The Hillsdale Collegian

12/11/2025

FEATURES | Every Hillsdale College student has met Jill Smith, the Metz employee who has been serving students with a smile for 30 years. Smith’s time in the dining hall drew to a close as she retired on Dec. 9.

Smith began working in catering at the college after her father, who graduated from Hillsdale in 1942, encouraged her to apply. When she began, she had two sons, aged 5 and 15.

“My kids were little, and it just fit in with their school schedules. I had summers off, and now they’re grown, and I’m still here,” Smith said. “I wish my dad was here to see me. He’d be proud I stayed this long. That’s a long time.”

🖊️Written by Faith Miller.
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Every Hillsdale College student has met Jill Smith, the Metz employee who has been serving students with a smile for 30 years. Smith’s time in the dining hall is drawing to a close as she plans to retire on Dec. 9.

12/07/2025

CITY NEWS | After announcing his retirement last month, Hillsdale Police and Fire Chief Scott Hephner now plans to postpone his departure until February 2026 to help search for his successor.

“I made an agreement with the city that I’m going to continue my appointment for a few more months to help them through the process of getting my replacement and then transitioning that person,” Hephner told The Collegian. “I have a lot of work to do in the next couple of months.”

After talking with Mayor Scott Sessions, Hephner decided to delay his leaving. Hephner previously submitted a letter to the Hillsdale City Council Nov. 6, announcing his retirement, which would have begun Dec. 1.

Hephner has served as Hillsdale’s police chief since 2014 and fire chief since 2016. According to Sessions, Hephner has been with the police department for 38 years.

🖊Written by Adriana Azarian.
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12/07/2025

NEWS | Hillsdale College’s student radio station, WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM, is a finalist for the best college or university radio station with under 10,000 students in the national Intercollegiate Broadcasting System awards. Several student shows and features are also finalists.

IBS, a national college radio and audio organization, will announce the winners at its national conference on Feb. 21 in New York City, according to General Manager Scot Bertram. Senior Emily Schutte competed against finalists from schools across the country to win the IBS award for best newscast last year.

“Being a finalist for best college, university station, that’s a reflection on the work that everybody does here, all the students do at the station,” Bertram said. “And everyone who’s a finalist this year and most years has a serious shot to win that category."

🖊Written by Sophia Bryant.
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Senior Emily Schutte at last year’s IBS awards ceremony. Courtesy | Scot Bertram Hillsdale College’s student radio station, WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM, is a finalist for the best college or university radio station with under 10,000 students in the national Intercollegiate Broadcasting S...

12/02/2025

OPINION | Postmodernism is waning. Traditionalism is ascendant. People are nostalgic for a simpler time: They brought raw milk and smoking jackets back into vogue, and turned sundresses into a legitimate craze. “Trad” is the definitive response to 15 years of “woke.” As this becomes clear, it also becomes apparent that no one grasps what that truly means.

As soon as “woke” became a term at all, it became a semantically overloaded, political catch-all term. No one could define it, but right and left knew it when they saw it. It operated entirely on vibes, and it was popular because it felt cool. It stopped being popular as soon as that feeling evaporated.

“Trad” is a direct reply to woke, so it naturally has the same problem. It’s a vibe. Ask seven people what it means, and you’ll get seven different answers — the closest approximation is some vague, novel combination of conservatism and religion. But show those same people a picture or meme, and everyone will agree if it’s trad or not.

🖊Written by Lewis Thune.
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12/02/2025

CULTURE | More than 900 people filled Hillsdale College’s Searle Center for an evening of jazz, swing dancing, cocktails, desserts and a performance by the Harry James Orchestra Nov. 15.

Fred Radke, conductor of the Harry James Orchestra, and Hillsdale’s artist in residence, led and played jazz standards with the orchestra.

“This is my seventh year coming,” Radke said. “The highlight of the evening is to see the swing club, and to see young people dancing.”

Guests packed the dance floor to the left of the band’s stage. Families and students gathered to enjoy the music.

🖊Written by Lily Faye Kraemer.
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https://hillsdalecollegian.com/2025/11/blues-and-booze-harry-james-plays-again/

12/02/2025

FEATURES | Dennis “Gate Guy” Cook shot his first deer around age 16.

“Grandma would cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all the hunters, so it made opening day kind of like a holiday,” Cook said.

Cook is one of many hunting aficionados in Hillsdale. After firearm season opened Nov. 15, students and locals flocked to the woods and waterways to hunt.

Bow hunting and duck hunting season opened in September and October, and more hunters are loading their rifles and heading into the wild.

🖊️Written by Maxon Versluvs.
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12/01/2025

NEWS | The Olds Residence intramural flag football team celebrated its championship winning season Nov. 12, with brownies, ice cream, and awards in the dormitory’s lobby.

The party, organized by captain, sophomore, and Olds resident assistant Pia Chapello, commemorated a 7-1 season.

“The girls’ ability to enthusiastically approach a new sport speaks to the culture of Olds. The team was able to learn and, ultimately, win by encouraging and playing for one another,” Chapello said. “Our championship party celebrated the victories of each player as we celebrated the team at large.”

🖊Written by Joshua Mistry.
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The Olds Residence intramural flag football team celebrated its championship winning season Nov. 12, with brownies, ice cream, and awards in the dormitory’s lobby. The party, organized by captain, sophomore, and Olds resident assistant Pia Chapello, commemorated a 7-1 season. “The girls’ abili...

11/20/2025

CITY NEWS | Scott Sessions was sworn in as mayor of Hillsdale during the Nov. 17 city council meeting after winning the Nov. 4 election against Ward 2 Councilman Matthew Bentley.

Sessions told The Collegian during his campaign that Bentley and former Mayor Pro Tem Joshua Paladino were to blame for the resignations of five Hillsdale city officials, including the city engineer, zoning administrator, the Hillsdale Airport manager, and two supervisors from the Board of Public Utilities.

The meeting ended with Bentley saying Sessions “ran on negativity” and refused to debate with him in public.

🖊️Written by Adriana Azarian.
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https://hillsdalecollegian.com/2025/11/scott-sessions-sworn-in-as-hillsdales-mayor/

11/18/2025

NEWS | Students can explore the life of Theodore Roosevelt at Mossey Library’s newest exhibit, displayed in the Hoynak Room and Heritage Room.

The library acquired the exhibit from lifelong collector Fritz R. Gordner this summer, according to Markie Repp, library technician for Archives and Special Collections. The exhibit began in honor of Roosevelt’s 164th birthday on Oct. 27 and will be on display into January.

“The Fritz R. Gordner collection is actually listed on the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library under research where they list the repositories of Teddy’s information like Harvard, his alum, and the Library of Congress,” Repp said. “So, outside of being a government institution or one of his historical heritage institutions, it’s a very significant collection to have.”

🖊️Written by Martha Kennedy.
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11/18/2025

NEWS | Some Hillsdale professors ban the use of artificial intelligence while others demand it, two years after the provost announced that instructors would determine individually what works best in their classrooms.

“The policy of the college is that students must do their own work so that the larger goal can be served,” College President Larry Arnn told The Collegian. “The larger goal is for the students to grow into excellent people, friends, citizens, husbands, wives, thinkers, worshippers.”

Arnn said the college is considering and will consider whatever policies are necessary to serve this goal.

🖊️Written by Moira Gleason.
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Each department sets its own guidelines for use of AI Some Hillsdale professors ban the use of artificial intelligence while others demand it, two years after the provost announced that instructors would determine individually what works best in their classrooms. “The policy of the college is that...

11/18/2025

SPORTS | The Los Angeles Dodgers won their second straight World Series in October, leading to controversy over their high payroll and expensive players. Here, members of the Hillsdale baseball team weigh in with their opinion on a potential MLB salary cap.

🖊️Compiled by Christian Papillon.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers won their second straight World Series in October, leading to controversy over their high payroll and expensive players. Here, members of the Hillsdale baseball team weigh in with their opinion on a potential MLB salary cap.

11/16/2025

OPINION | Since Tucker Carlson hosted far-right persona non grata Nick Fuentes on his show Oct. 27, The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, Sen. Mitch McConnell, radio host Mark Levin, and many others have condemned Carlson for giving Fuentes airtime.

The backlash is grounded in clear rationale: Fuentes is notorious for racist, sexist, and antisemitic rhetoric. During his appearance on Carlson’s show, he continued spouting conspiracies of “Jewry” undermining the America First movement and even described himself as an admirer of Joseph Stalin.

Any viewer has the right to criticize Carlson for not challenging certain bad ideas and asking tougher questions, and we should. We should engage with these interviews critically and thoughtfully. But criticism is one thing. Cancellation — the calls to oust Carlson from the conservative sphere — is another matter entirely.

🖊Written by Elijah Guevara.
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Courtesy | Flickr The conservative right is full of questionable and unpleasant figures. Canceling them is not the solution. Since Tucker Carlson hosted far-right persona non grata Nick Fuentes on his show Oct. 27, The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, Sen. Mitch McConnell, radio host Mark Levin, and many...