A student places a flag in the 9/11: Never Forget Project memorial hosted by Hillsdale's Young America's Foundation chapter. Jack Cote | Collegian
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Campus reacts to the death of Queen Elizabeth
Vol. 146 Issue 4 - September 15, 2022
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Coupland to release liberal arts education manual
Victor Davis Hansen spoke on the study of military history on Friday night. Courtesy | External Affairs
By Maddy Welsh Assistant Editor
By Tracy Wilson Design Editor “We took for granted that she would always be there,” said Penny Arnn, the UKborn wife of College President Larry Arnn, following the death on Sept. 8 of Queen Elizabeth II, who ruled the British commonwealth for more than 70 years. “I think anybody that is from England or the United Kingdom will say that she’s somebody that we have known all our lives,” Arnn said. “She was certainly queen before I was born, and we’ve tended to think of her as a fixture.” Multiple students and staff agreed that while they felt sorrow over Queen Elizabeth’s death, she led an accomplished life and left behind an inspiring legacy. “It’s a bit like watching a cricket match in which a batsman’s had a great inning and finally gets balled out, and he raises his bat to the crowd on his way to the pavilion and everyone gives him a standing ovation,” said Samuel Negus, director of program review and accreditation. “Nobody bats forever. Eventually you’re going to get out, but you had a good inning. Queen Elizabeth had the best inning.” Negus, who was born and raised in the UK, said he witnessed deep respect for members of the royal family when he was growing up. “My mother and my nana loved the queen. I was drying dishes on a Diana and Charles wedding tea towel well into the late ’80s,” Negus said. “I love Elizabeth. I could not care less about the rest of the Windsors, but I will run uphill into machine gun fire for Queen Elizabeth.” For some, the death of Elizabeth symbolizes more than a transfer of political power.
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College launches new Center for Military History and Grand Strategy By Thomas McKenna Collegian freelancer The new Center for Military History and Grand Strategy launched last weekend with a panel and series of lectures, aiming to explain why the study of war and strategy remains important even as similar programs disappear from American colleges and universities. “It used to be the case that there was a chair in military history at every major school in the country,” Professor of History Paul Rahe said. “It has been banished from the history profession, followed by diplomatic history which hardly exists anymore. To give you a sense of how bad it is, there are more military historians at Hillsdale College than in the entire Ivy League.” The center held a discussion panel Friday afternoon composed of the Hillsdale faculty who teach courses for the program. The launch event included lectures by three other academics Friday night and Saturday morning. The new program will offer a minor to students and also
plans to host guest speakers as well as an annual conference. “Whether as educated voters or even more so as policymakers, people need to understand not just events but the explanation, the origin, the course, what war is, where it comes from, why it comes, how it's played out historically,” Professor of History David Stewart said. “The center is designed to try to provide that kind of fundamental education for both informed voters and policymakers.” Assistant Professor of History Edward Gutierrez, director of the new center, worked with College President Larry Arnn to create the new program. “The first semester I was here, Dr. Moyar and I wrote a proposal, and I laid it out,” Gutierrez said. “I met with President Arnn again and laid out what I envisioned the center would look like. The first of those is the minor.” The faculty laid out the requirements for the minor in military history and grand strategy during the panel discussion Sept. 9. Classes will be open to any students of any
major with no prerequisites. Students studying for the minor will be required to take three core classes, as well as two electives and a capstone course on American grand strategy. “We wanted to keep it small and manageable,” Stewart said. “A politics major can take and complete this minor and understand something.” Chair of military history Mark Moyar spoke from his experience in government on the importance of understanding military history and strategy. Moyar has written books on the Vietnam War and served in the U.S. Agency for International Development in former President Donald Trump’s administration. “The bureaucracy is very eager to make decisions when it can,” Moyar said. “It loves political appointees who don't know anything. They can take advantage of you. We need to have people who are better educated, who understand these issues.” Gutierrez said the center will likely host events, including a summer seminar
at the Allan P. Kirby Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C. Later in the panel, Stewart hinted a graduate program may be in the works. “There are conversations beginning to, perhaps, offer a master’s program where students can come and get a master’s degree in military history,” Stewart said. “I think the primary audience would be people who work in D.C., people who work in think tanks, people who are associated with the State Department, even military officers.” Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian and the Wayne and Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College, delivered a speech Friday night on why the study of military history and grand strategy remains relevant today. “It’s the citizen’s choice to decide when to go to war, if to go to war, how long to go to war, and how to resolve a war,” Hanson said.
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Chair of the Education Department Daniel Coupland will release a book this month about how to teach in a classical liberal arts classroom. “Tried and True: A Primer on Sound Pedagogy” is a short book offering instruction on how to teach K-12 students. Modeled after William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White’s “The Elements of Style” in both its brevity and format, the book offers advice and information about classroom management, classroom procedures, and lesson planning in 14 chapters. According to Coupland, the book has more nutsand-bolts advice than big picture ideas about the nature of classical education, but it is deeply informed by the classical liberal arts tradition. “We’re not trying to reinvent pedagogy here,” Coupland said. “There are some common sense things we know about good teaching and they’ve been tried and, over generations, they’ve been proven true. We need to get back to those.” Coupland said “Tried and True” is meant to be a companion to the K-12 department’s “Program Guide,” which outlines a classical curriculum for every grade level. He said he thinks neither curriculum nor pedagogy can stand alone. “You actually need to have both,” he said. “You need to have the ideas, but you also need to have a method or multiple methods of delivery in order to truly provide a good education.” Coupland said he got the idea for the book after speaking about pedagogy at Hillsdale’s summer teacher conferences for years.
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Art teacher Brian Shaw wins statewide deer patch contest By Maggie Hroncich editor-in-Chief Brian Shaw is the winner of the 2022 Michigan Department of Natural Resources deer patch design competition. Shaw, a graphic designer and teacher of art at Hillsdale, won the contest on the 50th anniversary of the DNR’s Deer Cooperator Patch. Shaw said he didn’t know about deer patches or the design contest prior to this year and felt privileged it was the 50th anniversary. “This is all brand new to me,” Shaw said. “From what I know, it’s a commemorative patch the DNR comes out with each year.” Shaw said the patch serves as a way for the DNR to connect with hunters, promote
conservation efforts, and showcase deer hunting. Because the patch is embroidered in thread and cannot be larger than 3 by 4 inches, Shaw said he tried to avoid small or intricate designs. “I started to think, ‘Well, what’s the most important thing? It’s the deer.’ And if I can make that as big as possible, I’m going to try,” he said. Shaw’s design shows the deer in an active jumping pose, which is meant to convey the beauty of the animal in a dynamic way, he said. Shaw said he didn’t know about the contest until Al Stewart, director of the college’s Nimrod Education Center, sent him the call for entries in the spring. Stewart previously worked for the
DNR and ran its turkey patch competition. “The design contest helps to highlight the contributions hunters provide to conservation and management,” Stewart said. “By purchasing hunting licenses and having their deer inspected by DNR wildlife biologists, hunters provide information and funds that help with the management of Michigan’s deer herd. Deer patches are provided to hunters to thank them for their contributions.” Beginning Sept. 15, the patch will be available to purchase. DNR Outreach Assistant Emilie O’Grady said in previous years about 40,000 patches have been distributed. According to O’Grady, the 50th anniversary makes this year special for collectors.
“This is a monumental year which would make acquiring this specific patch extra special for those individuals who have been collecting since the 1970’s,” she said. O’Grady said Shaw’s design was selected out of roughly 260 submissions. “Anyone can submit their design for consideration,” according to O’Grady. “Submissions are voted on by the entire Wildlife Division of the DNR.” Stewart said he was glad to see a Hillsdale professor’s art featured in the contest. “He’s an accomplished artist and I’m excited he would take the time to focus on doing the deer patch and help be part of the tradition of hunting in this state,” Stewart said.
Teacher of Art Brian Shaw designed an award-winning deer patch. Courtesy | Brian Shaw