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Hillsdale Statement Must Be Read
This letter from Hillsdale College needs to be published and read far and wide.
Amidst the events of recent weeks, a number of alumni and others have taken up formal and public means to insist that Hillsdale College issue statements concerning these events. The College is charged with negligence — or worse.
It is not the practice of the College to respond to petitions or other instruments meant to gain an object by pressure. The College operates by reasoned deliberation, study, and thought. The following observations, however, may be helpful and pertinent.
The College is pressed to speak. It is told that saying what it always has said is insufficient. Instead, it must decry racism and the mistreatment of Black Americans in particular. This, however, is precisely what the College has always said.
The College is told that invoking the high example of the Civil War or Frederick Douglass is not permitted. Perhaps it is thought that nothing relevant can be learned about justice and equality from the words and actions of great men and women in history. Instead, the College is guilty of the gravest moral failure for not making declarations about … justice and equality.
The letter shows courage in the face of bullying.
It shames great swaths of pusillanimous academia.
It gives hope, words, and voice to many who believe the same way.
Thank you, Hillsdale.
Published in Education
Historical context leading to shades of gray is unappealing to ideologues. It requires a baseline of knowledge and a degree of critical thinking.
Whatever will the SJWs do with The Jeffersons sitcom?
Has anyone determined of Congressperson Sheila Jackson-Lee has plans to eliminate her highly problematic hyphenated last name?
Respectfully Submitted, Jim George, American-American
<mild sarcasm ahead>
Some other college needs to make the fundraising part of Larry Arnn’s job more difficult. He and Hillsdale have essentially no competition for fundraising from the large number of Americans who value a real education and a commitment to long term principles and values. That lack of competition makes his fundraising job too easy.
While hundreds (if not thousands) of colleges use virtually identical Progressive / Woke messages and flit with the wind to the latest mob outrage while competing with each other for donations (and students), Hillsdale is left standing almost by itself when donors and prospective students are looking for something different from the standard Progressive / Woke approach to “education.” That aloneness seems to allow Hillsdale to rake in the donations, including a bunch from non-alumni, and money by the literal boatloads from its cruises.
It seems to me the current state of affairs presents a large market opportunity for some other college to compete with Hillsdale and make Dr. Arnn work harder for the donations he is getting and the students he is recruiting. Instead of competing with almost every other college by using the same Progressive / Woke message those other colleges are using, go into the territory Hillsdale has almost to itself.
Traditionally Grove City College in Pennsylvania has carried some of the same principles as Hillsdale, but for several years I have not seen Grove City putting itself out there in any of the ways that Hillsdale has.
I think more to the point, Hillsdale needs to open more campuses..es….es… campii?
They also need to take a look at some of their curriculum or something, since it appears that a chunk of their past and present students don’t appreciate going/having gone there.
Sometimes I find Hillsdale College to be wearisome, but that letter is spot on.
Not the college’s fault but students bowing to peer pressure to conform to mob viewpoints. The college already has the best curriculum.
Maybe so, but I could wish that it “stuck” better. And having more… campii… could help with that, by spreading things around more.
Hillsdale is conspiring to educate the nation, both through their adult on-line courses (everything from Constitution 101 to C.S. Lewis) and their charter school initiative, one of which our daughters attended. Their goal is to open at least one charter in all 50 states, and I know they’ve opened multiples in some states already. My daughters’ school was opened prior to the initiative, but it uses Hillsdale’s curriculum (I believe offered for free) and hire many Hillsdale graduates to teach. Hillsdale also has the Kirby Center in D.C., which is now offering graduate degrees and hires instructors such as Mollie Hemingway. So, yeah. Hillsdale is branching out all over the place with the intention of providing top. notch. education to everyone.