Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Vol. 147 Issue 5 – September 21, 2023
Homecoming teams gathered in the Student Union Sunday night for banner drop. Erik Teder | Student Activities Board
Kappa keeps lead midway through homecoming Fink By Thomas McKenna Assistant Editor Kappa Kappa Gamma still leads the overall homecoming standings after Simpson won Wednesday night’s trivia competition on a tiebreaker question. Simpson is now tied with Kno Way Man — an alliance between Koon, Galloway, and Waterman residences — for second, followed by New Dorm in fourth, and Niedfeldt Residence in fifth. In the trivia competition, Kno Way Man took second place, followed by the Off-Campus Coalition, New Dorm, and Chi Omega. Junior Jaden Camero and
sophomore Jonathan Williams, the leaders of the Simpson trivia team, said sophomore Grady Stevenson was the key performer on the team. “All credit to God,” Williams said in an interview after the victory. “All credit to Grady Stevenson.” The tiebreaker question asked teams “How many individuals could be held in the Ancient Olympia stadium?” Williams said Stevenson’s “instant gut reaction” was 45,000 — the correct answer. “But then he started leaning towards possibly 49,000,” Williams said. “We said, ‘No, Grady, stick to your gut, that’s what’s gotten us to this tiebreaker.’ And
sure enough, he had it right. We lost our minds.” Stevenson said he’s looking forward to the rest of the week’s activities. “It was a great feeling to work as a team to win the trivia competition,” Stevenson said. “I can’t wait to see our guys in the rest of homecoming.” Kappa Kappa Gamma took first place in the banner and video competitions to start homecoming week and held the lead heading into the trivia competition. Seniors Bessie Benham and Claire Henzel said they spent about 40 hours on Kappa’s black-and-white banner depicting the Parthenon and other an-
Endowment grows despite drop in donors By Carly Moran Assistant Editor The college’s endowment is currently valued at $972 million, representing an increase of nearly $100 million from last year’s value, according to Vice President for Finance Patrick Flannery. While donations were slightly down, Flannery said this reflects a national trend for nonprofits this past fiscal year. Without federal assistance, the college remains reliant upon gifts, tuition, and investment income. “We’re fiscally strong,” Flannery said. “We look at our revenue in three different streams: gift, student, and investment revenue. Other colleges have a fourth revenue stream, which would be federal or state income. We obviously don’t have that fourth stream, so we kind of have to deal with that
one leg of the stool that’s not existent. Usually if even one of those three streams are having issues, we still do fine.” Associate Vice President of Internal Affairs Nancy Johnson said the decrease in giving may be due to the postCOVID economy. According to Giving Tuesday’s March 2023 quarterly report, national nonprofits experienced a 3.8% year-over-year decline in donors. Giving Tuesday is a philanthropic advocacy group that provides annual statistics through its Data Commons research group. “Charitable giving is optional,” Johnson said. “When our country is in a depressed economy, people are more selective with their philanthropic dollars. Overall, our gift revenue in cash, binding pledges, and irrevocable trusts was second-highest in the college’s history.”
Johnson said despite the national downturn in charitable giving, the college has seen success with outreach events attendance. “From a fundraising perspective, it helps to know that this trend was industry-wide across nonprofits, and it helps us to remain vigilant in reaching out to friends of the college, to keep them connected,” Johnson said. According to the office of institutional advancement, the college experienced record attendance at outreach events. “Our attendance last year at college receptions featuring Dr. Larry Arnn and lecture programs across the country were at an all-time high,” Johnson said. “I understand that the college recorded over 71,000 campus visits overall, for any reason, which is terrific.”
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cient Greek images with letters along the bottom reading “Return with your shield or on it.” “We decided we want to represent women who wanted to call men higher and be the ones who are crowning the victors,” Henzel said. “That was our vision for it.” Henzel said they chose a black-and-white color scheme to dramatize the banner’s imagery. At banner drop Monday morning — when teams roll their banners out for display in the student union at midnight — Benham and Henzel said they saw the floor above the dining hall bending under the weight of chanting students.
“It was going up and down while they were jumping,” Benham said. Junior Sarah McKeown led Kappa’s video production, a “Real Housewives” parody featuring women in ancient Greece. “It wasn’t one person creating the entire project,” McKeown said. “It was very collaborative and really highlighted people’s strong suits.” Kappa President and senior Evelyn Kilty said winning was not the sorority’s only focus during homecoming. “It’s something where you’re going to remember these sorts of experiences from Hillsdale years down the line,” Kilty said.
Campus reacts to Wall Street Journal rankings By Lauren Scott City News Editor The Wall Street Journal did not include Hillsdale College in its new Best Colleges rankings, following a years-long practice of ignoring the school because it does not accept federal funding. “It doesn’t matter one bit because nobody is going to choose or not choose Hillsdale College based on what the Wall Street Journal rankings say,” said Buddy Moorehouse, adjunct instructor of documentary filmmaking. “The school’s reputation transcends that.” The newspaper collects the bulk of its data from Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and other federal reporting systems as a methodology for scoring institutions, said Joshua Trojniak, Hillsdale’s director of institutional research. One of the requirements to be part of the ranking is to be Title IV eligible, such as an accredited university that accepts federal financial aid, according to Trojniak. “Depending on the WSJ’s definition of ‘eligible’ in ‘Title IV eligible,’ it is very likely that Hillsdale is not considered as satisfying this criteria,” Trojniak said. Moorehouse helped his spring 2023 documentary filmmaking class produce a feature-length documentary telling the story of how Hillsdale College became free from federal aid in the 1980s. According to Trojniak, another requirement for schools
to be included in the newspaper’s ranking is that the government data for the factors used to compile its ranking is collected and publicly reported. Trojniak said because the college does not accept government funds, there are significant measures for which there is no data for the school. “There are several measures related to graduate income and social mobility that are derived from data on Pell Grant recipients,” he said. “Since there are no Pell Grant recipients at Hillsdale, there is no data for them to use.” Trojniak said even though the newspaper provides a basic overview of its methodology for scoring institutions, the exact formula is unknown. “For this reason, it is difficult to ascertain precisely why a particular score is given, or why one school is included but another is not,” he said. Junior Abby Idstein said she thinks it would help Hillsdale to be part of the rankings, but the school is still very successful without it. “What makes a college great is its ability to teach the future generation of America,” she said. “That’s what Hillsdale is doing.” Five alumni work as writers and editors at The Wall Street Journal: Nicole Ault ’19, Jillian Melchior ’09, Mark Naida ’18, Kate Odell ’13, and Liz Essley Whyte ’11.The Collegian’s editor-in-chief last year, Maggie Hroncich, was a Bartley Fellow at the newspaper’s editorial page this summer.
announces run for Michigan Supreme Court By Elyse Apel Digital Editor Hillsdale College alumnus and state Rep. Andrew Fink announced Sept. 18 that he will run for Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court in 2024. Fink ’06 is currently serving his second term as a Republican state representative for the 35th District, but said he sees running for the court as a way he can better serve the state of Michigan. “I see this as a continuation of the service that I’ve been engaged in,” Fink said. “Much of my adult life has been oriented around serving my community, whether it is as a Marine officer, an attorney, or as a state representative. In each, I took an oath to support our Constitution and support our constitutional system, and I see this as a very logical progression.” Fink is the first candidate to announce he is running for the state supreme court. Mickey Craig, professor of politics, said he was excited to hear that Fink is running. “Andrew Fink was an outstanding student at Hillsdale College. He is a brilliant young man of high integrity,” Craig said. “He understands the problems facing our county, our state, and our country. He understands the proper role of a judge in a constitutional republic. He will be a great judge on the supreme court when he wins.” During his time as a representative, Fink has focused on issues like abortion and education. Fink said he thinks he is a good candidate because of his understanding of the court’s jurisdiction.
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