Hillsdale College is a private ChristianMissionGuidelines Regarding the Mission and Moral Commitments of Hillsdale College July 2010 liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1844 by members of the Free Will Baptists. Women were admitted to the college from its foundation, making the college the second-oldest coeducational institution in the United States, after Oberlin College (1837).
A conservative institution, Hillsdale's required core curriculum includes courses on the Great Books, the U.S. Constitution, theology, biology, chemistry, and physics. The college's mission statement identifies it as a "nonsectarian Christian institution". Since the late 20th century, in order to opt out of government mandates tied to funding, Hillsdale has declined both state and federal financial support. Instead, Hillsdale depends entirely on private donations to supplement students' tuition.
History Founding Members of the Free Will Baptist Church founded their denomination's first collegiate institution, Michigan Central College in Spring Arbor, Michigan, in 1844. The state of Michigan incorporated the college the following year, during which the college enrolled 25 undergraduates. The college was officially non-sectarian. Its first president was Daniel McBride Graham, who held the office from 1844 to 1848.
Edmund Burke Fairfield assumed the school's presidency in 1848, and in 1850, the college was chartered to confer degrees. Black students were admitted immediately after the college's founding, and the college became the second school in the nation to grant four-year liberal arts degrees to women.
Outgrowing its space by 1853, the school moved to Hillsdale, Michigan, in part to have access to the railroad that served the city. It received financial support from residents who wanted to develop the 20-year-old town. Construction was completed and the school reopened as Hillsdale College in 1855.
Fairfield led Hillsdale for 25 years, from 1848 to 1869. In 1854, he attended the first convention of the new Republican Party with Ransom Dunn in neighboring Jackson, Michigan. Fairfield served in the Michigan Senate from 1857 to 1859, and was elected that year as Lieutenant Governor of Michigan. Hillsdale's early anti-slavery stance and its pivotal role in founding the Republican Party led to the invitation of several notable speakers on the campus, including Frederick Douglass (who visited the school on two occasions) and Edward Everett, the orator who spoke after Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg. On August 8, 1860, Hillsdale conferred its first degrees. On March 20, 1863, the Michigan legislature formally legalized Hillsdale's change of name and location.
Later 19th century In 1861, many Hillsdale students joined the ranks of the Union Army during the American Civil War. A higher percentage of Hillsdale students enlisted than from any other Michigan college. 88 pp.
In 1869, James Calder succeeded Fairfield as president. Calder served through 1871. During his administration, the commercial school opened, a theological department was established, and the college enrolled around 750 students. He resigned to become president of Pennsylvania State University.Hillsdale's first president, Daniel McBride Graham, returned for a brief second term in 1871, notably rebuilding the campus after the catastrophic "Great Fire" of March 6, 1874. DeWitt Clinton Durgin, a Union College alumnus, was president from 1874 to 1884. In 1878, the Hillsdale Herald was launched, becoming the second oldest college newspaper in Michigan, behind Kalamazoo College's The Index (1877). In 1896, this paper merged with The Collegian (founded in 1893) to become The Herald-Collegian, soon simplified to The Collegian. In 1884, Spencer O. Fisher became the first Hillsdale alumnus elected to Congress.
George F. Mosher served as president of Hillsdale from 1886 to 1901. During this time, the college grew in size and in 1891, the Chicago Herald wrote, "Hillsdale has a college second in standing to no denominational college in the country."
20th century
In 1900, Hillsdale ceased grazing livestock and removed the agrarian fence circling the campus. 320 pp. It began an era of institutional growth and professionalization. In 1902, Joseph William Mauck became the college's sixth president, the first Hillsdale graduate to return as president of his alma mater. Beloved by the college community and an early and outspoken advocate for women's suffrage, Mauck served for two decades. One of the women's dormitories is named after Mauck. In 1907, the college amended its Articles of Association, no longer requiring the president and trustees to be Free Will Baptists. This led to a decline in the theological department's prestige but an increase in the number of Christian denominations represented on campus.
William Gear Spencer succeeded Mauck as president, serving from 1922 to 1932, when he departed to lead Franklin College. Under Spencer, Hillsdale acquired its Slayton Arboretum, built new dormitories, constructed a new field house for its developing athletic programs, and, in 1924, chartered its chapter of Chi Omega.
During the Great Depression, Willfred Otto Mauck, Joseph Mauck's son and also an alumnus, was selected as the eighth president, serving from 1933 to 1942. Throughout this era, the college struggled financially, was forced to cancel its new construction projects, and cut the pay of its faculty and staff by nearly 20%. Succeeding Mauck, Harvey L. Turner became Hillsdale's ninth president, serving from 1942 to 1952. Despite its financial difficulties, the college built a new library, had an undefeated and untied football team in 1938, and celebrated its centennial in 1944, when more than 1,000 alumni returned to campus for the commencement ceremony.
J. Donald Phillips next assumed the presidency, holding the position from 1952 to 1971. During his administration, Hillsdale constructed the Simpson and McIntyre Student Residences in 1966.
In these years, Hillsdale began to resist federal civil rights regulations, particularly Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, concerning affirmative action. In 1962, the college's trustees adopted its own "Declaration of Independence". It affirmed Hillsdale's stance against what it called governmental control.
A marker designating the college as a Michigan State Historic Site was erected by the Michigan Historical Commission in 1968.
George Roche III became the 11th president of Hillsdale College in 1971. During the Roche years, Hillsdale became nationally known, in part because of its withdrawal from federal and state-assisted loan programs and grants. Colleges that receive federal funding are required by law to report data on racial integration as part of the US affirmative action student loan program. Hillsdale announced that it refused to do so, and the college's trustees instead stated that the institution would follow its own non-discrimination policy and "with the help of God, resist, by all legal means, any encroachments on its independence."
During Roche's presidency, the college dramatically increased its endowment, established the Center for Constructive Alternatives, and hosted prominent national speakers, including Ronald Reagan. It also began publishing Imprimis, a monthly speech digest.
Russell Kirk taught at Hillsdale for one semester per year beginning in 1973.
Roche resigned his position at Hillsdale in late 1999, following a scandal surrounding the suicide of his son's wife. Hours prior to her suicide, she said in front of Roche and other witnesses that the two of them had engaged in an on-and-off 19-year sexual affair. Married to Roche's son, who taught at the school, she had been employed as managing editor of Hillsdale College Press for 14 years. President Roche, who had recently divorced his first wife and married his second, denied the alleged affair, but was suspended by the college on November 1 and resigned his post on November 10th.
21st century
Larry P. Arnn has served as president of the college since 2000. Hillsdale's K–12 Initiative developed a full liberal arts K–12 curriculum for use in the charter schools and its private school in Michigan, Hillsdale Academy. In 2021, Hillsdale K–12 released a Civics "1776 Curriculum." In 2022, Hillsdale had schools following its K–12 liberal arts curriculum across 19 states and Barney Charter Schools in 9 states.
After several decades of maintaining a semester program in Washington D.C., Hillsdale established a permanent presence with the establishment of the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Massachusetts Avenue. The facility was dedicated on Constitution Day 2010. Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, ran the Washington center's speaker series at this time. In 2015, the Boyle Radio Studio at the Kirby Center was dedicated.
In 2012, Hillsdale founded the Van Andel Graduate School for Statesmanship on its Michigan campus offering both an M.A. and PhD in Politics. Its first M.A. students graduated in 2014, and its first PhD students graduated in 2018. In 2020, Hillsdale founded the Van Andel Graduate School of Government on its DC campus offering an M.A. in government. In 2022, Hillsdale founded its Graduate School of Classical Education offering an M.A. in Classical Education.
In 2013, Arnn was criticized for remarks about ethnic minorities he made while testifying before the Michigan legislature, against the Common Core curriculum standards. Expressing concern about government interference with educational institutions, he noted having received a letter from the state Department of Education early in his presidency that said his college "violated the standards for diversity." He added, "because we didn't have enough dark ones, I guess, is what they meant." After being criticized for calling minorities "dark ones," Arnn explained that he was referring to "dark faces". He stated: "The State of Michigan sent a group of people down to my campus, with clipboards ... to look at the colors of people's faces and write down what they saw. We don't keep records of that information. What were they looking for besides dark ones?" Michigan House Democratic Leader Tim Greimel condemned Arnn's comments, calling them "offensive", "inflammatory and bigoted", and asked for an apology. In response, the college issued a statement apologizing for Arnn's remark, while reiterating his concern about "state-endorsed racism", as Arnn called affirmative action.
In 2019, S. Prestley Blake donated his former home, an exact replica of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, in Somers, Connecticut to Hillsdale College. In May 2021, Hillsdale dedicated the property as the Blake Center for Faith and Freedom. In November 2021, Hillsdale purchased land in Placer County, California for nearly $6M with plans for a new educational center.
The college has been at the center of a national political and cultural debate about K–12 curriculum.
Hillsdale College is a member of the advisory board of Project 2025, a collection of conservative and right-wing policy proposals from The Heritage Foundation to reshape the United States federal government and consolidate executive power, since Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
Game show host Pat Sajak has served as the chairman of the board of trustees since April, 2019.
Academics Undergraduate admissions In 2023, Hillsdale College accepted 20.6% of undergraduate applicants. Admitted applicants had an average 3.93 GPA (over 60% had 4.0 GPAs) and, on average, scored 1430 on the SAT or 31 on the ACT.
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