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Hillsdale College Hosts Free Market Forum

Forum addressed energy, the Federal Reserve, DOGE and the budget, and more.

HILLSDALE, Mich. — Hillsdale College hosted a Free Market Forum in Charlotte, North Carolina, Oct. 16-18. Speakers and panelists discussed a variety of topics related to markets, government, and the common good.

The forum opened with an address from James Freeman of The Wall Street Journal on “The Mamdani Phenomenon in NYC.”

Freeman argued that what Mamdani’s popularity represents is more of a fluke than a trend toward leftist politics.

“Nationwide, and even in liberal New Jersey right next door, many Democratic candidates are now doing their level best to sound like Conservatives, who oppose tax and spending hikes, and prioritize law and order,” Freeman said. “While there is still an active debate among elected Democrats on whether they want to govern like socialists, there is at least an emerging consensus that they don’t want to sound like socialists.”

The second day featured panels on energy, the Federal Reserve, and DOGE and the budget.

Panelists:

Pounds, the founder of Data Republican, spoke on the relationship between government departments, big foundations, and the CIA and USAID.

“It’s literally all the same thing, all the same group,” Pounds said. “NGOs are not separate from the State Department. They’re not separate from the billionaires. NGOs are not separate from the Left or the communists. Their goal now is color revolutions, to kick out Trump, and this is why I say that the biggest industry in America is not tech. It’s not finance. The biggest industry in America is spreading democracy.”

The event concluded with lectures by Ken Elzinga on “Teaching Economics” and Sean McMeekin on “The Rise and Fall of Communism.”

The Free Market Forum Series, run by Hillsdale College’s Center for the Study of Monetary Systems and Free Enterprise, seeks to encourage the study of free enterprise by bringing scholars together for dynamic exchanges of ideas on topics related to free market economics.

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LOMBORG HILLSDALE

Thinking Smartly About Climate Change - Imprimis

V ERY LONG April/May 2023 | Volume 52, Issue 4/5

Thinking Smartly About Climate Change

Bjorn Lomborg

Copenhagen Consensus Center

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6 26

AI Overview

New College of Florida underwent a major administrative overhaul initiated by state leadership to reshape it into a conservative liberal arts institution. [1]

Led by President Richard Corcoran and a restructured Board of Trustees, the administration has integrated new classical liberal arts curricula and programming supported by partnerships with organizations like the Institute for Humane Studies. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Academic Restructuring & Programming

Campus Administration

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mma 6 24

project 2025 partners use right-wing media to sow distrust in American elections

Several Project 2025 partners were involved in attempts to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory and have already cast doubt on the 2024 election

WRITTEN BY AUDREY MCCABE

PUBLISHED 06/04/24

As Project 2025 maps out its conservative agenda for the next GOP presidential administration, several of its partner organizations have employed figures involved in efforts to overturn former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss — and others have already begun sowing distrust in American elections ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Led by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 lays out staffing and policy priorities for Trump’s potential return to the White House. The project has over 100 partners, ranging from extreme anti-LGBTQ groups to prominent conservative think tanks, many of which have employed individuals directly involved in attempts to overturn the 2020 election, including figures who served as Trump’s “fake electors”; urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to delay the certification of the electoral count; and pushed disputed legal theories to keep Trump in power. Right-wing media have platformed these individuals, championing their schemes and validating their election lies.

Other partners have turned their sights to the 2024 election, spreading doubts about its legitimacy months before it occurs under the guise of concerns about “election integrity.” Despite lacking evidence of systematic issues across American elections, some of these Project 2025 partner organizations baselessly suggest to their supporters that the 2024 election is being “rigged” as part of “a concerted effort by Democrats,” setting the stage for Trump and his media allies to once again contest the legitimacy of November’s results.

Center for Renewing America

The Claremont Institute

Conservative Partnership Institute

Hillsdale College

Tea Party Patriots

Turning Point USA

The Heartland Institute

The Heritage Foundation

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moms-for-liberty-silent-on-having-registered-sex-offender-in-leadership

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judd ymail 1 24

Activists from a South Carolina chapter of Moms for Liberty — a group best known for opposing LGBTQ rights, pushing for the removal of library books, and fighting racially inclusive curriculum — are starting their own public charter school. The new school, to be known as the Ashley River Classical Academy, will be fully taxpayer-funded, but is structured in a way that effectively avoids any state oversight or accountability. The school will use the 1776 Curriculum, created by Hillsdale College, a small right-wing institution with close ties to former president Donald Trump. Adam Laats, a historian at New York's Binghamton University, described the 1776 Curriculum as "the red [MAGA] hat in textbook form."

Three of the seven board members for Ashley River Classical Academy are leaders in the Charleston Moms for Liberty chapter, including chair Tara Wood, treasurer Janine Nagrodsky, and education committee head Nicole McCarthy. In 2022, Wood wrote that a "significant amount of the Charleston County School District's budget is spent on third-party consultants who are trying to sexualize our children through inappropriate books and lessons." Wood's background, according to Ashley River Classical Academy's charter application, is not in education but in "real estate and facility development." The school is planning to open for the 2024-25 academic year and the children of board members will be given priority admission.

In general, charter schools in South Carolina are approved and overseen by the state's Public Charter District or the local school board where the school is based. These entities sponsor the school's application, allowing them to open and monitor their performance. If a charter school is not meeting the needs of students, the sponsor is obligated to revoke the charter.

In 2017, the Public Charter District was poised to close several South Carolina charter schools that were "abysmal failures." The schools were "started by people who clearly didn't have the academic heft to run a school or the business acumen to run a business" or "private companies more interested in turning a profit than educating children.

But those charter schools were not closed. A provision was written into the South Carolina charter law to allow colleges and universities to also serve as charter sponsors. It was included to allow South Carolina State University "to open its own charter school." But, in 2017, a small Christian institution, Erskine College, declared itself a charter school sponsor. The only thing required for Erskine College or another institution to become a charter school sponsor is to "register," there are no standards or oversight from the state. Erskine College promptly became the sponsor for the schools the state was planning to close.

Erskine College is controlled by the Associate Reformed Presbyterian (ARP) Church. Both Erskine College and the ARP Church have taken a fundamentalist turn in recent years. Today, "anyone applying to work at Erskine must sign a form affirming their religious views align with the ARP Church." They must also affirm "abortion is a sin, that 'in all instances, one should seek to preserve the life of the unborn child,' that homosexuality is a sin and monogamous marriage is 'God’s intended design for humanity.'" The extreme policies, according to the Index Journal, have "alienate[d] faculty and students and has resulted in a drop in alumni giving." The school's mission "is to glorify God as a Christian academic community where students integrate knowledge and faith." Total enrollment has dropped from over 1,000 in 2008 to about 850 today.

As a result, Erskine College has faced severe financial distress, running a deficit and quickly eating into its modest endowment to pay the bills. The money woes have threatened the accreditation of Erskine College by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). In December, the SACSCOC announced that Erskine College was "denied reaffirmation" of its accreditation due to a failure to "manage its financial resources in a responsible manner." The deficiency could result in the revocation of Erskine University's accreditation by SACSCOC in less than a year.

Erskine College has a compelling financial incentive to sponsor South Carolina charter schools since, as a sponsor, it receives "2 percent of the school’s state appropriations." Erskine currently sponsors 28 charter schools, generating millions of dollars in revenue.

Erskine College is sponsoring Ashley River Classical Academy, one of seven charter schools in the university's "pipeline." So even though Ashley River Classical Academy is being funded by state taxpayers, Erskine College will be the sole arbiter of whether the school founded by Moms for Liberty activists is meeting its obligation to students.

Ashley River Classical Academy has hired Alexandria Spry to serve as its first Head of School. Spry previously ran a charter school using the 1776 Curriculum in Florida, Jacksonville Classical Academy East. For the 2022-23 school year, when Spry served as Head of School, Jacksonville Classical Academy East received a grade of "F" from the Florida Department of Education. The school, under Spry's leadership, saw a low percentage of students receiving passing grades in state assessments for English (29%), math (23%), and science (12%).

Spry is scheduled to address a meeting of the Charleston Moms for Liberty chapter this Thursday. Also appearing at the same meeting is a member of the local school board who "allegedly threatened violence against a transgender teacher" and a representative from the South Carolina chapter of Gays Against Groomers (GAG), an anti-trans group. Among other things, GAG lobbies for the removal of books with LGBTQ characters from school libraries. “The school is not a political project,” Spry told the Post and Courier. “We are just trying to provide the best education we can.”

A request for comment, sent to the email address listed on Ashley River Classical Academy's website, bounced back as undeliverable.

Meet the board

The website for the Charleston County chapter of Moms for Liberty states that the group is “dedicated to the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.” Wood, who founded the chapter in August 2021, decided to start the group after attending a meeting where an “education expert spoke about critical race theory [CRT].” While Wood reportedly “does not think that critical race theory is being taught in schools,” she does think that its “tenants” are “trickl[ing] down into K-12 curriculums.” In an interview with the Post and Courier, Wood said, “Anytime you make the narrative ‘White man bad, dark man good’ that’s CRT and that’s horrible.” (CRT is a complex legal theory that is not taught in K-12 schools.)

Wood has been “talking to the Trump campaign about meeting with the former president” and “has already met with Trump’s state director.” Last April, Wood introduced Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) at an event in South Carolina.

Wood is reportedly friends with right-wing influencer Corey Allen. According to the Post and Courier, Wood has been seen on multiple occasions with Allen, who helped organize a rally that Proud Boys attended and was “on the steps of the U.S. Capitol livestreaming the Jan[uary] 6 insurrection.” Allen has since appeared with Wood at fundraising events and meetings for Moms for Liberty. On Facebook, Wood thanked Allen for attending a fundraising event in a comment, saying, “Thank you again for being there, Corey.”

Nagrodsky has also promoted posts by Allen on social media. Nagrodsky posts anti-trans memes and conspiracy theories about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. On January 1, Nagrodsky reposted a Facebook post stating, “Well, I’m off to knock down the pyramids, because Egyptians had slaves 5,000 years ago. Wish me luck!”

The Board of Directors also includes Joel Schellhammer, who received his Bachelor’s Degree from Hillsdale College and was hired in February 2022 as CEO of “[a] new charter-school management organization associated with Hillsdale College.” Another board member is Elizabeth Crocker, who attended Erskine College, “served on the Erskine College Teacher Education Committee” and also worked at Erskine College as an adjunct professor.

Inside Hillsdale's "patriotic" education

The 1776 Curriculum, which Hillsdale claims “seeks to tell the entire grand narrative of the American story,” promotes a biased and often inaccurate version of American history.

For example, the 1776 Curriculum claims America's Founding Fathers “expressed regret and fear of divine retribution” about slavery. In reality, Thomas Jefferson wrote about his belief of “biological differences between blacks and whites” and reportedly had a relationship with his slave Sally Hemings. Instead of freeing his slaves in his will, James Madison chose to leave them to his wife, who “sold them off to pay debts.” George Washington left instructions to not free his slaves after his death until after his wife had also passed, and “aggressively pursued runaway” slaves. None of this is mentioned in the 1776 Curriculum.

A lesson in the 1776 Curriculum also encourages downplaying the history of slavery in America and emphasizing slavery in other areas of the world instead, stating that “of the nearly 11 million Africans who survived being brought to the Western Hemisphere, around 3 percent, or about 350,000, were brought to the North American continent” and that the “rest of all Africans [were] taken to other colonies in the Caribbean and South America.”

The 1776 Curriculum includes misleading information about the history of women’s rights in America, arguing that by saying “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence, “the Founders meant that men and women share equally in human dignity and in possession of natural rights or freedoms.” The reality is that women at the time could not vote, were granted limited property rights, and could not earn their own income if they were married. The 1776 Curriculum is also circumspect about the cause of the Civil War, arguing many Southerners were motivated by “states’ rights” instead of “preserv[ing] the institution of slavery.”

According to a November report by the Collegian, Hillsdale College’s student newspaper, “the Hillsdale K-12 Education program [currently] has 23 member schools, 14 candidate member schools, and 69 curriculum schools across 33 states.” But some Hillsdale-affiliated schools have struggled with performance issues. According to a report by WFTS Tampa Bay, in the 2021-2022 school year, “three of Hillsdale’s member charter schools” in Florida “earned an overall ‘C’ by Florida’s Department of Education.” Other Hillsdale-affiliated schools have “complain[ed] of interference in individual school management and high fees charged by Barney Charter School Initiative, [Hillsdale’s] support arm.”

In some states, Hillsdale has had difficulty finding support or sponsors for new charter schools. In 2022, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) announced that he planned to open “50 Hillsdale-affiliated charter schools,” but was faced with opposition after a video showing Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn at an event with Lee was released. In the video, Arnn says that teachers “are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges.” Arnn later tried to walk back the comments, stating that he did not “mean ‘unintelligent’” but instead meant “ill-conceived” or “misdirected.”

Arnn, whose yearly compensation is reportedly over $1 million, objects to teaching about race and sexuality in schools. In an email obtained by News Channel 5 Nashville, Arnn said that “highly-charged subjects like racism and sexuality” should not be taught in the classroom, but instead teachers should focus on “classes of substance.”

In 2020, Arnn was named the leader of Trump’s 1776 Commission, which was created to advance a “patriotic education.” Hillsdale’s 1776 Curriculum was released “[s]ix months after President Joe Biden dissolved the commission,” although Hillsdale denies any “formal connection” between the two.

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booktv

nOVEMBER 1, 2023LAST AIRED NOVEMBER 26, 2023### *Deception*

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) took a critical look at former NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci and his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. This event was hosted by Hillsdale College at their…

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https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/31/florida-new-college-conservative-trustees-00080541

taLLAHASSEE, Fla. — The newly-installed conservative board of trustees at New College of Florida ousted its current president in favor of former state education commissioner Richard Corcoran Tuesday, launching the initial move in reshaping the campus under the vision of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The decision came at the first board meeting since DeSantis appointed six new trustees with the idea of overhauling the liberal arts college in Sarasota into a more conservative-leaning institution. That track was accelerated Tuesday when the board paved the way for new leadership as students and parents protested the major changes that appear bound for New College.

“Some have said these recent appointments amount to a partisan takeover of the college. This is not correct,” said trusteeMatthew Spalding, a constitutional government professor and vice president at Hillsdale College’s D.C. campuswho was appointed by DeSantis. “It’s not a takeover — it’s a renewal.”

A leadership switch from President Patricia Okker to Corcoran as interim leader is one of several moves made Tuesday by the board, which also signaled its intent to abolish diversity, equity and inclusion programs on campus — all policies pushed by DeSantis. The changes are major developments at the school spurred by the new appointees, including Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who has advised DeSantis on critical race theory, and Eddie Speir, the co-founder of Inspiration Academy, a Christian charter school in Bradenton, Fla.

Tuesday’s meeting was met with apprehension from dozens of students and parents who protested what they called a “hostile takeover” at New College. They urged Okker to stay on as president and push back against the new mandates from the DeSantis administration to model the school as a“Hillsdale of the South” in reference to the private conservative religious “classical“ college in Michigan.

Okker in an emotional address told the board — and the campus — that she couldn’t continue to serve as president amid accusations that the students are being inundated with liberal indoctrination.

“The reality is, and it’s a hard reality and it’s a sad reality, but the vision that we created together is not the vision I have been given as a mandate here,” Okker said.

In remaking the board at New College, the DeSantis administration said the school was “completely captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning” and in need of change following downward enrollment trends. To move on from Okker, trustees agreed to a “generous” exit package that includes at least 12 months of paid professional development leave and benefits. Corcoran is unable to begin serving until March, leaving Okker’s chief of staff Bradley Thiessen in charge until then.

“New leadership is the expectation and I think it makes sense,” Rufo said at the meeting. “I don’t think it’s a condemnation of Dr. Okker, scholarship or skills or character.”

DeSantis’ changes at New College follow other efforts to reshape higher education in Florida. Earlier Tuesday, the GOP governor proposed several changes to Florida’s university system, including pressing the GOP-led Legislature to cut all funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to allow university leaders to launch tenure review of professors. Last year, DeSantis and state Republicans placed GOP allies in top university posts and pushed legislation that could limit how professors teach race.

New College is also now set to review its Office of Outreach & Inclusive Excellence at the request of Rufo as part of the state’s stance against diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools. Rufo originally pushed to abolish the office outright, including four positions, and take other actions tied to diversity and equity, but decided to request further details on the program for a discussion in February.

New College trustees also want former Senate President Bill Galvano to serve as their general counsel and attorney. They asked the interim president on Tuesday to enter negotiations with the former Republican lawmaker who practices law in Sarasota.

Tuesday’s meeting was tense at times, with audience members frequently shouting over and at the new trustees as they spoke. Several parents and students addressed the board before they huddled, often criticizing their plans to retool the university and asking them to leave the college alone.

Some faculty said students felt “hopeless” about what could happen at the school, which is a unique college of under 700 undergraduates where students craft personalized education plans and don’t receive letter grades.

“Many students came here to feel safe and access the education that is their right as Floridians,” Diego Villada, Assistant Professor of Theater and Performance Studies, told the board. “And the impulse to make this a place where race, intersectionality and DEI are banned indicates to them that you want everyone to be the same – to be like you.”

Trustees, though, made it clear that the New College overhaul is fully underway, a message that came the same day DeSantis pledged to invest millions of dollars into recruiting faculty to the school.

“The campus needs a deep culture change. You sat up here, you called us racists, sexists, bigots, outsiders,” said trustee Mark Bauerlein, professor emeritus of English at Emory University who was appointed by DeSantis. “We are now in a position of authority in the college. And the accusations are telling us that something is wrong here.”

Matthew Spalding - Hillsdale College

https://www.hillsdale.edu › staff › matthew-spalding

Matthew Spalding is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government at Hillsdale College and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at ...

Dr. Matthew Spalding - The Federalist Society

https://fedsoc.org › contributors › matthew-spalding

Matthew Spalding is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government at Hillsdale College and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at ...

Matthew Spalding - Hillsdale College - LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com › matthew-spalding-a436b087

Matthew Spalding. Vice President, Washington Operations and Dean, Van Andel Graduate School of Government, Hillsdale College in Washington, DC.

Matthew Spalding - Claremont Institute

https://www.claremont.org › scholar-bio › matthew-spal...

Matthew Spalding is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government at Hillsdale College and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at ...

Liberty Chats, Episode #8: Matt Spalding, Hillsdale College

https://steamboatinstitute.org › update › liberty-chats-ep...

As Vice President for Washington Operations, he also oversees the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship and the academic and ...

Matthew Spalding - Classics of Strategy and Diplomacy

https://classicsofstrategy.com › author › mspalding

Matthew Spalding is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government at Hillsdale College and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at ...

Matthew Spalding | Facebook

https://www.facebook.com › matthew.spalding.104

Kirby Professor of Constitutional Government. Hillsdale, Michigan. Hillsdale College, profile picture · Hillsdale College. Vice President, Washington ...

Matthew Spalding - Encounter Books

https://www.encounterbooks.com › authors › matthew-s...

MATTHEW SPALDING is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College's ...

$14.99

Missing: vice ‎| Must include: vice

We Still Hold These Truths - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › We_Still_Hold_These...

Spalding was Director of American Studies at The Heritage Foundation. ... He later became the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government at Hillsdale College ...

New board member: New College reforms not about turning ...

https://www.heraldtribune.com › politics › 2023/01/20

Jan 20, 2023 — A professor of constitutional government at Hillsdale and the dean of the college's graduate school of government in Washington, D.C., Spalding ...

Matthew Spalding - | National Review

https://www.nationalreview.com › author › matthew-sp...

Matthew Spalding is the associate vice president and dean of educational programs for Hillsdale College in Washington, D.C., where he is the Allan P. Kirby ...

Missing: professor ‎| Must include: professor

Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.

https://docs.house.gov › meetings › HHRG-116-RU00-Bi...

Mar 3, 2020 — Vice President of Washington Operations. Hillsdale College. Matthew Spalding is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government at ...

1 page

Matthew Spalding email address & phone number

https://rocketreach.co › matthew-spalding-email_47679...

Kirby Chair in Constitutional Government and Associate Professor of Politics @ Hillsdale College · Associate Vice President and Dean of Educational Programs @ ...

Email Format: jane.doe@hillsdale.edu (47%)

Address: 33 E College St, Hillsdale, Michigan ...

Prudence: Education's Greatest Virtue - Veritas Academy

https://www.veritasacademy.com › virtue

Join us for a lecture by Dr. Matthew Spalding of Hillsdale College. Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government and Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of ...

Overhaul at Florida's New College starts big: ousts sitting ...

https://universitybusiness.com › overhaul-at-floridas-ne...

1 hour ago — ... Matthew Spalding, a constitutional government professor and vice president at Hillsdale's D.C. campus; and Eddie Spier, co-founder of ...

Conservative trustees oust president at Florida's New College ...

https://sports.yahoo.com › amphtml › conservative-trust...

18 hours ago — This is not correct,” said trustee Matthew Spalding, a constitutional government professor and vice president at Hillsdale College's D.C. ...

https://www.govinfo.gov › content › pkg › html

Matt Spalding is the Kirby professor in constitutional government and dean ... as well as the vice president of Washington operations at Hillsdale College.

Matthew J. Spalding | C-SPAN.org

https://www.c-span.org › person › MatthewJSpalding

On the C-SPAN Networks: Matthew J. Spalding is an Associate Vice President for the Hillsdale College with 49 videos in the C-SPAN Video Library; the first ...

Missing: professor ‎| Must include: professor

Governor Ron DeSantis Appoints Six to the New College of ...

https://www.flgov.com › 2023/01/06 › governor-ron-d...

Jan 6, 2023 — Spalding is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government at Hillsdale College and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at ...

Hillsdale in DC (@HillsdaleInDC) / Twitter

https://twitter.com › HillsdaleInDC

Hillsdale College congratulates Matthew Spalding, vice president of Hillsdale College and the dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government in ...

The 1776 Report - Google Books

https://books.google.com › ... › General

Matthew Spalding is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College's ...

DeSantis Appointee to New College of Florida: Students ...

https://flvoicenews.com › Politics

Jan 11, 2023 — Dr. Matthew Spalding is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government at Hillsdale College and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School ...

Hillsdale College Professor Responds to Liberal Media Attacks

https://www.dailysignal.com › 2023/01/11 › hillsdale-c...

Jan 11, 2023 — Spalding, vice president of Washington operations and dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale's satellite campus in the ...

Missing: constitutional ‎| Must include: constitutional

Parents' Role in Education with Dr. Matthew Spalding

https://soundcloud.com › show-me-institute › parents-r...

Jan 12, 2022 — Matthew Spalding is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government at Hillsdale College and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of ...

Dr. Matthew Spalding of Hillsdale College Talks 1776 ...

https://tennesseestar.com › 2021/09/21 › dr-matthew-sp...

Sep 21, 2021 — Leahy: We are joined now on the newsmaker line by Dr. Matthew Spalding. Kirby, Professor in Constitutional Government at Hillsdale College ...

DeSantis Appoints Six New Board Members to New College ...

https://www.diverseeducation.com › article › desantis-a...

Jan 9, 2023 — Matthew Spalding, professor of constitutional government at Hillsdale College and former vice president of American studies at the conservative ...

DeSantis Plans to Transform New College of Florida

https://thebradentontimes.com › desantis-plans-to-transf...

Jan 15, 2023 — Another of the appointees is Dr. Matthew Spalding, professor of constitutional government at Hillsdale College and former vice president of ...

Matthew Spalding Named Hillsdale College's First Allan P ...

https://www.prnewswire.com › news-releases › matthew...

Jan 23, 2017 — Matthew Spalding is associate vice president and dean of educational programs and an associate professor of politics at Hillsdale College in ...

no lnx few

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/national-conservative-manifesto-a-plan-for-fascism-but-it-s-not-hypothetical/

'National Conservative' manifesto: A plan for fascism — but it's not hypothetical

[Viktor Orbán in 2014, Wikimedia Commons

Trump endorses strongman Viktor Orbán in Hungarian election: ‘He has my complete support’]

Kathryn Joyce andSalon June 24, 2022

Last November in Orlando, dozens of the right's leading intellectuals, writers and think tank staffers gathered for the first meeting of the National Conservatism conference since the COVID pandemic hit, drawing journalists from across the political spectrum seeking to untangle what this high-brow gathering of avowed nationalists was all about. The emergence of the "NatCon" movement several years earlier had alarmed many liberal, centrist and even mainline conservative observers with its efforts to rehabilitate the concept of nationalism.But it energized many on the right who were starting to describe themselves as "post-liberal," meaning they were no longer satisfied with the conservative marriage of convenience that had existed since at least the Reagan era and had drawn together the religious right, anti-communists and free-marketeers in a potent but sometimes uneasy coalition. That consensus, they declared loudly, was dead, and a new conservative fusion must arise to take its place.

After the disruption of the pandemic, the loss of the presidency and the rage of Jan. 6, last fall's NatCon II conference was focused on the goal of building that new coalition along nationalist and post-liberal lines: blending extreme social conservatism with a skeptical approach to some forms of laissez-faire capitalism and a sharp hostility to both global or international authority and what they see as corporate-driven liberal cultural hegemony.

Now, the movement has formalized its ideas in a new manifesto, "National Conservatism: A Statement of Principles," released last week by the Edmund Burke Foundation. This ambitious document calls for the creation of a "world of independent nations" as the sole bulwark against "universalist ideologies" that would impose a "homogenizing, locality-destroying imperium over the entire globe." The credited authors include some leading lights of the NatCon world: Israeli political theorist and Burke Foundation chair Yoram Hazony, former American Enterprise Institute president Christopher DeMuth, First Things editor R.R. Reno and American Conservative columnist Rod Dreher.

But the list of signatories is much longer, and also far broader, ranging from right-wing mega-donor Peter Thiel to former Trump administration staffers Mark Meadows and Ken Cuccinelli, Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA, anti-critical race theory activist Christopher Rufo, multiple officials from Hillsdale College — a nerve center of contemporary right-wing politics — and numerous other think tank staffers and writers from across the spectrum of conservative media.

The manifesto hasn't gotten much attention so far — which isn't surprising, considering how much else is happening in the political realm. A column by David von Drehle in the Washington Post declared its contents akin to fascism, and a more substantial fisking in The Bulwark by Cathy Young found it "a document steeped in thinly veiled and sometimes distressingly overt authoritarian ideology." That's not wrong. But it's also worth observing that, in the battle to build a new conservative coalition, much of the NatCon platform has already won.

As Young notes, many of the NatCon's 10 priorities read, at first, like banal restatements of conservative ideology in general: national independence, the rule of law, God and public religion, free enterprise, family and children. But in ways both subtle and unsubtle, those familiar terms don't all mean what you'd think.

The NatCons hope to divorce nationalism from its association with the Nazis, who they claim were not "nationalist" at all.

The first two items, national independence and rejecting globalism and imperialism, follow one of the core, if questionable, goals of the NatCon movement, which is to divorce the concept of nationalism from its most powerful associations, such as the fascist regimes of Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, which National Conservatives see as imperialist. Instead, NatCons want to attach the term to smaller, scrappier scrappy countries that resisted the Nazis or Soviet Communism.

While the manifesto holds that "Each nation capable of self-government should chart its own course," in alignment with its own legal, cultural and religious traditions, it warns against their "transferring" authority to any "transnational or supranational bodies" and advocates opposing "imperialism in its various forms." Those forms include modern-day China and Russia, of course, but also "the liberal imperialism of the last generation, which sought to gain power, influence and wealth by dominating other nations and trying to remake them in its own image."

The "liberalism" described here, as in most NatCon contexts, isn't the center-left politics of the Democratic Party, but rather "classical" liberalism, focused on individual rights, free trade and pluralistic cultures, which until recently was embraced by most mainstream conservatives as well. But within the post-liberal and NatCon world, that small-l liberalism contained the seeds of conservatism's undoing, leading inevitably to the big-L liberalism of progressive ideology by creating a culture in which it's too hard to raise children along traditionalist lines. In this view, societies that uphold pluralistic tolerance and diversity are inherently unfair by denying the majority the right to live in a culture that supports their values — in essence, allowing the minority to oppress the majority.

While both Young and von Drehle read the jabs at boomer "imperialism" as allusions to the Iraq War — which is at least partly true — "empire" for NatCons also has a larger meaning. First, they believe that international compacts, accords and governing bodies like the European Union or the UN infringe on national sovereignty, particularly when it comes to social issues. In the movement's conference this March in Brussels, Hazony sought to align the NatCon vision with Ukraine's fight against Russian aggression. Vladimir Putin's disdain for borders and national independence, he suggested, mirrored the attitudes of bureaucrats in Brussels and Washington. The obvious subtext was that Hungary and Poland — two post-liberal, overtly nationalist countries greatly admired within the movement — were facing EU sanctions over a variety of human rights issues, which Hungarian and Polish leaders rejected as an attempt to squash the rights of the nation-state, and sympathetic fellow speakers cast as the workings of a new "evil empire."

"Empire," in the NatCon world, refers to the right's long, losing battle in the cultural sphere, these days largely waged against what American conservatives call "woke corporations."

an 920

imperial AG?

AG Barr undermines his own DOJ prosecutors: ‘All prosecutorial power is vested in the attorney general’

Alex Henderson September 17, 2020

U.S. Attorney General William Barr had a lot to say when he spoke at Hillsdale College in Michigan on Wednesday, September 16, and he was highly critical of some of…

https://www.c-span.org/video/?463485-2/the-myth-robber-barons

3 myths: gov't caused gt dep, fdr new deal did not help, AAA farmers paid not to grow, just used $ for fert which upped am't food 3 --? fdr wanted 100.6% tax (slippage for gt dep to wwII)

AUGUST 2, 2019

The Myth of the Robber Barons

Hillsdale College’s Burt Folsomtalked about his book, The Myth of the Robber Barons: A New Look at the Rise of Big Business in America, in which he discussed the rise of big business in America.

https://fee.org/articles/how-the-myth-of-the-robber-barons-began-and-why-it-persists/

Note from the President: Burton W. Folsom is more than just my favorite historian. He’s also one of my very best friends. So I admit to some personal bias when I endorse his classic book, The Myth of the Robber Barons, published by Young America's Foundation, as I’ve done on dozens of occasions. But even if I didn’t know him or didn’t like him, I would still say that it’s one of the best, most insightful books on American business and political history of the last century. The distinction he draws out between “market entrepreneurs” and “political entrepreneurs” has permanently altered historical interpretations of a crucial era in our past—for the better and with increasing effect as the years have gone by since the book’s first edition in 1991.

Now, a new edition—the eighth—makes its appearance with a new final chapter, excerpted here. What you’ll read below is about a third of that chapter, but it’s an excellent sample. Here, Dr. Folsom explores the question of how and why so many historians get the “robber baron” era precisely wrong, with a special focus on the deleterious impact of Matthew Josephson and his error-filled but influential book from the 1930s.

--- Lawrence W. Reed, President, Foundation for Economic Education

Capitalism Worked, but We Were Told It Didn't

We study history to learn from it. If we can discover what worked and what didn’t work, we can use this knowledge wisely to create a better future. Studying the triumph of American industry, for example, is important because it is the story of how the United States became the world’s leading economic power. Free markets worked well; government intervention usually failed.The years when this happened, from 1865 to the early 1900s, saw the U.S. encourage entrepreneurs indirectly by limiting government. Slavery was abolished and so was the income tax. Federal spending was slashed and federal budgets had surpluses almost every year in the late 1800s. In other words, the federal government created more freedom and a stable marketplace in which entrepreneurs could operate.

To some extent, during the late 1800s—a period historians call the “Gilded Age”—American politicians learned from the past. They had dabbled in federal subsidies from steamships to transcontinental railroads, and those experiments dismally failed. Politicians then turned to free markets as a better strategy for economic development. The world-dominating achievements of Cornelius Vanderbilt, James J. Hill, John D. Rockefeller, and Charles Schwab validated America’s unprecedented limited government. And when politicians sometimes veered off course later with government interventions for tariffs, high income taxes, anti-trust laws, and an effort to run a steel plant to make armor for war—the results again often hindered American economic progress. Free markets worked well; government intervention usually failed.

Why is it, then, that for so many years, most historians have been teaching the opposite lesson? They have made no distinction between political entrepreneurs, who tried to succeed through federal aid, and market entrepreneurs, who avoided subsidies and sought to create better products at lower prices. Instead, most historians have preached that many, if not all, entrepreneurs were “robber barons.” They did not enrich the U.S. with their investments; instead, they bilked the public and corrupted political and economic life in America. Therefore, government intervention in the economy was needed to save the country from these greedy businessmen.

The Profound Influence of Anti-Capitalists 

The catalyst for this negative view of American entrepreneurs was historian Matthew Josephson, who wrote a landmark book, The Robber Barons. Josephson, the son of a Jewish banker, grew up in New York and graduated from Columbia University, where he was inspired in the classroom by Charles Beard, America’s foremost progressive historian—and a man sympathetic to socialism. “Beard was nothing less than a spellbinder,” Josephson recalled, and Beard’s lectures helped guide him on a path to radical politics.

....

===

Burton W. Folsom Jr. (born 1947 in Nebraska) is an American historian and author who held the Charles F. Kline chair in history and management at Hillsdale College from 2003 until his retirement in December 2016.[1]

Biography

Folsom received his BA from Indiana University in 1970, his M.A. from the University of Nebraska in 1973, and his doctorate in history from the University of Pittsburgh in 1976. Since 1988 he has edited Continuity: A Journal of History. He is a frequent columnist in the libertarian Freeman magazine and also contributes to other publications, writing in favor of free market economics and limited government. He taught American history at Murray State University (KY) from 1976 to 1994.

Folsom is a former associate of the Free Enterprise Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, both free market think tanks, and a frequent guest of the libertarian organization Foundation for Economic Education.

Academic contributions

Folsom has written several books that argue against commonly held views about the role of capitalism in the social developments of the Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age. He believes the term robber barons is a misnomer, and that many leaders in big business were constructive visionaries who benefited consumers and were integral to the development of industry.[2]

In his book The Myth of the Robber Barons, Folsom distinguishes between political entrepreneurs, who ran inefficient businesses supported by government favors, and market entrepreneurs, who succeeded by providing better and lower-cost products or services, usually while facing vigorous competition.

Folsom identifies the following people as market entrepreneurs:

He regards these people as political entrepreneurs:

Folsom writes about economics and US history for several large publications, including The Wall Street Journal and the National Review.[4][5] In a 2010 Wall Street Journal editorial, Folsom argues that the New Deal did not contribute to economic recovery and may have actually exacerbated the Great Depression. Folsom argues that the New Deal did little more than trade temporary poverty relief for crippling tax rates and mountains of debt, and that the post-war recovery is best attributed to the rollback of taxes and regulations imposed under the New Deal.[4]

Folsom has created several short videos for the conservative educational website Prager University. His lessons focus on the history of American economic development and entrepreneurs such as John D. Rockefeller:

-Why Is America So Rich?

-Why Private Investment Works and Government Investment Doesn't

-Rockefeller: The Richest American Who Ever Lived

Bibliography

Articles

Books

Footnotes

  1. ^ Novelly, Thomas (2016-10-06). "Folsom to retire in December". Hillsdale Collegian. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
  2. ^The Myth of the Robber Barons with Burt Folsom on YouTube Freedom University: History Summer Seminar June 30, 2011. Retrieved July 22 2011
  3. ^ Folsom's talk to The National Conservative Student Conference, on Monday, August 4, 2008
  4. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burton_W._Folsom_Jr.#cite_ref-WSJ2010_4-1) Folsom, Burton. "Did FDR End the Depression?". The Wall Street Journal.
  5. ^ Folsom, Burton. "Two Forces at Work in the US: One Good, One Bad". The National Review.
  6. ^ A Republic – If We Can Keep It

External links

Categories: 

==

https://theconversation.com/all-public-universities-get-private-money-but-some-get-much-more-than-the-rest-120401

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Hillsdale-College-Sues-U-of/246656

Hillsdale College Sues U. of Missouri for a Dead Donor’s Money. It Gets Weirder.

By Liam Knox JULY 11, 2019  PREMIUM CONTENT FOR SUBSCRIBERS. SUBSCRIBE TODAY

The Missouri donor had stipulated that professors hired with his gift must be “dedicated and articulate” believers in the free-market Austrian School of Economics. Hillsdale’s ties to that ideology may be why it was entrusted to oversee the donation.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/11/17/trump-considering-hillsdales-larry-arnn-for-secretary-of-education/

President-elect Donald Trump is considering Hillsdale College’s Larry Arnn to head up the Department of Education in his new administration.

Arnn is the president of Hillsdale College, a small conservative liberal arts school inMichigan known for declining all federal funds. The Trump transition team has added him to the list of potential picks for U.S. Secretary of Education, the school’s newspaper reported Thursday. A source close to Arnn also confirmed the news with The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Hillsdale is ranked in the top 100 liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Reports, and has built a reputation on its curriculum emphasizing Judeo-Christian teachings and the U.S. Constitution. The Obama administration slighted the school in 2015 when it released a “College Scorecard” that did not include Hillsdale, absurdly implying it’s not a “real” college.

Arnn sharply criticized the analysis and the Department of Education. “Hillsdale College, 1844,” he said at the time. “United States Department of Education, 1979. The latter has never been very good at history or even current affairs.”

The department later called the omission of Hillsdale from the list a mistake.

Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a Trump favorite said to have his pick of positions in the administration, likes the idea of Arnn as education secretary, a congressional source told Hillsdale’s student paper. Arnn said he would cautiously consider the post.

“Some people of influence would like for me to do it,” he told The Collegian. “They are not the people who would decide. If those people decide to ask me, then I will make a decision. I will make no decision that I think would harm the college or result in my permanent separation from it.”

==

Wolfram graduated summa cum laude from the University of California at Santa Barbara and received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to joining the Hillsdale faculty in 1989, he taught at several colleges and universities, including Mount Holyoke College, the University of Michigan, and Washington State University.

He was named Hillsdale College’s Professor of the Year for 2004 and received the Emily Daugherty Award for Teaching Excellence in 2011. Dr. Wolfram also serves as the president of Hillsdale Policy Group, a consulting firm specializing in taxation and policy analysis. His public-policy experience includes serving as chief of staff for then-U.S. Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.), Michigan’s deputy state treasurer for taxation and economic policy under then-Gov. John Engler, and senior economist to the Republican caucus in the Michigan state Senate.

“The Oil Export Ban,” :{Detroit News:(style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"):}:

“Legislature to Incentivize Utilities,” :{Lansing State Journal:(style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"):}:

Governor Snyder and the Michigan Legislature are currently debating the state’s future energy policy. How electricity is generated, transmitted and distributed is important to every mid-Michigan resident – because one thing we all have in common, is that we all use energy....

Governor Snyder and the Michigan Legislature are currently debating the state’s future energy policy. How electricity is generated, transmitted and distributed is important to every mid-Michigan resident – because one thing we all have in common, is that we all use energy.

Recognizing the importance of this debate, I released a white paper for the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum entitled Improving Michigan’s Electric Utility Industry. Groups on all sides of the current energy policy debate have been able to use some of the ideas in the paper and I would like to clarify them. Considering that the state is likely to continue operating in a regulated market for the immediate future, our elected officials need to at least establish incentives for electric utilities that will improve efficiency in the market and keep costs down.

The current electric industry is a legislative-created monopoly, and with it comes the obvious shortcomings not found in a properly competitive market, like the inefficient allocation of resources and barriers to innovation in technology.

We can see these shortcomings manifesting today. Michigan currently has the highest electricity costs in the Midwest (nearly 25 percent higher than surrounding states), and the eleventh highest in the nation. It’s a problem that impacts every Michigander because we all use and pay for electricity. Do these higher rates mean greater reliability and efficiency? The simple answer is no. Michigan’s utilities fail to provide better service and don’t meet higher environmental standards than surrounding states.

So what can be done? Until a deregulated electricity market in Michigan is politically feasible,state legislators can protect ratepayers by passing regulations that properly align utility incentives with desired goals to use less energy, lower costs and transition the state to generation from cleaner and more efficient sources of energy; including renewables like wind, solar, hydro and biomass.

Tornholm: Utility lobby success means ratepayers foot the bill

The Legislature is currently discussing ways to address Michigan’s regulated utility market and there are several ways to improve performance:

  1. Spark innovation through market access

With guaranteed profits and market share, Michigan’s monopoly utilities have inherent competitive advantages and economic incentives that keep entrepreneurs and innovators from accessing customers. Opening market access will provide the incentive for businesses to develop cost-saving, cutting-edge energy innovations like advances in the generation of electricity from renewable sources, smart grid technology and improved efficiency products and systems.

2. Allow consumers to purchase renewable energy

Just as some consumers would rather purchase organically-grown vegetables than those grown conventionally, there are consumers that would rather purchase energy that is produced from renewable sources. As technological improvements continue to drive down the cost of renewable energy, ratepayers should have a choice in how their electricity is generated.

  1. Encourage consumer energy efficiency

Utilities are in the business of selling electricity—meaning they have few incentives to help their customers buy less of it. By requiring efficient pricing, incentivizing energy efficiency, and helping customers understand their usage, we can encourage more-efficient consumption of energy and bring down costs for families and businesses.

Michigan legislators have much to consider. Mid-Michigan residents – and all Michiganders – should keep an eye on the Capitol, because the policies they enact will have real impacts on our energy bills, and define the state’s economic landscape for decades to come.

Gary Wolfram is the Director of Economics at Hillsdale College and President of Hillsdale Policy Group, Ltd. For more information on the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum, visit www.micef.org.

==

Hillsdale College is a co-educational, non-profit liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan, United States.[4] Most of the curriculum is based on and centered on the teaching of the Western heritage as a product of both the Greco-Roman culture and the Judeo-Christian tradition.[5] Hillsdale requires every student, regardless of major, to complete a core curriculum that includes courses on the Great Books and the U.S. Constitution.[6] The college declines to accept federal financial support, instead providing private financial assistance to its students.[7]

E.B. Fairfield assumed the presidency of Michigan Central College in 1848. In two years, on March 20, 1850, the Michigan state legislature granted the college a special charter, giving it the right to confer degrees.[11]:12–14[8]:116 Independent from its outset, the college became one of the first in the United States to prohibit in its charter any discrimination on the basis of religion, race, or sex.[13] Black students were admitted immediately after the college's 1844 founding,[7] and the college became the second school in the nation to grant four-year liberal arts degrees to women.[14][11]:12–14 In 1851 the college celebrated its first commencement and, one year later, graduated the first woman in Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts.[8]:xxv

After outgrowing its Spring Arbor location, Michigan Central College moved to the city of Hillsdale, Michigan, closer to the railroad, and received considerable financial support from the local citizens.[11]:30 The cornerstone of the new building, Central Hall, was laid on the Fourth of July 1853.[15][8]:24 When Michigan Central College moved, it reopened as Hillsdale College on November 7, 1855, after receiving its new state charter the previous May.[8]:32–24 That fall the young institution opened with record enrollment. In 1856, it became the largest collegiate establishment in Michigan, a position it would hold for the majority of the 19th century.[11]:xxvi

During these early years, Fairfield and college professor Ransom Dunn contributed to its academic and institutional growth. Dunn, a professor and preacher at Hillsdale for half a century, rode 6,000 miles across the Midwestern plains and the Western frontier throughout the 1850s to raise money for construction of the new hilltop campus buildings.[11]:36

Fairfield led Hillsdale from 1848 to 1869.[12] During his presidency, he helped found the Republican Party with Dunn in neighboring Jackson, Michigan.[16] A prominent leader in the newfound party, Fairfield was present at its first convention in 1858, where he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Michigan. Hillsdale's early anti-slavery reputation and pivotal role in founding the Republican Party led to the invitation of several notable speakers on the campus, including Frederick Douglass (who visited the school on two separate occasions) and Edward Everett, the orator preceding Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg.[11]:xxv, ^49 On August 8, 1860, the first degrees were conferred at Hillsdale by the college. And on March 20, 1863 the state legislature of Michigan "formally legalized" the college's change of name and location.[8]:33

19th century

Many Hillsdale students joined the ranks of the Union Army during the American Civil War in 1861 with a higher percentage of Hillsdale students enlisted than from any other Michigan college.[8]:60[17] In 1864, the Detroit Tribune published, "probably no college in the country is better represented in the Union than [Hillsdale]. It has sent its young men to the war by hundreds."[18]:1 Hillsdale remained in operation throughout wartime, albeit with limited enrollment, as the college sent over five hundred volunteers to the war. Half of Hillsdale's students became officers; five became lieutenant colonels, four received the <...This claim needs references to reliable sources. (October 2015)">citation needed] Notable speakers continued to arrive at Hillsdale's campus, including the famed female physician and educator Sophia Jex-Blake in October 1865.[8]:65 Hillsdale's Delta Tau Delta chapter, its first fraternity, was chartered on October 19, 1867.[8]:458

In 1869, James Calder succeeded Fairfield as president. Calder was the college's third president, serving from 1869 to 1871. During his three-year administration, the commercial school opened, a theological department was established, and the college enrolled around 750 students.[8]:73, ^292,^ ^411 He resigned to become president of the Pennsylvania State University.[12]

Hillsdale's first president, Daniel McBride Graham, returned for a brief second term in 1871, notably rebuilding the campus after the catastrophic "Great Fire" of March 6, 1874.[11]:139–66[8]:77Soon afterwards DeWitt Clinton Durgin, a graduate of Union College, held the presidency from 1874 to 1884.[12] In 1878 the Hillsdale Herald was first issued, becoming the oldest college newspaper in Michigan. Eventually this paper merged with another college paper, becoming The Collegian.[8]:page ^needed During Durgin's presidency, Hillsdale's Kappa Kappa Gamma and Sigma Chi chapters were chartered.[8]:462, ^464

After Dunn's brief turn as acting president, George F. Mosher served as president of Hillsdale from 1886 to 1901.[12][19][20][8]:116, ^125 Over this time the college grew in size and prestige. In 1884, Hillsdale's first congressman, Spencer O. Fisher, was elected.[8]:119 Pi Beta Phi and Alpha Tau Omega were chartered.[8]:465, ^467 In 1891, the Chicago Herald reported, "Hillsdale has a college second in standing to no denominational college in the country." Four years later, when the University of Chicago offered to affiliate with Hillsdale, the college rejected their proposal.[11]:page ^needed

20th century

In 1900, the college ceased grazing livestock, and removed the agrarian fence which circled the campus.[21]:xxiii[8]:135 Thus began the college's era of institutional growth and professionalization which marked this time in the college's history. 1902, Joseph William Mauck became the sixth president of the college, the first Hillsdale graduate to return to work as the president of his alma mater.[12] Beloved by the college community and an early and outspoken advocate for women's suffrage, Mauck served for two decades.[22][23] During this time Hillsdale adopted its first honor code and held its first homecoming celebration. Significantly, the college amended its Articles of Association in 1907, no longer requiring the president and trustees be members of the Free Will Baptist denomination. This led to a decline in the prestige of the theological department, but concurrently an increase in the number of Christian denominations represented on campus.[8]:166[21]:xxiii Also, in 1915, the college's chapter of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity was chartered. When World War I broke out, however, a large proportion of (mostly male) students entered military service. Indeed, by May 1918 all but twelve male upperclassmen had enlisted.[21]:xxiv, ^48

Four years after the war, William Gear Spencer succeeded Mauck as president. He served from 1922 to 1932, when he departed to lead Franklin College.[12][24] Under Spencer's leadership, the college prospered. During this time Hillsdale acquired its 14-acre Slayton Arboretum, built new dormitories, constructed a new field house for its developing athletic programs, and, in 1924, chartered its chapter of Chi Omega.[21]:60–69

During the Great Depression, Willfred Otto Mauck, son of Joseph William Mauck, governed the college as its eighth president from 1933 to 1942.[12] Like his father Joseph, Wilfred had also graduated from Hillsdale. Throughout this era the college struggled financially, forced to cancel its new construction projects and cut the pay of its faculty and staff by nearly 20%.[21]:72–83[8]:210 Succeeding Mauck, Harvey L. Turner became Hillsdale's ninth president, serving from 1942 to 1952.[12] Despite the financial difficulties lasting from the Depression and World War II, the college worked past its setbacks under Turner's lead, building a new library, having an undefeated and untied football team in 1938, and celebrating its centennial in 1944, when over 1,000 alumni returned to campus for the commencement ceremony.[21]:113[8]:267

J. Donald Phillips next assumed the presidency, holding the position from 1952 to 1971.[12] Throughout his nearly 20-year administration, Philips corrected many of Hillsdale's financial worries and constructed many new campus buildings. In these years, Hillsdale began to press against the growing bureaucratic regulations of the federal government, particularly concerning affirmative action.[21]:167, ^212[25][26] In 1962, the college's trustees adopted its own "Declaration of Independence". This document affirmed the college's stance against government control.[21]:191 Struggling against the dominant educational climate of time, the college worked to promote the traditional education of the liberal arts and classical education. Considering itself in line with the tradition and founding of the college, the college decided "to reaffirm its historic independence and to resist subsidization of its affairs by the federal government." This fight would continue for the next 20 years.[27]

George Roche III became the 11th president of Hillsdale College in 1971, serving until his controversial resignation in 1999. During his presidency, the college dramatically increased its endowment, established the Center for Constructive Alternatives, and brought prominent national speakers to campus, including Ronald Reagan. It also began publishing Imprimis, Hillsdale's monthly speech digest.[12][21]:222–23 Russell Kirk taught at Hillsdale one semester a year throughout this time, beginning in 1973. During the Roche years, Hillsdale College became nationally known. When the federal government's Department of Health, Education, and Welfare attempted to force the college to count its students on account of their race for affirmative action student loan policies, the administration publicly refused. The college's trustees stated that Hillsdale would follow its own non-discrimination policy and that it would, "with the help of God, resist, by all legal means, any encroachments on its independence."[21]:237–39 In 1984, after a decade of federal litigation on the matter, the college withdrew from all federal student loans, replacing government assistance with private contributions.

On October 17, 1999, Lissa Jackson Roche, the daughter-in-law of Hillsdale President Roche, stated that she had engaged in a 19-year on-and-off sexual affair with her father-in-law, whereupon she went to the Slayton Arboretum and used a .38-caliber handgun obtained from Roche IV's gun cabinet to commit suicide in the gazebo there.[28] Lissa was married to Roche's son and was employed by Hillsdale as the Managing Editor of Imprimis and Hillsdale College Press.[29][28][30][31] President Roche denied the affair.[28][32]

21st century

Larry P. Arnn currently serves as president of the college, a position he assumed in 2000.[33] Under his tenure, the college completed various new buildings, including the John A. Halter Shooting Sports Center and Margot V. Biermann Athletic Center.[34] The college also opened the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship, an off-campus educational center in Washington, D.C.[35]

In 2013 Arnn was criticized for his remarks about ethnic minorities when he testified before the Michigan State Legislature against the Common Core curriculum standards. Expressing concern about government interference with educational institutions, he recalled that shortly after he assumed the presidency at Hillsdale he received a letter from the state Department of Education that said his college "violated the standards for diversity", adding, "because we didn't have enough dark ones, I guess, is what they meant." After being criticized for calling minorities "dark ones", Arnn explained that he was referring to "dark faces", saying: "The State of Michigan sent a group of people down to my campus, with clipboards ... to look at the colors of people's faces and write down what they saw. We don’t keep records of that information. What were they looking for besides dark ones?"[36] Michigan House Democratic Leader Tim Greimel condemned Arnn for his comments, which he called "offensive" and "inflammatory and bigoted", and asked for an apology.[37] In response, the college issued a statement apologizing for Arnn's remark, while reiterating Arnn's concern about "state sponsored racism" in the form of affirmative action policies.[38]

Academics

Hillsdale enrolls approximately 350 new students each year, with a current enrollment of around 1,450 students from 47 states, the District of Columbia, and eight foreign countries. The college employs 124 full-time faculty members.[39] Hillsdale was ranked 69th in the 2014 U.S. News & World Report listing of best National Liberal Arts Colleges.[40] It ranks 10th for "most conservative" students and 8th for "professors get high marks" in the Princeton Review's evaluation of The Best 378 Colleges 2014.[41] Hillsdale also ranked 178th overall, including 34th in the Midwest and 134th in private colleges, in the 2014 Forbes report of America's Best Colleges.[42] Undergraduate offerings include a variety of liberal arts majors, pre-professional programs, a teacher education program, and a journalism certificate program.[43] Hillsdale College also manages Hillsdale Academy, a private K-12 liberal arts school....fraternity and sorority houses, zzz an athletic complex, music hall, arts center, conference center, hotel, and preschool.[43] Hillsdale College also manages economist zzzLudwig von Mises, following the wishes contained in von Mises's will; the collection of works is housed in the Ludwig von Mises room of the college's Mossey Library. Mossey Library also contains collections of the works of Russell Kirk and Richard Weaver, and is home to the college's Richardson Heritage room. Built in 1994, the Heritage room holds many first-edition books and rare volumes, as well as sculptures, paintings, and historical artifacts.[46]

The college's Slayton Arboretum was officially created in 1922 when George A. Slayton and his wife donated 14 acres (5.7 ha) to the college. The arboretum was envisioned as an outdoor laboratory and field station for students and a biological garden for the community. Initial planting was with donated plants and the labor of Hillsdale students and volunteers. In 1939, Slayton Arboretum was listed as one of Michigan's Points of Interest, and up to 700 people a day visited the site.[citation ^needed]^

A unique feature of the campus is the Statues of Liberty Walk, a walkway lined with depictions of well-known leaders and icons of Western culture. These include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Margaret Thatcher. A statue of Ronald Reagan was dedicated on October 7, 2011, in the centennial year of his birth. Reagan spoke at the college in 1977, stating, "Hillsdale deserves the appreciation of all who labor for freedom."[47] On May 12, 2017, the college also dedicated a statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, positioned directly across from that of Lincoln. Douglass was a guest at the college in 1863, where he gave an address titled "Popular Error and Unpopular Truth."[48]

Policies

Hillsdale's charter prohibits any discrimination based on race, religion, or sex, and the College has been credited as the first American college to prohibit this type of discrimination in a charter.[7][49] Notably, Hillsdale's football team refused to play in the 1956 Tangerine Bowl in Florida when the governing committee of the Bowl would not allow the team's black players to join the white players on the field; the committee then selected Juniata College instead.[7][50]

In the early 1980s, two hundred Hillsdale students lost their federal student loans due to the college's opposition to affirmative action.[citation ^needed]^ The U.S. federal government had asserted that it could require colleges where students received such funding to submit Assurance of Compliance forms mandated by Title IX and Hillsdale refused compliance claiming that affirmative action was racial discrimination.[51][52] This ongoing dispute with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) intensified in 1979 when the College filed a petition for judicial review in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, asking the court to overturn a previous decision by the Reviewing Authority, Office of Civil Rights of HEW. In December 1982, the Sixth Circuit upheld Hillsdale's refusal to sign the compliance forms but also ruled that government aid to individual students could be terminated without a finding that a college actually discriminated.[53]

In the related 1984 case, Grove City College v. Bell, the Supreme Court required every college or university to fulfil federal requirements—past and future requirements—if its students received federal aid. As a result of the court's decision, Hillsdale withdrew from all federal assistance beginning with the 1984–85 academic year; Grove City College, the defendant in that case, followed Hillsdale's lead four years later.[citation ^needed]^

Beginning with the 2007–2008 academic year, Hillsdale also stopped accepting Michigan state assistance, instead matching any funds that a student would have received from the state with its own aid.[54] Since 2007, Hillsdale's entire operating budget of the college, including scholarships, comes from private funding and endowments.[citation ^needed]^

In 2010, a resolution of Hillsdale's Board of Trustees asserted that both Congress and the Obama administration appeared "even more than the worst of their predecessors, bent on extending federal control over American higher education and other areas of American life."[55]

Programs

Center for Constructive Alternatives

Further information: Imprimis

Hillsdale brings speakers to campus through its Center for Constructive Alternatives program. Lectures are open to the public.[56] Speakers have included Stephen Ambrose, Benazir Bhutto, Harry Browne, Russell Kirk, Harvey Mansfield, Charles Murray, Ralph Nader, P.J. O'Rourke, Phyllis Schlafly, and Juan Williams.[57][58] Lectures and speeches from the series are published monthly in Imprimis,[59] and distributed monthly for free. First published in 1972, Imprimis has a circulation of over two million subscribers.[60]

Barney Charter School Initiative

The college's Barney Charter School Initiative was established to support the launch of K-12 charter schools based on a classical liberal arts model, with a strong civics component to "equip students to understand and defend the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution."[61]

Hillsdale-Oxford Scholars Program

Through an affiliation with Oxford's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Oxford Study Abroad Program, Hillsdale College offers a study abroad program at Oxford University where participants participate in classes and extracurricular as associate members of one of 39 different colleges in the University.[62]

Allan P. Kirby Center... zzz co-sponsors the James Madison Fellows Program with The Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society. It engages with senior-level congressional staff members who the college describes as "dedicated to making first principles the foremost consideration in public policy formation".[64] A monthly lecture series hosted by the center is the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series, which was started in 2008. The series has included lectures by David Horowitz, Brian Kennedy, John Bolton, and Hillsdale professor Paul A. Rahe.[65] The Kirby Center also hosts an annual Constitution Day celebration and conducts online, interactive town halls on matters related to the Constitution.[citation ^needed]^

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