WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Collegian Week in Review: October 16th, 2025

Episode Date: October 18, 2025

This week on the Collegian Week in Review, hosts Catherine Maxwell, Alessia Sandala, and Megan Li first go over some top headlines. Then, they talk to Faith Miller about campus caffeine consumption. They close the episode by talking to Anna Northcutt about a recent clean up effort of Stocks Park by the men of Galloway.

Welcome to the Collegian Week in Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Here are your hosts, Alessia Sondela, Catherine Maxwell, and Megan Lee. Welcome to Collegian Week in Review, where we give you an inside look into Michigan's oldest college newspaper. We're your hosts, Catherine Maxwell, Alessia Sandela, and Megan Lee, and today we'll be talking with Faith Miller about the Applied Math Club's research on caffeine consumption across campus and Anna Northcut about Galloway's volunteering opportunity in a historic local park. But first, we're starting with some top stories. One of our top stories on A1 this week was the city council ordering the closure of Camp Hope, a homeless shelter near Hillsdale Community Thrift. Alessia, what's going on with the camp

and what's the latest update? So Camp Hope has been in some contention with the city for quite a while now, and they had been ordered to vacate the tent structure that is behind Hillsdale Community Thrift by the 15th. And so they had moved out last night. And then this morning, the morning of October 16th, some city workers showed up and actually took and structures down. So Camp Hope no longer exists. Correct. What's the current plan for this homeless shelter because it's not going away permanently? So the camp's founder, Missy Desjarden, resigned as the director of Hillsdale Community Thrift. She plans on starting Hope Harbor, which will be a permanent

transitional living facility. And this is going to be in a actual building. And I think they're turning the storage unit behind Hillsdale Community Thrift into this new Hope Harbor until they can do something new. Why did the city council not want the tent structure for Camp Hope to stay up? Councilman Robert Soha said that the camp was unsafe and posed a potential danger. And it was also a liability for the city. If something happened and they hadn't been properly following the codes, then that could come back on the city. Like, why did you not enforce the law? So for that reason, the city officials said that the intent structure had to come down. And is Hope Harbor planning to apply for whatever permits it needs and follow those codes? Yeah. Desjardin said yes. They have already

applied for, I think, a majority of what they need. So it's just moving on to those next steps now. Do we know where the residents will be as this building is getting put together? Unfortunately, no. Sydney Green, who wrote the article, talked to one of the Camp Hope residents, and he said that he had been walking around trying to find somebody who could take him in for a short period and said that he wasn't able to find anyone. So he might have to live in a storage unit, is what he said. Well, hopefully Hope Harbor gets up and running soon.

And according to code, so there's no problems with the city this time around. This week in City News, there's two profiles for the mayoral candidates in November's election. Matthew Bentley, a current city councilman, and Scott Sessions, a former mayor of Hillsdale, will face off in the election, which is on November 4th. For more information on who these candidates are, why they're running for mayor, and what their top issues are, you can read all about it in the Collegian. Also in City News, hometown hotspot, home of the market house. grocery store, Bigby Coffee, and Sharon's House of Pancakes is on the market, along with its

sister location in Hudson. Alessia, why did the owners of Hometown Hotspot decide to put it on the market? Brett Boyd, the owner of Hometown Hotspot, said that he wants to spend more time on his farm and with his family. And the real estate agent also mentioned that the grocery store was not doing very well, but that the other shops were, the other stores in both locations. were succeeding. It was the grocery store that was kind of bringing them down a little bit. And so it was time to retire and he said he had to do what was best for his family. Sure, running a grocery store like that is hard given the increasing competition. Yeah, that was one of the factors that the real estate agent cited. She said that the grocery

market in Hillsdale is just saturated. What are they asking for? So for the Hillsdale location, they're asking for 5.5 million, and then for the Hudson location, they're looking for 8 million, and the two locations can be sold either separately or together. It sounds like they'd like it to be sold together. And some of the stipulations that Boyd asked for was that whoever bought the properties would continue to try to help the community as they have done and also retain the employees. In other news in the city, a historic steam train returned to. at Hillsdale on October 11th, and this train from 1944 came as part of what Hillsdale Renaissance was calling a railroad festival. The train took people from Hillsdale to reading on a round

trip, and back in Hillsdale, there was a block party with live music and food vendors. What kind of crowd does this event usually draw? The event drew all kinds of people from both Hillsdale and reading, and especially train enthusiasts. There was a crowd. There was a lot of people. pretty much anyone you could think of, but especially people who love trains. And is this going to be a recurring event? Charlie Miggins, who works for Hillsdale Renaissance, said that he hopes it will become an annual event. Associate Professor of English Kelly Franklin wrote the train. Why does he think it's significant that people are drawn to these historic trains?

Franklin took his daughter on the train for her ninth birthday and said, that people need to go back to vintage things and that it's good for the soul because humans need something that's real and to be in touch with reality instead of always looking at their phones. Additionally, the Kiefer House Hotel was granted its fifth extension by the Hillsdale City Council. How much progress has the company made on the Kiefer? Nick Fox, who's the vice president of construction and development at CL real estate, said that they've been making a lot of progress recently. He said that the building has been full with drywall workers

and they've been really doing a lot and been able to make a lot of progress and they are expected to be done by the deadline. In sports this week, co-host Megan Lee wrote about a defensive lineman for the Hillsdale College football team who is vying for, quote, an academic Heisman award.

Megan, what is this award and, And where is he in the process? This award is called the William V. Campbell Trophy. And it's known as the Academic Heisman because it is such a prestigious award. It is given to student athletes with outstanding football abilities and exemplary leadership on the field, in the classroom, and in the community. So you have to have a certain GPA level to qualify this and will likely have a really nice resume in terms of football accomplishments. And senior Hunter Spurling, a defensive linebacker for the Hillsdale Chargers, is currently a semi-finalist for this award. What does this award mean to him?

He actually found out he had qualified for a semi-finalist through X. So he was just on social media and he was like, oh, that's great. But he's very humbled and he talked about how the credit for this really goes to his teammates. that are inspiring to him in their hard work, in their ambition, in the way they always give it their all at every practice, at every game. And he says he really has to give the credit to his teammates and not to himself. His head coach, Nate Schreffler, said he's known Spurling for the past five years and has coached him for two seasons.

And he says Spurling has a really rare combination of size, speed, power, and technique and has really let him shine on the field as a defensive tackle. Not only that, he mentioned specifically it was the intangibles of Spurling that really made him stand out as a football player and as a student and as a person. His intelligence, his readiness, willingness, toughness, and unselfishness have made him into the player he is today, is what Schreffler wrote. And talking to his other teammates about Spurling really showed that. Spurling was exactly this kind of character, super humble, super talented, and just really always

willing to be there for his teammates and for anyone that needed him. Finally, in culture, Collegian reporter Martha Kennedy recommends watching quite a few fall films for autumn aesthetics. And she's got a really solid list here. The first story she talks about in the piece is the Dead Poets Society, which I have actually not seen. Neither have I. I have also not seen this movie, but it's my roommate's favorite movie

of all time. She also recommends another film featuring Robin Williams, Goodwill Hunting. The third movie on that list is when Harry met Sally. But this next one, You've Got Mail, is a movie that I have seen. Indeed. Oh my goodness. I absolutely

love this movie. I remember I watched it for the first time with my roommate freshman year, and it encapsulates fall all vibes. And it's actually based off of this old movie called The Shop Around the Corner. And they redo it with Tom Hanks in a bookstore, which is perfect for Hillstale. It's just a very cozy movie and Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks have insane chemistry. Another movie Martha recommends is a more recent film, the 2019 version of Little Women. It really is so good. Somehow it goes through all

the seasons, but still gives the fall vibes. Absolutely. It's got tragedy. It's, and romance and coming of age and so many great things. It's the whole package. It's funny because I feel like when we see movies, it's like either all of us have seen it or none of us have seen it, for this list at least, which I think is kind of funny. I do hope we've all seen The Princess Bride. Yes.

Yes. Which, while perhaps not set during fall, does, I think, have that October cozy, spooky. vibe. If you're in the mood for a sports movie, Martha recommends Remember the Titans, which is a fun sports film based on a true story about the integration of a football team in the South. Have you seen it? I have seen it. It's been a while, but it's definitely on my list of solid sports films. And then Martha concludes her list with the mystery movie Knives Out. And I may have to bring the controversy here because I did not enjoy Knives Out.

Still haven't seen it. I have not seen it either. I heard that the first one was good, but the second one was not. A lot of people liked the first one. I think I'm just not a fan of the Agatha Christie spoof. I prefer a straight mystery movie. Obviously, lots of people thought it was really good. So still worth checking out. Next, we'll be interviewing Collegian Reporters, Faith Miller, and Anna Northcutt. You're listening to The Collegian Week in Review. I'm Catherine, and today I'm talking to Collegian reporter Faith Miller about a study done on campus caffeine consumption. Faith, thanks for joining us. Of course, I'm happy to be here.

So who conducted this study, and what were they trying to find out? Yeah, so this study was conducted by the Hillsdale College Applied Math Club, and they were just trying to find out if there's any correlation between how much caffeine students are drinking and how many credits they're taking or if they're in a relationship or what their status is. They also looked at gender. So what did they find out? Who drinks the most caffeine? Yeah, so they found out that overall, the junior class is drinking the most caffeine. With their results, they ended up just looking at the correlation between credits and caffeine.

because those were the most prominent results. So they ended up finding that the juniors drink the most caffeine and also take the most credits. And then the seniors, although they don't take, it doesn't really stay in line. So it keeps going up and up and up. You drink more caffeine as you take more credits until you get to senior year. And then you keep drinking a lot of caffeine, even though you're no longer taking that many credits on average. As a senior, I do think that is true.

Yes. And it works for me with junior year too. I'm at the most caffeine I've ever drank before. Based on my sample size of one, it's very true. What was the study's sample size and how did they get their responses? Yeah. So the study sample size was 180 student responses, which is about a tenth of campus. So the Applied Math Club was very happy with that result, as that is a good sample size to have for such a small campus especially. They got their responses from a survey that they just put out on flyers all around campus. So I actually filled it out in pennies while I was drinking coffee. I know you mentioned a few of the questions that they were asking, but besides credit hours relationship status, what were some of the other questions the survey was interested in? Yeah, they asked what kind of caffeine you're drinking. So if you're drinking coffee, pop, energy drinks, however you're getting your caffeine. And then they wanted to know how many cups daily. And then other than that, it was just relationship status and how many credits you're taking.

Did anything surprise the club about the results? Yeah, they were pretty surprised with how many people don't drink any coffee at all. They said that quite a few people put zero. But I guess it bounces out because those who do drink coffee drink a lot of coffee. So what were the results per class? So the freshmen drink 1.57 cups of a caffeinated beverage per day per person. And the sophomores drink 1.67 cups of a caffeinated beverage per day per person. the juniors 1.95 and the seniors 1.78.

I think what I learned from this is I'm probably drinking more coffee than I should be. Yeah, that's me too. I think I'm averaging four or five cups a day. Did you fill this out because you might have skewed the responses a little bit? I did not fill it out because the average number of cups of coffee on the survey was not high enough for my average. So I didn't think I would be able to respond on it. honestly. There may be an obvious answer, but what did the club find was the most popular caffeinated beverage on campus? They found that overall coffee was very much the most popular caffeinated beverage

on campus, which, as they commented, is very good for the coffee shops on campus and in town. And where did they get the idea to measure how much caffeine campus is drinking? Yeah, so Eleanor Dickinson, the president of the Applied Math Club, said that a lot of her friends that she saw were drinking a lot of caffeine every day. So she wanted to know if that was a common trend across campus or if it was just her friend group. It says here that the club was interested in seeing if caffeine habits had anything to do with what the students were interested in and doing. Did they find anything out from that? Yeah, that's what Dr. Gerstel, the faculty advisor for the math club had mentioned. But I think that the data they got wasn't sufficient enough to find any

correlation between the two. Faith, thanks for joining us. Of course. Thank you so much for having me. The Collegian Weekend Review continues. I'm Megan, and today we are here with Anna Northcut, a collegian reporter who wrote about a fun volunteering experience that the men of Galloway Dorm had during Homecoming Week. Anna, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. What was this opportunity that the Galloway men did? So the Galloway men cleaned up a local park that's about like a five-minute drive away from the college called Stocks Park. It's absolutely beautiful, but parts of it had become very overgrown. So they just jumped in and attacked the poison ivy with vigor and cleaned it up, made it look nice.

How did they come to learn about this opportunity? There is a freshman in Galloway named Nathan Moore. He came to Hillsdale about six years ago from the West Coast, knew absolutely nothing. about the town and just came for the college. But I think since he's come to Hillsdale, he's told me that he's learned a lot about the community and just really appreciated investing himself and getting to know people around here.

And now that he's a freshman at Hillsdale, he has a part-time job doing maintenance at Stocks Park. And so he knew that there were a lot of things to do that he couldn't do by himself, at least not in like a reasonable amount of time. So he ended up recruiting men from his dorm to come out during homecoming week and just spend some of their volunteering hours cleaning up the park. So it was really cool. What did cleaning up the park look like for the Galloway men?

There was a part of the park in particular called the Mill Race. It was originally used for water. It was filled with water. And then if Stocks Mill, which was across the street, caught on fire, then water from the mill race could be used to, like, put the fire out. But eventually it became kind of a trash heap. Then it got cleaned out. Then it got overgrown again. And like in its current state, it was just full to the brim of like invasive plants.

And so the Galloway men just came up and. cleaned it out. And so now you can actually see the bottom of the mill race. And Nathan said he hopes it will be used for boat races again in the future because that was something the town used to do. So we're still a ways off from that. But maybe one day. In the article, you can see a picture of the mill race that was previously absolutely filled to the brim with like leaves and debris and is now completely clean. What is kind of an overview of the park's history? You interviewed Diane Miller, Master Gardner for the park and member of the Hillsdale Garden Club. What? What? What is kind of an overview of the park? You interviewed Diane Miller, Master Gardener for the park. What? What? What kind of story did she have about Stocks Park? Stocks Park was originally actually just a swampy mess. It was completely, you know, ugly, like unattractive. I think it was also full of poisonous snakes. Mrs. Harold's dot came and ended up, she invested a ton of time, a ton of money. Her family owned the mill across the street, but this was her garden.

She really hired gardeners, brought in plants from England, cleaned it up, made it beautiful. and eventually the park became public. And it became, like, it went through several stages of, like, getting overgrown and then getting cleaned up. But now it is open to the public and it's very beautiful. So they have free concerts there during the summer. And they're available to the public and you just get to come and sit in the gazebo, listen to beautiful music for free. It's really cool. Who besides Diane Miller is caring for the park right now?

Right now, Diane Miller is the head of the garden club, which is mostly just, a few like very dedicated older women from what I understood. And then Nathan Moore comes in and does some of the like more like jobs that require muscle or whatnot. It's mostly just a few very dedicated people from the community who care about the park and want it to look beautiful. What are some of the things the people you interviewed said about the value of caring for this park and taking the time to volunteer? Nathan Moore especially was very interesting. he talked about the importance of investing in your community and really bringing back, we hear a lot like at Hillsdale College,

people will say it's the people, meaning that the people at Hillsdale College are amazing, which I absolutely agree with. But Nathan was very focused on saying, like, that also applies to the entire town of Hillsdale too. And when we volunteer, we're kind of showing the people in the town that we recognize them and how important they are

to making Hillsdale what it is. And so he saw that as like absolutely essential to like being Christian even and just like showing a Christ-like love and like serving the community. Thank you so much for your time, Anna. It was great to have you. Thank you. It was great to be here. You've been listening to the Collegian Weekend Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Alessia Sandela. I'm Megan Lee.

And I'm Catherine Maxwell. You can find the Collegian Weekend Review online. at CWIR.transistor.fm. You can find more news at Hillsdalecollegian.com or on Instagram at Hillsdale Collegian. Thanks for listening to Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM.