WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Collegian Week in Review: March 20, 2025

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

Explore weekly editorials and local interviews on this week's episode!

Welcome to the Collegian Week in Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Here are your host, Caroline Kurt, Thomas McKenna, and Coleman Rowan. Welcome to the Collegiate Week in Review, where we give you an inside look into Michigan's oldest college newspaper. Where are your hosts, Coleman Rowan. And Caroline Kurt. And later we'll be talking to Catherine Maxwell, our news editor, on our headlines of the week. We will be speaking to assistant editors Alessia Sandala and Megan Lee on their pieces respectively. But first, a rundown on culture and the opinions page.

First up on opinions, we have our weekly, the opinion of the Klejan editorial staff, arguing that among the free subscriptions, the college gives students, the free press should be the next one when the college decides to add more. Carly Moran, a senior, wrote about her father's experience growing up teaching her various woodworking and shop skills and how we need power tools back in the schools. We should allow more American kids to have shop class and the wonderful benefits that that brings. Featured editor Camden Mulder wrote about Jeff Bezos's decision to re-center the op-ed page of the Washington Post, which he owns, on free markets and free speech. Tate Christensen, our assistant editor, and Lauren Bixler, our circulation manager, wrote a wonderful pro-con on whether the Trump administration can truly be said to stand for family commitment. Coleman Rowan, tell us about what is going on in culture.

Yeah, thanks, Caroline. Over in culture, we have, we've got mostly reviews. Emily Shudy wrote a review on the Augustine Institute's audio drama on St. Patrick, giving more of an inside look on the real story of St. Patrick and not just the sort of bar culture that runs St. Patrick's Day. Then we had Joshua Mystery, wrote a review on Andrew Schultz's opinions on IVF. And then we have Nathan Stanish wrote a not very good review of Drake's new album. then...

To clarify, the album is not good. Not his review. Yes, thank you, Caroline. That is correct. I liked his review. The album is not very good according to his review. And then we have two more reviews

on the TV show Severance and the movie that just came out called The Last Supper, which is you can probably guess what that's about. And then over in features, we have the Collegian staff's best of. So if you're interested in what are opinions

on things in Hillsdale are like the best coffee or best breakfast or best professor office hour spot head on over to features check that out I won't spoil it for you and then you wrote a feature that's right I wrote a feature on what I did for spring break me and a friend of mine drove all the way out to Wyoming to see well family and to see Wyoming because it's beautiful what were your takeaways from that trip what my takeaways you know if you go to Wyoming you'll find not very much And I think that's very interesting to see a land that is untilled and not built on and has big plains and big mountains. So it's very interesting emptiness.

I would recommend going there, even though it takes, I think, 21 hours to get to the mountainous part of Wyoming from Hillsdale, Michigan. Wow, that is commitment. Well, thank you so much. and we will be back soon with Assistant Editor Megan Lee. You are listening to Collegian Weekend Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Radio Free Hillsdale's The Collegian Weekend Review continues. Welcome back to Collegian Weekend Review.

We are here with sophomore Megan Lee, who wrote an article on the junior who won the best newscast at the International Radio Awards in New York City. Can you tell us a little bit about that, Megan? Yeah, for sure. I spoke to Emily Shudy, who is the junior that won the award, and she and I believe six other students were in New York City on the first day, on the Friday before spring break to go to the IBS Awards, which are the intercollegiate broadcasting system awards. And she won first place for Best Newscast, which is a pretty big deal because it is out of all of the radio stations, college radio stations, in the entire nation.

And she was able to place first in that. So it was so great. Megan, tell us a little bit about Emily's background in radio. How long has she been doing this? How long has she been doing her newscast specifically? Yeah, Emily started spring semester of her sophomore year. And she started out specifically wanting to do news coverage and newscast, which was really great because we're always looking for new newscasters and fresh voices for

the newscasts and she did a really good job. She told me she did a lot of vocal training since she was young. She's sung in choirs. She sings with her family. She enjoys reading books aloud to her siblings, which is really sweet. And so she already kind of had that natural foundation that really eased her into being able to do newscasts well and having that kind of radio voice for it. What has Radio Free Hillsdale done to help her along with her sort of newscast journey, I suppose? She's worked with Lauren Smith, our news director, I believe, senior Lauren Smith, and she's talked about how Mr. Bertram has helped her. For this particular newscast, that won first place, I believe she did just a normal day-to-day newscast.

And Mr. Bertram helped her edit it a little bit, gave her several, I believe, local sports stories that were related to Hillsdale College specifically. And so everything about it was very local and very unique to Hillsdale, which I think made it stand out to the judges. Did Emily talk at all about how her kind of oratory background has helped her because I know that last year she won, I believe it's called the Edmund Everett oratory competition. Did she have anything to say about that? Yeah, I did ask her about that. She said she's not one to brag about herself normally. But yeah, that is something she did, which is a huge deal. And she said she had training, I believe, in public speaking from a young age and just the rhetoric and being able to

deliver not only substance in the material she was communicating, but also be able to have inflections in her voice, have emphasis on certain words, and being able to tie that all together and deliver that. And she was talking about how it really fed into her being able to do newscasts and knowing what to prioritize. I got a quote here from Emily that I think is kind of funny. Maybe you could comment on it. She said, The power of spoken media is that it's very personal.

You're able to connect people in a way that is different from written word. It is a medium that can persuade based on tone, volume delivery, as well as message. And when people turn your voice on in their home, in their car, whatever the case may be, they're inviting you into their lives in a sense. So it's kind of funny because you wrote that down in a news article. And now we're talking about it on the radio, which is very meta. But I was wondering if you could share more about that. What she had to say about that, I guess, the power of spoken media.

Yeah, for sure. I think she spoke a lot about how she loves to experiment with how she uses her voice. Like when she's reading books aloud to her siblings, for example, she would try to use different voices for the characters. And I think she recently did a newscast in a British accent for the station. So if someone could find that somewhere. But yeah, I think she is someone that is not only very talented with her ability to communicate, but also is very experienced and passionate about spoken media and how it can be a very.

very good way to communicate. Now, Emily has, you know, won these different awards at Hillsdale. She's a junior. She's already very impressive. Did she talk about all about future plans she has, like, where she wants to take, um, this skill, these skills of hers, whether she plans to do broadcasting for a profession or not? I did not ask her that. It's okay. It's okay. Yes, but yeah, that would definitely be a viable career path for her seeing how. successful and amazing she is already. In the article, I noticed you'd mention that these students said that they, some of them at least, had never been to New York and never really seen a big city before.

Do you have any more information on that? I'm very fascinated by that being from the East Coast myself. I think Emily said it was her first time in New York City, I want to say. And she wasn't the biggest fan. She said it was a little too crowded and too much going on for her taste. I know a lot of students. I think Catherine Maxwell, news editor, I'm not sure if it was her first time, but she loved it.

She was like, it was just so exciting. And it was great to meet all the Hillsdale Journalism alum that were in the area. They all came and they had a big dinner. That's good. And also, this is kind of a random question. Do you know if any, like, prize money came with this award? Did she get, like, a trophy? What does this entail?

I think she did get a trophy. I think in the photo, I want to say she was like holding something. And then do you know if there was any like prize money? Was it just bragging rights other than the trophy? I don't know if there was prize money, but definitely bragging rights because, yeah, her name was in the SAO newsletter and she mentioned a lot of professors emailing her and congratulating her. So it's definitely a big deal. And to confirm, yes, she got a trophy. Well, Megan, thank you so much for coming on.

It's been a delight. You are listening to Collegian Week. Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. We'll be back in a moment. This is the Collegian Week in Review. Welcome back to Collegian Weekend Review. We are here with sophomore Alessia, Zandala, who helped write an article about the city council considering reducing Berry Street repair costs. Now, we've had various people on this semester to talk about various street projects, and this is just a continuation of the saga. So Alessia, tell us about this article.

To be clear, this was also written by Sydney Green and you helped with the article. But give us the lay of land. What is going on with Barry Street and the repairs? Yeah, thanks for having me on. Basically, this is news from the March 17th City Council meeting. and so the city council voted to move the decision on Barry Street to April, the second week of April, so that everyone could be present and they could get more information on what is actually going on. Acting Mayor Palladino wanted to reduce the cost from 5,000 to 3,000 for Barry Street residents,

and he wanted to use the capital improvement fund and the endowment from the college to be able to do that. it just they didn't have enough information and there was some back and forth on that so they voted to just move the decision but yeah Barry Street had previously signed a petition to try to get out of the special assessment district and then that was invalid and then they all submitted they all submitted letters so that they could get out of it again but council has the ability to override that if seven of them vote to do so so that's kind of what this is about now and to clarify by getting out of this special assessment district, would that mean that no repairs on the road happen? Right. Okay. And like what is the state of the road now? I'm assuming it's in pretty bad shape.

Yeah. I personally haven't seen it, but I mean, I've seen pictures, but it looks pretty bad. So yeah. And then there was talk of adding bike lanes. Who was proposing that? And then why did not that not go through? Yeah. So that's actually a separate issue. there's a plan right now for something called a road diet and that's the street it's called broad street it's you know like the spur where hillsdale street is it's right next to that um where you turn on to the main road and they're trying to slim that down to one lane and then um one traffic lane um going each way and then add bike lanes on the side because they don't want to physically make the space smaller so they just went to fill space and they're also um they applied for a transportation alternative program grant

or a tap grant which means that they have to have some kind of non-motorized something in the project um so that they can get the money and so that's why they're adding the bike lanes is that that's happening they voted on that or that's the plan so at the meeting um councilman bentley um raised a proposed or proposed that they stop the road diet and stop moving forward with that. But that was voted down 6-2. So the plans are still in the works

and they're going to, the council will find out, the city will find out if they got the grant in mid-April. So it'll depend on that. Do you know what kind of money that is? I mean, it's a pretty funny quote in here. From

councilman, is it councilman? No, it's the zoning administrator, Alan Beaker. He said, by calling that a space, that spice a bike, by calling that space a bike lane, it enables us to apply for that grant, which I find kind of funny. It seems like it's a little like, oh yeah, we'll get money if we do that. Is it significant amounts of money? I mean, do you know? It's supposed to cut the cost of it by 80%, so pretty significant. I don't know the exact number off the top of my head, but. That's pretty good. And then other than, you know, cutting,

slashing costs, it, what is the other goal of the road diet? Well, so yeah, besides the getting the grant, they went to slow traffic on that main road and just make it generally safer. And they think by reducing the number of lanes that will help. Would they also be reducing the speed limit? As far as I know, no. I would expect, I mean, I'm just guessing, but I would think that there is a law based on the number of lanes, a certain speed limit that you could have in the town area. but that's just guessing. And then Alessia, has Paladino had a different way,

different views on this matter or a different way of navigating these matters than stock forward? Well, for the special assessment districts, I would say so far yes. He wants to use different funds to try to add more money to the special assessment district so that residents don't have to pay as much, which is something that hasn't been done so far. And he is also trying to raise costs on corporate and industrial buildings so that residents also don't have to pay as much. But, yeah, so it's different.

About the road diet, is there a plan to, like, add green space or something in the middle? Is it just one lane or are they just thinning the road and adding bike lanes or is there more to it? So it's, they are basically, I think there's, are there, three lanes currently? There's four. Four. Okay. Yeah, they're cutting that down to two, one going each direction, and then along both sides, there will be bike lanes. Okay.

As far as the plan is right now. So they're not shortening the road or doing anything like physical construction wise. Oh, okay. Just repainting lines. I do not see enough people biking around here to their bike lanes. Yeah, and that's kind of what Alan Beaker says. He was like, well, if no one's on the, they're just there if no one's biking on them. So does it really make a difference?

Yeah. They get money for having them. So, yeah. Alessia, it's been great to have you on. Thank you so much. You are listening to Collegian Week and Review on Radio Freehillsdale 101.7 FM. You're listening to the Collegian Week in Review. Welcome back to Collegian Week and Review.

We are here with news editor, Catherine Maxwell, who is going to give us, a rundown of the top news this week. Catherine, what's on the front page? The front page is really great this week. Our top story is about an alumnus who's arguing a case before the Supreme Court. It's Elliot Geiser, who graduated in 2012. He's been in the Collegian before he was actually the opinions editor when he was here at Hillsdale. So we love seeing successful journalism alumni. he's arguing a case. Well, he's defending Ohio, the Ohio Department of Youth Services, against a woman who's alleging that she was discriminated against by being passed over for homosexual hires by this department. She herself is a heterosexual woman. And he's defending

the state of Ohio saying there was no discrimination in the case. Our outreach director, Olivia Perro, did a great job on this piece. And you can read all about the case in the Collegian this week. Another top story is about Junior Emily Shudy, winning Best Newscast at the IBS Radio Awards. And Megan Lee, my lovely assistant editor, has been on to talk about that. So listen to that, read her piece.

It's awesome news. Another big piece of news for students is the administration has decided to close the on-campus, off-campus house, park place, as student housing. Earlier we reported that the house Donnybrook was being closed as housing for students and those guys had to figure out a new housing situation. The same deal with Park Place. They're taking over the house and might demolish it, might keep the structure, but either way, they'll be using it for administrative offices storage. Is there a reason that this was, this news came so late this semester, because I know that these guys, guys kind of had to scramble to figure out a living situation for next year. Did the college give any reason why this decision came or was announced the students in this spring rather than

the fall? They didn't say a whole lot about that, but it sounds like maybe construction dates got moved up sooner than they realized. The dean said that they might be able to begin as soon as the summer. So I think they just realized they could go ahead and move ahead. on the project quicker than perhaps they thought they would. It's a tricky situation, of course, for the guys currently living there and those who wanted to be there next year, but the administration has been working with them to help get them situated, whether off campus or on campus somewhere else. So read about that as well this week.

And then the last story from the front page was a feature by assistant editor Ellie From. She wrote a piece about the construction crew. That's been doing lots of work on campus this year, but especially focusing on their work during the cold months of January, February, all the work that they've done in the snow. We've got a great photo on A1 by our editor-in-chief, Gillian Parks, showing the crew working under tarps as they work on the graduate school building. But it's a great piece just checking in with them since they're a part of campus life. and as much as we all might hate the construction that's going on, they're a group of great people who are doing awesome work for the college. And it's great to see them get some recognition for all their hard work.

Completely. They've made really impressive progress, and the building looks great. Catherine, thank you so much. It's been wonderful. You are listening to Collegian Weekend Review on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. You've been listening to the Collegian Weekend Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Carolyn Kurt. And I'm Coleman Rowan. You can find the Collegian Week in Review online at cwyr.transistor.fm.

You can find more news at Hillsdale Collegion.com or follow us on Instagram at Hillsdale Collegian. See you next week.