Hillsdale College

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Hillsdale College
Motto: Virtus Tentamine Gaudet (Strength rejoices in the challenge)
Established: 1844
Type: Liberal arts college
Endowment: $215,035,715[1]
President: Larry P. Arnn
Faculty: 102 full-time, 37 adjunct
Undergraduates: 1,304
Location: Hillsdale, Michigan, USA
Campus: Rural, 200 acres (45 buildings)
Athletics: 11 varsity intercollegiate sports teams
Nickname: Chargers
Website: www.hillsdale.edu

Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan is a liberal arts college known for its refusal of government funding and its monthly speech digest, Imprimis. Hillsdale is co-educational, nonsectarian, and is not affiliated with any religious denomination or institution. [1] Located in central-southern Michigan, United States, its 200 acre (0.8 km²) campus contains multiple instructional and office buildings, thirteen residence halls, seven fraternity and sorority houses, an athletic complex, music hall, arts center, and an arboretum. Two high-technology classroom buildings, Kendall and Lane Halls, were completed in December 2005 and construction of the Grewcock Student Union, on the site formerly occupied by the Carr Library, was completed in January 2008.

Hillsdale's student body consists of 1,300 students, almost evenly divided on the basis of sex, with slightly more females enrolled than males. The college currently has more than 100 full-time faculty members and offers a variety of liberal arts majors, pre-professional programs, a teacher education program, and a journalism certificate program. The Hillsdale major with the greatest number of students is history.

Contents

[edit] History

Hillsdale College was established as Michigan Central College in Spring Arbor, Michigan in December 1844. The college later moved to Hillsdale, Michigan in 1853 and assumed its current name.

Hillsdale was the first American college to prohibit in its charter all discrimination based on race, religion, or sex, thus making Hillsdale the first American college to be chartered on the principle of nondiscrimination. Hillsdale's Founders were determined to uphold the principle of equality articulated by the Founders of America who had declared in 1776 that "all men are created equal." Hillsdale was founded by Freewill Baptists, and in the nineteenth century, Hillsdale and Bates College in Maine were the only American colleges affiliated with the denomination. Hillsdale no longer has any denominational affiliation.

Because of its dedication to the principle of equality, Hillsdale quickly emerged as an early agitator for the abolition of slavery and for the education of black students. Blacks were admitted immediately after the 1844 founding and the College became the second in the nation to grant four-year liberal arts degrees to women.

Many Hillsdale students served in the Union army during the American Civil War. A higher percentage of Hillsdale students enlisted than from any other non-military college.[citation needed] During the war, male enrollment at the college was nearly nonexistent. Of the more than 400 men serving, half became officers. During the conflict, four Hillsdale students won the Medal of Honor, three became generals, and many more served as regimental commanders. For the more than sixty that died, a monument in their honor, which now stands between Kendall and Lane Halls, was created.

Hillsdale's non-discrimination policy remained controversial throughout its history. Hillsdale reports that its students refused to segregate their troops in the Army during World War I, and the Army tacitly consented. Furthermore, as described by The Michigan Daily, Hillsdale's undefeated football team refused to play in the 1956 Tangerine Bowl when the committee refused to allow the team's black players to join the white players on the field, forcing the committee to select Juniata instead.

Hillsdale College's commitment to non-discrimination again came under fire in the 1970s following the enactment of affirmative action legislation. Because some of its students were receiving federal loans, the federal government declared it could require Hillsdale College to submit Assurance of Compliance forms mandated by Title IX as a condition of the continued receipt of federal financial assistance by two hundred Hillsdale students. Hillsdale refused compliance on the grounds that its own policies were less discriminatory than those the federal government would impose. Hillsdale also contended that it was not required to comply because it was a private school not receiving federal aid. However, the federal government argued that although the school was not funded directly, some students were receiving federal aid.

In 1979, this continuing battle with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) began to intensify. The College filed a petition for judicial review in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, asking the court to overturn a previous decision by the Reviewing Authority, Office of Civil Rights of HEW.

In December 1982, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Hillsdale's refusal to sign the compliance forms, but it also ruled that government aid to individual students could be terminated without a finding that a college actually discriminated.

In February 1984, in a related case, Grove City College v. T.H. Bell, Secretary U.S. Department of Education, the U. S. Supreme Court made a decision regarding arguments first made by Hillsdale College. It required every college or university to fulfill federal requirements because its students received federal aid.

As a result of the court's decision, students at Hillsdale can no longer receive federal student aid. (Parents of Hillsdale students are, however, eligible to take federal education tax credits and deductions for expenses they incur to send their children there, per a recent communication from the U.S. Department of Education.) Thus the entire operating budget (estimated at $46 million per year) of the college, including scholarships ($10,117,047 for 2005), must come from private funding sources. In 2007, Hillsdale extended their ban on taking government aid to monies from states; the College has offered to match any funds that a student would have received from a state with its own aid.

Due in no small part to its refusal to accept funds in return for government mandates, the College raises enough extra revenue to pay the equivalent of the federal loans that it refuses. As the Detroit Free Press stated on January 25, 1981:

Hillsdale after all, is famous as the little college that fights for rightness and independence. From the unlikely location of south central Michigan, it gained its national recognition by drawing its sword against the federal government. No trespassing, it told HEW; we'll hire, promote, subsidize, educate and influence with no interference from you.
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[edit] Recent history

In 1991, four former Hillsdale College professors, all members of the conservative National Association of Scholars, criticized the college and its president, George Roche III. They wrote: "For years the Hillsdale administration has neglected its academic program to pay for 'outreach' activities designed to promote Dr. Roche, maintained a curriculum that requires no appreciable knowledge of Western culture, and used every possible means including dismissals and threats of lawsuits, to silence dissent of any kind among faculty and students." (Academic Questions, Fall 1991). Roche also urged a student, Mike Nehls, not to publish an independent newspaper, the Hillsdale Spectator. When Nehls went ahead with his plans and began criticizing Roche in editorials, Roche banned distribution of the paper on campus and then expelled Nehls. In 1987, distinguished assistant history professor Warren Treadgold was fired after publicly disagreeing with the dean of women Carol-Ann Barker; Hillsdale, which has no appeals or grievance procedures, refused to give any reasons for Treadgold's dismissal[2].

Hillsdale gained national attention in 1999, when Lissa Jackson Roche, the daughter-in-law of college president George Roche III, committed suicide shortly after alleging that she and her father-in-law had conducted an extramarital affair for over nineteen years. Roche's body was discovered in the college's Slayton Arboretum. George Roche III resigned as president of the college. [2] [3] There is still some controversy over whether she committed suicide or was murdered, and a book was written on the tragedy, but there was no conclusive evidence of either the affair or the charge that Roche murdered the woman. Despite this incident, which inspired an episode of NBC's Law & Order, Roche's labors to improve the college remain respected, and the college's sports complex, built during his presidency, bears his name. Roche died on Friday, May 5, 2006 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Dr. Larry P. Arnn serves as president of the college. Arnn has studied at Oxford University in England and worked with Martin Gilbert (now Sir), the official biographer of Winston Churchill. Before coming to Hillsdale, Dr. Arnn served as president of the Claremont Insitute. Dr. Arnn, who leads the private college in Michigan, is one of the highest paid liberal arts college presidents in the United States. He has a base salary of $331,773 in 2003-04, with benefits of $145,157, putting his total compensation at $476,930.

In 2002, Chris Chocola, a Hillsdale graduate, was elected to the United States House of Representatives, joining another Hillsdale alumnus, Representative Phil Crane (who served until 2004) as a member of the influential House Ways and Means Committee. Chocola was defeated in a reelection bid in 2006.

[edit] Further information

Since 1981, Hillsdale College has presented National Leadership Seminars nationwide on issues of politics, economics and culture. To date, more than 19,000 community, business and media leaders around the country have attended these seminars. Past speakers include Benazir Bhutto, Benjamin Netanyahu, Tony Snow, Dan Quayle, Midge Decter, and Caspar Weinberger.

Hillsdale has employed several notable faculty members, including English professors David Whalen and Stephen Smith; economists Richard Ebeling and Gary Wolfram; historians John Willson (historian), Bradley Birzer, Burt Folsom, and Sir Martin Gilbert; political scientists Mickey Craig and Robert Eden; and sculptor Tony Frudakis.

Ebeling now serves as president of the Foundation for Economic Education, and in Spring 2004 Dr. Grassl left the college and took a position at St. Norbert College. Birzer, a J.R.R. Tolkien admirer, authored the book Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth. Frudakis sculpted the life-size statue of George Washington which stands near the administrative building Moss Hall and the statue of Socrates which sits in the library. In 2004, United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas taught a seminar course to select groups of students. Since 2004, the classicist Victor Davis Hanson has taught courses in the fall semester, and Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian David McCullough taught a class in the spring of 2006. Hon. Stephen Markman teaches a seminar course on constitutional law. Best-selling novelist Mark Helprin teaches spring semester courses on strategic analysis and fiction writing.

Hillsdale College often features prominent speakers at college events, including its Center for Constructive Alternatives (CCA) program. These have included former president Ronald Reagan, Rev. Jesse Jackson, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, Clarence Thomas, P.J. O'Rourke, and Ann Coulter.

The College publishes Imprimis, a free-subscription speech digest with over 1.6 million subscribers.

Hillsdale College's campus includes a K-12 liberal arts school, Hillsdale Academy.

In 2007, the college said that its entering freshman class was its best ever in terms test scores and grade-point averages.[4]

[edit] Rankings

Hillsdale currently ranks 97th in the 2008 U.S. News & World Report listing of best American Liberal Arts colleges[5], and ranks first in the Princeton Review's The Best 361 Colleges 2007 listing of colleges where students are "most nostalgic for Ronald Reagan" (politically conservative)[6] . It also ranks number seven in the Princeton Review's listing of the top ten private best-value colleges.

[edit] Athletics

The College has a variety of sports teams that compete on the NCAA Division II level, including baseball, men's and women's basketball, football, softball, women's swimming, track and field, cross country, and volleyball. The college also has club teams in both ice hockey and lacrosse. The Chargers, as the Hillsdale athletics teams are known, compete in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Legendary college football coach Frank "Muddy" Waters made a name for himself as the head coach at Hillsdale from 1954-1973. The football stadium, Frank Waters Stadium, is named in his honor.

National Championships:

  • 1985: Football - NAIA Division I

National Runners-up:

  • 1957: Football - NAIA
  • 1992: Men's Cross Country - NAIA
  • 1994: Men's Cross Country - NAIA

Basketball Final Four:

  • 1981: Men's Basketball - NAIA Division I

[edit] Greek Life

North-American Interfraternity Conference Fraternities

National Panhellenic Conference Sororities

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] Notable Professors

[edit] Present

  • Burt Folsom, economics historian
  • Ivan Pongracic Jr., economist, author, and former musician
  • Paul Rahe, natural law political philosopher[3][4]

[edit] Past

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hillsdale College - Articles of Association
  2. ^ Academe: Bulletin of the AAUP, May-June 1988, pp. 29-33.
  3. ^ Culture deterioration brings Rahe to college - News
  4. ^ Legacy in Dispute - Features
  5. ^ “Building a Legacy” The Hillsdale Collegian.

[edit] External links

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Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference