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www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Vol. 147 Issue 17 – February 8, 2024
SAB hosts first-ever escape room night CCA III covers the art of biography By Christian Papillon Collegian Reporter
Students gathered in Kendall and Lane Halls for an escape room night hosted by the Student Activities Board last week. Senior Sophia Frigerio, senior Chris Dick, freshman Austin Piecuch, and senior Ewan Hayes (left to right) work on their puzzle together in a classroom. Courtesy | Erik Teder
Ohio Attorney General and Solicitor General visit campus, speak on wielding political power By Jackson Casey Collegian Freelancer If Republicans want to combat a progressive agenda in civic life, they must understand how and when to use political power, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost told students at a Federalist Society event Tuesday. “We have not infrequently had moments where we had political power, but we have been extraordinarily reluctant to use it,” Yost said. “The goal is to be able to have enough power, and once you have the power, you must have the courage of your convictions because the people who gave you power gave it to you for a reason.” The Republican attorney general said he feels the conservative movement has not yet reached that place. In Washington, D.C., he pointed out, Republicans control only half of Congress. “Conservatives frequently don’t have the power they think they have,” he said. “If you’re going to exercise power, you need to know how much power you actually have. Conservatives frequently kid themselves about it.”
Elliot Gaiser ’12, Ohio’s new solicitor general who was opinions editor of The Collegian in the 2011 to 2012 school year, joined Yost for the talk in the Heritage Room. Gaiser noted that even though conservatives might have to adapt their political strategies to check their opponents’ successes, doing so should never come at the expense of their principles. “I categorically reject Machiavellian thinking that because some faction is using power in some respect, we therefore need to use power in an equal and opposite way without connecting that to some higher and truer principle,” Gaiser said. The two discussed the ways the evolution of America’s prevailing civic theory has affected the political process and institutions more broadly. Their conversation approached these issues from a distinctly philosophical perspective. “Freedom is not merely the absence of boundaries,” Gaiser said. “It is, in fact, defined limits that can create the certainty that you need to order your affairs in
accord with the laws of nature and nature’s God.” Yost stressed that our institutions no longer impress the ideals they stand for upon the individuals within them. Rather, they have become captive to the ambitions of partisan actors, he said. “Those institutions are no longer formative. We are actually deforming them because they’ve become platforms,” Yost said. “The institution is their platform for promoting their career, their identity, and their ideas — from there it’s a very short journey to the creation of an oligarchic system that overrides the idea of popular sovereignty.” In his mind, young Americans can combat this shift by living and working according to the values those institutions were built to defend. “Ask yourself, what do your jobs and the institutions that you’re a part of limit how you should live, rather than asking how they can promote the way you want to live,” Yost said. “I think it’s necessary if we’re going to once again build institutions that will hold together a plural-
istic society.” He also said that a more genuine kind of statesmanship in line with that mindset was once much more common. “Believe it or not, there was a time when politicians wouldn’t do certain things just because they might be able to get on the evening news,” Yost said. Federalist Society secretary and junior Tobias Klooster said he feels a more active approach to using government power does not necessarily conflict with limiting the scope of government according to the Founders’ vision. “I think that the general idea of demarking where the state’s power is and reinforcing that power when it’s necessary and proper, and making sure that the federal government stays within its enumerated powers, is especially important,” he said. Yost made sure to note that these specific aims align with the broader pursuit of good things in our society. “Don’t let the mob convince you that the beautiful is actually ugly or trite,” Yost said. “Never give up on finding what is true.”
Biography is a tool not only for learning about the accomplishments of historical figures, but also for learning about good character and the times in which they lived, speakers at this week’s Center for Constructive Alternatives seminar said. Hillsdale College’s third CCA of the academic year, “The Art of Biography,” ran Feb. 4-7. Roger Kimball, editor and publisher of The New Criterion, spoke on Sunday afternoon on “Plutarch and the Art of Biography.” “Plutarch’s goal was emulation,” Kimball said. “He wrote about famous men of the past primarily to disclose their virtues in order that we might aspire to embody those virtues.” Kimball mainly discussed Plutarch’s work “Parallel Lives,” which consists of 23 pairs of Greeks and Romans who, in Plutarch’s view, shared similar destinies, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. “His general procedure was to write the life of a prominent Greek and cast about for a suitable Roman counterpart,” Kimball said. According to Kimball, 19 of the pairings include a brief footnote describing the similarities between the two figures, and Kimball believes that at one point all of them likely had similar notes. Jonathan Eller, author of “Bradbury: Beyond Apollo,” spoke Monday afternoon about author Ray Bradbury. Eller talked of Bradbury’s writing career and his inspirations for writing “Fahrenheit 451,” namely Arthur Koestler’s “Darkness at Noon.” “Arthur Koestler got it,” Eller said. “This book had a tremendous impact on Ray Bradbury, even before he was thinking of writing that book of an inverted world where firemen start fires instead of putting them out.”
Eller spoke of Bradbury’s writing style, which in turn inspired John Collier and Stephen King. “Ray is the writer who takes the supernatural, traditional, gothic tale out of the forest and out of the castle, and puts it in small towns and suburbs,” he said. Troy Senik, co-founder of digital media site Kite and Key Media, spoke Monday evening about the life and presidency of Grover Cleveland. Senik said the idea that Americans regard Cleveland as an average to below average president is a new one. “Grover Cleveland was not by any means regarded as a marginal president in his own day or in the generations that followed,” Senik said. Senik cited a 1948 survey that ranked Cleveland the eighth-best president, just behind Theodore Roosevelt. Senik said that currently, Americans judge Cleveland with standards for modern presidents. “If the way we think about presidents is going to be in any way coherent, we have to find a way to judge them that is responsive to what the office was when they held it,” Senik said. Junior Brian Knewtson said he found Senik’s lecture on Cleveland particularly interesting. “I appreciated how much the speaker had to convey about a president we did not know much about,” Knewtson said. “It was a good choice for the CCA to talk about someone who was known for good moral character.” Anne Keene, author of “Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II,” spoke Tuesday afternoon about professional athletes who served in World War II. Keene said the military valued sports experience.
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Curate hosts fifth-annual summit in Searle Center By Michaela Estruth Assistant Editor Taking time to pause and appreciate the unique experiences of any season of life is essential, Rebekah Dell, dean of women, said in her introductory talk at the Curate Summit on Feb. 3. “Ask yourself, ‘What is something to experience in this season of life that I may not experience in any other season,’” Dell said. Women across campus gathered in the Searle Center for the fifth annual Curate Summit for a day centered around the theme of wonder. The event lasted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with breakfast and lunch provided, and presented talks on topics including family origins, friendships, marriage and motherhood, hospitality, identity, and social media. “One of my biggest takeaways from Curate every year is the essential need for a community of women because we
are connected and supported through one another not only by humanness but specifically by the callings of womanhood,” senior Ingrid Dornbirer said. Dell and other speakers challenged women to find beauty in the ordinary. Freshman Lucy Hicks said she appreciated Dell’s advice to notice what the blessings are in every season. “Be content in the season you are in, embrace that season, wonder at it and at what you have now,” Hicks said. “However, that doesn’t mean you can’t look ahead, plan for the future, and be excited about it. But don’t skip over where God has put you now.” Speaker Caroline Greb ’19 also challenged her audience to slow down and consider the beauty around them. “We have lost the muscle to exercise something slow,” Greb said. “We must chew instead of just snack. Let yourself enjoy the six course meal.”
Greb spoke on reclaiming beauty in a digital age, sharing her balance as a mother and artist and her usage of social media. She played on the social media idea of an influencer, saying that her influence is over her children and her customers in her efforts to show them the beauty in front of them. “With Christian liberty comes Christian discernment,” Greb said. “The gospel should always be the ultimate place people are pointed. I must point them to the first things first and the second things second.” The intention of influence and ease at which it should be done also emerged in a panel on hospitality. “A hindrance is thinking it has to be a big ordeal, but it doesn’t have to be. It can be very casual,” Grace Balkan, executive assistant to the president, said in a panel on hospitality.
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Senior Ingrid Dornbirer and alumna Greta Dornbirer ’22 pose for a photo at the Curate summit. Courtesy | Ingrid Dornbirer