WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Collegian Week in Review: January 22nd, 2026

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

This week on the Collegian Week in Review, hosts Catherine Maxwell, Alessia Sandala, and Tayte Christensen first talk with Ellie Fromm about breaking news, Gemma Flores about new special assessment districts, and Elaine Kutas about a Hillsdale alumna-turned influencer.

You're 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 Week in Review, where we give you an inside look into Michigan's oldest college newspaper. We're your hosts, Tate Christensen, Alessia Sandela, and Catherine Maxwell. Today, we're talking to Ellie From about Breaking News, Jimma Flores, about new special assessment districts, and Elaine Kudas, about a Hillsdale alumna turned influencer. Before we get to our interviews, we have a couple of top stories for the week. First is an update on the D.C. campus construction, written by Sophia Bryant, our assistant news editor. So the D.C.

campus has been under construction for almost two years, and it's just about finished as faculty are preparing to move in, but things are still getting finished. finished up. So what they did to the Kirby Center out in D.C. is they took the original Kirby Center and the Van Andal School of Graduate Government, and they made them into one building, essentially. They connected them on the first and the third floors. And they added a chapel, five new seminar rooms, and ten new faculty spaces in those buildings. Most of those rooms contain new carpets, new lighting, all of all of that fun stuff. The students out in D.C. currently on WIP sound like they're very excited for this to open up. It'll be a great landing spot for them.

Several of the students are super excited about the library. One of them saying it's a lot like the heritage room, but just with more lighting. There's also townhouses close by the Kirby Center that Andrew Hine, the executive director out in D.C., said they will be starting on construction on those here pretty soon, but not quite yet. They're going to try and get the Kirby Center finished up here. So as a student who was out on D.C. last semester, I have to say, I'm a little bit jealous of the kids who are going to get to experience it this semester, but I'm excited for the college as they're expanding this campus. And a second top story this week from our sports section. Hillsdale Club Wrestling received its first national ranking this month.

It finished eighth in the country in the National Collegiate Wrestling Association's Division I rankings. The team was founded in 2021, but it didn't start competing at the intercollegiate level until the fall of 2023. The club coach said that this ranking is especially impressive because of the level of competition in the NCN. It's the biggest national organization for college wrestling, he said, and there's more teams in this league than there are in the NCAA division. During the spring of 2024, which was the club's first season competing as an official club sport, the president, senior Matt Real, qualified for the NWCA national tournament, and he finished in the top 12. In 2025, the president qualified for Nationals again, as did two other members of the team. Those other two members both posted top 16 finishes in their prospective weight classes. The team says they're excited about these results, and it's going to take them strongly into competition next season.

and the standout performance at Nationals is attracting lots of new recruits to the club. Now here are our interviews. You're listening to The Collegian Week in Review. I'm Catherine, and today I'm talking to Collegian News editor, Ellie From, about a variety of stories she wrote for the front page this week. but we're going to start with a story about the union flood from yesterday. Ellie, what happened? So the fire alarms went off and there was some sort of weird smell in the union. All students were forced to evacuate and there was water flooding really quickly throughout the

upstairs, the top level of the union. I mean, it wasn't like gushing or anything, but it was moving really quickly through the hallways and the different rooms. The administration later sent out an email explaining why the union had started flooding. What did they say happened? It was caused by a fire suppression pipe that was exposed during construction. So, you know, there's a lot of construction happening in the union, in the library, like lots of different parts of campus right now. So I don't think this is like unexpected or anything.

Did this affect dinner for students? Yes. Students had dinner in the Cyril Center and they did a similar meal to what is usually served in the dining hall, but they just did it at Cyril. So it was very different and I believe it was a shorter amount of time that they offered dinner. So the line originally for waiting started in the serial center and it went all the way out to the Dow Hotel. So very long line. The tables were all packed. Very many people went.

Is this the first time the union's flooded? It is not. Seven years ago to the day, the union also flooded by, I believe it was a burst pipe. Yeah. A pipe in the emergency sprinkler system broke on January 21st, 2019, causing water to, quote, pour from the ceiling. So exactly seven years ago, the union flooded, which is quite the coincidence. definitely quite the coincidence. So that's the official printed version of what happened.

But everyone on this show currently got a firsthand experience. Ellie, walk us through what you saw when you were in the union as all of this started going down. Well, all four of us were there. We were all just at our desktops, putting together the Collegian. and the fire alarm started going off, lights started flashing. I think we all thought it was a drill. Yeah. That was a joke.

Yeah, I thought it was a drill. And I didn't know that the union did fire drills. So I kind of just like, oh, whatever, you know, I had to go do a fire drill. In January. And I remembered my phone, which is super lucky. So I threw my coat on, remember my phone. But then we were walking out and we smelled something.

So then we thought it might be real. but there was no fire official statement there was no fire and we walked around for a little while came back inside about 15 to 20 minutes later with the college workers and that's where we got the pictures that you can see on the front page of the Collegian originally they were telling students that they were not allowed in the union so we thought we were going to have to change gears a little bit and put together the Collegian in the Art Building on their desktop and so we started packaging frantically everyone's files before they kicked us out. And then we found out that we were actually allowed to stay and put together the Collegian and break this news.

Tate and Alessia, what was going through y'all's minds as this was happening? Well, I guess at first when we went out to do the, well, what I thought was the fire drill at the time, I just was kind of along for the ride and thought it was all fun in games. It was kind of nice to get outside and have a little walk before we sat down and did the Collegian for a while. And then I was completely fully ready to just get up and move to the art building and just have a little side quest in the graphics lab for the evening, I guess. And also when we came back in after the fire drill, the building smelled kind of like chemicals and smelled kind of gross. And after about 15 minutes of sitting there, I was kind of getting a headache. And I was like, maybe it's good that they're moving us to the art building.

And then Dean Pete let us stay in the Collegian office, which ended up being totally fine and it was good. But yeah, I was going to be chill with whatever. Like, it was just an eventful night all around. Memorable Collegian night. Yes. This will go down. Like, Collegian legend is made of this stuff. Oh, my gosh.

So true. I got to frame A1. Yes, you should. I think it should be added that our wonderful editor-in-chief was in class as all of this was happening. So when his class ended around 4.50 or so, he got to see dozens and dozens of frantic text messages and called me extremely confused trying to figure out where we were,

what was happening, what he should be doing, and I don't think really figured out what was going on until he got back into the office and could see for himself that everything was in fact okay. And also let it be known that it was all women making the decisions while our editor-in-chief was in class, except for our lovely cultures editor

who was there but then disappeared. But don't know where he went. But anyway, it was all the women telling everyone where to go. They just abandoned the women. They abandoned us. Our time of need. When the fire alarm first started going off,

I saw the light start blinking. I was like, no. That can't be right. There's no way. And then it started ringing. And I was like, oh, my gosh, no. I just, I was already, so annoyed because my page was being frustrating and it just got worse and I was like okay no this is fine

it's going to be an adventure and it turned out okay even though Thomas was very frantic I um I also had like the entirety of my pages laid out yeah like A1 was done ready to go I needed to put photo captions in that was just about it I was scared I was going to lose everything yeah I was really scared um I was something was going to happen in the computers. Yeah. But, yeah, A1 was completely laid out. Water and computers do not go well together. I was so worried.

It was going to fall from the ceiling onto the MacBooks. Oh, and then we ran into Gemma, the Assistant City News Editor. And she was like, oh, yes, I opened the door to the union. And there was just water everywhere. And she didn't know what to do. Well, shout out to our news team for covering not one, but three breaking news stories yesterday and massively reworking the page to accommodate everything. Speaking of more breaking news, Ellie, you also worked on a piece about Trump posting a video with Hillsdale College.

Why was Trump making this video? I believe he was making this video to introduce people to the America 250 video series, titled Story of America. I know the White House has been working on them a lot. He's been working with Dr. Arne a lot on these. Dr. Arn actually features in one of the videos, titled The Declaration of Independence, which is very fitting as he is an expert on it. So he named dropped Hillsdale in a video posted yesterday,

saying that they're working in partnership with Hillsdale College to produce this video series, which I believe we already sort of knew, but he had never said that he was working with Hillsdale College in a video like this. before. So that was pretty impressive. This video was also posted by Hillsdale College on YouTube. So very impressive that, you know, we posted the president sitting from the Oval Office, name-dropping Hillsdale. You mentioned the series includes one video with Dr. Arne. Have any other

videos in the series been released? Yes. I can't remember exactly how many right now, but I want to say seven or eight have been released. They're short videos. It's not like a 45-minute lecture. They're very short, they include a lot of art, which I really appreciate. They make sure that the video aspect of things keeps you entertained, really brings you into the story. They always have someone who's an expert in that field or in that area of study who leads you in that story. And these videos are aimed to help Americans understand just our founding heritage. The Battle of Bunker Hill, the Battle of Lexington, all these things that we tend to forget and just we need to remember the importance of them. And will Hillsdale continue releasing these videos throughout this year? Yes, yes.

They want to educate people and you can find it on the White House website. They really want to continue educating people on just the history of America because it's a 250th anniversary of the signing, which is just crazy to think of, but such an incredible landmark. You wrote a third story for this week, really earning your title of news editor, about a Hillsdale alumnus who Trump appointed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Who is this alumnus and what will he be doing for the USDA? So this is alumnus Dominic Rastuka. He graduated in 2016 with his wife, Emma. They actually grew up together, and they now have a young family. they are from Michigan and that's very important. They're from not too far from Hillsdale

and he's been working as a White House liaison to the USDA for about the past year and he was disappointed by President Trump to be the U.S. Department of Agriculture State Director for Michigan. So he's moving back to Michigan, back to his home and really trying to invest in the small towns here. What was his reaction to this appointment? He was very excited to be able to continue serving the president. He's obviously been in D.C. One of the problems with being in D.C. was his family still lives here in Michigan. So he would work during the weekdays in D.C. fly back to Michigan, spend the weekend with his family, and then fly back to D.C. So obviously that gets exhausting. He says he has a lot of sky miles racked up. And he's very excited to be home, be back where he grew up. be back to the place that formed him and, you know, give them some help that they need. Did he say what his goals are as the state director for Michigan? He would, as I said, like to help small towns.

So he's seen a lot of small towns that you drive through in a lot of Michigan that Hughes-Hillsdale as an example of one in more of the industrial era when they have had trains and things like that. These towns were booming. They had a lot of economic. strength, there were jobs, and that is mostly because of the train. And a lot of these towns have been pushed aside because they're not on the central highway system. And the trains, we don't use them anymore. So that's not bringing in business either. And so they don't have job opportunities,

don't have job growth, and they don't just have very many opportunities for people graduating. So he really wants to have a vibrant small town life and help these small towns develop. Did his wife say how she feels about this new job for her husband? She's clearly very excited to have him move back home full time and not, you know, have to split his time between home and D.C. And she said she's very proud of the work he's done serving the president. She's very happy that this move also means that he's still allowed to serve the president just in a different capacity.

And it's also something he's passionate about. So that helps too. Did any of Rastuka's Hillsdale experiences help him in his work for the government? Absolutely. He mentioned to me multiple politics professors that he said influenced him during his time at Hillsdale. He also mentioned a Hillsdale professor on the D.C. campus, Dr. Spalding and said that he was also incredibly influential. And they've stayed in contact while he's been working in D.C. He also was one of the founding students of a few good men, which is a volunteer opportunity through Hillsdale College to help out the Hillsdale community. And it really aligns with what his goals are for USDA. A few good men goes to

people in town who call in and need help with anything. They'll do anything and everything, very hands-on. They'll do yard work, shovel, snow, put together, outdoor structures, paint, anything the people need help with. And it's usually helping more elderly people. So just trying to keep the community together and give everyone a hand up, as he says. Ellie, thank you so much for all of your reporting this week. Thank you. The Collegian Weekend Review continues.

I'm Alessia, and today we have Assistant City News editor Gemma Flores on to talk about special assessment districts and road repairs in Hillsdale. Hi, Gemma. Hey. So what did the city council vote on on Tuesday regarding the special assessment districts? So on Tuesday, the council was presented with the 2026 proposed special assessment districts for the construction year. And they voted to go forth with public hearings about the three phases of the SAD plan.

Okay. And can you explain what I? a special assessment district is? Yeah, so a special assessment district reallocate some extra taxes from taxpayers to go towards constructions, to go towards the repair of the laffodated roads. How much money are the repairs expected to cost and how much road are they repairing? So currently they're planning on repairing just under two miles of road total, it's about 1.9. And And depending on whether or not they add on a special kind of optional add-on, it would be about $3.4 million, and $900,000 of that would be paid by taxpayer SADs.

How much does the special assessment district currently cost residents? So per parcel, the cap right now is at $5,000. City staff says it typically costs less than that, but it could be up to $5,000. However, certain residents want to lower that cap to something more manageable for a lot of residents, just so it's not this really big burden that they're feeling. What amount have city council members proposed for adjusting the special assessment district costs? There isn't really a set cap change that city council has proposed. One number that's been floated out by a lot of residents is $2,800.

although council is kind of debating where that number came from right now it seems relatively arbitrary but council actually before the public hearing on february 16th plans to go back and discuss possibly lowering the cap somewhat before the public hearing but if they were to lower the calf that would push construction back by quite a bit according to city staff and they might have to scale back their plans for the upcoming year. What roads are they considering applying special assessment districts too? Yeah. So right now they have three phases. The first phase will repair portions of Arch Avenue, Industrial Drive, and Proctor Drive. The second phase would repair South Street from South Broad Street to Reading Avenue. And the third would repair Oak Street from the St. Joseph River to East Fayette Street.

there's the optional add-on with that one that they might go from East Fayette Street onward to East College Street and that would cost extra money. So it really just depends on whether or not the residents in that district are interested. If residents are not interested, what can they do to oppose a special assessment district? Well, actually, for the second phase of those SADs, or maybe it's the, no, it's the third. The residents are kind of pushing back against that. So what that looks like is they can petition counsel to reject the SAD if they get 51% of the parcel owners in that district to sign. They prefer a written letter.

But it could be, I think, according to Councilman Soha, an email as well, saying that they would like to reject the SAD. In that case, counsel could override the rejection if they got a supermajority of seven of the nine council members to vote to override it. However, according to the Tuesday's meeting, it seems like they don't have the votes to override it if Oak Street does get the support. Okay, thanks for coming on, Gemma. Yeah, thanks for having me. Radio Free Hillsdale's The Collegian Week in Review continues. And now we're talking to Elaine Kudis, who this week wrote a features piece on an alumna who is becoming an influencer and is on the road to gaining followers on Instagram. So Elaine, can you tell us a little bit about your piece?

Yeah, of course. So I had the privilege of writing about Izzy Messenger. She started an Instagram account to kind of kickstart her career as an influencer, which is she is hoping to do. And her husband challenged her. And her first video came out October 22nd, so kind of at the end of October. He challenged her to reach 100,000 followers by the end of 2025, which in my piece, she told me that she,

thought was kind of a joke. They kind of laughed about it and she filmed a really quick video of them together to kind of use as a clip at the beginning of all of her videos that she would use for the series. And the series she decided to do was to run 100 meters for every 100 followers she gained. And that was kind of awesome because she said she was able to have the greatest accountability partner of just everyone following along and watching her journey of her just fulfilling her dreams of becoming an influencer. What was kind of the reaction to that? Like how quickly did her account grow? And when did she hit 100,000? Yeah. So her account actually grew so quickly. She ended up reaching 50,000 followers on December 12th, which was just about two months after she had started it.

And two weeks later, she hit 100,000 followers the day after Christmas, December 26th. So she was able to achieve that goal in two months' time, super quick. And she said it was just a amazing. They had no idea that it would happen that quickly. And she was just able to celebrate that with her husband and they have a baby together. And so they were able to just kind of celebrate her reaching one of her biggest goals. And what have they done since then? Yeah. So one of their goals was if she reached the 100,000 followers, they would be able to travel North America for a month. And so they've taken the first step in that plan. And they traveled around parts of Canada already. Her husband is from Canada, so he knows his way around, and they've been able to explore some places up there

already, which is just kind of the first thing that they want to check off the bucket list. And when you talk to her, did you talk about what she wants to do in the future and what she say? Yeah, so Izzy said that her biggest thing is she just wants to be able to be a stay-at-home mom with her baby to kind of help with bringing in some income if she can, but mostly to just inspire others to follow their dreams. And by creating content that's lifestyle-based, you know, day-in-a-life, videos making coffee, spreading the gospel and just kind of having a very joyful presence on Instagram, that's what her hope is. And they're expanding to other platforms like YouTube and TikTok to spread more inspiration all over the internet. And her hope is just to make this, her career path,

and just something she can do as kind of a hobby as a stay-at-home mom. Awesome. Well, thanks so much Elaine. Thank you. You've been listening to the Collegian Weekend Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Alessia Sandella. I'm Catherine Maxwell. And I'm Tate Christensen. You can find the Collegian Weekend Review online at cwir.transistor.fm. You can find more news at Hillsdalecollegian.com. Thanks for tuning in to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.