lang said. “When you do solve one, it’s the greatest feeling, like you just solved a puzzle that you created yourself.”

Some tasks use coding as a way to sort through datasets that would be impossible to analyze by hand, like the students’ project in Treloar’s statistical learning class, which is trying to develop a program that can identify handwritten letters or numbers.

“People write their two’s in so many ways,” Treloar said.

“Can the computer distinguish between a two and a three that might look fairly similar?”

Treloar’s own research involves sports analytics and predictions.

“The computer gives you a tool to analyze things that you really have no ability to analyze without it just because the dataset is too large,” Treloar said. “But it can’t think for itself, so then you have to know enough of the background and what’s happening to tell the computer what you want it to give you.”

Lang said computer pro-

gramming has a role in many different areas of physics.

“Oftentimes, people like to divide physics up into theoretical physics and experimental physics,” Lang said.

“In between, there’s room for simulations and virtual experiments to see what might happen in different situations.

This third area of physics has really become almost equal to the other two, and programming pops up in a lot of places.”

Projects such as that of Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Mardi Billman, use coding as a way to simulate a particular situation. Billman’s work uses computer programming to model the unlikely bonding process between two different types of molecules in order to determine which chemical and physical properties were most important for bond formation.

She said understanding the language allowed her to maximize the coding she needed for her research.

Lang said just becoming familiar with programming basics will prepare interested students who may need programming for future jobs.

“To bring that skill in a little bit more — it’s a critical thing because there are so many great tech jobs that are out there,” Lang said. “Once you know the basic ideas, you can start picking up the specifics of a particular language or a particular job.”

“I like music. I like math. I wanted a project that was the intersection of both of them.” said. “I think that would be really cool, and it’s not too far from what I have now.”

Rogers, a math major and psychology minor, has played the bass for five years and percussion for 10 years. He will present his research, titled “TK,” at noon on Thursday in Dow Science 113.

“I like music. I like math,” Rogers said. “I wanted a project that was the intersection of both of them.”

When a computer is recording a sound, it actually records the changes in air pressure on a microphone as a series of numbers. These numbers are then used to play back the sound. Rogers is working a program that can use these sets of numbers to identify the pitch and instrument of a note.

So far, the program is 85 percent successful at identifying notes and 80 percent

“I think it’s a good idea if it helps people compose easier,” sophomore musician Montie Montgomery said. “It would allow them to composer music a lot more quickly.”

Both Panaggio and Rogers had to work outside their areas of expertise, dabbling in fields like algebraic topology and zero-dimensional persistence diagrams.

Rogers said he originally studied algebraic topology, which he says tries to give patterns to an “amorphous blob” of geometry, for its own sake.

“You get this crazy abstract stuff, and I’m pretty happy it’s useful in application here,” Rogers said. “I never expected to use this material.”

Still, Panaggio said they have a ways to go.

“We’re not quite at Google’s level,” he said, “but we’re having fun exploring the problem.”

Features A comprehensive Ph.D. in pocket, first graduate students guide to comps to pursue the practical side of politics

April 26, 2018 A9

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

By | Madeleine Jepsen Science & Tech Editor They come in different formats and are required for different reasons in different departments, and can take anywhere from 40 minutes to 6 hours, but they all go by the same name: comps.

Most majors offer comprehensive exams sometime during the spring semester senior year, but there is no formal requirement or preference from the provost’s office about whether departments must give a comprehensive exam to students in their major, Provost David Whalen said.

For some departments, including chemistry, biology, physics, psychology, and sociology, the comprehensive exam is a standardized, discipline-specific multiple-choice exam offered by Educational Testing Service, the same company that offers the GRE. In some departments, such as the department of Psychology or Sociology and Social Thought, comprehensive exams are as much about evaluating how the department compares to other colleges as it is about evaluating an individual student’s performance.

“It measures how our students’ knowledge in sociology compares to a national sample,” Chair of the Sociology and Social Thought Department Peter Blum said. “What the comp does is gives us this indication whether the core gives students familiarity with what people expect sociology majors at other places to be familiar with. The measures have indicated that we’re doing pretty well with that.”

In the foreign languages division, comprehensive exams often have both an oral and written component. For Spanish, French, and German students, the essays evaluate students’ understanding of the books and themes discussed in upper-level literature classes. Later in the semester, students also must complete an oral exam, although the length of the conversation and the topics discussed can vary.

For American Studies majors, whose coursework can vary greatly from student to student, the comprehensive exam is an oral conversation.

Director of American Studies and Professor of Politics Kevin Portteus said this allows him to tailor each conversation to the particular student’s coursework.

In the history department, each professor prepares a bank of multiple-choice questions consisting of material they cover in their upper-level courses. A computer program

selects questions from these banks based on the courses each history major has completed.

For politics majors, comps consist of essay questions.

For religion and philosophy majors, there is both an essay and an oral component.

For rhetoric and public address or theatre majors, the departments don’t offer a comprehensive exam. Instead, students complete a senior project that allows instructors to assess a student’s ability to apply the concepts they’ve learned in their concentrated areas of study.

“When we used to do comps 30 years ago, if you failed somebody, they weren’t going to graduate. It wasn’t like something they could readily do again to make up a deficiency,” Professor of Theatre George Angell said.

“With senior projects, there’s more oversight over the whole process from beginning to end. The projects attempt to roll together all aspects of the program, from the academic to the practical.”

In most departments, comps are graded on a pass or fail basis for graduation, although a specific letter grade or percentile is required sometimes for departmental honors. Professor of Spanish Sandra Puvogel said she tells her students that no one can fail the oral comps, and if a student has difficulty with a particular portion of the written exam, they will be allowed to re-take that portion.

For the most part, though, students enter the exam with clear expectations and ample preparation, and performance isn’t a problem. In the psychology department, seniors scored in the 99th percentile nationally, according to Psychology Chairwoman Kari McArthur.

The provost said coursework requirements are more frequently the cause for people not completing their degrees, not comprehensive exams or capstone projects.

“It might just be a necessary class for their major, or they don’t turn in a final paper so they never get a grade, and never get a degree,” Whalen said. “It’s very frustrating for someone to be that close and have so little left to do.

Very often, they get jobs, and they’re already employed or get married, and life carries them off on its own currents.

They may have every intention of finishing, but then life gets busy. But do we end up here at the end of the year with weeping students and irate parents over a 59 percent? No.”

By | Jo Kroeker Features Editor When Bruce Wykes spoke to doctoral student Kathleen Thompson about what she carries in her diaper bag, she rattled off the list: diapers, wipes, pacifier...and of course, the missionary copy of “The Federalist Papers.”

“Gotta have that,” he recalled her saying.

Wykes, director of operations for the Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship, who studied for his master’s degree alongside Thompson and Nathan Gill, said both exhibited tenacity and had to make a lot of sacrifices to get to this point. He said they followed a variation on the college motto: “Strength rejoices in many sorts of challenges.”

And what comes next for both Thompson and Gill will challenge them, but in a different way, as they take a more practical approach to applying their study of political theory.

“I’m excited, who wouldn’t be excited, right? I’m happy that it’s putting the bow on something I’ve been doing for six years,” Kathleen Thompson said. “It’s good to complete a project, it’s an end of an era, too. It’s bittersweet.”

Thompson said it will be good to switch from her dissertation topic — the progressive roots of the home economics movement — to contemporary politics. She wants to work on a city council and then run for state government in Louisiana, where she and her husband Rocky plan on relocating.

Wykes said he is impressed

by her ability to parse out an argument to its logical conclusion, a strength that matches her motivation to enter politics.

“She will be that person that keeps her own accountable,” Wykes said.

Gill’s post-grad life will also change significantly: a new father to Emma, born this spring, he and his wife Madeline will move to upstate New York. Ultimately, he wants to open a school near where he grew up.

Gill was answering phones for a congressman when he noticed a lack of strong civic education; that’s when he became convicted about teaching, seeing it as the best way for him to preserve his love, politics.

“Part of what attracted me to Hillsdale was I wouldn’t be locked into being a college professor,” Gill said. Hillsdale, he said, prepared him for what he ultimately wants to do: start a school of his own near where he grew up in upstate New York, in a county he described as kind of redneck and backwards.

“I think the people who most need that aren’t the people who don’t have parents who send them to places like Hillsdale, it’s more the kids who don’t have any choices,” he said.

Wykes said Gill will be the very first student to pass comprehensive exams with honors, which speaks to the caliber of his intellectual acumen. But, he said, Gill’s still personable, good at striking a rapport with people of all different age levels and interests,

remembering when Gill spoke at length with Wykes’ two older boys, in their 20s, about their interests: medicine and aeronautics.

Unlike most undergraduate students, the two candidates have to juggle different and additional responsibilities.

Thompson will walk the stage eight months pregnant with her third child, Elizabeth, who is due in June. It’s a life pattern that she started for herself in 2014: walk at commencement and have a big life event.

“I apparently like that life pattern,” she said. “You make it work, you really do. If I really want to do this I will find the time to do this.”

Gill too will be walking just after his wife Madeline, whom he married two years into his doctoral program, gave birth to their first daughter, Emma.

The milestones both Thompson and Gill have reached during their education give them a different perspective on their education.

“When you’re married and you’re starting to have to do your own taxes, and you have to be responsible for everything, taking your car to the mechanic, you start to appreciate how these ideas are part of a real world,” Gill said.

According to him, undergraduates are in a bubble — not the Hillsdale bubble — but a bubble of limited life experience. Reflecting on his personal experience, he has been in school his entire life, except for the time that he spent doing politics.

“I’m really grateful that I’ve been able to study for so many

years, because I have been able to appreciate it so much more now that my life has intersected with my studies,” he said. “That’s something you’ll probably be able to look back on. It doesn’t require getting a PhD to have those thoughts, fortunately. I wouldn’t wish that on most people.”

While experiencing these life events simultaneously, Gill said the local community helped center his intellectual pursuits.

“We’ve really enjoyed getting to know people in our neighborhood, and having a church where everybody we go to church with lives relatively close to us, that has all helped really center what I did in this place.

While it’s time to move back to New York, Gill said he and his wife love Hillsdale.

“We love being in a smalltown atmosphere that feels real, it’s not your typical college town where it’s all people with money who colonize the whole place,” Gill said.

While only two candidates receive diplomas this year, the graduate school is getting more name recognition, and with it, more applications. Wykes said the school received more applications for the fall of 2018 than it has since its inception in 2012, when the pool had five yearsworth of applicants.

“I believe in our program.

The more we can graduate people and get them into the country with a first principles qualitative approach and that can use quantitative methods, the more I have hope for the future of the republic.”

Dating from A10

that interested her. He might say no. He might tell his friends. She would have to explain it all to her friends. Can flirting ever just be flirting, or does it have to be the next topic of conversation over dinner in the dining hall?

Dani Morey ’17 — who has been dating her boyfriend, also an alumnus, since the summer after her freshman and his sophomore year — said the close community at Hillsdale can both empower and smother relationships.

“One of the things I love about Hillsdale is how close everyone gets, so everyone cares about each other and gets involved in each other’s lives. However, I think it’s damaging when applied to relationships. When you’re having a rough patch with your significant other, it is not the time you want mutual friends to be texting you trying to play middleman because they think you’re taking a break,” Morey said.

“Since leaving college, and even when he had graduated

and I was finishing my senior year, it was as if the unwanted third party in our relationship had finally left us.”

She also said she found herself worrying about the “PR side” of her relationship.

Would people find their dates romantic enough? Would people think they were fighting unless they made a public appearance at AJ’s Café for an ice cream date? (Maybe they should try the anniversary cake flavor.)

The whole atmosphere may feel smothering at times, but some students may put the pressure on themselves.

“The dating scene at Hillsdale is not a healthy one at all,” Kathryn Wales, a part-time teacher at Hillsdale Academy, said not 30 seconds into a conversation about dating in college. “Many girls that I’ve met think if they’re going to date someone, it really needs to likely be their husband. They’re not having sex.

If that’s a given, you should date lots of people. You learn a lot about yourself.”

Senior Patrick Lucas, who said he is gay and has never

been on a date at Hillsdale, told me he’d like to go out on a date or two, but focusing on meeting a significant other is a misuse of his short time here.

“That’s not what college is about,” Lucas said. “It’s about finding the good, the true, and the beautiful, not about finding people who are also searching for them.”

A handful of students, including Morey, reached out to express frustration about the pressure they feel to get a “ring by spring,” a term ubiquitous at many Christian colleges — and little used everywhere else.

Senior Chandler Ryd, who is engaged to senior Lara Forsythe, said students should take dating seriously, but they shouldn’t take themselves seriously. Because he wanted to be intentional about his relationships, when he first heard the term “hillsdating” after arriving on campus, he decided to be careful to avoid it.

“People told me about it, and I was like, ‘That’s dumb.

I don’t want to do that.’ There

needs to be work discerning what the relationship is,” Ryd said.

Senior Mehgan Cain said students should ease up on both themselves and their relationships.

“I think many Hillsdale students have the propensity to take themselves a little too seriously which results in them taking dating too seriously,” she said. “As 18- to 22-year-old kids, we have not even met the majority of people we will know in our lifetimes, yet so many people are set on finding a soulmate here. It is just not for me. I think dating in my early 20s should be lower pressure and more casual.”

Wales said Hillsdale’s community offers a perfect environment for healthy dating, but students could handle it better.

“I wish there was a way to inspire everyone to agree to chill out about dating,” Wales said. “If you realize you’re not compatible, don’t blame that on the Holy Spirit.”

Rawson from A10

courses.

In 2002, Rawson came into contact with Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, who ran the policy study institute Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Simon gave Rawson a grant to write a documentary study on the failures of peace negotiations

in Rwanda following the civil war. Rawson worked for years to declassify hundreds of documents from negotiation meetings between insurgents and the Rwandan government.

According to Rawson, the book should be finished and published by this fall.

French Professor Marie-Claire Morellec viewed Rawson’s knowledge and experience working for foreign affairs as an asset to Hillsdale College.

“He is without a doubt the most knowledgeable faculty on African history and cultures,” said. “He is always

very generous of his time and has participated in many talks for the benefit of our students.

He is a remarkable and kind man with the elegance and expertise of a true ambassador.”

Rawson said he will miss working with students, some of which, he said, have gone on to work for the Peace

Corps or missionary careers.

“I loved teaching, and it is with great regret to lay these things down,” Rawson said. “I loved watching the students get better, write better, and I have had a lot of good students along the way.”

taught political science as well as classes on geography and conflict resolution. Rawson is a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Political Science at Hillsdale, and he has taught African history and political systems in addition to politics

Rain, snow, sleet, or hail, senior Emily Barnum sports her Birkenstocks and socks.

Rowan Macwan | Collegian

How do you describe your style?

Classic and Casual. You know, like decent looking without trying. Natural.

Do you have any fashion icons?

Lillian Quinones. She’s a babe, she’s cute, she says her mom buys her clothes.

Does your mom buy your clothes?

Yes. Some of my favorite pieces are my mom’s.

Tell me about your footwear.

My Birkenstocks have been everywhere with me. Indonesia, Greece, Dallas, Olds. They’re falling to pieces; they’re just so loved. I’ve had them for going on three years.

Why do you love them?

They’re versatile and practical.

Would you call yourself versatile and practical?

Yes. They’re also like mom or hip teenager.

‘stocks and socks

Senior Emily Barnum

From Indonesia to Mauck Residence, senior Emily Barnum takes her Birkenstocks wherever she goes. Rowan Macwan | Collegian

By | Rowan Macwan

How long have you tried to embody the “mom or hip teen” look?

Probably forever. It’s just who I am.

Or when I followed Hannah Fleming as Head RA of Olds.

You are going to be the house director of Benzing Residence next year. How do you think that will change your fashion?

I still wanna look nice. I’m also managing the coffee shop, so I’ll probably play up the bookish coffeeshop mom look.

What do you think of style at Hillsdale?

We have the spectrum. I feel like at other colleges they just have the college girl with the sweater and the leggings. Here we have the young professional and the I’m gonna smoke and drink all the time.

April 26, 2018 A10 Ambassador David Rawson as a child in Burundi.

David Rawson | Courtesy

The hills and dales of dating What forces push students together or drive them apart?

Remembering Africa: Rwandan ambassador and Hillsdale professor to leave after semester By | Alexis Nester Collegian Reporter David Rawson loves African history. He should. He helped change it.

Rawson began working in foreign affairs in 1971. He served as an ambassador to Rwanda during the Rwandan Civil War, and later to Mali, before moving back to Michigan in 1999. He then began teaching political science, African politics, and African history classes at Hillsdale College and Spring Arbor University. After this semester, Rawson and his wife, Sandra, will move to Oregon to be closer to their son and grandchildren. Rawson will teach at George Fox University.

Phil DeVoe ’17 took both African Political Systems and History of Africa with Rawson.

“It is wild that Hillsdale College has a professor that was an ambassador to Rwanda,” DeVoe said. “So many people did not know he was here.”

As the only professor with direct experience in African politics, DeVoe said Rawson brought something special to campus.

“He knows the language and culture through his life,” DeVoe said. “You walked away from the class feeling like you understand something very complicated.”

Born in Addison, Michigan, Rawson moved to Burundi with his parents in 1947 as a young boy. Rawson’s father, a doctor, ran a medical clinic, and he attended a boarding school.

In 1958, Rawson returned to the United States to attend college. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Malone University and his master’s and doctorate from American University. He taught for six years at Malone before working in foreign affairs with the U.S. State Department.

Rawson said he knew he wanted to work in Africa again.

“Once you get the sands of Africa in your shoes, you have to go back,” Rawson said.

Rawson worked in foreign affairs from 1971 to 1999. He served as an ambassador to Rwanda from 1993 to 1996, under Secretary of State for African Affairs George Moose during the Rwandan Civil War. Ethnic tensions between the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda boiled over in April 1994, when Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, died when his airplane was shot down. Hutus blamed it on the Tutsis, leading to a genocide between April and July of 1994. In the span of 100 days, 800,000 people were killed — the majority were Tutsis, murdered by Hutus.

The United States government ordered officials, including Rawson, to leave the country.

The Rwandan Patriotic Front, a group of Tutsis and moderate Hutus, took control of the government in July.

Rawson then returned to Rwanda to provide emergency relief to the country. He also negotiated peace agreements with Rwandan insurgent leaders and ministers to agree to folSee Rawson A9

By | Madeline Fry Culture Editor “Hillsdale is just obsessed with dating,” Kaitlyn Zellner, a counselor who works for the college, told me.

When I reached out for comment on this article, I received more than a dozen pitches from students and alumni offering to share the intimate secrets of their love lives.

Money magazine released an article a couple of years ago analyzing how colleges’ gender ratios affect their dating cultures. After comparing the dating scenes at a slew of universities with varying gender ratios, the author concluded that colleges dominated by female students tend to be hook-up heavy, while colleges with more men have a more traditional dating scene.

The results may sound a little counterintuitive — aren’t men the ones who pursue one-night stands more often?

— but it’s not about desire.

It’s about economics. When the dating market has more options for men, it is easier for them to take the simple route: forget the coffee date, fall into the bed. But when fewer women are available, they may be forced to buy a few lattes.

My friend Renee Dodson, a fourth-year student at Georgia Tech (63 percent male, 37 percent female), explained it to me this way: “People want what they can’t get — this goes for girls and guys.

Anytime there is a scarcity of something, people work harder for it.”

But what does dating look like at Hillsdale, a college with not only a balanced gender ratio, but also an overwhelmingly religious student body?

Associate Dean of Women Rebecca Dell said the academics and the culture drive the dating scene much more than the gender ratio, which is split exactly down the middle. The college’s website reports that Hillsdale’s student body is 49 percent male and 51 percent female, but Dell said this semester, it is 50-50.

You could reason that the dating culture would be split as well: Half the students are hooking up (off campus, of course), half of them are getting coffee at Checker Records. But that’s simply not the case. There’s something different about Hillsdale’s culture.

Hookups still happen, which both Zellner and Director of Health Services Brock Lutz acknowledged, but more students seem to navigate the dating scene — or abandon dating altogether.

“I think a large portion of our students are actually afraid to engage or reach out to the opposite sex in a casual dating way because they are very protective of their hearts and want to walk relationships out in an honorable fashion,” Lutz said. “That is obviously a good thing, but I think it can keep people very cautious, maybe too cautious, and can lead others away from just

getting to know other people of the opposite sex, which might turn into a romantic relationship.”

The deep desire for romantic companionship coupled with a fear of failure, a phenomenon resulting in the will-they-won’t-they relationships students call “hillsdating,” may be the result of a high-achieving and spiritually serious student body.

Senior Luke Miller, who is currently engaged, said Hillsdale’s culture means “it’s really hard to casually date, but that also makes emotional and spiritual intimacy much more central.”

But the best intentions don’t always achieve their intended results.

“I think Hillsdale culture takes relationships so seriously that it can either prevent people from reaching out or stifle a young relationship with a lot of serious expectations,” senior Elyse Hutches-

on said. “Sometimes I think people take getting to know other people too seriously, especially if they come from a very conservative background where finding out what works best for you through multiple casual relationships is looked down upon.”

Sophomore Katie Dimmer agreed that Hillsdale students value intentional relationships, but she added that the fear of messing up doesn’t always come from internal pressure. On a small campus, it sometimes seems like everyone else is watching, she said.

“It really does feel very ‘high school’ a lot of the time here,” Dimmer said. “Everyone’s eyes are always on you, and if one person knows, then everyone knows.”

She said she never would feel like she had the “social ability” to approach someone

See Rawson A9