CHP Showdown:
Historical Society:
Charger Baseball:
See B1
See A6
See A10
The Hillsdale County Historical Society has made progress restoring the Will Carleton Poorhouse.
Last weekend, student bands competed for the chance to open for DWLLRS at CHP.
Courtesy | Morgan Morrison
Courtesy | SAB
Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
The men's baseball team swept a four game series this past week.
Courtesy | Isabella Sheehan
Vol. 146 Issue 25 – April 20, 2023
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Mock trial places fourth at national tournament By Megan Williams Culture Editor Last weekend, the Hillsdale College Mock Trial team won fourth place overall at the National Collegiate Tournament in Memphis, Tennessee. With a record of 9-3, team 1076 placed second in their division and were tied for the highest combined strength score at the tournament. Team 1077 finished with a record of 4-8. “In two years, Hillsdale Mock Trial went from never qualifying for nationals to placing second in the division and fourth in the nation,” junior Caleb Sampson said. “We couldn’t be more proud or grateful.” The teams had four weeks to draft, finalize, and memorize their case materials for nationals. Team 1076 captain junior Justin Lee said competitors spent more than 30 hours a week in practices and meetings to prepare for the tournament. “Preparing for an entirely new case in one month was a huge challenge,” Sampson said. “But working toward a common goal with my best friends made that challenge well worth it.” The teams drove to Memphis last Wednesday afternoon, spending the 10 hour bus drive memorizing their material. On
Thursday, both teams participated in two scrimmages to help run their cases against other teams, Lee said. “Our scrimmages were against really high quality competitors which helped us get focused for the weekend,” Lee said. With the tournament beginning Friday evening, Lee said the teams spent every moment of free time practicing. On Friday night, team 1076 was paired against University of California Los Angeles, who won the tournament, for its first round. “It was such a competitive round,” Lee said. “It felt like we belonged in that round; we felt like we were in it. But it was a good wake up call to make us realize just how difficult this weekend was going to be.” Team 1076 won its next two rounds, winning all three ballots in every round. Coach Jonathan Church said competing against the University of Florida’s A team in round 3, was a complete rematch from the year before, which showed Hillsdale’s improvement over the past year. “We showed rookie nerves against Florida last year, and we tried some strategies that just weren’t smart,” Church said. “So this year, watching the round, the rookie mistakes were gone.
The nerves were gone. We ran a clean round where we forced them into errors instead of the other way around.” After the preliminary four rounds, the tournament hosts announced the results of the tournament and sent the top two teams into the final round where they compete for the championship. Lee said he was going to pack up his belongings and noticed their coach organizing all of their materials. At this moment, Lee said he knew team 1076 was in the running for the championship round. “I go up to coach and he’s organizing the trial materials,” Lee said. “I told him that we could just dump it all in there and he said, ‘No, Justin, we need to organize it now.’ I knew that we might be going again and that was crazy.” The tournament hosts announced the individual awards and named the top 10 teams from each division. Lee said as the announcer went through the list, the nerves and fear were continuing to rise. “We’re not number 10, not nine, not eight, and it just kept going,” Lee said. “By the time we got to third place, I knew we were second because UCLA had yet to be mentioned, and though we competed well against them, I knew they had
beaten us.” After the ceremony, Lee said the team was absolutely exhausted, so they ordered takeout and celebrated by watching the final round live stream. “The UCLA team was so kind; I know almost all of them by first name,” Lee said. “It felt like we were cheering on and supporting our friends. Watching them compete and execute such incredible mock trial was very fun.” Church attributed the team’s success to a mixture of the competitors’ focus, camaraderie, and dedication. Church said the team used to have a culture of telling horror stories from past tournaments and mistakes, which led underclassmen to have fear of different schools and the quality of competition. “Last year I told the captains that we were done sharing these stories and I had to get on people who would share these stories all the time,” Church said. “Now, our freshmen don’t even know to be nervous, they just know that they’re a part of a good program.” Church said having this many team members, especially freshmen and sophomores, watching and competing at the NCT will help prepare them and give them the hunger to continue working toward quali-
Members of the mock trial team pose with their trophy. Courtesy | Caleb Sampson
fying each year. “My view in sports or competition of any kind is that you’re not entitled to anything,” Church said. “We’re going to have to make sure that we stay true to our virtues that have gotten us this far. If we work hard, we’ll get what we deserve.” As the mock trial season came to a close this last weekend, Sampson said the team's
success and competitive spirit only makes them want to work harder to return and do better next year. “One judge ranked us above UCLA at this year’s national champions,” Sampson said. “This year we took silver. Next year, we’re coming back for gold.”
'The Larry P. Arnn Show' debuts on podcast network By Lauren Scott Assistant Editor
The college has plans to improve campus beyond the addition of the graduate school building as depicted in this mock-up. Courtesy | Christopher VanOrman
Graduate school construction to begin By Elizabeth Crawford Collegian reporter The college will break ground for the new Diana Davis Spencer Graduate School of Education behind Central Hall on May 12. The new building will contain four classrooms and nine offices on the first floor, and five classrooms and nine offices on the second floor, according to Provost Christopher VanOrman. “This building will be utilized by many of our faculty and not just for the education department,” VanOrman said. “It will house other faculty as well.” Construction will take about a year and a half, according to Associate Vice President for Curriculum and Professor of English David Whalen. “This construction will no doubt cause significant disruptions to the use of the
quad, but once completed it will be a beautiful addition to the quad,” VanOrman said. According to VanOrman, the new building will require moving the Ronald Reagan statue. Whalen said the expansion of the graduate program reflects the need for more physical space. “In order to accommodate the expansion in faculty, classes, and remote educational operations, a new building was designed by James McCrery Architects in Washington, D.C.,” Whalen said. The website for McCrery Architects says tradition inspires their architectural style. “The proper practice of traditional architecture embraces the best of all periods and locales in a timeless, unbroken chain of buildings with lasting beauty and utility,” the website says. “When
architecture is grounded in and engaged with tradition, it can intelligently propose and creatively project the future.” Chairman and Dean of the Classical Education Graduate school Daniel Coupland said the classical education program has admitted another 15 students for the upcoming academic year, totaling around 36 graduate students in that program. Coupland said the expansion of the graduate school is part of a greater endeavor. “A lot of this is driven by Dr. Arnn — he really cares about this program, and he really wants to see it thriving,” Coupland said. “He sees it as a part of an overall effort to improve education not just here at Hillsdale College but across the country.” Whalen said the graduate school of classical education was conceived to address a need that Hillsdale can fill. “Classical schools around
the country are in dire need of teaching and administrative staff who understand the western and American tradition, its great heritage of ideas, achievements, and figures, and who understand the first principles of moral and intellectual formation,” Whalen said. The new building will help meet the growing need for more classical educators, according to Whalen. The graduate school, however, is part of a master architecture plan for the college, VanOrman said. “This master plan includes adding onto the backside of Central Hall, front addition to the library, and possibly the front addition of Grewcock Student Union,” VanOrman said. “These potential additions have not all been funded at this point.”
The Hillsdale College Podcast Network launched Monday, April 17 to create a centralized location for the college’s audio. “Guided by the able shepherd Scot Bertram, we have been expanding our teaching by audio,” College President Larry Arnn said. Scot Bertram, director of the podcast network and general manager at WRFH 101.7 FM, said the podcast network has been in development for some time. According to Bertram, the podcast network exists to create a centralized location for the college’s audio and podcasts and to bring listeners deeper into the college's missions. The podcast network will feature easy access to Hillsdale’s five podcasts: “The Larry P. Arnn Show,” “Hillsdale Dialogues,” “Radio Free Hillsdale Hour,” “Beyond The Bubble,” and “Hillsdale K-12 Classical Education Podcast,” according to Bertram. He said they plan to add an Imprimis podcast in the beginning of May. Bertram said although there is no set schedule for Arnn’s show, he certainly expects episodes will be released on a regular basis. “The podcast is a natural extension of many things we have been doing for a long time,” Arnn said. “Podcasts seem to be taking over the world.” The inaugural episode of The Larry P. Arnn Show, released on April 18, featured Arnn and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Bertram said.
“I think it provided a very interesting and unique conversation between those two men,” Bertram said. “Dr. Arnn is an excellent host and is able to ask questions that elicit great responses from his guests.” Bertram said he looks forward to hearing Arnn’s conversations with future guests who discuss topics of enduring relevance. “Every once in a while I will put in my two cents,” Arnn said. “Sometimes with campus guests and sometimes with colleagues.” Bertram said there was a lot of hard work behind the scenes to get the site up from Hillsdale’s marketing and web team. “A nice thing about the website is that if people don't want to get into the podcast world, it's very easy to go to the website, find a show and click a button, click play and listen to the show,” Bertram said. Senior Josh Barker, program director at WRFH 101.7 FM, said having the college’s audio in an easy-to-find space will be helpful to students and supporters of the college. “While many might have expected radio and audio to die out as an important medium a decade ago, podcasting has made audio a key place where people go for education and entertainment,” Barker said. There are ongoing conversations about turning Hillsdale’s online courses into audio podcasts, Bertram said. The Hillsdale College Podcast Network can be found online at podcasts.hillsdale. edu.