The Hillsdale Collegian 10.24.19

Vol. 143 Issue 8 - October 24, 2019

Michigan’s oldest college newspaper

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Rahe’s new book on Sparta wins geopolitical award By | Nolan Ryan Editor-in-Chief Paul Rahe, professor of history, will receive an award on Friday for his newest book on ancient Sparta and its defense strategies.

At a conference in Washington, D.C., the Mackinder Forum, an association of foreign policy scholars, will present Rahe with the 2019 STRATFOR Book Award for Geopolitical Analysis for his recent book “Sparta’s First Attic War: The Grand Strategy of Classical Sparta, 478-446 B.C.” This is the

third volume in his series of books examining the grand strategy of Sparta during the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. The award, presented

by Mackinder, is funded by STRATFOR, a geopolitical intelligence organization.

“We try to identify books that weave together history, geography, and strategic studies in a compelling analysis or narrative of significant geopolitical events or processes,” Leonard Hochberg, coordinator of the Mackinder Forum-US, said in an email. “Professor Rahe’s magisterial reconsideration

of the narratives of Herodotus and Thucydides from the perspective of Spartan grand strategy exemplifies the above criteria.”

In addition to receiving the award, Rahe will deliver a lecture titled “Grand Strategy in Sparta’s First Two Attic Wars” on Friday.

A Hillsdale College press release that announced the new book in August noted that this third volume will be included in the Yale University Library of Military History.

Rahe said his series aims to explore the question of

how communities defend themselves and their way of life. These books examine how Sparta in particular set about defending itself. Rahe said that when it comes to the wars he interprets in the books, many works have been written on Athens, but he thought there was a lack of in-depth study on Sparta.

“This volume is about the aftermath of the Persian wars and the alliance between Sparta and Athens,” Rahe said. “It’s an examination of how that alliance came apart and how the Spartans coped with the Athenian challenge.

My focus is on particulars, but always with an eye to parallels.”

And Rahe certainly sees modern parallels with some of the 20th century conflicts in which the United States participated. Rahe said the third volume especially has similarities to the U.S. situation after World War II. “You have an alliance against a great power — Germany and Japan — with the Soviet Union. When the war is over, the two allies become enemies,” Rahe said.

Rahe, however, said he does not explicitly make

these analogies in his volumes. Instead, he lets readers find the parallels themselves.

“The Peloponnesian War has been regarded as a template for World War I, World War II, and the Cold War for a very long time,” Rahe said.

Hochberg also notes the parallels Rahe sees with modern politics. Rahe’s work, he said, contributes to an understanding of international relations.

“He calls attention to

See Sparta A2

Book checkouts on the decline at Mossey library By | Victoria Marshall Assistant Editor Amidst the massive decline of students checking out physical books in American universities, Hillsdale students show themselves exempt from the trend.

A 64% decline in the number of books checked out at Yale’s undergraduate library in February 2019 led the university to relocate three-quarters of its books to create more space for study rooms. As a result, students staged a protest, and Yale decided to expand the number of books in its library rather than increase the amount of study spaces.

Although students and their books arose victorious in this fight, one glaring fact remains: university libraries across the country are experiencing a massive decline in the use and circulation of their in-house books and materials.

The Atlantic reported that at the University of Virginia, college students checked out 238,000 books during the 2008-2009 school year, but that number has shrunk to just 60,000 this past school year. This statistic is no different for Northwestern University, whose circulation among undergraduate students declined 50% from 2013 to 2017. This trend is not limited to undergrads; for graduate students and faculty members at UVA, use of in-house books is down both 61% and 46%, respectively.

Hillsdale College’s Mossey Library has also

experienced a decline, although not as severe.

There has been a 2% decrease in the amount of in-house materials checked out and picked up from the 2017-2018 school year to the 2018-2019 year, according to Public Services Librarian Linda Moore.

“I would say that we have seen a decline perhaps not as significant as other places but it’s sort of hard to tell because what people use to count their figures are different,” Moore said. “We use checkouts, renewals, and we also count in-house use — books that are picked up off the shelves and left here — and those are the things that we consider as circulation.”

According to Moore, students checked out 113,000 books in 2018, which is 1,000 less than the checkout number 20 years ago.

“The problem with these figures is that they don’t include e-books, so that would add some amount back in there,” Moore said.

“That’s why it’s really hard to compare back to 1999 to the 2000s. The internet was fairly new so people hadn’t done a lot with e-books.”

The internet completely revolutionized the research industry, prompting university libraries across the country, including Mossey, to expand their online databases.

“We have seen an increase in the amount of content available digitally in both e-book and e-journal format,” said Technical Services Librarian LeAnne

Rumler. “Some publishers have switched completely to digital content. We have also seen an increase in the number of reference works which have become available online, making research material more accessible.”

When asked about the decline of in-house book use, Mossey Library Director Maurine McCourry said that she believes it is the sign of the times, as more students and faculty defer to electronic databases to complete their research.

“The material is available online, and when it’s available online, publishers can make it available more quickly,” McCourry said.

“Scientific journal articles can be published the next day after the research is complete, and you can publish an article right away.

The digital, in some cases, is actually the better source of information now.”

This availability and reliability of online materials has led the college to invest and substantially increase its online resources.

“On our expenditures on electronic resources, we spend probably three times as much on electronic resources as we do on print materials,” McCourry said.

“We have a very healthy book budget for our size library. We still spend a lot on books and we buy all the books the professors ask us to buy pretty much, but we still just to have access to

See Library A2

Bishop Earl Boyea celebrated the first Catholic mass in Christ Chapel on Tuesday. Virginia Aabram | Collegian

Whitmer budget cuts county sheriff funds By | Rachel Kookogey Assistant Editor Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s budget cuts affected local law enforcement, and Hillsdale County Sheriff Timothy Parker and Michigan Republicans are contesting Whitmer’s vetos.

According to Rep. Eric Leutheuser, Whitmer’s 147 line-item vetos shocked both parties of the Michigan legislature as they fell “dispropor-

tionately on rural areas.”

Parker said the immediate effect of Whitmer’s vetos on Hillsdale County is the removal of funding for one of its Secondary Road Patrol deputies.

Whitmer’s veto removed the state-wide funding of the SRP from issued traffic tickets. Every $10 from an issued-ticket goes to a fund which the Michigan State Police divides among all counties across Michigan.

The budget cut will affect county sheriffs all across the state of Michigan. In Hillsdale County, the funds provided for the salary of one SRP deputy.

Leutheuser said the SRP fund is essential for rural areas like Hillsdale because many of those areas have no other law enforcement.

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Q&A: Rob Leatham, pistol champ By | Austin Gergens Collegian Reporter Pistol World Champion Rob Leatham spent October 17 and 18 at the John A. Halter Shooting Sports Center.

He spent his time coaching the Hillsdale Pistol Club on behalf of their new sponsors, Springfield Armory. Leatham is: an 8-time International Practical Shooting Confederation World Champion, an 11-time NRA Bianchi Cup Champion, a 17-time Single Stack National Champion, and a 30-time United States Practical Shooting Association National Champion.

Kristina Stillwagon rescued this dog, Grizelda, from the a local puppy mill.

See A6 for coverage. Courtesy | Kristina Stillwagon

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How did your career get its start?

I grew up loving pistols, more so than even rifles or shotguns at that period of

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time, and so I really don’t remember not shooting. It was really kind of the formative years of my life. I got in high school and got into sports and things became very, very competitive but I never lost my love for shooting and shot all the time that I could.

Basketball and track were my two biggest sports. I still remember being in basketball and track practice and I’m thinking about guns the whole time. I just couldn’t wait to get shooting.

When I heard that there were competitions for pistol shooting, and being a competitive person by nature; well, yeah, I wanted to be a part of that. As soon as I got involved in the formalized competition, I was hooked. I mean, that’s all I ever wanted to do. I never anticipated making it a business or life. It

was just a hobby.”

When I got out of high school, I did not go to college because I wanted to get a job so I could afford to shoot.

And that’s really kind of how my involvement professionally began. I won a few nationals and I won a world championship and I said, ‘Man, that’s all I want to do. I won’t do anything but shoot.’

How did you become a world champion pistol shooter?

“There are lots of people who practice shooting, there are a lot of people that shoot more than I do. It comes down to skill. You fundamentally have to be skilled

See Pistol A3

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October 24, 2019

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Hillsdale hockey club to play inaugural season By | Rachel Kookogey Assistant Editor Previous students’ efforts to start a hockey club team have been stunted by a lack of coordination or interest on campus, but this year the dream team will become a reality.

President of the club and sophomore Zack Niebolt said the success in starting a team this year is largely due to freshmen interest.

“Thanks to all the freshmen that came in this year we are able to get a team started,” Niebolt said. “My problem last year was that there simply wasn’t a big group of freshmen that were into it.”

When freshman Ben Hanson arrived at Hillsdale, he emailed the boys’ dormitories to see who might be interested in starting a club team. Word soon got to Niebolt, who met with Hanson to compare notes.

Between the combined efforts of the two, the Student Activities Board newsletter,

and word of mouth, they only girl on my teams in high Billingsley added. were able to get a full club school, so I’m used to playing As far as positions on the roster. in that environment.” team go, Hanson said he beHanson, who is also the “Honestly, I’m more lieves everyone is committed team’s Director of Facilities, comfortable on co-ed teams to doing whatever it takes to said Niebolt’s attempts at than girls-only teams behave all the positions filled. starting a team last year laid cause the guys aren’t afraid “It’s a long time coming, the foundation.

“I sent the email out and Zack was one of the first people to reply,” Hanson said. “It helped because Zack tried to do this last year. So it was just a matter of getting enough names.”

The team is co-ed but currently has one girl — sophomore Morgan Billingsley — on the roster.

“I adore playing the game, so when I heard a club team was forming, Hillsdale College will have a hockey club thanks to Zack Niebolt and others.

I couldn’t wait to Courtesy | Zach Niebolt be a part of that,” Billingsley said. “I know some of the guys on the to be aggressive and play the it’s something people have team, and I think it will be a sport how it was meant to be wanted,” Hanson said. “There lot of fun. I was usually the played, which is physically,” used to be a team here, so the

Women Commissioners to hold derby-themed auction, replacing sale By | Calli Townsend Assistant Editor The Hillsdale College Women Commissioners are hosting the first-ever Charger Derby on Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. The event will be a virtually-simulated horse race derby with live and silent auctions, drinks, and hors d’oeuvres.

The Charger Derby is replacing the former Women Commissioners Sale that took place every fall in the Margot V. Biermann Center.

“We’re never doing the rummage sale again,” Leslie Tonnies, one of the five core committee members for the event, said. “It was just too much. It cost the college over $20,000 to put it on with storage of all the stuff.

“By the time we made our $25,000 or $26,000, we were making five or six thousand, basically.”

All proceeds from the Charger Derby will go toward the Women Commissioners scholarships. There are currently 27 endowed scholarships, each valued at $7,800, according to the Women’s Commission new member orientation packet.

Tickets to the Charger Derby are $30 in advance or $35 at

Sparta from A1

domestic social institutions and political culture as a key determinant in the formulation of grand strategy,” Hochberg said. “He reminds us that the grand strategy of the United States should align with its values and institutions.”

Rahe sees his volumes as being especially valuable to people working in U.S. foreign policy. This is something he believes members of the National Security Council

Library from A1

things like JSTOR, Project Muse, and especially the big science databases; that is all very, very expensive. The main part of our expenditures for research materials is our online database which includes e-books and e-journals mostly.”

Moore also explained that this greater access to primary sources and scholarly articles through online databases and journals has led to an increase in educational standards.

“Professors can be more demanding of the students

the door.

“We’re hoping to make $50,000 our first year,” Tonnies said. “And the money would 100% go to scholarships.”

Tonnies said the Women Commissioners are hoping to see 400 people at the event, although she doesn’t expect that many as it’s only the first year.

There will be screens broadcasting various horse races for attendees to bet on. These are real horse races that have happened in the past, but will be in a randomized order. People can place their bets with the purchase of a ticket and “Charger Bucks.”

“Everybody’s going to get a race form with 120 horses and there will be 10 horses per race with funny names and you bet on each race,” Tonnies said. “Prizes are selected based on who wins and just luck of the draw.”

During the horse races, there will also be a silent auction with exclusive prizes, including tickets to the 2020 Masters Tournament, a seven-day cruise to the Bahamas or Caribbean, and a night of Cigars, Cognac, and Churchill with college president Larry Arnn. The

prizes have all been donated by friends of the college.

People do not need to be present to bid on or win the prizes. All bidding will be done through the online bidding software, BidPal. “People can log on to Charger Derby and get a bidder number even though they won’t be here, so they’ll be able to buy our prizes,” Tonnies said. “You just register with your credit card online, you get a bidder number, and then you just use your phone.”

Other prizes include a trip to the M1 Concourse in Pontiac, MI, trips to Park City, Utah and Sedona, AZ and a two-night stay in the Dow Center Hotel during 2020 Homecoming and Parents’ Weekend.

“One of the biggest prizes is probably the NFL Hall of Fame Experience for 2020,” Tonnies said. “It’s a three-day package starting Thursday with the Hall of Fame game, and then on Saturday they have the induction ceremony. We have VIP passes to the induction ceremony. You can’t even buy this stuff.”

will find helpful in guiding the U.S. While at a conference a couple of weeks ago, Rahe said he mentioned his new book, and H.R. McMaster, the former national security advisor, “pulled out his cell phone and ordered the book.”

Rahe said a former assistant secretary of the Navy has also read the book.

“People are always looking for analogies to the situation they find themselves in, just to stimulate thinking about

the implications for the situation,” Rahe said. “This is the audience for which I wrote the book.”

Rahe said receiving this award will give his book some more attention and, hopefully, make it noticeable to military leaders.

The book, he said, is meant to entertain as well as instruct.

“If you can entertain and instruct at the same time, you’ve done everything you can do,” Rahe said.

because the students have the resources now,” Moore said. “It’s different from the days in which the students would either use what we would have here or have to go up to the University of Michigan or Michigan State.

The student doesn’t have to do that anymore.”

But the convenience of online publications and journals has not led students to shun the book.

“I think people are still reading — especially at Hillsdale — people are still reading books,” McCourry said.

And unlike Yale, Mossey

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Library will not be getting rid of its books anytime soon.

“I don’t think that at as a small academic library we will ever get rid of our books; they just form too much of the basis of what we do,” Moore said. “There is a value to having something physical in your hand that represents the intellectual and emotional weight of the material that is being presented to you that I find satisfying, and I think a number of the students here do as well.”

history’s there, it’s just trying to find the people to organize it and do it again.”

“We’re all ready to bear the weight of what’s to come,” he continued. “We all want to play the game for the school and have fun doing it.”

The skill levels among players vary, but everyone on the team is excited for the opportunity to get back on the ice.

“Being from Minnesota, I grew up skating since I was 2 or 3 years old,” junior Philip Andrews said. “I never played hockey competitively because of the expense and time commitment, but during my whole childhood my favorite winter activity was to play pick-up hockey. Now I finally get the chance to actually play and it will be in a package that I can commit to.”

According to Niebolt,

anyone who is interested can join.

“Our goal is not to win games, our goal is to have fun,” Niebolt said. “So if you would have fun playing hockey, we would love to have you.”

The plan now is for the team to play against “beer league” teams on Tuesday nights at an ice rink in Jackson, Michigan. Due to the schedules of some team members, the team will not start playing until next semester unless three more people want to join now.

In the time between now and then, Niebolt says he plans to talk to donors and local businesses for funding.

Regardless of external support, the guys expressed dedication to playing this year.

“Everyone on the team seems pretty committed to it, so it will happen either way,” Andrews said. “But it will be nice to see some alumni, donors, or others support us.”

City-wide power outage caused by oak tree, winds By | Nolan Ryan Editor-in-Chief The power in the City of Hillsdale went down for about 24 minutes Wednesday afternoon.

Due to wind, the top of an oak tree fell on one of the main transmission lines that feeds into the city, according to Board of Public Utilities Director Chris McArthur.

The line was hit near Wildlife Drive, just off of Moore Road. The power in town and on the Hillsdale College campus went out around 1:38 p.m. and was back up at 2:02 p.m. The outage affected about 6,000 customers, McArthur said. This follows another incident on Sept. 20 in which a downed tree took out local power for several hours.

McArthur noted that crews were working quickly

to get the power running.

“The top of the oak tree was about 75 feet away from the line,” McArthur said.

“There are just some things we don’t have any control over. There’s a certain right of way we trim. We attempt to keep it clear as best we can.”

McArthur said this is the third big tree that has done extensive damage to city power lines this year.

He said it doesn’t take a lot of wind to knock down old trees. The city does, however, use equipment and funding to keep trees clear of power lines, he said.

On the college campus, the power was out during classes. Sophomore Jack Coker said in a message that his Understanding Theatre class with James Brandon, chairman and professor of theatre and dance, was

moved into Markel Auditorium because the emergency lights were on in that room.

Senior Josiah Leinbach said in a message that he was accompanying some voice students when the power went out.

“Don’t worry,” he told them. “Beethoven didn’t need electricity to play, so I should be fine.”

Meanwhile, Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Ian Walsh was teaching in the Strosacker Science Center, and his classroom had emergency lights, he said in an email.

Walsh said the lights were back on only a few minutes after starting.

“In class we were having a discussion on climate change, so we could say we were shutting off the power to save the planet,” he said.

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Clarification: An article in the Oct. 17 issue of The Collegian incorrectly identified the Catholic mass celebrated by Bishop

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Boyea as the “first full religous ceremony” held in Christ Chapel. Prior to the Bishop’s celebration, the chapel also

held a dedication of the building and Bishop Peter Beckwith’s funeral service.

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October 24, 2019 A3

Speaker criticizes modern classical education By | Ashley Kaitz Collegian Reporter Classical education no longer exists, according to Eric Ellis, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Notre Dame.

In his Monday night lecture titled “Vir Bonus, Dicendi Peritus: Statesmanship and Public Speaking as the Final Cause of Classical Education,” Ellis described both the essence and purpose of a true classical education.

According to Ellis, people disagree about what classical education really is. The one thing most agree on, however, is that it no longer exists.

“One of the things I’ve noticed about classical schools is that they’re all different,” he said. “What they seem to have

in common is the idea that classical education is something that existed in the past, and that we have now lost.”

Although Hillsdale students might be under the impression that they are receiving a classical education, Ellis says that what many people consider to be classical is actually a “great books” education.

“Classical education doesn’t want you to read great books, it wants you to read the best books,” Ellis said. “It’s not concerned with giving you a narrative of the history of the development of ideas, or even in bringing you into something that we might call a great conversation. It’s interested in giving you the right ideas.”

Although classical education is often touted as worth studying for its own sake, Ellis said it was designed to be extremely practical.

“The orthodoxy of classical education is stoicism, because stoicism is about action. It’s a practical philosophy,” he said.

“The point was to produce masters of language.”

Mastering language and learning to speak well were considered to be so important that classical education, according to Ellis, was comprised almost exclusively of Greek and Latin.

In fact, students at the famous Harrow School in England protested the addition of arithmetic to their syllabus in the 1830s for this very reason.

“The Harrow School exists to train boys so that they can read the Latin and Greek authors, period,” Ellis said, explaining the protestors’ mindset. “So no modern foreign language, no experimental science, no mathematics -- just Greek and Latin.”

Focusing on reading and speaking well was designed to equip students to become good citizens. Reading the very best Latin and Greek authors also gave students direct examples of how to live well.

Such an education was meant to cultivate wisdom, not necessarily a broad knowledge of subjects.

This idea might be especially foreign to modern students.

“Classical education was

certainly not comprehensive,” Ellis said. “It did not consist of subjects. It didn’t aim at producing someone with a comprehensive knowledge of anything other than the arts of language.”

Benjamin Beier, assistant professor of education, said the link between speaking well and being a good citizen was clear in the more oral societies of the past.

“I think that a classical education today would do well to continue to cultivate students’ speaking abilities, while also admitting that there’s a need for students to become strong in writing and in all sorts of media that aren’t just the spoken word,” he said.

This is not to say, however, that skillful speaking is no

longer relevant.

“Classical schools today, defending the choice to teach the trivium [grammar, logic, and rhetoric], usually make appeals to the uselessness or the liberalness of it -- that it’s good for its own sake. They don’t frequently point out that these are incredibly practical skills,” Beier said.

Hillsdale sophomore Mattie Schmidt said she found this concept unusual.

“It was very surprising to hear that he thought we didn’t need to study any sort of math or science, but only to gain a full understanding of Latin and Greek in order to be properly educated,” she said.

Campus Catholics celebrate feast day of Pope John Paul II By | Virginia Aabram Collegian Reporter Catholics on campus gathered in Christ Chapel to celebrate the feast of Pope St. John Paul II on Wednesday afternoon.

The commemoration included a lecture on the sexual revolution by a member of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute followed by the first Catholic mass held in the chapel. Bishop of Lansing Earl Boyea presided over the standing-room-only service, assisted by Father David

Reamsnyder, pastor of St. Anthony’s in Hillsdale, and Dean Aaron Peterson, who is a deacon at St. Anthony’s.

The events were sponsored by the Hillsdale College Catholic Society and the philosophy and religion department.

The lecture, entitled “Sexual Revolutions: The Abolition of Man and Woman,” was delivered by Michael Hanby, a professor of religion and philosophy of science at the Catholic University of America. He focused on the changing definitions and parame-

ters of gender, sexuality, and reproduction and their effects on law and social bonds.

“What presents itself principally as a contest of rights in the legal and political spheres is, in truth, a radical redefinition of the archetypal realities of human nature and history, man, woman, father, mother, and child, and the codification of this new anthropology, this new philosophy of human nature, into law,” Hanby said.

The topic was particularly appropriate because of Pope John Paul II’s massive influ-

ence on the Catholic view of human sexuality through his treatise the “Theology of the Body.”

Senior Avery Lacey attended the lecture.

“Dr. Hanby started out the talk promising that it would be depressing and disheartening, and he really came through on that promise,” Lacey said. “But the hope that I drew from his talk is basically that we are not just matter, we are not just our biology, so we can take our soul seriously, as well as our intuitive human

reactions.”

Junior Bridget Breckler said that Hanby’s lecture was cognisant of the current reality of the world.

“He was able to share the truth and enduring reality that is man’s destiny,” Breckler said. “It was beautiful that while he is aware of the changing circumstances we’re enmeshed in as human beings, he was able to present John Paul’s enduring truth of the identity and real mission of being a human.”

Mass in Christ Chapel

immediately followed the lecture.

Patrick Mitchell, president of the Hillsdale College Catholic Society, helped organize the event.

“It was a joint effort between the professors and students to put everything on,” Mitchell said. “It was wonderful to see something executed so successfully, and to have the beautiful space of Christ Chapel was absolutely amazing. Hearing everyone singing in the space gave me chills.”

Classics lecture held in Student Fed approves memoriam of Grace West new clubs for intial status By | Virginia Aabram Collegian Reporter Two new clubs on campus are now eligible for funding from the Student Federation.

At their Oct. 17 meeting, the federation granted initial club status to the real estate club and the applied mathematics club.

Club president Sam Ziolkowski presented the real estate club’s proposal.

“Our mission is to provide exposure to commercial real estate on campus,” Ziolkowski said. “I think it’s an underserved industry, and quite frankly I’ve never seen anyone working in the industry other than myself and I want more students to get into it.”

The club has 12 potential members but has been waiting for approval before meeting in any official capacity.

David Ambuul present-

ed the applied mathematics club’s proposal. The club has been active since 2017 using funding from the math department to operate. They applied for federation recognition in order to have more outreach and receive more funding.

The applied mathematics club’s main focus is computer programming and coding, and students from all disciplinary backgrounds come to meetings to work on problems and compete in competitions. They have also brought in several speakers.

“The coolest thing about these presentations is how excited the speakers are to talk to us,” Ambuul said.

“They’re super interested and they want to come; some of them will even pay for their own flight out. There’s a lot of interest both on the student end and on the people who

are coming to present.”

Meetings typically draw around 15 to 20 students, but presentations can draw many more if the speaker is from a recognized background such as NASA or Apple.

Neither of these new clubs have requested any funding at this point.

According to club oversight chair Brandt Siegfried, initial status give clubs a chance to prove they are active and beneficial to the student body before granting full privileges.

“We do this so that clubs led by a spur of passion or a single individual don’t get full status and then become inactive,” Siegfried said. “Initial status ensures that students put forth their best effort so that we have high quality student activities.”

By | Lily McHale Collegian Reporter

The Hillsdale Classics Department recently held a lecture, titled “Love in the Aeneid,” to commemorate Grace West, a Hillsdale classics professor who died in May. The lecture was held as a kind of memorial, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics Carl Young, who organized the event, explained how the idea came to be.

“It was inspired by a conversation I had with David West, Grace West’s son, at Grace’s funeral. We, as her colleagues, had a chance to mourn her loss but some of her students didn’t get that because they were gone for the summer,” Young said.

West’s son had been working on an article about the Aeneid and mentioned it to Young. That’s when Young thought of a possible lecture series.

“I said, ‘Why don’t you come talk about it at Hills-

dale? It seems like a fitting memorial to your mother,’” Young said.

Many classics professors were in favor of the idea.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics Patrick Owens, who now works from Grace West’s office and teaches her courses, talked more about the lecture held in her honor.

“Our department wanted to pay homage to Dr. West on her passing and celebrate her scholarship and work at the college,” Owens said.

Owens described the event and its success.

“It was a very approachable lecture. It was something that students who had never taken a Latin course could come to and really benefit from,” Owens said. “I invited my entire Aeneid class because I am teaching the very course Gracie West would have been teaching.”

Students and faculty were very receptive, according to Owens.

Pistol from A1 at shooting. That includes hand eye coordination and dexterity. You also have to be a good competitor. You have to be able to perform under pressure.

I can’t tell you that I like pressure and that I enjoy it.

But I thrive in that environment. So even though I may not like it very much, I know I can still shoot well and still do my job. So that’s a factor in it. And the rest of it’s just drive to to do the best you can.

Shooting isn’t just a hobby, it’s my business. It’s my life. But I still look at it with the young eyes. I love that environment. I love the competitiveness of it. So I guess the big picture is put all those pieces together and that’s what’s allowed me to succeed when others may not have.

What’s your next big challenge?

“I became an employee of Springfield Armory in 1989, and for the first 20 years all I had to do was shoot, go to matches, practice, train, and teach. My life has changed a lot in the past eight to 10 years and as I get older now, winning another national isn’t really going to change the direction of my life anymore. At this point

Rob Leathamm poses with the pistol club. Courtesy | Elias McConnell

we’re trying to cash-in on my knowledge. I mean, I’ve been around a long time. I know a lot about guns. So I am involved in the research and development process of new products. They use me for promotional events where I do demos and things like that. And that’s really what my life’s become now.

I’m still chasing the same

thing though. Yeah, I would love to be a better shot--the driving goal of my whole shooting career has been pushing for excellence, trying to shoot as well as I could and become a better shot, and that’s never changed.

But I’ve never felt that I’ve reached the point where there’s nothing left to learn, or there’s nothing left to

improve. Every match I shoot there’s something I could have done better.

What are your thoughts about the future of shooting sports in light of the anti-gun movement?

I think people need to do more. We cannot sit back and be compartmentalized and

say, ‘I’m a shotgun shooter. I don’t care about those pistols and rifles ’ or say ‘I don’t care about those assault rifles.’

Because the reality is we’re moving into an ever more restrictive environment.

So I think really the challenge for your generation is to put balance to it.

It’s almost like Star Wars where somebody’s got to

“The lecture hall was nearly packed with colleagues from all departments, graduate students, and students from English and Classics. Moving forward, there is a hope that this will become a series, but I think that depends on funding,” Owens said.

Grace West’s husband, Professor of Politics Tom West, Young, and the rest of the classics faculty want to make the lecture an annual series.

First, they must determine how to solve the problem of financial aid.

“I’m trying to find a donor who is willing to fund this because the classics department has a limited budget,” Young said.

There is hope that the tradition will start with the help of supporters. Young expressed his plans for future lectures.

“We’d like to highlight female classics professors,” Young said. “Grace took that role seriously.”

balance the universe. My generation is too old, so it’s going to be you guys.

And if it’s nothing more than if you’re a shooter, take somebody shooting. It sounds so simple and so stupid, but every place I’ve ever lived, I’ve had neighbors that came to me and said, ‘You’re the shooter guy, right?’

I said yeah and they would say ‘I don’t know anything about guns and I’m kind of scared.’

I’d say ‘That’s okay I respect that. Do you want to go shooting? I got practically anything you’ve ever imagined.

You just tell me what you want to go shoot.’

And every time that’s happened every single time those people that were on the fence said ‘This is not what I thought it was. The gun is just a thing. It doesn’t have evil intent, or good intent. It’s a basketball, or a bowling ball or a motorcycle or race car.

And I think the challenge is to make people know it’s okay.

It’s really easy to sit back and say I don’t want to tell anybody that I have any guns, but I want to be the opposite. Yeah I got guns-do you want to know about guns?

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

October 24, 2019 A4

The Weekly: Parents weekend is for partnership (517) 607-2415

Online: www.hillsdalecollegian.com Editor-in-Chief | Nolan Ryan Associate Editor | Abby Liebing News Editor | Regan Meyer City News Editor | Julia Mullins Opinions Editor | Alex Nester Sports Editor | S. Nathaniel Grime Culture Editor | Carmel Kookogey Features Editor | Allison Schuster Web Content Editor | Alexis Daniels Circulation Manager | Regan Meyer Assistant Editors | Cal Abbo | Elizabeth Bachmann | Liam Bredberg | Rachel Kookogey | Sofia Krusmark | Victoria Marshall | Madeline Peltzer | Isabella Redjai | Calli Townsend Faculty Advisers | John J. Miller | Maria Servold The editors welcome Letters to the Editor but reserve the right to edit submissions for clarity, length, and style. Letters should be 450 words or less and include your name and number. Send submissions to the Opinions Editor at anester@hilldale.edu before Saturday at 3 p.m.

Conservatism, post-Trump How new Republican leaders could change right-leaning ideology By | Weston Boardman The current era marked by political unrest and division between parties and branches of our government is nothing new to our history. What is different, however, is the president’s understanding of his role in current circumstances.

In his own way, President Trump is getting to the root of what people really want.

The American people want security — protection and reassurance that their regime will prevent fraud and abuse by any means necessary, while ensuring that each person could feel fulfilled in their communities and their work. This may seem broad, but America’s definition of security is changing as we speak, which might lead to a change in the role of our government.

A government’s primary role is concerned with security, but every generation has the opportunity to define what the scope of that security is, financially, militarily, morally. The President has tapped into the wellspring of security that continues to attract individuals dissatisfied with business as usual in Washington, D.C. For example, politicians accept that illegal immigration is a problem, but twiddle their thumbs instead of fixing it.

Trump campaigned as a dealigning figure, a wrecking ball thrown against the gilded institutions of Washington, D.C. set upon demolishing the previous status quo. He attacks his political opponents mercilessly, ignores expediency for prudence with a long-run approach, exposes corruption, and speaks honestly — even if sometimes incorrectly with false information. And he demonstrates a genuine care for the American people.

But what will be left in his wake?

According to the theory of realignment, history illustrates a political party system which realigns in terms of platform and policy every 36 years, as a result of generational differences and a dramatic change in party allegiance. If this is so, a realignment is soon imminent.

I do not think Trump is that realigning figure, nor do I think he sees himself as that.

He is leveling all previous standards, paving the way for a realignment.

Following Trump’s presidency, what will be the new defining characteristics of the Right after the previous attempt at fusion between libertarianism and social conservatism in America?

We can only predict what will come in principle, but I believe it is essential to prepare for the future in our limited capability to know. We must ask the right questions in order to identify the New American Right,

as Sohrab Ahmari calls it, when it actually arrives. This upcoming philosophy is a fundamental rejection of unrestrained classical liberalism — one without guardrails — which yields a continual fight for endless and aimless individual autonomy.

This new political ideology articulates the connection between true liberty and responsibility. It encourages self-restraint and announces that man ought to be judged as an individual while he is understood as a part of the community. It will understand government as a means of both providing security and encouraging the preservation of a moral society. It understands society’s need for orientation toward that “highest good.” People don’t want liberty for its own sake; they want the protection of liberty to seek fulfillment.

The New American Right will not worship the free market like the conservatives of the past. For them, free enterprise will be a tool, historically-proven to be the best mechanism for promoting human flourishing.

It is a means to help build a society, rather than its own end in which the people may conduct themselves with or without good aims.

Those under this banner will likely deeply revere the Founders, bear witness of the desecration of the Constitution, and morally oppose the ethical and cultural disintegration of the United States.

They will understand this on account of government’s neglect of immorality, anti-religiosity, and class warfare.

Our system of government is designed for a moral people, but morality is not spontaneous. A well-ordered society needs guidance by good leaders and policies.

We are beginning to see actors emerge in this mold, such as Congressman Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Congressman Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas.

Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, emphasizes the necessity of encouraging morality, and the threat big tech poses to the American polity. These three individuals are more articulate versions of President Trump in some form or fashion, and they will have the chance to rebuild the political sphere after his exit.

If Trump is re-elected, the United States will see a surge in this trend of defiance against aimless individualism. I predict we may see a realignment toward a new ideology that champions the citizen — the person who has duties to the community and for whom the government secures the ability to pursue personal plans ordered toward a higher purpose.

Weston Boardman is a George Washington Fellow and a senior studying economics.

The opinion of The Collegian editorial staff

While our parents being in town is probably the best part about Parents Weekend at Hillsdale College, it’s not what makes this time so important. Most colleges have a parents weekend, and most students’ parents will visit their school at some point during their college career.

Being treated to dinner by your mom and dad is good.

What makes Hillsdale’s Parents Weekend unique, how-

ever, is the way it highlights the value of the parents’ role in each student’s education by promoting a transparent parent-student relationship.

Most universities don’t allow parents to see their child’s grades. At Hillsdale, professors and parents meet and talk like friends, recognizing the partnership that is essential to a good education.

Some may argue that Hillsdale’s parent-professor

conferences make it feel a little like grade school, and you should have the autonomy as a college student to not have your parents looking over your shoulder.

But parent-professor conferences show that the college is invested in the partnership that it claims to value: the partnership between parents, students, and professors.

Education is a partnership, and parents are an

important part of that. It’s a way of practicing what we preach.

So don’t beg your parents not to go to their conferences with your professors.

Instead, value the advice and input that your professor will share with your parents about how you can improve.

This is the true benefit of Parents Weekend .

Keep the Sabbath: prioritize rest By | Carmel Kookogey When a machine stops working properly, the first thing you do is turn it off and turn it back on again.

Students should reboot as well. Instead of waiting until we break under stress, we should take a weekly sabbath — and do no homework for a day — to reset our mental machinery and rest.

I mean actually rest.

Students are good at multitasking. Too good, in fact. We think we can work and rest simultaneously, by doing homework in bed late at night or browsing for shoes on the Internet in the middle of writing a paper. Even when we take a break, it’s a distracted kind of rest: tapping through Snapchat stories, squinting at news articles on our tiny screens, or reading President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed.

We’ve blurred the line between work and rest to the point of nonexistence, and like the alarm clock you set for 6:30 a.m. and then snooze until 8 a.m., the trick hurts rather than helps. We’re too tired to be effective and thus too inefficient with our time to afford taking a meaningful

break.

What’s more, we feel guilty for doing something truly rejuvenating, like taking a nap or curling back the pages of a paperback novel for fun, telling ourselves any free time spent on something other than homework is time wasted. Never mind all the time we waste on social media while doing said homework.

To do good work, we need to take breaks. Every night we sleep so our brain can rest and digest, and we work better the next morning because of it. A sabbath works the same way: it’s a necessary reset period at the beginning of the week.

New York filmmaker and YouTube sensation Casey Neistat arrived in the “city which never sleeps” with little more than a camera and the clothes on his back. Only by working multiple jobs during the day and editing films by night did he eventually profit enough from his creative work to quit his day jobs. His story — and the “do more” tattoo scrawled on his forearm — are an inspiration to artists everywhere, a testament to his success.

But even at the height of his proficiency as a filmmaker

on YouTube, when Neistat produced a new video almost every day, he took a two-day break every couple of weeks and didn’t post anything.

The benefits of intentional leisure are immense. Often, it takes us a full day of sleep when we go home for a break before we feel rested enough to do anything. By taking a day off from homework weekly, not only do we rejuvenate our minds to be more effective when we return to our studies Monday, but we also slow the snowball effect of sleepless semesters. When the next break rolls around, instead of spending it sleeping, we can read that book we’ve been meaning to read or apply for the next job or internship.

Ironically, the reason many of us don’t take a sabbath is because we need it the most. We feel we have no time to take a full Sunday off, and rush out of church to continue picking at the paper we slogged through all week and still haven’t finished.

If we had taken a sabbath, however, we would have been rested, and therefore more productive during the week.

As a result of that rest, by the time Sunday rolls around

again we’re in a better position with our responsibilities to continue using the day as it was designed.

Nevertheless, taking a whole Sunday off from homework still sounds daunting.

No matter how much we know we need it, most of us still don’t believe we have the time.

But if former editor-in-chief of the Collegian, Nicole Ault, ’19, can do it for all four years of her college career, while balancing an economics major, choir, teaching Sunday school, and eventually running the entire school newspaper, we are without excuse.

If anyone had a reason to work through Sunday, it was Ault. Instead, she rested.

It’s not about having enough time. It’s about managing your time well, so your work hours are productive and your rest hours restful.

Turn your machine off and then on again. Take a sabbath.

Carmel Kookogey is a George Washington Fellow and a junior studying politics.

She is the culture editor for The Collegian.

Freedom of speech stifled in socialist Venezuela By | Ben Dietderich I have never spoken to someone on the radio, concerned that what they were saying would jeopardize their personal safety, until Tuesday.

My co-host Alex Nester and I interviewed a young Venezuelan man, Christian Coruzo, who currently resides in Venezuela’s capital city, Caracas. After I read an intriguing article he published on the conservative news site Breitbart, titled “My Socialist Hell: 20 years of Decay in Venezuela”, I reached out to him on Twitter and invited him on to our radio show, “American View.”

Though criminal charges for political speech may seem rare in America today, Coruzo warns Americans of what can happen when a nation embraces collective government action.

At the time of the call, Coruzo didn’t have running water. Rather than take a risk and use the unreliable phone lines, he called us via Skype after he manually wired his Internet to ensure a safe connection.

Coruzo was just eleven-years old when Hugo Chavez and the socialists came to power. Since then, he watches his home transform from a wealthy, oil-rich South American country into a tyrannical impoverished nightmare.

His mother, once a doctor easily capable of providing for her family, died in 2018 of cancer as she did not have the means to seek treatment. Chemotherapy, he explained, was simply unattainable in their socialist medicine system, even for a doctor to receive.

Today, Coruzo takes to the Internet to mock the system that robbed him and his family of their livelihood. It doesn’t come without risk.

Hate speech laws, Coruzo explained, are often used to jail suspected critics of the regime. But Coruzo takes to Twitter anyway.

His Twitter bio self-describes him as a “professional breadline doer.” He, like countless other Venezuelans I found through his profile, write and retweet sly memes that criticize the government without overtly drawing attention to themselves.

“I always say that all my jokes are cries for help,” Coruzo told me in our radio interview. “I suppose the last thing I have that the government can’t take away from me is my sense of humor.

It’s the only way I can cope.

It’s been a quite difficult 20 years.”

When not online, Coruzo raises his younger brother because his mother no longer can.

“I just want this all to be over and for my brother to have a normal life,” Coruzo said, “because that’s the last thing I promised my mother I would do.”

Coruzo’s words naturally evoke empathy but for Americans, they can also evoke a sense of thankfulness that the same oppression does not exist in this country.

Unfortunately, oppressed political speech is no longer touted exclusively by a ruling class thousands of miles away.

In recent weeks, advocacy for censored speech continue to gain momentum.

Democratic presidential candidate and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., led the call for Twitter to shut down President Trump’s Twitter account. Another candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., did not join Harris’ call for a ban of Trump on Twitter. Instead, she has repeatedly called for Facebook to censor the President’s campaign advertisements.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page defended Mark Zuckerberg amidst the widespread attacks he has faced for announcing he will not selectively ban campaign advertisements, and would instead strive to make Facebook more politically impartial.

Facebook, Twitter, and Google have all been accused by the right of censoring conservative voices, such as PragerU, which has had over 80 videos removed from Facebook and YouTube — owned by Google — in recent years.

In the most recent Democratic presidential debate, Harris accused the President of motivating mass shootings through his tweets: “Look at the fact that the shooter in El Paso was influenced by the words that the President of the United States, unfiltered, uses through this medium on Twitter. He has 65 million followers,” Harris said.

Harris did not call for the removal of her Democratic colleague, Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., from Twitter or Facebook, despite the fact that a Facebook follower, supporter and volunteer of his 2016 campaign shot a Republican congressman and four others at a Congressional baseball game in 2017.

The hypocrisy of Harris’s statements reveals what is evidenced around the world where countries censor speech: No arbiter of speech can fairly regulate censorship because speech is far too powerful a force not to be exploited.

Earlier this week in Australia, several major newspapers, tabloids, and magazines ran blacked out front pages to illustrate their disapproval for a government they believe has gone too far in censoring speech on the basis of national security.

In the United Kingdom, the New York Times reported that in 2017, the government arrested nine people a day for speech violations.

The United Kingdom has several codes that prohibit speech. The Public Order Act of 1986 states illegal speech includes “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior that causes, or is likely to cause another person harassment, alarm or distress.”

In other words, any language considered offensive by a third party could be criminal.

Other European countries have their own codes.

Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland, are just a few of the many countries in Europe that have speech restrictions.

While most of them target hate speech, no two countries agree on the exact same definition.

For instance in Poland, the government considers it illegal and hate speech to suggest that any Poles were remotely responsible for the Holocaust.

Those that support speech censorship as a way to better their democracy, including Harris, suffer from one of two ills: Either they fail to understand human nature’s universal capacity for self-interest or they know censorship’s true purpose but just don’t want to admit it.

In Venezuela, despotism has come to fruition. There, the ends of censored speech are obvious. Americans should pay attention to how their rulers surmounted their power and continue to sustain it.

“I understand that things aren’t perfect and might never be perfect, but be careful what you wish for,” Coruzo told me on the radio. “Just look at what happened to us: We were sold this socialist dream of things being better - a utopia, and look at what evils have been wrought upon us. We have lost so much, it’s incalculable.”

When I asked Coruzo what message he wished to convey above all else, he offered a warning.

“They will try to sell it to you as democratic-socialism, or your own version of socialism, but it’s always deep down it’s the same thing.”

Ben Dietderich is a George Washington Fellow and a senior studying political economy.

Opinions

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

October 24, 2019

GovernmentBioethics commission would protect children from sex change backed By | Reagan Cool For the first time since 1974, the president does not have a bioethics commission.

In light of recent bioethical assaults on society, it is urgent that President Trump find prudent counselors on the subject.

In Dallas this week, a court ruling sacrificed 7-yearold James Georgulas to the worship of the progressive agenda.

Anne Georgulas — a pediatrician and the mother of twins James and Jude — brought Jeffrey Younger, her ex-husband and the boys’ father, to court to demand complete custody of the boys.

The jury ruled 11-1 decision to grant the mother full-custody of the 7-year-old twins to Anne Georgulas. Georgulas believes that James is a transgender girl, and she now calls him Luna. The court’s decision disregards Younger’s concerns about the gender dysphoria diagnosis of James, permitting Georgulas to begin hormone therapy treatment on to James.

The hormone-blocking drug to be used on James is called Lupron, and was developed to treat prostate cancer. Its effect is essentially a chemical castration. The FDA has never approved the use of Lupron in cases of pediatric gender dysphoria, and it is only just now testing Lupron’s class of drugs for long-term nervous system and psychiatric events. There are online support networks, such as forming for former patients of pediatric Lupron who are now in their 20s and suffering through the long-term effects, such as degenerating spinal disks, shedding teeth enamel, and deadly seizures.

Cross-sex hormone therapy, Georgulas’ long-term goal for James’s treatment, poses serious mental and physical health risks, from depression to and higher suicide rates to pulmonary embolisms and shorter lifespans.

Most 7-year olds don’t know what sex is, let alone understand the ramifications of an operation like a gender transition. Three of the most obvious risks associated with a gender transition are permanent infertility, the inability to engage in sexual intercourse naturally, and a

tion, Obama’s commission was dismissed from service and has yet to be replaced, whether by government organization or official commission. Now more than ever, the President needs a commission to guide him. Whereas past presidents and congresses handled one or two major

James Georgulas with father, Jeffrey Younger. | SaveJames.com

shortened decreased lifespan.

Can, and ought, a 7-yearold child be able to fathom that a gender transition may leave their children without parents to celebrate them at graduation, and their grandchildren without grandparents?

The three presidents preceding President Trump established their own bioethics commission to research and report on various developments in ethical issues: for Clinton, cloning and stem cell research; for Bush, stem cell research and reproductive technologies; for Obama, STD management, epidemics, and genome sequencing.

Upon Trump’s inaugura-

subjects, such as stem cell research, Trump is faced with an increasingly diverse list of threats as technology develops. From robot brothels to hormonal therapy for gender transition, it is crucial that Trump base decisions on a firm understanding of the issues.

The decision to give the mother custody of James Georgulas reflects a serious flaw in the direction of our judiciary system. In the courtroom, six testifying physicians commented on gender. Nobody defined gender the same way, and every definition began with “I think gender is…” Without a consistent definition of gender,

how can gender dysphoria be diagnosed in general, and particularly in the case of James Georgulas? Only one psychiatrist diagnosed James with gender dysphoria. If no two physicians have the same definition of gender, it only seems appropriate that each diagnosis requires at least two medical opinions.

Younger’s position as a parent is not unique. Across the United States and Canada, there are two crises tearing families apart: on the one hand, the paradox of autonomous dependents, and on the other hand, pediatric diagnoses with disregard to the simple example of the patient’s opinion and disposition.

Earlier this year, a father used female pronouns to refer to his 14-year-old daughter who had started taking gender-transition drugs. The reference was deemed family violence.

In February of 2018, a 17-year-old girl was transferred to the custody of her grandparents because her parents objected to her gender-transition drugs.

Last fall, Toronto’s Sick Kids hospital announced a new policy that permits pediatric physician assisted suicide, regardless of parental consent or information. In other words, for the protection of a child’s privacy, a child may submit to physician-assisted suicide, and his parents will not be informed of the decision until after their child dies.

These cases are neither isolated nor rare, and they will only continue to increase in frequency. Trump must establish a board of ethics to address these children’s health issues as the relationship between parent and child continues to be challenged by the progressive agenda.

Reagan Cool is a senior studying theology and a columnist on faith and religion.

Chicago Teachers Union strike interrupts education back to their classrooms education, and sports. students and teams to conBy | Julia Mullins undermine everything they As talks continue to drag tinue participating when our The average firefighter claim to be fighting for. on, CPS has offered 3 percent policy would have allowed salary in Chicago is $49,489.

About 75 percent of sturaises for each of the first them to, the board will not be Registered nurses in the dents in the district qualify three years of the contract considering the appeal hearWindy City make an average for a free or reduced lunch. and 3.5 percent raises for ing request unless the CTU of $66,322 a year, and a poThe teachers claim they are each of the last two years. But strike is settled,” the organiliceman will earn an average fighting for these students CTU has asked for 5 percent zation said in a statement. salary of $73,130. and not their salaries. raises in each of the three In addition to preventing But Teachers in Chicago If teachers cared about the years. students from competing in are asking for a base salary of well-being of their students, If teachers continue to state competitions, the strike nearly $100,000. they would ditch marching wear their red and waste their has largely been politicized The Chicago Public around the streets and go time holding up homemade by the Chicago chapter of Schools cancelled classes back to their classrooms. The signs, athletes will be denied the Democratic Socialists of for nearly 300,000 students Teachers Union is more than the possibility of competing America. Members of the beginning on Thursday, Oct. capable of working out a deal in state tournaments.

Chicago DSA have taken 17, and joined the District for the teachers.

Alejandro Sanchez, a an active role in assisting Service Employees InternaChicago teachers and the tional Union Local 37 in union, making the strike a strike. more about a political Around 25,000 Chimessage rather than cago teachers and 7,000 improving conditions for support staff are negotiChicago schools. ating deals regarding salWill Bloom, a Chicaaries, class sizes, and the go DSA member who is number of support staff in coordinating with the schools, such as librarians CTU, told the Chicago and nurses.

Sun Times a few of his Chicago teachers “comrades” are also should stop being selfish in the teachers union, and go back to work for adding many of them are the sake of their stu“very active” in Chicago dents, while the Chicago DSA’s labor-organizing Teachers Union fights for branch. improving class sizes and After gaining support increasing support staff. from presidential candiThe union should abandate Sen. Bernie Sanddon the fight for a six-figers, I-Vt., in 2016, the ure base salary and go organization increased Teachers in Chicago leave their classrooms to protest for higher wages and back to work for the sake its influence in American more staff. | Wikimedia of their students. politics with the elections Chicago Mayor Lori Chicago does need to senior soccer player at Solorio of DSA members U.S. Reps.

Lightfoot has asked the address the issue that nine Academy High School told Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, teachers to return to work for out of every 10 majority-black Chicago MSNBC the teachD-N.Y., and Rashida Tlaib, the students’ benefit and for schools do not have librariers’ strike has prevented his D-Mich. The DSA and its practical reasons. ans, and many schools don’t team’s chances to play for a various chapters now have “CPS is not flush with have a full-time nurse. Again, state title. more than 50,000 members. cash,” the mayor told CNN. the union can settle these is“I was looking forward Chicago DSA used its “The fact is there is no more sues, and the teachers should to this,” Sanchez told MSNorganizing efforts to help money. Period.” go back to work and proBC. “It’s actually pretty sad elect five members to the City The Chicago School vide an education for those because I didn’t expect my Council in a series of elecDistrict is the third-largstudents. season (to end this way).” tions that have expanded its est district in the country.

Of the 15 issues the ChicaAt least three schools, power in Chicago and moved Although all of the school go Teachers Union are fightincluding Solorio, have the body further left. DSA buildings are open for ing for, they have reached petitioned the Illinois High members make up more than students to go to during the tentative agreements with the School Association, asking one-tenth of the council. day, students are not being CPS as of Oct. 22 on seven them to use their strike polEven as the DSA uses this taught anything. They can talking points: homeless icy so students who started strike to gain more national go to their school buildings students, pre-kindergarten playing in state competition attention, teachers need to for a government-provided classes, charters, counselors, can play during the strike. return to classrooms and let breakfast, lunch, and supper support staff pipeline, sancUnfortunately, The IHSA the union hash it out with to take home. tuary cities, and bathrooms. did not hear the appeal, and Lightfoot.

Adequate nutrition is necThe two parties are still issued a statement saying that essary to a healthy lifestyle, discussing the terms of the CPS has taken a position Julia Mullins is a junior but it’s not the same thing the remaining eight issues: not to allow students to com- studying politics and is the as enriching children’s lives length of contract, pay, health pete during the strike. city news editor for The through quality education. benefits, preparation time, “Because the CPS have Collegian.

The teachers refusing to go staffing, class size, special taken a position to not allow

A5

monopolies, an essential part of capitalism High healthcare costs a result of government-backed big business By | Cal Abbo The failures of the American healthcare system aren’t a symptom of government intervention or imperfect competition. They are a necessary feature of the capitalist system and profit-seeking in the private economy.

On Oct. 17, the Collegian published an Op-Ed by junior Trevor Vogel and a letter to the editor by Christopher Martin, associate professor of economics. Each decried government intervention is the fundamental reason why a market system is inadequate to address our healthcare needs. They used this defense to dismiss any other measures that involve the government.

Their basic logic goes: government intervention raises healthcare prices, so more government intervention will do the same. This argument commits the informal fallacy of equivocation. Martin uses an analogy, writing, “We wouldn’t help a poisoned patient by giving him more poison.”

Both articles fail to make a categorical distinction between different kinds of government intervention, falling into the trap of overgeneralization. For example, a government agency which regulates the price of medicines could just set lower prices. Similarly, a government firm could produce generic medicine and sell it at the cost of production.

Each of these solutions falls under Vogel and Martin’s definition of government intervention, even when they would do the exact opposite of what they claim. A more coherent argument would say: government intervention which limits competition raises healthcare prices, so more government intervention that limits competition will do the same.

“The system isn’t dysfunctional because of inherent problems with free markets,” Martin writes. But he misses the point that others and I, who are critical of capitalism, make. Rather than taking issue with an abstract concept of a “free market,” we consider the real, conscious act of profit-seeking in the healthcare industry as the cause of death for tens of thousands of Americans every year.

The system Martin references actually functions exceedingly well for those who control it. The implicit moral assumptions behind the concept of a “free market” tell us that profit-seeking is not only acceptable, but even productive and good.

Vogel and Martin’s mistake lies in trying to separate the capitalist system from what they term government intervention. This binary, dualistic distinction is arbitrary and unworkable.

Instead of reserving our critique to the private economy, critics of capitalism employ a holistic approach, which includes how the government is influenced by private capital. This debate on market healthcare exists not in market economics, but in ethics, and it questions why we perpetuate a system structured in a way that incentivizes deadly decisions.

The sad truth of our market economy is revealed.

We unjustly defer to self-interested executives to control the production, price, and distribution of life-saving medicines. As economist Milton Friedman argued in a 1970 issue of The New York Times Magazine, a business’s only responsibility is to profit.

They’re only interested in the lives of patients insofar as they can extract profit from them.

It might be difficult for some to envision what a decommodified economy would look like, but that only speaks

to our lack of imagination.

Examples exist all around us — roads, sidewalks, parks, drinking fountains, libraries, public restrooms, Wikipedia, and police and fire departments.

One case often overlooked is our education system.

We’ve decided to control this sector democratically rather than exposing it to private domination. Communities can decide to spend more or less money on schooling; they elect boards and superintendents to enact changes they want; and, best of all, every single child is guaranteed a spot in the classroom.

Our education system is not perfect, but it’s oriented toward the purpose of educating children rather than manufacturing profit. The decision-makers of schools are directly interested in educating children whereas the decision-makers of large corporations hire executives and appoint boards that only work to maximize profit. If private interests controlled education, many thousands of children would be forced to go without one.

Notice how we measure value in decommodified areas. Where successful schools have test scores, grades, and college acceptance rates, successful for-profit firms have profit margins, dividends, and stock prices. Even a medicine manufacturer is lauded and rewarded for how much money it makes rather than how many patients it helps. Decommodification of the healthcare system could reverse this and set our priorities straight.

How can we incentivize decisions that favor people over profit? A market economist’s best reply is “competition”: we should still let profit-seekers control these firms, but more than one of them would compete for patients.

But to really strike at the fundamental problem, we need to change the decision-makers.

Instead of executives and profit-seeking shareholders controlling the production and distribution of medicine, we can put the means of production into the hands of those most concerned and directly impacted.

In the case of insulin production, the answer is simple: diabetics. If a nonprofit organization composed of diabetics democratically-controlled insulin production, it would be directly concerned with producing insulin safely and efficiently at a low cost.

They could make decisions on manufacturing, research, and price based on helping patients rather than extracting the most profit.

It’s a simple task to explain the connection between patents and a lack of competition, but both Vogel and Martin failed to answer a tougher and more interesting question: Why should we trust profit-seeking individuals to make important decisions such as the price of medicine? These individuals aren’t accountable to the life-and-death implications of their decisions.

Each of the outlined problems can be traced back to one common theme: profit-seeking. In a different world, people could work in cooperation instead of competition to solve problems; we could measure our economy based on happiness, health, leisure, creativity, and progress rather than GDP and profit; best of all, nobody would die because they can’t afford healthcare.

Cal Abbo is a columnist on Democratic politics and a junior studying psychology. He is an assistant culture editor for The Collegian.

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Puppy mill in Hillsdale County under investigation by Attorney General Nessel By | Carly Fisher Collegian Reporter

Hillsdale residents Paul Steury and Peter Miller have stopped selling dogs at the request of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. They are under investigation for owning and running an illegal puppy mill in Hillsdale County, according to Nessel’s office.

Steury is currently being investigated for animal cruelty and lying to purchasers about his dogs’ health records in a civil suit under consumer protection laws and a criminal suit under animal cruelty laws. His associate Peter Miller has not yet been implicated, or shown to be involved in an incriminating manner, as part of the investigation.

The puppy mill first came to Nessel’s attention when Katrina Stillwagon, president of the Monroe Society for the Prevention of Animal Cruelty, filed a complaint in July of

this year. Steury approached Stillwagon in a parking lot in February of this year about purchasing his dogs. According to the Attorney General’s Official Request for Subpoena, the dogs for sale were being held in “a filthy, rabbit-style cage and smelled of feces and urine.” Over the next five months, Stillwagon said she purchased 71 dogs from Steury’s puppy mill.

Dr. Bhupinder Pelia, a veterinarian at the Monroe Veterinary Clinic, diagnosed these dogs with malnourishment and damaged eye-sight from the use of non-veterinary treatment. Some of the dogs had giardia infections, parasites in the intestinal tract that manifest themselves in diarrhea, vomiting, weight loss, and lethargy. Pelia said she determined that the health records of these dogs were likely falsified and these dogs were neither healthy nor vaccinated.

Nessel’s office responded to the complaint with a request for a subpoena.

Stillwagon said Steury called her after hearing about the impending subpoena, and he threatened to shoot the dogs on his property to dispose of evidence. Stillwagon said she “talked him off the ledge.”

There is no evidence to suggest Steury ever shot any of his dogs.

“Our office visited the property last week with the Humane Society of Michigan.

We are able to confirm that they have stopped selling dogs and puppies,” Nessel’s Communications Director Dan Olsen said in an email.

According to Olson, the required assurance of voluntary compliance has not been provided yet. Steury did, however, meet with Nessel’s office the week of Oct. 14 to provide investigative testimony.

Since 2017, the Michigan

Katrina Stillwagon rescued this dog, Lancelot, on Oct. 15.

Courtsey | Katrina Stillwagon

Department of Attorney General has received more than 20 complaints of alleged puppy scams. This is the first time that Nessel has taken legal action against an alleged illegal puppy mill operation since announcing her crackdown on puppy scams in April.

“We are now in the process of evaluating our observations from our visit to the property, the testimony provided

by Steury and Miller and the documents they supplied as a result of our investigative subpoenas. And we are working toward a resolution,” Olsen said in an email. Stillwagon and the Monroe Society for the Prevention of Animal Cruelty are continuing an independent investigation of Steury’s puppy mill separate from Nessel’s criminal and civil investigations. In reference to the animal abuse, Stillwagon said: “We’re not letting this go.”

Hillsdale Arts Chorale presents ‘Together’ with Bel Canto Singers By | Alexa Robbins Collegian Freelancer

The Hillsdale Arts Chorale at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.

Courtesy | Jennifer Buehrer with Luna Dulce Photography

Hillsdale County Circuit Court Judge Michael Smith not seeking reelection

The Hillsdale Arts Chorale will be performing its first concert of the season at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, on Oct. 27. The chorale will be joined by the woman’s singing group, Bel Canto for a few pieces, which coincides with the theme of the concert, “Togetherness.”

The group will be singing a variety of religious and folk songs, all focused on the themes of community and kinship.

The Hillsdale Arts Chorale is in its 47th season since being founded by local music educator Howard Risner.

Clelyn Brown is the current choral director for the Chorale and has been with them for three seasons as of this year. In addition to conducting for the chorale, she is also working to get her doctorate in choral conducting at Michigan State University.

During Brown’s time with the chorale, she has seen the group grow from around 20 singers to a total of more than 40 members. Members range in age from high school students to members who have participated in the choir since the first year it was established.

“This choir embodies life-long education and a love of music with no age restric-

tions,” Brown said.

The chorale performs four concerts per year: a fall, Christmas, spring, and a performance with a theme that varies –– all of which take place in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Brown said that the best way to describe the mission statement of the Chorale would be: “Good people and good music.”

Tickets for the upcoming concert will be sold at the door for $10 each; season tickets will also be available at the door for $30, but those who are 60 years and older can purchase a season ticket for $25.

The Hillsdale County District Court House, where Hon. Sara S. Lisznyai currently presides as judge. Julia Mullins | Collegian

Hillsdale County District Court Judge Sara S. Lisznyai announces candidacy in 2020 election By | Dylan Palmer Collegian Freelancer

forward to serving them soon in a different capacity,” Smith said.

Judge Michael Smith of Lisznyai, first elected the Hillsdale County Circuit in 2014, attended Eastern Court has recently announced Michigan University for her that he will not seek reelection undergraduate years and and Hillsdale County District received her Juris Doctorate Court Judge Sara S. Lisznyai from Wayne State University subsequently announced Law School in 1990. her candidacy to fill Smith’s She began her private law vacancy. practice in 1990 and moved Smith will resign after the to Hillsdale in 1996 where she end of his current term, which continued to practice until expires December 31, 2020. being elected to the District Lisznyai is currently the Court in 2014. only candidate running for Lisznyai said she has the position and has the broad gained relevant experience for support of Hillsdale Counthe circuit court through her ty’s judicial body, including past and current positions in Smith. the legal field.

Smith, who will be 66 when “During my experience in he retires in 2020, spoke about private practice, I spent a lot his reasons for leaving the of time working in the circuit bench. court,” Lisznyai said. “I’m “Age,” Smith said. “In very familiar with the civil retirement, I’ll travel, spend litigation and family law they time with my grandchildren, operate in.” coach some of their athletic Lisznyai spoke about her teams, and volunteer at their tenure on the Hillsdale Counlocal elementary school.” ty District Court as well. She Smith spent 24 years in said she formed the Hillsdale public service to the people of County Drug Court in 2017 Hillsdale County and said he in order to help Hillsdale is content to leave public life residents at the height of the at this time. opioid crisis.

“I appreciate the coopera“Hillsdale was really hit tion and support of the people hard,” Lisznyai said. “The drug of Hillsdale County, and look court was established to avoid road patrol is a big concern in Hillsdale and Branch and in a from A1 number of other places.

“This is something that Hillsdale City Police Chief has always been in the budget Scott Hepher said the funding for as long as I’ve been here,” for law enforcement has reLeutheuser said. peatedly been cut since about “It’s the only law enforce2005. Smaller cities such as ment that a lot of these rural Jonesville, Reading, Somerset, areas have. The city police and Litchfield already lack don’t go out there and neither a full-time police force, and does the state police. There is some towns do not have any no question that some of the law enforcement. essential services all across the Because the county and state are in jeopardy because city law-enforcement already of local revenue being tight.” have to back up each other Leutheuser added that and the other areas, Hephner

Sheriff

incarceration through treatment and rehabilitation.”

The participants of the program were described by Lisznyai as having to “attend meetings, hold a job, do community service, and submit to drug tests.”

Lisznyai said her experiences working in criminal law and in the district court has prepared her for the circuit court. “I’m very humbled by the strong showing of support,” Lisznyai said.

Local Attorney Andrew Fink, who has worked in Lisznyai’s District Court before, expressed admiration for her temperament.

“Judge Lisznyai is very patient and helpful,” Fink said. “There are methods by which a judge can add friction to a case, and Judge Lisznyai doesn’t do that at all.”

Describing Lisznyai’s time on the district court, Fink explained that the district court operates directly underneath the circuit court Lisznyai is running for.

“She’s touched everything the circuit court has to deal with in her current position,” Fink said.“She has the best experience possible for the job, and a great temperament.” said, the cut to SRP funding could have a “trickle down effect” on the Hillsdale City Police.

“There are too few police officers in the area already, so anything that takes away from law enforcement is bad,” Hephner said. “If there’s a critical accident, we all assist each other. If there was nobody to help anybody that would absolutely hurt.”

According to Parker, the county commissioners have instructed him to continue as they always have for now.

“We have not laid anyone off yet,” Parker said. “We’re waiting and seeing what’s happening. The commissioners are still giving me the authority to continue as if we’re being funded.”

The Republicans in both the House of Representative and Senate have introduced legislation to restore most of Whitmer’s vetos. Whitmer has also submitted her own version of revisions.

“We’ve introduced these supplementals that would restore the funding for the

SRP and other things so that we can instate them if the governor does not,” Leutheuser said. “We introduced the first 20 veto-overrides, which are those that could do the most harm if they’re allowed to stand.”

As of Oct. 21, the legislature had not yet had hearings on the revisions. Leutheuser said this is because the leadership and minority are debating on whether they want to conduct the hearings now or wait and see if the governor “wants to make more broad

solutions.”

Although the Michigan SRP currently has no money for Fiscal Year 2019-2020, the legislators have told Parker that it will be corrected.

“My latest communication from Senator Shirkey is that he believes it will be corrected and will be retroactive,” Parker said on Oct. 17. “I’m trusting that the legislature is going to do the right thing.

So let’s stand by and see what happens with the senate and the governor.”

City News Businesses participate in Awesome Autumn

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By | Calli Townsend Assistant Editor

Storefronts boasted pumpkins, scarecrows, and other fall decor inviting more than 200 community members to come in, hunt for a hidden pumpkin, and explore downtown Hillsdale for the ninth annual Awesome Autumn Event on Tuesday, Oct. 22.

Tonya McCallister, a Hillsdale resident, said she and her family have made Awesome Autumn a tradition. Her two sons, Kegan McCallister, 5, and Dylan McCallister, 12, were bundled up and full of smiles. Kegan McCallister said he enjoyed the candy, while Dylan McCallister enjoyed sampling the soup for the soup contest.

“We love it. We do it every year since things started.

Last year it was on Kegan’s

birthday and we just like to continue the tradition,” McCallister said. “It’s nice to have a community event where you can have the kids and parents, and my parents are here as well.”

Twenty-one businesses each hid a pumpkin for participants to find. Some of them added in games, treats, and other fun activities. Will Carleton Academy had a booth inside of Current Office Solutions for guests to play cornhole and H.J. Gelzer & Son, Inc. had two Halloween-themed selfie stations.

“We hid three pumpkins, each with a different word written on them for people to find, we have candy, and two selfies stations with a ghost and pumpkins,” Michele Harmnon of Gelzers said. “It makes people aware of the store and what we have, which

is what the goal is.”

Patti Bailey of Maggie Anne’s boutique had one hidden pumpkin, snacks, and two special sales going on as a part of the event. She said she likes Awesome Autumn because it’s an opportunity to stay open a bit later.

“It’s nice that we’re open later for people that can come in after they get out of work and we’d normally be closed,” Bailey said. “We’ve had people that have come in that have said: ‘We haven’t been in here in a long time,’ or ‘We’ve never been here.’ They’re finding new things they love here at the store.”

Brandi Palmer, a Hillsdale resident, said the HBA events such as Awesome Autumn and the Golden Sleigh Scavenger Hunt help her get a head start on her Christmas shopping.

“It’s nice to go into the shops. I’ve actually gone back and bought things that I wouldn’t necessarily have thought I liked in there,” Palmer said. “It’s a nice way to go and see what the shops have. It sometimes helps get Christmas shopping done too.”

This year the HBA added in soup and pumpkin decorating contests for the businesses to participate in. Here’s to You Pub & Grub had a butternut squash soup and several others made their own. Lori Rubley of Century 21 Real Estate won first prize with her cheeseburger soup, and the Blossom Shop won the pumpkin decorating contest. Both of these winners will earn a lunch for their staff provided by the HBA.

The pumpkin hidden in H.J. Gelzer & Son, Inc that was used for the scavenger hunt.

Calli Townsend | Collegian

Hillsdale Garden Club making improvements to Mrs. Stock’s Park near new back entrance By | Abby Liebing Associate Editor Mrs. Stock’s park used to be property owned by the Stock family who owned the factory across the street from it. It wasn’t until the 1800’s that it was turned into a park

by Wilhemina Stock. But then it fell into disrepair again until 2004 when Councilwoman Mary Anne MacRitchie was determined to restore the park to the garden that Wilhelmina Stock originally designed it to be.

Over the past 16 years, The Hillsdale Garden Club and other volunteers began to clean it up and landscape the park into what it is today with Diane Miller as master gardener.

Most recently, they have been clearing out the park near the new back entrance and gate of the park. And last week, Miller planted more redbud trees throughout the park.

“You never get done.

Whatever you are working on, you are thinking, ‘Next I have to go here or there,’” Miller said.

The club has plans to add covered picnic tables, tear up the rest of a very old tennis court that they have pulled up part of, and keep planting and maintaining.

In the 1800s, when Stock’s the water dried up, the ravine park and restore its gardens.

Mill across the street was became a place for people to And about 15 dump truck still operating, the land that dump Christmas trees, tires, loads of waste was removed is now the park used to be a and other rubbish. from the ravine and the brush barren swamp. It was a flood “Each year it got worse and was cleaned out of the park. plain for the river, there were worse and you could not see MacRitchie then began no trees, and it was mucky to the back it was so overlooking for a garden designer and snake infested. grown. And you couldn’t see to come and make plans for This was the moment when the island,” Miller said. “You the newly cleaned up land.

Wilhelmina Stock, who along with her husband and owner of Stock’s Mill at the time, decided to turn the swamp into a garden.

She hauled in massive amounts of soil to fill in the swampy area and the quicksand pit that had developed.

She did much of the work herself.

“She hitched her skirts up and put on her boots and she devised a harness so that her horses wouldn’t get stuck in it,” Miller said.

Then Stock had plants and trees brought from England and planted. There is even rumors that at one point the park was used for horse barns and riding.

But over time, especially after Stock’s Mill closed, the park turned into a dumping Mrs. Stock’s Park during the fall season. Abby Liebing | Collegian ground. The ravine that runs the length of the park used to couldn’t tell where the island But the fee was prohibitive, be called the “mill race” and and the water were because so MacRitchie contacted was full of water that could be it was filled with junk and Miller who headed up the pumped into the mill in case brush.” project to keep restoring and of fire. There even used to be But then around 2004 working on the park. Miller boat races in the mill race.

Mary Anne MacRitchie decid- has been doing so, along with But after the mill closed and ed it was time to clean up the members of the garden club

and other volunteers, for the past 16 years.

In the time since Miller began working on the park, she has overseen the installment of the wrought iron fence and gate, as well as the clearing of the slope that runs from the ravine down the length of the park, and many other projects.

Louise Worms, who learned about the restoration project through the garden club and then was asked to join the committee about five years ago, has been following Miller’s lead as they continue to make improvements in the park every week.

“She is the master gardener of the group and the rest of us follow her lead, as best we can,” Worms said.

“The park has always been an enchanting place to me but I am so happy and proud about the work that has been accomplished there,” Worms said. “I don’t have a special favorite spot. I love the sunny colorful perennial garden and to quiet, shady spots that seem so peaceful.”

The Garden Club gets funding for their work from donations and during the Christmas season when they make and sell green wreaths and flower arrangements.

And they also receive donations from their free summer

concert series, which they hold in Mrs. Stock’s park during Tuesday nights in the summer.

“We pass a bucket to receive donations at the concerts,” Worms said. “Our audiences look forward to the season and we have even gleaned some Thursday morning workers from the audiences.”

Mitzi Dimmers has also worked on maintaining the park. Under the direction of Miller, she works every Thursday morning, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., on different projects throughout the park like weeding, planting, and mulching.

She has enjoyed being part of the work that helps keep the park beautiful for the community.

“It serves community purpose,” Dimmers said. “And because it’s downtown a lot of business people use it and a lot of walkers come through.

That’s our purpose: to make it nice for the community.”

Dimmers said she is also excited to watch the plants grow and see the progress of their work.

“If we can keep the deer from eating everything, we get a lot of appreciation from how things are growing and developing,” she said.

Newsweek ranks County Residents speak out against Care Facility top in the state possible property tax cuts By | Cal Abbo Assistant Editor

The Hillsdale County Medical Care Facility earned the No. 1 spot in a Newsweek Report released on Oct. 9 listing the best nursing homes in Michigan.

Denise Baker, the administrator of the facility, said she was happily surprised by the news. Now in its near-100th year of existence, the nursing home started out as a poorhouse, according to Baker, “for people who weren’t being taken care of by their families.

It just kind of expanded from there.”

Now, the county-owned nursing home is located on Mechanic Road, just five minutes via car from Hillsdale College, and has 170 beds.

Baker said the nursing home has been rated as a five-star facility in the recent past.

Newsweek released a report ranking nursing homes based on several different criteria: a reputation survey given to administrators as well as nurses and physicians, number of staffing hours, quality of stay, and health inspections via the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

The nursing home is paid for in full by Medicare and Medicaid. This means the home is subject to annual inspections and ratings by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Baker said the home achieves high scores from the state in those areas.

The study did have some limitations, according to Baker.

“They didn’t look at facilities that were under 150 beds,” she said. “While there are two other very good facilities in the county associated with the hospital, they didn’t get counted into the data collection.”

As a nonprofit, Baker said her goal is to provide good service to residents and maintain a clean facility.

“I think if you start there, you’re going to come out on top,” she said. “That’s what it’s about, is taking good care of people in a clean facility.”

According to Baker, running a nursing home can be a lot of work.

“It takes a village to take care of 170 elderly people, and we’re very lucky to have a facility full of people who love what they do and love who they take care of,” she said.

tion to professional development and technical training.

“While the event was once driven for exposure, it has grown into a venue for our local service agencies and the ISD to come together and offer a fun, family-focused event,” Svacha said in an email. “It was far more successful than we expected.”

According to Svacha, Fall Fest aims to create a safe and welcoming place for all.

“We have somewhere around 50 volunteers every year to help keep a watchful eye,” she said. “We love to see the kids having fun but we — the Hillsdale County ISD — also love making face-to-face connections with moms and dads. Ultimately, we want them to know we’re here to

help.”

Each partner agency and ISD department will offer an activity for visitors to enjoy.

Attractions include dancing, bowling, coloring, crafting, a “spooky fun bus,” and an opportunity to take photos.

There will also be free grilled hotdogs and chips available in addition to hayrides and pumpkins to take home.

Kelly Castle has attended the Fall Fest with her son the past two years and said she would “highly recommend” it to others.

“We have enjoyed the hayride and games the best,” Castle said in a text message.

“Last year my son had so much fun dancing with the ISD staff. Best of all, it’s free!”

Tonight: 12th annual Fall Fest By | Madeline Peltzer Assistant Editor The Hillsdale County Intermediate School District invites the community to join them in celebrating autumn at its 12th annual Fall Festival. The event will take place, rain or shine, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. this evening, Oct. 24 at the Hillsdale County Fairgrounds. While the festivities are geared toward families with children, all are welcome.

Fall Fest was born out of a desire to raise awareness about the special education resources Hillsdale County ISD offers, explained Kim Svacha, assistant to the superintendent. The organization offers speech, physical, and occupational therapy in addi-

at Oct. 21 council meeting By | Ben Wilson Collegian Reporter City council members and residents debated the designation of a Neighborhood Enterprise Zone and the demolition of the property at 65 and 65 1/2 Westwood at an Oct. 21 city council meeting.

The NEZ reduces the tax burden, up to half of property taxes, on existing homes that undergo repairs and remodeling. It also offers an incentive to prospective homeowners to build and develop the properties in the zone.

The NEZ would extend south from Bacon to Barnard streets, with the eastern boundary as Wolcott Street and the western boundary as Griswold Street.

“We have a number of houses down there that are delighted and would benefit from the rehabilitation part of the NEZ,” said Kim Thomas, Hillsdale’s city assessor.

Residents in the zone, however, expressed frustration with the proposed tax cut.

“It doesn’t appear that my neighbors are going to be investing any money into their homes in the near future,” resident Patty Palmer said.

Instead, residents expressed anger that higher-income families would receive tax relief, while lower-income residents wouldn’t.

“I’ve owned property here since 1976, and I put a brand new house there,” resident Michael Beard said. “What

kind of deal will I get out of it?”

The tax breaks are targeted for higher-income housing than most homes in that area.

“Everybody should pay their fair share of taxes so we can improve our streets,” Palmer said. “Our area is probably one of the lower tax rates in the area.”

Councilmember Bruce Sharp, who also lives in the neighborhood, agreed with the concerns about unequal benefits.

“That’s really not fair to people who pay their property taxes every year,” Sharp said. “Someone else is going to get a benefit when their houses are worth three times as much as my home.”

The NEZ was developed as a public act in 1992 to provide property tax incentives for development and rehabilitation. The state law says only 15% of the city can be under a NEZ zone.

Hillsdale has implemented NEZs before, the first being property in the Three Meadows subdivision near downtown. The city used tax breaks in an effort to complete the development.

Sharp noted the city is still only in phase one out of five for the Three Meadows subdivision. Three more houses need to be developed before the next stage can begin.

“It’s been over 20 years and we’re still only at nine houses built in those years,” Sharp said. “At this rate, it’s going to take a hundred years.

An NEZ on West Street

also has suffered from slow progress, according to Thomas. The city approved the zone to encourage growth near the college.

“We did one on West Street to encourage rehabilitation,” Thomas said. “That hasn’t worked yet, but we’re hopeful.”

The council agreed to discuss the NEZ further at its next meeting and encouraged residents to come voice their concerns during public comment.

The meeting turned to the demolition of the 65 Westwood property, which was condemned in an Aug. 5 resolution. The council granted an extension of 60 days to Marvin Salyer, the owner of the rundown home.

Sharp expressed frustration that demolition still hasn’t begun.

“It’s time for that thing to be torn down and be done,” Sharp said.

Salyer said he is working to finance the project and find a contractor.

“I’ve been working a lot and trying to save money,” Salyer said. “I’m trying to get the cash to get this fixed.”

Sharp, who lives three doors down from the house, has led the fight to get it torn down.

Salyer agreed to secure a contractor and report on the progress at the next meeting.

“We have rules in place for a reason; let’s enforce them,” Sharp said. “The 16th is coming up and I would love to have this done.”

SPORTS

A8 October 24, 2019

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Swimmers prepare to dive into the pool during a home meet on October 5. rachel kookogey | collegian

Swimming

Chargers defeat Calvin, fall to Grand Valley State in tri-meet By | Rachel Kookogey assistant editor The Hillsdale College Chargers beat the Calvin College Knights 118.5-112.5 on October 18, despite spotting the Knights 26 points for diving. The Chargers also swam against the Grand Valley State University Lakers in the tri-meet and lost 162-67.

The seniors were particularly excited about the win against Calvin, for this is their first time to beat the

Knights during their time at Hillsdale. It was the freshman, however, who led the team in points.

Freshman Leah Tunney had a strong performance with second-place finishes in all three of her events — the 1000 freestyle (10:33.04), 200 IM (2:13.53), and 100 backstroke (59.30).

Tunney said she is happy to be contributing to the team effort.

“A freshman athlete’s big-

gest fear is that they’re not gonna provide for the team,” Tunney said. “Swimming is an individual sport but you’re competing for a team goal.”

Other notable freshman performances included Anika Fassett’s second-place finish in the 100 butterfly (59.81), Madison Pyhel’s third-place finish in the 500 (5:15.73), and Marie Taylor’s third-place finishes in the 50 freestyle (25.02) and 100

freestyle (55.11).

Head coach Kurt Kirner said the freshmen have also pushed the other swimmers to improve their times.

“We have a very strong freshmen group, but probably the most important thing is it makes the upperclassmen better,” Kirner said. “In practice, the freshmen are pushing the envelope. In meets, they’re even swimming against each other. The inner-team competition is

the key to a good team.”

Both Calvin and Grand Valley are a division above Hillsdale, so the swimmers and coaches were focused mostly on getting good times in the tri-meet.

“We’re not necessarily out to win a particular meet,” Kirner said. “It always makes it nice when we win, but it’s really about having those good individual times so that they’re prepared for the final, more important

meets.”

Junior Katherine Heeres, who took second in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:58.76, said she swam her best in-season times since being at Hillsdale.

“On Friday I managed to drop my time from the Davenport race by two-tenths, which is the fastest time I’ve swum in-season since being here,” Heeres said. “So that hopefully bodes well for the future.”

charger chatter: Sophia Spinazze

Sophomore Sophia Spinazze hillsdale college athletic department

compiled by -Allison Schuster

Q: What are you majoring in?

Q: What are your favorite classes?

SS: I want to major in economics and politics.

I really like economics so far. I haven’t taken too many classes, but I like how it’s sort of putting big ideas into common sense terms and so the things you talk about in class seem sort of obvious but are also like I never would have come to that on my own and then I like politics a lot because I like looking at the older writers or more of the political theory and applying that to modern things happening today and I especially lie thinking about how the two relate to each other bc I think neither can be separate and you have to consider both so I like how they work together.

SS: Christianity and Politics is my favorite course so far, I haven’t taken too many politics classes, but I like Dr. Grant a lot because of what I said about why I like politics in general; I like when he talks about modern things helping relate a book like St. Augustine’s “City of God” to our modern culture. I took Dr. Wolfram’s Introduction to Political Economy last semester, which was my first exposure to economics and I really liked that because it was the first time I had learned about simple economic things like supply and demand curves. It was really eye-opening and made me realize it was something I’d like to study. It felt like time spent reading for that class flew by, so I knew I wanted to study this subject further because of that course.

Q: Are there any moments that have stood out to you so far in your tennis career?

SS: The best moment was at the G-MAC Championship last year. I mean, we had the expectation to win again basically because the team had the year before, but it’s of course still always a challenge and getting to cheer my team on and getting to see the progress of each person was really exciting and a great thing to be apart of. I loved getting to cheer on my team and seeing all the work for the whole team pay off.

Q: Have you played any other sports?

SS: I did a lot of dance. Before high school I did competitive dance, basketball, tennis, and softball. Then in high school I continued with tennis, dance and softball. So I stopped playing basketball once I got to high school.

Sports

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Schoenborn takes over Strength & Conditioning for athletic department

Scoreboard

FOOTBALL

october 12 1 2 3 4 FINAL Hillsdale 0 7 3 6 16 Findlay 6 21 7 7 41 passing

c-a yds td int long

Luke Keller

19-31 251

rushing

1

1

42

att yds avg td long

David Graham

16

64

4.0

1

22

4 5 3 2

75 60 43 31

18.8 12.0 14.3 15.5

1 0 0 0

42 25 25 23

receiving

rec yds avg td long

defense

tkl tfl sack ff/fr int

Alec Foos K.J. Maloney David Graham Alex Giampietro Drake Temple Zach Herzog Nate Jones Jason McDonough Dan Shanley Derek Branyan Matt Harding

By | Allison Schuster Features Editor

11 0 0 0/0 0 9 1 0 0/0 0 7 1 0 0/0 0 6 0 0 0/0 0 6 0 0 0/0 0 6 0 0 0/0 0 5 1 0 0/0 0

VOLLEYBALL october 18 16 Hillsdale 17 Rockhurst

1 2 3 SCORE

25 25 25 3 22 20 22 0

kill ast dig bs/ba pts

Allyssa Van Wienen Emily Lachmann Karoline Shelton Hannah Gates Lindsey Mertz Maggie DePorre Audrey Riley Madie Schider Taylor Wiese

15 0 1 0/3 16.5 14 0 2 0/1 14.5 8 1 15 0/2 9.0 5 0 1 1/2 7.0 2 41 10 0/1 2.5 2 0 1 0/1 2.5 1 1 13 0/1 1.5 1 0 5 0/0 1.0 0 1 16 0/0 1.0

october 19 16 Hillsdale Saginaw Valley

1 2 3 SCORE

25 25 25 3 9 20 19 0

kill ast dig bs/ba pts

Allyssa Van Wienen Karoline Shelton Hannah Gates Emily Lachmann Audrey Riley Maggie DePorre Lindsey Mertz

13 0 1 0/1 13.5 9 0 5 0/0 12.0 6 0 0 1/5 9.5 7 1 0 0/2 8.0 2 0 5 0/0 6.0 2 1 2 0/3 3.5 1 35 3 0/1 1.5

october 19 1 2 3 4 5 SCORE 16 Hillsdale 19 22 25 25 10 2 10 Lewis 25 25 20 18 15 3

kill ast dig bs/ba pts

Allyssa Van Wienen Karoline Shelton Emily Lachmann Audrey Riley Megan Kolp Hannah Gates Lindsey Mertz Maggie DePorre Emma Noskey Taylor Wiese Madie Schider

19 0 3 2/3 22.5 8 0 9 0/1 10.5 8 0 4 0/1 8.5 3 0 6 0/0 6.0 5 0 1 0/1 5.5 5 0 2 0/0 5.0 2 41 14 0/2 3.0 1 1 1 0/0 1.0 1 0 1 0/0 1.0 0 1 18 0/0 0.0 0 0 12 0/0 0.0

Volleyball FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18

| indianapolis, in

score

Hillsdale (15-2) 17 R ockhurst (16-5)

3 0

16

| indianapolis, in

score

Hillsdale (16-2) Saginaw Valley (14-5)

3 0

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19

16

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12

| cedarville, oh

score

Hillsdale (16-3) 10 L ewis (19-3)

2 3

16

| hillsdale, mi 7:00 P.M. Ohio Dominican (2-19, 2-4) vs. 16 Hillsdale (16-3, 5-0) FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25

G-MAC STANDINGS SCHOOL

t1. 16 HILLSDALE t1. WALSH t3.

CEDARVILLE t3. TIFFIN 5. KENTUCKY WESLEYAN t6. TREVECCA NAZARENE t6. LAKE ERIE t6. FINDLAY 9. OHIO DOMINICAN 10. MALONE t11. OHIO VALLEY t11. URSULINE 13. ALDERSON BROADDUS

G-MAC

OVERALL

5-0 16-3 4-0 11-6 5-1 12-7 5-1 11-11 3-2 10-9 2-3 11-13 2-3 8-15 2-3 5-15 2-4 2-19 1-3 6-15 1-4 7-9 1-4 2-16 0-5 8-15

NCAA DIVISION II RANKINGS SCHOOL

1. CAL STATE SAN BERNADINO 2. NEBRASKA-KEARNEY t3. NORTHERN STATE t3. WASHBURN 5. MINNESOTA DULUTH 6. WESTERN WASHINGTON 7. CONCORDIA-ST. PAUL 8. WAYNE STATE (NEB.) 9. LEWIS 10. CENTRAL MISSOURI 11. SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA STATE 12. REGIS 13. ST. CLOUD STATE 14. NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE 15. ANGELO STATE 16. HILLSDALE 17. WINONA STATE 18. FERRIS STATE 19. WHEELING 20. ROCKHURST 21. UPPER IOWA 22. MICHIGAN TECH 23. TEXAS A&M COMMERCE 24. CAL STATE LOS ANGELES 25. MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS

RECORD

October 24, 2019 A9

PREVIOUS

17-0 1 19-0 3 17-2 6 17-2 4 17-2 7 17-1 2 15-4 5 17-3 11 19-3 10 14-6 9 13-6 12 16-3 15 15-4 8 14-5 14 19-1 18 16-3 16 15-4 20 16-4 13 18-3 21 17-6 17 13-6 19 16-4 24 16-4 25 12-5 NR 20-2 NR

The Hillsdale College athletic department recently hired Mitchell Schoenborn to take over as Strength and Conditioning coach. Schoenborn replaces Mitchell Faine, who was hired in the summer. Schoenborn is the third coach to hold the position in the calendar year.

His job requires he do a little bit of everything, from managing players’ nutrition, designing and implementing the training program for seven sports, and training athletes based on their sport.

Some sports require more or less of his help due to each head coach’s ability and involvement, but Schoenborn is involved in some capacity with football, softball, volleyball, golf, track and field, women’s basketball, and volleyball.

The position requires him to help players get in their best shape, and that doesn’t stop when they leave the weight room. Each week, Schoenborn talks to Bon Appetit to get the week’s menu and decide what athletes should eat. He posts the menu to Hillsdale’s nutrition Twitter account, @ FuelChargers. Food choices are important to ensure their recovery from workouts, so Schoenborn chooses food with limited processed fat and plenty of protein, he said.

For some sports, such as swimming, the coaches take over after Schoenborn creates the programming and training. Director of Sports Medicine and Performance, Tyler Cortight, trains the volleyball team right now, but Schoenborn plans to transition as the team’s trainer.

One team he works with in all aspects of training is football. Before practices and games, he helps them prepare to take the field. He typically has the team stretch and meditate in the hotel conference room before games.

Strength and Conditioning Coach Mitchell Shoenborn hillsdale college athletic department

What he does with them depends on the day. Because the team’s roster is so large, he practices with those who travel, typically first-string players, and those who don’t travel, typically redshirt freshman and injured players.

His schedule, however, is constantly changing. Working with so many groups reflects in his routine as some sports are transitioning into their off-season. During the season, athletes are only allowed to dedicate 20 hours to their sport, Schoenborn said, so they spend more time practicing their game than they do on conditioning their bodies. So athletes typically train for four hours in season versus eight hours when not in season.

Schoenborn said he likes working at Hillsdale because of how appreciative and cooperative the athletes are.

“They listen well,” he said.

“No prodding needed. They want to get better.”

And he expects them to give 100% to each workout. Schoenborn’s mantra is, “How you do anything is how you do everything.”

The way athletes practice, he said, is going to reflect how they play on gameday.

It goes beyond practice, too.

Schoenborn said how players behave outside of their sport shows their character and ability as much as their athletic endeavors.

Schoenborn’s known for a long time he wanted to be a trainer and all that comes with the job.

“Not many jobs allow you to wear sweatpants to work everyday,” he said with a laugh.

Schoenborn began his career as a trainer as an assistant at Central Michigan University where he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in exercise psychology. He started as an undergraduate assistant for football and track that he continued for his first year

into his graduate studies. His second year, he took over track and field and wrestling.

The most rewarding part about his job is building a bond with students that goes beyond their physical health, but addresses their mental and emotional health.

“I’ll ask students ‘How did that biology exam go?’ or ‘How’s your mom?’ he said.

“I get to care about their well-being.”

Different people work best with different learning styles, and he said he enjoys finding what works best for different people. He says it’s an art form, finding how to tailor workouts to various audio, visual, and tactile learners, and it’s extremely fulfilling for Schoenborn.

The transition has been smooth, he said. Most aspects of his job have stayed the same, but he made some small changes from how the former Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Patrick Gifford operated. One thing he does differently is leaving the equipment out for the different groups to save time.

“Those three or four minutes when you only have 45 minutes with the team can eat up a lot of time,” he said. “You really need to be efficient.”

He has small changes in mind for the future, including incorporating kettlebells further into workouts for all his sports. He is a strong advocate for kettlebells as he said they help develop coordination and focus.

There haven’t been any big challenges so far, despite this being Schoenborn’s first time programming for football. Schoenborn said one potential problem with changing hands is confusion with the players, but that hasn’t been an issue as they try to understand his instruction well.

“They all try really hard,” he said. “They listen to the details and it’s going really well.”

Don't bet against the Nats in the Fall Classic By | Stefan Kleinhenz d.c. correspondent The Washington Nationals are not favored to win the 2019 World Series — all the more reason why they will.

On May 25, when the Nationals were 19-31 and the second-worst team in the National League, they only had a 0.1% chance of making the World Series according to Baseball Reference.

They then snuck through the Wild Card and beat the Milwaukee Brewers, upset the Los Angeles Dodgers in the divisional round, and swept the St. Louis Cardinals to win the National League pennant.

Once again the Nationals are faced with impossible odds. Heading into the World Series matchup against the Nationals, Las Vegas betting odds gave the Astros a 70% chance of winning it all.

Throughout the season, however, the Nationals have consistently done exactly what they weren’t supposed to, and that’s precisely why everyone should cash in on the Vegas odds that once again give fuel to a ballclub that has been unstoppable since they embraced their underdog label.

Many people say this Series between the Nationals and Astros is set to be one of the greatest pitching matchups in history, and that just might be the only

thing they’ve gotten right so far. For the first time, five of the season’s top 10 strikeouts leaders will pitch in the World Series.

The Nationals’ starters have been more than reliable throughout this postseason run. In the NLCS, the starters put up a combined 1.35 earned run average and held the Cardinals to 13-for-92 (a combined batting average of .141).

The trouble for Nationals pitching, however, comes from their bullpen. The talk of the Series is who will have to go to their bullpen first, and in game one it was the Nationals.

Doolittle and Hudson are their reliable relievers, and as the postseason has played out, really the only guys they trust to close out the game, but when Sherzer’s pitch count was at plus 100 going into the sixth inning of game one, they had to get creative.

In the sixth, they turned to Patrick Corbin, their number three starter. He was set to start game three, but it now looks like Dave Martinez is uncertain of Corbin’s Friday. Game one really showed how little depth and trust they have in their pen.

If the Nationals can’t get their starters to go through seven in the World Series, that could spell some serious trouble, especially with the hot bats of Houston. Despite the fact the Nationals pulled off game one, they used four relievers who are no

less ready and reliable in the games to come. With Corbin in particular, bringing him into game one now means he might not be ready to start a crucial game three.

Despite the challenges of their bullpen, the naysayers, and the odds, the Nationals have heart.

In a town where people disagree on just about everything, the Nationals might be the only thing everyone can get behind. And, if any city desperately needs a feel good year, it’s the Nation’s capital.

The team’s motto has been “Stay in the Fight”, and now all across the city, from bars to billboards, the words

“Finish the Fight” are posted as a city comes together to cheer on history in the making.

Throughout the postseason the Washington Nationals have found a way to win, and they show no sign of slowing down. They’re loving every moment of their journey, they’re having a whole lot of fun, and they’ve got a lot of people to prove wrong. That’s what baseball is all about, and with all of the heart they’ve got on the diamond, and all of the chemistry they’ve got in the clubhouse, those are some pretty difficult odds to bet against.

Charger A10 October 24, 2019

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Cross Country

Chargers ready for G-MAC Championship By | Calli Townsend assistant editor

Claire McNally runs at the Calvin College Knight Invitational earlier this season. calli townsend | collegian

The Hillsdale College Chargers are ready to get into the heart of their season, starting with the G-MAC Cross Country Championship meet this Saturday.

The women enter the championship season ranked No. 10 in the nation. With the conference meet is this Saturday, and the Midwest Regional two weeks later, the Chargers are ready to prove why they’ve been nationally-ranked all season.

“People are in a really good spot right now. Obviously our end goal is nationals, so we’re not training to peak at this race, but people are starting to feel really good,” junior Christina Sawyer said. “We have a really good conference this year.

A lot of teams are nationally ranked, but I think honestly out of all the teams we’re in the best position to win.”

Sawyer finished third on the team at the conference meet last year behind senior Arena Lewis and junior Maryssa Depies. The three have continued to lead the team this season with some of their fastest times in their careers.

Last season the Chargers battled with the Walsh University Cavaliers. Walsh hosted and won the G-MAC Championship, then Hillsdale hosted the Regional Championship and took second, while Walsh finished fourth. On the national stage, the Cavaliers finished 12th while Hillsdale took 19th. This weekend is the

Mark Miller runs at the Calvin College Knight Invitational earlier this season. calli townsend | collegian

Chargers’ turn to steal the victory.

With Walsh ranked 13th in the national polls, only one other conference opponent is in the rankings— Malone University, who took fourth at the conference meet last year.

Hillsdale has qualified for the NCAA Division II National meet for the last six years, so the upperclassmen have major experience to fall back on as they lead their team through the conference meet. Senior Kate Vanderstelt said the team is feeling ready.

“I’m kind of sad, but I’m excited,” Vanderstelt said of her last G-MAC Cross Country Championship. “We have a really good team, really good culture, and really good energy.”

The men are coming off an exciting pair of races and personal best times, and are ready to bring those fast times to the course this weekend.

Three conference opponents find themselves ranked among the top 10 in the region, while Hillsdale remains unranked.

Senior Joey Humes boasts the top time in the conference so far this season, winning G-MAC Cross Country Athlete of the Week twice and Division II National Cross Country Athlete of the Week once.

“I’m pretty confident. Being ranked number one does put a good amount of confidence going into the meet,” Humes said. “But also, I was kind of number one going into the meet last year too, and I didn’t do very well, so

I’m trying to take that with a grain of salt.”

After a disappointing finish at the conference meet last year, Humes qualified as an individual for the National meet, where he earned his first All-American status.

He said this year he’ll be more intentional about being aware of the course conditions.

The preseason polls picked Hillsdale to finish fourth to Walsh, Malone, and Cedarville Universities, respectively. Each of these teams is ranked ahead of Hillsdale in the regional rankings, but that’s not considering the standout performances the Chargers had earlier this month.

“I don’t think there’s any team that’s hands down the best,” Humes said. “I think it’s all a pretty close three or four teams, so I think if anybody has a really good day they can win it, and I think the same goes for us. I don’t see why we can’t.”

Sophomore Adam Wier, who has shaved nearly a minute and a half off his personal record this season, said he’s ready to make a name for himself at the conference meet.

“I’m ready to put my name forward as one of the best in the G-MAC cross country,” he said. “I hopefully get first team and just give my best effort out there and we’ll see what happens.”

Ursuline College will host the G-MAC Championship meet at the Laurel School Butler Campus in Pepper Pike, Ohio. The women’s race will follow the men’s race, which is at 10:30.

Football

Chargers can't keep pace with Oilers By | S. Nathaniel Grime sports editor The Hillsdale College Chargers lost their first G-MAC game of the season, and first in more than two years, 41-16, against the University of Findlay Oilers on Saturday. The loss drops the Chargers to 4-3 overall and places them among three G-MAC teams with one conference loss in 2019.

“There was never anything to ignite us,” head coach Keith Otterbein said.

“We were punching away and banging away, but we never got that incident to capture the momentum and put them on their heels.”

After the Chargers punted on their first offensive possession of the game, the Oilers drove the ball 60 yards in 10 plays for a touchdown to take a first-quarter lead.

Hillsdale responded with a 14-play, 75-yard scoring drive to take a 7-6 lead early in the second quarter thanks to redshirt freshman quarterback Luke Keller’s 17-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Alec Foos.

The Chargers’ only lead of the afternoon was brief, however, as the Oilers found the end zone on their final three drives of the first half to build a 27-7 lead by halftime. A fumble and a failed fourth-down conversion attempt by Hillsdale’s offense set Findlay up with prime field position for two of its scoring drives.

Otterbein said the team

needs to do a better job moving forward at both heading into halftime strong and beginning the second half strong.

“In all three of our losses, the middle eight minutes of the game it seems right before halftime we went from a manageable deficit to a pretty big deficit and then coming out of halftime added fuel to the fire,” Otterbein said. “We’ve gotta finish the first half better and start the second half better in order to be a better football team.”

In the Chargers’ three losses this season, they’ve been outscored in the second quarter 61-14 and in the third quarter 28-10. In their four wins, they’ve outscored their opponents in the second quarter 37-21 and in the third quarter 27-17.

“You scratch your head because they’ve all been different,” Otterbein said of the reason his team has struggled immediately before and after halftime in its losses this year. “Sometimes it’s just the way the game unfolds.

It’s more of an analytical thing than anything we can truly correct, but I think we’ll remind them and ourselves of the importance of a fast start and a good finish.”

The Chargers turned the ball over two more times in the second half, and could never get the momentum shifted back in their favor.

“They’ve got a lot of weapons,so our sense of urgency needed to be a little more intense in a game like that,” Otterbein said. “You’ve

G-MAC STANDINGS SCHOOL

1. TIFFIN 2. FINDLAY 3. OHIO DOMINICAN 4. HILLSDALE 5. LAKE ERIE 6. WALSH t7. ALDERSON BROADDUS t7. KENTUCKY WESLEYAN

G-MAC

OVERALL

4-0 6-1 4-1 5-2 3-1 4-2 2-1 4-3 2-2 3-4 1-3 1-6 0-4 0-7 0-4 0-7

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19

| findlay, oh

Hillsdale (4-3, 2-2 g-mac) Findlay (5-2, 4-1 g-mac) SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26

| hillsdale, mi

final

16 41 2:30 P.M.

Kentucky Wesleyan (0-7, 0-4) vs. Hillsdale (4-3, 2-1) gotta create your own breaks to do that.”

Findlay didn’t turn the ball over, and didn’t allow any sacks to Hillsdale’s defense, while the Oilers’ defensive rush sacked Keller five times.

“We had too many negative hits on offense which created third and longs for us,” Otterbein said. “I also didn’t think we put enough pressure on the quarterback.”

Keller completed 19 of 31 passes overall for 251 yards.

Keller has completed more than 60 percent of his passes and thrown for more than 220 yards for three consecutive weeks. His third-quarter interception was the first he’s thrown since Sept. 28.

Keller connected with seven different targets in the air and six different targets at least twice. Foos led the receiving unit in yardage with four catches for 75 yards, both season-highs.

On the ground, senior running back David Graham carried the ball 16 times for 64 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown. The touchdown was Graham’s seventh on the ground this season, and secured his fifth consecutive week finding the end zone.

“Had it been a close football game, I thought we may have been more productive offensively. Game situations dictate how aggressive you’re gonna be in your playcalling,” Otterbein said. “Even with the negative hits and the sacks, some of those can disappear if you’re establishing the run a little more on

first and second down. We had some good stuff offensively that was working early, but couldn’t get back to it.”

With four games remaining in the regular season, the Chargers still have a shot to repeat as G-MAC champions in 2019, though they may need some help. Their road begins this Saturday when they host the Kentucky Wesleyan College Panthers (0-7, 0-4 G-MAC). The Chargers defeated the Panthers last season, 34-0.

The Tiffin University Dragons, whom the Chargers play on Nov. 9, are alone in first place in the conference with a 4-0 record. The Oilers’ win against Hillsdale improved their conference record to 4-1, and the Ohio Dominican University Panthers, who will visit Hillsdale for the regular-season finale on Nov. 16, are 3-1 in the conference.

For the Chargers to win the conference outright, they’d need to win their final four games of the regular season and rely on the Oilers to drop another G-MAC game. Findlay has just two conference games remaining, against Lake Erie College (34, 2-2) and Tiffin (6-1, 4-0).

“Every game is a championship game now. You’ve taken away any kind of wiggle room,” Otterbein said.

“But the big games don’t become big games unless you get there. The focus isn’t necessarily long-range, it’s short-range, and it’s putting together the game plan, learning the game plan, and executing the game plan.”

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19

16 41 Findlay Oilers

Hillsdale Chargers

FIRST DOWNS

18

28

TOTAL YARDS OF OFFENSE

323

468

NET YARDS PASSING

251

247

NET YARDS RUSHING

72

221

THIRD DOWN EFFICEINCY

27% (3 of 11)

60% (9 of 15)

FOURTH DOWN EFFICIENCY

67% (2 of 3)

100% (1 of 1)

PENTALTIES/YARDS

0/0

7/55

FUMBLES/NUMBER LOST

2/2

0/0

INTERCEPTIONS: NUMBER/YARDS

0/0

1/35

SACKS/YARDS

0/0

5/33

TIME OF POSSESSION

27:14

32:46

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

October 24, 2019

B1

Courtesy | Taylor Dickerson

C

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t

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Charcuteries and the modern host By | Isabella Redjai Assistant Editor It’s difficult to imagine any gathering nowadays without some sort of arrangement of cheese, meats, crackers, fruit, or nuts — the charcuterie board.

Most people use the word “charcuterie” interchangeably with cheese boards, yet the French word actually means “cold cuts,” or “delicatessen” in reference to meats. When creating a charcuterie board, both elements are essential.

“Charcuterie platters have been a staple of catering events for as long as I can remember, whether it’s called a meat and cheese platter, charcuterie board, or selection of artisanal salami,” General Manager of Bon Appetit Catering Dave Apthorpe said.

Apthorpe said all that’s really changed is what people call it.

“I’m not sure the popularity of an array of cured meats and selected cheeses has increased, especially in a catered setting, but I think the word ‘charcuterie’ is a new addition to the American diner’s lexicon,” Apthorpe said, “Part of the awareness probably comes from the prevalence of these items on restaurant menus.

The 2000s really saw a lot of chefs dig into charcuterie, essentially a way of preserving meat, be it through sausage-making, pate, terrines, rillettes, etc.”

The charm of charcuterie boards is that they’re simple: Anyone can arrange one at

home. They’re an old gesture of hospitality easy enough that they’ve become the staple of a younger audience recently.

“The thing about making charcuterie boards for a business versus at home is that you can get a lot of different kinds of things because you’re making a lot more of them,” Lehman said. “Like if I were to buy five different cheeses only to make a cheese board at home that would be expensive, but when providing customers with variety we have that available.”

Although artisan charcuterie boards can become expensive quickly, the basic elements are accessible to anyone near a grocery store.

“You want to have lots of crackers — more than you think — meat, cheese, olives or pickles on the side.You want to give people as much variety as you can, like mixing salty with sweet, or a hard cheese with a soft cheese,” Lehman said. “Then we have a fruit and nut mix, with walnuts, cranberries, cherries, and pumpkin seeds.”

The charcuterie board world has also gone seasonal, with “secret ingredients” setting them apart from the classic meat-and-cheese display.

“I like to add different

leaves to mine in order to show the different seasons, like for my fall charcuterie, I used sage, and for the summer, I used thyme,” junior Taylor Dickerson said. “I use things that match a certain color scheme, so because it’s fall I wanted it to be darker, and used blackberries, caramel instead of honey, and apples and peaches. All of the cheese were also fall-flavored, and I used candy corn, caramelized maple nuts, and pumpkin seeds.”

Dickerson said she used a spicy, maple and pepper jack cheese, sweetened havarti, extra-creamy brie so it could melt faster, and even a cheese with a hint of peanut.

Apthorpe said Bon Appetit uses seasonal chutneys and varies its fruit from pears to stone fruit depending on the season.

Perhaps even more important than its ingredients is how a charcuterie board is arranged. The presentation — an intentional beautiful mess — is everything.

“We always put our cheese boards on wood or slate, but I think the biggest thing is that we always close every single crack with dried fruit and nuts, and when you do that it

“Presentation — an intentional beautiful mess — is everything.”

looks very professional,” Lehman said. “The more messy it is, the more professional it looks.”

Although many claim the beauty of charcuterie is in its littered style, to make the layout look both attractive and undone takes skill.

“When I made my first cheese board I just went to the grocery store and bought some salami and cheese, and it was so bad,” Dickerson said.

“Charcuterie boards are very easy to put filters on, but it takes time to make them. I probably spend about 20 to 30 minutes on my charcuterie in order to arrange everything the way I want it.”

Dickerson recently put her skills into practice with a table-sized charcuterie display at a recent alumnae event for the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.

“I made the charcuteries over the summer, so it was already on my mind, but when I was planning a party for Kappa, my mindset was think big and think different,” Dickerson said. “I wanted to do a charcuterie board, but why not make it the runner of the table? So I laid down some plastic wrap, and did it right onto the table.”

Dickerson’s art quickly attracted the attention of other students on campus.

“A couple of people saw the fall charcuterie board I made, and three people inquired if I could do it for their wedding, or another person asked me to do it for their party,” she said.

A conversation with Alan Gribben

Mark Twain scholar shares how he stumbled upon, saved Twain’s books

By | Reagan Gensiejewski Collegian Reporter Alan Gribben is a Mark Twain Scholar who has devoted more than 50 years to reconstructing Mark Twain’s library. In addition, Gribben rose to fame with his editions of the “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in which he removed and replaced the N-word with the word “slave” instead. (For more on the N-word, see B2.)

Why Mark Twain?

I knew in graduate school I wanted to work on the 19th century because it explains so much about my century when I was born, the 20th century and now the 21st century, the roots, the elements. You wouldn’t recognize them now because they have taken different forms, but it all comes from the 19th century and I was really fascinated by that. I couldn’t decide what writer to write on. I was thinking about a British author or maybe an American author, but then I got this job [as a graduate student editor of the Mark Twain papers]. I realized, ‘Wow, if I study Mark Twain, I will get to study all British and American authors. I will get to study everyone — he corresponded with everyone.’ He was so immensely popular, everyone wanted to know him, everyone wanted to correspond with him.

Then when I decided to study his reading, which no one wanted to tackle because the books had been dispersed, then I get to study all authors up to that time.

The only detriment of my

project is my brain lives more in the 19th century. I am travelling by jet but my brain is travelling by horse and carriage and stage coach. I am in the world of Mark Twain so much in my life. I know so much trivia that is of no interest at cocktail parties. It is totally useless, except putting it in this catalog.

In Volume One, I see you identify what books Twain liked and didn’t like. How did you find out this information?

He had a habit of annotating the margins of his books.

It was pretty easy to see what he liked. Back in that day, before there was an email, he wrote letters. I think we have about 15-20 thousand letters that we know of. He probably wrote at least twice that many, that we know of, that have been lost.

We have his opinion of his books. He would write people about what he was reading and his opinion of it. This was just non-stop — he probably averaged around 10 letters a day. It was what you might call a ‘print culture,’ everything that was known was in print.

He sensed that his audience, that his market for his books, wouldn’t want him to seem too erudite, too learned, too scholarly, so he was always in interviews for magazines and newspapers, downplaying his readings to make himself sound more original and less threatening to the average reader.

He wanted to seem like everything came out of his head.

He would deny that he read certain books, and I found the

exact book with his date on it when he acquired it and his markings on it. He was always minimizing his readings, for public relations reasons. A lot of his readers were not very well-read and might feel intimidated.

Where is the most unexpected place you have found Mark Twain’s books?

I got a line on some books in Wisconsin. People were saying that Mark Twain’s housekeeper had been allowed to choose 90 books from his library to keep for her 30 years as the family’s housekeeper.

So she chose books from his library and then she left them to her nephew when she passed away. He passed away and his widow remarried, and she is now under a different name, so I reached out to her and she said I could come and see the books.

Back then, gas was cheap, cars were cheap, I had a little VW beetle and I drove up to Wisconsin from Berkeley where I was doing my Ph D. When I got there, I rang the doorbell quite a few times and finally she came and opened the door just a little bit, and she said, ‘Oh, Mr. Gribben, I wish you would’ve called me again before you came, you wrote me several months ago.

I have become very ill, I can’t let you in to see the books. In fact, I am moving to Florida to see if that will improve my health.’

Back in 1970, we didn’t have many ways of detecting cancer, and she died just a month or two later of undetected cancer. She looked very bad. So I said, ‘I have come all this way.’ She said, ‘I am sorry

Mr. Gribben, I have to go back to bed, I am very ill. Please.’

One summer I was a cookware salesman, door-to-door, and I am ashamed of having done it now, but I was just trying to get through school.

So I had my foot in the door so she couldn’t close it, and I said, ‘Just one more question, Ms. Den, what are these sacks on your porch?’

She said, ‘Oh I had my maid clear out a lot of books because I am going to move.

There is a charity truck going to pick them up in a few minutes. Please, Mr. Gribben, let me close the door.’ So she closed the door and I turned around to go back to my car and then curiosity got the best of me. I knelt down and opened one of the sacks and I picked a book out of it and it had Mark Twain’s handwriting in it and it was signed S.L. Clemens (Mark Twain’s real name). I open another sack and there was his handwriting. Her maid had accidently put all the books from Mark Twain’s library in these sacks.

It is a good thing I was an Eagle Boy Scout, because it didn’t even cross my mind that I could support my school by selling these books one at a time. Today one of these books generally sells for around $30,000. It didn’t even cross my mind, I had no right to take them off her porch — they belonged to her. I got in my car and went downtown and there was a phone booth and a book in it. I looked up a name that remotely sounded like her, and I called and no one was home. I finally got the

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The Weekly Culture Corner:

On making your own pottery By | Sofia Krusmark Assistant Editor

Looking for something to do with your parents? Try painting your own pottery at Toasted Mud. Whether you’re an artist who paints day and night or an amateur who wants a fun, relaxing afternoon, Toasted Mud

on Howell Street meets people of all levels of ability.

Pick a mug or paint a ceramic. Design a set of plates instead of buying them premade. After a brisk walk and a cup of coffee from Checker Records, Toasted Mud is the next place to be.

Sofia Krusmark holds a handmade mug from Toasted Mud. Collegian | Sofia Krusmark

Penny’s paints with espresso, watercolors By | Alexis Daniels Web Content Editor Have you ever painted with coffee?

On Saturday, Oct. 19, several Hillsdale students gathered at Penny’s coffee shop in New Dorm to do just that.

The event, called “Watercolor with Jo and Caro,” went on for at least an hour on Saturday, prepared and set up by junior Caroline Hennekes and senior Joanna Dell as a way to relax.

“It’s a very relaxed time to kind of experiment,” Dell said. “Watercolor is very experimental. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s the beauty of it.”

Hennekes said watercolor is a perfect medium for having fun.

“It’s very messy, and I think life’s messy. We were talking even before coming here about how nice it is to do a medium that is so messy. It doesn’t have to be perfect,” she said. “Some other mediums are very precise, so sometimes it’s very stressful but it’s nice to feel more relaxed.”

Each student who reserved a spot for the event was given a sheet of sketch paper, paintbrushes, a watercolor palette, and three cups of espresso – light, medium, and dark roast. The goal was to paint something autumn-themed using the watercolors and the espresso.

Sophomore Ruth Moreno, who painted a road under autumn trees, said the espresso made things interesting because once it

dried, its lines were darker and more defined than usual watercolor.

“It would almost leave lines,” she said. “So if you put a spot of the coffee down, it creates more of a line around the edges, which kind of was good and bad.”

Despite having to smudge out some coffee to downplay the strength, Moreno said it worked well.

“I was really happy with how the coffee turned out,” she said. “It basically looked exactly like the paint, which made it really cool because it just blends right in and instead of having to mix the color with the water, you have the color there already.”

Freshman Hallie Scott said she has never been an artist, but she loves creating art and went to the event to de-stress from her homework. She said she loved the idea of painting with coffee.

“They had one with a lot of grounds in it so it adds texture to the paint, so I think it’s fun,” Scott said.

“And it’s weird how therapeutic it is. You wouldn’t think it would be therapeutic but I was really stressed before and now I’m really calm.”

Hennekes and Dell said they hope the event not only gave people a break but also encouraged them to look at the world in a different way for a while.

“It is when you have to start to look at something and actually look at it to paint it or draw it, that you start to see what it actually is and how intricate it is,” Hennekes said. “It just opens your eyes to things.”

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‘Joker’ dramatizes ordinary life and revels in the absurd

By | Cal Abbo Assistant Editor The most meaningful message the new movie “Joker” offers is that Arthur Fleck, who ends up becoming the Joker, is a homogeneous conglomeration of everything that happened to him. It’s impossible, and I believe intentionally so, to attribute his mental state to just one or two life events.

“Joker” was released on Oct. 4 as a dramatic explanation of the Joker’s origin.

The movie shied away from previous action-packed interpretations and emphasized the Joker as a human first and as the Joker second. After Fleck’s mental health care is taken away and he is publicly shamed on a famous talk show, he is driven to chaos and absurdity.

Throughout the movie, Fleck deals with dozens of

factors that eventually drive him mad. The most important among them — his mother’s illness, his own mental illness, his inability to charm women, losing access to healthcare, losing his job, and failing as a comedian — are featured heavily.

Everyone has experienced problems similar to Fleck’s, which makes the concept of Joker so appealing. Though the details of Joker’s transition are particular to him, the universal concept of Joker is something many audience members can relate to, whether from their own experience, or secondhand.

So what? Most of us don’t become serial murderers or rioters. But “Joker” offers an important commentary on stochastic terrorism and statistics in general. How many of us could become a murderous Joker at Hillsdale College?

Almost none. But in a poor, corrupt city like Gotham?

Many, many more.

For Fleck, the underlying issues in the movie all boil down to social relations. How does Fleck relate to his job and to creative expression? To his mother? To women? To the audience in the comedy club? Initially, his social needs, even though they are normal (a romantic relationship, a small comedy career, and a therapist who cares), are not adequately met.

Fleck’s social situation drives him to become the Joker, and in the same situation, the movie argues, you would become the Joker too. There is little about Fleck’s path that suggests conscious, immoral decision-making until he kills his mother. Fleck’s co-worker gave him the gun that got him fired from his job after Fleck was attacked while working.

The man who changed the N-word in Huck Finn

Even shooting three men on a train was self-defense; the movie makes it clear that Fleck feared for his life.

Fleck certainly took his situation to the extreme, but how many mini-Jokers are created from even the smallest social interactions?

One of the movie’s beginning scenes shows Fleck joking with a baby on a city bus. The child’s mother is displeased, and tells him off.

It’s not hard to imagine a situation where the mother was nice to and understanding of Fleck. Perhaps it would’ve changed the course of his descent into becoming a serial killer.

Fleck appears on the famous Murray Franklin show after his comedy fail goes viral, an invented talk show like the real-world Johnny Carson.

At this moment, Fleck makes the most important decision

of his life: Before the show, Fleck spends days rehearsing what he’ll say and do on the show — this includes shooting himself after admitting to the three murders.

Fleck’s choice to kill Franklin responds to Albert Camus’ theory of absurdism: Instead of suicide, Fleck accepts the absurd, shooting Franklin instead of himself as he had rehearsed. Faced with a fleeting existence and a volatile world, Fleck decides he can only find solace in a subjective morality that puts himself at the center of it all. He becomes, as Camus said, “so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

In a world that constantly suppresses his own self-expression — be it his job, his failing comedy career, or even the therapist who doesn’t care — Fleck is forced to forge his own way.

This is evident in the harsh dance he performs on a flight of stairs or his own terrible jokes. Fleck’s creativity is stupid and childish to everyone watching the movie. But to Fleck himself, his jokes are the funniest he’s ever heard and his crude dance moves are the best he could imagine.

At its heart, “Joker” criticizes our systemic barriers to express, create, and transform.

How does a human respond to suffering and obstacles?

What are the consequences of a world that makes humans into objects?

As Joker, through the makeup, Fleck sees the world as a subjective reality that he has the power to act upon, rather than himself as an object to be acted upon. In his own words: “I used to think my life was a tragedy. But now I realize it’s a comedy.”

“Self-portrait” by Lauren Redding is on display in the Fine Arts Building until Nov. 20. Collegian | Alexa Robbins

Mark Twain scholar Alan Gribben explains the change

By | Abby Liebing Associate Editor A poor, uneducated white boy from Missouri runs away from his drunken father and hops on a raft to head down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave. It is a story that most Americans know. It is Mark Twain’s classic American novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” and until recently, it was a staple in most American high school english classes.

But Alan Gribben, a Mark Twain scholar, co-founder of the Mark Twain Circle of America, and the editor of the Mark Twain Journal, fears we may be in danger of losing this American novel due to its use of the N-word about 215 times. On Oct. 22 he gave a lecture titled “Twenty-First Century Censorship of Mark Twain,” in which he discussed the issue and explained why he published a new edition of Huckleberry Finn which replaces the N-word with “slave.”

Gribben got his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley and spent most of his career teaching English and trying to put together Mark Twain’s library which was scattered after his death.

But in 2011 Gribben took a detour from his normal work after years of noticing that Twain’s use of the N-word in Huckleberry Finn was an increasing problem.

In 1985, Gribben attended an academic conference largely focused on Huckleberry Finn. Outside the conference African Americans were picketing the conference for celebrating a novel full of the offensive word.

“And that gave me the real sense that we were into something rather volatile,” Gribben said.

Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn in 1885 and by the beginning of the 19th century, many scholars accepted it as a brilliant work of American literature. By the 1950’s most high schools had it in their curriculum.

Later, with the integration of schools and the civil rights movement, the use of the N-word in Twain’s novel became contentious in the broader context of racial tensions and the word’s vile connotation.

Over his years teaching at universities, Gribben himself noticed when he taught Huckleberry Finn a significant

portion of the African American students in the class didn’t object to reading it, but often skipped class during the days they discussed the book.

Soon, Gribben began hearing from high school teachers who they felt they simply could not teach Huckleberry Finn anymore because the use of the N-word was too difficult an obstacle to overcome.

Some school boards began slipping it out of the curriculum.

Even fellow university colleagues told Gribben they were no longer teaching the book.

“It wasn’t that they didn’t have the courage to teach it, it just took too long to explain the etymology of the N-word, and how Twain was dedicated to the realist movement, and thereby he felt he had to accurately display the language of uneducated boys and adults in the 1830s,” Gribben said.

Worried that one of the most influential figures of the 19th century and American literature might be slipping away, a thought struck Gribben.

“It suddenly occurred to me, ‘What if I took the offending word out?’ It is a vile word. It is probably the worst slur in the English language at this moment anyway,” Gribben said.

Gribben approached NewSouth books, asking if they would be interested in publishing an edition of the book that changed nothing else except substituting “slave” for the N-word. NewSouth Books said they would publish it, even though Gribben warned them it might cause some serious backlash.

“This went against everything I had been taught at the University of California, Berkeley,” Gribben said. “I knew that I would offend the textual purists, but what if I made it possible for school boards to get past this thing?”

The media went berserk before the new edition was even published. Common headlines were “Southern prof. thinks he can write better than Twain” or “Southern prof. wrecks Twain’s masterpiece.” There were demands that Gribben’s chair fire him.

“It was castigated by my fellow Twain colleagues, so much so that at the next conference I went to I was cold-shouldered by just about everybody there, except longtime close friends,” Gribben said. “I had clearly hurt my

brand and my longtime Mark Twain scholarship by doing this thing.”

The book began to gain sales, however, and when Gribben offered the option of reading the original or the edited edition of Huckleberry Finn in his classes, many students chose to read the edited version. One African American cashier at Panera Bread recognized his name when Gribben paid and hugged him, thanking him for his work and for making it possible for her to give the book to her daughter.

Gribben’s wife, Irene, the managing editor of the Mark Twain Journal, added that he was not censoring but fighting de facto censorship.

“They are censoring by not putting it in classrooms,” Wong said.

Gribben was afraid Twain’s novel, and especially the deeper message in it, would be lost to our culture.

Twain’s novel is not just about how a white boy comes to see that a black slave is a human. In Twain’s own words it is about what happens when “a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision, and conscience suffers a defeat.”

And Gribben said that though he changed the word, he does not think it defeats the novel’s purpose, nor lessens its power.

“Things like this are very fragile in culture and its very easy to lose them. I think we are on the verge here of losing Mark Twain if people don’t become aware of this peril,” Gribben said.

Senior Maria Forsythe who attended Gribben’s lecture said she thinks many schools in the U.S. may decide to take certain offensive books out their curriculum, but she believes it’s important to teach students how to read books like that.

“Even if we don’t like certain aspects of the story, we still must respect the fact that the author had a message that he wants readers to grasp,” Forsythe said.

But after all the controversy he has faced, Gribben said he just hopes he has helped keep Twain in our culture because it is a good story with an important message.

“I hope I’ll be remembered, if I am remembered at all, for my research into Mark Twain’s reading, which has been the labor of my life,” Gribben said.

“But I took that little detour.”

Gribben from B1

be made. I have driven about a thousand miles to get here and your mother has put some very valuable things on the front porch. Can you meet me there in just a moment? It is very urgent.’

She agreed, and we got there in time before the truck came and we put them in the car and they later donated them to a little college like Hillsdale, called Elmira College.

In fact, if I knew about

Hillsdale College back then I probably would’ve had them donated here. We preserved those books.

What are the odds that I would arrive on that day?

What are the odds that she would have put these out that day and that would be the day I came?

I am probably the only person in the world who could recognize his handwriting.

maid at one of the homes and she said, ‘I think her daughter works down at the newspaper office, I think her husband owns the newspaper.’

So I called down there and got her and she said she was Ms. Den’s daughter and I said, ‘Can you go to her home as fast as you can? A terrible mistake is about to

Sketches, self-portraits, Elizabeth Warren: Argentum silverpoint exhibit By | Alexa Robbins Collegian Freelancer In the Daughtery Gallery in the Fine Arts Building, the Art Department is hosting the “Argentum: Contemporary Silverpoint Artshow.”

The show opened on Oct. 18 and is open for public viewing until Nov. 20.

The show includes a variety of pieces curated by Lauren Redding, whose own work is also included in the collection.

The silverpoint technique is created by dragging a stylus or other tool filled with silver across the artist’s preferred medium. Most artists use a gesso, or primer, to create a surface on which the silver can easily be applied.

The novelty behind silverpoint lies in its permanence, because once an etching has been made it cannot be erased. Each stroke must be made with the finished product in mind, she explained.

The technique of silverpoint was popular among the old masters of the early Renaissance period, like Leonardo DaVici and Raphael. It has become popular among artists again today, freshman Alaura Gage said, because “it is a very fluid medium that can be used with all sorts of materials and styles.”

Redding first set up the silverpoint exhibit in Manhattan in 2017. As a close friend and student of Sam Knecht, professor of art and previous head of the art department at Hillsdale, she was invited to bring her exhibit to Hillsdale.

Redding received a Bachelor of Art at Northwestern University in Michigan and took classes with Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago after being encouraged by Knecht, a long-time member of the society. Redding spent her next couple of years studying at the New York Academy of Art to receive her Masters of Fine Arts degree.

Redding features two of her own silverpoint pieces in the gallery as well: a self-portrait and a portrait of her husband, Brett Redding.

Most of the works in the exhibit were created by students and teachers Redding studied alongside, this includes the piece by Knecht titled “Nour.” The piece is a portrait of Hillsdale student Nour Ben Hmieida, wearing her hijab. Knecht explained that the whole project took around 30 hours, with “the folds of the fabric requiring the most time and detail.”

The gallery is a collection of a medley of different me-

diums and styles which each harken back to the particular intentions of each artist.

There are pieces in which silverpoint is accompanied by watercolor, other forms of metalpoint, gouache, and more.

Redding set up the exhibit to include works where silverpoint had been used in a variety of ways.

Dina Brodsky’s piece “Untitled” features a leafless tree sketched in silverpoint on a blank piece of paper. The trunk appears from nothingness, floating above a nonexistent ground, and becomes more detailed as the eye is drawn across the branches to the top of the spiny tree.

Another work in the exhibit, “Pinky Swear” by Diana Corvelle, is semi-circle shaped slice of an Elizabeth Warren campaign poster with two images of Elizbeth Warren interlocking pinkies with young girls sketched onto the background.

“Silverpoint is special because it unifies artists with different styles under a single, meticulous process,” Redding said. “In some of the works here you can see neoclassical flourishes and realism-based elements, all of which are united through the old craft of silverpoint.”

Rough Draft celebrates babies’ mental health By | Abby Liebing Associate Editor With photographs of babies and families, and a speed painting presentation from Even Struck, the Jackson/ Hillsdale chapter of Michigan Association of Infant Mental Health, hosted an event on Oct. 22 at Rough Draft for “Celebrate Babies Week.”

The Michigan Association of Infant Mental Health is a non-profit professional organization that promotes optimal infant and early childhood mental health by supporting and helping professionals who work with infants, young children, and their families. “Celebrate Babies Week” promotes what MAIMH does and the lives of the babies and toddlers they work for.

The event was a display of photographs of different babies and families by Kelle Patillo. She coupled them with quotes from the babies’ perspective promoting mental health for babies, like “When my needs are met, my

trust grows.”

Along with Patillo’s photographs, 17-year-old speed painter Evan Struck, created a painting in just under eight minutes, which will be auctioned off to raise money for the MAIMH. Andrea Bricker, who helped plan the Celebrate Babies event, is the president of the Jackson/Hillsdale Chapter of MAIMH and also an ‘87 graduate of Hillsdale College, and has been working in the Hillsdale community for 25 years providing support for families.

“It’s such a critical time, the first three years of life,”Bricker said. “So we really promote that those critical first three years, it’s all about a relationship. We support the parents that are raising the babies.”

Bricker explained that with the MAIMH, clinicians go through endorsement, which means that they are ensured that they have the right training to be able to work with infants and toddlers, since they are such a

special age group.

She pointed out that with Patillo’s photographs they were trying to communicate the power and importance of the early years.

“It’s these magical moments captured and matched with profound truths,” Bricker said. “They are just really powerful reminders of what every child in the world needs.”

Patillo is a mother of three young girls and just about a year ago starting doing photography professionally.

“I love photographing families and especially newborns so that’s where I feel like my heart is, with newborns and babies,” Patillo said. “So this is the perfect project to take on.”

And though the event was not large, they hope to grow in the future and keep promoting infant health and the importance of the early years in a child’s life.

“We did start a little bit smaller but we hope to grow,” Jen Houston, one of the event coordinators said.

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David Spence poses with Charlie the Charger outside of the Geprge H. Roche Sports Complex. Courtesy | David Spence

Delta Tau Delta heats up By | Callie Shinkle Columnist As the temperature lowers and the use of heaters and fireplaces rises, house fires become a more prevalent issue.

Unfortunately, this has been the case for the Delta Tau Delta fraternity house throughout the years.

On April 1, 1941, The Collegian published, “Faulty chimney insulation was thought to be the cause of a fire in the Delta Tau Delta house shortly after 4:30 Saturday afternoon.”

The article continued, “Dave Rucklos was first to discover the flame and call the fire department. The boys removed clothes and furnishing from the upper regions of the house. A variety of articles, ranging from beds to electric alarm clocks were thrown from the windows.”

I can’t imagine that in a fire I would be concerned about saving the alarm clocks. But then again, this was 1941, and alarm clocks may have been a bit of a hot item.

The story ended with this quote: “The fire, occurring unfortunately only three hours before the informal dance held at the house that night, did more damage than any since 1936.”

For a concluding sentence, that line leaves a lot to unpack.

First of all, what a bummer that the fire occurred at the location of the informal. That is taking Sean

Major from B4

Julia Powell, a junior biochemistry major who once planned to pursue politics, echoed Esposito’s observation.

“I think when you come to understand what Hillsdale actually is and actually stands for, it’s so much more than what their advertisements show it to be,” she explained.

“It’s not just, ‘We’re here to conserve traditional American values.’ No, we’re here to conserve an entire Western tradition and all of the books and the authors and the people who are behind it and recognize that there’s value to what they said. That’s the conservative tradition that we’re a part of, not necessarily the political side of things.”

Senior John Ball, a politics-turned-history major, said he was initially surprised by how nonpolitical Hillsdale is.

“There are the Student Federation people and the politics majors, but other than that, people don’t really talk about politics very much,” Ball said.

“I think that’s really funny because when I was applying

Computers

from B4 Freshman Abigail Elwell is in Butters’ principles of macroeconomics class and said she appreciates the three to five minute videos because they expose her to the information before class, so during the lesson her understanding can be solidified. Elwell also enjoys Butters’ teaching style.

“I like how he asks really good questions that direct the conversation,” Elwell said. “He kind of focuses our learning that way.”

Professor of Economics Gary Wolfram agrees that Butters has a special gift for teaching. Prior to coming to Hillsdale, Butters taught at the University of Nebraska.

He visited Hillsdale during the summer to teach economics programs, and Wolfram noticed he always received high reviews from the students. Wolfram said he thinks Butters is a valuable member of the economics department, and his technological aptitude has been useful in determin-

Kingston’s “fire burning on the dance floor” a bit too seriously.

Also, the fire did more damage than any since 1936?

Just how many fires occur in the Delt house?

Apparently a lot.

An April 1, 1941 gossip column published in the Collegian wrote, “Speaking of smoke, the Delt ‘fire’ motto seems to be ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.”

On March 7, 1944, the Collegian reiterated this motto, publishing, “The annual fire at the Delt House came a little early this year when some sparks from the chimney ignited the roof last Thursday night.”

The article continues, “These fires are fast becoming a tradition at Hillsdale.

At least one has occurred annually for the past five years.”

And the previously mentioned 1936 fire?

That one was a doozy.

On April 13, 1936 The Collegian published, “That practical joker, April Fool, played a rather costly prank on the Delta Tau Delta fraternity during spring vacation. Around 11 o’clock on the morning of April First, Jack Rigg, one of the local mailmen going his rounds, noticed that the front roof of the Delt house was in flames.”

The article continues, “Mrs. Ida Flowers, chapter house-mother, was the only person at the fraternity when the fire broke out. She did not realize that anything was wrong until the neighbors came and told her that the

house was burning.”

It is never a good situation when you open your door to someone telling you that your house is on fire.

Even 40 years later, the Delt house was still experiencing fires. On Jan. 29, 1981, The Collegian wrote, “The Delt house was in the process of replacing a bathroom when a plumber’s welding torch accidentally caught the bathroom wall insulation on fire.”

These frat boys just can’t catch a break.

“As the workmen were calling the fire department, the fire spread into the upstairs bathroom and front hall,” the article reads.

Luckily, the Delts looked at this fire with a glass-halffull attitude.

The Collegian said, “President John Keen said, ‘the fire came at a bad time at first, but overall we benefited because of the reconstruction of the house.”

If you are wondering if the Delts took any fire-preventative measures after years of flames, you can be assured they did.

In fact, on March 29, 1962 The Collegian published, “May this campus be safe from fires; and it is, more or less. The men of Delta Tau Delta have purchased a bright red fire truck.”

They really faced their fire problems head on.

Luckily for current students, I have not heard of a fire at the Delt house during my time at Hillsdale, so we can hope that the day of flames are finally over for the men of Delta Tau Delta.

I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, all they’re talking about is politics.’ It’s a very different feeling once you get on campus than the image the admissions videos, counselors, and student ambassadors portray it as.”

But rather than being disappointed by this discovery, Ball said Hillsdale’s academic diversity was a “pleasant surprise.”

“There are incredible history and theology and philosophy classes that you don’t hear about as much as you do constitution,” Ball said.

“I found myself enjoying all my other classes more than constitution and politics.”

Powell agreed, noting that the core curriculum was a driving force in her decision to switch her major.

“The core let me see a lot of the other options that were out there,” Powell said. “It wasn’t that I hated the Constitution or the class or the professor. It was just that I started to realize that my interests lay outside the political realm.

These are the courses I enjoy and what I actually like has nothing to do with politics.”

While all four students are grateful to have found their niche at Hillsdale, some express concern that the school sells itself short by focusing on only one aspect.

“There’s so much more for you here than just jump-starting a political career,” Ball said. “Hillsdale has so many fantastic departments besides politics, but you don’t hear them talk about it very much.

I’ve taken some incredible classes that have nothing to do with politics. You could just as easily paint a picture of Hillsdale as a very artsheavy, humanities-heavy, religion-heavy school as you can make it out as a politics school.”

Murphy concurs.

“There’s this perception in the outside world that every single student who graduates from Hillsdale is going to change the world through politics or become the next president,” Murphy said. “These are students who care about our country. But we can care about our country through multiple avenues.”

ing what specific programs would benefit the economics students.

“As a whole, economics is a great group of people to work with,” Wolfram said.

“There’s a camaraderie that he’s become a part of.”

Finding his place at Hillsdale took some time. Butters majored in economics and Portuguese at Brigham Young University in Utah.

“I love my Portuguese major, I don’t regret it,” Butters said. “I cherish it with all my heart, [but I] never made a dime with it.”

The skill has occasionally helped in Butters’ professional life. While teaching a seminar in Brazil, he clarified important points in Portuguese.

After college, Butters got a job as a stockbroker, but he found it wasn’t for him.

“Sometimes finding out what you hate is just as important as finding out what you love,” Butters said.

After teaching at the University of Nebraska, Butters found his way to Hillsdale. He recognizes that Hillsdale is a

special place and wishes that students could truly understand how blessed they are to be here. Through his travels with McGraw Hill, Butters has come to realize there are many students and professors from other colleges and universities who want to experience what Hillsdale offers.

“I don’t tell faculty from other colleges what it’s like to teach at Hillsdale anymore because I would tell them and they just resented me,” Butters said.

Butters said he is happy to be here to contribute all his different talents to such a willing community. Computers and economics have combined to open doors not only for Butters, but also for his students.

“There’s a great deal of intellectual stirring going on, but you still get a feeling there’s a peaceful feeling,” Butters said. “Instead of the intellectual life being just commotion, it has meaning, and it’s just a great place to be.”

Spence from B4

Within the Sports Complex, Spence was universally beloved by athletes, administration, coaches, and fellow custodians alike.

Senior Kathryn Bassett, a member of the track team, first met Spence when she was a freshman. They have been friends since, and Spence affectionately calls Bassett “Sunshine” whenever they meet in the halls of the Sports Complex.

Bassett said that one of the most amazing things about Spence is that he truly cares about what he does. When he says he will attend a game, he follows through on his word.

He also rises above his janitorial duties to create spreadsheets compiling game times and schedules to keep track of all the laundry that needs to be done and floors that need to be washed so athletes can perform at their highest level.

Bassett said Spence will drop everything to be there for her or anyone else. Literally.

“One time he had this stack of towels in his hands and he saw me and dropped it and gave me a big hug,” Bassett said. “His intentionality, eye contact, smile, his desire to get to know us, I think all of that is what makes him special, and I think it’s mutual

… There’s something missing without him.”

His great niece and nephew Mary and Ezra Bertakis attested to that mutuality. They explained that Spence had a special connection with the baseball team. When two of his brothers died in the same year, the entire baseball team, including senior pitcher Josh Stella, skipped practice to come to the funeral in support of Spence.

“We listened to him tell stories about his brother and his past,” Stella said. “We had 25 or 30 of our guys there, just trying to help him through. I know that meant a lot to him, and that meant a lot to us.

The football team also invited Spence to their Christmas banquet as a special guest. They also honored him in an ex-military tribute.

The administration bequeathed him a lifetime membership to the Sports Complex.

The community’s appreciation for Spence is clear.

“He is a good listener,” Mary Bertakis said. “That’s why everyone loved him.”

Everyone’s love for Spence seems to stem from Spence’s love for everyone else. Spence did not want to talk about himself, or any of the things that the Sports Complex has done to honor him. He wanted to talk about the people he

loves.

“I want to brag up the custodian people. They are wonderful. It’s like a little family,” Spence said. “And I gotta brag more about my Sports Complex people, because we really have to work hard with each other.”

Spence also said that he not only appreciates the honor code, but really believes students live by it.

“Being with you students and the staff, I have learned so much. There is one part of your mission statement I have always remembered: ‘Strength rejoices in the challenge.’

That has stuck with me and it seems like everyone of you students stand by that,” Spence said. “I am so impressed by your actions and respect, and I am so proud and honored to be part of the future of this world. Y’all are the future.”

For Spence, the idea that he could become a meaningful part of all of the lives he passes through is itself the reward.

“If I say something to someone and they remember 20 years down the road that ‘the custodian told me this,’ then I made an impression on someone,” Spence said. “That, to me, is so important. If I can make an impression on someone, I have accomplished something.”

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

October 24, 2019

B4

Gib Turner disaplying his bikes inside his and his fiancees’ Cykel Shop. Courtesy | Gib Turner

Cykel Shop owner pursues bike passion By | Madeleine Miller Collegian reporter Gib Turner has died three times. After flatlining thrice during a minor operation, he realized that doing what he loves most is paramount.

“Life is short. Do what you want and be happy. That’s why I own a bike shop,” Turner said.

In April, Turner opened the Cykel Shop, a full-service bike shop in downtown Coldwater that services and sells mountain, fat-tire, cruiser, road, and BMX bikes. He loves swapping stories with his customers. This is his.

The son of an Army general, Turner was born in North Carolina and grew up on military bases around the world, spending about four years in Turkey during his childhood.

Despite his international upbringing, he can’t kick his southern roots.

“When I have a couple beers, my southern accent comes out,” he said.

Turner completed his undergraduate studies at Ferris

State University and earned a Master of Public Administration degree at the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. During his roughly two-decade career in public administration, he worked in economic and community development throughout Michigan.

Craving a change of scenery, in 2009 Turner moved to Polson, Montana, where he managed a $20 million loan portfolio and consulted Flathead Indian entrepreneurs on how to attract startup capital for their businesses. One of his most memorable advisees was the creator of Silent Thunder Buffalo Jerky.

“It was fun. I learned a lot out there,” he said.

Four years later, he returned to the Midwest, moving to Coldwater to be near his parents. He kept himself busy helping his parents manage their 40-acre wooded property, but soon found that semi-retirement didn’t suit him.

In 2015, Turner began

working as a bicycle repairman at the Dally Tire Company. A lifelong bike enthusiast, he worked on bikes in his youth and raced for a bike shop in Big Rapids while studying at Ferris State University. He commuted on bike and worked in bike shops while he earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees, so taking a job at the Dally Tire Company was a natural fit.

Established in 1968 as an expansion of the Dally Tire Company, the bike shop has grown into a standalone business. Early this year, Craig Dally, owner of the Dally Tire Company and son of its founders, sold the bike shop to free up time to manage the company’s automotive department. He offered to sell the shop to Turner, who accepted.

In June 2019, Turner and his fiancee, Jessica Olson, reopened the shop as the Cykel Shop.

Turner rearranged the shop, hanging bikes from a ceiling mount to increase floor space, and expanded its

offerings. He added Kona and Trek bike lines and a variety of bike accessories and gear, such as gloves, helmets, bottle cages, bike computers, bags, and lights from top brands. Turner prioritizes local brands, and is proud to offer bikes from Otso and bike parts from Wolf Tooth, both Minneapolis-based companies.

In addition to regional brands, Cykel Shop also offers a variety of specialty products, including Fi’zi:k shoes and handlebar tape, Osprey backpacks, Thule bike baskets, Swiftwick socks, and Hammer Nutrition endurance fuels.

The Cykel Shop carries Kona, Trek, Electra, Gunnar, Surly, and Otso bikes in a variety of colors, sizes, and models.

“I’m always looking for cool new products,” he said.

Dally, whose mother had the idea to open a bike shop, is confident that the shop is in good hands.

“Gib has a great personality. He’ll do a terrific job over there,” he said. “The bike shop is his baby.”

Turner services all makes and models of bikes, and does his best to coax them to tip-top shape no matter the condition they’re in.

Jim Borden, a sales and marketing manager at Real Estate Elite Team and avid cyclist said he appreciates Turner’s thorough work.

“Gib gets things done fast when you need them,” he said.

“He gets anything you need.”

Although he has advised dozens of small-business owners, Turner never planned to become one himself. But he has come to enjoy business ownership, relishing the autonomy and daily challenges it brings him.

“When I wake up in the morning, I don’t dread coming to work,” he said. “People are in a good mood when they come in. They’re looking to buy fun.”

The Cykel Shop keeps Turner busy, but he still makes time for travel, a lifelong passion of his. He spent a year in Finland as a high school exchange student, and during

college jetted to England for four-day weekend trips whenever he could score an airfare deal. In 2004, he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with his father and brother, and since then has returned to Africa for safari and hunting trips.

“Now, with two dogs, I’m a little more tied down,” he said, explaining that he and Olson try to travel internationally every few years and hope to visit Asia soon.

Once, while on safari in Africa, he spied a man at a rest stop with a broken bike.

The man did not speak English, but through a translator he and Turner agreed that Turner could fix his bike.

“You meet very interesting people from all over that you never would have met if not through biking,” he said.

This is one of the many stories he gets to share. And for Turner, the best part of owning a bike shop is sharing conversation with customers.

“Come in and hang out.” he said.

‘So Much More’: Students share why they left their politics major By | Madeline Peltzer Assistant Editor Conservative talk radio hosts praise it on the airwaves. Fox News broadcasts its commercials. The Princeton Review ranks it second in the nation for “Most Conservative Students.” Its Washington, D.C. campus, which houses the newly-opened Graduate School of Statesmanship, sits steps from the capitol. With its emphasis on politics, government, and current events, it would be tempting to sum Hillsdale College up as simply a bootcamp for future presidents.

As a prospective student, that was Taryn Murphy’s impression of the school.

Murphy, a junior, grew up in a politically-active family and was involved in politics throughout middle and high school. She planned to study politics in college and Hillsdale seemed like the logical

choice.

“I thought Hillsdale was a politics school,” Murphy said. “The way Hillsdale markets itself — or at least how I perceived it — is that it’s a school that is very involved in the political realm, which

“Political life

is surely a part of Hillsdale, but it’s by no means the only thing here.”

is true. But when people would ask me about Hillsdale, I would always describe it as a conservative school,

not a liberal arts school. I thought of it as a place where we study things with the ultimate aim of going into the political world.”

Upon arriving to campus, however, Murphy discovered that Hillsdale had much more than just its politics department. Today, Murphy is a philosophy and religion major.

Murphy’s experience isn’t an anomaly. According to Brandan Hadlock, director of operations for admissions, 209 people from 2017-2019 expressed interest in either the politics or political economy major as incoming students. But the number of students who ultimately complete the politics program is far smaller. This spring, a mere 27 students in the class of 2019 graduated with a degree in politics. In fact, politics doesn’t even rank among Hillsdale’s most popular majors; that honor

goes to history, biology, business, English, and economics.

Junior Paul Esposito has a similar story. Esposito said he arrived at Hillsdale “deadset” on a Bachelor of Arts in politics.

“I came in thinking that politics was the only field Hillsdale cared for,” he recalled. “I knew that other majors existed here, but I thought that those departments were basically just sideshows to the politics department.”

Within a semester, he switched to a Bachelor of Science in psychology.

“There’s a huge variety of intellectual fields and traditions here that coexist and create an environment that values knowledge in any study,” Esposito said.

“Political life is surely a part of Hillsdale, but it’s by no means the only thing here.”

See Major B3

Unsung Heroes of Hillsdale: David Spence By | Elizabeth Bachmann Assistant Editor If you are ever in the sports complex and you see a rather wrinkled man with an American eagle tattooed on one arm and a cross on the other, bespectacled and smiling, with a jolly glint in his eye as he happily changes a garbage bag or sorts through stinky football socks, you are probably looking at David Spence.

A twelve-year veretan of the George H. Roche Sports Complex custodial crew, Spence retired three weeks ago. But that cannot keep him from “my sports complex,” as he calls it. Even though he is no longer on the pay-

roll, Spence likes to visit the complex whenever he thinks his team members might need help.

“I’ll just come down,” Spence said. “I can’t officially do labor, but if someone needs guidance going to the office, or if I can volunteer for something, I’ll do it. There is just so much in that building that has to be done we have to know when a game is going to happen or when practice will happen. They must have their clothes and the floors have to be clean. It is a challenge each day just keeping up, but it was fun.”

This is only one manifestation of the love Spence has for his work, his building, his

players, and his coaches.

Originally, though, this job was a disappointment. Spence’s first job out of high school was for Hillsdale Tools.

“That’s what I always did my whole life. I was a metal worker,” Spence said. “I got that from my father. He was a tin smith. That’s all I thought I could do, be a factory worker.

When I was introduced into the service, I was someone who didn’t need a diploma.

They just said come on in and you can get a GED.” But over thirty years later, providence intervened, and Hillsdale Tools layed Spence off. Suddenly, free from what he thought he had to do, Spence decided to enroll in

Jackson Community College.

He graduated at 55 with a diploma as a network administrator, eager to storm the market with his services, only to realize that demand for a 55-year-old “IT guy” was slim to none.

So, his turn to custodial work at the college was one of last resort, but, surprisingly, became “one of the best times in my life,” Spence said.

“It is one of the best jobs I have ever had. I have been so happy there,” Spence said. “I could be me while I was there.

I could be comical or serious.

I could clap someone on the back and it was accepted.”

See Spence B3

Professor of Economics Roger Butters sits next to a computer he built seven months ago. Collegian | Genevieve O’Gara

Roger Butters teaches economics, dabbles in building computers By | Genevieve O’Gara Collegian Freelancer Each person has their own path to Hillsdale. For Professor of Economics Roger Butters, the journey involved the Portuguese language, a career change, and building computers.

Butters began programming computers when he was 11 years old and bought his first retail computer 10 years later as an undergraduate student. It is much less expensive to build a computer than to buy a new one, Butters said, which is what motivated him to start. It’s also a good source of income.

During college, Butters worked with older couples who were interested in technology but didn’t know where to begin. He would help them find the right fit, build it, and then teach them how to use their new computer.

Butters said he is grateful for the opportunities his hobby has opened for him but doesn’t think it’s for everyone.

“Building a computer is a terrifying thing because some static electricity can fry a $400 CPU (central processing unit), without you even knowing it’s been fried,” Butters said.

“So you can spend a thousand dollars on parts, get it all put

together, turn on the switch, and nothing happens. And that can be really hard to do, so for your average person, go buy a computer off the shelf.”

As an undergraduate, his ability to program computers made him valuable to his professor, which opened up the opportunity to complete economics research with him.

His hobby also allowed him to pay for graduate school by designing web pages for professors and constructing programs to analyze data. Despite his technological expertise, Butters said computers were never his end goal.

“I enjoy computers, but they’re just a tool. I wouldn’t want to go to work everyday and do nothing but hardware,” Butters said. “And I really wouldn’t want to go to work everyday and do nothing but software.”

However, Butters’ work is still heavily entwined with his computer expertise. Combining his knowledge of computers and economics, he pitched a product to McGraw Hill.

Together they developed the first ever all-online product for the principles of micro and macroeconomics. The resource includes 250 videos plus quizzes for students to test their knowledge.

See Computers B3