The Hillsdale Collegian 8.25.2021 by The Hillsdale Collegian

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Michigan’s oldest college newspaper

Hit-and-run: Hillsdale Police continue to investigate fatal accident See A4

Haunted Building: Summer job spent with ghosts? See A7

Emily Oren '16: ran in her second Olympic Trials in August See A5

Vol. 145 Issue 1 - August 25, 2021

Collegian Archieves

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College fully open with no vaccine requirement

Administration cites self-government, leaves personal health decisions to students and faculty

By | Ben Wilson Editor-in-Chief Students, faculty, and staff are not required by Hillsdale College to receive the COVID-19 vaccine to study, teach, or work on campus this fall. “In the spirit of individual liberty, people need to make informed decisions for themselves,” Provost Chris VanOrman said. The college respects philosophical or religious reasons some people cite against receiving the vaccine, VanOrman said in an email to faculty and staff on Aug. 13. Professors may request that students wear masks in class and that the administration holds “jurisdiction” on masking in public spaces, he wrote. The college has not announced plans for quarantining or testing, but it will continue

providing ionization technology, classroom disinfection, and hand-sanitizing stations. For those interested in receiving the shot, vaccines remain available at the Hillsdale Hospital to anyone over the age of 12. “We will continue to work with the hospital to provide the vaccine to anyone who desires it,” VanOrman said. Rachel Lott, director of marketing and development for Hillsdale Hospital, said hospitalizations at the facility are increasing, and so are cases across the county. There have been 4,281 cases in Hillsdale County to date and 94 deaths since March 2020. “Hillsdale Hospital continues to monitor the number of COVID-19 cases in our community and adjust our protocols as needed,” Lott said. “We also continue to encourage individ-

uals to get vaccinated and hold weekly vaccine clinics right here on our hospital campus.” According to data on Michigan.gov, the rate in the county of those over 16 who have received their first dose of the vaccine is 40.75%. The statewide rate is 65.2%. “In the past 30 days, we have seen more new cases in the county and we have had more patients hospitalized due to COVID-19, which is to be expected when there are more cases overall,” Lott said. The college will monitor local health, but classes will remain in-person. “Believing that in-person instruction is the best way to educate our students, we also remain committed to protecting the health of our students, faculty, and staff,” VanOrman said. More than 750 colleges and

universities across the country are requiring students to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. At least 12 of these schools are in Michigan, including the University of Michigan’s three campuses and Michigan State University as well as Albion College, Chamberlain University at Troy, Grand Valley State University, Kalamazoo College, Lawrence Technological University, Oakland University, University of Detroit Mercy, and Wayne State University. On June 17, VanOrman published an op-ed in The Detroit News opposing mandatory vaccination for students. The article ran alongside a piece by Albion College President Mathew Johnson, who argued mandating the shot was “the safest option.” “We recognize the need to

keep our minds and our options open, but we are also committed to keeping our campus and our classrooms open,” Johnson wrote. “This policy is the best way to achieve that goal and to do so in a way that prioritizes the health and safety of every member of our campus and the broader community.” Albion was the first college in Michigan to require vaccination for its students and faculty. Johnson said this call was made “deliberately and thoughtfully.” VanOrman said Hillsdale will not ask who has been vaccinated as that is “private health information.” “Higher learning institutions across the country are adding a new obstacle to the education they claim is necessary: the mandatory vaccination of students,” VanOrman wrote. “Hillsdale College will not take part.”

VanOrman said the Hillsdale administration consulted experts and provided extensive cleaning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. But when it comes to vaccines, the school weighs on the side of individual liberty. “Rather than issue one-sizefits-all policies, Hillsdale College will continue to operate as it always has, according to the principle of self-government,” he said. VanOrman noted in his Aug. 13 email the differing opinions surrounding the virus and related policies, but said college faculty and staff need to “find a way to work together with respect and civility.” “We can do that successfully if we focus on our common purpose,” he said.

Princeton Review awards high marks to Hillsdale College

Class of 2025 members pose at the Welcome Party on Monday. Courtesy| Student Activities Board

Hillsdale welcomes biggest, most selective freshman class in its history By | Elizabeth Troutman Assistant Editor Hillsdale College has just enrolled the biggest and most selective freshman class in its history. The admission rate dropped to a record low 23%, a 13% decrease from last year. The class of 2025 boasts an all-time high of 427 freshmen, approximately 70 more students than the class of 2024. The admissions office reviewed a record 3,300 applications, according to its preliminary statistics. “As Hillsdale becomes more well-known nationally for the type of education that

we give and the principles that we stand for, more people are attracted to that in today's climate and culture of higher education,” Zachary Miller ’11, senior director of admissions, said. He also noted that Hillsdale’s decision to resume in-person classes in the fall of 2020 contributed to more attraction. “This made a statement to a lot of students who were seeking that for their college experience,” he said. The incoming freshmen class — 201 men and 226 women — have record-breaking credentials, with an average

By | Logan Washburn Assistant Editor Hillsdale College released its 1776 Curriculum in late July, which discusses aspects of American government and history such as the founding and the Civil War. Matthew Spalding, vice president of Washington operations and dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government, hopes the curriculum will present honest history to American students. The curriculum provides lesson guidance on its website for parents and teachers of students

in kindergarten through the 12th grade. The curriculum differs from New York Times’ 1619 Project, which claims that the institution of slavery has touched all aspects of American life, rendering it necessary to “reframe the country’s history.” However, Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn said that the college began creating the curriculum long before The 1619 Project emerged. He said that work on the curriculum began at least 40 years ago. While former President Donald J. Trump’s 1776 Commission

GPA of 3.93 and an average ACT score of 32. This score is an entire point higher than last year’s, although the admissions process did not require a standardized test as part of the admission process due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The class represents 41 states and six foreign countries, including Italy and Finland, with roughly 23% coming from Michigan. Last year, 27% of freshmen were Michiganders. Diane Philipp, vice president of student affairs, said that in response to the high number of freshmen, the college chose to house incoming students in locations that minimized

displacing residents who wanted to return to their previous residence hall or room. For instance, Koon switched from a men’s dorm to a women’s dorm and The Suites became male-only housing. More students moved off-campus this year, including sophomores who typically are not granted off-campus permission. “It’s nice to have the freedom of living in your own house, but it’s also teaching me important skills such as paying bills and working with a landlord,” off-campus sophomore Alex Mitchell said.

See Freshmen A2

By | Maggie Hroncich City News Editor Hillsdale College earned high rankings in The Princeton Review’s annual release of the top 386 universities and colleges in the country. The review, which is based on surveys of 143,000 students across the nation, placed Hillsdale College in the top 20 of 12 subcategories related to academics and student life, according to a press release from the college. “It is encouraging to be included among this group of leading institutions for yet another year,” said Christopher Van Orman, Hillsdale College provost. “It is a confirmation that a true liberal arts education, one that focuses on forming successful, virtuous students and citizens, remains one of the best and most-desired educations among our nation’s young people.” Among the various categories, Hillsdale scored especially high in community service, religion, and conservatism. Hillsdale was ranked as third for Most Conservative Students and third for Most Engaged in Community Service, as well as seventh for Most Religious Students. Hillsdale also ranked tenth for Professors Get High Marks, twelfth for Most Politically Active Students, and fifteenth for Best-Run Colleges. The Hillsdale Collegian was ranked as the fifth-best college newspaper for the second year

in a row. "The Collegian is an excellent newspaper and it's great to see the hard work of our journalism students earn national recognition,” Dow Journalism Program Director said. Former Collegian Editor-in-Chief Carmel Richardson '21 said she was proud of the ranking, especially given that it was such an unprecedented year. “I’m really proud of the work that we did last year as a team and I know that especially with the pandemic and a volatile election cycle there was no shortage of interesting stories for us to write about,” Richardson said. “It was a good year, I’m really proud of the work that we did, and I think the ranking really reflects that.” Former news editor, Madeline Peltzer ‘21, said she was proud of the work the staff put in to achieve the fifth place ranking. “As news editor, I was in charge of not only the largest section of the Collegian but also of the front page. My main goal was to ensure that we were covering a wide variety of campus stories while they were fresh,” Peltzer said. “I also wanted to make A1 as visually interesting and aesthetically-pleasing as possible, so I had a lot of fun playing around with layout. I think we accomplished both of these objectives and I’m so proud of the work the news team produced last year.”

Hillsdale's 1776 Curriculum seeks to provide 'honest history' for K-12 students on Patriotic Education included Arnn as chair and Spalding as executive director, Spalding said the 1776 Curriculum is unrelated. The 1776 Curriculum offers a different perspective from The 1619 Project, but it also teaches the darker aspects of American history and how the nation has overcome them. As stated on its website, the curriculum focuses on “America’s founding principles, which have outlasted and extinguished from law various forms of evil, such as slavery, racism, and other violations of the equal protection of natural rights.”

The creator of The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, argued that “our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written.” The National Education Association, the largest public teachers’ union in America, distributed The 1619 Project to teachers across America. According to The New York Post, the NEA has recently announced that it will be promoting critical race theory in 14,000 school districts across the nation. Spalding said this debate is not about history, but is the result of a movement to “read history

backwards.” “Their approach is illegitimate, and they’re not only using history as a foil,” Spalding said, “but they’re using it as a foil to fight and see everything through the eyes of race, which is even more problematic.” The 1776 Curriculum, on the other hand, seeks to provide a “knowledge and understanding of American history and of the American republic as governed by the Constitution and morally grounded in the Declaration of Independence,” as found on the curriculum’s website. Arnn said that America is

built around a declared set of principles at its founding. America’s founding principles posed a challenge to people of the past, just as they pose a challenge to people in the present, he said. “The first principle is a form of the law of contradiction: A thing happened in the past, or else it did not,” Arnn said. “Once it is past, it cannot change.” Arnn explained the importance of an accurate portrayal of history. “One finds out about the principles, choices, and events of

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Hillsdale professor receives prestigious Bradley Prize By | Ben Wilson Editor-in-Chief

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation recently awarded the prestigious 2021 Bradley Prize to one of Hillsdale College’s own. Mollie Hemingway, senior journalism fellow at Hillsdale’s Kirby Center in Washington, D.C., is among the three winners of the Milwaukee-based foundation’s annual prize. The group recognizes people who “make significant contributions to the freedom movement,” according to Richard Graber, president and CEO of the foundation. Hemingway, who is also senior editor of the conservative online magazine The Federalist, will be presented with the award at a Sept. 13 ceremony at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. She will also receive a $250,000 cash prize. “Mollie is having an incredible impact,” Graber said. “She’s a woman of courage.” Hemingway is also a Fox News contributor, regularly appearing on “Special Report with Bret Baier.” She is co-author, with Carrie Severino, of “Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court,” which was published in 2019. She joined the Hillsdale faculty in 2019 and teaches courses on investigative reporting to undergraduate students in the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program. In the spring of 2016, she and her husband Mark Hem-

ingway, now a senior writer for RealClearInvestigations, were the Eugene C. Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Fellows in Journalism at Hillsdale. They taught a one-credit course through the Dow Journalism Program and Mark gave a public lecture about free speech. “I’m thrilled and honored to be selected by the Bradley Foundation and to be in such august company,” Hemingway said in The Federalist’s coverage of the award. “Because it can be very difficult to stand up against an entire media establishment committed to peddling false narratives, the courage of the Bradley Foundation is commendable.” This year’s other two winners are Amity Shlaes, author and chair of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation board, and Roger Ream, president of conservative non-profit organization, The Fund for American Studies. Past winners of the prize include three people with connections to Hillsdale: President Larry Arnn (2015), visiting professor and historian Victor Davis Hanson (2008), and Hillsdale College Distinguished Fellow and British historian Sir Martin Gilbert (2009). The prize was first awarded in 2004. The foundation did not give out the award in 2020 due to the pandemic. “The prize honors excellence in the pursuit of freedom,” Graber said, “for people that have dedicated careers and lives to furthering that cause.”

Graber added that the selection process is “very rigorous.” A nominating committee made up of conservatives across the country sends names to the foundation. Nominated individuals undergo a vetting process and are sent to a selection committee that sends top candidates to the foundation’s board of directors. Hemingway’s bravery in reporting put her among the top names on the list, Graber said. “Her career, in a very short period of time, has demonstrated courage,” Graber said. “This is a phenomenal and much-deserved award for Mollie Hemingway, who has become a must-read journalist and political analyst,” said Ben Domenech, publisher of the Federalist, in the outlet’s coverage of the prize. “Her insight, perception, and depth of knowledge have proven unmatched in recent years. She has developed a unique ability to identify false narratives, anticipate where they are headed, and deploy a dogged work ethic to chase down the truth.” Hemingway’s next book, “Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections” is slated for release on Oct. 12. The Bradley Foundation distributes between $35 and $45 million each year to charities in Wisconsin and across the country that “strengthen civil society and uphold our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” according to the foundation’s website.

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the past by reading the record of the past,” Arnn said. “That must be presented fully and fairly.” The college intends for the curriculum to educate American youth on their nation’s principles. “The principles of our country place us, the people, in charge of it,” Arnn said. “We should understand the thing we are supposed to manage.” He explained that as a consequence of this curriculum’s release, youth across America will better understand the meaning of their nation. “One of the things that we must study to be educated is human nature,” Arnn said. “One cannot study human nature without studying government.” Assistant Provost for K-12 Education Kathy O’Toole said the college has long tested and tried this curriculum in its Barney Charter Schools. “We just took the same history and government things that are

being taught in those schools and we made them available to the general public,” she said. “People need resources for teaching American history and government well.” She said that the curriculum contains primary source documents, sample tests, quizzes, and key terms as teacher resources. “The result is a curriculum that is 2,400 pages long, and there’s more on the way,” O’Toole said. “Of course, American history started before the founding, and we’ve got curriculum on everything before and after coming out over the course of the next year.” O’Toole said the 1776 Curriculum is an attempt to help people look into American history as a whole in an apolitical way. She expressed her belief that the majority of Americans want to take history seriously. O’Toole wrote in a letter to teachers that the 1776 Curriculum presents America as a nation “unprecedented in the annals of human history” for the degree of

freedom, prosperity and peace available to citizens and immigrants alike. Spalding said the 1776 Curriculum has the ability to bring honest civics education to America’s youth. “We thought it was crucially important to provide a model, an excellent model of a curriculum, as an alternative,” Spalding said. “We think that curriculum really speaks for itself, and will attract a lot of schools, homeschoolers, and teachers to it because it’s not laden with current politics and ideology.” Spalding said a civics education is crucially important in any free country, as the populace must be educated about their nation’s history and government. The teaching of history should be “fact-based, honest, and accurate,” showing students both the good and bad sides of historical events. “The pursuit of truth is an unapologetic pursuit,” O’Toole said. “For those who strive for honesty, it cannot be otherwise.”

"The Whitney" is a coffee brew offered at Knorr Family Dining Hall. Rachel Kookogey | Collegian

A fallen tree rests over a West Street home from the August 12 storm. Courtesy | Dwight Lindley

Summer storms strike Hillsdale By | Sean Callaghan Assistant Editor

Knorr’s new brew: Dining hall now serving Ad Astra coffee By | Rachel Kookogey Associate Editor Bon Appetit is now serving Hillsdale’s only locally-roasted coffee in the Knorr Family Dining Room. The local company, Ad Astra, is a three-year-old coffee roastery owned by U.S. Marine veteran Patrick Whalen, operations assistant to the president, and his wife Kristi, a Hillsdale alumna. Patrick Whalen is the son and brother of Professors of English David Whalen and Ben Whalen respectively, and currently serves as Hillsdale operations assistant to the president at Hillsdale College. The Whalens moved the company from Kansas to Hillsdale in 2020 and have built a local following through their sales at Hillsdale’s Farmer’s Market, online, and at their indoor markets at the roastery during the winter months. As of August, all coffee served in Hillsdale’s dining hall will be provided by Ad Astra. “There’s already a flavor for that coffee at Hillsdale, so it was a natural fit,” Bon Appetit General Manager Benito Suero Jr. said. As part of the contract with Bon Appetit, Ad Astra provides all the machinery needed to prepare it in the dining hall’s kitchen — such as a grinder, twopot brewing machine, and airpots for serving. “It’s a really big process,” Ad

Astra Manager Morgan Morrison ’21 said. “We put our machines in the kitchen and spent a lot of time there figuring out ratios.” According to Suero, it’s standard practice in the food industry for the coffee provider to provide the brewing equipment. Because Ad Astra is a small company, Bon Appetit contracted them with just the dining hall and the former dining hall coffee provider Zingermans will still be served in A.J.’s Cafe, Jitters, and Bon Appetit Catering. “The natural question is why not serve in A.J.’s? Well, right now the dining hall is a comfortable level of coffee and equipment for Ad Astra to supply,” Suero said. “But down the road I would love to expand their footprint on campus.” Bon Appetit will primarily be serving “The Whitney,” which is a honey-processed bean named after Hillsdale College student and Civil War medal of honor recipient William Whitney. According to Morrison, Ad Astra sourced the beans from a farmer in southern Brazil specifically for the contract with Bon Appetit. “It’s part of a broader initiative for Bon Appetit to source locally, so it makes sense for them to partner with a local company that shares the vision of the college,” Morrison said. “The norm is to be unethical in the wholesale

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coffee industry, but we know the names of the farmers that produce our beans and pay them a just price.” Junior Isabella Murphy said she appreciates that Bon Appetit is partnering with students and locals. “I think it’s really cool that we get local coffee in the dining hall and that they are investing in a business that’s local, young, and employs current and past students,” Murphy said. “Hopefully by having Ad Astra in the dining hall, the company gets some recognition to grow even more.” All the Ad Astra coffee will be served “bean to cup,” which means the Bon Appetit staff will grind beans only as they’re needed to prevent the grounds from oxidizing and giving the coffee an aftertaste. Additionally, the brewing system pulses the water on and off over the beans instead of steadily pouring the water over the beans. Suero explained that this process takes twice as long — 14 minutes instead of the usual seven — but allows for the different characteristics of the bean to “make it to the pot” and result in a better cup of coffee. “Food is life, and coffee is part of that,” Suero said. “A really good cup of coffee complements a meal.”

Two heavy rainstorms tore through Hillsdale College this summer, destroying maple trees from the time of the Civil War and causing an electricity outage for several days. “Tree limbs and debris were flung around,” Penny Arnn, wife of Hillsdale President Larry P. Arnn said. The first storm occurred around 3 a.m. on Sunday, June 20, causing damage to trees, electrical lines, vehicles, homes, and public buildings. Brock Lutz, director of Hillsdale Health and Wellness, said he lost over 40 trees between his house and his neighbor’s during the night. “I had to buy a chainsaw this summer. There were enormous limbs down everywhere,” Associate Professor of English Dwight Lindley said. “I had to cut up tree-size limbs both in my front and backyard.” According to Arnn, a tree fell and crushed a minivan along Fayette Street. On campus, maintenance cut down over seven maple trees for safety reasons. Lindley counted over one-hundred and fifty-three rings on one campus sugar maple, dating the tree back to about the year 1868. “The sugar maples are a tangible connection to the past and almost to the founding of the college,” Lindley said. On Thursday, Aug. 12, at about 6 a.m., the second storm hit and caused a more widespread amount of damage than the first, according to Arnn.

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Philipp said that the cafeteria will be expanding mobile ordering app usage to avoid overcrowding in the Knorr Family Dining Hall. “Grab and Go will still be available in Kendall,” Philipp said. “We also placed the outdoor tent on the quad during these warmer August and September days so students could gather there to eat, study, or just hangout.” Maddie Conover ’18, assistant director of upper Midwest recruitment, said applicants for the class of 2025 were likely attracted to Hillsdale because it stayed open when other schools did not. “Because of the pandemic, students had to evaluate

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Winds jumped up to 70 mph, uprooting trees that impacted both personal vehicles and homes in the Hillsdale community, according to Arnn. “My family had our sleep disturbed that night as the winds were blowing loudly and fiercely,” Sam Knecht, professor emeritus, said. “Above the sound of the freight train engines, people described the sound of a tornado.” The storm left the Knechts untouched, but did leave its mark with over two large trailer loads of branches and brush in the yard. “We were left without power for two days,” Knecht said. In Jonesville, the winds tore off more than half of city hall’s roof, Lindley said. Major flooding also occurred in Jackson and Lansing, which received six inches of rain over the course of six hours. “Trees lay strewn everywhere,” Lindley said. “It almost felt otherworldly.” Around campus, the storm caused trees to fall on the electrical lines nearby the Kappa Kappa Gamma House and New Dorm. Because of the damaged power lines, both the Sage Center for the Arts and the Howard Music Hall lost power for almost three full days. Rich Péwé, Hillsdale College chief administrative officer, said the winds damaged the flat roof of Central Hall above the elevator tower. The school remained out of power for the day. Residents within the community, such as Lindley, continued to be without power for almost three days.

In the following days, the maintenance crew spent all of Thursday, Aug. 12 clearing roads and walkways around the school before turning its attention to the damage on campus, according to Arnn. Arnn said she heard the sound of chainsaws continuing for days as the maintenance team uprooted stumps and cleared away over twenty large maple trees. As the grounds crew worked, other members of the community played their own roles in helping the town of Hillsdale recover from the storm, Arnn said. “I heard of neighbors helping each other a lot: taking food to those without power, moving food from freezers without electricity to their own storage freezers, helping remove tree limbs resting on rooftops and porches, offering transportation to those whose cars were stuck inside garages with electric openers, and checking on the elderly and those in need,” Arnn said. “Much of the damage will take homeowners months to repair.” The maintenance team has restored much of the campus to its original beauty, and has planted a variety of trees to replace those destroyed by the storm. A section of the quad in front of Central Hall remains behind yellow caution tape, below a large branch that appears ready to fall from a giant oak tree. Péwé said the area will remain off limits until it can be cleared. “The campus recovered quickly thanks to a lot of hard work,” Arnn said. “We lost many old trees, but no lives.”

schools based on a new criteria, so I think more students were attracted to Hillsdale because they knew it would be in-person,” Conover said. Conover said she looks for a love of academics and education beyond the utilitarian level in Hillsdale applicants. Though the admissions office has a larger and more qualified pool of applicants from which to choose, it is still looking for the same things in the type of students it hopes to attract, according to Miller. “We look for a student who is academically prepared for the rigors of a classical liberal arts education,” Miller said. “One who demonstrates that they are academically and intellectually curious. Students who love learning and want to embrace the type of thing that

we do here.” Miller said the admissions office also seeks students who are involved in their school, church, and community as such commitment demonstrates what they will contribute to the Hillsdale community. “We want students who have a heart for service and who want to make a difference and an impact because that's what we are looking for students to do on the Hillsdale campus,” Miller said. “Finally, we're looking for students who are going to be conscientious citizens who understand, appreciate, and will abide by the Honor Code: students who will make Hillsdale proud by doing great things in their own respective communities after they graduate.”

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A3 August 25, 2021

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The Weekly: Don't judge based on vaccination status The opinion of the Collegian editorial staff Many college campuses require students to receive a COVID-19 vaccine before returning to school. Hillsdale does not. “We can have college without requiring the vaccine. We’ve already done it,” Hillsdale College Provost Chris VanOrman wrote in a Detroit News op-ed. Hillsdale led as an example throughout the pandemic. We stood against tyrannical leaders and challenged illegal mandates. Forcing a

vaccine on everyone, regardless of health risks and religious objections, is wrong and violates self-government. And Hillsdale is once again on the right side. As members of one of the only institutions left upholding this virtue of individual liberty, Hillsdale students must respect each other for exercising that liberty—vaccinated or not. We must recognize that health decisions are difficult and personal, and what

makes sense for one classmate may not make sense for another. Many students have natural immunity, some have moral objections to the shot, and others were happy to get vaccinated. We each have the right to make our own decisions. Now we must respect others’ decisions. Our school is setting a high bar, and we must strive to meet it. This topic is politically-charged and polarized.

Perhaps that’s why so many colleges, including most of Michigan’s major colleges and universities, require their students to get shots. So let’s follow our school’s lead. Engage in civil discourse, respect personal health decisions, and most importantly, remember that assigning a label of “vaccinated” or “unvaccinated” doesn’t change human dignity.

Carpe 'Dale By | Haley Strack

College students are headed back to school—and for many, that means up-to-date vaccine cards, a surplus of masks, socially distanced gatherings, and loads of Zoom calls. But here in our small Michigan oasis, Hillsdale students are free from nonsensical mandates. We shouldn’t take that freedom for granted. “This is what we do,” Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn replies when asked about challenges of the pandemic. Hillsdale has, and always will, champion exceptional in-person education. But it hasn’t been easy. Last year, the college prepared a legal case to defend its constitutional right to learn in person. The school spent thousands of dollars equipping classrooms with deionization technology and sanitization stations. Professors opened their homes to students so we could have an in-person education. Bon Appetit adjusted food service to comply with state requirements. The Student Activities team threw COVID-friendly events that required intense planning,

the deans made tough decisions daily, wellness counselors faced backlash over foolish rumors, the admissions department had to get creative and expand its team to comply with rules for group tours and student visits, and so much more. The administration fought for us constantly. Students are now reaping the rewards of Hillsdale’s uphill battle. We will never grasp the sacrifice it takes to guide an institution through intense political pressure—but we should try to understand. Students: realize how profoundly blessed you are to be at this school, during this time, with people who want the best for you. Enter this semester reverently—proudly call yourself a Hillsdale student, honor the sacrifices it took to get you here, and give thanks to God for the institution you have the pleasure of calling home.

"Students: realize how profoundly blessed you are to be at this school, during this time."

Haley Strack is a junior studying Politics and Journalism. She is the Opinions Editor of the Collegian.

The Student Activities Board at its first event of the year, Monday's Welcome Party | student activities board

Heed this warning: Fun is mandatory

By | Zane Mabry Now that you’ve all experienced a Student Activities Board event, you know it’s possible to have fun at Hillsdale. Imagine you just finished a midterm that you’ve been studying for all week. As you head out of the classroom, you notice how exhausted you are. What’s more, you suspect that even if you were to get eight hours of sleep tonight, you wouldn't wake up ready to work. You are experiencing more than just bodily exhaustion—your soul is tired, too. In the “Summa Theologica,” Thomas Aquinas explains this concept, writing, “Just as man needs bodily rest for the body's refreshment, because

he cannot always be at work, since his power is finite and equal to a certain fixed amount of labor, so too is it with his soul, whose power is also finite and equal to a fixed amount of work.” Consider that. Thinking puts your reasoning faculties to work and those faculties need rest just as much as your body does. That rest is essential at a place like Hillsdale. How do you rest your soul? The answer is simple, but misunderstood: through play. Aquinas’ “Summa” explains proper play, clarifying, “Now such like words or deeds wherein nothing further is sought than the soul's delight, are called playful or humorous. Hence it is necessary at

Stay in Hillsdale year-round as a summer intern By | John Paul Schlueter Imagine an empty union, no classes, and replacing your dining hall diet of tater tots and grilled cheese for eggs—college-budget eggs. For myself and about 30 other students who worked at the college over the summer, this was our life. While it was a far cry from the typical Hillsdale College experience, staying on campus this summer was a trying, but fruitful, experience and I am grateful to have stayed. This summer I was a legal research intern for General Counsel Bob Norton. I spent more hours than I thought possible poring through legal briefs, reports, statistics, and Spotify playlists. Thankfully, I did not have to work in an office and could read a 250page report and blast Olivia

Rodrigo in the glorious sun by the chapel or in the ghost town of the Grewcock Student Union. The weekdays were monotonous: wake up, work, work out, hangout with some friends, sleep, repeat. Occasionally, kayaking at Baw Beese provided an exciting afternoon adventure. On Thursdays, about 20 other student interns and I participated in a Hillsdale Summer Fellowship Program, which included lunch, a lecture from a faculty member, and a community-involvement activity. The purpose of the program was to help students know the importance of a local community. We visited farms, toured downtown Hillsdale, and attended a city council meeting. While the days could be

By | Maggie Hroncich If you had told me a year ago that my neighbors this summer would be Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul, I wouldn’t have believed you. But after living in Washington, D.C., for a summer internship, the talking heads I’d seen on television my whole life were suddenly right in front of me. Upon accepting a journalism internship in the city, I signed my lease to live in the Hillsdale townhouse and packed my things. Quickly, the random roommates from Hillsdale I was assigned to live with became some of my closest friends. The Hillsdale townhouse was a hidden gem that I didn’t even know about until this summer. Nestled right in the

colorful array of Capitol Hill townhomes, it’s an easy walk to Union Station and the National Mall—which made my morning coffee runs exciting. It’s also a block away from Hillsdale's Kirby Center, where I attended events with D.C. professors and summer barbecues, and which gave me an opportunity to work the front desk on weekends. Being on main campus, I sometimes forget there is a whole Hillsdale world in D.C., and it is enriching to see all the work they are doing on the ground there—from publishing books to teaching grad classes to helping students adjust to D.C. Because I tend to think of Hillsdale as its own planet in a small town in Michigan, I was shocked by the number

tiring, having the opportunity to spend time with other student workers was incredibly fun and provided a nice break from lonesome work. To make it even better, program members receive free housing. You also learn that the building that contains the Hillsdale Brewing Company used to be a brothel in the 1800s. I could tell you that I loved every second of working for the college—but the summer, both in and out of work, was difficult, often felt like a waste of time, and was sometimes lonely. Friends were living their best lives in big cities, working for organizations that seemed a lot more exciting than where I was. The part I love about Hillsdale—the energetic community—was missing. Being without a large com-

munity helped me discover strengths and weaknesses that I never knew I had. Sometimes being around others brings out good, but only temporarily. Bringing others into your struggles is necessary, but being apart from others reveals what you value most. If you’re looking to get to know the Dale better, maybe a Hillsdale summer is for you. You’ll be able to invest in the mission of the college and have the opportunity to discover parts of your character you had no idea existed. But if you know that small towns, lazy days, and Kroger eggs just aren't for you, stay far away. John Paul Schlueter is a junior studying Politics and Classical Education.

Go and intern in Washington, D.C. for the summer of people who recognized our school. Often when I told someone I was from Hillsdale there was an instant flash of recognition in their eyes; they’ve either seen the Kirby Center in action, know one of the students interning around the city, or have met the many alumni who live in the area. A built-in community to call home allowed me to quickly adjust to the demands of a D.C. internship and the networking that goes along with it. Social events in the city helped me grow professionally and meet peers from across the country and the world. But one has to be careful in deciphering if someone really is interested in you as a person or just wants to use you as their connection—the best description I ever heard

of the city is that it is an in-person LinkedIn. While I enjoyed entering the professional sphere and the politics with my internship, I am grateful that I did so in the comfort of the Hillsdale bubble. My apartment in the Hillsdale house— full of women from all three sororities and various athletic teams—was a community of its own. And while I’ll miss waving to Bernie on my way to work, I’m lucky to return to main campus this year with a renewed appreciation for Hillsdale beyond its Michigan roots. Maggie Hroncich is a junior studying Politics and Journalism. She is the City News Editor for the Collegian.

times to make use of them, in order to give rest, as it were, to the soul.” Pleasure found from fun is actually the thing that rests the soul. Having fun causes one’s appetite to rest, and one’s soul is refreshed. Play can be harmful if done imprudently, causing students to neglect their responsibilities. When done correctly though, play is a virtue. Like all virtue, it must be learned and strengthened through practice—SAB events are a great way to practice. One more important thing to keep in mind is that having fun is not optional if you want a good soul. We all need the rest it provides, and not properly taking that rest is

in fact a sin. Aquinas scorns reluctance to fun, writing, "Now it is against reason for a man to be burdensome to others... a man who is without mirth, not only is lacking in playful speech, but is also burdensome to others, since he is deaf to the moderate mirth of others.” The mirth he is referring to here is that which is found in play, in the true rest of the soul. So do not be a burden to those around you! Make sure to take time to rest this semester and have fun—your very soul depends on it. We’ll see you at Garden Party. Zane Mabry is the Director of Student Activities at Hillsdale College.

Advice to freshmen: Capture every moment By | Lily Mchale

I have a piece of advice for Hillsdale College freshmen: Take lots of photos. You’re going to want to remember these next four years. In high school I started a personal project on my Instagram account called “this week in pictures.” Every seven days I would go through all the photos I’d taken that week and pick 10 of my favorites. I'd post photos of myself, my family, places I’d visited, people I’d met, and any landmark moments I’d experienced. I chose photos with great memories behind them, times when I’d felt the happiest, and shots that best captured my stage in life. During this time I was finishing high school classes, going to prom, experiencing lots of “lasts” with classmates, and spending my final weeks in New York City before moving to rural Michigan for college. I was going through a big transition in my life and there was lots I wanted to remember. Individually posting everything would have been excessive, but I had so much I wanted to share. Weekly photo albums of 10 photos gave me a chance to document the important moments. Over time, I can see how

much I’ve changed. I’ve cut my hair and dyed it purple, lost touch with some high school friends, made new college friends, and continue to form new relationships with people. I’m grateful to have a digital outline of progression. It wasn’t until I started my project that I really began to like Instagram. My Instagram felt inorganic, forced, curated, and planned, but through the project, I had the flexibility to include more photos. I added higher quality photos that were less meaningful and lower quality photos with great memories attached. I included landscapes, churches, architecture, and anything else I wanted to remember. I did not originally begin this project to have a photo album to look back on—I simply wanted to share more pictures. Now, it’s the best time capsule. I can scroll through my photos, remembering what life was like at those very moments. In my senior year, with hundreds of experiences to look back on, I’m glad I have the photos to jog my memory.

"You're going to want to remember these next four years."

Lily Mchale is a senior studying Political Economy.

City News A4 August 25, 2021

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Proposed pro-life ordinance moves to committee By | Josh Newhook News Editor

Hillsdale could become a “sanctuary for the unborn,” if a city committee advances an ordinance on Thursday. The Hillsdale City Council unanimously sent the proposed ordinance to its Operations and Governance Committee for review at the Aug. 2 meeting. The public meeting is now scheduled for Aug. 26 at 6 p.m. in City Hall, according to the committee’s chair, Ward 2 Councilman Will Morrisey. Committee members Cindy Pratt and Bruce Sharp will join Morrissey in discussing the ordinance, and then recommend the council’s next step. The ordinance was added to the agenda for the Monday, Aug. 2 city council meeting after the proposal of Ward 1 Councilman Tony Vear. The ordinance is founded on the claim that human life begins at conception, and that abortion is, therefore, “a murderous act of violence.” The ordinance would outlaw any person from carrying out abortions or providing abortion-inducing drugs at any stage of pregnancy within the city of Hillsdale. Vice President of Hillsdale County Right to Life

Heather Tritchka ‘98, who helped bring the ordinance to Hillsdale, said she first heard this idea after a Texas city declared itself a sanctuary city for the unborn in June. In the year of 2021 alone, 36 cities in the U.S. have passed ordinances labeling themselves a “sanctuary for the unborn,’’ according to Sanctuary Cities for The Unborn. When a city in Ohio passed the ordinance, Tritchka said she began to think Hillsdale might become a sanctuary as well. “This seemed like something we could do at a city level to keep abortion out,” Tritchka said. Tritchka said she contacted Mark Lee Dickson, a member of the Texas Right to Life group and a pastor sent on missionary leave to create sanctuary cities for the unborn. Dickson encouraged her to see what kind of support the community might offer. To find out, Tritchka helped conduct three signature drives at local churches in the area, and she campaigned door-to-door in each of Hillsdale’s four wards. Tritchka said she collected more than 400 signatures from citizens, and Dickson agreed to fly to Hillsdale and present the ordinance to the city.

According to Tritchka, no health care providers currently carry out abortions in Hillsdale County. She warned that this could change as the Biden administration rolls out new ways for doctors to prescribe abortion bills. “The Biden administration is deregulating abortion drugs,” Tritchka said. “They want abortion available in every zip code in America before the first year is over.” Those who violate the ordinance would face a fine of $500 and serve 90 days in jail, according to the ordinance. Each violation would constitute a separate offense. The ordinance would also allow citizens to file civil lawsuits against those who they believe violate the ordinance, including drug providers, Tritchka said. The ordinance has exemptions, however. The ordinance does not prohibit the procedure if it is done during an accidental miscarriage, to remove an ectopic pregnancy, or to save the mother’s life. The Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that the U.S. Constitution protects a pregnant woman’s right to choose to have an abortion without government restriction. The proposed Hillsdale ordinance can make use of anti-abortion laws in Michigan law that have stood prior

The local bookstore prides itself on its blend of books, coffee, and tightknit community. Collegian | Madeline Welsh

to Roe v. Wade. However, such laws have not been ruled enforceable. “There are strong state abortion laws that are not being enforced because of Roe v. Wade,” Tritchka said. The ordinance has a real practical purpose for the Hillsdale community, said Tritchka. “It’s more than making a statement,” she said. “This is an enforcement ordinance.” The public was allowed to address the council during more than two hours of public comment at the Aug. 2 meeting. Hillsdale residents voiced their support and concerns over the ordinance. Mayor Adam Stockford said there were somewhere around 70 to 80 people at the meeting, and around 80% of people had something to say. “It was a big turnout,” Stockford said. Stockford said there was a wide range of suggestions for the council, from absolute support to complete rejection. “The speakers were very animated,” he said, “But it was respectful.” Associate Dean of Men Jeffery Rogers was one of many who encouraged the city council to pass the ordinance. “I stand here today to stand for the rights of unborn Americans,” Rogers said. “Choose life. Hillsdale should

stand for the rights of the unborn.” Despite the pro-life support at the meeting, there were also many individuals who opposed the ordinance. Kathryn Watkins, a resident of Hillsdale County, said Texas anti-abortion laws caused a dangerous situation with her friend’s daughter, who was not able to have medical services for her pregnancy as a result of sex-trafficking. “In a city like Hillsdale, where no elective abortions are performed or have never been performed, and no one is requesting to perform them, it is these types of emergency situations that will be affected by the passage of this law,” Watkins said. In addition, a Change. org petition challenging the ordinance has received nearly 2,000 signatures, with organizers citing the ordinance as “flat out dangerous” regarding a woman’s right to choose. “These laws also make any spontaneous miscarriage open to investigation and prosecution, at a time when many women are already suffering feelings of inadequacy and failure wondering what they did wrong to lead to the loss of their pregnancy,” wrote Kathryn Watkins in her petition. Watkins and Leisha Taylor

organized a protest on a Facebook event page, which took place at 6 p.m. on Aug. 2, just before the council meeting. Hillsdale graduate and U.S. Rep. Andrew Fink (R-MI) said he was proud of the work being done by pro-life advocates. “Our area is deeply rooted in family values and our people are longstanding defenders of the sanctity of life and the right to life that every U.S. citizen is entitled to, including those still in the womb,” Fink said. “I’m proud of our community and its steadfast support for the human rights of our defenseless unborn population. I commend the members of the Hillsdale City Council for taking up this issue to defend the lives of the unborn and encourage them to adopt this ordinance that reflects the crucial values of the local citizens they represent.” Stockford said he knows the committee will review the document carefully and will probably explore the liability concerns with the city attorney before proceeding to a vote. “I don’t expect this to be on the next council meeting agenda,” Stockford said. “I expect it to be a painstakingly slow process.”

Alert: Hillsdale police seek driver in fatal hit and run By | Maggie Hroncich City News Editor The Hillsdale County Sheriff ’s Office is seeking public assistance to find and identify a driver in a fatal hit and run crash that took place at approximately 8:30 a.m. Saturday. The accident was in the area near Moore Road and

Wildlife Drive in Fayette Township, according to the police. The Hillsdale Daily News reported that after an initial investigation, police found that 56 year-old Kevin Brewer was walking down the road before he was struck by the driver and killed. The driver was in a white Chevy Malibu. Police are asking that anyone with more information contact the sher-

iff ’s office at 517-437-7317 to assist in the investigation. Additionally, the police are asking that anyone who lives in the area of the crash with outdoor surveillance cameras check their video surveillance between 8:30-8:50 a.m. on Saturday morning, and notify them if any footage of the vehicle is found.

Book Haven brings Quincy community together By | Madeline Welsh Assistant City News Editor Sincere community has a home in the heart of downtown Quincy, Michigan, among the overflowing shelves of Book Haven, a resale bookstore. Jay and Samantha LaFountain purchased the bookstore three years ago and changed the name from The Swallows Nest, named after the previous owners, to Book Haven. “I saw a Facebook post that the original owners were looking for a buyer, and I would have hated to see it close,” Samantha said. “Jay suggested we buy it, and I didn’t think he was serious at first. But we were at this weird crossroads where we were not really sure what our next move was.” According to the LaFountains, the previous owners were very serious about keeping the integrity of the store they had built up over the years. The previous owners were also determined to ensure the store remained a haven for the community in town. Not long after the interview, Jay and Samantha were the owners of the store. “We saw the ad on Memorial Day weekend and we owned the store by the end of June,” Samantha said. Book Haven carries everything from classics to westerns and Christian history to children’s fiction. They carry a wide variety of puzzles, games, and stationery as well. The store offers a student discount to high school and college students alike. Additionally, they buy used books from students and from Mossey Library. Prior to their purchase of Book Haven, Samantha was a stay-at-home mom who

homeschooled their six children. Jay worked full time as an accountant, but said he had been interested in running his own business. “I have always been fascinated with business,” Jay said. “I was all in for any kind of retail establishment, or any kind of business really. The fact that it’s books just makes it better.” The bookstore also gave Jay the opportunity to grow closer to his family. “I used to have an hour and a half commute, eight hours of work, and an hour and a half drive back home. Now I get so much more family time,” Jay said. “Some days Samantha works and I get to stay home and hang out with the kids. That has been a huge blessing for me.” Jay has also found the time to pursue interests such as weekend pickleball tournaments and volunteer work at Crossroads Farm youth ministry. All eight members of the LaFountain family were avid readers even before owning the bookstore. “I grew up reading Nancy Drew under my bed covers with a flashlight when I was young,” Samantha said. Becoming the owners of Book Haven has been a wonderful opportunity for the LaFountain family, Samantha said. “I love that our kids get to be involved. They get to learn all sorts of valuable things and it really fits well into our homeschooling lifestyle,” Samantha said. “Especially for my older kids, they’re learning business skills here. My second oldest can literally run the whole store. They get to naturally be a part of the community just by coming to work with us and when

they do, they get to meet all sorts of different people from all different age groups and walks of life and I think that’s really good for them.” In the early days of ownership, Jay and Samantha worked long hours at the store, which required them to turn it into something of a second home for their children. One can find comfortable seating and pots of fresh coffee scattered throughout the store. “The journey is ever evolving,” Samantha said. “I remember the first year or so feeling surreal everytime I came to work.” Initially, Samantha mainly ran the store while Jay stayed home with the LaFountain children. “That’s one of the wonderful things about owning and running a business together,” Samantha said. “I know a lot of people and families where a spouse has a business but it’s not a family business they run together. One of the biggest blessings for us is the ability and flexibility to take a break in one realm or another and kind of pick up the slack for each other. We just go with where we’re at in our season of life.” This flexibility has helped Samantha as a mother, she said. “I got a break from my children for the first time in many years,” Samantha said with a laugh. “I was really at a breaking point with my mental health and I needed some reinforcement. Getting more time to be me and not just mom all the time has really helped a lot. It has made it so this year I have been able to be home with the kids more and it’s not so taxing because it’s a choice I get to make.” Like the rest of the world,

Book Haven was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. They were forced to shut down for about two months, when they lost a significant amount of business. “We stayed open as best we could with delivery services and curbside pickup,” Jay said. “It wasn’t paying the bills, but it wasn’t about money at that point. It was about a bunch of customers stuck at home who needed books. When we opened back up, there was a huge outpouring of people coming in.” After Book Haven’s reopening, the store saw better sales than it had before the pandemic. “It really reminded people how important it is to support their small local businesses which was really needed I think,” Samantha said. “We were doing fine before COVID, but it actually increased business for us.” Roxanne Kaufman, an art professor at Hillsdale, is a longtime friend of the LaFountain family and a regular at Book Haven. Kaufman shares the LaFountain’s passion for books, and she has even done events at Book Haven following the release of her two children’s books, entitled “Hooves’’ and “Nell the Nest Cow.” “It’s not just a bookstore, it really is a unique place,” Kaufman said. “They encourage community there.” Kaufman’s friendship with the LaFountain family began with shared testimonies of faith, she said. “We started talking about church and the different ways God has touched our lives and a friendship grew.”

Books of all genres line the aisles of the shop. Collegian | Madeline Welsh

Charger

A5 August 25, 2021

Women's Track and Field

Emily Oren during the 2016 GLIAC championship meet. Courtesy | Hillsdale Athletics

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Football

From left, Cole Johnson, Konnor Maloney, and Alex Anschutz. Courtesy | Hillsdale Athletics

Hillsdale alumna makes trip to Olympic Trials By | Chrisitan Peck-Dimit Sports Editor Emily Oren ‘16 added to her already legendary resume when she competed in the 2021 3000 meter Steeplechase Olympic Trials in Oregon this past summer. This year marked Oren’s second trip to the Trials, her first back in 2016, only weeks after her graduation. In 2016, Oren placed 30th out of 35 women in the preliminary round with a time of 10:12.97, which she cites as an excellent learning experience for her. “The Olympic Trials are a totally different beast when you’re running at them, they’re way more intense, so I had no idea what was coming for me, I was so scared,” Oren said. “I remember I tried to absorb everything that was going on around me, but being terrified.” Part of that fear, Oren said, stemmed from running alongside her childhood heroes. “I was running against my running idols, these girls that I had looked up to for so many years, I was on the starting line with them” Oren said. “That was really cool for me, it was a moment that made me realize maybe I can be like them, but I was also just so scared. I did not run well in 2016 and it was mostly just because I was very overwhelmed by everything.” Oren’s second trip to the Trials, back in June, saw her drop more than 13 seconds off of her time from 2016. She finished 25th with a time of 9:59.34. Oren said that she had a much better mentality at the race in this year’s Trials.

“This year, I felt really calm on the starting line and ready to execute my race plan and I felt like I really belonged there,” Oren said. “It was totally different feeling going into the race, even though I still didn’t run much better than I did in 2016, I mean I ran a faster time and placed better, but it wasn’t a ton, it wasn’t like the huge redemption Olympic trials that I wanted to have.” Oren was kept from her redemption race because of a devastating sprained ankle she sustained leading up to the run. “I had practiced the waterpits a few days before and came down really hard on it,” Oren said. “Our team chiropractor and massage therapists were working on it before the race, so it got a lot of treatment and I thought it was fine, but then I just landed really hard on the slant and came over my foot in a way that wasn’t right, so every time I came down on my foot for the rest of the race, it wasn’t happy with me.” Overall, Oren said that her year, running wise, was a disappointing one. However, her teammates at On Athletics Club, specifically Leah Falland, who has been her training partner throughout her career, helped her to begin looking towards new goals in the years ahead. “Emily and I both had our own versions of heartbreak at the Trials, but we've both leaned heavily on our husbands, friends, and family and continue to find ways to dust ourselves off and reshape our next set of big goals,” Falland said. As Oren considers her future in running, she says that she will take the

second

process year-by-year, and will use the growth she experienced at Hillsdale to guide her. “I would say it prepared me a lot because it helped me find balance being a student-athlete, it really forced you to manage your time well and figure out what your priorities are,” Oren said. “I obviously loved being an athlete, but I also loved being a student, I really liked economics, hanging out with my friends, and being close with them, so it forced me to become really balanced.” “I think it’s an easy balance here because of how Hillsdale is structured, that academics are the first priority,” track & field and cross country head coach Andrew Towne said. “We talk a lot throughout the year with our current athletes, and we did this when Emily was here, that balance is important, maybe you don’t have balance every single day, but having balance in your life will allow you to achieve more in every facet of your life than if you were just focused on one major aspect.” Oren made clear that this balance in life is something she appreciates and doesn’t think she could have gotten somewhere else. “That has really helped me into my professional running career because I just know myself a lot better than I think I would have if I wasn’t a student-athlete, I know the things that I need to feel balanced, and to feel happy and healthy,” Oren said. “I mean, that’s why I still work for the college as well, I just know there’s a lot more to me than a runner and HIllsdale really helped me discover that.”

CoSIDA names three chargers Academic All-Americans By | Luke Morey Sports Editor Even in the offseason, the Hillsdale College football team stayed busy, Alex Anschutz, Konnor Maloney, and Cole Johnson were all named 2020-21 Academic All-Americans by the College Sports Information Directors of America. To earn Academic All-American, the student-athlete must earn a cumulative 3.3 GPA or higher, as well as be chosen by CoSIDA based on academic and athletic performance. Only 18 athletes in Hillsdale’s history have earned this honor since 1952. Anschutz, a senior team captain who plays the safety-linebacker hybrid position, said the achievement is a great honor. “I wouldn’t say it was a personal goal of mine but the culture of our team and our school is based around hard work and rejoicing in challenge,” Anschutz said. “My personal goal was to do my best both academically and athletically to contribute to that culture.” Part of Anschutz’s earning this award comes from hs activity off the field. “Anschutz is a Biochemistry major, and he earned the President's Scholar-Athlete Award at Hillsdale College for maintaining a GPA of 3.8 or higher in both 2020 and 2021, and presented a semester-long research project in the spring of 2020 highlighting key points of the mechanisms involved in the human dopamine transporter in the brain,” Hillsdale College’s official press release said. “He's currently on track to graduate with high honors from Hillsdale College.” Johnson, a redshirt junior offensive lineman, also spoke on Hillsdale’s culture both on

the field and in the classroom. “I believe Hillsdale College athletes are built for this award,” Johnson said. “We strive to complete the demanding academic rigor up the hill and continue to have athletic success down at the sports complex.” Johnson’s involvement off the field comes from his financial management major. “Johnson also earned the President's Scholar-Athlete Award at Hillsdale College for 2021, and was named Outstanding Senior by the Hillsdale Financial Management department this spring,” Hillsdale’s press release said. “He's made the dean's list all eight semesters at Hillsdale and earned a 4.0 GPA in each of the last two semesters. Johnson is on track to graduate with high honors from Hillsdale College.” Head coach Keith Otterbein said all three set a great example for the underclassmen. “They have established themselves as leaders in the culture of the football program,” Otterbein said. “They also understand why they’re here, for an education, and they have a great work ethic.” Prior to Maloney, Johnson, and Anschutz, only five Charger football players had ever earned this award. The Chargers became one of only five football programs in Division II with multiple first team honorees, in Maloney and Anschutz. The Chargers also were the only program with three Academic All-Americans on both teams, wth Johnson earning Academic All-American Second Team. "Football alumnus John Cervini was the first Charger to receive Academic All-American recognition in 1972, and fellow Hillsdale football stars Mark Kellogg (1981), Jason Ahee (1993),

Kyle Wojciechowski (1995-96) and Kevin Clive (2002) also have earned recognition from the program prior to this season," the press release said. “Knowing how few Chargers, especially Charger football players, have earned this award exemplifies just how hard my teammates and I have worked over the years and brings about a great sense of pride in what we’ve accomplished both on and off the field,” Maloney, a senior wide receiver, said. Maloney is active in the Hillsdale Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which helps plan and set up charity efforts. “[Maloney] has made the Dean's list at Hillsdale College seven semesters in a row,” Hillsdale’s press release said. “A member of the Tri Beta Biological Honorary, he also studied at an internship at the Michigan State University Institute for Quantitative Health Sciences and Engineering, assisting in and earning credit for the research for a scientific paper published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. An Exercise Science major, Maloney is on track to graduate with honors at Hillsdale College.” All three players are returning for the fall season, and say there’s considerable energy for this upcoming season. “It’s a great feeling to see our hard work in the classroom start to pay off, so I’m extremely excited to see how our efforts in the off season will similarly lead to great accomplishments during the upcoming season,” Maloney said. “I could not be more proud of the way our team has handled adversity throughout the years and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the 2021 season.” Women's Cross Country

Women's Cross Country and Track and Field

Maryssa Depies '21 By | Tracy Wilson Features Editor

When Maryssa Depies ’21 found out she had been named 2021 CoSIDA Academic All-American, she didn’t realize she had been in the running. Depies, a former Hillsdale cross country and track and field runner, found out when her family told her they had seen the announcement on social media. She said she was honored to have her name beside the previous Hillsdale recipients of the award. "The organization has been handing out the award since 1952, recognizing the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom," the Hillsdale College press release said. "Depies becomes the fourth Charger track and field athlete to receive the distinction in the 69-year history of the program, joining John Dorsch (1997), Sara Petta (1997) and Emily Oren (2016)." Her secret, she said, is time management and sacrifice. “When you want to have fun sometimes, it’s like, ‘Well,

named academic all - american

this is my only time to study, so I’m going to have to do that right now,’” Depies said. When she set foot on campus as a freshmen, she looked to then-senior Hannah McIntyre ’18, as a role model. McIntyre frequently had 4.0 semesters and ran several All-American races. “I just wanted to be her so bad and tried to mimic her in what I did,” Depies said. “She was very influenMaryssa Depies '21, runs a race during her senior season. tial to me and Courtesy | Hillsdale Athletics in my whole time I tried to athletic ability, but also her lot going on in their lives. I be like her.” ability to balance her school really felt like her senior year, Cross Country coach work with her training. she probably just did the best Andrew Towne said he was “Like so many other job of balancing all that stuff,” not only impressed by Depies’ Hillsdale kids, there’s just a Towne said. The results spoke

for themselves.” On the course, Depies gave it her all. Towne remembers Depies would push herself to excel at points in races where many other runners would settle for less than their best. “You could just clearly see that she made that choice and that’s something we talk about with all of our athletes, of ‘How good do you really want to be?’ I felt like she answered it right then and there. That always will stick out to me.”

Senior Sophia Medea, a teammate and close friend of Depies, said Depies looks to go above and beyond in all areas of her life. “Maryssa is possibly one of the most loyal people I know,” Medea said. “She’s just a very devoted friend. Incredibly devoted to academics, always working to do a little bit more.” Her favorite memory with Depies was her dedication to a team tradition where the girls would go to a specific tree at the end of their season and throw their shoes up into the branches. In training, Depies became a role model to younger runners. “As a runner, she is just ridiculously hard working,” Medea said. “She was really the inspiration on our team because Maryssa was always ready to go.” Now studying to be a Physician’s assistant at Butler University, Depies plans to use the same tools that helped her to succeed at Hillsdale. “Definitely set time for friends, and faith, and whatever is most important to you.”

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

August 25, 2021

The student band “Full House” performs at Student Activities Board Welcome Party. | Student Activities Board

C U L T U R E Welcome Aboard: Hillsdale celebrates community By | Aubrey Gulick Assistant Culture Editor

To the left, students danced to rock and roll, and to the right, someone screamed as they flew down a four story blow-up slide. On Monday, from 8:30 p.m. to midnight, the Student Activities Board welcomed new and returning students to campus with its annual Welcome Party. This year, the theme “Welcome Aboard” set the stage for inviting all into the Hillsdale community. Groups of friends posed at the photo booth, and duos competed over a line of cornhole games. Despite the fact that it was nearly impossible to hear anyone over the student bands, everyone conversed with their best friends as if they had never left campus. “It’s good to be back with everything feeling like Hillsdale,” senior Sarah Johnson said. While some students were there to meet old friends and make new ones, others were there for the food and activities. “I’m just here for the munchies,” senior Ambrose Bykirk said.

When asked how she play hard’ environment,” Ash- from the previous year, when would describe the student er said. “Everyone has been the event was heavily impactculture at Hillsdale, Johnson exceptionally welcoming and ed by COVID-19 guidelines. landed on the word: passionhelpful, especially my RAs. It’s “It finally feels like things ate. nice to have someone with a are getting back to normal,” “It’s probably a generic but little more experience navigat- Johnson said. “Coming over true way to put it,” Johnson said. “I’ve come to appreciate the conversations that you have about things that are huge things, but then you turn around and you can just be silly and goofy and have fun.” To some extent, Welcome Party was a concentrated expression of the culture at Hillsdale. It encapsulated the camaraderie and good-will, and provided a Students enjoy food and drinks at the Student Activities perspective that Board Welcome Party. | Student Activities Board no other event during the year could. ing campus life whose door is here, I didn’t even think about Freshman Madison Asher always open.” COVID, and maybe that’s a formed a similar impression The open and friendly bad thing, but all I thought of the culture at Hillsdale. atmosphere at Welcome Party was, ‘It’s so great to be back “It seems like a ‘work hard, this year was starkly different and to see everyone again.’”

Collegian Critique

Dear freshmen: a lesson from Luca By | Hannah Cote Culture Editor

Pasta, sea monsters, and Vespas form the Italian wonderland of Disney’s new animated film “Luca.” Disney movies are chockfull of bright animation, endearing characters, and heartwarming endings, and “Luca” presents yet another magical and colorful narrative, this time in the seaside town of Portorosso. I sat down ready to relax and enjoy a cute cartoon story. But the heart-wrenching struggles and landmark decisions that title character Luca faced bubbled up memories of similar experiences that my friends and I faced during our first year of college. “Luca,” released on June 18, tells the story of the sea monster Luca and his new friend Alberto. Both Luca and Alberto are creatures that live deep within the ocean, but when they swim up to the surface, the sun transforms them into human boys. Any drop of water that hits their skin immediately turns their flesh back into scales, but if safe and dry, they remain human. At the start of the film, Luca is terrified to go up to the surface. He sees “human” objects, and though they light a spark of curiosity within him, his fear still holds him captive. Luca’s parents fuel his fear. They force him to stay close and never leave the deep. At the dinner table, Luca’s Uncle Ugo advises him to stay in the water, even if it’s boring. “Sure, there’s no sunlight,” Ugo says, “but there’s nothing

to see anyway, or do. It’s just you and your thoughts, and all the whale carcass you can eat!” This line, though lighthearted, ultimately keeps Luca away from the surface. It’s not until his grandmother comes along, and gives him a nudge toward adventure, that he truly commits to exploring the shore. The water is familiar to Luca, but he is missing out on so much more, and the same can be said to every student who chooses to stay in their comfort zone this semester. Though college is new, and you can tend toward what you

“It’s just the greatest thing that humans ever made, the Vespa!” Alberto says. But Alberto is more headstrong than Luca, and Luca begins to spiral into all the things that could go wrong with their plan. What if they turn back into sea monsters? What if they never find a Vespa? What if Luca’s parents find him? Though Ugo is in favor of Luca existing with just himself and his own thoughts, this only breeds a cycle of overthinking and repeatedly holds Luca back from trying new things. Don’t let yourself get stuck

Luca and Alberto befriend Giulia, a feisty red-headed Italian girl who has her heart set on winning the “Portorosso Cup,” a competition consisting of three legs: pasta, swimming, and biking. These comrades commit to each other and compete together in order to beat out the villain Ercole Visconti, or as Alberto affectionately calls him, “Signor Vespa,” who already has his own sweet ride. These friends team up together and take on the world through the course of this movie, and every freshman gets to do just that. “We underdogs have to look out for each Alberto and Luca enjoy ice cream during their search for other, right?” Guila Vespa. | Twitter ia said. In college, you meet hundreds of new people, but you need to trust that you will find your people, your Alberto and Guilia, and together you can take on your freshman year, one Western Heritage class at a time. As the semester unfolds, plan a movie night with your friends and enjoy Disney’s animated world of scooters and sea-creatures. I highly recommend this movie if you are looking for are familiar with, the next four in this same cycle. With new something fun, adventurous, years can be so much more places, new people, and new and entertaining. than residing in the deep, experiences, it’s easy to overBut to you, freshmen, and comfortable waters. Apply think what you’re doing. What even seniors, remember Luca’s for a new job, wear those cute will they think about my hair- lessons: don’t be afraid to go overalls, or go explore the cut? What if I don’t get a spot ashore so that you can find the Slayton Arboretum. There is in this class? What if there’s no sunlight, and don’t overthink sunlight all around, you just seats in Saga tonight? things or let your thoughts have to be brave enough to go In moments like this, Alcontrol your emotions and searching for it. berto rushes in with his iconic actions. Finally, trust that you Once Luca and Alberto phrase, “Silencio Bruno!” will find your team of loyal decide to stay on shore, they And Luca ends up doing underdogs. They’re out there. are dead set on building their just that. He stops overthinkAnd if you ever feel yourown Vespa. I laughed out loud ing, and ventures to Portoros- self starting to get worried and watching their obsession with so with Alberto in hopes of stressed out about your own the fancy Italian scooter. finding their dream Vespa. life story, “Silencio Bruno!”

While upperclassmen reunited with friends they haven’t seen for a few months, many freshmen found the prospect of attending a party where they don’t know anyone a daunting experience. “There were a lot of people, and a lot of people I did not know,” Johnson said with a laugh, reminiscing on her first Welcome Party four years ago. “This was a good springboard to meet people.” Welcome Party was also the first time many freshmen mingled with students from different classes. “You kind of get thrown out of your comfort zone into this big party,” Johnson said. “I remember when I was a freshman, this was the first time I really remember being with all the other classes.”

Asher said the event was a fun and casual way for her to meet new people on campus. “I didn’t have many specific expectations before I arrived, but it ended up being a fun, casual way to hang out with new people on campus,” Asher said. Freshmen enjoyed relaxing, dancing to music, and taking photos with the themed props at the photobooth. “I love going to concerts, so it was really cool to hear student bands,” Asher said. “There were some great covers, plus dancing is a good way to de-stress.” Reflecting on her past years at Hillsdale, and watching freshmen mingle with upperclassmen and make friends, Johnson had some advice for the class of 2025. “Put yourself out there and try just one new thing,” she said. “After you’ve tried a couple of different things, find things that you’re passionate about, and really plug into that.” Welcome Party was an energetic and passionate opportunity: the perfect introduction to the college experience — it forced us all to try something new.

Alumnus creates ‘bite-sized’ edition of Middlemarch By | Elizabeth Troutman Assistant News Editor

Daunted by the immense size of one of his favorite novels, “Middlemarch: A Study in Provincial Life,” Hillsdale alumnus Chris McCaffery ’16 decided to compile his own edition, breaking the 800-page book into eight short volumes. McCaffery first encountered “Middlemarch” as a student in associate professor of English Dwight Lindley’s Victorian and Modern British Literature class. Starting in May 2020, he divided the novel into its original eight-part structure, recreating the 19th-century reading experience. After almost a year of work, McCaffery’s “Middlemarch” became available on Amazon for $5 per volume in March. “There are a lot of really wonderful classic novels that are very intimidating to people because they are so long,” McCaffery said. “Providing them in sort of bite-sized pieces makes them more accessible.” “Middlemarch,” written by Mary Ann Evans under the pseudonym George Eliot, tells the story of the townspeople of Middlemarch, a fictional English town, particularly a young woman named Dorothea Brooke. “The novel follows how the characters’ specific personalities, foibles, virtues, and vices interact to create the story of their lives,” McCaffery said. Lindley said the novel vividly depicts modern man’s desire for a great life. “Eliot is interested in how we all live isolated in our own little worlds in the modern world,” Lindley said. “We don’t have a shared culture that makes large-scale awesome actions possible. How do you lead an epic life in that world?”

The eight-volume edition began as a quarantine project for McCaffery. He used scans of the novel’s first edition from the New York Public Library’s website, and created the layout by following Eliot’s original organization. It took him only a few days, and once the text was ready, he divided it into its eight parts and started formatting. Each green paperback volume is between 100 and 150 pages long. A painting of a provincial town is revealed on the spines of the volumes when they are lined up on the shelf. McCaffery attributed many of his editing and layout skills to Hillsdale’s Dow Journalism Program. In his time at the college, he served as assistant news editor for The Collegian as well as a columnist and the editor-in-chief of The Hillsdale Forum. “I learned to pay very careful attention to punctuation and formatting, and to go over texts very closely and make sure that everything’s right,” McCaffery said. Miller said he was pleased to see McCaffery’s success. “It has been great to see Chris take an enterprising idea in publishing and give new life to classic work,” Miller said. McCaffery has sold about 200 individual volumes. Now, he is teaming up with another Hillsdale alumnus, Evan Gage ’14, to publish illustrated editions of “Moby Dick,” by Herman Melville. He said he hopes his work will allow more people to engage with books that are notoriously difficult to read. “That’s really what I want, to make reading these fun and beautiful novels much more accessible to people,” McCaffery said, “and much less like a difficult chore to get through.”

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Storms and Stories: Trees of Hillsdale By | Madeline Welsh Assistant Editor his summer, Hillsdale faced some of the most severe storms its people have seen in years. The aftermath left Hillsdale residents with stories about some of their most well-known trees. One of the losses of the first storm was a large sugar maple between Delp Hall and Lane Hall. After it fell, professor of English Dwight Lindley examined the rings and discovered that it dated back to the Civil War. “The dating is not exactly precise because it can actually be hard to tell sometimes how many rings you’re looking at,” Lindley said. “I counted around 153, which would date it back to 1868, right after the Civil War.” Hillsdale College played a significant role in the Civil War. “The Civil War was this enormous cataclysm that happened almost as soon as the college started, about 20 years after its founding. It tore everything apart and killed a lot of young men,” Lindley said. “After the war, everyone was so grateful that it was over. They probably didn’t have a lot of money because it really evacuated all of the funds, but they really put in a lot of work beautifying the campus.” At the time, there was a campus club dedicated to planting trees. The students involved in it planted many of the larger trees seen around campus. “A lot of maples were planted, especially sugar maples, which live to about 150 to 200 years,” Lindley said. “They’ve grown up with the college. They have histories that have all been forgotten written into their substance, into all those rings that I counted in that tree.” Lindley said he has a lot of fondness for the trees on campus. “Trees are these enormous living things that we have stewardship of, but they’re also way older than us,” Lindley said. “They’ve been a constant presence in my life here from when I was a student to now. The living past is present

to us in these trees.” When the storm initially ripped through Hillsdale County, the National Weather Service issued “nine severe thunderstorm warnings, two flash flood warnings and three special marine warnings ahead of the storms,” according to a Detroit News article. Two storms in particular caused significant damage to the Hillsdale and Jonesville areas. Some of the most noticeable damage done to Hillsdale’s campus was to the many trees that populate the area. The college’s Chief Administrative Officer Rich Pewe oversaw much of the post-storm cleanup. “We’ve had some unusual storms this year,” Pewe said. “We don’t typically see this type of damage. The first one, back in late June, had huge winds in the middle of the night that acted like a tornado because it took down huge trees. They came up by the roots.” The first of the severe storms required about seven large trees to be taken down, and the second storm took about seven more. “There were some that were already on our list to watch for, to inspect on an annual basis, that had signs that the integrity of the tree was compromised. So, we had to take those down,” Pewe said. Referencing the loss of so many large trees on campus, Lindley said he would miss their constant presence. “I’m not angry that it was cut down. It was in the last quarter of its lifespan. It was an old man tree,” Lindley said. “But it was still sad. It was like a really amazing person who has died, understandably, in the last part of his or her life and who has had a really noble history.” Lindley noted the impact of losing so many old trees. “I walk to school, and there are people that I know and say hello to because I walk past their houses everyday. I think trees are kind of like that too, in a way,” Lindley said. “Living things are all precious, and you get to know them and recognize their presence when you walk past.”

By | Carly Moran Collegian freelancer his summer, I lived a double life. During break, my responsibilities included cleaning up people’s messes, answering various questions, declining requests, and cleaning up messes again. Despite the similar responsibilities, I was in fact working two very different jobs: one as a janitor at a sports club and one as an intern for the Kevin Kiley for Governor campaign. When it came to both of my summer jobs, I had no idea what I was signing up for. I remember my first day as a janitor, staring down at a shower drain riddled with an unknown goop. Sucking in a breath, I reached down and

chucked it into the trash with my gloved hand. I had thought that I would be a receptionist, but once I was hired, my training was less about answering phone calls and more focused on spraying ammonium chloride. My campaign internship had an unexpected start as well. I had been trying to work at California Assemblyman Kevin Kiley’s office for a few months but had been unable to due to the pandemic. Known for his humility and listening to the people well, he had everything I was looking for in a politician. I remember attending the local rodeo with my family when he made a surprise appearance to present a plaque.

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Chores on haunted floors By | Emily Jones Collegian Freelancer

ew people can say they’ve had ghosts as coworkers, but the building my brother Trevor and I worked in this summer was crawling with paranormal activity. Previously a meat packing plant, the five-and-ahalf-story building in Salina, Kansas now operates as a locksmith shop. In their apartment above the shop, Sarah and Perry George, my boss and her husband, collect antiques, like old hospital equipment and dolls from an abandoned psych ward. Walking into my second summer in the intimidating building, I knew what kind of chores I was getting myself into. Our tasks ranged from painting old feed tanks and cleaning up the welding shop to creating a locksmith museum. On top of the dim lighting and a lack of air conditioning, an unwelcome feeling frequented the job. The third floor shook most employees straight to the core. I always felt I was being watched up there, so I understood why my boss said it was haunted. Long ago, a fire left the third floor constantly smelling like something was burning. Years later, a man had a heart attack and died on that same floor. Apparently, the man was unkind and didn’t like people very much, so it’s no surprise that his ghost doesn’t have a welcoming nature either. My brother and I spent most of our summer on the third floor. On one of the days I was working on organizing, cleaning, and rearranging the floor to make it into the locksmith museum, I noticed a door creeping open. I was alone. With nobody else on the floor and no air conditioning or windows, I had no clue how that was happening without the involvement of a ghost. After watching it open at least four inches, I grew uncomfortable being alone up there and left. I didn’t tell anyone about the incident until a few days later, when my brother experienced something too.

“I want to leave,” he said as soon as I picked up the phone. He was alone on the third floor, messing with an ancient typewriter, when a box behind him moved on its own. He looked around the room to find nothing else moving and nobody else around. Without hesitation, he said, “Nope,” and leapt into the freight elevator labeled “DANGEROUS,” desperate to get back to the ground level. Our boss simply laughed about his fearful encounter. “Don’t worry,” she told my brother in a delightful tone. “Nobody has been hurt … yet.” Sarah and Perry had planned on making the third floor into their apartment, until a horrible feeling of being unwanted there settled over them. “I was painting one evening when I just felt uncomfortable,” Sarah said. “Then I

told Perry that I wasn’t going to live up there.” The two only dry-walled one room before deciding to quit on that floor altogether. The ghosts on the ground floor, however, are much more easy-going than those on the third floor. The first floor has two different docking bays, a welding shop, and a safe showroom in addition to the locksmith shop. According to Larry, one of the welders, ghosts turn on unplugged power tools in the weld shop and flip lights on and off. The first floor’s ghostly jokesters constantly play pranks on Larry. He’s seen a lot of unfathomable things in the building. He once watched an entire extension cord unravel by itself and move across the floor. “Usually, nothing happens before six o’clock,” Larry told me while playing a video of a white orb dancing around the third floor. Sometimes, after hours of

paperwork, I’d look down to find that my double-knotted shoelaces had inexplicably become untied. The first time it happened I thought nothing of it, but then the incidents continued. Not only was it eerie — it was also annoying because I constantly had to retie my shoes. Those moments were the only personal interactions I had with the comedic phantoms, but I plan on returning during winter break. I will certainly be on the lookout for ghostly phenomena, especially in the gloomy darkness. Seeing moving shadows in the dimly lit areas of the first floor didn’t frighten me too much this summer. My brother, though, eventually stopped looking in reflections throughout the building. He was too afraid he might catch a glimpse of spirits lurking there.

A warning sign keeps visitors out of the old elevator. Courtesy | Emily Jones

Cleaning and campaigning: Messy jobs in California T

“I think he’ll be my boss one day,” I said, unaware of how soon that would happen. About a week later, he announced his plan to run for governor. I reached out to his campaign manager, who told me he had a job for me. When I called him that night, I expected to receive instructions on phone banking. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised. “How would you like to be Kevin’s campaign scheduler?” I heard across the line. Of course, my answer was an immediate yes. Eventually, I left my janitorial job, and the internship became my sole responsibility. In stark contrast to my previous work, I spent my time speaking with high value donors and planning events. Just three days before my departure to Hillsdale, I attended a gubernatorial debate, where I met Kevin

Book from B4

Carly Moran poses with gubernatorial candidate Kevin Kiley. Courtesy | Carly Moran

need to learn these truths in order to inspire change and patriotism in younger generations.” The book features colorful illustrations, which direct the reader to concise summaries of constitutional amendments. One page summarizes the First Amendment. It includes illustrations of free speech, the freedom of religion, the freedom of the press, and the right to petition. Turner’s book costs $12, and is available for purchase on stargirljewelryco.com/ books. “I created this book with lots of bright colors, illustrations, and diagrams, so that it could be easy to follow along at a younger age, but also be interesting

Kiley. I stood in the crowded dressing room at the historic Guild Theatre, a clamor all around me. “Is there enough water?” “This needs to be livestreamed on Instagram.” “Carly, give me your hand. We need to test his foundation, and you’re both pale.” And, leaving the room in silence, “He’s in the parking lot. Get ready.” Before I knew it, he was standing right next to me, looking focused to the point of frigidity. The campaign team flooded out of the room, leaving just the two of us and his stylist. As I silently panicked about my sudden introduction, he was panicking about a wrinkle in his tie. I guess we all get nervous. Using my improvisational skills, I asked if there was a hair straightener, which

I’ve used to iron my clothes before. There wasn’t, but they appreciated the tip for next time. The serious atmosphere seemed to fade, and we all began to laugh a little. Despite the initial setback, Kiley stayed calm during the debate and used the most statistics. Even after an angry protester broke into the building and images of the Ford’s Theatre assasination stirred in my mind, the three candidates kept their cool and continued as planned. After the debate and after wading through a flood of journalists, Kiley, curious to know how we thought he did, joined us as we walked to our cars. He asked if he spoke too quickly after his rapidfire responses at the Nixon Library became a statewide joke. We said his pacing was fine, and he asked if he had

sounded too monotone. “No, and it was sponsored by NPR, so if anything, you’d fit right in,” I said. He laughed and impersonated a radio host before asking where I was going to school. “Hillsdale College,” I said. “Political economy, most likely.” “That’s a great school. It’ll be interesting to see what you end up doing.” I thanked him and went home that night feeling fulfilled. My first job, though difficult, had taught me perseverance and how to think on my feet: the very skills that made that debate night possible. As my internship continues virtually at college, I look forward to what’s to come. Maybe next summer I’ll be a receptionist and work for the governor. Not a bad promotion.

and applicable to older children,” Turner said. Turner said many of her peers disapproved of the project. They also disapproved of Turner’s internship with the Orange County Republican Party, where she helps with office work and campaigns for candidates such as Larry Elder. As she publicized her conservative values, she was met with increasing anger and even lost some friends. Turner’s mother said that it was brave of her to proceed with writing the book. “She went to a pretty non-traditional school that had a lot of liberal values,” she said. “Her internship with the Republican Party outed her for her conservative beliefs. When she did the Constitution, there

were a lot of people that felt that it was a racist document and that it shouldn’t exist.” Others, like various educators who purchased the book, provided more positive responses. Laurie Birt, a teacher from Shawnee Mission School District in Kansas, said the book was a reasonable price, and the sale was professional. “I’m a first grade teacher who owns hundreds of books, and I have to tell you that your book knocked my socks off,” Birt said. “Not only were the illustrations engaging and child-friendly, but the text makes one of the hardest topics to teach to first graders so simple and relatable. Once teachers get word of something great, they

pounce!” Turner’s final senior project included not only a children’s book on the Constitution, but also a lecture to accompany it. In this lecture, posted on YouTube, Turner explains her project’s overarching theme. “The main message I want everyone to take away from here is that from movie stars, construction workers, and football players, to moms, chefs, and businessmen, we are all Americans. We must respect each other for our differences to ensure the long life of the United States,” Turner said. “This message is the last line in my children’s book, and it is something I believe we need to remind ourselves of, especially now.”

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August 25, 2021

Freshman Emma Turner made her dreams of becoming an author come true. Courtesy | Emma Turner

Freshman’s book teaches kids patriotism By | Logan Washburn Assistant Editor ost children have little interest in learning about constitutional amendments. Freshman Emma Turner said she thinks she has found a way to change that. For her high school senior project, Turner wrote and illustrated a children’s book called “My Living Constitution: A Children’s Guide to U.S. Constitutional Amendments.” The book discusses the framers’ role in the creation of the Constitution, as well as what an amendment is, how amendments are passed, and why they are important. While attending the Waldorf School of Orange County, California, Turner said she became passionate about politics, history, and the U.S. Constitution. When Turner was assigned her senior project, she knew exactly

what to do. “I wanted to develop a project that would combine all these passions while also making an impact in my community,” Turner said. The topic of her project was to demonstrate that the Constitution is a living document, able to adapt to a current societal context. Turner hoped to use the historical amendment process to prove this point. Growing up, Turner and her mother, Jennifer Turner, listened to conservative radio on car rides, which kindled a love for politics at an early age. “So we were talking about a lot of different subjects, and I said, ‘Well, make it something that’s meaningful to you. Make it something that you really want to feel passionate about,’” Jennifer Turner said. Jennifer Turner said her daughter spent hours

drawing and perfecting the book. At first, Emma Turner took on lengthy research to obtain accurate information. Next, she worked on illustrations for several months, ensuring that every intricate detail was correct. After completing the research and illustrations, she learned how to format and self-publish her book. Emma Turner said she also found herself fascinated with the beauty of the Constitution. “The Constitution was never perfect to begin with; it was written by imperfect humans,” she said. “But it was perfect in the way that it could be changed to fit the time, and near-perfection can be achieved through amendments.” Turner said she seeks to unify Americans with her book. Specifically, she said she believes that Americans must find their commonality

under the Constitution in order to become a united people. “We live in a very divided country, and I believe that regardless of your ethnicity, gender, age, or political party, we are all united under the U.S. Constitution, and we can share this unity through preserving this document for future generations and striving to make it more perfect through amendments,” Turner said. Turner said she has had a talent for telling stories since she was young. She decided to use her abilities to combat the widespread lack of education on the Constitution. According to Turner, it has always been her dream to be an author. “I knew that this project would be the perfect way to realize this dream,” Turner said. “I also strongly believe that chilSee Book A7 dren

Emma Turner holds her childrens’ book on the Constitution. Courtesy | Emma Turner

QUICK HITS: Ivan Pongracic Ivan Pongracic is a professor of economics.

Pongracic and his wife Christina travel to Durdle Door, England. Courtesy | Ivan Pongracic

By | Tracy Wilson Features Editor What is one music genre you think is underrated? I’ve spent the past 25 years playing instrumental surf music, which was born in the early ‘60s in Southern California. Most acts from that scene were primarily instrumental, without much singing, with the electric guitar playing the melodies. My

two bands, the Madeira and the Space Cossacks, have been like that. I have been closely connected to this scene, which went international decades ago, since ’94. I got to tour all over the US and even Europe playing this music. What is one word some people use to describe you? Passionate. When you were young, what did you want to be

when you grew up? I had delusions of becoming a fighter pilot, like a lot of kids. Fighter jets are beautiful. As I grew up, I started realizing, yeah, that is really dangerous. What is one memory from your childhood that stands out to you? When I was growing up in Croatia, my family spent a lot of time on the Adriatic Sea. I have a lot of fond memories of being there, the beautiful beach-

es and the amazing history going back to the Roman times. Do you have any hidden talents or hobbies? I love playing tennis, and actually was pretty good at it when I was a kid. Some of the top tennis players in the world come from former Yugoslavia and I used to practice alongside one or two that became well-known. What could have been!

What is one thing you believed as a college student that you still believe today? That government is best that governs least. What is one memorable gift you’ve received? My first electric guitar, for my fourteenth birthday. What is one thing most people don’t know about you? I’m completely obsessed with the Mediterranean Sea, its history, culture, food. If I could, I would entirely subsist on the Mediterranean diet for the rest of my life. What’s the most recent book you read? ‘Socialism Sucks’ by Benjamin Powell and Robert Lawson. If you could spend one day in the life of any fictional or historical figure, who would you choose? I would love to be Friedrich Hayek as socialism was collapsing in Europe in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Must have felt deeply vindicating. On a lighter side, it would be pretty amazing to know what it’s like to be Paul McCartney. Who is someone you’ve always looked up to outside of immediate

family? Richard Ebeling. Richard was a Hillsdale College economics professor as well as department chairman. He actually hired me here in 2000. I think he’s one of the smartest and wisest people I ever met, and not only because he hired me! His knowledge of economics and history is immense. He later became president of the Foundation for Economic Education and we traveled the world together to give lectures, to the Republic of Georgia and Armenia, both formerly part of the Soviet Union, as well as the Czech Republic, and Poland. What’s one piece of advice you try to live by? Never lie to yourself. I see a lot of that and that was actually advice that my dad gave me when I was a young teen. What’s one way you hope to impact your students? My hope is that as they learn more about economics, they will understand that liberty is the only way to have a well-functioning society. Not the best way — the only way to achieve a prosperous and good society.