WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Collegian Week In Review: April 4th, 2024

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

This week on the Collegian Week in Review, hosts Maddy Welsh and Lauren Scott first talk through this issue's top headlines. Then, Maddy talks to Thomas McKenna about Hillsdale's connection to the most recent hire at Yale Law School. Finally, Lauren talks to Logan Washburn about two stories in city news this week.

You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Welcome to the Collegian Weekend Review. Here are your hosts, Maddie Welsh and Lauren Scott. Welcome back to the Collegian Weekend Review, where we bring you an inside look into Michigan's oldest college newspaper. We're your host, Maddie Welsh. And Lauren Scott. Today we'll be talking to Thomas McKenna about an alumnus of the college who is going to be joining the Yale Law School faculty. and then we will also be talking to Logan Washburn about some interesting things going on in Hillsdale County. But first, we're going to talk about some of the top headlines and stories in the Collegian this week.

So this top story in the paper this week is by Thomas McKenna, the sports editor, and it is about an alumnus who's going to join the Yale Law School faculty this fall. But you'll just have to keep listening to hear more about that from Thomas. Another story we have here on the front page, actually I wrote, it's about a columnist for the Detroit Free Press.

His name is Mitch Album. And he is a part of a nonprofit mission that has an orphanage in the capital of Haiti. And if you've been following the news lately, Haiti is kind of in a rough place to understate what's going on. There's a lot of gang violence, sort of a gang takeover of the government. And so this columnist was in Haiti at the beginning of March and then had to be evacuated. And what's interesting about this story is that this gentleman, he not only helps to run this orphanage in Haiti, but he also helped get two of the children who grew up in that, well, they're not children anymore.

They're freshmen at Hillsdale. There are two freshmen at Hillsdale who grew up in that orphanage in the capital of Haiti. one of them got there after the earthquake in 2010. His family lost everything in that earthquake, and he lived in that orphanage. And then the other was there before that from a very young age. So these two freshmen, they are here at Hillsdale now, thanks to the help of Mitch Album.

So really interesting to have this, you know, huge story with this Hillsdale connection. What would you say was probably the most interesting thing you learned while writing the story, Maddie. I think it's just so interesting that this mission exists. Like, this is an orphanage in the capital of Haiti. They take so many children in. And the fact that it's really, you know, run in the large part by this man who's basically,

you know, he's involved in our community here. That's so interesting. And they've done a lot of wonderful work. Another thing that I didn't include in this story, but as I was doing my research, I learned that it's something like half a percent of people from Haiti go to college in the United States. And it's only like one or two percent of people from Haiti go to college at all. So it's a really small number. So the fact that these two freshmen are here in college, in the United States, I mean, they beat the odds.

They went from living in an orphanage to attending a great college. college in the United States. So it's really awesome the work that's being done here. And very interesting story in terms of the columnist, Mitch Album, who was rescued from Haiti. And he really emphasized in a piece that he wrote for the Detroit Free Press that, yeah, the story that he had was crazy, but he got to leave. There are so many people that are still in Haiti that are suffering right now under this horrible crisis. So he really just emphasized that. I'm really thankful you're able to cover this. Yeah, it was super interesting. Another story we have on the front page here is about the Hillsdale and D.C. campus beginning a construction project. The DC correspondent Gillian Parks wrote

an 18-month-long construction project has begun at Hillsdale and DC to keep up with the growth of the Van Randall Graduate School of Government. Current operations and elements of the school's Washington Hillsdale internship program have been temporarily relocated to a nearby office space and townhouses. Renovations are scheduled to be finished in the fall of 2025. That's exciting, but that was fun for Jillian to write, considering she is currently doing the Washington Hillsdale internship program in D.C. Yeah, I think this will be awesome. I've been to Hillsdale and D.C. before. I spent a summer in D.C. lived at the college housing, of which they're going to build more, which is awesome, because, you know, it's a great little townhouse that they have, but it doesn't room that many people, so it'll be great to have more of that.

And it's just such an awesome campus because it's a couple blocks away from the capital. You know, like it is really right there in the heart of things. So it will be great to have more space to do stuff and, you know, continue the work of the college. Good for Hillsdale and D.C. Well, that's enough from us. Now you will hear from our guests. You're listening to The Collegian Week in Review. This is Maddie, and I'm here with Thomas McKenna, the sports editor of the Collegian.

and this week he wrote a story about a Hillsdale alumnus and his new job. Thomas, tell me about this story. Well, the story is about a fellow named Garrett West. He graduated from the college in 2015 with a philosophy major. And since then, he graduated from Yale Law School in 2018. He clerked for two federal judges and a Supreme Court justice, Justice Alito. And he just got hired by Yale Law School. He'll be an associate professor of law there, starting,

summer. Who did you talk to for this story and what they have to say? So I got an email comment from Garrett. He obviously said that he was excited and he credited the college for teaching him how to read, write, and think effectively. I also got a comment from Dr. Arne, the college president. He basically said that Garrett was a great example of a Hillstale student, that he was one of the highest standards.

And to be called intelligent by Dr. Arn is a pretty big compliment. But the truth is even beyond Dr. Arn, I mean every person you talk to, Dr. Cole, the head of the philosophy department, with whom Garrett took six classes, and he chose Dr. Cole as his thesis advisor. If you talk to his sister, Anna, who's a junior here right now, if you talk to Dr. Schleeder, anyone you speak to, they'll just tell you that Garrett is of the highest caliber, both intellect. intellectually and virtue, right? He's kind and he's competent. He just receives the highest praise from all of these different people in all areas of his life who have known him closely as siblings or have just seen him from afar as somebody like Dr. Arn has. Tell me more about his family. So Garrett is the oldest of four children and they all have gone to or are currently attending Hillsdale. This is a Hillsdale family. He studied philosophy and so did two of his other siblings.

I spoke with Anna, his youngest sibling, his sister, and she was telling me that having this shared experience between all of those siblings is really amazing for their family, especially as a military family where they've moved around quite a bit. This Hillsdale is kind of a constant within the sibling group. And that was a really cool thing to hear about because not only did they share the experience of being at the college and three out of the four of them being philosophy majors, they also have seen the college at different points, a different points of its construction, a different points of its fame. So it was really cool to hear about that dynamic. And even though I couldn't fit all of that in the article,

Anna was great in that she was willing to describe all that. Well, thanks for coming out on the show, Thomas. Thanks for having me, Maddie. Radio Free Hillsdale's The Collegian Week in Review continues. This is Lauren, and I'm here with Logan Washburn, the associate editor of the Collegian. This week, Logan wrote two stories for the city news section, and we'll dive into the first one. It's about the village of Quincy, possibly disbanding its police department. Logan, how did this come to be? Hi, Lauren. Thanks for having me on the show.

Quincy is in kind of an interesting situation right now. They've had a hard time keeping police officers on the force. At the end of last year, it was down to about three officers. Then earlier this year, it was just two, the police chief. And currently, the only officer who remains is Casey Capella. But she and the police chief were the only ones on the force earlier this year. And the chief a couple weeks ago announced his resignation. So the village currently only has one police officer on patrol.

Obviously, if someone calls 911 and she's not on duty, they call in the county sheriff for the state police. So they still have law enforcement, but the village of Quincy is trying to figure out whether it's worth investing in the police force anymore. So they're considering disbanding it. Was there a reason for the resignation of the police chief? No, there was no reason. He didn't offer one according to the village clerk slash treasurer Marcy Clancy. He did make a salary of about $60,000, though. So, you know, not bad, but also for a police chief, I think that you could ask for more.

And I know the village also started paying their officers. a rate of 19 an hour. And that is a couple dollars lower than the city of Hillsdale starts their officers at. You know, with experience, they raise that. But it's still hard to be competitive, especially when you're trying to allocate resources as a small village. So while it was just Capella and the police chief, you know, being the only officers on call, how busy was it really?

And then also kind of a follow-up, how busy will. Capella now be by herself. So, yeah, they were pretty busy. In terms of the actual complaints they responded to, it would range in February from four to ten complaints they'd respond to a day. And that's with two officers. So she would now be taking on all of that. And, you know, so it's possible.

But I think that it's, they said she's dealing with it well, but this is just my take on it. I think that would be a difficult job to do as the only officer on the force. So hopefully she continues to do well there. And the village is able to figure out what to do. Because the village president, Mike Hageman, said that they may keep the police force. But if the village council decides to, they may just end up cutting it and reallocating those resources. But Clancy said they would still have. to contract with a law enforcement provider.

So probably like the Branch County Sheriff, someone like that to come in and patrol the community. So they're going to figure out something, but they're in the middle of figuring out what the future of this department looks like. So how do the wages of Quincy officers compare to the police officers in different cities such as Hillsdale? Yeah, so I sort of mentioned that earlier.

but they start their officers at 19 an hour, and the city of Hillsdale starts its officers at more than $21 an hour. So that should give a good reference point. I think that agencies in Branch County and others in the area also start at a couple more dollars than Quincy does. So it's just hard to keep police officers when you don't have the resources to fully fund competitive jobs. So is Quincy the only city that is kind of struggling with the drop in officers, or is this more of a statewide problem that's been occurring? Yeah, Quincy is definitely not alone in this. Since 2001, the number of police officers in Michigan has dropped 19%. This is according to Bridge, Michigan. So a lot of officers have been leaving the forest for different reasons in all these different types of towns. The larger agencies have more resources so they can have competitive recruitment programs.

But the ones that are suffering are normally these smaller towns about the size of Hillsdale and smaller because they just can't offer these competitive packages to keep officers on the force. Based on your interviews, does it sound like the city will go one way or the other? or is it pretty much undecided at this point? It's pretty much up in the air. Clancy said that they would like to keep the police force, but they just aren't sure what the right thing to do is right now. So this is a topic for deliberation for sure,

and the village council is actually holding a public hearing on April 16th on whether to keep or to ban the department. So they're not going to decide when to vote or anything before that. but they just want to hear the public's thoughts. All right. Well, moving on from police officers, let's talk about pot. You also wrote another story titled County Rakes in Nearly $1 million from pot shops. So I realize Hillsdale County is not, obviously, not the only county that receives money from these pot shops. This is also a statewide thing.

and then you wrote a localized angle for Hillsdale. So why don't you kind of explain to me like what happens with the money that counties receive statewide and then specifically how that works for Hillsdale? So yeah, back in basically 2018, the state passed a law that set a tax on marijuana sales. So what happens is every year the state gathers up that tax and then they discerpt. they disperse it to localities and towns based on how many licensed dispensaries they have. So that one million dollar number is for the year of 2023, and it includes the money that was just sent to Hillsdale County as a whole,

is like a local government. And all of the smaller local governments, like the city of Reading, the village of Camden, and other, localities within there. So the county received $472,600 roughly in state marijuana tax revenue. And the same number was split between Jefferson Township, the city of Reading, in the village of Camden, which actually topped the funding in the county because it has four dispensaries and received $236,000 roughly.

The way that this works is the state paid each local government in the county, $59,000 per license dispensary. So, yeah, the county just got a lot of funding from that. They're going to devote it to their general fund and kind of paying off any financial obligations they have debts, but there's nothing really specific set as a destination for those funds yet. But in places like the village of Camden, that's going to go to pay for infrastructure. And the Camden clerk, Robin Vasco, said that this revenue they're getting from the state pot tax, it accounts for more of the village's funding than anything else. So it's a huge source of income for them and it'll be interesting to see where that goes. So in this article,

you talked about both advantages and disadvantages. And I know you've been talking about some of the advantages, but can you go more into the pros and cons of this marijuana tax revenue? Absolutely. So the communities that have marijuana dispensaries, they get the funding. They can do what they want and that's great. And a lot of these communities need that. I've heard positive responses about that. But one of the concerns that County Commissioner Brent Lineger had is that an element of crime typically follows marijuana shops. So, you know, crime is an issue.

Also, again, this is my personal perspective on it, not saying one way or the other, which one is right. But it seems that having this funding out there could incentivize. localities to allow pot shops. And, you know, maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it's a bad thing. But I think it's important to keep in mind that a lot of these communities need funding, and they're probably willing to legalize pot shops if it means they can get it. So that's something concerning. And the city of Hillsdale mayor, Adam Stockford, he's now running for a state rep. He said that the city didn't receive any of this funding because when

Michigan legalized pot back in 2018, the city opted out of it. So that means we don't allow any pot dispensaries within the city limits, and we didn't receive funding from this. He said that this goes in turn with the will of the people of Hillsdale, and to just allow a marijuana shop because the city could get funding would be basically betraying his constituents. All right. Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Logan. Thanks for having me on the show. You have been listening to the Collegian Weekend Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.

I'm Lauren Scott. And I'm Maddie Welsh. You can find the Collegian online at Hillsdale Collegian.com. You can also find previous episodes of the Collegian Weekend Review online at cwir.transister.fm. Once again, you've been listening to the Collegian Weekend Review on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. You know,