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Physics department, students plan solar eclipse outings By Zachary Chen Collegian Reporter As the solar eclipse approaches on April 8, several groups of Hillsdale students plan to visit the path of totality in Ohio, including a group led by Associate Professor of Physics Michael Tripepi. Hillsdale County should witness a maximum solar coverage of 98.6% around 3:11 p.m., according to NASA’s Eclipse Explorer tool. While 98.6% is a high percentage, scientists in a recent NPR article said seeing the complete eclipse is much more impressive than even a 99% partial eclipse. Sophomore physics major Paige Lettow said Tripepi’s group will drive to a viewing location two to four hours away, though the destination is not yet finalized. “It’ll all depend on the we at her,” L ettow s aid. “Wherever the weather’s nice, we’ll go.” Lettow said she looked forward to seeing the upcoming eclipse now that she has more experience in physics. “The last solar eclipse was in 2017, and I saw that one,” Lettow said. “We were in the path of totality then as well, but I’m really excited to see it again now, having more astronomy and more of a physics background.”
Hillsdale physics students will gather solar data during the eclipse with a radio telescope called DLITE Ohio, which Hillsdale physics students built in Montville, Ohio. “Before, during, and after the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, DLITE Ohio will be used to observe how the ionosphere reacts to the sudden removal of radiation from the sun,” according to Force Courier, a newsletter of the Hillsdale physics department. Lettow, who has visited Montville twice to help construct DLITE Ohio, said she is looking forward to seeing the rewards of the department’s telescope construction with data on the sun’s corona and the earth’s ionosphere. “When there’s a solar eclipse, it’s the best opportunity we have to study the ionosphere because it’s affected by the sun,” Lettow said. “You can make artificial eclipses to study the ionosphere, but a real solar eclipse is an amazing opportunity that you rarely have, so we’re taking advantage of how close we are.” Other Hillsdale students will also make trips to witness the eclipse in Ohio. Sophomore Helen Rogers said she plans to drive to Cleveland with four friends to watch it.
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Alumnus to join Yale Law School faculty
Garrett West ’15 graduated from Yale Law School in 2018. Erik Teder | Collegian
By Thomas McKenna Sports editor Garrett West ’15 will join the Yale Law School faculty as an associate professor of law starting July 1. “Many of us say that Garrett West is one of the best students we have seen, a high standard,” said College President Larry Arnn. “He is a fine young man in character and intellect. We are very proud of him. His brothers are pretty smart too.” West received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from
Hillsdale before graduating from Yale Law School in 2018. “The college taught me how to read, write, and think, and it is where I first experienced the intellectual life,” West told The Collegian in an email. “I am grateful to the many friends and mentors who helped me along the way.” After two clerkships with federal judges, West clerked for Associate Justice Samuel Alito of the U.S. Supreme Court. He is now an associate of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where he
Hillsdale in DC begins construction project By Jillian Parks DC Correspondent An 18-month-long construction project has begun at Hillsdale in D.C. to keep up with the growth of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government. Current operations and elements of the school’s Washington-Hillsdale Internship
Program have been temporarily relocated to a nearby office space and townhouses. Renovations are scheduled to be finished in the fall of 2025. “It’s exciting,” said Matthew Spalding, dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government. “We need more space as we are growing. These renovations will make the D.C. campus, even more
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Vol. 147 Issue 24 – April 4, 2024
so than it is now, a beacon of Hillsdale’s teaching mission for undergraduate and graduate students and friends and alumni in the nation’s capital.” The concept of expansion has been in the works since Hillsdale came into possession of multiple buildings near the Kirby building on the Hillsdale in D.C. campus as early as 2019.
The drawing shows a floor plan for the ground floor of the current Kirby Center building, the new graduate school building, and the front plaza. Courtesy | Anne Scherer
The plans include annexing the building next door to the Kirby Center for more faculty and staff offices, seminar spaces and classrooms, and public gathering areas for conferences and speakers. There will also be more student housing on the same street. “The purpose is to integrate the Kirby Center and the Van Andel School of Government, with all our programs and fellowships, into a campus that is architecturally beautiful and very much a permanent Hillsdale presence in Washington, D.C.,” Spalding said. To accommodate the project, faculty, staff, and students have vacated the Kirby Center. Many faculty and staff members collaborated in cataloging, packing, and storing the D.C. campus’ large library, alongside moving all of the offices, furniture, and artwork to the new, temporary work spaces. “A huge logistical part of the planning was making sure that we were able to do this without stopping any programs,” Executive Director of Washington Operations Andrew Heim said. “The students have been wonderful and understanding as well as the staff, putting in extra hours and really coming together as a team to make all this happen. So that’s been wonderful to see.” In addition to its functional purpose of gaining space, the project will also involve a number of architectural and decor changes.
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works for the Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation Group in Washington, D.C. He said his teaching subject has not yet been decided. Garrett is the oldest of four West children who all chose to attend Hillsdale, according to junior Anna West. His sister, the youngest in the family, said three of the four — Garrett, Gill, and herself — chose to major in philosophy. “It’s really nice to share the experience of Hillsdale,” West said. “It’s formed the way we think and allowed us to have
really meaningful conversations. We’ve taken a lot of the same professors because we’re in the same major.” Lee Cole, chairman and associate professor of philosophy, said West was a freshman during his first year teaching at Hillsdale. West took six courses with Cole and wrote his thesis under the professor’s direction. “It’s quite an accomplishment, and it’s a feather in the cap of the college — though Yale is also lucky to have him,” Cole said. “Garrett is tremendously gifted, insightful, and hard-working, and I know that his future students will benefit greatly from his pedagogy.” Cole said he appreciated West’s sense of humor and that he kept his academic pursuits in perspective. “To be honest, he told a number of jokes that I would grade as ‘barely passing,’” Cole said. “Presumably he’s made strides in this area since graduating.” Professor of Philosophy and Religion Nathan Schlueter, the director of Hillsdale’s pre-law program, had West as a student in his Social and Political Philosophy class. “I am very proud of Garrett,” Schlueter said. “He exemplifies the best of a Hillsdale education, and shows that one does not have to be loud or sacrifice the love of truth in order to reach high positions of influence and that there is no substitute for excellence, probity, and care in one’s work.”
Student sponsor saved from Haiti amid gang crisis By Maddy Welsh Senior Editor A columnist with a connection to Hillsdale College was rescued from Haiti March 12 amid the country’s recent political tumult. Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press is director of the Have Faith Haiti Mission, a nonprofit that runs an orphanage in the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. Two Hillsdale freshmen — Widley Montrevil and Jean Veillard — lived in the orphanage as children before coming to America. Albom helped them make the move to America and begin their studies at Hillsdale. “He is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met, and I continue to see that every time I see him in Detroit,” Montrevil said. “In many ways, I would consider him and his wife to be my parents, but they are my guardians while I am here in America.” Albom had traveled to Port-au-Prince in early March for his monthly visit to the orphanage which he has run since a massive earthquake in 2010. “Our place is an oasis for children who have been orphaned, abandoned, lost or given over by relatives due to sickness, homelessness or extreme poverty,” Albom wrote in a March 17 article. “We have clean dormitories, a three-story school, a playing field, medical care, and a large, working kitchen. I visit every month to
oversee the operations.” Not long after his arrival, the Haitian government declared a state of emergency because of a gang-orchestrated mass prison break in Port-au-Prince and another in nearby Croix de Bouquets. Widespread violence followed, including a gang takeover of Toussaint Louverture Airport, the main international airport in Port-Au-Prince. “Our children do their nightly devotions in a small gazebo. This month, they sang their prayers with gunfire in the background,” Albom wrote. The U.S. embassy in Haiti was unable to help Albom and his group flee. Through a connection of one of the eight guests Albom and his wife had brought to the orphanage for that month’s visit, U.S. Rep. Cory Mills privately arranged a helicopter evacuation for Albom, his wife, and their guests. After departing from a secret location in the middle of the night, the group made it safely to Michigan on March 13. “For the 10 of us, there was an uplifting conclusion, a brave and fortunate escape,” Albom wrote. “For the children and staff at our orphanage — and for the millions of innocent Haitians throughout the country — there is no happy finish. They are without safe shelter, starving, without water, without fuel, without medicine, praying for someone to save them.”
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