The city of Hillsdale will hear the last formal complaints until October regarding the installation of a new sign at the entrance to the city on Monday, Spet. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Hillsdale City Hall. The current plan is to replace the sign bearing the town’s adoptive motto, “It’s the People” with a new sign reading “Home of Historic Hillsdale College.” Hillsdale citizens frustrated with the new signs plan to attend the meeting to implore the council to keep “It’s the People” as the motto or at least incorporate it in the new design.
But the issue of the new sign isn’t on the council’s business agenda. If residents want the old sign back, they need to call their councilmen and ask for the issue to placed on the agenda as a topic of discussion.
It is the opinion of the Hillsdale Collegian editorial staff that it is our duty as students to join them. We hope you will hear our defense of why this issue is so important and why we feel compelled to appear before the city council and fight for what is good, true, and beautiful.
There is something about the motto “It’s the People” that resonates with the people of Hillsdale and Hillsdale College. It communicates self-government and the duty we have as members of a community to promote the general welfare. It explained in three words how powerful a united identity can be.
By declaring the city the “Home of Historic Hillsdale College,” the city has become a little less unified. The college is without a doubt significant to the city, and recognizing it on the new sign acknowledges a solid working relationship between the two.
But taking away the contributions of the collective whole comes dangerously close to authoritarianism, and we as students have an obligation to show support for our community and their inclusion on the final sign on Monday. We have an obligation to work together.
It may be easy to be apathetic, but we, Hillsdale students, stand up for that which is good, true, and beautiful. In our city, it’s the people.