It’s all ‘Monotony’
Bernie & friends hire a new head of security
PERSPECTIVES
Celebrating black history Remembering the story of Dolores Ginyard ‘58
COMMUNITY
The Collegian The Award-Winning Grove City College Student Newspaper
Friday, February 21, 2025
Vol. 111, No. 15
Is GCC up to snuff?
Grove starts reaccreditation process Violet Whitmore News Editor
This semester Grove City College began the first stages of reaccreditation, a process which initiates a two-and-ahalf-year procedure involving faculty, students and staff. The College reaccreditation works through the Middle States Commission on
Higher Education (MSCHE). An “accreditation process ensures institutional accountability, self-appraisal, improvement and innovation MARKS through peer review and the rigorous application of standards within the context of institutional mission,” ac-
cording to the MSCHE website. The institution-wide effort is led by co-chairs Kimberly Marks, director of acaWELTON demic records, and instruction librarian, Gary Welton, assistant dean for institutional assessment and professor
of Psychology and Darren Wood, associate professor of Biology. This is Welton’s third and final round of this process. “All three of us WOOD have served on the Institutional Assessment Committee, which organizes and oversees the assessment across
all offices and departments of the College,” he said. Accreditation is a process that ensures that the College maintains academic quality and excellence in every avenue. Last semester, surveys sent to the campus community aimed to gather information on the priorities around campus. These institutional SNUFF 2
Grad shares word on weed
Workin’ the wheel
Matthew Purucker Staff Writer
LUKE PAGLIA
Ceramics teacher Chris Bauer does a bottle throwing demonstration for students in the Ceramics I class in PFAC. Take a look at “Through the Lens” to see more from this week’s pottery class.
On Monday, 2007 graduate of the College, Dan Bartkowiak, spoke to audience members in Sticht Lecture Hall about the marijuana legalization in Pennsylvania from a Christian perspective. The lecture “Truth on Weed: A Christian Response to Marijuana Legalization” discussed increased bipartisan support for legalizing marijuana in the state, the harms of using recreational marijuana and why Christians should oppose marijuana legalization, despite state politicians dismissing marijuana as safe. “To me, this issue is no laughing matter, and those types of statements by some of these lawmakers, frankly, is showing an archaic view of marijuana legalization and not what today’s marijuana is all about,” Bartkowiak said. Bartkowiak is the chief strategy officer for Pennsylvania Family Institute and a spokesman for Truth on Weed, an organization aiming to inform the public of
the dangers of marijuana use. The increased potency of THC is one of the many concerns Bartkowiak argued has heightened the risk of marijuana addiction and other societal consequences, especially in states with legal recreational marijuana. “You can’t roll your eyes at what this evidence that we’re seeing, particularly the high potency of impact. It’s very real, and it’s, again, understanding what today’s version of marijuana is doing. It’s not the Woodstock weed. It’s not from the ’80s or ’90s. This is very different, and it’s impacting families in very different ways,” Bartkowiak expressed. Junior political science major Jacob Reese, a reWEED 3
Christian Writer’s Econ. Dept. conference honors Berry hosts scholars Grove City College
The College’s annual Christian Writer’s Conference “Complicity and Hope in Wendell Berry’s Membership” will take a deep dive into the work of agrarian author Wendell Berry and feature a concert by keynoter Andrew Peterson. The conference begins today and continues through tomorrow. This year, the Department of English is bringing students, scholars, writers and community members together to explore and discuss Berry’s work and the interplay between faith and writing. The conference also serves as the Eastern Regional Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature. The conference features sessions and discussions curated by Grove City College
English faculty, including Drs. Andrew Harvey, Louise McCray, Eric Potter, Michael Rawl, Virginia Rawl, Annie Shepherd and Kristen Waha. Peterson, an accomplished author and singer-songwriter, will be performing a selection of his most popular songs this evening in Crawford Hall auditorium on campus. PETERSON Known for his soulful music and captivating storytelling, Peterson offers a unique blend of music, faith and narrative. His works includes the highly acclaimed “Wingfeather Saga” book series and several chart-topping albums, including the “Resurrection Letters” series and “Behold the Lamb of God.” Berry, who published his first novel ‘Nathan Coulter’
in 1960 and returned to his native Kentucky in 1965, is best known for his essays, such as “The Unsettling of America” and “The Gift of Good Land,” and novels and stories, specifically those about Port William which include “A Place on Earth,” “Jayber Crow” and “That Distant Land.” This conferBERRY ence marks the 50th anniversary of one of the more significant events in the life of Wendell Berry’s fictional Port William community: the loss of Andy Catlett’s right hand to a mechanized corn picker. This may seem like an odd episode to inspire a conference, but as the autobiographical character in WRITER’S 3
Christa Bashinski Staff Writer
This weekend, Grove City College will be hosting its 21st annual Austrian Economics Conference. Founded in 2004 by Dr. Jeffrey Herbener, chair and professor of the Economics Department, the event is modeled after the Austrian Scholars Conference, an annual academic convention designed to steep students in the Austrian tradition. It is generously funded by College alumnus Richard Fox ‘70 whose foundation has made the event financially possible. The conference invites both undergraduates and graduates from all over the world to Grove City’s campus to present and discuss their research. Following a traditional conference style, the audi-
ence will consist of students and faculty with hotel accommodations provided for out-of-town speakers. The student papers will be judged by a faculty panel, and presenters will compete for cash prizes of $1,500, $1,000 and $500. In 1957 Grove City presented Ludwig von Mises with an honorary doctorate as a leading Austrian economist whose writings remain relevant today. The presented papers will mirror his school’s thoughts, encouraging a deeper exploration of Austrian principles. Following his death, the College collected Mises’ papers from his wife, including 20,000 pages and previously unpublished manuscripts, to create an on-campus archive, which can be found at ECON 3