Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
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www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Vol. 147 Issue 16 – February 1, 2024
Students hit the slopes at Bittersweet Ski Resort College expects
department
nation’s highest
announces
percentage of
next class of
math graduates
hall of fame
in 2024
inductees
By Cassandra DeVries Social media Manager
By Joshua Mistry Collegian Reporter
“I would rather it be good, and I trust Dr. McDonnell’s judgment,” Blackwell said. Junior Elizabeth Patrick, a soprano in Chapel Choir, is one of several choir members to have a solo in the “Requiem.” “It’s probably one of the favorite pieces that I’ve heard from our Chapel Choir repertoire,” Patrick said. Michael Haydn, a composer esteemed by Mozart, wrote the “Requiem” in 1771, the same year his young daughter died. Set in C minor and performed in Latin, the piece is built upon its fugues, when two or more voices sing a theme at staggered intervals. “There are these cool little tensions and releases,” Blackwell said. “I think if people listen to how the voices are lining up and what that’s creating, it’s really powerful.”
The 2024 graduating class expects to have the largest percentage of math majors of any college or university in the country. “This may seem curious, but we think it is good — also fun. Hillsdale College has become superb at teaching mathematics,” College President Larry P. Arnn said in an email. The college anticipates 38 students, or 11.5% of the senior class, will graduate in May with degrees in applied mathematics or mathematics, according to Arnn. An additional 10.9% of students will graduate with math degrees in 2025. This should be enough to place Hillsdale first for percentage of math majors both years. Previous contenders for the highest percentage of math majors in the last five years include Amherst College at 10.7%, Williams College at 10.4%, and Macalester College at 9.9%. Arnn’s email was titled “Revenge of the Nerds.” “About 10 years ago, we would get 15 or 16 math majors a year. I remember one year we got 18, and we were excited that it was so huge,” Associate Professor of Mathematics David Gaebler said. “In 10 years, the number of math majors has approximately doubled.” Gaebler said many of the graduating math students majored in applied mathematics, a relatively new degree introduced nearly a decade ago. “Much of the growth has been in the applied mathematics degree,” Gaebler said. “In this year’s graduating class, we have about three-quarters applied math and one quarter just math. That program didn’t even exist five or six years ago.” Associate Professor of Mathematics Kevin Gerstle agreed the new programs are attracting more interest. “We also have a new computer science minor, which is now in its third year at the college under John Seiffertt,” Gerstle said. “It is not directly tied to the math major, but I think it has helped attract a variety of students to the mathematics department, especially given the importance of AI and programming in the modern world.” Gaebler said he thought the number of double majors at Hillsdale College contributed to the trend. “I think one thing that sets Hillsdale apart is the higher likelihood of students pairing math with something that seems very different,” Gaebler said. “We have students combine math with art, history, politics, philosophy, and English. So I think that’s part of what gives us a leg up in this particular metric.”
See Choir A2
See Math A2
The 2006 women’s volleyball team and four Charger alumni are among the new class of inductees to the Hillsdale College Athletic Hall of Fame. Sprinter Ian Redpath ’72, sprinter DeShawn Meadows ’95, football coach Steve Rentschler ’78, and football player Al Huge ’88 will be joining the hall of fame, according to an athletic department press release. Hillsdale will honor the new class in October. The 2006 women’s volleyball team head coach, Chris Gravel, still coaches today. Gravel was the first coach to lead an undefeated team to a regular season conference title and a NCAA Tournament, said Director of Athletic Communications James Gensterblum. “The 2006 team is a history-making team in many ways, as the first team to win a conference title, host an NCAA DII Regional, and record an NCAA Tournament victory in the history of the volleyball program,” Gensterblum said. “They are still the only team in program history to go undefeated in the regular season, finishing a perfect 27-0.” Megan Molenkamp, the current assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the women’s volleyball team, also played for the hall of fame team and gave credit to the amazing coaching staff for their success.
See HOF A8
Students traveled to the ski hill last Saturday with the Student Activities Board. The $40 participation fee covered a lift ticket and rental equipment for the day. Sophomores Olyvia Oeverman, Jacob Beckwith, and Lucy Treene (left to right) stand next to the lift. Sydney Green | Collegian
Drummond lecturer speaks on Judaism and the West By Anna Broussard Collegian Reporter The relationship between Christianity and the Jewish tradition is vital to Western culture, Eric Cohen said during a lecture in Christ Chapel on “The Jewish Spirit of the West.” “As go the Jews, so goes the West,” Cohen said in the semester’s first Drummond lecture. Cohen is a renowned Jewish activist, founder and editor-at-large of the New Atlantis, and director of the Tikvah Fund. “Now more than ever, we need to rekindle the spirit of liberty so that Jews and Christians together can save the West from sabotaging itself beyond repair,” he said. As Western culture descends into despair and decadence, Cohen said the solution can be found in the Jewish conceptions of the family and nation state. “The meaning of a family and nation, I believe, are some of the great remedies of our
modern disorders,” he said. The significance of these concepts are inherent in the Christian tradition as well as the Jewish people, Cohen said. “If our purpose as Jews is to bring these ideas to the world,” Cohen said, “your purpose as Christians is to ensure these ideas are victorious in history, and standing together we can renew our precious inheritance. It is your sacred task as American Christians ring the liberty bell loudly throughout the land.” Cohen said the mission of Hillsdale College is effective in communicating this task to the future generations. “The meaning of reason, faith, politics taught as it should be,” he said. “It is here that our future leaders will be found and nurtured.” Speakers in the Drummond Lecture Series address faith and learning. Previous speakers have included former vice president Mike Pence and former secretary of education Betsy DeVos.
“I thought the talk was especially interesting given Mr. Cohen’s Jewish background,” junior John Schaefer said. “Students spend a lot of time contemplating the Christo-Greco-Roman traditions, but Judaism does not typically take as prominent of a role.” The lecture came at an appropriate time as the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel remains unresolved, Schaefer said. “Given the current tensions in the Middle East and Israel’s place at the center of those conflicts, it seemed very timely to bring in a Jewish public policy thinker,” he said. Touching on the Middle Eastern conflict and the startling rise of antisemitism, Cohen said the need for unity between Jews and Christians is imperative. “The living Jewish nation of Israel has become the progressives’ favorite pariah,” he said, referencing the debate over the ownership of the land.
Yet the history of the Jewish people is full of hardships and the Jewish nation continues to survive these conflicts. “The endurance of Jews throughout history is the best proof that God still providentially guides the human story,” he said. “In dark times the Jewish people should remind us that hope will never die.” “The lecture was very informative from a prominent Jewish thinker who has studied western thought extensively,” junior Makayla Babcock said. “It is apparent that he works closely with some of the most important Christian intellectuals writing today.” Cohen echoed that the hopefulness of the shared Western tradition embedded in both the Jewish nation and American Christians is pivotal in saving Western culture. “I hope in a small way that this adds Jewish insight to your own culture and aids us in saving the West,” he said, “as it is indeed worth saving.”
Choir to perform Haydn’s ‘Requiem’ in Christ Chapel By Caroline Kurt Assistant Editor
Curate will host its fifth annual Summit this weekend. The theme this year is “Wonder.” (See A3) Courtesy | Curate
The Hillsdale College Chapel Choir will perform selections from Michael Haydn’s “Requiem” and other pieces from its repertoire in a concert Feb. 4 at 2:30 p.m. in the Christ Chapel. The Choir will perform alongside a Baroque horn ensemble from Eastman School of Music in New York. Visiting professor of Music Michael Ruhling will direct both for the “Requiem.” Chapel Choir originally planned to perform the “Requiem” last semester, according to junior Esdras Blackwell. After the group visited Washington, D.C., they decided to postpone the piece to focus on their Christmas Lessons and Carols performance. Blackwell said he was disappointed at first, but is glad the choir had time to perfect the piece.