Class of 2019: welcome. You have come from all over the country and the world with varied educational backgrounds—public, private, charter and home schools, to name a few—to be united by this college in the common task of higher education.
You’ve likely already begun to engage in some of the inevitable, inexhaustible Hillsdale debates as you find a home among your new peers. Awkward gaps in conversation are often filled by topics such as predestination and free will, conservatism and libertarianism, or the antics of various presidential candidates.
These conversations, and those like them, are debates. As debates progress, arguments are made and sometimes the conversation becomes heated. Be careful that debate does not devolve into mere argument, a battle of wills that sets truth aside for the sake of a victory. Debate within our common inquiry, while vital, is no excuse for poor manners. College is “collegial,” an organized community united by common purpose and responsibility. Mere argument prevents us from encountering the truth. It shifts the end of the debate from pursuit of truth to pursuit of victory and self-vindication.
It is vital to have these conversations. They are steps toward taking ownership of your intellectual life, acknowledgements of your responsibility to the truth. They must be undertaken in a spirit of charity, with a focus on what unites us first and foremost, so that we may better reconcile what divides us.
That’s what we’re doing here: pursuing truth, defending liberty, in good charity. We’re glad you have joined us.