Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
Vol. 146 Issue 22 – March 30, 2023
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
This week, construction crews began demolishing the historic barn on West Carleton Road for the Meijer grocery store under development. They first removed the wall with the Mail Pouch tobacco advertisement, a relic of American history, which will be reconstructed and put on display in the Hillsdale County Historical Society's new location, which is also under construction. Jack Cote | Collegian
Rising senior class officers announced Arnn back to work after brain surgery
By Sarah Katherine Sisk Collegian Reporter
The class of 2024 learned the results of the senior class officer elections at the annual Legacy Board formal dinner. Joseph Perez won president, Michael Bachmann vice president, Elizabeth Dickinson secretary, Grace Hearne treasurer, and Benjamin Heinrichs social chair. Bachmann said he is consistently impressed by the quality of students in the junior class. “I am constantly astounded by my classmates' integrity and talent and the friendship that we have fostered,” Bachmann said. “I just want
to be able to give back to the community that I have been a part of for three years and make sure we all have an amazing senior year.” He also expressed desires to plan and execute more senior class events. “I'm hoping to increase the number and scale of the events we host for the senior class,” Bachmann said. “I'd like to add more events to the fall semester as well.” The senior class officers will begin brainstorming ideas for their commencement speaker this summer. Dickinson said she is excited to continue connecting with her class, both as a senior and serving as secretary.
“My goal is to make sure everyone gets their opinion heard, whether in class events, opportunities, etc. Dickinson said. “Senior year can be a hectic time, but I want to make sure it's delightfully memorable.” Dickinson spoke to the unique character of her class, due to both their high school and college experiences being impacted by COVID-19. “We graduated high school in the height of a pandemic and entered college before the confusion had died down,” Dickinson said. “Despite these challenges, however, we've created some incredible community in the last three years,
and I'm honored and excited to help us finish strong.” In addition to the election results, senior Haley Strack announced the new members of the Legacy Board. The new board will consist of 12 members: Ella Denning, Caitie Dugan, Lucy Fernandes, Duggan Foley, Grace Gottwalt, Benjamin Heinrichs, Caleb Holm, Evalyn Homoelle, Gabrielle Lewis, Matt Muller, Mary Ruth Oster, and Tristan Wertanzl. The legacy board selects a senior class gift and fundraises on behalf of the class.
See Officers A2
Campus The revolution has begun anticipates How John Tharp built the men's basketball program with the highest winning percentage in the state visit from DeSantis By Christian Peck-Dimit Associate Editor
By Carly Moran Assistant Editor On Thursday, April 6, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will speak at a dinner hosted by the Hillsdale College Special Events office. The event will be held at 4 p.m. in the Searle Center, beginning with a panel discussion on K-12 education. A reception and dinner will follow, and the evening will close with Q&A between College President Larry Arnn and DeSantis. Eighteen Michigan GOP legislators signed a letter earlier this year encouraging DeSantis to run for president. Many students and professors have been left wondering if this visit could mean something for his potential campaign. "I think DeSantis is in effect testing the waters for running for president," Professor of Politics Thomas West said. "He hasn't declared. The speech is part of that. He wants to get out there talking to people and see whether there's enough support."
See DeSantis A2
In the final game of the 2019-20 season, the Charger men’s basketball team took down its long-time rival, the University of Findlay, in a last-second battle to secure their first ever regular season conference title since switching to the G-MAC. “During the locker room celebration when we beat Findlay to clinch the regular season title, Tharp came up to me and hugged me while I was in the shower,” former twotime all-conference Charger Dylan Lowry said. “It was one of the most incredible moments of my entire life. He had a full suit on.” Since the 2017-18 season, teams from the University of Michigan and Michigan State University have made multiple trips to the Final Four and even a run to the NCAA Championship, but the NCAA men’s basketball program with the highest winning percentage in the state is from Hillsdale College. Over the five-year stretch, the team has won 73.94% of its games, going 105-37, which is more than 5% better than any other program in Michigan. Behind them are Ferris St. with 68.46%, MSU with 67.26%, and U of M with 66.46%. “When you go to the YMCA growing up and there’d be five old guys at the end of the court, and you lost to them 10 to eight, and it’s like ‘how
did I lose to those guys?’” head coach John Tharp said. “Well, they pass, they catch, they play together, they’re skilled. In our own way, that’s kind of what we are.” Despite playing fewer games than its DI counterparts, Hillsdale was the only one of 25 programs in the state to win at least 19 games in each year since 2017. The past three years have been especially fruitful for the team. A pair of NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen runs and a bid to the Elite Eight — both the first such runs in program history — cemented the team in the record books of both the team and the nation. “The last two or three years, it’s been pretty absurd, the winning they’re doing, it’s shocking,” Lowry said. The key to the program’s historic success, according to current and former players, is simple: the team’s 16-year head coach, Tharp. “You’ve got turnover in college basketball, guys leave,” Lowry said. “Every year you graduate four, sometimes up to seven guys. Even our staff, none of the current assistants were on staff when I played. Even while I was there, I had probably six or seven different assistants in my five years. There’s one common variable, and that’s coach Tharp. It all goes back to him.” Tharp recently topped 500 career wins, and holds the program record for wins as a head coach with 297, 125 more than any other coach.
According to former threetime all-conference Charger Davis Larson, Tharp is someone you both love and fear at the same time, saying there simply aren’t many coaches like him anymore. “It’s such an interesting combination for a coach, I feel like it’s so rare with all the other coaches I’ve seen and had,” Larson said. “He’s someone you truly, truly want to play for, you always do what he says and respect what he says, yet you love him as a father, and he loves you as a son.” After the team’s final practice before leaving for Evansville and the Elite Eight in 2022, Tharp shared a message with the team. “He calls us into the old locker room in the back corner of the gym, where everything started for him and his teams 16 years ago,” fifth-year senior guard Jack Gohlke said. “He talked to us about how he started at the program from those days where he only had a couple guys returning when he was the new coach coming in and he had to build the program on toughness and those guys going to battle every day. He talked to us about how we were the next step in the revolution.” In April 2007, Tharp took over as the Charger head coach following 13 seasons leading DIII Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, to a program record 204 wins.
See Basketball A9
By Maggie Hroncich Editor -In-Chief
College President Larry Arnn is back to work after undergoing brain surgery on March 22, he announced in an email to students, faculty, and staff on Wednesday. “I feel better than I have felt for some years,” Arnn, who is 70, told the Collegian after his surgery. Arnn, who had more than 30 examinations and spent eight days at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was treated for a rise in fluid and pressure around his brain, he said. “Brain surgery sounds very serious, but this one is not,” Arnn wrote in his March 29 email. “I was intending to announce this at convocation, but people tell me there is speculation going about.” Arnn said he broke the news of the surgery to a crowd of people on March 25, so they wouldn’t wonder why he was wearing a baseball hat. “I make the boys take their baseball caps off in the dining hall all the time,” Arnn told the Collegian. “And the people there probably didn't know that, but I did. And so I just mentioned that I had brain surgery on Wednesday. And everybody laughed and I said ‘well it’s not a joke, but it's okay. Don't worry about it.’”
According to Arnn, who became college president in 2000, the news of his surgery spread quickly. “A couple of people called me and said ‘you're going to have to say something about this because now it’s going around that you’re near death,’” Arnn said. “And I’m not.” Arnn said he first noticed something was wrong when he had trouble riding his motorcycle and developed difficulty balancing. “Three years ago or so, I became a not very good motorcycle rider, and I had been pretty good. I became a nervous motorcycle rider,” Arnn said. After seeking chiropractic care for his back pain, Arnn said chiropractor Kevin Walton ’94 suggested his lack of balance could signify a greater problem. “As time passed, people began to notice I was walking slower,” Arnn said. “And my elder daughter especially became belligerent about it and said that I had to go see a new doctor in town, Scott Kirsch. And he figured it out by just talking to me for 45 minutes.” Arnn soon had appointments booked at the Mayo Clinic, where several of his family members have been treated in the past.
See Arnn A2
MICHIGAN NCAA MEN’S BASKETBALL PROGRAMS Winning Percentage 2018 - 2023 Hillsdale
73.94%
(105-37)
Ferris St.
68.46%
(102-47)
MSU
67.26%
(113-55)
U of M
66.46%
(109-55)
Calvin (81-52)
65.85%