Is Hillsdale College Gaining the World and Losing Its Soul?
Hillsdale College was founded in 1844 by Christian abolitionists who refused to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, or nationality. Today the small liberal arts school in Michigan boasts a net worth approaching $1 billion, a monthly opinion digest that reaches more than 3.8 million subscribers, alumni in high-ranking positions in the Trump administration, significant influence among members of the conservative movement, and a graduation ceremony addressed by Vice President Mike Pence.
These markers help explain the enthusiasm many of its boosters have for Larry Arnn, its president of 18 years, who took over Hillsdale amid a shocking scandal and led it to new heights of money, power, and influence. Its motto is unchanged: “Pursuing truth, defending liberty since 1844.”
But some associated with the institution fear that cultivating ties to politicians and a power-seeking ideological movement will inevitably tempt a mission-driven educational institution to compromise its values, setting a corrosive example for the principled undergraduates it attracts.
Are Hillsdale’s worldly gains imperiling its soul? Pence’s commencement address should be an occasion for its stakeholders to reflect.
Pence began his remarks lamenting to the assembled graduates that it sometimes seems “that we live in an age of grim relativism,” then adding, “This class has seen the power of unchanging truth to change lives.” He praised the education that they had received. “We live in an age when too many disregard the wisdom of the past,” he said, but “you’ve been grounded in the teachings and traditions that are our greatest inheritance as Americans.”
In his telling, President Donald Trump has excelled at managing matters domestic and foreign:
You are graduating at a time of a growing American economy and restored American stature at home and abroad … Faith in America is rising once again. On the world stage, we’ve seen America embracing our role as leader of the free world—with action just this week on Iran and North Korea. And on Monday, America will lead again when we open our new American embassy in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.
He continued:
Faith in
