Collegian 10.15.2026 by The Hillsdale Collegian

Mock Rock featured a surpise alumni dance Saturday. See B1 for Mock Rock coverage.

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Courtesy | Austin Thomason

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Vol. 150 Issue 7 – October 15, 2026

Whitley wins homecoming Simpson falls short by 45 points, shattering three-year winning streak; Sauck takes first in Mock Rock By Bristol Whitley Collegian FreelanCer

hitley Residence won homecoming for the first time as an independent dorm, beating the three-time consecutive defending champion, Simpson Residence, by 45 points. Out of 16 teams, the top five finishers were Whitley, Simpson, Sauck (Sohn and Mauck), KBW (Koon, Benzing, and Waterman), and Niedfeldt. Sauck took first place in the dance competition, Mock Rock, on Saturday, with a choreographed dance reenacting scenes from Disney movies such as “Peter Pan.” Mock Rock was the culmination of homecoming week, which included the Banner Drop, a social media video competition, trivia, and “Minute to Win It,” as well as scavenger hunts throughout the week and a volunteer hours contest since Sept. 24. Junior Ross Phelps is a res-

The men of Whitley imitate Pixar Animation Studios’ production logo. Student Activities Board | Devin Houts

ident of Whitley and a member of the Student Activities Board. SAB invites professors to judge Mock Rock, so Phelps was able to compete with his team and celebrate their hard work. “Everyone knows you’ve got to do Mock Rock with your team. It’s the best bonding experience,” Phelps said.

“And if I hadn’t done Mock Rock, I wouldn’t have gotten a special moment with my team like I did at the end there. I’m very excited and very proud of my team.” Coming into Mock Rock, Whitley held first place with a score of 665 points, placing them 45 points above second-place Simpson. The dorm

took first place in trivia and ranked high in the volunteer hours competition, though it did not place in Mock Rock. “We put in a lot of hours for service hours too, so that was a big deal for us,” Phelps said. “We don’t normally do that.” Whitley last saw a homecoming victory in 2021 when the team WhitWatWay, a coalition of Whitley, Waterman, and Galloway, won homecoming after placing second in Mock Rock. But Whitley has never won on its own, according to Student Activities Office records. Junior and Simpson resident Liam Brennan said he watched his dorm-mates’ emotional reaction a$er their hard-fought yet disappointing loss. “Seeing all of my guys give it their all even though we didn’t win, I’m more proud of them than I’ve ever been,” Brennan said. “We give it 100% for the people next to us and for the campus. So I

Charger football wins homecoming game By Robert Matteson SportS editor Junior quarterback Eli Boyce set a career high with four rushing touchdowns and tied a career high with two passing touchdowns to lead the Chargers to a 4227 victory at home against Walsh University Oct. 10 over homecoming weekend. Hillsdale improved to 5-1 on the season and 3-1 in Great Midwest Athletic Conference play, and remains unbeaten at home. “There were obviously a lot more people there and a lot more hype around the game, which is always fun for us,” senior wide receiver

Shea Ruddy said. “It was good to especially get the win for everyone that was back, and it’s just good for morale, the program, and the school.” The Chargers took an early lead when Boyce connected with Ruddy for a 55-yard touchdown on the first drive of the game. Boyce added a 3-yard rushing touchdown at the end of the first quarter. “That’s a play that comes out about once every other game and I’m almost always open,” Ruddy said. “So I kind of knew when we broke the huddle that that play could definitely start us off on a good note.”

See Football A9

Senior Andrew Konieczny catches a pass from junior Eli Boyce. Hillsdale Athletic Department | Sarah Chappelle

By Elijah Guevara newS editor

luck finding a boyfriend here than becoming Homecoming Queen, but it turns out God likes a good laugh just as much as I do.

Seniors Hershey Athysivam, who goes by Hershey Hackberry, and Nicholas Rutkoski were named Homecoming Queen and King on Saturday. Q: How were you nominated and what was it like?

Hackberry and Rutkoski were crowned on the football field Saturday. Courtesy | Austin Thomason

“Is this the part when I finally learn why ‘Get Out The Vote’ is so important?” I almost put that phrase on my Instagram story, but I refrained because

that was definitely too far. I was nominated to lead my college’s homecoming parade, not run for president. Overall, I thought I’d have more

Rutkoski: Some of my buddies put my name, unbeknownst to me, in the proverbial hat — or crown, I guess — and I didn’t realize I was on the court until the week of homecoming. I thought about paying my friends to begin advertising for me and putting up posters all over campus, but I’m poor and couldn’t a%ord it. Though, I think Daniel Lo would be excellent as an advertisement sign spinner, and I can see Jonah Starr acting like one of those wiggly in&atable tube men.

See Q&A A2

Sohn and Mauck have joined forces in their homecoming e%orts. Sauck entered Saturday night in ninth place with

The women of Sauck took first overall in Mock Rock. Student Activities Board | Devin Houts

Simpson tied with McIntyre Residence for first in banner drop and had the highest volunteer-hours-per-member average among all teams. This is the second year

a score of only 340 points, but the dorms were able to pull o% a victory in Mock Rock, earning them 300 more points.

See Whitley A2

‘Like a content machine’: Simpson goes Instagram viral By Jayden Jelso aSSiStant editor

Q&A with the homecoming king and queen

Hackberry: I definitely was surprised when I got the Chi Omega nomination. Out of everyone in the chapter, I certainly have the highest chance of faceplanting on the field, so whoever was calculating the risk-to-reward ratio of my nomination must have had the Holy Spirit on speed dial. Obviously, I was honored and said yes immediately, but never in a billion years did I think this was something I’d be doing my senior year. As a politics major, I first thought,

see this as a victory. I see it as a victory for everyone. All of campus gave it their all, and it was so much fun to see.”

there for you.” The post currently has more than 133,000 views. It’s not every day Hillsdale Furness, a marketing mastudents get a peek inside jor, said he was familiar with Simpson Residence’s cin- the Instagram algorithm bederblock walls, but the new fore starting Simpson’s new @simpson_residence Insta- account. gram account has given them “Over the summer, I made far more than that. a couple di%erent Instagram Since pages for the dormia couple tory began random posting a things new sethat I’m ries of Inpassionstagram ate about, Reels, and they multiple did realposts have ly well,” gained he said. more than “Once I 100,000 got back views, to camwith one pus, I currently rememhaving 1.4 bered million. Simpson “I got didn’t requite a bit ally have of hate for an active getting Instapinned gram acagainst the count. I wall by a really enfreshman joy makin that ing confirst video, Freshmen Connor Hill, Daniel Vander Galien, tent, and and sophomore Andrew Spiegel. but you’ve it was the Courtesy | Instagram got to do perfect what you’ve opportugot to do to go viral,” said se- nity. Simpson is like a content nior and Simpson Resident machine.” Assistant Nathan Furness. Most dorms at Hillsdale Their first video, posted have their own Instagram Sept. 16, depicts freshman pages. They are primarily Connor Hill attempting to used for announcing upcompunch a wall in frustration ing resident assistant teams before Furness appears in and posting homecoming front of him, his legs hooked videos. over Hill’s shoulders. The text above them reads, “When your RA is the only one who’s See Simpson B2

A2 October 15, 2026

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Birzer, McClay win Heritage Foundation awards By Faith Miller aSSiStant editor Two professors from the history department won the Heritage Foundation’s Freedom and Opportunity Academic Prizes. Bradley Birzer, professor of history and Russell Amos Kirk chair in American studies, and Wilfred McClay, Victor Davis Hanson chair in classical history and western civilization, were two of 14 scholars to receive the award this year. “It’s not a surprise, but it kind of is a surprise that both of them would be honored in the same year,” Korey Maas, chairman and associate professor of history, said. The award recognizes “higher education professionals whose important work advances key conservative policy priorities,” according to the Heritage Foundation’s website. It considers both teaching ability and publication, according to Birzer, who has four books coming out over two years. “As much as the award was for me, it really felt like it was for Hillsdale,” Birzer said. “It

meant a lot to me that I could represent this institution there. In fact, that meant everything to me.” McClay wrote a history textbook, “Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story,” which is used for teaching high school, college, and for personal study, and he believes his work with the textbook is part of the reason he was chosen for the award. McClay said he grew concerned about the country 13 years ago when he believed the country changed dramatically due to the education of young people. “I didn’t think young people were getting an accurate account of their country, of both its strengths and weaknesses. So, that’s what led me to write the book. I never dreamed I would write a textbook,” McClay said. Birzer said he has been reading Heritage Foundation’s writings since high school when he did debate team. “At age 59, just looking back at my life, thinking about how much these guys have influenced me, and now to be rec-

ognized by them — and kind of out of the blue — it’s like, ‘Oh, this is really cool.’ It’s kind of full circle,” Birzer said. Birzer is the author of “Russell Kirk: American Conservative,” “J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-Earth,” “American Cicero: Charles Carroll of Carrollton,” and more. His most recent book, “The Declaration of Independence: A Radical Experiment in Liberty,” came out two days before he won the Heritage award. Maas said that he is happy to see Birzer receive recognition from outside the college. “Dr. Birzer is a longtime faculty member and just an incredibly humble guy and an incredibly vibrant teacher,” Maas said. “He does his work, and he doesn’t do a lot of bragging about himself. But we all notice that he manages to publish a book about every year, or at least every other year.” McClay said that a love for history and teaching has driven him to do the work for which the award has recognized him. “I love it. I don’t do it really

out of a sense of duty, although I do have a sense of duty,” McClay said. “But I do it because I love it, and I love the subject. I love seeing people get excited about the subject, I love being here.” The college hired McClay soon after the history department adopted “Land of Hope” as a text for the American Heritage class, according to Maas. “It is great to have the Heritage Foundation recognize his ongoing contributions to the kinds of things that they’re interested in and the kinds of things that we’re interested in — like the American heritage and all sorts of policy questions to do with the family and with liberty,” Maas said. Maas said that two professors from a small college like Hillsdale winning the award speaks to the failure of the broader education system. He said he believes that it displays the failure of many academic institutions in very basic areas. “It’s confirmation that we’re doing something right,” Maas said.

Pulliam Fellow to speak on historical revisionism By Olivia Glisson Collegian reporter The Smithsonian Institution and similar organizations have failed in their mission to educate Americans, according to Daniel McCarthy, who is scheduled to speak on “The Crisis in Public History” Thursday at 7 p.m. Daniel McCarthy, the Dow Journalism Program’s Fall 2026 Pulliam Fellow, is the editor-in-chief of Modern Age, a quarterly journal published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. He is also the distinguished fellow in conservative thought at the Heritage Foundation. McCarthy is at Hillsdale teaching a one-credit journalism course titled “Freedom and the Press.” His speech will take place in Plaster Auditorium Oct. 15. McCarthy defined public history as “the side of history as a field of learning, which is about educating the public as a whole.”

Q&A from A1 Q: What was your reaction when your name was called? Hackberry: Literally a huge gasp. I didn’t tell my family that I was nominated because I genuinely did not think I’d win, so I remember thinking, “Shoot. Mama’s gonna be mad.” But when I looked up I completely forgot about that because all of my closest friends were running toward me. Ellie Soelemon, my best friend and random freshman year roommate, was the first person I ever hugged at Hillsdale and the first person that hugged me after I won. I think I had the biggest smile, one that my little says makes me look like a hyena, because my friends believed in me and loved me so dearly. It felt good to win for them. Rutkoski: I was very surprised when my name was called. All the other guys on the court are absolute legends and all pull from different parts of campus life, so I really thought it was anyone’s game. It was a great honor and I’m very grateful for it, but Josh Underwood better watch out because now I’m taking over control of the senior class events and giving us all a lot more Dante’s coupons and more kegs. Q: What does this mean to you?

It involves museums and other public facing institutions. “I say it’s in crisis because the most important institutions of public history, things like the Smithsonian Institution, are drifting away from their mission,” McCarthy said. “They’re becoming vectors for political in$uence and for anti-American narratives, and generally for an expansion of a very dismissive view of America.” McCarthy said his love of history first encouraged him to pursue this topic. “I had been a history major during my undergraduate years at Washington University in St. Louis,” McCarthy said. “My current employer, the Heritage Foundation, has made a big push on public history involving the Smithsonian and a project protecting America’s historic sites called the Heritage Guide to Historic Sites. And it is, as the name suggests, a series

of write-ups of di%erent historic sites, presidential museums, and battlegrounds that rates them on their historical accuracy and whether they’re staying true to their mission or whether they’re becoming in$uenced by progressive politics.” McCarthy also emphasized the need for institutions that emphasize the values of our country, calling Hillsdale a “light” while lamenting the loss of similar institutions. “The rest of the country, unfortunately, has lost sight of the real American story,” McCarthy said. “Too many Americans have either become indi%erent to their history, because they haven’t been taught about it, or they’ve bought into narratives promoted by the New York Times’s 1619 project, which cast a misleading view on our background, our foundation, and our principles.” Sophomore Van Hemingway

is taking McCarthy’s one-credit class on “Freedom and the Press” and said she is excited for his talk. “Dr. McCarthy is extremely knowledgeable and an engaging speaker,” Hemingway said. “He brings a wealth of experience to his classroom talks, and I would highly recommend it to those who are able to attend his talk.” McCarthy said he hopes his speech could spark change in the future for these institutions of public history and that the problem of progressive policies infiltrating these institutions can be reversed. “I would love to see Hillsdale students become the directors of institutions like the Smithsonian Institution and see more Hillsdale history graduates be in positions of in$uence in our presidential libraries, battlefields, and historic sites,” McCarthy said.

Hackberry: I feel like I am finally worthy enough to ask Dr. Arnn to let me drive his Cybertruck. That’s been a big goal of mine, and I never knew how to approach the topic without first being quizzed on “the good” or my driving qualifications. Senior year is the pièce de résistance of college. It’s the moment when all your mentors are merely shadows on campus, and the college entrusts you with exemplifying self-governance in an attainable form. And I’m honored to step into the shoes of those who demonstrated self-governance so well to me.

think of the many ways I’ve grown in my faith and character because I fell in love with the people who sat next to me at those tables. Building relationships with new people is one of my favorite side hustles as a professional procrastinator, and winning this weekend made me realize that it was all worth it. I know I will never regret the time I spent loving and learning about the people here.

of his classes. I formed some of the deepest friendships I’ve ever known at Hillsdale then. We called it “Fosterpalooza” because of the deep connections, long laughs, and late nights fostered by that random occurrence.

Rutkoski: I think the poet of our times, Eminem, put it best: “You gotta seize the moment, try to freeze it and own it, squeeze it and hold it, ‘cuz we consider these minutes golden.” As Slim hints at, the whole experience forced me to appreciate the legendarity of the week and all its joys, which honestly is hard to do as a resident assistant. Surprisingly enough, we need to be awakened sometimes to just how special our circumstances are. And Hillsdale is definitely special. Q: What will this recognition teach you? Hackberry: As a freshman I would look at the library tables and see the many late nights I spent studying and envisioning a beautiful 4.0 GPA. Now, I look at those same tables and

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Rutkoski: Well, as I place all my worth and value in other’s opinions of me, this experience definitely has helped fill that void that somehow never fully satiates my soul. But, as with every other attempt I’ve tried, it’s already beginning to fade. So, I guess I need to put even more of my identity totally subject to everyone’s opinions of me, and maybe I’ll find fulfillment in that. Q: What is your favorite Hillsdale memory? Hackberry: When I was on the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program, we had a brilliant professor, Assistant Professor of Government Luke Foster, who made it a habit to go overtime an average of 20 minutes every class, and even held us back 45 minutes once. So, to grieve the grave loss of time we experienced, our entire WHIP class decided to console one another over dinner and share stories of our day after every single one

Rutkoski: This is probably just on my mind given the time of year, but my favorite memory at Hillsdale is winning Mock Rock as a freshman with Niedfeldt. That moment was incredibly rewarding and reinforced how much worth lies in investing in the dorm, and I’ve been trying to live up to the examples my RAs gave me then ever since. Q: What are your plans post-graduation? Hackberr y: I plan on moving to Washington, D.C. and becoming Homecoming Queen there too. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll pack my suitcase and marry Barron Trump. Rutkoski: My plans postgrad are many and diverse. The most likely one, given my philosophy major and Latin minor, is professional homelessness. If that fails and I fall into a pernicious pickle, I’ll try Catholic seminary for as long as the Lord wants. The tricky thing with that is you can’t demand an exact timetable from him, but at least I know the first step I need to take.

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‘Impact and drive culture’: Students start marketing club By Monica Smies Collegian reporter Students wanting to expand their professional network, learn how to communicate across a variety of disciplines, and reap the benefits of a national program have the opportunity of joining Hillsdale College’s new Student Marketing Club. The marketing club is a collegiate chapter of the American Marketing Association, and aims to bridge the gap between the marketing department and the study body, according to club President and sophomore Kailyn Dekker. Dekker said the club will o%er di%erent lecture series, alumni dinners, campaign workshops, and student focus groups. “The hope is that the club will serve as a way to give feedback to the marketing department and also provide students with hands-on practice in marketing while bringing in the educational aspect,” Dekker said. According to Dekker, the idea of the club originated from Joshua Liebhauser, associate director of integrated planning and content strategy, who wanted to establish a student marketing club. Dekker took the lead on the project as club president. “This club is open to anyone interested in learning how to tell good stories, who want to impact and drive culture, relevancy, and conversations,” said Neil Watson, instructor of marketing and advisor to the club. Over the summer, Watson said Dekker and sophomore Jordan Nelson worked with him to develop a plan for establishing a marketing club chapter a&liated with the AMA. Most of the club’s events are open to non-members, and club membership is open to all students, according to Dekker. The AMA’s collegiate chapters provide student members with a variety of resources. The club is meant to connect the marketing department, student body, and AMA according to senior Nathaniel Mack, the vice president of communications for the club. “The professional network in general is something that is very

Whitley from A1 Junior Macky Joostens, the head resident assistant of Mauck, partnered with junior Lucy Jansen, the head RA of Sohn, to rally the coalition. “Sauck is the tortoise that won the race,” Joostens said. “Slow and steady wins the race.” Joostens and Jansen said despite not having the size or traditions of the larger men’s dorms, morale and dedication remained high throughout the week. They said collaboration was critical. “Our teams are the key,” Joostens said. “They were so enthusiastic and so positive and so fun throughout the whole thing.” They also celebrated their choreographers, seniors Angelina Gardner and Moriah Mitchell. Both are passionate about dance and Disney, according to Jansen. “It was just the most full-circle moment seeing them win,” Jansen said. KBW came together this year for the first time as one of only two co-ed coalitions in the competition. The team’s Mock Rock performance, featuring waltz and hip-hop choreography, placed them third in the competition and with enough points to finish in fourth place overall. The team’s banner placed fifth at banner drop. Junior Rylan Conley, head resident assistant of Koon, helped choreograph the dance. “I was so excited going in,” Conley said. “I was a little bit nervous and really anxious,

attractive in terms of the kind of utilities you get from the association because you can get to know a lot of people even outside of the college,” Mack said. “We have an amazing alumni network at Hillsdale but also having the kind of nationally-focused networking for marketing is really powerful, especially if you’re in the AMA for a few years before you graduate.” The marketing department covers dues for students’ first year of membership, according to Mack. “I’m really hoping that this club can bridge that gap between the department and the students, get students more involved, create excitement around the college’s educational brand among students, and give them a meaningful role in actual campaigns,” Dekker said. Dekker said she is excited Watson is helping advise the club, given his professional experience in marketing. “With Professor Watson having a lot of experience working with the AMA and with students — which he’s really passionate about — I’m hoping this club will leave a good legacy for the college,” Dekker said. Watson said students from all academic disciplines should consider joining the marketing club because of the cultural relevance of marketing and its application across professions. “In any career you get into, there is a marketing element where you’re representing your employer, representing a brand, being an advocate for it, or trying to understand the value that your organization brings to people in their lives. That is the heart and essence of marketing,” Watson said. “Spending some time trying to learn this, digest it, and know how to engage and participate in it, both from the consumer lens, but also from participating as a brand ambassador, is a very important and worthwhile e%ort.” Mack requests that students reach out to him at nmack@ hillsdale.edu before Oct. 20 if interested in becoming a member of the club. but it all came through. We really left our last best rep out there, which was awesome.” Senior Jillian Bober, a resident assistant for Benzing Residence, also helped choreograph the dance and volunteered for 31 hours. “The community that we built with KBW is something totally unexpected,” Bober said. “It’s just been awesome to see everybody’s di%erent gifts come out — seeing them shine and put in the hours.” The men of Niedfeldt Residence took first place in the social media video competition with a satirical video depicting a Disney audition. They finished the week in fifth place overall. Junior Judah McDowell, who was seen in the video, joined his team for Mock Rock. “As always, homecoming was one of the best weeks of the year so far. I’m super proud of the freshman. There were a couple guys who put it all out there, kissing a frog and everything,” McDowell said in reference to one of the scavenger hunt hints. Assistant Professor of History Jason Gehrke, ‘07, made a cameo in the alumni Mock Rock. “Homecoming, Mock Rock, and all the other stu%: sharing them is the possessing of that good which is the human end of everything,” Gehrke said in an email to The Collegian. “The joy of doing that kind of thing among true friends, for no reason whatsoever except for the joy it brings: That’s the good. In fact, it’s a sign and promise of the good.”

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October 15, 2026 A3

Hillsdale hosts reopening ceremony for DC campus after renovations By Charlee Amason Collegian reporter The college held a reopening ceremony for its expanded campus Sept. 15, following more than two years of renovation. The project expanded and connected the Kirby Center with the Van Andel Graduate School of Government building, adding five classrooms, eight faculty and staff offices, a student lounge, a chapel, and additional study and library spaces. “The grand reopening of the college’s Washington, D.C., campus, a$er a beautiful renovation and signi%cant expansion, underscores Hillsdale’s permanent educational presence and central teaching purpose in the nation’s capital,” Matthew Spalding, vice president for Washington operations and dean of the Van Andel Graduate Student of Government told the Collegian. The in&ux of students that came along with the institution of the graduate school brought with it a need for expansion. Andrew Heim, executive director of Washington operations, and his team devised a plan to expand and remodel Hillsdale’s D.C. campus. The grand reopening marks the newest chapter in Hilldale’s

growing presence in the nation’s cluding a %rst edition of “The capital, which began with the Federalist Papers,” an original Washington–Hillsdale Intern- copy of Thomas Paine’s “The ship Program in the late 1970s. American Crisis” and the only Through WHIP, Hillsdale students have spent semesters working in Washington during the day and taking Hillsdale classes in the evenings. The program operated without a permanent facility until 2010, when the college opened the Allan P. Kirby Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Capitol Hill. In 2020, the college expanded by launching the Van Andel Graduate School of Government Arnn speaking at the reopening ceremony Sept. 15. which offers a Courtesy | Austin Thomason master’s degree in government. Attendees toured the ren- known commendation signed ovated campus, including the by both George Washington Chapel of Divine Providence and John Jay. and its 1541 painting depict“‘We shape our buildings ing the Adoration of Christ. and a$erwards our buildings The renovations also include a shape us,” Arnn said at the cernew rare books library, which emony, quoting Winston Churdisplays historical artifacts in- chill.

Arnn argued that students should study the beautiful surroundings that elevate them toward the things Hillsdale

teaches as permanent and important. He contrasted the college’s campus with Washington buildings that can serve primarily as expressions of political power. The ceremony opened with an invocation by Livia Dodd, a

senior and George Washington Fellow. Dodd said it was a beautiful chance to re&ect on what it means to pursue truth and beauty as a college student. “It was cathartic to witness the ful%llment of this pursuit in a campus that was designed to be beautiful. It is adorned with art. The architecture invokes awe. Portraits of America’s best statesmen adorn the rooms and inspire us to imitate their virtues, learning, and leadership,” Dodd said. “I feel very lucky to be in D.C. at this time and to study in our new campus that feels like a continuation of Hillsdale — largely for the reason that the building itself feels like Hillsdale’s main campus in its physical attention to goodness, truth, and beauty.” The grand reopening ceremony brought together college leadership, members of the board of trustees, and friends of the college, as well as students and staff who work and study in Washington.

“The college’s presence in D.C. is a direct reflection of our articles of association and the founding documents of the college,” Heim said. “We were founded by people ‘grateful to God for the inestimable blessings resulting from the prevalence of civil and religious liberty and intelligent piety in the land, and believing that the diffusion of sound learning is essential to the perpetuity of these blessings, having founded and endowed a college at Hillsdale.’” Heim said Hillsdale’s founding articles provide a natural reason for the college to have a presence in the nation’s capital, where elected officials are responsible for preserving and protecting the principles of civil and religious liberty. The D.C. campus, he said, is an extension of Hillsdale’s original teaching mission. “Participating in the reception and being gathered in a room with the people who made the expansion happen was so inspiring,” said Hailey Corona, a junior participating in WHIP who attended the ceremony. Hillsdale’s D.C. campus “does not look as though it was designed as an instrument of power, but as a service to something true and divine,” Arnn said.

Mock trial takes fourth ‘Mr. Hillsdale’ to be crowned Friday night in fall season opener By Hershey Hackberry SoCial Media Manager Hillsdale College Mock Trial team Sua Spont-aneous Combustion placed fourth with a ballot record of 6-2 at their invitational in St. Louis last weekend. This team swept Rhodes College 2-0, tied 1-1 with Washington University in St. Louis, swept Indiana University 2-0, and tied with Loyola University Chicago. Sua Spont-aneous Combustion is coached by Jonathan Church ’17 and captained by senior Jon Hovance and junior Erin McDonald. Hovance earned a competitive 19rank attorney award, meaning 3 out of the 4 judges ranked him as the best attorney in each of his rounds. Not only that, he also earned 16 ranks on the other side of the case as a witness. Other students on this team are sophomore Asher McGlinchy, senior Gabriel Higbie, sophomore Ellie Bear, sophomore Robert Rodenbush, sophomore Robert Nordin, freshman Madeline Low, and freshman Katelyn Cheng. “It was so great to see everyone lock in this tournament,” Nordin said. “We worked really hard to get as many reps as we could leading up to rounds. This made our team culture really great and that certainly played a big role in the team’s performance this weekend.” Crash Action, another team in the Hillsdale College Mock Trial program, earned a 4-4 ballot in Cleveland this weekend at the Case Western University Invitational. This weekend Crash Action tied 1-1 with the University of Toronto, was swept by Ohio State University 0-2, swept Cedarville University 2-0, and tied with their host, Case Western University. This team is coached by Justin Lee ’24 and captained by senior Brennan Berryhill and junior Gabriel Zylstra. Competitors on this team include senior Ty Tomasoski, junior Ethan Scroggins, sophomore William Adkison, freshman Luke Anderson, senior Ella Lovins, freshman Andrew Formo, senior Leonard Fritz, and freshman Claire Tollefson. Some returners said they were very impressed with the performances from their

freshman teammates this weekend. “We had really great performances from all of our freshmen,” Tomasoski said. “Especially considering that this was their %rst Mock Trial tournament. All of them were fantastic.” “I’m also very proud of how our freshmen performed,” Berryhill said. “I’m proud of the work everyone put in to prepare for this tournament and I know we’re going to put in a lot of work these next two weeks to push ourselves and improve in the areas we need to improve in for our next tournament.” Tollefson said she loved competing this weekend. “We had really great opening and closing statements,” Tollefson said. “As a freshman, this tournament was really great exposure to collegiate mock trial for me and I de%nitely improved from the %rst round to the second.” Crash Action will compete in two weeks at the Peach Bowl Invitational at Emory University. “Our next tournament is in two weeks in Atlanta,” Tomasoski said. “We’re hoping to %x the little mistakes, get more polished performances from everyone now that the first tournament jitters are gone.” Berryhill said the HCMT program prioritizes placing at invitationals and gaining trial experience in the fall season in order to prepare for their intense competitive season this spring. “We’re trying to push for placement positions,” Berryhill said. “Ultimately the fall season is not like the spring. In the fall our goals are education. We want to get everyone experience and familiarization with the case. But, of course, we’re practicing how we want to play. We’re de%nitely going to put good work in this fall so we can be ready for the spring.” Looking for ward, Sua Spont-aneous Combustion will compete against top teams across the nation, Nordin said. “We have a really stacked tournament schedule this semester,” Nordin said. “I’m excited to compete against great teams in great tournaments this fall, and work hard to improve our scores and performances along the way.”

By Grace Brennan Culture editor

Eight contestants representing men’s dormitories and fraternities will dress to impress Friday night in hopes of being crowned the next Mr. Hillsdale. Pi Beta Phi sorority hosts Mr. Hillsdale every year to raise awareness for its support of children’s literacy. Contestants compete in four categories to be the most charming Hillsdale man, and are judged by senior Luke Waters, junior Chris Ambul, and Vince Cañete, the college’s maintenance coordinator for events and safety efficiency. This is the %rst time Mr. Hillsdale will be judged in part by students.

The first category is a cat walk, where the contestants will be judged by how well they dress. The second category is an interview led by junior Ashlyn Unangst and sophomore Anna Wright, who will ask the contestants one random question and one question about supporting children’s literacy. The third category is a pickup line, and the fourth category is presenting a skill or talent. “Mr. Hillsdale is a very entertaining and silly event,” said junior Rachel Ward, Pi Beta Phi’s director of philanthropy and service. “When I was a freshman I went with all of my friends and we had fun seeing our friends up on stage. The guys go all out to prove them-

selves and present themselves in the best way possible. ” Last year’s Mr. Hillsdale, junior Mighael Liebenberg, serenaded the audience with a Spanish song he sang and played on guitar. The year before last, junior Chris Ambul won Mr. Hillsdale with a lipsync performance of “Please Please Please” by Sabrina Carpenter. Ward said winners are o$en sweet and maybe a little goofy. Two years ago when Ambul was asked to give a pickup line he called his mom on stage and asked her for advice on how to ask out a girl. “He gave a really good pick up line that wasn’t your typical &irty line, but it was endearing,”

Ward said. “Chris’s pick up line was also endearing, so that’s kind of the pattern we see from the winners of Mr. Hillsdale.” Pi Beta Phi will be tabling in the union every day of the week leading up to the event. Tickets are $5 during the week and $7 at the door. Junior Liam Brennan, the candidate for Simpson Residence, said that Mr. Hillsdale has always been one of his favorite events. “I went my freshman year when the lovely Cri Cri won by showing campus his unique spirit,” Brennan said. “I really enjoyed the event and it was my first time seeing a group on campus doing an event for charity.”

Students to hike the Camino for study abroad in Spain By Faith Miller aSSiStant editor Two professors will lead students on a pilgrimage of nearly 200 miles in Spain for a class for the %rst time May 10–25, 2027. Associate Professor and Department Chair of Spanish Todd Mack and Associate Professor of Education Kevin Gary will teach the class, Pedagogy of Pilgrimage. Students will walk the %nal portion of the Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile pilgrimage route through Spain. Students interested in the course should attend the informational meeting on Nov. 5 at 8:00 p.m. in Spencer 218. The class will start hiking the Camino in León and end in Santiago de Compostela — where St. James’ bones are said to be buried. Mack hiked the Camino with his wife and five children in 2024. He said it was one of the hardest experiences of his life. “It’s been said that the Camino de Santiago might be the perfect way to foment human happiness and well-being,” Mack told the Collegian in an email. “It combines physical activity, spiritual purpose, community, contact with nature, minimal living, and historical and cultural learning in a way that is unparalleled.” The Camino is a religious and spiritual journey, and doing it under the guidance of professors will help students better understand the spiritual dimension of the pilgrimage, according to Gary. “Dr. Mack is an expert on the culture and the signi%cance of the Camino, and it’s like look-

Mack and his family posing in front of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Courtesy | Todd Mack

ing at a beautiful painting and needing a guide to help you to see what’s there,” Gary said. “So with Dr. Mack and myself, you have two guides who’ve been doing a lot of spiritual work and thinking. I do some writing in this area; I write on boredom and leisure, so to have guides that you’re doing this with, is to have the experience, but then really get the get you know a lot of the meaning out of it.” The physically challenging aspect of the pilgrimage is part of the Camino’s purpose, according to Mack. “Anyone who is interested in having a spiritual journey of learning, reflection, and faith should join,” Mack said. “Also, anyone who wants to learn more about medieval Christianity in Spain or the Camino speci%cal-

ly. It’s going to be an amazing adventure.” Last semester Mack gave a talk about his experience on the Camino. Senior Livia Dodd, who attended the lecture, said she was inspired by Mack’s re&ections on the pilgrimage with his family. “I’ve had several classes with Dr. Mack. He is one of my favorite professors because he has clearly had so many epiphany moments in his life and wants his students to have their own epiphany moments too. But the way he does that is so organic,” Dodd said. In Spain, the class will leave together in the morning and meet again at night, but when walking the trail, students can go at their own pace, according to Gary. “In the evenings we’re going

to have spiritual re&ection, and I wouldn’t say full-on lectures, but Dr. Mack and I will be talking about the day, thinking about things we’ve read in the spring, and how that relates to our experiences on the Camino itself, so more of a walking seminar than a kind of lecture hall,” Gary said. Part of the experience is meeting other pilgrims from all over the world who are also hiking the Camino, according to Gary. “It’s definitely one of these bucket list kind of things. Hillsdale students, I %nd their faith so vibrant, and this is such a meaningful embodiment of a living faith that they’ll encounter,” Gary said. “You’ll just and what’s also amazing is you meet the world on the Camino. You’re going to meet people from everywhere.”

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A4 October 15, 2026

The Collegian Weekly

The opinion of the Collegian editorial staff

The Cornell Sun did. We won’t.

Build a stronger alumni culture By Ashley Luke Assistant Editor When the Hillsdale College alumni took the court at last weekend’s Mock Rock, the crowd went wild. For the first time in homecoming history, an alumni, faculty, and staff team participated in the undergraduate ritual dance battle, rivaling some of the top-ranking student dances. Mock Rock is one of the many peculiar traditions that bind together the college’s culture. But as seniors graduate and move on, we risk forgetting some of our history because alumni do not have the incentive to return. Hillsdale students and alumni know that the college was founded in 1844, but few know the stories that have happened on campus since then. Do students know the 1955 Hillsdale Charger football team refused to attend the Tangerine Bowl because they could not bring their black players? Or that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited campus and actually approved Thatcher Ball? Instead of scattering alumni events throughout the year, Hillsdale needs to create a week of lectures and activities just before graduation that not only bring alumni together, but also draw undergraduates into the alumni culture. Princeton University has an excellent blueprint for doing just that. Just before graduation at the end of each year, Princeton University hosts reunions, a week of lectures, class events, social mixers, and most importantly, the P-Rade, a milelong procession of alumni through campus, led by the graduating class. The reunions are about more than seeing old college pals. They are about carrying on the tradition of Princeton to the next generation. That’s why almost every alumnus comes with a spouse, children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren in tow. Since I was 4, I have attended reunions with my grandfather, who graduated from Princeton in 1959. As the P-Rade begins, people erupt from buildings and streets like an overdue volcano. They flow in an orange current towards the parade route, twisting through Princeton’s campus. Graduates pump cardboard cut outs of Princeton’s mascot, the “Tipsy Tiger,” in the air. Parents hoist children onto their shoulders for a better

view of the festivities. Alumni drink kegs dry and quickly replace them. No one is quite sober, filled with the joy of drinking vintage wines and seeing equally vintage classmates. The P-Rade is much more than a procession of graduates through campus. Before they can walk across the stage at graduation, Princeton seniors must first march past alumni from previous generations. Behind them the classes funnel in, starting with “the old guard,” alumni who have celebrated their 66th reunion or more. My grandfather is 89. He was let into the old guard last year. Princeton incentivizes alumni to return and students to participate in reunions in two ways. First, the university hosts events for numerous affinity groups around campus. Class tents, where alumni from each year can eat and converse, dot the campus. Eating clubs — their version of Greek life — religious organizations, and cultural groups host galas. Every alumnus from every corner of campus has a reason to return, because they know their friends from their niche college interest will be there. Hillsdale’s homecoming weekend celebrations offer a taste of what these events could look like. Greek life and athletic teams host functions and award ceremonies, but these only cater to alumni who participated in those activities. Second, Princeton schedules its graduation for the day after reunion weekend, allowing graduating seniors to be immersed in the Princeton graduate culture before they even join the alumni fold. Seniors celebrate their four years next to both their classmates and the generations that have come before them. The timing of Princeton reunions is a masterful way to draw graduating seniors into the college’s alumni traditions and keep them coming back for future reunions, and it’s one thing that Hillsdale could instate to help kick start reunion culture. The addition of alumni participating in Mock Rock was a good start, but let’s keep it going with a more consolidated week of activities and lectures that draw alumni back to campus and invite students to participate alongside them. Ashley Luke is a sophomore studying English.

Cornell University’s student newspaper was the first to publish the names of the so-called “Cornell Seven,” men named as defendants in a civil complaint that alleges rape. The Collegian will never do what the Cornell Daily Sun did. It is against our practice to publish the names of students accused of wrongdoing in lawsuits. The Sun’s Sept. 21 editorial, “Cornell Won’t, We Will,” named the seven students multiple times, ending with a personal warning to the young men: “We know who you are, and we refuse to let you benefit from this University’s concealment.” The editorial appeared on the front page of the paper, according to the New York Times. The Sun’s editors said they believed Cornell’s administration was not handling the

situation properly, but the paper did not speak truth to power. It attacked seven men who deserve a presumption of innocence. The civil complaint filed last month alleges that seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity drugged and gang raped a female Cornell University student two years ago at the fraternity house. Criminal charges have not been filed. If true, what happened at the Chi Phi fraternity house is abominable. But we don’t know if it’s true. Neither do the editors of the Cornell Daily Sun. With its editorial, the Cornell Sun established itself as an activist publication, not a paper delivering news to help its readers make informed decisions. The Sun’s editor-in-chief made the de-

cision to model “the transparency that she is not seeing from the administration,” according to the New York Times. The role of a college newspaper is to train young journalists and provide newsworthy information to the student body. The Collegian has an additional responsibility and privilege — we also get to support and inform our community by covering city news. The Collegian’s tradition has been to not publish the names of students facing civil or criminal charges. Past editor-in-chiefs have held to that standard, and we will do the same this year. We may publish some newsworthy information about a disciplinary or criminal case, but the students will remain anonymous. Publishing their names

before they have been given the opportunity to defend themselves in court would lead only to campus gossip. We will publish only what is relevant to the public in legal cases involving students — and for us, names of students do not fall into that category. Our custom is in place to protect our purpose as a college newspaper. A college is a partnership, and we want to foster that. We don’t want the spotlight; we won’t start or encourage campus gossip, and we don’t aim to be activists. We believe our readers are intelligent enough to make their own decisions, and that our role is to provide them with information. We also maintain that people are innocent until proven guilty.

You should want to make money By Hershey Hackberry Social Media Manager Everyone hates that awkward moment when you ask a friend what his post-grad plans are and he says some version of: “I’m not sure, we’ll see what the Lord has in store.” This answer is a turnoff when you’re on a date and thinking about the future of the person sitting across from you, because now you’re wondering if you’re about to split the bill — and therefore have been on a playdate rather than a real date. It is inherently good to aim to make money after graduation. Having the ability to provide financial security for your future family should be a priority when deciding what degree and career you pursue at Hillsdale. We need to normalize having great answers for the “What do you want to do after you graduate?” question. If you’re an upperclassman, you’re too old to give answers like, “I’m going home,” and, “We’ll see.” By the time you walk across the stage at graduation, you will have spent four years at college, tens of thousands of dollars in tuition, and hundreds of hours just sitting in class. That’s not to mention the grave opportunity cost you took on by attending college. If you had instead taken an entry level job right out of high school that paid $30,000 a year, you would have been four years into a career and had a chance to build up a good savings account. “Learning for learning’s sake” does not mean you shouldn’t have a plan for making a living after college. It’s OK to want to make money — in fact, it’s a little stupid not to. Your first priority should be to pursue a career that’s fulfilling. Find a job where you can use your gifts in a way that brings you joy rather than draining you; a job that you can take pride in and one that brings out the best in you. To truly take pride in your work, your second priority should be financial security. You’re an adult now and should know a thing or two about the cost of living. You’ll no longer be working a job just to have cash for fun outings. You will budget the money you make post-grad

for basic necessities: groceries, insurance, rent, gas — the list goes on. Furthermore, the cost of living is upward of 60% of the average income, which makes the job hunt all the more important. Unless you want to live with your parents, you need to find a post-grad career that can

attractive. Even if you will be a stay-at-home mom right after graduation, you should still be a strong job candidate because it gives your family financial security. If your spouse loses his job or the market crashes, you want your family to have a reliable backup plan.

sustain you. Wanting to make money is not inherently a selfish thing, but an obsession with it is. Everyone should aim for careers that are not only fulfilling but allow you to live comfortably. These jobs are what allow you to provide for a future family well, and that is a goal worth prioritizing. Financial weakness is un-

Freshmen and sophomores who are reading this article and freaking out: you have some time before you need to think about getting a good job. Right now, your priority should be to find out what work fulfills you so you can begin investing in skills that will help your future career. It is irrational to expect yourself to desire and plan

for a successful career without knowing why you chose it. Juniors and seniors, there are a few things you can do to ensure that you have financially feasible post-grad aspirations. First, make sure your resume is up to date and formatted professionally. Second, you should think about the career fields in which you could see yourself succeeding. You may change career paths, but right now evaluate what job, location, and salary you would say yes to, if offered today. There is no rule that says your first job out of college has to be your dream job. You will always have time to switch career paths post-grad, but setting yourself up early on to have that flexibility is key. Lastly, continue re-investing in the extra-curricular collegiate experiences that will make you a qualified candidate. If you could see yourself as a journalist, write for The Collegian frequently. If you’re hoping to go to law school, start studying for the LSAT. And if you have dreams of going into the medical field, ask your professors about scientific research opportunities. Our time at Hillsdale equips us not only with the skills and education to have a successful career, but also with the necessary connections. Don’t wait to evaluate what you want your life to be like after graduation, because the sooner you know, the sooner you can reach out to alumni and friends and learn more about what it takes to lead a fulfilling and financially successful career. Life after college will present its own set of challenges, don’t let your financial security be one of them. So, when you take a girl out on a date and she asks you what your post-grad plans are, have an answer that you’re proud of. And whatever you do, don’t split the bill. Hershey Hackberry is a senior studying politics. Illustrated by Maggie O’Connor.

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Leave the dishes in the sink — for a little bit By Lucy Billings Assistant Editor Forget Instagram’s image of motherhood. The happiest homes often have toys on the floor, and that’s a good thing. Influencers promoting beta mom ideology have risen in popularity over the past six months, encouraging moms to let loose and lower expectations for the sake of “mental health.” Mothers who are tired of schedules full of activities and constantly reprimanding their children are jumping on board. The beta mom movement is a step in the right direction. The solution to mothers losing themselves in the lives of their children is integration, not elusion. Helicopter and tiger moms excessively oversee their children, pushing them to excellence by being overbearing. These trends ultimately create pressure for parents to build their children’s resumes, leaving children disconnected from

their homes and dependent on their parents. On the other hand, the popular parenting style of the ’80s — unenforced curfews and minimal adult intervention — often failed to nurture morality and proper emotional processes. Helicopter parents and tiger moms attempt to be perfect. They try to keep on top of their own public image by constantly monitoring their children’s lives, which fosters prejudice and agitation. Beta moms propose a balance between encouraging family engagement and allowing boredom, promoting productivity and leaving space for children to develop self-governance. The new trend is a huge improvement from recent popular styles of mothering. Issues arise when children live disconnected from their parents. This happens when parents do not participate in their childrens’ lives or when they micromanage their children, and kids are bounced

around from one extracurricular activity to another, and never truly dwell at home. The solution is for mothers and children to integrate their lives, and beta moms come close to that. By not intentionally filling every empty moment of their children’s lives, beta moms create space for relationships to flourish inside and outside the home. By not cramming their schedules with their children’s activities, taking care of themselves, and being OK with a few dishes in the sink, they allow themselves to be present with their kids. Children require emotional connection to become stable adults, let alone to thrive. By giving children room to develop relationships and by allowing themselves the space to thrive alongside their children, moms are doing the best thing for them. Mothers should still encourage their children in excellence and disciplined effort, but not at the cost of everything else that makes us human.

It’s good that beta moms reject perfection, because it’s impossible to achieve. Parents’ backgrounds, and their children’s strengths, weaknesses, and dispositions affect family dynamics and should change the parenting strategy. Copying a cut-and-dried method from another mom’s Instagram page to achieve the same outcome will nearly never work, even if every outcome you saw was authentic. The danger of the beta mom movement is in going too far. A Wall Street Journal article published in May said one mom expressed that the media promoting this trend makes her “feel less alone when she goes to the grocery store in her pajamas, hair in a bonnet.” There’s a fine line between giving children space and neglecting them. When selfishness and laziness motivate mothers to involve themselves less in the lives of their children, they’re likely to leave their children too much to themselves.

And while mothers should abandon their attempt to have an Instagram-perfect family, it’s also important for them to maintain their dignity and grace. Showing up to the grocery store in your pajamas crosses this line. The dishes can wait in the sink a while for the sake of quality time, but wash them. Mothers should be look for answers to rising anxiety levels, starting by examining their parenting practices. Beta moms promote a less intense while still responsive approach to parenting as a solution to the high stress levels and anxiety many parents are facing. They rightly recognize that these mental health challenges don’t just affect parents but they also have a trickle-down effect on children. Children develop their emotional processing systems by observing their parents’ behavior. If parents are high-strung and easily irritable, children will feel emotionally volatile as well. Beta moms bring us one

step closer to a proper parenting mindset, but until we have a movement of mothers advocating for a balanced approach out of the deepest love for their children, we’ll miss the mark. The beta mom movement reminds us that we should foster the relationships in our lives. It’s good to prioritize the person above mile-long to-do lists, especially for parents who have the responsibility of nurturing young hearts and minds. Parents need to give themselves in an outflow of love, not out of a fear of losing themselves. Parents, as you give, you’ll find the truest version of yourself, the only one Christ has intended you to be. Children will mimic this example and flourish. Lucy Billings is a sophomore studying economics.

Public executions are evil. So is the death penalty. By Elijah Guevara News Editor Broadcasting anyone’s execution to the world is abhorrent and grotesque, but make no mistake: An execution being approved at all is already a tragedy. The Department of War last week announced plans to livestream the Dec. 3 execution of Nidal Hasan, the ex-Army psychiatrist and Islamic extremist who in 2009 killed 14 people, including an unborn child, and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood in Texas. That something so brutal and unusual was approved at the highest levels of our 21st-century government drew backlash from both sides of the aisle and worldwide. But much of the criticism misses the point: The death penalty, with or without a broadcast, is tragic and unethical. We should not kill Hasan even though he has killed others. No major editorial pages across the country have yet supported live streaming Hasan’s death. But the critics fail when they don’t extend their criticism to the death penalty as a whole. The proposed public broadcast, while egregious, only extends

and further amplifies the brutal and unnecessary nature of the death penalty itself. To address the moral issue of livestreaming an execution, we must first address the morality of the death penalty. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said livestreaming Hasan’s death — which would be the first military execution by firing squad since World War II — is a “no-brainer” because people “need to understand that there are serious consequences for these types of things.” It will be the first-ever U.S. execution livestreamed on the internet. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Oct. 8 that while Hasan should be executed, it shouldn’t be put online. “Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do,” Tillis said on X. “It should not be happening in America.” Even right-leaning writers who think the death penalty is necessary say a livestream goes too far. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote Sunday that it doesn’t oppose the death penalty in general, but that Hasan’s public execution could be used as a recruiting tool for more Islamic extremists by

making Hasan a “jihadist martyr.” Other critics of livestreaming Hasan’s execution oppose it because it would be impossible to prevent young children from watching it on the internet, according to the BBC. These criticisms are for the most part valid — America should not imitate brutal dictatorships, let Hasan become a martyr, or expose and de-

no current, imminent threat to anyone. He is not innocent, but killing him even in the name of justice, and for those he has killed, would be taking an eye for an eye, and repaying evil for evil. Killing Hasan for the sake of the survivors and the victims’ families will not change the past or blot out the suffering of 14 lost human lives. As Keely Vanacker, whose

from someone most affected by his crimes: Killing Hasan doesn’t bring back the victims. Every life has infinite value, and no single person’s death can compensate for the loss of the victims — not even the death of the man who perpetrated their murders. The victims’ families need healing, not just another death as a result of the tragedy they’ve already been dealing with for so many years. When the Department of War announced plans to kill Hasan live on the internet, Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, “This decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered,” calling it a “grave harm [that] will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people.” This shouldn’t stop at Hasan, but rather should allow us to see the death penalty in a different light altogether. While Hasan’s public execution would certainly contribute to that barbaric culture of death, the culture of death begins with the laws and leaders that allow the death penalty in the first place, not just when the death penal-

“The proposed public broadcast, while egregious, only extends and further amplifies the brutal and unnecessary nature of the death penalty itself.” sensitize younger generations to violence. But the arguments ignore the bigger moral failure of the execution being approved in the first place. Consider the raw brutality of the scene. With or without an internet livestream, the execution would still see people wheeling a defenseless man into a room — Hasan has been paralyzed since the 2009 shooting — to have him shot and killed. Despite his crimes, Hasan poses

father, Michael Cahill, was killed at Fort Hood, told the San Antonio Express-News, killing Hasan “doesn’t bring my dad back and it doesn’t change anything else that’s happened already,” and that it currently gives him more attention than she thinks he deserves. While Vanacker is certainly not representative of every family member of the victims or survivors, her comments show a perspective on Hasan’s death

ty is broadcast to a worldwide audience. In recent history, Americans have had the privilege of not knowing exactly what a death row execution looks like. We read about it in national headlines and have a vague understanding of what “lethal injection,” “gas chamber,” and “firing squad” might mean. But we have not witnessed it in public, and many who openly support the death penalty have not seen it themselves. The livestream of Hasan’s death, whether it actually happens or not, will force Americans to reckon with the place of capital punishment in our society. We should not watch it, but rather remember that with or without a live camera, taking a defenseless life should never be in our hands. Fostering a culture that celebrates life and not barbaric death and vengeance must start with even the worst criminals. Elijah Guevara is a junior studying history.

Silence will benefit you more than music By Monica Smies Collegian Reporter

The key to feeling relaxed, staying on top of things, and being at peace is to embrace silence. The pace of life at Hillsdale College makes it hard to step away from the chaos and enjoy the quiet, but silence helps us develop neurons, promote relaxation, and encounter God. We must seek quiet moments for our own good.

Too often, we seek noise. We pop in earbuds when we walk to class. We check our phones for texts and emails the moment class is over. Some of my friends even listen to music in the shower. It’s easy to go an entire day without having a moment of silence. Research suggests that silence provides neurological and physical health benefits. A study published by Springer Nature of

mice subjected to silence and various types of sound has lessons for men. The study shows that silence supports neurogenesis — the creation of new neurons — in mice, whose mammalian brains react in a similar way to those of humans The researchers first exposed separate groups of mice to silence, Mozart, mouse pup calls, white noise, and normal background noise for two hours a day. They found that silence, Mozart, and mouse pup calls increased the production of new brain cells at first. After seven days, however, only the mice exposed to silence had significantly more new neurons. While this study proves only that mice experience a growth of neuron networks due to silent treatment, it can help us understand how humans respond to silence. Another study published in the medical journal Heart on 24 people listening to varying types of music suggests that silence allows the listener to relax more than music does. “Interestingly, it was precisely during this short intermission, rather than during music, that we observed the greatest evidence of relaxation, as com-

pared with baseline or music tracks,” the study said. The researchers noted that fast music increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing while slower music was more relaxing. But a two-minute period of silence helped people relax even more than the music did. The Bible also emphasizes that silence is important to hearing the voice of God. In 1 Kings 19:12-13 God himself appears to the prophet Elijah in the quiet whispering sound: “After the earthquake there was fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, ‘Elijah, why are you here?’” Just as God made himself known to Elijah in the whispering sound, he speaks to us in the quiet moments of our days. When we are attentive to those moments, we remember that we are in the presence of God. Silence draws us not only to attend to the beauty of the world around us, but to God himself. Making it a habit to try to fill any free moment with constant

noise does not bring us peace. We have hundreds of opportunities each day to experience and take in the beauty of things we overlook when flooding our minds with noise. We should savor the precious moments we have to be still and quiet — that may look like refraining from listening to music, a podcast, or even watching videos. By eliminating unnecessary time on your phone, walking around campus without listening to music on the way to classes, and limiting unnec-

essary distractions in general, you can live more presently in the silence, relax and even grow your brain. Take in the beauty of nature around you — there is a symphony of beauty you can only find in silence. Monica Smies is a sophomore studying philosophy. Illustrated by Maggie O’Connor.

A6 October 15, 2026

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City News

Recent study suggests Hillsdale County lacks affordable housing By Matthew Tolbert Web & Puzzle editor

Hillsdale County municipalities should encourage construction of condominiums and other low-to-no maintenance housing to alleviate a countywide housing shortage, according to a report from the Ohiobased DiSalvo Development Advisors. The study, commissioned by the Economic Development Partnership of Hillsdale County, also recommended establishing a land bank to encourage housing development and redevelopment and providing tax breaks on new construction. Local stakeholders interviewed for the study — including representatives of all four cities in Hillsdale County, the county itself, two real estate agencies, and two local businesses — emphasized the need for low-to-mid-cost owned and rental housing, according to the report. DiSalvo’s analysis also suggested that low-maintenance housing would free up home supply currently owned by older individuals. “We believe that condominium or maintenance-free housing, with sales prices in the mid-$200,000s to high$200,000s, is one of the most underserved housing prod-

ucts in Hillsdale, especially given the high share of older adult homeowners,” the report reads. “The downsizing of some older-adult households to smaller, lower-cost housing could help keep them in the community and provide housing for families

county to house people in all stages of life, according to the report. “As household dynamics change over time, so do families’ needs for different types and prices of housing,” the report reads. “A balanced housing continuum is one

nance or zoning map would go through the appropriate public planning process.” The report states that high property tax rates in cities and villages drive housing unaffordability and disincentivize development. “One affordability chal-

across the county. North Adams, which has the lowest rate of any village in the county, was higher than 80% of rates across the county. Tax rates for Hillsdale city residences were nearly 80% higher than comparable residences in Hillsdale Town-

looking to buy an affordable home.” Hillsdale County, the report notes, has one of the lowest rates of condominium and duplex sales in the region — a quarter the rate of counties to its east. A Collegian analysis of city zoning regulations across the county reveals that most residential areas are not zoned for multifamily development like condominiums. This hinders the ability of the

in which a variety of housing options are available to accommodate a household’s housing preferences.” Assistant City Manager Sam Fry said the city will consider this factor in future planning decisions. “We recognize that increasing housing supply may require looking at where different housing types can appropriately be accommodated,” Fry said. “Any changes to the zoning ordi-

lenge of buying a home in the cities, especially Jonesville and Hillsdale, is the higher property tax rates,” the report reads. “Villages also have relatively high property taxes in comparison to township levels.” A Collegian analysis of 2025 personal residence property tax data from the county Equalization Office found that the lowest rate of any city — Litch$eld — was higher than 90% of rates

ship. Fry suggested that this discrepancy is due to the difference in municipal services provided by his city compared to the township. “Most townships in Hillsdale County are predominantly rural, with signi$cantly less public infrastructure to maintain and fewer municipal services provided directly to residents. The City of Hillsdale maintains a much larger concentration of public in-

Hillsdale’s fight against chronic absenteeism Hillsdale public schools have a lower rate of absence than state average By Elijah Guevara neWs editor

Data records chronic absenteeism back to the 2012–13 school year for Hillsdale schools. Hillsdale ISD is the regional public agency that operates between the state department of education and local public school districts, including Hillsdale Community Schools.

dents’ rate of chronic absenteeism dropped from 38.5% in the 2021–22 school year to 30.8% in the 2022–23 school year. It has continued to improve, to 29.5% in the 2023–24 school year, 27.9% in the 2024–25 school year, and 27.2% in the 2025–26 school year.

Twenty percent of students in Hillsdale’s Intermediate School District are chronically absent, according to data from Michigan’s official public portal for education data. Students are chronically absent when they have missed 10% or more of the school year. This translates to roughly 18 days in a standard 180day school y e a r, o r about two d ay s p e r month, according to the U.S. Department of Education. While 20.8% of Hillsdale pu bl i c school stu- Hillsdale Prep closed this year due to low enrollment numbers. dents, or thE CollEgian | gEmma FlorES 1,050 students, were chronically abIn decreasing chronic abCurrent numbers are sent in the 2025–26 school senteeism, Hillsdale schools around nine points below year, Hillsdale schools still have been outpacing the their all-time recorded high. have a better record of state overall, making a near Chronic absenteeism in chronic absence than the 12-point decrease, from Hillsdale schools last peakstate of Michigan, where 32.1% to 20.8%, by the ed in the 2012–13 school 27.2% of students overall 2025–26 school year. year with 33.9%, or 2,207, were chronically absent in Year by year, Hillsdale students being chronically that same school year. students’ rate of chronic absent. Despite high rates, chron- absenteeism dropped from The average of chronic ic absenteeism in Hillsdale 32.1% in the 2021–22 school absenteeism in Hillsdale schools has declined since year to 22.4% for the 2022– schools in the pre-pandemthe 2021–22 rate of 32.1% 23 school year. It rose to ic era was 21.5%, counting during the COVID-19 pan- 23% for the 2023–24 school from the 2012–13 to 2018– demic, according to avail- year, and fell to 20.7% for 2019 school years. However, able data. Michigan’s state- the 2024–25 school year. during and a%er the panwide absenteeism rose to This past school year, it demic, the average of chron38.5% during the pandem- slightly increased to 20.8%. ic absenteeism in Hillsdale ic. The data from MI School Statewide, Michigan stu- schools was 23.4%, count-

ing from the 2019–2020 to 2025–26 school years. Although students have been steadily returning to classrooms, test scores have been declining. Just 38.2% of third-grade students in Michigan are pro$cient in English Language Arts, according to results released last mont h from the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress. The scores are the lowest in the 12year test history. T h e number of students attending school in Hillsdale has a ls o decreased, w i t h schools closing as the population declines. Earlier this year, Hillsdale Preparatory School closed after nearly 25 years of teaching. School officials told The Collegian the closure resulted from the decreasing population in Hillsdale County. The population is estimated to have dropped by 0.4% since 2020, according to the U.S. Census.

frastructure and provides a broader range of services,” Fry said. “A more appropriate comparison is with other incorporated cities that provide similar levels of infrastructure and municipal services. Hillsdale’s tax rate is generally in line with other cities in Hillsdale County and neighboring counties.” While the City of Hillsdale had the second-highest property tax rate in the county as of 2025, a Collegian analysis of personal property millage rate data from the Michigan Department of Treasury found that Hillsdale’s tax rates were slightly below the average for cities in neighboring counties in the state. Fry said the city may be able to increase the taxable base and thereby lower the tax burden. “One strategy for improving the City’s $nancial position is to grow the tax base through new housing, commercial development, and private investment,” Fry said. “A larger and stronger tax base can help distribute the cost of providing municipal services across more taxable value, easing the relative tax burden for all property owners.”

Hospital to host remembrance walk By Ethan Savka AssistAnt editor

Families who have lost children will walk in remembrance of all children lost in miscarriages this Sunday. The Bediako Birthing Center at Hillsdale Hospital will host its 19th annual Walk of Remembrance Oct. 18, starting at 1 p.m. in Owens Park near Baw Beese Lake. Hillary Zimmerman, a clinical nurse mid-wife at the hospital, will oversee the walk this year. President Ronald Reagan designated October as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month in 1988. A group of nurses in Hillsdale started the walk in 2007, according to Zimmerman “It started with a group of the OB-GYN nurses 19 years ago, trying to figure out what we could do in Hillsdale because there was kind of a movement nationally for honoring infants who had passed away or children,” Zimmerman said. “So the nurses kind of came together to see what they could do and they came up with the Walk of Remembrance.” Amy Zoll, an OB-GYN at Hillsdale Meadows Clinic, said 10 people attended the $rst walk when she and a group of nurses started it. “There were a handful of us, some that are not with the hospital anymore, but we were super passionate about it,” Zoll said. “When you’re working in a $eld that is relatively extremely happy and you experience something like that with a family, you want to support them. And so we were collaborating with some of the other programs in a variety of ways.

And we thought, ‘why can’t we just do this?’ We just decided we are going to offer it to anybody who has lost a child. We want to support all of them.” Zimmerman said that nearly a hundred people have attended the walk. “As the years have gone on, we just see it growing and growing,” Zoll said. “We get individuals from other towns coming because it is just such a great support system for families and women that have experienced an infant or child loss get together and kind of talk and remember and say their name.” The walk helps families $nd community and healing, Zimmerman said. “If you are someone who has suffered, or been alongside someone who has suffered, it’s just a place you can come to just know that you’re not alone,” Zimmerman said. “Being around a community and just people who share something similar to you is impactful. And for a lot of families, moms, dads, it’s just one step towards healing.” Opening with a prayer ceremony, leaders of the walk will cover the history of the walk, and then a member from the community will share their story in a speech, Zimmerman said. The walk then continues by honoring the babies. “We walk down to Baw Beese Lake and we used to release balloons, but that’s not very environmentally friendly with the farmers,” Zimmerman said. “So now we blow bubbles in memory of them and kind of send the bubbles up to heaven in honor of the babies.”

Ava-Marie Papillon illustrated the City News header.

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

October 15, 2026 A7

County driver who killed woman to appear in court By Gemma Flores City neWs editor

guilty of the charges, he could face fines and jail time. The penalty for a moving violation causing death is a year in jail, a fine of up to $2,500, or both. A moving violation causing death means that a driver committed a tra$c infraction, such as speeding, failure to use a turn signal, etc, that inadvertently resulted in

The driver who struck and killed Joni Norris in a county-owned vehicle is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 16. Earl Wayne Harris was arrested July 27 on charges of moving violation causing death, a misdemeanor, and reckless driving leading to death, a felony. Norris was out for her lunchtime walk on Feb. 17 when she was struck at the intersection of North Broad and McCollum streets by the Ford F-Series utility vehicle Harris was driving. Sustaining serious injuries, Norris was airlifted to a hospital in Toledo, Ohio, where she was in a coma until her death on March 7. Since Harris was a county employee, Hillsdale County’s prosecutor could not pro s e c ute t h e case, so the county Joni Norris was 68 when she died. turned the case over CourtESy | moorE inSuranCE SErviCES to the Michigan Attorney General’s O$ce. The the death of the victim, acMichigan Attorney General’s cording to Fitz. The penalty for reckless o$ce then assigned the case driving causing death, a felto the Branch County Prosony in Michigan, is much ecutor, Victor Fitz. more serious. The Michigan Attorney “Reckless driving causing General’s o$ce did not redeath indicates that he drove spond to requests for comment at the time of this article’s publication. Harris will appear in court on Friday for a probable cause conference, which is when the prosecution and the defense meet to discuss the evidence in the case before a judge. The hearing will take place in the Hillsdale County Courthouse at 1 p.m. This is the third time Harris has appeared for a probable cause in a willful or wanton disreconference, which Fitz said is gard for the safety of persons common in cases with a large or property, and because of that operation, he caused the body of evidence. “It’s not unusual for these death of Joni Norris,” Fitz to get adjourned multiple told The Collegian in Septimes as parties try to make tember. “That crime, which is sure that all the discovery a felony, carries a penalty of has been completed and that up to 15 years in prison and/ all the discussion about the or a fine of between $2,500 case prior to the hearing and $10,000.” Fitz said he does not expect takes place,” Fitz said. Should Harris be found a significant development at

the conference Friday. “It doesn’t look like there’s anything major that’s going to occur. I think we’ll get a little bit more definition as to whether or not there’ll be a preliminary examination held or whether or not that hearing will be waived, but beyond that, I don’t see any significant movement on the file,” Fitz said. A preliminar y hearing determines whether the case has enough evidence to merit the court case. According to Fitz, the bar is low. Should both parties in the case agree to waive the preliminary hearing, the case would go to circuit court, where it would be scheduled for trial. “There will be pretrial conferences scheduled, usually there’s multiple during the course of a felony investigation,” Fitz said. Charles J. Noe, an attorney based in Adrian, Michigan, will defend Harris. Noe did not respond to a request for comment. A GoFundMe set up by Norris’ family to help pay for her medical bills raised nearly $12,000 in three weeks. “Joni will be remembered for her kindness, strength, and the love she shared with everyone who knew her,” the obituary for Norris listed on Dignity Memorial website said. “She had a warm heart and a generous spirit, always ready to o%er a smile, encouragement, or a helping hand.” Assist ant Cit y Manager Sam Fry told The Collegian in September that, though the city is not involved in the case, his thoughts and prayers are with the Norris family. “Obviously it’s a tragic incident,” Fry said. “Our condolences and sympathies have gone out to her family. They still remain in our thoughts and prayers.”

“Joni will be remembered for her kindness, strength, and the love she shared with everyone who knew her.”

thE CollEgian | Ethan Savka

Make way for this Midwestern classic: Culver’s breaks ground

Senior Center to hold fundraiser rands or go to work. “Our goal is to reach out and be able to help as many Perennial Park Senior seniors in the area as we Center will host a Dueling can,” Wheeler said. Pianos event and Halloween Dinner and drinks will fundraiser Oct. 24 from 6-9 be provided from 6-7 p.m. p.m. and are included in the $50 “Earlier this year, some of ticket price. There are 125 our fitness members went to tickets available, and they Underdogs can be purand they had chased by dueling picalling 517anos there, 437-2422 or and the sein person at niors liked it 320 W. Baso much that con St. they wantEvent ated it here,” tendees are Marketing highly recand C omommended munications to wear cosCoordinator tumes. Grace Broes“ We’ v e amle said. had differTw i l i g ht ent HallowTunes Dueen events eling Pianos the last two will pro- Dorothy Milbourne, a Senior Center patron, shows off her craft at a crafting session. y e a r s ,” vide two thE CollEgian | gEmma FlorES Broesapianists mle said. who will duel songs recom- around the facility,” Wheel- “We’ve partnered with the mended by the crowd. er said. Sauk Theatre to do murder “We’re hoping to just In addition to hosting mysteries, so people like to have a good time for the se- events such as Dueling Pi- dress up for those. We’re niors and family members anos, the center provides hoping that happens again.” and community members at meals for the homebound Wheeler said she hopes large,” Broesamle said. “It’s five days a week, and assists the event is fun and famifun for entertainment and them with homemaking and ly-oriented. also to raise some funds for personal care. It also hosts “It’s just to have a good the center.” regular on-site luncheons time for all that come,” she The fundraiser will go and provides an adult day said. toward any needs the senior care program so that carecenter may have in the fu- takers are able to run erBy Francesca Cella oPinions editor

ture, according to Deputy Director Lisa Wheeler. “We really haven’t committed to what we want to put the funds towards, but it’s just something for the senior center to have more funds in the account to either help our meal costs or any project that we have

Hillsdale Social Club organizes fall ceramics night By Gemma Flores City neWs editor

The Hillsdale Social Club plans to host a fall-themed ceramics class at Hillsdale Brewing Company Oct. 21 at 6:30 pm. Attendants at the Soup Season Ceramics event will choose between five ceramic items to decorate and glaze. Tickets are $40 and include the ceramic item and one drink or soup from HBC. Tickets are still available, and Collegian readers using the code HC26 will get a 26% discount on the overall price. The Hillsdale Social Club is a group started by Anna Tomasello-Hays and Brooklynn Gravel earlier this year that coordinates public events to foster community and provide networking opportunities for Hillsdale residents. “We founded it back at the beginning of 2026,” Hays said. “We do athletic events, creative events, networking events and

just some fun free clubs.” loved from bigger cities to Hays said she and Grav- our hometown so that we el, both Hillsdale natives could bring that atmosphere and graduates of Hillsdale to Hillsdalians.” Academy, decided to form the group after moving back to Hi l l s d a l e from bigger cities. “It’s just to prov ide f un social experiences where you can make friends and connect with people in Attendees at the Social Club’s Pottery and Pinot event. Hillsdale. CourtESy | thE hillSdalE SoCial Club inStagram Since we’re a small town, it’s Hays said she and Gravel extremely hard to network have felt welcomed and enin the same way that big cit- couraged by the attendance ies do and it’s also hard to at their events. have events and fun things “We got overwhelmingly available in our town,” Hays positive reviews and lots of said. “We wanted to bring people said, ‘If you host anthese aspects of what we other event, we will be there

easily,’” Hays said. The club has hosted a variety of events, including a weekly walking club, wellness nights, and a

“I’m a ceramicist, so it was nice to be able to incorporate both of my businesses and talents into an event together,” Hays said.

Attendants at the event were taught by Hays, a ceramicist. CourtESy | thE hillSdalE SoCial Club inStagram

pottery-making class accompanied by a wine tasting. The pottery making class, held in June, was led by Hays, who also owns a ceramics studio called Studio Tomasello.

After getting lots of positive feedback about the event, Hays said, she and Gravel decided to host another ceramics-themed event.

“Soup Season Ceramics offers more than just the experience of creating your own ceramic piece; it’s an opportunity to connect with others, support local businesses, and make a fun memory,” Gravel said. “Being able to express your own personality with a piece of decor, or a functional item you will actually use, and is something you created with your own mind and hands, is so special and important for people.” Ultimately, Gravel said, the club wants to foster a sense of positivity in the community. “We want everyone to leave with the feeling of being glad that they attended our events,” Gravel said. More information about the group and a link to register for the Soup Season Ceramics event can be found on the club’s Instagram page.

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

A8 October 15, 2026

SportS Baseball

'I'll probably show up every year': Baseball alumni return to the diamond By Megan Li sEnior Editor The Hillsdale College baseball team won 7–4 against its alumni in its second annual homecoming alumni game Oct. 11. “It’s a great experience for the guys and former players. The alumni get to play under the lights in our incredible stadium, and the recent alumni get to be on the field one more time with their old teammates,” head coach Tom Vessella said in an email. “I couldn’t imagine a better way to get some of the older players back to campus and be

around the current team. Vessella said the team prepared the stadium as if it was hosting a home game, with concessions, umpires, and media. The team also roped o# an area for the alumni where they could enjoy food and drinks. Right-handed pitcher and junior Brodie Romnek, said his favorite part of attending the game was smack-talking former teammates. “It’s fun to be competitive again with those guys as they move on with their life and see how they’re doing,” Romnek said. Romnek said he would love

Chris Ackerman '19 celebrates with his children. Courtesy | Austin Thomason

the opportunity to attend an alumni game and see the team after he graduates. Many of the players have gone on to pursue other careers, according to Romnek, though he met Zane Barnhart last year, who was drafted after his junior season, and is playing professional baseball in the Detroit Tigers organization. “After the game, we go to the baseball house and watch football and have fun,” Romnek said. Vessella said he enjoys meeting alumni from before his time as coach. His favorite moment was watching James Krick ’22 bring back his team’s old “double celebration” — after he reached second base. “Every baseball team nowadays has a unique celebration when they hit a double,” Vessella said. “James hit a double and did the ‘salt and pepper’ where he mimicked a pepper grinder to put ‘some seasoning’ on the ball after he hit a double. It’s just part of the fun of the game.” Romnek said since this game is the baseball players’ first real fall game before their season

starts in the spring, he enjoys getting out on the field and competing. “We have three fall games or three series against other colleges, like Spring Arbor University, and two other DIIs and junior colleges,” Romnek said. “But this is the first game we put on a uniform in the academic year.” Augie Hutchison ’25, a former outfielder for the Chargers, said he played in the first ever homecoming alumni game last year — also as an alumnus. “I played the full game with a majority of the guys that I played with whether it was only one year or my full four years, so taking the field with those guys for old times’ sake, to play a serious baseball game, was super fun,” Hutchison said. Hutchison said he loved playing baseball without pressure to win. “Baseball is so much easier when you have no expectations for yourself and nobody has any expectations for you,” Hutchison said. “It’s a lot di#erent than when you’re actually playing a

Augie Hutchison before the 2025 Alumni Baseball Game. Hillsdale Athletic Department | Lucia Spinazze

real college baseball game, and winning is so much more important.” Hutchison said he has not played much outside of the alumni game, since he played every year from when he was 12 until he was 22 years old. “I’ve been trying to play some other sports, do some other activities, but honestly, I could definitely see myself joining an adult league of some sort,” Hutchison said. Hutchison said the baseball team hosts Alumni Day during the spring that invites baseball

alumni back on campus for a game dedicated to them. He is glad the college started the tradition of an alumni game during homecoming. “It was a beautiful 68-degree evening with a great sunset,” Hutchison said. “The coaching sta# and everyone involved in putting that together does a really nice job. I’ve heard only super positive things about it from the alumni. As long as they keep doing it, I’ll probably show up every year.”

Women's Tennis

ITA Tournament wraps up fall swing, Chargers look ahead to spring By Elaine Kutas sEnior Editor The Hillsdale women’s tennis team wrapped up its fall season at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Midwest Regional with juniors Julia Zlateva and Emma Palus winning three doubles matches, before falling in the B bracket semifinals round. Freshmen doubles team Emily Muresan and Addison Trotter beat two teams in the B bracket before falling in the consolation quarterfinals. In the A bracket,

senior Ané Dannhauser and junior Briana Rees beat a team from The University of Missouri-St. Louis, and sophomores Dimitra Papastavrou and Esther Sura beat a team from Saginaw Valley State University in B doubles. The ITA Regional is the biggest match of the fall, according to head coach Melanie Zampardo, and the team works all fall to get to this competition. “We put ourselves in a very good position to continue growing going into the spring sea-

son,” Zampardo said. “We got lots of doubles practice in for our freshmen team of Muresan and Trotter, who haven’t had much doubles experience prior to college.” Zlateva had the strongest showing in singles, winning two matches before falling in the consolation quarterfinals. Zampardo said Zlateva has shown her talent this year and that she’s excited to see Zlateva continue growing in the spring. “She’s finally starting to realize what a force she is to her

competition and in the conference as a whole,” Zampardo said. Dannhauser and Muresan each took a win in A singles, and Rees won a match in the singles consolation bracket. “I think the team did a great job of staying connected and supportive,” Dannhauser said. “Personally, I was a little disappointed with my performance this weekend. That’s tennis for you — you can show up and play brilliantly one day and look like a complete amateur the next

day.” Papastavrou said that even though the girls teams had to play on separate courts, sometimes even in different areas, they did a good job of staying connected. “We were all really excited because it’s the biggest event of the fall,” Papastavrou said. “We were all well supported and our coach was doing the best for us trying to make sure we all played well.” Zampardo and Dannhauser said that the time between fall

and spring competition is vital for the team’s bonding. “I am looking forward to the building phase where we get ready for spring,” Dannhauser said. “We always have some fun team building during this part of the year so I am super excited to focus on improving and not having to travel every weekend like in the spring.” The Chargers will next compete after Christmas break in their indoor spring opener at home against Spring Arbor University Jan. 29, 2027.

Volleyball

Women lose to Lakers, beat Timberwolves on the road By Ashley Luke AssistAnt Editor Hillsdale women’s volleyball lost against Grand Valley State University, but recovered to sweep rival Northwood University on the road. “I’d like to be further along than what we are,” head coach Chris Gravel said. “We have a very big weekend coming up. We’re consciously optimistic moving forward.”. Hillsdale’s Great Midwest Athletic Conference record is 5-4 and overall record is 9-9. The Chargers lost against the Lakers 3-0 Oct. 9, losing 25-17 in the first set, 25-19 in the second, and 25-17 in the third. Hillsdale defeated the Timberwolves, winning 2518, 25-23, 25-16 in the three sets. Hillsdale had a .250 hitting percentage compared to the Timberwolves’ .069 hitting percentage. “Our hitters were very excited and were able to use the smaller blocks they had,” senior middle hitter Molly Kennedy said. “Taylor Brownsword and Taylor Cook hit very well. We were able to find some holes in their defense and we were swinging very aggressively, which paid o#.” Brownsword, a freshman outside hitter/defensive specialist, had 20 kills in the Northwood match, the most scored in one game in her collegiate career. Gravel said Brownsword has been a good player in individual games. “It’s nice to have a freshman play a good weekend,” Gravel said. “Although we

struggled Friday, Taylor did OK. She did great on Saturday. It was good to see her finish the weekend.” Kennedy said the match against Northwood was full of energy as the team anticipates the crossover tournament. “We went into the game very determined because Northwood is one of our division rivals, and this week is a very big week for us with the crossover tournament coming up,” Kennedy said. “We really wanted to get a win going into that and put us into the best position possible. Overall, the team dynamic was very focused and determined to get a win.” With all of its away games, Kennedy said the team tries to keep a consistent prematch routine. They eat at the same time, practice the same warm up, and even listen to the same two songs before the game. Kennedy said the songs change from year to year, but this year’s picks are “Ri# O# ” from “Pitch Perfect” and “Dark Horse” by Katy Perry. “We do what we can to keep the controllables in our control. The uncontrollables are di#erent, but most of us upperclassmen have played at a lot of these gyms multiple times, especially Northwood, Findlay, and Tiffin,” Kennedy said. “ I make a joke that those courts are like our second, third, and fourth home court.” The Chargers will travel to Hammond, Indiana to play in the Midwest Regional Crossover Tournament Oct.

16-17 against Drury University and Ferris State University, schools from different divisions within the Midwest region. Ferris State is ranked first in the nation for women’s volleyball, giving Hillsdale, currently unranked, a chance to prove itself to the other teams, assistant volleyball coach Megan Molenkamp said. “It’s an opportunity,” Molenkamp said. “People aren’t expecting us to do well against those teams or to take sets or points away from those teams, and so we are super excited to go and show them.” Performing well during the crossover does not necessarily mean winning, Molenkamp said. “It might not be something that shows up in the stats or the record. We’re looking to consistently play hard, not for a few points or not just until the score is at 19-19,” Molenkamp said. “When you make a mistake in volleyball, it’s so important to get that next point back because it’s a game of errors. People have to be aggressive and you have to take risks, but the next point is when you want to fight hard to get the ball back. If we do that against Ferris, against Drury, it really doesn’t matter who the opponent on the other side of the court is. We can beat anybody if we play good disciplined Hillsdale College volleyball.”

Spo#ts

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

October 15, 2026 A9

Shotgun

Chargers earn spots on podium at conference championship By Daniel Johnson AssistAnt Editor Three Hillsdale shotgun athletes placed in the top five at a championship event on Oct. 8-11 at the World Shooting and Recreation Complex in Sparta, Illinois. )e Chargers took fourth in the Association of College Unions International and Scholastic Clay Target Shooting Program Central Midwest Conference Championship, with a combined score of 2,049/2,250, competing in six shooting disciplines: super sporting, sporting clays, doubles skeet, American skeet, doubles trap, and American trap. Senior Madeline Corbin took second overall in the women’s division with a score of 395/450, followed by junior Taylor Dale in third with 386/450. On the men’s side, senior Davis Hay took fifth

overall with a score of 413/450. Corbin, a team captain, said taking second in the shoot boosted her confidence. “I was pleased with the ability to come back strong this week and not let last week negatively impact my performance this weekend,” Corbin said. Head coach Jordan Hintz said the team hoped to place higher but had a strong showing. “As a whole, I think we’re all a little disappointed that we didn’t place a little bit better,” Hintz said. “Individually, we had lots of high notes, lots of medalists, lots of people winning shoot o's and we started really strong.” )e Chargers took third in sporting clays, with seniors Davis Hay and Luke Johnson leading the top five with scores of 82/100 and 78/100. Freshman Cameron Roberts (76/100), sophomore Zach Hinze (74/100), and senior

Ava Downs (73/100) completed Hillsdale’s score. Five Chargers tied with a score of 99/100 in American skeet, taking Hillsdale

American trap with Hay shooting a perfect 100/100. Hoffman and Hinze shot 99/100, and Corbin and Johnson shot 96/100 to round out

From left to right: Seniors Ava Downs, Madeline Corbin, Davis Hay. Courtesy | Hillsdale Shotgun Instagram

to fourth place in that event: sophomore Max Versluys, Roberts, Johnson, sophomore Brayden Hoppa, and senior Alex Ho'man. The team took sixth in

Hillsdale’s top five. )e Chargers went head to head with their opponents in tiebreakers, called shoot-o's, several times during the competition.

Club Rugby Rugby hopes to rebound against Musketeers after blowout loss By Reagan Vicars CollEgiAn FrEElAnCEr Hillsdale College Club Rugby lost to Slippery Rock University 98-0 over homecoming weekend, moving their record to 1-4. “We have the hardest schedule in our conference, and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” head coach Mike Harris said. “)is shows our new guys what it feels like to really be in the thick of it and that we can still come out with our heads held high.” )e Chargers were supposed to play Notre Dame University today, but the game was cancelled last night due to injuries. Slippery Rock, the Division III runner-up and a contender for the national championship of the Allegheny Rugby Union Men’s Collegiate Conference, was the latest in a strong string of opponents for the Chargers,

who have already faced defending Division III champion Franciscan University, defend-

Kaiser said he saw a breakthrough on the defensive end. “Our defense was some of

"We have the hardest schedule in our conference, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

The rugby team after the game against Slippery Rock. Courtesy | Club Rugby Instagram

ing Division IV champion Robert Morris University. Hillsdale plays in Division III. Even in defeat, junior Peter

Games

the best we’ve ever had,” Kaiser said. “We were making tackles we’ve never made before.” For Kaiser, games against

higher-ranked teams are an opportunity to sharpen the Chargers. “Whenever you play a team not at your level, either higher or lower, you’re going to meet them where they are,” he said. “Playing up will put us through the training so we will be ready for Xavier, which is more our tier.” )e Chargers will look to get healthy before their next game as they deal with a significant number of hurt players. Senior Angel Jimenez, junior Ike Lindley, sophomore John Paul Cella, and freshman Jordan Dodd are all sidelined with injuries, forcing the team to rely on younger players to fill key positions. )e Chargers will end their season Oct. 24 on the road against Xavier University. Harris described their final opponent as “a very good team and a very winnable game.”

10/8 Solutions Math Maze -

A path starts at the topleft corner and exits at the bottom right, only passing through squares orthogonally. )e numbers around the border indicate the number of squares in that row or column that the path passes through. It cannot pass through bolded barrier segments, and it never passes through the same square twice.

This week's solutions will appear alongside next week's puzzles. If you have questions or feedback, please contact Matthew Tolbert at mtolbert@hillsdale.edu.

Senior Davis Hay took first for the men in doubles trap after shooting a perfect 50/50 and winning a shoot-o'. On the ladies side, junior Lucci Kern took second after also winning a shoot-off in the same event. Junior Marin McKinney took second in women’s doubles skeet with a score of 49/50, while Dale took third and Corbin fourth after a shoot-o' to decide between their equal scores of 48/50. Corbin won women’s super sporting with a score of 39/50, followed by Dale in third with a score of 37/50. Hay had an exceptional day in the trap disciplines, according to Corbin. “Davis ran 50 in trap doubles and 100 in trap singles,” Corbin said. “)at’s exceptional, and you can’t ask for anything better than that.” Dale said the team will focus more on the trap disci-

plines after the shoot. “Sometimes I feel like we put those on the back burner because they’re the ‘easier’ ones,” Dale said. “Especially trap singles. I think we’re really taking away that we need to spend time training them a bit more.” Corbin said the shoot challenged the team to stay focused. “We ended up getting fourth place, which was not our intended outcome by any means,” Corbin said. “Losing the chute will provide us with more specific things to work on. Instead of just building our confidence and making us complacent, we will have more intention in practice.” )e Chargers will next compete in the Hoosier Invite Oct. 17-18 at the Fulton County Gun Club at the Kosko Shotgun Sports Complex.

Football from A1

Sophomore running back Ben Ngishu contributed 61 rushing yards. On defense, the Chargers held the Cavaliers to 47 rushing yards. Junior linebacker Luke Penola led Hillsdale with six tackles. Senior defensive back Jonah Jensen added five tackles. Fifth year defensive back Ryan Niksa had four tackles. “We were firing on all cylinders,” Jensen said in the postgame press conference. “)ere was great play calling by coach Steve Otterbein, which got us in the positions that we needed to be in. We shut down the run. Under 50 yards rushing for the entire game is really good.” The Chargers play the Findlay University Oilers at 1 p.m. Oct. 17 at Frank “Muddy” Waters Stadium. Hillsdale, which has the same record as Findlay, has not beaten the Oilers since 2021. Findlay is ranked #16 in the American Football Coaches Association Division II coaches poll, and the Chargers are receiving votes in the same poll for the first time in five years. “It’s another big game, another one-loss team, they’ve been nationally ranked for most of the season, and they’ve been a thorn in our side,” Shre(er said. “I don’t know if we need a whole lot of motivation this week to really give it our best e'ort and show up ready to go on Saturday.”

“You could tell Walsh’s defensive line was definitely feeling the e'ects of it. We were 11-16 on third down, which is really good,” head coach Nate Shre(er said. “)e defense, if they are doing their job, and doing it really well, should be three and out and sitting on the sideline watching us. It was a good day all around for everybody.” Boyce finished the day passing 20-35 for 267 passing yards and 133 rushing yards. “I thought [Eli] had a great performance,” Shre(er said. “A lot of the quarterback runs were called, and I thought he did a really nice job executing his end of the deal on those plays. He had a monster game.” Boyce was named G-MAC O'ensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career. “I trust [Eli]. He’s just good at what he does. He played a great game, a career game for him for sure,” Ruddy said. According to James Gensterblum, director of athletic communications, it is the first time a Charger football player accounted for six touchdowns in a game since Kyle Keefer did so in 1999. )e Chargers had nine receivers catch a pass. Ruddy finished with seven catches for 100 yards. Junior wide receiver Tutt Carrico added five catches for 79 yards.

CHARGER CHATTER Taylor Brownsword, Volleyball

What is the ultimate fall dessert?

What is your favorite part of your dorm room?

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Compiled by Ashley Luke

Photo Courtesy | Austin Thomason

Junior quarterback Eli Boyce scores a touchdown against Walsh. Hillsdale Athletic Department | Sarah Chappelle

C harger S portS

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

A10 October 15, 2026

Football

Chargers to honor military members, host Toys for Tots drive By Patrick Matteson AssistAnt Editor Hillsdale College football will host its annual Military Appreciation Game Saturday Oct. 24 against Ti'n University, honoring veterans and active-duty military members while collecting donations for Toys for Tots. “It’s important for our military veterans to be recognized, and this is just our small way of doing our part in the community,” head coach Nate Shre#er said. “It’s important [the players] recognize that when it’s their turn to step up and serve, it’s something they have to really think about.” In addition to the game, other events throughout the weekend will honor veterans, beginning with a dinner Friday at 6 p.m. in the Knorr Family Dining Room inside the Grewcock Student Union. Active-duty military members and veterans will join the football team for a meal and fellowship. Rob Rardin, who served in the Marine Corps and coaches

the tight ends and long snappers, said the dinner gives players an opportunity to learn about veterans’ experiences. “Our guys can get to know a group of very special people that volunteered their lives in

defense of their country,” Rardin said. Rardin said the dinner also gives veterans a chance to meet Hillsdale students. “It’s a very special event,” Rardin said. “Our guys are gra-

cious hosts, and they get to listen to stories and talk to people from all over the country. Our veterans leave that meal with hope for the future. It’s really quite a moving experience.” Saturday’s events begin at

Flag ceremony before the Military Appreciation Game in 2025. Hillsdale Athletic Department | Ashley Van Hoose

noon with a tailgate party for veterans and active-duty military members at the pavilion outside the sports complex. Rardin’s wife, Tracey Rardin, will host the tailgate, while Hillsdale staff member and Marine John Novak will grill food. Drinks and snacks will also be provided. About 30 minutes before the 2 p.m. kickoff, veterans will be escorted to the field for a recognition ceremony. The ceremony, scheduled for 15 minutes before kickoff, will recognize each military branch and veterans in attendance. Veterans and military members will receive free admission to the game. Two U.S. Navy veterans will serve as honorary captains: Hillsdale Associate Dean of Men Jeffery “Chief ” Rogers and local World War II veteran Charles “Bud” Vear, who was recently named Hillsdale County Veteran of the Year. Rogers and Vear will participate in the coin toss before the game. The pregame ceremony will include two color guards: one

from American Legion Post 195 in Jonesville and another from the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Color Guard. The game will also serve as a Toys for Tots collection event. Fans who bring a new, unwrapped toy to the game will receive free admission. Rardin encouraged students to attend the game, not only to support the football team and veterans, but also to contribute to the local community through the toy drive. “There is a huge need in Hillsdale County for this program,” Rardin said. “It grows every year unfortunately, but it fills a great need.” Rardin said he hopes Hillsdale students will donate. “I know Hillsdale College students,” Rardin said. “If they hear about it and realize there’s a need, I know they will respond.” Guests are asked to RSVP to Rardin by email at rrardin@ hillsdale.edu.

Feature

Ruddy named to national Allstate Good Works Team By Patrick Matteson

AssistAnt Editor

Hillsdale College football captain Shea Ruddy was named one of 22 members of the 2026 Allstate American Football Coaches Association Good Works Team Sept. 15, recognizing his commitment to community service alongside his achievements on the field and in the classroom. Ruddy, a senior biochemistry major, was selected from 162 nominees and is the second Hillsdale football player in the award’s 35-year history to receive the honor after Phil Davignon ’08 earned the award his senior year, according to James Gensterblum, director of athletic communications. Ruddy said he had largely

forgotten about his nomination until head coach Nate Shre#er announced his selection to the team. “Coach announced my selection and I was genuinely shocked,” Ruddy said. “I just felt honored to be on that team.” The honor recognizes work Ruddy has done through the football program and on his own. At Hillsdale, he has volunteered in Victory Day, a night of football for people in the community who have special needs. He also participates in the team’s “Be The Match” bone marrow registry drive, Military Appreciation Dinner, and other community events. Back home in Temperance, Michigan, Ruddy participates in Night to Shine, an event

Shea Ruddy against Northwood in 2025. Hillsdale Athletic Department | Sarah Chappelle

through the Tim Tebow Foundation that hosts a prom night for those with special needs. Head coach Nate Shre#er said Ruddy’s service reflects the character he brings to the football team. “He’s pretty selfless,” Shre#er said. “He’s one of those guys that puts himself out there, and is going to put others before himself.” Ruddy’s teammates overwhelmingly voted him a team captain, a role Shre#er said reflects his standing in the locker room. Shre#er also praised Ruddy’s leadership on the offensive side of the ball and his commitment to his studies as a pre-med student. “He’s a great student,” Shreffler said. “He’s been doing that grind for a long time.” Ruddy began volunteering at Hillsdale Hospital through the college’s GOAL Program. He spent two semesters serving in the emergency room before moving to the surgery department. Once a week, Ruddy works a two-hour shift, helping with whatever the hospital staff needs, whether it be restocking supplies, cleaning beds, or making sure patients are taken care of and comfortable. “Shea is an incredibly service-minded person,” junior Ryin Ruddy, Shea’s younger brother, said in an email. “My whole life, he has always looked for ways to help those around him. Even when he isn’t in a formal volunteering setting, he

is constantly looking for ways to serve others.” The experiences at the hospital have allowed Ruddy to spend time in a medical environment before pursuing his own career in medicine. He plans to attend medical school after graduation with hopes of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. His commitment to service, however, began before he arrived at Hillsdale. “Growing up, my parents always talked a lot about service and serving others, putting others first,” Shea Ruddy said. “Growing up in the church, service is obviously part of being a Christian, so I’ve always thought it's my responsibility and duty to help others out whenever I can.” For Ruddy, the value of serving is evident through the relationships that are formed through his events. “I can remember my sophomore year participating in Victory Day here at Hillsdale, and I was a chaperone for one of the individuals there, and we just had a great time,” Shea Ruddy said. “The next year I remember chaperoning the same guy and him remembering me and remembering the experience he had the year before, coming to me and being excited for the night. I thought that was a pretty cool experience, and it was very rewarding.” Ruddy’s service comes alongside a very accomplished athletic and academic career.

Shea Ruddy at Victory Day in 2025. Hillsdale Athletic Department | Ashley Van Hoose

He is a two-time All-American and a two-time Academic All-American. Ruddy’s 960 kickoff-return yards and three return touchdowns in 2025 earned him a Division II Conference Commissioners Association first team All-American honor. In his career, his 1,788 career return yards are Hillsdale and Great Midwest Athletic Conference records. “Being teammates with Shea is one of the greatest blessings I’ve been given,” Ryin Ruddy said. “He is not only a phenomenal football player, but also a great leader of men. He is always willing to offer advice and help his teammates improve on the field, while also setting a great example of how godly men should live off the field. Seeing him recognized for something that has been such a big part of who he is throughout his life makes it especially meaningful.” His football career has brought him national recogni-

tion for what he can do on the field. His work in Hillsdale and beyond has now brought him national recognition for what he chooses to do off the field. “Service generally can be overlooked, especially with athletics,” Shea Ruddy said. “We, as a football team, and I know the other athletic teams do too, but we do quite a bit of service and community outreach stuff, and I think that's really important.” Among the recipients for this year’s awards are athletes from the University of Notre Dame, the University of Texas, Duke University, and the University of Toledo. The Good Works Team, Shea said, is “definitely cool,” especially as a Hillsdale athlete competing for recognition alongside players from major Division I programs, but the commitment to service itself remains the point.

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

October 15, 2026

Jordan Wales suprises the Mock Rock crowd dressed as Jack Sparrow. Student Activities Board | disney Devin Houts Alumni and staff perform themed dances at Mock Rock. Courtesy | Devin Houts

Culture

Sauck goes from ‘Zero to Hero,’ wins Mock Rock By Sophia Bryant Features editor During homecoming week, alumni, faculty, and staff snuck around campus to practice a dance routine, a women’s coalition won Mock Rock, and a sophomore spent more than 100 hours building a dragon. The first non-student Mock Rock team performed as a surprise at the end of the competition while the judges began to compare notes. The team was organized by Executive Director of Alumni Relations David Stanton ’98, Manager of Alumni and Student Engagement Kaeleigh DiCello ’24, and Associate Director of Alumni Relations Braden VanDyke ’21. “We wanted it to be an opportunity to get alumni back together and remind students of the importance of alums and how much they still love the college and want to come back to campus and support the student body,” DiCello said. Stanton, VanDyke, and DiCello sent out an email to alumni on Hillsdale’s staff and faculty to gather interest. Jason Gehrke ’07, associate

professor of history, then sent another email to raise more interest and persuade his peers to participate. VanDyke designed the choreography for the team, and DiCello organized the meetings. It took VanDyke around a week to choreograph the dance, and he usually worked between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. “Mock Rock is such a highlight for the dorms because of the relationships that are built,” VanDyke said. “And I think that was exactly the same for the alumni team as well. You’re taking staff and faculty from a wide-ranging amount of departments and areas on campus that don’t normally interact. In a lot of ways, it’s a lot like the student experience as well.” The Gehrkes said most of the team’s practices happened from noon to 1 p.m., and the team members would try to look “incognito” while driving or walking to the practices. “Officially, I can’t tell you where we practiced, because that would compromise our future,” Jason Gehrke said. “DiCello coordinated everybody’s schedules and made practice happen at various clandestine locations in the vicinity.” Stanton said he enjoyed be-

coming friends with professors and staff members of different departments. “We all became quick friends, which made it absolutely worth it,” Stanton said. “So a lot of the practices were just us laughing as we tried to learn these moves. And then as we got closer, I think we got more serious and perhaps even more nervous. We wanted to do it well.” Abel Winn ’01, associate professor of economics, said it was nerve-wracking because the group’s first all-team practice happened an hour before Mock Rock. “So we didn’t have everybody together until that evening, and then we performed last,” Winn said. “So watching everybody else do their performances, I started forgetting what our moves were going to be, but I just told myself, ‘Once the music starts, it’ll probably all kick back in,’ and it did.” Stanton said he loved hearing the crowd’s screams at the announcement of the alumni team, and the cheers growing louder with each surprise professor appearance. “People cheered for us before we even set foot on the court,” Stanton said. “I think it took most of everybody’s

Suarez presents plein air paintings

feet,” Cole said. “You feel more present and sensitive to the subject matter then in some other types of painting beSail boats, classic cars, and a cause you simply cannot interblue house by an old bridge — act with or be surrounded by a how could these pictures have still life or portrait in such an been painted in two hours? encompassing way.” The art exhibit, titled “On This method of painting Location Painting,” attracted comes with a lot of pressure, over 70 people to the Fine Arts making it feel almost like a Building Oct. 9. Guests admired sport, according to Suarez. the pieces painted Cole said this in oils by Chairshort deadline man and Associalso prevents ate Professor of plein air piecArt Julio Suarez es from being as they chatted overdone. amid charcuterie “ There are boards, jellies, and only about two desserts. hours in which Suarez curone must proprently teaches erly place the drawing and oil shapes and valclasses, and in his ues within the own time paints composition,” “en plein air,” a she said. “The French term for weather could working outdoors quickly turn, so with natural light. one is painfulThe artist only has ly aware of the a short time frame finitude of evto complete each erything, and it piece as the scene forces one not to changes, accordprocrastinate.” ing to Suarez. Suarez said “After about when choosing Sophomore Elisa Nikkila observes "Nine to Five" at art exhibit. two hours, things what to paint, The Collegian | Elizabeth Caneday change quite a bit,” he doesn’t look Suarez said. “You for an interestcan always go back to the same “When you’re learning how ing scene, but for what makes spot at the same time of day and to paint or draw you’re trying an interesting picture. say, ‘If the weather’s similar, I’ll to see all this data,” Suarez said. “Interesting shapes, interestjust do it again.’ That’s definite- “It’s not about who can see the ing light effects, colors, textures ly a way to do it, and I’ll do that most details, it’s about seeing — just those ingredients,” Suarez sometimes. But most of these the big picture, the big rela- said. “It’s less about what things paintings that you’re going to tionships that all these pieces are, but more what they look like, see at the exhibit are one-shot, of information make.” which is what you learn as an two-hour paintings.” Suarez said he loves the nov- artist. You learn to see the world The exhibit will be open elty of painting something new in a certain way. That’s what I’m through Nov. 22 in the and the travelling that plein air trying to teach students here: Daughtrey Art Gallery. painting necessitates. how to see like an artist, like Senior Evelyn Gary, an art “A lot of them were done a painter, where you can find major who has taken Drawing 1 here in Michigan,” Suarez said. beauty everywhere if you look at and a watercolor class from Su- “There’s a great big boatyard it a certain way.” arez, said he is very gifted. south of Monroe that is fanWhile in school, Suarez found “I definitely aspire to cap- tastic for painting. Some were plein air painting frustrating. ture light the way he does, and done in Maine. I traveled to Aware of how much he still had shape, and to paint so quickly,” South Carolina to paint shrimp to learn, Suarez felt the outdoor Gary said. boats. Most were done right process stressful and wanted to Scanning the 47 pieces from here, either in South Haven or stay in the studio. afar, the paintings seem full of in South Monroe. There’s a lot “What happens if you like to loose brushstrokes and abstract of Michigan painting and sail- paint from direct observation, shapes and colors, which Suarez boats.” like I do, which means you’re said creates an illusion. Junior Margaret Cole, who working in front of the object “There’s a lot of abstract piec- has taken 11 classes with Su- or the person — not from phoes of paint where maybe you arez, added being plein air tographs — you eventually disthink there’s something there painting changes an artist’s cover that going outside is ideal but when you really look close, process. for that process — the process it’s not there,” Suarez said. “It’s “You feel the heat from the of interpreting what’s in front of very much an impressionist ap- sun’s light and the wind blow- you directly,” Suarez said. proach to painting, where I’m ing and the grass under your

By Trinity Gentry Collegian reporter

not painting objects. I’m painting light and the effects of light on objects and what they look like under these lighting conditions.” This illusion of detail shows the biggest technical challenge of plein air painting, which is the overload of information, according to Suarez. Plein air forces simplicity, Suarez added, and learning to paint simply is the goal.

nerves away, and then we were just having fun. And when the students got into it, it was just like ‘This is going to be great.’ At the end when we did the song from ‘Moana,’ when Dean Pete came out, it was definitely hard to hear the music because of the reaction.” Dean of Men Aaron Petersen ’96 ran out dressed as Maui from “Moana” at the end of the dance. “The alumni o$ce bullied me into it,” Petersen said in an email. “In the end it was quite fun.” Petersen said it was entertaining watching student reactions. He called the alumni participation in Mock Rock “a nod of respect” to the students for their efforts. “We had an absolute blast, so it was great, from that perspective on the floor, to hear and to watch the students react the way we hoped they would,” Stanton said. “We were out to have fun and in an interesting way, honor the work that they put into it and say ‘We’ll do it, too.’” In the weeks leading up to Mock Rock, students spent hours practicing and preparing. Sophomore Peter Vourax led Galloway Residence in de-

signing and building their approximately 24-foot-long dragon prop. “Last year, when I came in as a freshman to Galloway and homecoming started, our RAs showed us the video of the ships that we made the year before. That got me so hyped up for homecoming,” Vourax said. “And we won Mock Rock, again, with the worm. Then I was sold on helping Galloway with homecoming and all of its endeavors.” Vourax said from the week of fall break through homecoming week, if he wasn’t doing schoolwork or sleeping, he was working on the dragon he put more than 100 hours into. “All the people that came together to make that possible had to put it together and to get the materials, it was incredible,” Vourax said. “It was really a fantastic time for the whole dorm. And even if it was hard, we’ve grown a lot closer.” Freshman Mimi Dornbirer, who was a part of the Olds Residence team, said she was surprised when Olds came in second in Mock Rock. “I was a little bit unsure if I wanted to do it when the topic of homecoming came up,” Dornbirer said. “Like, ‘Oh, I

don’t know, This sounds like a lot. I’m gonna be super busy.’ But it was so worth it.” Sauck, the team for Sohn Residence and Mauck Residence, won Mock Rock this year. Seniors Angelina Gardner and Moriah Mitchell choreographed the dance. “I was sitting all the way at the top of the bleachers because I was not expecting it at all, and Moriah was sitting right next to me,” Gardner said. “And when they announced Sauck as the winner, I looked at her with the biggest eyes, and I was so confused and thought I heard it wrong, and then we just started sobbing. It was the best moment ever.” Gardner said her team had gymnasts and seven current and former Tower Dancers, and they tried to choreograph the dance to highlight everyone’s strengths. “I love how much a group can bond in Mock Rock because you’re with each other for at least an hour a day, if not two hours a day all together. It’s just fun,” Gardner said. “It’s fun to do something hard and create something together, and then to see it come to fruition.”

Alumni unite with choirs for homecoming performance By Megan Li senior editor The Homecoming Reunion Concert marked the first time Hillsdale’s three choirs each presented their own music at the same concert. Nearly 30 alumni joined the College Choir, Chamber Choir, and Choral Scholars onstage in Christ Chapel Oct. 10. “This has been really my dream since I’ve been involved in the program, to see the choral programs come together and produce a statement of choral music,” Director of Choirs Bradley Holmes said. “We’re all in this together now.” Holmes said the Choral Scholars, who spend most of their time singing for weekly Evensong services, recognized a need to be involved in different concerts and performances. “Alumni from all of the choirs will participate with us,” Holmes said. “This is huge for me because I really want to see this as a statement of coming together. At the same time, every choir is going to sing their own music, so they’re not losing their identity.” The College Choir also joined with the chapel to perform Evensong Oct. 11. Holmes said the choirs watching each other perform was like having guests at one’s house. “They’re going to sing something, and the other choirs become the audience,” Holmes said.

“You want to do the best, but it’s not competitive. Not like, ‘OK we win, the judges score you;’ it’s more, ‘Here’s what we can present to you,’ and I think it’s going to create a great atmosphere of encouragement between the ensembles.” Holmes said though the different choirs tend toward different styles of music, he and Associate Professor of Music Timothy McDonnell, who leads the Choral Scholars, wanted to try music that could bring all the choirs together. Along with the alma mater song, “White and Blue,” the three choirs sang “Jubilate Deo,” a piece brand new to everyone, and “Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether” together. “It’s a bring-us-together kind of tune. That’s all part of homecoming,” Holmes said. The alumni had one hour to learn the pieces on the day of the concert, according to Holmes. Holmes said the alumni rehearsed until 11:30 a.m. before the concert at noon, but they had coffee and donuts to get them through. Vinny Acuña ’26 said she loved coming back to sing with the choirs for the first time as an alumna and participate in that shared experience again. “It feels like everything has just stood still, like you come back and everything’s the same,” Acuña said. “There’s a sense in being in choir where you get to do something with so many other people, and you develop a community.”

Acuña said she appreciated that the pieces were easy to learn, and she enjoyed performing with the Choral Scholars. “It helped that everyone knew what they were doing,” Acuña said. “It was great to see everyone together.” Holmes had worked as assistant to the choral program last year and covered a sabbatical for James Holleman, retired professor of music, choirs, and orchestra. “What I love about Hillsdale is that these are bright minds and bright intellects and bright futures in the world, but they have an artistic understanding, and they’re bringing that artistry into their life,” Holmes said. Sophomore Norah Veliz, a member of Chamber Choir, said she loves the community of choir that allows her to make friends and sing. Veliz’s favorite piece from the performance was “The Moon is Distant from the Sea,” originally a poem by Emily Dickinson. “Everyone does it really well, and they’re really committed to doing the piece,” Veliz said. “There was just a lot of sensitivity to the music and the musicality of all the dynamics and the shaping, which I thought was really beautiful. And it’s always really enjoyable when everyone locks in.”

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

October 15, 2026

CULTURE

The Berofsky Piano Quartet performed as a family Orchestra concert By Sophia Bryant celebrates liberty F e eatures

ditor

Hillsdale’s music department hosted the Berofsky Piano Quartet Oct. 9. The quartet, made up of a family from Ann Arbor, Michigan, consists of Aaron Berofsky on the violin, Kathryn Votapek on the viola, Sebastian Berofsky on the cello, and Charles Berofsky on the piano. They played Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 16, Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, op. 87, and Danny Elfman’s “Piano Quartet.” Elfman composed the soundtracks for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire and “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” “The Dvořák is one of my favorite pieces of all time,” Aaron Berofsky said. “It’s hard to compete with it. It’s just so beautiful. I do feel like the Beethoven one is wonderful and a lot of

fun. It’s quite an early piece, and it’s a transcription from the wind piece, so it’s kind of unusual. But I think it’s very creative. The Elfman is so different.” Berofsky said they try to play in a classical style that is conversant. “I feel like classical music can feel almost like background music, but that drives us musicians crazy, because it is beautiful and lovely to listen to. We want to make sure it comes to life,” Berofsky said. He said that he and his wife wanted their sons to play an instrument of their own choice through high school, and a$er that, they didn’t expect or push them to be professional musicians. “We just wanted them to have their own identity, their own personality, and their own instrument,” Berofsky said. “And it really only dawned on us during COVID-19 that ‘Hey, we could sit down and play piano quartets.’ So it’s been about

five to six years that we’ve been playing together.” The quartet’s first performances were livestreamed from home during the pandemic, and they performed live for the first time in 2024. Now, Sebastian and Charles Berofsky both live in New York. “Now it’s not so easy to rehearse. I mean, it’s possible,” Aaron Berofsky said. “But we really have to plan, so we create these little pockets of time where we play. We played three times in Michigan and once in New York last week, and then we have a concert at the Kennedy Center in December.” Sophomore Tori Russell, who plays the cello in Hillsdale’s orchestra, said the quartet was amazing. “They worked so well together, and I think it was partly because they were a family,” Russell said. “You could tell they had a really good connection and eye contact.” Daniel Kuehler, assistant professor of music, said the

four musicians contributed to one cohesive musical effect. “When you hear great musicians like that, it just makes you fall in love with music again,” Kuehler said. “As a family, they’re so unified in everything that they do. Breathing together, phrasing together, the musical ideas are one.” Kuehler said great musicians make the performance look easy. “They make it look so easy, so it’s ‘I could do that,’ or ‘I could never do that,’” Kuehler said. “And that’s them. They have that sensation. Like when you watch them and you listen, they make it look so easy. Like ‘I could do that.’ But then at the same time, it takes such a lot of work to get to where they are. I thought it was incredible.”

Jazz quintet plays ‘the Keller game’ By Bristol Whitley Collegian reporter Paul Keller and his quintet thrilled the crowd with their classical-jazz mashup, “Swinging the Classics,” Oct. 9. Senior Nick Heide was invited to join the quintet onstage in the Plaster Auditorium to play a number with the group. Keller composes and arranges music for several ensembles based in Detroit. Keller’s quintet is made up of vibraphonist Cary Kocher, clarinetist and vocalist Sarah D’Angelo, pianist Cliff Monear, and guitarist Ralph Tope. The band played jazz renditions of Vivaldi, Beethoven, Mozart, and Dvořák among other classical works. In what Keller likes to call “The Keller Game,” they take the themes and harmonies of a song and riff on that. “We take the headlines, just the top melodies and the harmony that we can,” Keller said. “A lot of it we have to cut out.” As red, orange, and green lights glowed behind the stage, the band laughed and Keller

called out cues on the bandstand. Sarah D’Angelo stepped up to the microphone to introduce a song she wrote to a theme from Johannes Brahms. “Lots of us have a classical background,” D’Angelo said. “It’s kind of my first love.” Cary Kocher has played with Keller since they were in high school. “What we’re proud of, and what I’m proud of, is the package that we’re able to put together by putting a little thought into the repertoire and really making it jazz and making it our own,” Kocher said. Freshman David Oduwusi said he started listening to jazz last year and attended the concert with friends. “Jazz has a unique flow, so when they took classical pieces and added a bit of jazz to them it gave a sense of familiarity, and then brought unpredictability with it,” Oduwusi said. “All the musicians seemed really alive.” Halfway through the show, Keller called up Heide to the bandstand. Keller and Heide got to know each other two years ago when Keller was a

judge for Battle of the Combos and heard Heide play. “We played a little bit together, and we just hit it off because we love all the same old jazz artists,” Heide said. “We love the same style and we’re just kind of aligned in what we enjoy.” Heide started learning piano when he was 9 years old, and fell in love with jazz composers like Red Garland and Vince Guaraldi. Onstage, Keller and Heide improvised these great artists they share a love for. “I think the three pianists he threw out there were Teddy Wilson, Earl Hines, and Duke Ellington. He knows those are my favorites,” Heide said. The experiences that Keller and Heide share, and their knowledge of the greatest that played before them have made moments of spontaneous improvisation possible. Keller said his preferred group to perform with is his quintet, yet he hadn’t brought them to Hillsdale until “Swinging the Classics.” He says he loves to play with the quintet because of a musical term called tutti.

“It means that everybody’s playing the same rhythm,” Keller said. “I like doing that with no horns and no drums. I just love it when we’re all playing the same melody or even better, a harmonized melody.” The quintet has been playing together for years, but every gig takes diligent and creative preparation, as Keller said during the show. In fact, Keller said that they’ve been practicing for this concert for months. “We like to make it look like magic, like it’s easy and we just do it falling off a log,” Keller said. “But there was a lot of effort that went into putting that together.” He said communication is how the quintet survives. As for his personal success, Keller says it has a lot to do with daily dedication, practice, and work, but that he also had to follow a dream. “I’m a lot like Nick. I fell in love with it at a very early age,” Keller said. “And I selfishly went a$er my own dream and took charge of my own happiness. And so I live in this little fantasy world that I love.”

Scottish musician to perform at Dawn Theater By Charlee Amason Collegian reporter Scottish folk musician Jim Malcolm will return to Hillsdale on Saturday, Oct. 17, for an evening of Scottish music, storytelling, and humor at the Dawn Theater. The concert begins at 7 p.m. and will be the second time Malcolm has performed at the Dawn and the third time he has performed in Hillsdale since 2012. Mary Wolfram, chair of the Friends of the Dawn Theater, helps organize programming and first discovered Malcolm years ago at the Celtic Roots festival in Goderich, Ontario. There he was the lead singer of Celtic band the Old Blind Dogs. She has followed his career since and brought him out for the 2022 concert. “Jim has a fantastic voice, and he chooses a very pleasing repertoire,” Wolfram said. Patrick Whalen, Hillsdale resident and lifelong listener of Malcolm’s music, said he first began listening to Malcolm in high school. Whalen also played in a band that imitated Malcolm’s work with the Old Blind Dogs, which performed traditional Scottish songs with drums and added energy. “Jim’s voice is incredible. It’s like liquid gold pouring over a song,” Whalen said. “You’ll just have to go see for yourself.” Whalen said Malcolm’s recordings of songs written by Scottish poet Robert Burns stand out to him. Whalen described Malcolm as a translator

of older Scottish songs, preserving their original character while making them accessible to modern audiences. “To my ear, he gives the songs their due while making them cohere for us contemporaries,” Whalen said. Wolfram said Malcolm appeals to a broad range of audiences, which makes him a good fit for the theater’s programming. “Jim is also an excellent performer who knows how to hold the audience’s attention. He will mix in humorous stories

idents and Hillsdale College students can experience live performances. Wolfram said the theater hopes to become a part of Hillsdale’s broader cultural life and contribute to the renewal of downtown. “An active Dawn Theater can be a catalyst for economic development, bringing more people to downtown Hillsdale. The arts drive economic development, attracting patrons to restaurants, hotels, and local shops,” Wolfram said. Malcolm said he enjoys returning to Hillsdale because of

Hillsdale beyond the college. Wolfram said students who may not typically attend a folk music performance should try something different. “Don’t go to Hillsdale College for four years without experiencing Hillsdale, the town,” Wolfram said. Whalen said Scottish and Irish folk music offer students different perspectives on the human experience, with songs addressing subjects such as love, war, friendship, jealousy and everyday life. “For Hillsdale students, I think they might serve as helpful ballast against excessive abstraction and intellectualization,” Whalen said. Wolfram wanted to inform students that the Friends of the Dawn Theater welcomes volunteers and suggestions for future performers. Students who volunteer to work an event can receive free admission. Tickets cost $12 in advance and $15 at the door and can be purchased on their website, friendsofthedawn.com. Light concessions will be available, including beer and wine for guests 21 and older. The concert is sponsored by Hillsdale Renaissance, a local real estate company owned by Luke Robson ’17 and is supported by the Michigan Arts and Culture Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

“Jim’s voice is incredible. It’s like liquid gold pouring over a song. You’ll just have to go see for yourself.” of Scottish culture and his own, personal life experiences,” Wolfram said. The performance offers audiences something beyond a typical concert, mixing music with humor and storytelling. Malcolm said he hopes to give audiences a taste of Scottish history and culture without making the experience feel like a classroom. The Friends of the Dawn Theater look for performers who can appeal to a broad range of patrons rather than niche acts that attract a smaller audience, Wolfram said. In a small town like Hillsdale, a theater should reach the different pockets and segments of the community. The Dawn Theater first opened in 1919, and it provides another local venue where res-

its energy and the mix of longtime residents and young families. He also praised the Dawn Theater as a historic venue at the heart of the community. “Two years ago, mine was the first concert in the Dawn Theater a$er it was refurbished, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it has come along since then,” Malcolm said. Wolfram also hopes the theater can connect college students with the local community. Although Hillsdale College offers free performances, she said some residents may feel intimidated about visiting campus. The Dawn Theater offers a familiar place for community members to experience live entertainment. It can also give students an opportunity to explore

By Francesca Cella opinions editor The Hillsdale College Symphony Orchestra and Hillsdale College Chamber Orchestra performed “Liberty’s Legacy: An America 250 Concert” as the first orchestra concert of the academic year on Sunday. It was also the orchestras’ first concert with Director of Sacred Music and Associate Professor of Music Timothy McDonnell as their conductor. The afternoon’s program opened with Morton Gould’s “American Salute,” followed by Dana Suesse’s “American Nocturne.” It also included “Krazy Kat: A Jazz Pantomime,” which was composed by John Alden Carpenter and based on George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat” comic strip. Assistant Professor of Education Timothy Green narrated the lines from the comic that accompanied the music. The program concluded with Symphony No. 2, Op. 30, “Romantic,” by Howard Hanson. Fifth year Charlie Cheng said he appreciated the selection of music. “The selections of music were not only on theme but also beautiful by themselves,” Cheng said. “It’s refreshing to me personally to hear a concert full of American music, because in the classical world, American music is sometimes ignored.” Assistant Professor of Music Daniel Kuehler said the program reflected the different genres that American music comprises. “I think McDonnell did a really good job of choosing

Simpson from A1 “There had been an account in the past that we would normally post our homecoming video on, but it wasn’t officially Simpson. It was some random Instagram account. So, I thought ‘yeah, we need to make this,’ and I checked with all the other RAs, a n d they were like ‘yeah, go o d idea,’” Furness said. Coop e r Va n d e r Galien, a junior and resident assistant

all different styles because it was like an appetizer platter,” Kuehler said. “You got to see a Civil War tune that was really big and bombastically presented in a classical kind of way. It was like a military band, but it also was a symphony orchestra that was playing it. You have the jazz, and then you have the cartoon music, the play music, and then the classical symphony.” The performance’s concert master and senior Isabelle Ekstrom said she was very happy with how the orchestras played. “It was gorgeous,” Ekstrom said. “The echoes perfectly resounded through the chapel, and there was this intense energy from all of the players. We were there ready to perform. We were itching to broadcast this music to everybody who came to listen.” Ekstrom said she is looking forward to learning more music and performing in future concerts with McDonnell. “We are used to easing into the music, and so for him to immediately start and say, ‘No, we’re doing it this way,’ was amazing,” Ekstrom said. “We’ve really come a long way from where we started at the beginning of the semester, and I think we’re just going to keep getting better and more musical. We’re developing our musicianship by performing in this orchestra.”

someone to film, and then Nathan edits all the videos. He does great with that,” he said. Some of the Reels include showshocking material like Vander Galien jumping on junior Ethan Roth’s back and slapping his rear end and freshman Lorenzo Vitale dancing shirtless to the theme song from “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.” “ It ’s really easy to avoid e m barrassment b e cause w e h a v e t h e freshmen do all the embarrassing things. But it’s also about not taking yourself

A post on the Simpson Residents Instagram account. Courtesy | simpson_residence

in Simpson, said the process for coming up with content is simple. “Our ideas usually come from a trend we see on Instagram or another Reel we see someone do, and then we either try to do it better or we try to put our own Simpson twist on it,” he said. Vander Galien stars in the account’s 1.4 million-view video, in which he walks past a Simpson room where Hill vacuums the ceiling and sophomore Andrew Spiegel plays golf off freshman Daniel Vander Galien’s mouth. He then turns to make sure he’s not seeing things, but by the time he enters the room, the residents are all peacefully reading books, one of which is upside down. The text on the video reads: “When the RA walks past that ONE room.” Sophomore Carson Brower, another resident assistant, said the Reels team has a group chat on Instagram. “Our group chat is called ‘Simpson Residence Reel Ideas.’ It’s kind of our excuse to scroll a little bit, but we’ll find ones we like and send them there. We also see each other in the dorm at night and talk about good ones to make. We’ll find

too seriously. It’s kind of weird knowing that a million different people saw that one Reel, but it’s fun having people you know come up and say, ‘oh, you were in that Reel,’” Vander Galien said. Brower said the underclassmen are eager to star in the Reels. “It definitely builds friendship and camaraderie, but I don’t necessarily think that’s why we do it,” he said. “We did it because we saw some Reels we liked and thought it would be really funny. Once we did it, people started hearing about it, and then they started coming up and asking to be in a Reel. We try to find a way to get everyone involved who wants to be involved.” Furness went further and said that the account is the natural result of Simpson’s culture. “Because we already have a good culture, and because people are already doing stuff in the halls every night anyway, it’s just the next step in a culture that’s already really positive,” Furness said. “It’s not like the account has fostered culture, it’s more like culture fosters the account.”

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October 15, 2026 B3

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Q u i c k H i t s : Couples meet at the Contact Center James Strasburg By Blake Schaper

CollegiaN reporter

Strasburg in Berlin, Germany in 2015. Courtesy | James Strasburg

By Elijah Guevara

News editor

In this Quick Hits, Associate Professor of History James Strasburg discusses mountain biking, movies, and Germany. What’s your favorite thing about Hillsdale students? The desire to dig deep into the first things, the most essential questions. If you weren’t a history professor, what would you be doing? One of my abiding passions is woodworking. I love to build furniture. Furthermore, I know there’s definitely this growing intrigue across the college, and maybe among students, in the trades and how some of these vocations in the trades relate to the liberal arts and to a life of flourishing. I could see myself having become a woodworker or carpenter. What’s your favorite childhood memory? This would probably certify me as a history nerd, but some of my earliest memories are of visiting Civil War battlefields with my dad and grandfather. We would go on these epic, multi-week camping trips each summer, and if we were heading to the East Coast or to the South, we would often stop at Civil War battlefields along the way. My memories of touring Antietam and Gettysburg were some early experiences that contributed to my interest in history. What’s your favorite sport? I picked up mountain biking when I was in graduate school at Notre Dame, just as a way to get a break from hitting the books and being so deep into studies. It’s something I’ve grown to love. Where are some of the best places you’ve mountain biked? I’ve had the real good fortune to get to mountain bike in some really awesome spots, and particularly memorable locations. The Keweenaw Peninsula in Northern Michigan has an amazing trail network, and really, any place up north in Michigan is great. Michigan is a bit of a sleeper state in terms of having great single-track trails. Do you have a pop culture hot take? “A Goofy Movie” is, handsdown, the best Disney movie. Thirty years later, and I’m still waiting for the Powerline album to drop. Do you have any favorite movies? Two movies come to mind: “A Hidden Life” by Terrence Malick, which documents the life of Franz Jägerstätter, who was an Austrian farmer who chose to resist the Nazis. It’s a very powerful film. The other film I love is “The Count of Monte Cristo” with Jim Caviezel.

What’s something you’ve read for fun that people might not guess? One of my favorite books is “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War,” by Max Brooks. The film was not so great. But the book — maybe this is another hot take — should be considered as a classic piece of literature. The book does a great job of exploring how a virus could spread through the globalized world we live in, and through the infrastructure and networks that originated particularly in the 20th-century world. Do you have a favorite music artist? I’ve gotten really into Phoebe Bridgers’ music. I liked her second album, “Punisher,” in particular. What’s the most interesting place you’ve lived in? I ended up in Germany for four years after a combination of opportunities to study abroad came up. I taught at the University of Heidelberg for about two years, but I haven’t been back in a while, so that’s on my to-do list. What was your favorite part about living in Germany? If I could recommend anything to students other than getting off of your phones as much as possible, it would be to study abroad. I think that can just be a super worthwhile experience, and it offers a comparative lens on what we have going on here in the United States. While it allows me to appreciate a lot of the gifts we have in the United States, studying abroad also just gave me a slightly different angle on the West and what Western culture can look like. If you could learn any foreign language, what would you learn? I did study Chinese for a while, and I know just a couple of key phrases. But I’m very intrigued by Japanese, too, and I think maybe someday doing an immersion language program in Japan will be on my to-do list. Why Chinese and Japanese? I think we do a great job of studying the beauty of the Western tradition. But I think the Eastern traditions might have their own voice, too, about some of these essential questions we explore, that could be worthy of consideration as well. For one, the ideas of the Confucian philosophers loom large and talk a lot about the proper balance between the individual and the community, and the role familial devotion should play in the individual’s good life. What’s your favorite part about teaching at Hillsdale? It’s getting to spend time with some of the best that has been thought, said, and written throughout all of human history. I feel so fortunate to return to the Western Heritage course each fall, to spend time listening to these individuals and voices from the past, and hearing what they had to say.

For several students, Hillsdale Contact Center became the setting of their love story. Senior and Whitley Residence head RA Nolan Lazuka met his fiance, sophomore McIntyre Residence RA Grace Torsch, when Lazuka was recreating the Battle of Normandy with toy army guys and tissue boxes. “I remember specifically meeting him on the day that there had been a really big storm and the power went out of the Contact Center, and we were all playing Uno, except for Nolan,” Torsch said. “Nolan had found a bunch of army guys and was sending them into a formation. And I was watching him play the little battle.” They struck up a conversation and became friends. After that, Lazuka noticed that Torsch stood out above the rest — literally. “Grace did this thing where she sat weird in the chair and that would make her taller than all the cubicles. When I was team leading, I could see everybody, but hers would be the only head that stuck out,” Lazuka said. “So I would talk to her, and then after a while of realizing that she had a really good sense of humor and that she was good at dealing with people. On the phones, you really get to see how people deal with people, how kind they are and how tactful they can be. And so after that, I realized that I like her a lot.” The two announced their engagement this September, becoming one of the many engaged couples who found love at the Contact Center. The Contact Center assists donors, prospective students, and event attendees with their questions about Hillsdale. Assistant Director of the Contact Center DeNell Nelson said

about six or seven engaged couples met through their work at the Contact Center, including seniors Joshua Marting and Olivia Gonzalez, and alumni Ritchie Johnston ’25 and Anna Johnston ’26. The first couple became engaged in 2018, and Nelson said she attended two weddings of former employees in 2022. “I am only counting the couples that actively started dating and most of them were engaged when they were still working at the Contact Center,” Nelson said. “I couldn’t tell you about

ple, they might get hot chocolate and talk about their favorite toppings and then all of a sudden, a friendship has started.” Torsch said their managers at the Contact Center, Nelson and Spiteri, set her and Lazuka up after noticing their synergy, and also said the two have done the same for past couples. “It’s very common for them to do that,” Torsch said. “Lazuka used to tell our boss about the fact that he was going to ask me out. Everyone in the office knew that he liked me before I did.” Torsch said the atmosphere of the Contact Center has created some of her closest friendships. “You kind of trauma bond,” Torsch said. “You get phone calls and people that are just absolutely nuts, or people that really need help. Sometimes you are sitting there, and you are crying because someone just told you this traumatic story on the phone and then your coworker has to comfort you and say, ‘Oh yeah, the other day, I got a crazy call too.’” Lazuka said anyone who is dating someone must be attentive to their words and actions. “It’s really important to know how your potential spouse interacts with people, especially around people that they’ll never see again,” Lazuka said. “It says a lot about a person’s character. Stay attuned to listening to how other people talk.” Nelson said she is proud of how the Contact Center’s community creates lifelong friends and spouses. “Hillsdale College has done an amazing job to curate this group of wonderful human beings who genuinely want to improve themselves in every way, and it just creates something so special, and we are so lucky to be able to show that to the world,” Nelson said. “That’s my favorite thing about the Contact Center.”

“You would have to imagine a room full of extroverted people who volunteer to talk on the phone are going to chat with each other.” students that have gone on and reconnected with a fellow alumni or someone that they worked with, and then gotten engaged.” Executive Director of Business Development Services Mary Margaret Spiteri said the secret behind the Contact Center’s romantic atmosphere is a combination of chatty students and a close-knit, welcoming work environment. “Depending on what the college is doing, we may or may not be super busy,” Spiteri said. “If we’re not that busy, then in between calls, you would have to imagine a room full of extroverted people who volunteer to talk on the phone are going to chat with each other. And I think that’s where people start to get to know each other here.” Nelson said Hillsdale has many cliques, but the Contact Center brings different areas of campus together. “Because people aren’t in groups of their friends — it is just that individual in a cubicle and you in the next cubicle — and so it is a little easier to commiserate in some way about work or classes or anything,” Nelson said. “There’s also usually snacks or things for the agents to bond over. For exam-

Cycle from B4 There are currently 10 members of the Unicycle Society, and Holzwarth is figuring out the best structure to foster a sense of community without taking things too seriously. Freshman and member Veronica Niemeyer said she is very enthusiastic about learning how to ride. “Gabe is a very eccentric and exciting man whose passion is infused in the society,” Niemeyer said. Holzwarth’s roommate, freshman Aleksander Watson, described him as kind and considerate. “The unicycle is something that seems so foreign to most people today, but I will say that confidently seeing him fly around campus on it is a hilariously awesome spectacle,” Watson said. Holzwarth said he encourages all of campus to pursue things that bring them joy. “Whether it be a walk in the Arb, a cup of coffee, or learning how to ride the unicycle, don’t forget to feed your soul,” Holzworth said. He also welcomes everyone to ask about his unicycle and the Unicycle Society, and to embrace the strangeness despite what other people might say. “I would invite anyone who knows me, whether just as ‘unicycle guy’ or has actually had a conversation with me, to decide for themselves if they think I’m a fundie,” Holzwarth said. “Either way, I couldn’t care less, which probably makes me a fundie.”

‘Deep roots’: Students who call Hillsdale home By Sophia Bryant

Features editor When Hillsdale Academy graduate and current sophomore Andrew Spiegel started at Hillsdale College, he felt like he’d moved to a different town. “It was weird, feeling like I had moved, but then I would go downtown, and it’s the same downtown that I experienced in high school,” said Spiegel. “So it is weird because I’m still here, and you get those reminders when you go to places that you’re familiar with, but for the most part, you forget that you’re in the same spot because everyone’s different.” Junior Evelyn Gray, who has lived in Hillsdale for 15 years and graduated from the Academy, said the academics at the college were familiar, but everything else was completely unknown to her. “It was harder than I expected,” Gray said. “Hillsdale the town is a bubble, and then Hillsdale College is a bubble within it. And so I was like, ‘OK, I’m living in the same town. It’s similar academics. I’ve got a lot of classmates going. I’ll be just fine.’ But then you throw in a couple hundred other people, orientation, and living in a dorm away from your family.” Gray said she appreciates being able to invest in college life while also staying close to her family. “One thing that I love about Hillsdale is it’s easy to put down deep roots here,” Gray said. “There are just really wonderful people, both in the community and at the college, and so it’s just full of people who are genuinely seeking the Lord and trying to do good things.” Senior Max Cote, who has lived in Hillsdale for 10 years,

said he didn’t find the adjustment to college difficult, since his parents live four blocks away. He said that since he hated doing laundry in Simpson Residence his freshman year, he brought his laundry home. “So on the weekends, I would just go home for a couple hours and spend time with my family and do laundry and catch up with my siblings,” Cote said. Cote said he loves being able to hang out with college

like that has been super fun.” For Cote, Hillsdale feels more like home during the summer and winter breaks. Cote’s nine siblings, his nieces and nephews, and his high school friends all come back to town for Christmas. “During the summer and the winter, when I get to see all my high school friends, when I get to see my family, that’s the time that I cherish the most as being like a student who lives in town,” Cote said.

Tim, Anne, Elizabeth, and Evelyn Gray on the Baw Beese Trail. Courtesy | Megan Gray

friends at his parents’ house. “We have a pool, so freshman through junior year, I was having people over to the pool all the time,” Cote said. “My family does a lot of brunches on Sundays after church, so inviting people over for brunch, introducing my parents to my friends and people

Cote doesn’t have to travel more than 10 minutes to hang out at his friends’ houses during breaks. “I describe it as having a carousel of friends,” Cote said. “So I have my college friends that are here during the school year, and then when they all leave, all of my high school

friends come back, and I can hang out with all those people.” C ote and Gr ay b ot h said they love the quiet of summers in Hillsdale. “It feels kind of empty, but in a slow and peaceful sort of way,” Gray said. “By the end of the summer, I’m like, ‘OK, I’m ready for people to come back and to be back on campus.’” Spiegel’s family moved from Bloomington, Indiana, to Hillsdale in 2023, during his sophomore year of high school. He had previously spent a semester studying abroad in LaPaz, the capital city of Bolivia. “By contrast, Hillsdale felt ver y quiet, and j u s t s m a l l e r,” S p i e g e l . Spiegel said in Bloomington, he and his friends would go downtown or to a mall for fun. In Hillsdale, Spiegel and his friends go hunting or to tractor pulls for fun. “Those had never been like activities that I would really do a lot, and so learning just what a lot of those things were, and how to do them, was an adjustment,” Spiegel said. “But once I did, I just loved and appreciated that lifestyle.” Cote, Gray, and Spiegel called the Hillsdale County Fair the quintessential Hills dale exp erience. “Going there, riding some rides, eating some fried food, and going to the derby or tractor pulls or something like that, it doesn’t get more Hillsdale than that,” Spiegel said. “And that’s where I’m actually the most in touch with the little roots that I do have here.”

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October 15, 2026

Holzwarth riding his unicycle at 14 years old.

Holzwarth rides his unicycle around campus.

Courtesy | Kimberly Holzwarth

Courtesy | Barstooldale's Instagram Page

Campus ‘Unhinged and free’: Freshman unicycles around campus Characters: By Reagan Vicars

CollegiaN FreelaNCer

Daniel Sturdy By Lonán Mooney

CollegiaN reporter Daniel Sturdy is a senior from Portage, Michigan. He is now a Spanish major after switching from biochemistry. He is the president of Theta Epsilon music fraternity and a barista at Penny’s. When he’s not organising Battle of the Bands, you’ll find him writing music. What is your Penny’s order? A brown sugar shaken espresso with maple and a quad shot. What is your most “Hillsdale” trait? I will procrastinate on my work and then say “strength rejoices in the challenge” (that I make for myself). What’s your unpopular opinion? There need to be more restrictions placed on Amish communities. Partly, because we don’t know how many of them there are, because they don’t publish birth rates. What is your best advice for freshmen? Get involved as early as possible, and make friends outside of your immediate circle, or start dating your coworkers. What’s the longest you’ve stayed up to study?

studying was 30 hours for organic chemistry. How is the music scene at Hillsdale? I’m very happy with the music scene at Hillsdale (rush Theta Epsilon). Get involved in music on campus because it’s very enriching for the soul. Do you think we have the potential for another Schizmatics-like band from Hillsdale? Absolutely, absolutely I do. What was your childhood dream job? I had a couple when I was growing up, the ones that stayed around the longest were I wanted to be a doctor, and I wanted to be an actor or some musician. What is your spirit animal? The mole from the book, “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse,” by Charlie Mackesy, because he is very rational and tries to see the good in characters like the fox. There’s this part where the fox says, “if I wasn’t trapped in the snare I’d kill you,” and the mole says “if you stay in that snare you’ll die,” and the mole releases him, regardless of the threat, placing the wellbeing of the fox above his own self-preservation. This really shows that there is good in everyone, and you have trust in other people, even if you risk hurt.

The longest I’ve stayed up

Freshman Gabriel Holzwarth rides around campus on his unicycle with a second unicycle slung over his shoulder. Holzwarth grew up in South Dakota on his family’s farm, where his two older brothers bought unicyles and taught themselves how to ride. When they left for college, they hung up their unicycles in the garage, where Holzwarth discovered them with his third brother, Isaac. In the summer of 2016, when Holzwarth was 11, he and Isaac began learning by using the garage door as a crutch until they were able to ride to the mailbox and beyond. “For about two or three weeks, in most of the spare moments we had, we would go out and practice. Eventually, we worked up the courage to push away from the wall and see how far we could make it,” Holzwarth said. A f ter g radu at i ng h ig h school, Holzwarth took a gap year in Cincinnati, Ohio, for a Biblical studies program. Then Holzwarth, accompanied by his unicycle, attended South Dakota State University for two years, where he got his associates degree in agricultural science. On the surface, he ap-

peared to be thriving at SDSU, when in reality he had begun struggling with anxiety and depression. “When I was at SDSU, riding the unicycle was one of the things I felt brought some semblance of sanity and stability to my life when it was absolutely falling apart,” Holzwarth said. “Almost paradoxically, the slight imbalance that one feels on a unicycle was one of the most stable things that I was experiencing in my life at the time.” As his mental state declined further, Holzwarth finally realized he needed to reach out for help. “It was the beginning of a very long journey, which is still ongoing, but particularly the beginning of interacting with the world of counselors and therapists,” Holzwarth said. He then returned home where he continued to farm corn, wheat, soybeans, and oats. “After receiving incredible help from working with a mental health professional, and after that first six months of feeling like I had some relief from three years of living hell, I saw not only the need I had for it in my own life, but the growing need for it in rural America,” Holzwarth said. “I decided to take a shot at my growing inter-

est in contributing to that field myself.” Holzwarth is pursuing a degree in psychology and theology at Hillsdale, and hopes to work with farmers and their families to raise awareness for mental health needs in the community. “I wouldn’t be at Hillsdale, I might not even be alive without that kind of help and support,” Holzwarth said. His heart for rural Americans stemmed from his own experience with the “grin and bear it” attitude that permeates the culture, as well as the lack of awareness for mental health issues. “There’s a time and place when it’s the middle of harvest two days before the snow comes, but not everything is a crunch-time harvest situation,” Holzwarth said. Along with his studies, Holzwarth has not given up his love for the unicycle. “It’s a way for me to not take myself too seriously. I am aware that unicycling is ridiculous and stupid and quirky. And I love it for that reason,” Holzwarth said. “If I’m going to be studying the deepest problems with the human psyche, I need to find a way to provide some balance for myself.” Holzwarth said it’s important to feed one’s soul with

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activities that infuse joy and childlike wonder into everyday life, and he is excited that he has the opportunity to do something even Plato and Aristotle did not have the chance to do. Beyond the personal benefits of riding a unicycle, Holzwarth said he sees unicycling as a way to intentionally spread joy to those around him, both through their observation and participation. “I know the potential for a person’s college experience to be absolutely awful, and if my unicycle brings a smile to their face or can open up a conversation, then it’s worth it.” Holzwarth said. “If there’s any way that I can provide the ridiculous gift of how unhinged and free unicycling can be, then I want to take that chance.” This is why Holzwarth carries a second unicycle with him around campus, and why he founded the Unicycle Society, an unofficial club at Hillsdale. The group’s motto is adapted from Albert Einstein’s quote, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” The society replaced “bicycle” with its onewheeled equivalent.

See Cycle on B3

Christ Chapel Proper Confidence: LEADING WITH PEACE IN AN AGE OF ANXIETY

BISHOP THOMAS JOHNSTON

Anglican Bishop Thomas Johnston (retired) has extensive experience bringing the love, promise, and power of Christ to struggling people and communities whose circumstances offer little reason for hope. As a leader and social entrepreneur, Bishop Johnston promotes organizations that provide genuine solutions to pressing local problems. Presently, he is the chief executive officer of the Global Water Center, an organization dedicated to helping marginalized people throughout the world gain access to safe, clean water.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2026 4:00 P.M. IN CHRIST CHAPEL

Daniel Sturdy performs at Boondocks. Courtesy | Theta Epsilon

The Drummond Lectures in Christ Chapel address matters of faith, learning, and related issues of the day. These lectures are delivered in Christ Chapel to the College community.