Professor of Philosophy and Religion Nathan Schlueter performed a music act with three of his kids at Faculty Revue last week. (See A3) Courtesy | Student Activities Board
Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Vol. 147 Issue 18 – February 15, 2024
Facing the wind: State
Passages trip canceled for May
control threatens local
By Elyse Apel Digital Editor
refusal of turbine projects
Amid the continuing conflict in Israel, Passages canceled a student trip planned for May. Paul Rahe, professor of history and a trip organizer, said there is no way to ensure the safety of students with the current situation. “Israel is a small place. Rockets are being fired by Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis,” Rahe said. “The students will be in danger when they drive or are driven to and from the airport in this country, and there will be risks in Israel – greater than in the past.” The trip is sponsored by the Philos Project and the Museum of the Bible Foundation. Since 2015, Passages trips have taken hundreds of Hillsdale College students to Israel, visiting sites such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the Sea of Galilee. This is not the first time the trip has been canceled because of the war. A planned trip in December was canceled. The May trip to Israel, which was first advertised to students last week, offered a discounted ticket and more spots. Passages replaced the May trip with opportunities
By Logan Washburn Associate Editor Local officials across Michigan recently lost the ability to deny green energy projects, prompting a referendum seeking to restore local control. “We use local zoning regulations to protect our land use future, to preserve our rural way of life,” Lenawee County Commissioner Kevon Martis said. “Now that’s been stripped away.” When Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed SB 271 into law last November, she set ambitious climate goals for the state’s utilities. And HB 5120, approved the same day, took power over green energy projects away from communities and gave it to the Michigan Public Service Commission. So Martis helped start Citizens for Local Choice in December, a ballot initiative aiming to restore local control over green energy projects. He said officials approved the initiative’s language Jan. 19. The group is beginning to circulate the petition, according to
WWTV, and it needs at least 356,958 signatures to reach the ballot this November. Hillsdale County residents have pushed back against wind farms multiple times in the past, with voters denying a wind farm in Reading and officials later approving a wind farm in Wheatland Township. But according to Jason Hayes, director of energy and environmental policy for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the new law eliminates communities’ ability to refuse such projects. He said wind and solar projects may return to the area, even where they may have been blocked in the past, as the state pursues its climate goals. “I don’t believe that these green energy projects, whether they be windmills or solar, will be able to provide adequate, reliable, affordable energy that we have been able to produce in this country through power plants fueled by coal, gas, or nuclear,” Hillsdale County Commissioner Brent Leininger said.
See Wind A7
for students to travel to Washington, D.C. “This summer, Passages will also be offering educational and advocacy experiences that take place in Washington, D.C., a bit closer to home,” a statement from Passages read. “These three-day experiences will feature exclusive access to the Museum of the Bible, offer participants the opportunity to delve into updated context on the conflict in Israel, and tour the Holocaust Memorial Museum.” Senior Fernando Bravo said that even though the trip is canceled, he hopes all Hillsdale students remember how important it is to support Israel. “It is important to support our brothers and sisters in Israel as we are bonded to each other through our Hebraic roots,” Bravo said. “Israel has always been a light to the world from biblical times, so as Christians, it is important that we always seek the wellbeing of its people.” Passages is also planning to offer trips to Israel for those hoping to serve. “With advocacy for the challenges being faced by Israel in mind, Passages will host a few solidarity and service-centric trips to Israel,” Passages said in a statement. “These will
not follow the traditional Passages itinerary, but they will be centered around community service, giving back to the most severely affected citizens of the Jewish state, and advocacy efforts that will leave an impact long after your return to the United States.” Passages said in a statement that the security of students is critical and the trip is postponed “until we can guarantee that you will receive the traditional Passages experience.” It is unclear how long that might be. Since the war broke out on Oct. 7, at least 30,000 Palestinians and Israelis have died, according to the BBC. According to the Wall Street Journal, six Americans are among the 130 hostages still held captive in Gaza. Rahe said he thinks Israel will continue to fight until Hamas is gone. “The Israelis seem to have things in hand. I do not mean that the war is over. That may take some time,” Rahe said. “But the Israelis seem intent on wiping out Hamas no matter the cost, and I suspect that they will succeed. Their efforts may set off a larger war, but I doubt that they will.”
Hillsdale Academy ranks fourth in the nation in CLT results By Maddy Welsh Senior Editor Hillsdale Academy’s senior class ranked fourth nationally based on its collective Classical Learning Test scores after taking the test in the 2022-23 academic year. “It’s not the end-all-beall,” Hillsdale Academy Headmaster Mike Roberts ’98 said. “But it’s a nice assurance that this classical education approach that we have, the Hillsdale College Program Guide and curriculum that we follow, is producing results with our students and our teachers that are rivaling any other school in the country.” The Classical Learning Test is a standardized test designed to suit the knowledge and training of classically educated students. According to its website, it’s an “alternative to the SAT and ACT” and is composed of three sections: verbal reasoning, grammar and writing, and quantitative reasoning with an optional essay section. “To perform well on a test like the CLT is a satisfying experience for our students because they know it closely aligns with the aims of classical education,” Assistant Headmaster Julie Apel said. “A thoughtfully written assessment like the CLT says something about what a well-educated student ought to know and what kinds of
skills are developed through an education that centers itself on worthy content and sound reasoning.” Roberts said Hillsdale Academy requires testing for all students — eleventh graders take the CLT, tenth graders take the CLT 10, eighth graders take the CLT 8, and elementary students take the CLT 3-6. “We do not do this in place of the ACT and the SAT,” Roberts said. “We still take those tests, but it gives our students another option to take a standardized test that probably is closer to the type of education they’ve been receiving. It’s going to be actually more of an apples-to-apples type of comparison to the types of things that they’re studying on a daily and weekly basis.” The CLT released its rankings based on the 2022-23 academic year in January 2024 and recognized the top 20 school-wide performances on the CLT, the CLT 10, and the CLT 8. Hillsdale Academy ranked fourth for the CLT and second for the CLT 8. “The schools across our country that take the CLT are way above average compared to national norms,” said David Diener, professor of education and member of the board of academic advisers for the CLT. “So, Hillsdale Academy’s presence on these top CLT rankings is an excep-
tional honor.” Apel said the rankings are a benchmark of the school’s success. “To see our students perform at such a high level reflects both the students’ diligence in pursuit of their education as well as the commitment of our faculty to pursue excellence in teaching,” Apel said. “Formal assessments are never the full picture of an education, but it’s incredibly exciting to see our students knock it out of the park.” The current senior class took the CLT last year as eleventh graders, and Roberts said 21 of them have been accept-
ed to Hillsdale College. Hillsdale is among more than 250 colleges that accept the test. Most are private schools, but all state schools in Florida accept it, too, including University of Florida, Florida State University, and University of Central Florida. “There are certain types of things we want to see — college acceptance, preparedness, who the kid becomes — and then some of these test scores are pretty neat too,” Roberts said. Good test scores, while encouraging for students and teachers, are not the Academy’s primary goal, Roberts said.
“Right now our focus is that the CLT is a test that we’re going to take in every grade that it’s offered and it’s going to provide us a piece of information that will help us do our job better, but it’s not the end-all-be-all,” he said. Roberts said the Academy does not “teach to a test.” “Whether it’s an AP test or whether it’s the SAT or the ACT, as those types of tests change, then if you’re trying to chase those results and that was the end-all-be-all, then whoever’s making up those tests is driving your curriculum,” he said. “So we’ve kind of pushed back against that.”
Academy students celebrating in the stands during homecoming last week. Courtesy | Deanna Ducher
Grade point averages are rising, data shows By Elizabeth Crawford Assistant Editor Grade-point averages at Hillsdale College have risen over the last 20 years, from about 3.1 in the fall of 2003 to about 3.4 last semester, according to Director of Institutional Research Joshua Trojniak. “When asking a question like ‘Is there grade inflation?’ Well yes, there is,” Trojniak said. “Even at Hillsdale, that’s a thing. The follow-up question would be ‘Why?’ which is a much more difficult question to answer, because there is a lot that goes into it.” College President Larry Arnn said if Hillsdale seems more resistant to grade inflation than other schools, it is because grades provide a marker on how well the college seeks the truth. “Many colleges are weak these days and they do not want to disappoint the students for fear they will leave,” Arnn said in an email. “The strongest colleges are welcoming students into an elite world, and they want to make them feel elite whether they teach them anything or not.” Yale University made headlines last year when an economics professor showed 58% of the grades it awarded in the 2022-23 school year were As and 20% were A-minuses, for a mean GPA of 3.7. A decade earlier, the mean GPA at Yale was 3.6. Harvard University released its own report on grade inflation in 2021. “ The p ercent age of A-range grades given to college students in the 2020-21 academic year was 79 percent, compared to 60 percent a decade earlier,” Harvard Crimson staff reporters Rahed Hamid and Elias Schigall wrote. “Mean grades on a four-point scale were 3.80 in the 2020-21 academic year, up from 3.41 in 2002-03.” Associate Vice President of Curriculum David Whalen said Hillsdale has not experienced grade inflation to the extent most institutions have, nor does it have a grading rubric to prevent grade inflation. “To the best of my knowledge, the provost does not have a grading rubric other than the information about grading and grades printed in the college catalog,” Whalen said.
See Grades A2