WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Collegian Week in Review: November 7, 2024

Episode Date: November 16, 2024

Welcome to The Collegian Week in Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Here are your hosts, Moor Gleason, Thomas McKinna, and Caroline Kurt. Welcome to the Collegian Week in Review, where we give you an inside look into Michigan's oldest college newspaper. We're your hosts, Caroline Kurt, Thomas McKenna, and Mora Gleason. Today we'll be interviewing editor-in-chief Jillian Parks about the campus reaction to Trump's victory in the presidential election. Then we'll talk to Assistant Editor Catherine Maxwell on local and state-level. election results. And finally, we'll talk to ad manager Nathan Stanish about voting history in Hillsdale and why it shouldn't be controversial for a woman to not take her husband's last name. Now, we'll be

talking about the student and faculty reactions to the election in just a moment with Gillian Parks. But Thomas, what do we have going on on the city news page? Well, it was a busy week for city news this week. Obviously, with the election, we've got new results coming from city, the county, and the state. We have a new state representative, Jennifer Warts. But an even bigger. story for people who live in Hillsdale, a big local story, is Mayor Adam Stockford announced he's stepping down from the position he's held for the past seven years as mayor of Hillsdale January 1st. His reason for this seems pretty innocuous. The way he put it is that his wife, his family, they found a house outside of the city limits. And once he moves outside of the city

limits, he can't be mayor. He's planning to make that move sometime early next year. But just to prepare the city for that, he's resigning on. January 1st. Now, once that happens, we've got a whole bunch of political games that could go on, right? So the simple option would be for the current mayor pro tem, essentially, like a second in command position, currently held by Ward 2, Councilman Will Morrissey, for him to just take the role of acting mayor. The city council may choose to call for a special election, and then Hillsdale County, or sorry, Hillsdale City voters could decide who their next mayor is. But when I spoke with Ward for Councilman Joshua Palladino yesterday in an interview, he said that his faction of conservatives on the city council might choose to try to propose somebody other than Morrissey for the position of mayor pro tem. And then that person would become acting mayor at the beginning of next year. So there's a lot of shifting that can go on right now, a lot of political dynamics at play. And the Collegian is going to be bringing you coverage of that from City News over the next few weeks. Caroline, tell us about what's going on on the opinions page.

Yeah, we had a strong lineup. Exciting week to be writing. We'll be speaking later with Nathan Stanish on his piece, but the Clegeon Weekly, which is our editorial staff opinion, wrote something very non-political about how we think it is time to turn on those Christmas hits. We made a good distinction between secular Christmas music, which is something that can cheer up. dreary November and religious Christmas music, which you should save till much closer to the holiday.

So that was a fun piece. Actually changed my mind on the matter. And then Megan Lee, our assistant editor on The News Section, wrote a wonderful piece about the election's over, now what, and kind of talking about moving forward after all this, you know, political craziness settles down, how to handle family relations, especially going into Thanksgiving, and how some things haven't changed at all. You're listening to Collegian Weekend Review 101.7 FM. We'll be back in a moment with our editor-in-chief, Jillian Parks.

Radio Free Hillsdale's The Collegian Weekend Review continues. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. We're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. We're talking with Jillian Parks. She's the editor-in-chief of the Hillsdale Collegian about a piece she co-bylined with Isaac Green, our managing editor, and Morg Lieson, our news editor, on the Trump victory in campus's reaction. Gillian, you talked to a lot of different professors and students about this. What did you find with the campus reaction? I think because it was a co-bylined piece, I was more in the stage where I had to come in and fill in the gaps.

So more I did a really great job of getting like the basis of most of our quotes of what we needed people to say. And surprising, I know, most people were pretty excited about the victory in general or at least had more positive feelings about that than the ulterior. What's the alternate? Alternative. Wait, perfect. Alternative outcome. So I felt pretty strongly that we needed voices on it that were dissenting. somebody saying that they voted for Kamala,

somebody saying that they maybe were excited or okay with the outcome, but didn't think it was worth celebrating on a moral scale. Because I know that those people exist here, and I think it does a disservice to the college to make it seem like everybody here is rah-rah Trump all the time because it's not our experience. And the Collegian is in charge of kind of chronicling that. And so I kind of came in and made sure to,

I mean, it was definitely a calculated choice to handpick some people that I knew we're not particularly excited about the victory. And so I think what I found was just that not every student and not every faculty member at Hillsdale College wanted Trump to win. There were people that actually really thought Kamala was supposed to win and that they actually think it's a moral failing on behalf of the American people and the American church that Trump has been elevated to the space that he's been in the country. And I think that's just an interesting observation in general. Now, Maura, you talked to a different part of campus. What did you find in your reporting? So actually I spoke with quite a few professors who were not very excited about Trump winning as well.

Most of them were not willing to go on record saying that. So Gillian did a great job getting those interviews. But I was actually struck by even the professors that I spoke with who were happy with the outcome of the election. There was a diversity between or there were, there were a diversity of perspectives on, what this actually means for the country. Some of the professors that I spoke with were very happy to have Trump back in office. Some described, one professor I spoke with described himself as cautiously optimistic about not just Trump, but bringing Vance in as well, because he thinks that that's a good future for the party, even if Trump is not the ideal candidate. So there was a good range of professors and students also who were very excited to have Trump to more hesitant.

And just a general recognition that like, okay, the Trump, just a general recognition that the election is over now, but that doesn't mean the work is over and there's more to come. Gillian and more, I know you guys were waiting in the evening for a quote from college president Arne. what did he have to say? Pretty typical arn response, I felt like he talked, he brought in, was it Lincoln? Am I correct in to say that? Lincoln. And he was basically just interested in the property of like liberty and democracy and the idea of how the process works and how we were able to successfully go through with an election.

I think he said he was pleased with the outcome, but he didn't make any sort of sweeping claims about like Trump is my savior. So nothing like that in this article. kind of, I don't know, pretty diplomatic PR response, but it's helpful to remember that the college is first and foremost conservative before it's any sort of political party in the modern sense. So Arns quote ended up actually reading, I am glad of the result, more glad that it seems to reflect something Lincoln described a majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments is the only true sovereign of a free people. I think that's true and I'm happy that it seems still to prevail the winning party won narrowly and Broadway. The people can change broadly the people can change their minds if it pleases them. So kind of like what I was saying, kind of a, I'm glad democracy's working sort of thing.

And he seemed generally pleased with the fact that it was, like he said, a broad win, that there were a lot of different people who seems to have voted for Trump in this election. Well, thanks so much for being with us, Gillian. And thank you, Mora also. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. This is the Collegian Week in Review. Welcome back to the Collegian Weekend Review. We're here with Assistant Editor Catherine Maxwell.

In addition to the presidential races, the Collegian covered some county and city council races as well. Catherine, what happened with those? Yeah, so in City Council, the big news is Hillsdale PhD student Jacob Brunt. won his seat in Ward 1. So he'll be joining the City Council and then retired radio host Bob Flynn won in Ward 3. Those were the most competitive races. Bruns won by 53%,

which is really close for a City Council race in Hillsdale. Other races, Matt Bentley won Ward 2. His race was uncontested. And Robert Socha won 4. Ward 4. Now, there were also county races held, and one of the most significant ones that was actually somewhat competitive was Republican Brent Leninger's race. Now, he heads one of the Hillsdale Republican factions here. How did he do in his race? His race went really well. He won by a decent margin, 73 percent, so really no concerns there. He also won his election to the Waldron area

school board, so he was excited about that. So a lot of different local races have. happening. Let's move a little bit further up to look at Hillsdale County and Branch County together. The state rep seat that represents both our county and that surrounding county was up for grabs this cycle. The current rep, Representative Andrew Fink, was running for state Supreme Court. And the Republican, Jennifer Warts, won her race. Tell us more about that. Yes. So Jennifer Warts won her race pretty handily. She was fairly confident going into it. Hillsdale is a very red county. So she's excited to represent Hillsdale and Branch in Lansing. Andrew Fink lost his race for the Michigan Supreme Court. That was a bit of a long shot,

but disappointing for him, but he's doing okay. Republican Patrick O'Grady also lost his Michigan Supreme Court race. But in some brighter news for Republicans, they did manage to flip quite a few house seats in the state of Michigan, and they're projected to have a 58, 52 majority in the house in the next term. So for the last two years, Democrats have held a trifecta in Lansing. They've controlled the governor's mansion. They've controlled the House. They've controlled the Senate. What does it mean for Republicans now to have one branch of government there? Jennifer Warts says the best they're going to do right now is hold the line. She says they're going to try to stop some of the policies that have been coming down from this terrible trifecta, as she calls it.

She's hopeful that in two years, they'll be able to flip some Senate seats, maybe eventually flip the governor's office. But right now, the Republicans just plan to put a stop to some of the Democrat policies. So across the board in Michigan, Republicans were able to gain what looks like, you said, a 58, 52 majority. And that's going to change what politics looks like in Lansing, but the Senate won't be up for another two years. That's right. Now, Catherine, elsewhere in the city news section, we also had some numbers comparing county support for Donald Trump and for Mike Rogers to the state support. This was written by the other assistant editor, Alessia Sondela. Tell us about what we found in those numbers.

Yeah, so Trump ended up winning Michigan with 49.8 percent. But in Hillsdale County, he won with 75.1%. So that means about one out of two people in Michigan voted for him. but in Hillsdale it was about three out of four, which is pretty significant, but also not super surprising for Hillsdale County. And if you want to learn more about the history of voting in Hillsdale County, you should check out our little fun facts also in City News. But turnout in Hillsdale County was also pretty impressive. It was 77.2%, which was about a 16% increase compared to 2020. And across the board, fantastic coverage of the election in City News, if I do say so myself.

Catherine, thanks so much for coming on. Yeah, thanks for having me. You're listening to the Collegian Week in Review. Welcome back to Collegian Week in Review. I'm Thomas McKenna. We're here with Nathan Stanish. He's the ad manager at the Collegian. He had a little tour of voter history in Hillsdale.

Nathan, tell us about what you found. in your research on this topic? Yeah, so one of the reasons I wanted to research this is we tend to think of Hillsdale County as a Republican stronghold. Certainly the college has a strong associating with the Republican Party. We actually predate the Republican Party as an institution. And there's some crossover between the Baptists who helped found the college, the abolitionist Baptist, but then also helped found the Republican Party. So I wanted to research it to see how true this was. I did not realize what a Republican stronghold this county actually is. But I think one of the most fascinating findings I've found when looking through the history of the county is that this county supports Trump with greater consistency and popularity than it supported any other Republican candidate.

I would have thought, for example, that Ronald Reagan would have been a bigger candidate in Hillsdale County. But by percentage, Reagan actually ended up in his first election. He had about 64% of the Hillsdale County vote. And then that rose to upwards of 70% of the vote. but Trump in every single year that he's run has managed to carry over 70% of the Hillsdale County vote, which I think is a testament not just to how Republican the county is, but especially a testament to how much Trump has managed to unite the Republicans in Hillsdale County. Nathan, when was the last time Hillsdale County voted Democrat in a presidential election?

So believe it or not, it was way before our lifetimes. Back in 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson actually managed to take Hillsdale County. that was not who I would have picked per se as like the Democrat to somehow just convince all of Hillsdale County. Because I think especially now, we tend to see LBJ as not even remotely close to like a Republican or even like a central candidate. But when you look at the 1964 election, that was a blowout for the popular vote. That was a year where LBJ took over 60% of the popular vote. So it's not a shock. And he only won by 144 votes in the county, which is one of the slimmest margins that we've seen.

seen, certainly in the last hundred years in Hillsdale County. Do you think these students and faculty at Hillsdale College have any impact on these numbers? Yeah. So I think part of the reason that we are so attached to the Republican Party is the college itself. So you'll notice there's a pretty strong correlation. The college moved to Hillsdale in 1853. We were originally in Spring Arbor. 1854 was actually the first election that a Republican was running for president, right,

with the party. And that's when the streak really began. for Hillsdale County supporting Republicans. So you could argue that some of it is a correlation that it happened to be at the Republican Party comes together as we moved to Hillsdale County. But certainly you see the years before that it was more mixed in terms of when we supported a Whig candidate or a Democratic candidate. It was after the college moved here that we really became the Republican stronghold that

we are today. Now, Nathan, you also wrote an opinion this week on naming conventions. So tell us about that, where you're coming from on that. and what the gist of that piece was. Yeah, so I wrote about this phenomenon of wives typically taking the last name of their husbands. I tend to hold some opinions that aren't necessarily representative of the more conservative campus we had. So I do enjoy opportunities to push back on some assumptions we have. This is one that's come up because I have multiple friends who have danced around this issue.

So the friends I interview for this are Chris Dick and Heather Hobson, who are getting married this next summer, I believe. and Chris Dick's last name does beg the question of whether or not to keep it, to alter it, to go with Heather's. And what they settled on was going with Dixon, but it does prompt a serious question is like, why do we have the assumption that you take the husband's last name? And what are the reasons that should go into that decision? So I actually discussed this with my mother before writing this piece. She vehemently disagreed with my opinion on this.

She's pretty strongly in the camp that is part of unity, that there's a biblical case for, or unifying with the husband by taking her last name. And I know for my part, I would like to keep my last name. I know the headline of this piece might perhaps apply the opposite. As someone who is referred to more by my last name than my first name, I'm not sure if I know who I was without my last name. But I think it's just interesting to challenge some of the preconceived opinions we have about things that don't have a clear biblical basis and then looking to see if there's a way forward that is more biblically grounded, but also built more on the concept of understanding, especially with a husband and wife.

Yeah, what do you think is the strongest case for kind of going the more unconventional route and hyphenating your last name, changing both of your last names altogether, something like that. Yeah. So every decision you make is going to have some challenges attached to it. So taking your husband's last name has the challenge of losing your last name, which is especially important if perhaps you are the only one in your family who would have the possibility of carrying on the family name.

Hyphenating your last name has the challenge that there's a connotation of divorce with a hyphenated last name. So it's not unlikely that people will assume if they see your name is hyphenated, that you are divorced. So I actually like when people combine their last names into a new one. I think that's my favorite way that people will handle this, because there is a biblical case for trying to represent the unity that you have in marriage by your last name.

and if you want to symbolize unity in your last name, the best way to do that is to combine your names, not just simply to take one. Because biblically, there's not this concept that the man and wife become man. So, ideally, if you really believe in unity in the biblical sense, putting your last names together is the best symbolism of that. Now, in Chris Dick's case, it was perfect because they could help get away from the unfortunate connotation of his last name by creating this, this combination, Dixon instead. But then also you have that sense of you take the son from Hobbson, you take the dick from, Chris Dick, and therefore when you're coming together as husband-wife, you're not leaving everything behind either of you. You're both taking something to the marriage and taking something to the last name. And I think there's something beautiful about that. So then how would you deal with a counter-argument

that would say something like, you know, you want to have some family lineage carried on in the last name? Like, I can point to all of these McKenna's that came back all the way from Cork County, Ireland. Like, what would you say to someone who says, I don't want to be, I don't want to lose that heritage that comes with my last name? Heritage is incredibly important. to this conversation because a name carries some power, but the power does depend on the person. So I think you give a really great example, and this is not uncommon in the U.S., is that a lot of people have a lot of heritage, a lot of power attached to their name because they can trace it back through generations and because they can trace it to a time when your name was attached more

to your legal identity, to your reputation, that sort of thing. That's why really the one thing I emphasize the most in the article is that this has to be a conversation. So for someone like me, even though I like to have my last name, my last name does not have much. heritage to it. Stanish is actually a shortened version of my ancestor's last name, which was Stanishefsky. So already I've lost some of the connection to my original last name. So that does not hold true for me. My name does not have that power. But if your name has that power, that means you have a very real reason to when you're discussing with someone you want to marry, say, I would like to keep my last name to maintain this heritage. Now, it could be that your wife

also has the same sort of heritage. So that's where it just comes down to a conversation, right? and it has to come down to how much you prioritize that, especially where it falls on your list of priorities and things that you need to agree on. I think you would tend to say, like, it's more important to agree on your faith. It's more important to agree on other views. This comes far down the list, but it needs to be on the list somewhere, right? Awesome. Well, thank you, Nathan, so much for writing, and it's been great to have you on.

Yeah, thanks for having me. You've been listening to The Collegian Weekend Review on 101.7 FM. I'm Caroline Kurt. I'm Thomas McKenna. And I'm Maura Gleason. You can find the Collegian Weekend Review online at cwir.transister.fm. You can find more news at HillsdaleCollegian.com, and you can follow the Collegian on Instagram at Hillsdale Collegion.

See you next week.