WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Collegian Week in Review: January 31, 2025

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

This week, the hosts are joined by Grace Brennan, Tayte Christensen, and others to discuss school threats and a new Dante's Inferno themed bar.

Welcome to The Collegian Week in Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Here are your hosts, Moorgleason, Thomas McKinna, and Caroline Curt. Welcome to Collegian Week in Review, where we will give you an inside look into Michigan's oldest college newspaper. We're your hosts, Coleman Rowan, and Thomas McKenna. And today we'll be interviewing Grace Brennan about her visit to Sage's Daughtry Art Gallery. Then we'll talk to News Assistant Tate Christensen on the college's new satellite campus in Connecticut. And we'll finally speak with Elaine Kudis about a new Dante-themed liquor store in town. But first, we're starting with some top stories.

Our first top story on A1 this week was that a man was arrested in Lucas County, Ohio, after threats against Hillsdale Community Schools. That's the elementary school, the middle school, and the high school in town. Now, those schools were closed for a couple days this week out of an abundance of caution from school officials. But eventually, the police were able to apprehend a suspect after a few days. on Wednesday, and then schools were able to open up on Thursday. So after those threats, the kids in Hillsdale are back in school, but not after missing a couple of days, not due to snow, but due to threats. Coleman, tell us about what's going on on culture. Yeah, for sure. Over in

culture, we have the art gallery, which Grace will tell us about later, and then we have a professor and some students are performing in the Sox performance, the Sok in Jonesville's performance of My Fair Lady. And then over on the Opinionsville's performance of My Fair Lady. And then over on the opinions page, Coleman had a piece on why the war on big tobacco misses the point. Coleman, give us a basic sense of your argument with this piece. Yeah, so I just was trying to point out that as the Biden administration in its last days was attacking smoking, they aren't really getting to the heart of the problem, which is nicotine addiction. And out on the market, there's lots of crazy high nicotine concentration products like Zim pouches and like vapes and that sort of thing,

which are way more addictive and way more targeted at the youth. And I think that trying to take away cigarettes, which aren't necessarily something that are the object of addiction, but can be and always have been like maybe an enjoyment, like having a beer or something like that, isn't really the right move if you want to stop addiction in America. So what would you like to see from this new administration and whoever's in charge of the FDA?

Where would you like to see the FDA target rather than big tobacco? and nicotine concentration and cigarettes. I think it's pretty simple, and I'm pretty sure Europe does this, at least in my experience, this is how Europe goes. Like, instead of letting the vapes have nicotine concentrations of 5% make it be 2 or 3%, just bring it down. That's all. That would help everyone.

Helps bring addiction down, and, you know, people would be upset by that, of course. But it's better for them. That's from our tobacco correspondent, Coleman Rowan. Can I call you that? Sure. Okay. We'll be right back talking to Grace Brennan about the art gallery here at the college on display. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Radio Free Hillsdale's The Collegian Weekend Review continues. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Welcome back. This is Collegian Week in Review, and we're talking to Grace Brennan.

She's a collegian freelancer who wrote a review of Sage's Daughtry Gallery. Grace, tell us about your article and what you found in the gallery. So the article is many pieces collected by modern artists, but not specifically modern art. All of the paintings and drawings were really interesting. because it's these artists who were taking inspiration from the old masters from years ago. So it's my understanding that the college art department has the same sort of approach to art as these artists do. Can you tell me about that? You talk to professors and that sort of thing about that.

Yeah. So Professor Suarez, for instance, drawing 101 is specifically drawing with the intention of of learning from old masters. So drawings that have been taught for centuries and the skills that go along with it, nothing modern, you know, not really putting in your own opinion or creativity at first.

So these artists are doing the same thing. I think that's probably why it's fit so well into the Hillsdale Gallery is because it flows well with what the values of the professors have at Hillsdale College. I understood you talked to. to Anthony Boss, one of the artists. Could you tell me about his art and his approach and what he told you?

Right. So he told me how he had a switch from sort of modern art or, you know, his own art without any background to going into these classically trained

artists. And so a lot of what you see of his in the gallery is drawing specifically. And he talked to me a lot about the difference between drawing and painting, which was very interesting, that he was able to see an other artist drawing as well through his experience, the backgrounds and foundation of all that they did in their paintings. You also talked to the owner of the collection, Nathaniel Stewart.

I understand, I mean, like, he collected all these works that are in this style, you know, of Anthony Boss. and why did he, why does he like this kind of art? And why did he bring it to Hillsdale's show to us? Right. So what he loves is, at least what he told me, is the fact that all of these artists are, they're all living.

And so they're people he's been able to make a connection with. I think from being a past Hillsdale student, he has the same thoughts as people, the professors in the art department right now of what art is traditionally. And I think he wanted to bring that to Hillsdale, where you can see that it's tradition that's still happening and not just the old things that have been taught ages ago, but that Hillsdale artists and even anyone can see that they can do that for themselves.

Well, that's great. Grace, thanks for sharing with us. Of course. You've been listening to Collegian Weekend Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.1.7 FM. This is the Collegian Weekend Review. You were listening to Collegian Week in Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. We're here with Tate Christensen, who wrote an article about the Blake Center in Connecticut, a satellite campus that Hillsdale College owns.

Tate, can you tell us a little bit about the Blake Center? Yeah. So the college came into possession of the Blake Center in 2019, and they opened it in 2020, and the center serves as a satellite campus for the college where they host different dinner lectures with Hillsdale professors, and especially ones that are prominent online with online courses. And as of right now, their events are invite only, and they just host friends of the college for weekends of learning. So you write in your article that this is a 100-acre property. it's home to a replica of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, which was his home in Virginia,

and that they've got new plans with this new director. Tell us about the new director of the Blake Center. Yeah, so Alan Crippin, he comes from Hillsdale. He was the rector at Holy Trinity, Anglican Parish, since 2021, and then now moved out to Connecticut to serve as the executive director for the Blake Center. And he told me he hopes to incorporate undergraduate students more with the programming at the Blake Center than really had been before. And he said that there's still like size limits and they can only have so many people out there.

So it'll still likely be invite only, but he said he hopes that have programming that will involve more students. You talked with the college's chief administrative officer, Rich Payway, about how the college can reach a million imprimus subscribers out there on the East Coast. Tell us more about the college's outreach efforts through the Blake Center. Yeah, so with their dinner lecture series with different professors of the college, they reach over 150 friends of the college at a time and they serve thousands of these people throughout the year through their different events. And so both Payway and Crippin said they hope

to continue to have an outreach and kind of have more of a presence on the East Coast because with the Blake Center and then the Kirby Center that's in D.C., the Kirby Center serves more undergraduate students. But with the Blake Center, they hope to reach out to more friends of the college. So you also mentioned in addition to reaching to friends of the college, that the new director Crippin wants to reach some undergrads and have programming for them. What would that look like and how would that compare to some of the undergrad programming like the WIPP program that's out there at the Kirby Center in D.C.? Yeah, so Crippin didn't say exactly what that would look like, but he did say they want to continue to have different educational programs like their dinner lecture series,

just including students this time. So it won't look like the study abroad type situation that WIPP has out in Washington. But it'll still, sounds like it'll still be a good experience for undergraduates to get involved with the Blake Center and to go out and learn more about Hillsdale and out on the East Coast. So this means that some of us in the near future could get sent out to Connecticut to see a replica of Monticello. Yeah, you know, possibly. I mean, maybe it goes along the same lines as Dr. Arne's cyber truck deal as if you think good things and do good thoughts or whatever, then you get a ride. And maybe the same thing goes for the Blake Center. to kind of switch gears a little bit.

So I understand that Alan Crippin, the new director, is coming from Holy Trinity. Did you talk to him about how that might affect the church losing their rector? Yeah, I talked with Crippin about that. I also talked with Father Adam, who serves as chaplain here at Hillsdale. And, yeah, the parish is definitely losing an awesome leader from what it sounds like. But they're going to follow all of the Anglican rules to bring in a new rector. They didn't give me a timeline on that, but they do have a leadership board in place to kind of take care of that. And both Father Adam and Jeremiah Reagan, who also serves here at the college, are on that board and are overseeing all of that.

Now, in addition to the article on the Blake Center for this week, you also wrote about the March for Life. The college always sends a bunch of students. And this year, they sent nearly 90 Hillsdale College students to the March for Life. Now, you were on that trip. Tell us about that trip and what it looked like for students. Yeah, so it was an awesome experience. It started with an overnight bus ride, which was just a joy. But we woke up the next morning and went to the rally. And at the rally, it was J.D. Vance in person and Donald Trump addressed the crowd via video. And that was just an awesome experience to get to hear from them. And it was J.D.'s first appearance since becoming vice president. So that was just awesome to see him out in supporting the pro-life cause. And then we also saw a handful of other pro-life lawmakers, like, Speaker Mike Johnson was there and a handful of senators and representatives who have voted pro-life were also there. Yeah, just the spirits were really high. Everyone was just really happy to be there. It was a beautiful day. People kept saying it was cold. It wasn't as cold as Hillsdale. But it was still a little chilly. But yeah, just a beautiful day. Just an awesome time to just remember why we fight for life.

Now you talked to some students who went as well. Tell us about what the student reaction was to those who spoke there as well as how this morgue. compared to marches in past years. Yeah, so people were definitely excited to see lawmakers out there, especially Vance and Trump. I talked to junior Meredith Vanderwite, and she is a member of the Missouri Synod Lutheran, and she was really excited to see their leader Matthew Harrison out there. He led a prayer at the rally, and she was just really excited to see him, and there were a bunch of other religious leaders, too, that people were excited to see. And then after the march and the rally, we had the chance to just go out and see the city,

and so people were able to go see pretty awesome stuff and just, you know, all the monuments, the Library of Congress. A lot of people took trips out to the basilica out there too, and that was just awesome. What did you go see? I went to the Library of Congress, and I took a little tour of all the monuments at night, which was really cool.

Did you get a library card at the Library of Congress? No, I didn't. I really wanted to. See, Coleman and I are both from D.C., and that's like the classic thing to do when you go to the Library of Congress. You can get a card, and if you're an American citizen, you can get a card, and you can get in for free. It's a hack. They don't want you know it.

It gets you in. into the main reading room. No, we wanted to go there. And then the guy we talked to was like, well, you're here on a Saturday, so you can't do that. It's rough. Yeah. Well, thanks so much for talking with us, Tate. Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

You're listening to the Collegian Week in Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.1.7 FM. We'll be back at a moment. You're listening to the Collegian Week in Review. You're listening to Collegian Week and Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. We're here with Elaine Kudas. Hello. She's here to talk about her article on the new Dante-inspired fine liquor store in town. Now, this is part of a larger project that is inspired by Dante, and this is the first of three parts of that project to open up.

Elaine, tell us about your article and what you found in your reporting. Yeah, so the Dante-inspired liquor store is called Dante's Purgatorio. Like you said, it's the first of three. and what they're trying to do is open purgatorio. They've got that open first. They wanted to just revamp what used to be a kind of convenience liquor store. They want to make it more specialty. John Bascarro, who's running it, is really into wine education.

And so he's trying to bring that kind of classier look to the store and to the people of Hillsdale. And through that, he wants to open the Dante's Paradisio Wine Pub. That will be open, hopefully, by March. And then the next step would be opening the cigar bar, which will be downstairs. That would be Dante's Inferno. And that'll be where 55 below used to be located. So these are establishments that Hillsdale students and faculty and Hillsdale residents would be familiar with, 55 below bootleggers. And now they've been taken over by this new ownership.

Tell us more about this new ownership and why they're trying to do this transformation. Yeah, so it's a big part of Luke Robson's project Hillsdale Renaissance to kind of revamp downtown Hillsdale to bring life back into it for the students and alumni moving back and the professors here. He just wants Hillsdale to be a kind of a hub for people in the surrounding cities to want to come and make Hillsdale a destination. And his idea with this store is to make the wine pub especially a place good for date nights, for parents to come when they're visiting their students to bring them down, have somewhere off campus to continue conversations, and to just kind of bring that classier feel to downtown

Hillsdale. Now you went to this new fine liquor store. What did you see when you went there? Yeah. So one of the things they're really trying to do is, like I said, bring in a bunch of more classy wines. And so they have a big wine section that they're still finishing right now. They also include wines from a Hillsdale partner.

It's the David Bruce Winery. So they are a big reseller of that, a wholesaler. And they also have a bunch of different types of whiskey and bourbon to kind of bring those down into the Hillsdale downtown as well. Understood. So this is a wider part of the Hillsdale Renaissance project. You weren't able to speak with Mr. Robson, but can you? Can you tell us a bit more about how this project fits into his larger Renaissance project? What else we can see?

Yeah, the larger project that he's trying to do is just to bring more businesses to fill these storefronts that are empty in Hillsdale. There are a lot of empty places, and he sees that there's big potential in Hillsdale, especially in downtown. And there's a need for these types of places to be filled. lots of stores, diners, things like Dante's Purgatorio. He wants to bring the life back into downtown Hillsdale. And even other small business owners who aren't directly related to this project directly involved, seem supportive of it.

So you talked to the owner of Ethan's donut factory down there in downtown. What did he say? Yeah, I talked to Mr. Babcock. He is a Hillstale local. He grew up here. And he's very supportive of what Robson is trying to do for Hillsdale. He said he saw Hillsdale growing up as a booming city, as a place that had a mall, which I didn't know Hillsdale had, and a bunch of bustling storefronts. And he said it's been sad to grow up and live here and see it all kind of closed down.

And him and his other business partners that own Ethan's are trying to restart some of that. And so their goal was to bring a walk-in, approachable business like Ethan's Donuts Factory for people to just come in, get a sweet treat. kind of hang out and socialize and he really wants to see the life back in hillstale just like Mr. Robson does. So you talked about a purgatoria opening up. Did he talk about plans for what Inferno and Paradiso might look like? Yeah, absolutely. So his big idea for Paradisio is to have it be a wine pub, is what he's calling it, a place

where you can have wine tastings, small bites, appetizers, and just, a cozy atmosphere to have conversations. He very much mentioned date nights and things like that. Mr. Joel Scholl, who is also a part of the project, he's the general manager. He has a background in hospitality. And what he wants to do is just make that a place where people can come. And same with Dante's Inferno, the cigar bar. They are hoping that will be a good place for guys to come and socialize, have a business meeting, have, they want to have, they want to have more secluded spaces, tables and areas for two or three or four people to have a private conversation. Do we have any idea when these other installations are going to open up?

Yes. So the wine pub should be opened by March and the cigar bar by next fall semester. Understood. Now, Elaine, you also wrote an opinion piece for our friend Caroline in the opinion section on RFK. And he's going through his confirmation hearings right now to try to be the secretary of the Health and Human Services Department and the federal government. Tell us about what you see from RFK. Yeah, that was a piece I was really excited to write. I think a lot of what I'm seeing from him is just vocalizing what Americans are saying. We are noticing the unhealth that is taking over our nation in our food, additives that are in everything that we eat

and the different chemicals that are in our water and are used in our farming. And he is kind of bringing to light all of these issues that we have, especially with the chronic disease epidemic. And President Trump has spoken a lot about how that's what he wants Mr. Kennedy to tackle. And so just seeing him vocalize these things, bring them to light, and Americans who haven't been able to get what they want out of our health care system are hopefully going to have that happen in our next administration. Do you think that the country as a whole is going to be receptive to those policies?

Or do you think that this is a loud but smaller section of the American public? I see it kind of as a unifying factor. The fact that he is bringing these things to light and lots of people from both sides of the spectrum are very supportive of this. I know more of the traditional Christian conservative families are very much on board with wanting to have healthy food for their children and starting farms and raising their own chickens and things like that, as well as people who are more steeped in the scientific research of things and saying these additives, like the state of California has been coming out with a bunch of bands for food dyes. and they're definitely a more liberal-leaning state, and they are also on board with these things that Mr. Kennedy wants to get rid of in our country.

Elaine, thanks so much for talking with us. Thank you for having me. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. This is Collegian Weekend Review. We'll be back in a minute. You've been listening to The Collegian Week in Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Coleman Rowan.

And I'm Thomas McKenna. You can find the Collegian Weekend Review online at CWIR.transister.fm. You can find more news at Hillsdale Collegion.com. You can find us on Instagram at Hillsdale Collegion. We'll see you next week.