About 200 Hillsdale Academy students viewed the eclipse at full totality in Grand Rapids, Ohio. Courtesy | Austin Thomason
Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
Vol. 147 Issue 25 – April 11, 2024
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Hewitt meets students, broadcasts from campus By Logan Washburn and Elizabeth Troutman Associate Editor and Editor-In-Chief
Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn watches the eclipse with his wife, Penny, and daughter, Assistant Provost for K-12 Education Kathleen O’Toole. Logan Washburn | Collegian
Campus crosses state lines to catch total eclipse By Christian Papillon Collegian Reporter Students and professors traveled to Ohio and Indiana to observe the total solar eclipse on Monday, while others enjoyed the rare phenomenon on campus. “Words cannot describe the beauty and awe of such an event,” Assistant Professor of Physics Michael Tripepi said. “The nearly four minutes of totality are the closest thing I can imagine to what it was like to experience the miraculous visions of Isaiah or Daniel. For a brief moment, the ordinary world suddenly and dramatically passes away to a greater vision of the cosmos.” While the path of totality did not cross Hillsdale, students on campus observed 98.6% coverage at 3:11 p.m. This was the first total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States since August
2017. The next total eclipse in the United States will occur in August 2044, when the path of totality will pass through Montana and North Dakota. The next total solar eclipse visible across the country will occur in August 2045. Sophomore Faith NieKamp said she viewed the total eclipse from an apple orchard in Lima, Ohio, which is 100 miles from Hillsdale. “The trip was very last-minute, but it was just so beautiful,” NieKamp said. A total solar eclipse is when the moon moves between the sun and the earth, completely blocking the sun’s light and casting a shadow over the surface. Timothy Dolch, associate professor of physics, traveled to Indiana, while Tripepi went to Ohio with a group of students to observe the total eclipse. Dolch said the physics department set up telescopes in both states for the event.
“We wanted to spread out to ensure that we got a good set of images,” Dolch said. “Both places ended up with good weather, so we ended up with good pictures from both locations.” Dolch said the department had also been building a radio telescope in Ohio since last fall to observe the rapid changes in the ionosphere during the eclipse. “We had an online view of the radio sun,” Dolch said. “The radio sun does not get totally eclipsed because the corona outside the disk still produces radio emission.” Dolch said the department also took data from its on-campus radio telescope, the Low-Frequency All-Sky Monitor, in Hayden Park. “Even though we were outside the path of totality, we were still in a region where the ionosphere turns off,” Dolch said. During a solar eclipse, the moon blocks solar radiation
from ionizing the upper atmosphere. The ionization decreases as coverage increases. Dolch said the groups witnessed a phenomenon called shadow bands. Both groups set up white pieces of cardboard to observe cast shadows. “Just seconds before totality, when the sun was in the diamond ring phase, we saw these shimmering black and white bands on the cardboard,” Dolch said. “There is a brief moment where the sun is twinkling because it is only a point of light and is sensitive to atmospheric fluctuations.” Tripepi took 17 students and a couple professors to Tiffin, Ohio, and the house of Visiting Lecturer in Biology Angela Pytel’s mother, about 110 miles from Hillsdale. He said the 98% view of the eclipse pales in comparison to 100%.
National talk-show host Hugh Hewitt visited campus this week to host an event for Hillsdale College. “This has been the best visit because I got to teach a class,” Hewitt told The Collegian. “I got to talk to the students.” Hewitt hosted his program from WRFH on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, interviewing faculty, staff, and students. He also taught a radio class and co-hosted a virtual town hall on “Reviving American K-12 Classical Education,” with more than 17,000 viewers by the end of the night. “Raising awareness is good, but raising money is better,” Hewitt said. “I’m good at asking for money. I want people to support the classical education movement because it’s necessary in so many parts of the country.” Hewitt got involved with Hillsdale after College President Larry Arnn took office in 2000, he said. Arnn is a frequent guest on Hewitt’s program, which WRFH airs every weekday morning from 9 a.m. to noon. “Dr. Arnn’s and Hugh Hewitt’s friendship goes back to when they met in 1978,” said Kathleen Ruddy, senior director of associates and special projects for Institutional Advancement. “Dr. Arnn brought that friendship with him to Hillsdale College.”
General Manager of Radio Free Hillsdale WFRH 101.7 FM Scot Bertram said he’s been hoping to bring Hewitt back to campus for a while. The conservative radio star was last on campus in 2015. “With a highly-successful radio show and high-profile TV and writing partnerships, Hugh is uniquely positioned to lend important insight and teach important lessons to our journalism students,” Bertram said. Hewitt was a guest lecturer in Bertram’s Elements of a Talk Show class, giving students a first-hand look at how a national program is produced. “I thought it was helpful in terms of what a successful career as a talk show host looks like,” said Megan Pidcock, a junior in the class. “He drew on his real world experience as a lawyer into his success as a radio host. You have to be willing to make the other person comfortable, you have to be well-informed, you have to read a lot, and you have to be willing to admit that you’re wrong.” Vince Benedetto, CEO of Bold Gold Media Group, which helped set up the college radio station, said Hewitt’s visit created a life-changing experience for students. “To be able to get on a live national radio show being broadcast from your own college radio station studios is an extraordinary blessing,” Benedetto said.
See Hewitt A2
See Eclipse A2
Treloar to assume role as dean of faculty By Tayte Christensen Collegian Reporter Chairman and Professor of Mathematics Thomas Treloar will become the new dean of faculty this summer. Treloar, who is in his 20th year at the college, will succeed Professor of History Mark Kalthoff in the role. “He’s been an excellent citizen of the college, and he’s been an effective leader of the math department,” Kalthoff said. Treloar said he will transition into the role over the summer when campus slows down before taking on official duties in the fall. “I’ll start sitting in on some meetings even though I’m not actively serving in that position,” Treloar said. Kalthoff, who has held the
position two separate times during his 35 years at Hillsdale, said the tasks of the dean of faculty vary from serving on many committees, to attending college luncheons, to reading graduate names during commencement ceremonies. “As dean of faculty, you’re given a seat at the table where you get to hear about plans, and you’re allowed to give feedback,” Kalthoff said. “It’s fun and it’s enjoyable, when you love the college, to be part of the conversation that is helping to plan and shape things.” The dean of faculty is a five-year position. “There are a number of things that are very visible and also a lot of things that, if they’re going right, are invisible,” Kalthoff said. Treloar said he is excited to
form relationships with more faculty members across different disciplines through this position. “There was a time about a decade ago that I knew every single faculty member and I had had at least a brief conversation with everyone — back when we had maybe 120 faculty members,” Treloar said. “But when I became department chair, I had to spend more time within my department.” Treloar said after he took on the role of chairman of mathematics, he interacted less with faculty in other departments. As dean of faculty, he is excited to re-establish those relationships. “I’m looking forward to meeting a lot of the people that have been hired in the last five to seven years that I haven’t
had a chance to have a conversation with,” Treloar said. Junior math major Marybeth Brauns said Treloar deserves the position. “Dr. Treloar is a wonderful professor who loves math, cares about his students, and has contributed so much to the Hillsdale College community,” Brauns said. “I’m excited to see what he’ll do in this next role.” Kalthoff, who will remain a professor of history, said he is optimistic about Treloar taking on the role, as he knows the college well. “The thing about being dean of faculty is it’s really helpful if you know a little bit about how this place works,” Kalthoff said. “Tom has been here almost two full decades, so he knows how the place works.”
The Ronald Reagan statue has been relocated to the John Anthony Halter Shooting Sports Center. Alex Deimel | Collegian