New Student Federation officers look to promote involvement

Olivia Hajicek

Assistant Editor

Newly elected officers of the Hillsdale College Student Federation hope to direct their attention to other student needs beyond club funding this spring.

Junior Liam Giles will serve as president, sophomore Charlie Birt as vice president, junior Emma De Nooy as treasurer, and sophomore Garry Danzer as secretary. Giles, a history major and mathematics minor from Illinois, said he hopes to promote awareness of student access to the federation and their funds.”

“One thing which I would like to try to get started is to do a meet and greet with all the Student Fed representatives, because a lot of people don’t really know about the federation,” Giles said.

He said he also hopes to promote self-governance around campus so that clubs can be more self-sufficient while knowing that they can come to Student Fed for assistance.

Besides serving on Student Fed, Giles is the treasurer for Phi Mu Alpha and a member of the Catholic Society outreach board.

Birt is a politics and financial management major from Kansas. As vice president, he said he would like to see Student Fed expand its role in helping coordinate events by serving as a liaison between students and the administration. He said he would also like Student Fed to determine the status of club sports.

“I honestly see student club sports as being underfunded a good bit of the time,” Birt said. “I think that’s an area that we can hopefully work with the administration to clarify and see where we might be able to help.”

Besides his work on Student Fed, Birt is a Winston Churchill fellow, the trea - surer of Alpha Tau Omega, and the president of College Republicans.

Danzer is a history major from Kentucky and the brotherhood chair and vice recruitment chair of Delta Tau Delta.

Danzer said he would like to see Student Fed direct more funding toward campus improvement, especially since it typically gets fewer funding proposals in the spring.

“I would love to see more initiatives as far as campus improvements go that focus on student health,” Danzer said. De Nooy is a rhetoric and public address major from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Besides serving in the Student Federation, De Nooy is involved in Tower Dancers and serves as the treasurer of the C.S. Lewis Reading Club.

As treasurer, De Nooy said she hopes to keep everything efficient and streamlined. She said she is also looking forward to helping clubs with their funding requests.

“I help clubs review their requests before they go to the meeting,” De Nooy said.

“I’m looking forward to that and being able to help them as best as I can and give them the best chance at getting the events and requests that they want funded.” years, including other small, Christian colleges in the Midwest. Slingshot’s size and relationship with book vendors allows it to get discounts on books, which will benefit Hillsdale students, Banbury said.

Beyond allocating funds and granting club status, De Nooy said she hopes the students on the federation represent the student body well.

Hillsdale’s honor code says that a student “rises to self-government” through education.

“I think the Student Federation is a really good example of that,” De Nooy said.

Banbury said the company is a good fit for the college.

“Slingshot is an ideologically-aligned, missional partner who has a heart for service and innovation,” Banbury said. “They pride themselves on providing a top-notch student experience at the best cost to the institution.”

After consulting the class registration of students, Slingshot will package and deliver required textbooks to a student’s dorm room. Off-campus students will pick up their orders from a centralized location. Slingshot has overnight shipping options and will provide a small quantity of books to the college bookstore for students who drop or add a class last minute. Students on WHIP will receive their books in D.C.

“Every two years, we will price out the previous semester’s textbook cost with Slingshot compared to other textbook distributors to assure we are getting the best prices,” Patrick Flannery, vice president of finance and college treasurer said. The bookstore will continue its textbook buy-back program at the end of each semester. Students can also sell their books on the open market.

Junior Emma Widmer said she is concerned the program will leave students with unwanted books.

“I feel like this could create an unnecessary amount of waste with people buying books instead of passing them down,” she said. “Especially if I am already paying for them, I would want to get what I am paying for, but then there is no need to get and keep books every semester if you never use them again.”

The first few years of the program will be experimental, Banbury said. “I look at this as a beta test over the next three to four years,” Banbury said. “So in a couple years, I'm going to take what we have paid in those books, and then I'm gonna go out in the market to two other vendors and compare shop. That way we can see if we’re actually realizing that much savings, and the hope is that we will.”

Banbury said he had the idea for the program after watching his wife and sophomore daughter reaping negligible savings despite spending hours searching for the lowest textbook prices online. He asked students and professors about a tuition-inclusive textbook plan and received positive feedback.

“They think it's going to eliminate a giant hassle — tracking down books and procuring the books,” Banbury said. “It’s going to be good for the bookstore because we're going to work with a vendor and partner with them to provide all the books for the students.”

The program may evolve after a few years as the college measures textbook price differences between majors, but all students regardless of major will save money during the first few years of the program, Banbury said.

“If there's a significant textbook price difference between majors over the course of their time here at Hillsdale, then we may have some implementations down the road for some of those majors,” Banbury said. “But our first initial step is to have a successful launch next fall.” Widmer said she is skeptical that the program will save money.

“I usually get my books for a fraction of what the bookstore charges, so I don’t love the idea of tuition increasing if I can get all my textbooks for $30 online,” she said.

“As an art major, I only had to buy one book that I got for $3, and the rest was art supplies. Plus, I could use science textbooks I already had.”

Banbury said seniors will save the most money because they will pay small tuition increases for their remaining two semesters and receive all of their textbooks. Estimates show current sophomores saving more than $1,100 in book expenses during the duration of their Hillsdale education, according to Banbury. Research shows students who are prepared for class with the assigned textbooks have more success and less stress, according to Hazelton and Banbury.

“It's a frustrating point for some professors when students don't have their books,” Banbury said. Hazelton encouraged students to give the new program a chance.

“It really is a convenience and student experience focused thing,” Hazelton said. “We have a lot of feedback from people who have experienced this, and it really improves especially your freshman experience.”