Students and their parents at ’80s night over parents weekend.
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Emma Kate Mellors | Student Activites Board
Vol. 149 Issue 22 – March 12, 2026
Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Erika Kirk announced as 25% of recent alumni head to grad school Ethan Savka the class of 2025 reported con- technical training and acceler- graduates agreed. 2026 commencement speaker ByCollegian Freelancer tinuing education within six ated professional tracks, such Hillsdale invests students By Moira Gleason Executive Editor Erika Kirk will address the class of 2026 as commencement speaker on May 9, Hillsdale College announced last week. The Collegian broke the news online. Kirk is the CEO and chair of Turning Point USA, roles she stepped into after the assassination of her husband, conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, last September. “Charlie Kirk became a national and international sensation, and he built something amazing. At his memorial service were the great, the neargreat, and tens of millions watching,” College President Larry Arnn said. “We loved him because he was, at heart, a student who worked hard to get it right. Erika Kirk, brave and widowed, intends to carry on. And we will help her.” Erika Kirk received a bachelor’s degree in political science and international relations from Arizona State University and a juris master in American legal studies from Liberty University. Kirk won Miss Arizona
USA in 2012 and competed in Miss USA 2012. Her professional accomplishments include hosting the weekly devotional series “Midweek Rise Up” and leading a Christian clothing and lifestyle brand that seeks to help believers live their faith and learn the Bible from cover to cover, according to its website. “It is a great honor to be invited to speak at the Hillsdale College graduation ceremony,” Kirk said in a statement. “Charlie loved Hillsdale deeply and was often a grateful student of its online courses, learning from Dr. Larry Arnn and the remarkable faculty, who are so committed to truth and the pursuit of wisdom.” Arnn announced in a speech at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service in September that Charlie and Erika Kirk will both receive honorary degrees at commencement. In her public remarks at the service, Kirk said she forgave her husband’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson.
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There will be no CHP beer tent this year By Caroline Kurt Opinions Editor Hillsdale’s 21-and-up crowd is out of luck this April, as Centralhallapalooza will not feature a beer tent for students of legal drinking age, according to Dean of Women Rebekah Bollen. “It came out of a general conversation about when and where alcohol is present at student events, not with the idea of removing alcohol from campus events — we still have alcohol present at senior class events and various things like that,” Bollen
said. “But we are making sure it’s meaningful.” There are many reasons for this decision, according to Bollen. The college has owned its own liquor license for the past few years, and Bollen said liability is one of the factors. “With owning the license comes an increased responsibility for how we manage alcohol at all student events,” Bollen said, adding that the scope of CHP presents a legal challenge.
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Around a quarter of Hillsdale College seniors pursue further education within six months of graduating, according to survey data. While class rigor and a lack of grade inflation may cause some to worry about their graduate school aspirations, students nonetheless frequently gain admission to competitive graduate and professional programs — including medical and law school — according to Hillsdale’s First Destination Survey. The survey, administered by Career Services and required of every senior, shows that 25% of the class of 2023, 25.7% of the class of 2024, and 22% of
months of graduation, a figure that Career Services Director of Employer Relations Sharon
as two-year registered nursing programs or flight school. Both classes said their
“Having to take those great books classes, having to write those papers, helps them excel in those areas.” Rupp said has increased slowly over the past decade. Hillsdale’s self-reported data, which follows National Association of Colleges and Employers guidelines, explores graduates’ plans for masters and doctoral programs, though it also includes
post-graduation plans were related to their career goals, with 92% of each class agreeing with the statement. The graduates also said their liberal arts education will help them professionally — 96% of 2024 graduates and 94% of 2023
with the skills to succeed in those programs, according to its pre-professional advisors. “If you look at the MCAT, part of the MCAT is called critical analysis and reasoning skills, which is basically like verbal and analytical combined into one section,” said Christopher Hamilton, professor of chemistry and the college’s pre-health adviser. “There’s a lot of intensive reading and reading analysis in there, and Hillsdale students generally do extremely well in that section. Having to take those great books classes, having to write all those papers, helps them excel in those ar-
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Hillsdale’s new fire and police chief suits up for both By Ellie Fromm News Editor Hillsdale City’s new police and fire chief Kristopher Joswiak is the first in this position to combine experience as a police officer, firefighter, and emergency medical technician. “You have about 8,000 people in the town, so it is a big role,” Joswiak said. “Obviously, the people who are doing the job day-to-day, my firemen and police officers, make up the
majority of the role. I’m there to manage them and help them and oversee the process of what they do on a daily basis.” The Hillsdale City Council appointed 36-year-old Joswiak at its Feb. 2 meeting in an 8-1 vote. He is a graduate of Oakland Community College’s Police Academy/MCOLES and has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Ferris State University. Kristopher Joswiak. Ellie Fromm | The Collegian
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Q&A with Pulliam fellow, Fox News contributor By Ellie Fromm News Editor
Mary Katharine Ham during her speech on Monday night. Courtesy | Austin Thomason
Mary Katharine Ham is a Eugene C. Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Journalism and gave a speech titled “The Left’s Outrage Industry” on Monday night. She is a Fox News contributor, the host of two podcasts, “Getting Hammered” with Vic Matus and “Normally” with Karol Markowicz, and a freelance writer. She is also a wife and mother of four children. Q. Why did you decide to be a journalist? A. I may have decided to be a journalist because of genetic predisposition. I’m a
fourth generation newspaper journalist. My great-grandfather started a newspaper in Pitts, Georgia. My grandfather was a writer for him before he went into the Army and pursued other things later. My dad was a lifetime newspaper editor. So, I grew up in a newspaper house, not really a political house, but still a news junkie house. I consumed a lot of news as a child, got several newspapers per day, and watched the evening newscast back when those were basically the only way to consume news. I went to school for journalism, and then was briefly de-
termined to not be a journalist. I was like, ‘I’m not gonna be like my dad,’ but I was just like my dad. Then I got out of school and at the time, getting a newspaper job was actually a fairly common thing to do, because you could find a good entry-level job, and there were more of them available in local news. I liked meeting new people and exploring a community, which is a great thing. A great way to do that is being a reporter.
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‘They can’t cook’: The last dorm personalities ‘Christ or chaos’: Pastor By Matthew Tolbert Web & Puzzle Editor We asked the head resident assistants of men’s dormitories to describe their female peer residences in one sentence. Here’s what they said:
McIntyre “The only fire they can bring is their way-too-often fire alarms — probably because they can’t cook as well as Olds — or they can’t handle the heat of the Niedfeldt guys they do indeed have crushes on (#theydoindeedhavehotones).” Senior Jonathan Williams, Simpson Residence head resident assistant. “They bring the fire for everything except their homecoming banners.” Senior Lance Lintereur, Whitley Residence head resident assistant. “Mac brings the
details America’s future
fire, but can’t take the heat. Dream on Mercy, you just got beat.” Junior Nicholas Rutkoski, Niedfeldt Residence head resident assistant
By Charles Hickey Collegian Reporter
Olds “Even if I had something scathing to say about the Christy Maier fan club, I would be made speechless by their humongous and awesome door in the lobby. O-L-D-S, Olds girls are the best.” Williams. “I hear that Olds girls are the best, but I haven’t seen any proof yet.” Lintereur.
“If Olds is ‘A New Hope’ for freshmen guys, the union couches are ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ for the rest of campus.” Rutkoski. Illustrations by Maggie O’Connor
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The American people and their government must publicly recognize that Christ is the center of the world or face cultural disintegration, according to pastor Douglas Wilson. “I’ve said many times, and I’ll say many more times: It is either Christ or chaos,” Wilson said. “If you deny him, then everything at some point is going to start to fall apart.” Wilson is the senior minister of Christ Church, a Reformed Presbyterian church in Moscow, Idaho, and a founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. Christ
Church Hillsdale, an outreach service of the Idaho church, hosted Wilson’s speech on March 8 at the Venue 8 event center. Wilson said he favors a broad Christian consensus that is asserted by the government. “It wouldn’t give me any problem at all if Congress passed a resolution saying that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead, and then the president issued a proclamation,” Wilson said. “No tax money, no coercion, no nothing. It’s just our representatives saying Christianity is true, and that would thrill me. That’s the kind of thing I’m after.”
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