Aerial photo shows progress on the quad after the college broke ground on the Diana Davis Spencer Graduate School of Classical Education during spring break. Jack Cote | Collegian
Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Vol. 147 Issue 23 – March 28, 2024
Hillsdale student defends vaccine
Jack Gohlke upsets March Madness, sets 3-point record
consent age in Vermont Senate
By Alex Deimel Assistant editor
By Ameera Wilson Collegian Reporter Children should not be able to receive vaccines without parental consent, said sophomore Alya MacManaway to the Vermont state Senate. MacManaway, a student from Vermont, spoke up against a bill which would allow minors to receive vaccinations without parental permission. “I have been involved with the Health Freedom movement through my family for a long time and when my mom suggested that I go with her to testify I thought why not?” she said. This bill specifically referred to vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases for minors of 12 years or older. “Not only would the parents not be informed of any preventative measures taken, but both the medical professionals and insurance companies would be required to actively hide this information from parents,” MacManaway said. MacManaway argued minors are not qualified nor knowledgeable enough to understand the risks involved with these vaccines. “A minor is neither equipped to make an informed medical decision, nor deal with the consequences of that decision,” she said. Minors could be pressured to participate in medical pro-
cedures without protection of parents, according to MacManaway, referencing consequences of a bill passed in Washington, D.C. “A similar bill was passed in D.C. in 2022, and during the process of repeal, a 12 year old’s experience of being coerced through peer pressure to take an unwanted vaccine was cited,” MacManaway said. “I have a serious concern that if this section of S151 goes onto the books, it will open up similar coercion in my home state.” Madison Gilbert, a sophomore, said she agreed with MacManaway’s sentiment and added that this is both damaging to parental responsibilities and children’s innocence. ”By passing this bill, they are undermining their parents’ authority for their child, and giving children an option for this reinforces the idea that they could have sex,” Gilbert said. Sophomore Rebekah Preston said this bill is a slippery slope. “I think that passing a bill like that would raise the danger of parents’ consent in other areas, including gender changing surgeries,” Preston said. MacManaway emphasized the danger of the bill but also encouraged young people to come forward with opinions, regardless of perceived difficulties.
See Senate A2
When Hillsdale graduate Jack Gohlke ’23 stepped off the court following his team’s upset victory over the University of Kentucky Wildcats in the NCAA basketball tournament, the sixth-year senior for the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies had just etched his name in the record books. His 32 points on 10 3-pointers and two free throws on the night of March 21 made him not only the fifth player ever to score 10 three-point shots in an NCAA tournament game, but they briefly made him the most celebrated athlete in the country. His 16 3-pointers were the most over a two game span in NCAA tournament history. The Wall Street Journal called the Charger alumnus with a degree in accounting a “newly-minted March Madness hero.” The Athletic dubbed him “the NCAA Tournament hero we never saw coming.” The New York Times described him as “a 24-year-old graduate student with a widow’s peak and the same regard for shot selection as a gunslinger busting through saloon doors.” Although Gohlke and the Golden Grizzlies lost in overtime to the North Carolina State Wolfpack two days later, Gohlke’s star continued to rise. The Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year award winner has surpassed 70,000 social media followers, appeared on multiple national sports media shows,
Jack Gohlke played basketball for Hillsdale before transferring to Oakland University where he led the Grizzlies to an upset victory over No. 3 seed University of Kentucky in the first round of March Madness. Clarence Round | Oakland Athletics
and already obtained his own lineup of brand deals. The loss to the Wolfpack ended Gohlke’s college basketball career. But this final year with the Golden Grizzlies is only a small part of a storied career. “I just want to give so much credit to my Hillsdale coaches and Hillsdale teammates for believing in me and also peo-
Bob Flynn retires after 46 years at WCSR By Lauren Scott City News editor The voice of Hillsdale will go silent tomorrow, at least on the airwaves, when Bob Flynn of WCSR retires after 46 years. “It’s been a wonderful ride,” Flynn said. “I have enjoyed every minute of it.” Flynn started working part
time at WCSR the summer after his sophomore year at Hillsdale High School, which was in 1978. He started working full time in 1986. Flynn said his father, Dale Flynn, worked at WCSR in the 1950s. “I would tag along with him and come down and watch him be on the radio and he’d let me do little things
Bob Flynn smiles behind the mic at the WCSR station. Lauren Scott | Collegian
like find records for him, gather some of the news for him, things like that,” he said. “And I thought, ‘Well, this is cool. He gets paid for talking. I could do that.’” Flynn covers the news and announces birthdays on air, but he said he doesn’t have particular segments. “There’s no set structure to my program and I find that
most fun,” he said. Flynn said the best part of his job is that when he sits behind the microphone, he never knows what will happen. Aaron Petersen, Hillsdale College dean of men, said Flynn has been a blessing to Hillsdale. “Bob truly has been the voice of Hillsdale,” Petersen said. “When I came back to work for the college, I would hear him on the radio during the week and at church doing the readings on the weekend.” Flynn often reads during Mass at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church. Flynn said he believes it is time to retire because of the direction WCSR and radio in general is headed. “We’re getting more into digital advertising,” he said. “We’re getting more into the social media aspect of things. And I understand, that’s the way the industry is going. I don’t want to go with it. You either adapt or die. I understand that completely.”
See Flynn A7
ple back home [in Pewaukee, Wisconsin],” Gohlke told The Athletic after Oakland’s upset of Kentucky. The Pewaukee High School alumnus finished his senior year by defeating current Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro just before graduating, ultimately ending Herro’s high school career.
“I used to play against him two or three times a year in high school,” Gohlke said. “There were so many battles between our teams. Thankfully, we got the last laugh at the end of high school, but he’s got like $100 million in the bank now, so I think he really got the last laugh in the end.”
See Gohlke A10
Q&A: Markowicz reflects on threats to American freedom By Elyse Apel Digital Editor
bigger than birthdays. It’s the day we got free!
Karol Markowicz is the 2024 Eugene C. Pulliam Visiting Fellow in Journalism. She is a weekly columnist at the New York Post and Fox News, a contributor at Spectator World, and a contributing writer to Washington Examiner magazine. She recently published her first book: “Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation.”
Why did you move from New York to Florida? We m o v e d d u r i n g COVID-19 because I thought New York’s COVID policies were absurd and we wanted a better life for our kids. I refer to it as moving toward freedom because that’s what we should be doing — moving toward freedom — and Florida is far more free than New York.
Where are you from and where do you live? I was born in the Soviet Union and raised in Brooklyn. I very publicly moved to Florida two years ago, with my three kids and my husband. Being born in the Soviet Union and coming to America as a small child has made me appreciate, every single day, being an American. I know how easily my life could have gone a different way, and I’m so grateful to be here. Our family celebrates our yearly Americaversary, July 20, and it’s a really big deal —
What do you think of Hillsdale College and its students? What has surprised you? The students at Hillsdale are so smart, well spoken, well put together, and just impressive in every way. Campus is full of joy. Everybody seems in such a good mood, which is not standard for college campuses. You hear all these stories about how unhappy everybody is on a college campus, and Hillsdale really is the opposite of that.
See Q&A A2