WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Collegian Week in Review: February 5th, 2026

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

This week on the Collegian Week in Review, hosts Catherine Maxwell, Tayte Christensen, and Alessia Sandala first discuss top headlines, including talking to show producer Megan Pidcock about the recent CCA. Then, they talk to Christian Papillon about a historic Charger baseball game. Finally, they talk to Ty Ruddy about recent campus shenanigans, including Land Battle and the case of the missing Homecoming trophy.

listening to the Collegian Weekend Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Here are your hosts, Catherine Maxwell, Alessia Sandella, and Tate Christensen. Welcome to Collegian Weekend Review, where we give you an inside look into Michigan's oldest college newspaper. We're your host, Alessia Sandella, Tate Christensen, and Catherine Maxwell. Today, we're talking to Christian Papillon about the baseball team's first series and Ty Ruddy about some campus culture drama. But first, some top stories. Alessia, you had a full page in city news this week, including some new hires for the city of Hillsdale. Who are they? So one of the new hires was actually hired in September. He is the new city engineer.

His name is Rob Stiverson. He is a longtime Hillsdale resident and has worked in civil engineering for more than 30 years. And then the second new hire is a new police and fire chief. The previous police and fire chief, Scott Hefner, announced he would retire in December. And Christopher Josbiak will take over February 17th after working with Hefner on the job for a time. There was a little drama in the appointment process for the new police and fire chief. Why was that? Matthew Bentley and Joshua Palladino both had problems with how, Mayor Scott Sessions presented the new police and fire chief to the council for approval.

They said that the council should have been brought in sooner and they should have been included on interviews and vetting the candidate. And other council members said that they thought the process was fine. So there was just a bit of a debate on that. And what was the final vote to select the new police and fire chief? So the city council voted 8 to one to hire Josbiak as the new police and fire chief, Bentley was the only one who opposed the vote. Also on your page, you have a very fun photo of acute animal. What is this animal and what's its connection to

Hillsdale? So there's a massive photo of an armadillo on our page. Armadillos are actually making their way to Michigan, according to a report by Michigan State University and Bradley University. So apparently, armadillos are actually hitching rides with people and coming north. But because they're from southern states, they're dying because they can't handle the cold weather and they're getting hit by cars. Did these reports say how the armadillos are hitching rides? So an invasive species biologist Ryan Wheeler said that the armadillos are being brought by humans and they're hopping on the car, unbeknownst to the people who are driving. and then maybe hopping on a train or on a tractor trailer, and people just have no idea that they're accidentally bringing these armadillos north.

And the armadillos, of course, have no idea what they're getting themselves into. Well, Alessia, great work with the page this week. This is the Collegian Week in Review. On A1 this week, the Collegian ran a Q&A with Amber Duke, the senior editor for The Daily Caller. She gave a lecture at this week's Center for Constructive Alternatives. Tate, you attended the lecture, as did our wonderful producer, Megan Pitcock, who is joining us on the show today to talk about Duke's speech.

Tate and Megan, what did you think? Thanks for having me. I'm always here, but I'm never actually on. So this is a nice change of pace. I thought it was very well done. I thought she was very well spoken, had a lot of interesting things to say about new media. That was a term that was brought up quite a bit about what that is and how to approach it. She defined it as sort of a democratization of media, moving away from legacy media, like Fox News, CNN, that sort of thing, into a more individualistic form of journalism. that really anyone can partake in in some fashion, but she also talked about some of the risks that come with that as well as the benefits. Yeah, and kind of going off of what Megan had to say, Duke talked a lot about how the legacy media has been biased for decades, like even back in

the 50s and 60s, she referenced Walter Cronkite and how he's a very praised figure in media, and rightly so, but that if you go back and watch some of his clips, see the bias in there and how even back in the day legacy outlets were trying to persuade Americans to see things as one way or the other. But Duke was saying that with the onset of new media and, you know, X, where people can go on and share their opinions or share different clips of events happening, people can share their perspectives and people, other viewers from there can get a different perspective on what's happening in the world and they're not just being fed one singular narrative, they can see different perspectives and kind of come to make up their

own minds. And Duke also talked about how that platform gives people the ability to choose who they listen to and who not to listen to. And it really gives power back to the viewers, to the audience, to determine what they think, who they want to listen to, and all of that. Was Duke optimistic about the future of journalism and media? Yeah, she was. She said that new media really brings in a new perspective compared to legacy outlets and media in the past. And although she did mention AI and how that could pose a threat to media and to making people believe things that aren't true, but she said that people will have the wisdom enough to turn away from that.

And yeah, she really thinks that technology will help shape that in a good way, in a positive way. She also seemed to have a lot of optimism for a sort of hunger for this new media, that a lot of people are really looking for a lot of different perspectives and alternative ways of getting the news that is not legacy media because there is this distrust in it. And she thinks that people will become better at sort of picking out what good journalism is, because, there are more options. Tate, you interned with the Daily Caller. Did you see any of what she was talking about come out in their reporting or in the work that you did for them? Yeah, I did. Yeah, I spent last summer working at the caller and it was a great time. One thing she mentioned, kind of going back to the social media thing where people are always posting about things happening in the

world. That definitely keyed into my internship a lot of just keeping an eye on media and what's happening out there. And really, I think journalism has changed in a lot of ways in that reporting doesn't always mean being on the ground talking to people physically at the scene. It also can mean talking to other authorities who are there or who oversee situations or referencing social media posts that show the event happening. And that was definitely something that played a lot into my of like I'm in an office in D.C. saying these things happening online and just having to reference that for the article that I write. Duke was one of many people who spoke at the CCA. Megan, were there any highlights from the other speakers? Yeah. The other CCA talk on Tuesday was from A.F. Branco,

who does a lot of political comic strips. And I didn't know exactly. who he was, but when I got to the lecture hall, they had one of his comics on the board, and I immediately recognized his art style. That was cool to put a face to the name behind those things, which I've sort of seen circulate for years. He's been in the industry a really long time. And he gave a pretty wide variety of political cartoons that he had done over the years, mostly from a conservative perspective. So it was interesting to see sort of what goes into each of his comics. And then a couple of the others.

There was one on Sunday about Bill Buckley, which we hear a lot about at Hillsdale College. So it was interesting to hear from someone who knew him personally. Charles Kessler from Claremont McKenna was the one who gave that talk. So I thought it was a pretty wide variety of topics, sort of coming back to conservative media and journalism and how those have changed over the years. But I thought Duke's talk was a really good way to end it as a sort of looking to the future and where we're at right now after a few other people who had been more looking to the past. Well, Tate and Megan, thanks for talking about the CCA. Of course. Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

The Collegian Weekend Review continues. And now we're talking to Christian Papillon about the Charger baseball season. Christian, what happened with Charger baseball this weekend? It was a pretty exciting first series, to say the least. We lost two out of three games, but the game that we won, it was actually a historic win. It went 15 innings, which is the longest game in Charger history since the game. records were being kept about that. What happened in the first two games and what made the third game so remarkable? So it was very close back and forth game for 14 innings. And then in the 15th

inning, the Chargers exploded and scored seven runs and had a couple of home runs that game. And just everyone in the offense was doing really well. They were seeing pitches well. They got a lot of hits, they took a lot of walks. It was very, very good sign this early in the season for the team. Who were some of the key players in that game? And what did they do for the team? So, um, Garde Swenson, he had a great game. He had a home run in the double header. He also scored a few runs in addition to the home run. Um, Braco Tanuta, he's a junior infielder. He had a really good game. He hit a home run that capped off the rally in the, 15th inning. Jake Figman, he hit a home run. Tyler Turner had a hit. Basically, everyone in the

lineup did really well in the last two games of the series. They scored 14 runs both times. Could you walk us through that 15th inning for the Chargers? Who were some of the key players? And what happened? Sure. So they loaded the bases with three walks, which shows that they were really patient, waiting for good pitches. And then Billy Perotsky, he hit an RBI single, Tyler Turner had a walk that batted in a run. Gar'd Swenson had a two-run single, and Rocco Tunita had a three-run home run that game, too. So it was just everyone was doing great, like I said. And you talked with head coach Tom Vasella.

What did he have to say about the weekend? He was very happy with the resilience of the team because in the 13th inning, the Chargers scored a run, but then Montavello responded back with the run in the bottom of the inning, and he was really happy that the team just stuck with it and didn't let it get them down and allowed for the game-winning rally. And how are the players feeling about this weekend moving into the rest of the season? They're also happy. They told me that usually that the start of the season is a little bit slower for the team in terms of really getting clicking. But this season, it only really

took one game, and then the offense is doing well, and now they just need to work on the pitching and the defense. What's next for the Chargers? And when do they have their first home series? Sure. So they're going to Harrogate, Tennessee for a series this weekend, and they'll be on the road for most of the month. And then they're coming back here on March 20th to play their first home series. Great. Well, thanks so much, Christian, and thanks for coming on. Thank you. Radio Free Hillsdale's The Collegian Weekend Review continues. Today we're joined by Culture Editor Ty Ruddy to talk about a couple top stories in the culture section.

Ty, last Wednesday, the campus men were pretty busy, and you got to witness what went down firsthand. So what was going on, and what did you see? Yes, they were busy, and I ran straight from the collegian office to go cover land battle, which is an event where the men of Hillsdale beat each other up with pool noodles and PVC pipes. And as I was walking over to the field where they were having it, I was walking by Central Hall and I heard the yell and I heard the battle commence from there. So I knew it was going to be intense. Yeah. And by the time I had gotten there, the official battle had ended, but they were circling up for one-on-one wrestling matches.

So where was land battle since the quad is no longer available for student use? Right. So the quad is under construction. So the past couple of years, they've had land. battle. The past couple years they've had it across from the townhouses in that field. And yeah, it's a spacious place and they had a lot of people. I know they had at least 30 from Whitley and multiply that by three or four more of the other men's dorms. And there were there were quite a few people there. Were the women of the townhouses excited to watch land battle from their windows?

Oh, they were thrilled. Yeah. No, they, when the one of the one one-on-one wrestling matches were underway. There were some sneers from the women up in the townhouses talking about how they had 8 a.m. the next day. I can't really blame them, but it's entertaining. One guy's dorm did not show up. Who was that? And did anything happen to them? It's true, yeah. Galloway did not show up for land battle. And they had one guy there. I believe he's actually a transfer this semester. So, So most of the rooted Galloway makers of culture were not there. And so there were a lot of disappointed Simpson, Whitley, needfelt men who took it upon themselves

afterward to teach Galloway a lesson. And they united as one army and went and raided Galloway after the land battle was over. And did Galloway try to defend themselves? No. Galaway, Galway shrank. Galloway hold up in their rooms. And this isn't in the article, but I have intel that tells me that they were pouring water on the people who walked under their windows. So coward's way out.

But before the horde of men rushed for Galloway, their commotion caused a few concerned neighbors to wonder what was going on. and a cop showed up. What was his reaction to all this chaos? Yeah, the cop showed up. He was told that the Hillsdale police got a call. They don't know exactly from who, but there's reports circling that it was from the women of the townhouses, that college men were beating each other up with baseball bats.

And so, yeah, the cop showed up, and he stepped out of the vehicle, and Jonathan Williams went up to him and said, you know, is there a problem? And he said, well, we got a report that there's people beating each other up with baseball bats. And Jay Willey just sort of, sort of explained what land battle was that it was PVC pipes and foam pool noodles, not baseball bats. And the cops said, the cop said, oh, and beat the S word out of each other. Heckia. And they were cries of approval all around from all the men of campus. And he watched, he watched one of the wrestling matches.

Well, it was so fun of him to indulge in this little piece of campus culture. But Lamb Battle wasn't the only campus drama that made the Collegion this week. Opinions editor Caroline Kurt covered the saga of the Homecoming Trophy, which has gone missing since Homecoming Week and made various reappearances. What's the story with the homecoming trophy? So, so the seeds of this article actually began maybe last October or November. We wrote an original, we wrote, Caroline wrote a piece about campus pranks. And if I recall, the homecoming trophy was like a minor character in that story.

And there was like maybe one or two, one or two mentions of it. Because at that point, nobody had known who stole a homecoming trophy. But it's true. When Simpson won homecoming this year, it was stolen. and it hasn't been seen since. Well, Carolyn did some digging and found out that the ATO pledges, freshman pledges, were told to go steal the trophy from Simpson, so they did. And the trophy bounced around campus for a little while after that,

eventually ended up at Triplex. And after that, it ended up around the country until it came back to school in May. And there were various plots and various schemes to, make sure that nobody knew where the trophy was until last week. So the bulk of this story covers the men of Casablanca who posted a video about the trophy. What was their video and what did they say about it afterward? Yeah. So eventually the trophy fell into Casablanca's hands.

Nobody can quite tell how, but immediately they knew Simpson men were going to be, on their doorstep, like within the day. And sure enough, they were, but before, before Simpson men were able to come and come and harass them, they came up with an idea for a video where it's very simple, very simple idea. Aidan Christian would go on to eat frosted flakes out of the homecoming trophy. And they were out of bowls. Casablanca was fresh out of bowls. And so he just used the homecoming trophy.

And they posted a picture of that on their story. and Simpson came after them. So everyone's wondering, I'm sure, do we know where the trophy is now? No, I've talked to multiple people since then, and nobody seems to know where it is, but there's reports that it may be in the Collegian office. But not actually.

Does Simpson have plans to recover the trophy, or are they invested in getting it back? They say they aren't. They say that they don't have plans, but basically everyone knows that's a lie. And they have been working behind the scenes tirelessly to try to find out where this thing is. But there's been a couple events where even certain roommates of people who had the trophy didn't know that their roommates had the trophy. So this thing is under wraps, and it's a whole scheme. There's a lot of treachery involved and a lot of pranking.

And so I wonder if Simpson's not going to just have to wait it out until the end of the year. Well, if the trophy does reappear again this semester, I'm sure the culture section will be on top of it. Absolutely. Yes. Yes, we will be. Ty, thanks for coming on. Thank you. You've been listening to Collegian Week in Review on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. I'm Tate Christensen. I'm Catherine Maxwell.

And I'm Alessia Sandella. You can find the Collegian Weekend Review online at cWIR.transistor.fm. You can find more news at Hillsdale Collegian.com or at our Instagram at Hillsdale Collegian. Thanks for tuning in to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.