Hillsdale College

Founding Members of the Free Will Baptist Church founded their denomination's first collegiate institution, Michigan Central College in Spring Arbor, Michigan , [ 9 ] : 6 in 1844. [ 9 ] : 4 The state of Michigan incorporated the college the following year, during which the college enrolled 25 undergraduates. [ 13 ] : 12 [ 14 ] [ 9 ] : 11 The college was officially non-sectarian. [ 15 ] 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. [ 13 ] : 12–14 [ 9 ] : 116 Black students were admitted immediately after the college's founding, [ 16 ] and the college became the second school in the nation to grant four-year liberal arts degrees to women . [ 17 ] [ 13 ] : 12–14 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. [ 13 ] : 30 [ 18 ] [ 9 ] : 24 Construction was completed and the school reopened as Hillsdale College in 1855. Fairfield led Hillsdale for 25 years, from 1848 to 1869. [ 14 ] [ 19 ] In 1854, he attended the first convention of the new Republican Party with Ransom Dunn in neighboring Jackson, Michigan . [ 20 ] 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 preceded Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg . [ 13 ] : xxv, 49 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. [ 9 ] : 33

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. [ 9 ] : 60 [ 21 ] [ 22 ] : 1 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. [ 9 ] : 73, 292, 411 He resigned to become president of Pennsylvania State University . [ 14 ] Hillsdale in the nineteenth century 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. [ 13 ] : 139–66 [ 9 ] : 77 DeWitt Clinton Durgin, a Union College alumnus, was president from 1874 to 1884. [ 14 ] 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 . [ 9 ] : page needed In 1884, Spencer O. Fisher became the first Hillsdale alumnus elected to Congress. [ 9 ] : 119 George F. Mosher served as president of Hillsdale from 1886 to 1901. [ 14 ] [ 23 ] [ 24 ] [ 9 ] : 116, 125 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."

Central Hall (1908). In 1900, Hillsdale ceased grazing livestock and removed the agrarian fence circling the campus. [ 25 ] : xxiii [ 9 ] : 135 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. [ 14 ] Beloved by the college community and an early and outspoken advocate for women's suffrage , Mauck served for two decades. [ 26 ] [ 27 ] 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. [ 9 ] : 166 [ 25 ] : xxiii William Gear Spencer succeeded Mauck as president, serving from 1922 to 1932, when he departed to lead Franklin College . [ 14 ] [ 28 ] Under Spencer, Hillsdale acquired its 14-acre (5.7 ha) Slayton Arboretum, built new dormitories, constructed a new field house for its developing athletic programs, and, in 1924, chartered its chapter of Chi Omega . [ 25 ] : 60–69 Central Hall was rebuilt after a fire in 1874. 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. [ 14 ] 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%. [ 25 ] : 72–83 [ 9 ] : 210 Succeeding Mauck, Harvey L. Turner became Hillsdale's ninth president, serving from 1942 to 1952. [ 14 ] 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. [ 25 ] : 113 [ 9 ] : 267 J.

Donald Phillips next assumed the presidency, holding the position from 1952 to 1971. [ 14 ] During his administration, Hillsdale constructed the Simpson and McIntyre Student Residences in 1966. [ 29 ] In these years, Hillsdale began to resist federal civil rights regulations, particularly Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , concerning affirmative action . [ 25 ] : 167, 212 [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ] In 1962, the college's trustees adopted its own "Declaration of Independence". It affirmed Hillsdale's stance against what it called governmental control. [ 25 ] : 191 Quick facts Location, Coordinates ... Hillsdale College Interactive map of Hillsdale College Location 33 East College Street Hillsdale, Michigan Coordinates 41°55′57″N 84°38′02″W Michigan State Historic Site Designated January 16, 1962 Close A marker designating the college as a Michigan State Historic Site was erected by the Michigan Historical Commission in 1968. [ 33 ] 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." [ 25 ] : 237–39 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. [ 14 ] [ 25 ] : 222–23 Russell Kirk taught at Hillsdale for one semester per year beginning in 1973.