Vice President Mike Pence has accepted an invitation to deliver Hillsdale College’s commencement address.
“We are proud to have Pence, a man of principled public service, of strong constitutional views, and of deep faith at our campus,” College President Larry Arnn said in a statement. “We are glad to have him back for this culminating ceremony of college life.”
The college announced on Monday that Pence’s address to the class of 2018 for its 166th commencement ceremony is at 2 p.m. on May 12 in the Biermann Athletics Center. His selection marks the end of a more than eight-month search by the senior class officers and the college president’s office for a commencement speaker.
“We get a speaker who in his public life, private life, and spiritual life embodies what we strive for here at Hillsdale College,” Senior Class President Razi Lane told The Collegian. “Mike Pence captures our mission, as a father, husband, Christian, and leader of this country. I couldn’t think of a better person to address the senior class than Vice President Mike Pence.”
Associate Vice President and Dean of Educational Programs Matthew Spalding said Pence expressed to him recently that he has wanted to visit Hillsdale again and that he chose Hillsdale despite invitations from many colleges this year.
“I think it’s wonderful and a great honor for the college,” said Matthew Spalding.“I’ve known him since he was a congressman and have great respect for him. He will give a serious and thoughtful commencement address. No one should have any doubts about that.”
Students and faculty expressed enthusiasm for Pence to speak at commencement, noting it as an important moment for the college.
“I think that it’s incredible for the vice president to come to a small school like Hillsdale and address the senior class,” senior Charlotte McFaddin said. “It’s a big deal, and I think it is a testament to the kind of institution Hillsdale is becoming.”
Politics department chairman Mickey Craig agreed, observing that national leaders are becoming more common on campus as Hillsdale’s reputation around the country grows bigger.
That may be on purpose, economic department chairman Gary Wolfram said.
“I think it says a lot about Pence associating himself with the college,” he said. “Very few schools with 1,500 students have the vice president come as the commencement speaker.”
Although Pence’s speech at Hillsdale would mark his first visit to the college as vice president, he previously spoke on “The Presidency and the Constitution” on Sept. 20, 2010, in Phillips Auditorium, as a congressman. Less than a year later on April 16, 2011, he participated in a town hall on “Economic Liberty and the Constitution” at the Allan P. Kirby Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C.
For awhile, Hillsdale has hoped to bring Pence to campus. Arnn said he told Pence he wanted him to speak at the dedication ceremony of the Christ Chapel in 2019, because he “is a dignified figure and serious about his faith.” This year’s senior class officers, however, convinced him to invite the vice president to campus early.
Additionally, Hillsdale alumni and students have worked with Pence in the vice president’s office and when he was governor. Stephen Ford ’10 currently is a speechwriter for Pence.
Last year, Pence addressed Notre Dame University in Indiana and Pennsylvania’s Grove City College, a private, liberal arts college that does not accept any federal money like Hillsdale. In them, he called for the graduating seniors to be servant-minded leaders who put to work the principles they learned at their respective institutions.
“So I urge you as the rising generation, carry the ideals and the values that you’ve learned at Notre Dame into your lives and into your careers,” he said. “Be leaders in your families, in your communities, and in every field of endeavor, for the values you learned here at Notre Dame, and in these divided times, I urge you to take one more aspect of the culture of this historic institution into the mainstream of American life.”
Prior to President Donald Trump selecting Pence as his running mate in July 2016, the 48th vice president of the United States served as the 50th governor of Indiana from 2013-2017. He implemented the largest tax cuts in the state’s history and advocated for more funding of preschools, voucher programs, and charter schools.
Before that, Pence was in the U.S. House of Representatives beginning in 2001. By 2008, Esquire magazine named him in the top 10 best members of Congress because his “unalloyed traditional conservatism ha[d] repeatedly pitted him against his party elders.”
Although Pence has made his way in Washington, D.C., he is a Midwest native, born and raised in Columbus, Indiana. Additionally, he attended Indiana’s Hanover College, a private, liberal arts institution like Hillsdale.
After briefly serving as an admissions counselor at Hanover, Pence attended the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis and earned his juris doctor. He practiced law and then ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1988 and 1990. He later worked as president of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, a state think tank, and had his own syndicated radio talk show and weekly televised public affairs program.
Pence grew up as a Roman Catholic and was a Democrat early in life. During college, however, he became an evangelical Christian and found himself being swayed by the “common-sense conservatism of Ronald Reagan.”
After Pence spoke at Hillsdale in 2010, the college published his speech in the following month’s issue of Imprimis. In it, he discussed his view of statesmanship and argues for a limited government and a strong military.
“Power is an instrument of fatal consequence,” Pence said in the speech. “It is confined no more readily than quicksilver, and escapes good intentions as easily as air flows through mesh. Therefore, those who are entrusted with it must educate themselves in self-restraint. A republic is about limitation, and for good reason, because we are mortal and our actions are imperfect.”
Lane said the senior class officers spoke with many of their peers, discussing with them what they would like to see in a commencement speaker. For him, Pence is a personal hero, and he said he is proud and honored that Pence will address his senior class with the help of Arnn and his office.
“His track record is one of principles and reasonable conservatism,” Lane said. “Chiefly, I admire him for his civility and respect in every issue he engages. He is extremely respectful and cordial. There’s a careful balance, and he hits it right on.”
Tickets to the commencement ceremony will be available only for graduates and their families, Hillsdale employees, and friends of the college. Attendance to the ceremony by underclassmen and any opportunities to meet Pence still are being discussed, said Emily Davis, media relations and communications manager.
As students have waited with anticipation to learn who will be the last to address the class of 2018, Lane said he hopes students will be thankful and eager to share the stage with Pence next month.
“My prayer has been the speaker we get is worth the wait,” Lane said. “From my perspective, the selection of Vice President Pence has been absolutely worth the wait.”
Vice President Mike Pence has accepted an invitation to deliver Hillsdale College’s commencement address.
“We are proud to have Pence, a man of principled public service, of strong constitutional views, and of deep faith at our campus,” College President Larry Arnn said in a statement. “We are glad to have him back for this culminating ceremony of college life.”
The college announced on Monday that Pence’s address to the class of 2018 for its 166th commencement ceremony is at 2 p.m. on May 12 in the Biermann Athletics Center. His selection marks the end of a more than eight-month search by the senior class officers and the college president’s office for a commencement speaker.
“We get a speaker who in his public life, private life, and spiritual life embodies what we strive for here at Hillsdale College,” Senior Class President Razi Lane told The Collegian. “Mike Pence captures our mission, as a father, husband, Christian, and leader of this country. I couldn’t think of a better person to address the senior class than Vice President Mike Pence.”
Associate Vice President and Dean of Educational Programs Matthew Spalding said Pence expressed to him recently that he has wanted to visit Hillsdale again and that he chose Hillsdale despite invitations from many colleges this year.
“I think it’s wonderful and a great honor for the college,” said Matthew Spalding.“I’ve known him since he was a congressman and have great respect for him. He will give a serious and thoughtful commencement address. No one should have any doubts about that.”
Students and faculty expressed enthusiasm for Pence to speak at commencement, noting it as an important moment for the college.
“I think that it’s incredible for the vice president to come to a small school like Hillsdale and address the senior class,” senior Charlotte McFaddin said. “It’s a big deal, and I think it is a testament to the kind of institution Hillsdale is becoming.”
Politics department chairman Mickey Craig agreed, observing that national leaders are becoming more common on campus as Hillsdale’s reputation around the country grows bigger.
That may be on purpose, economic department chairman Gary Wolfram said.
“I think it says a lot about Pence associating himself with the college,” he said. “Very few schools with 1,500 students have the vice president come as the commencement speaker.”
Although Pence’s speech at Hillsdale would mark his first visit to the college as vice president, he previously spoke on “The Presidency and the Constitution” on Sept. 20, 2010, in Phillips Auditorium, as a congressman. Less than a year later on April 16, 2011, he participated in a town hall on “Economic Liberty and the Constitution” at the Allan P. Kirby Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C.
For awhile, Hillsdale has hoped to bring Pence to campus. Arnn said he told Pence he wanted him to speak at the dedication ceremony of the Christ Chapel in 2019, because he “is a dignified figure and serious about his faith.” This year’s senior class officers, however, convinced him to invite the vice president to campus early.
Additionally, Hillsdale alumni and students have worked with Pence in the vice president’s office and when he was governor. Stephen Ford ’10 currently is a speechwriter for Pence.
Last year, Pence addressed Notre Dame University in Indiana and Pennsylvania’s Grove City College, a private, liberal arts college that does not accept any federal money like Hillsdale. In them, he called for the graduating seniors to be servant-minded leaders who put to work the principles they learned at their respective institutions.
“So I urge you as the rising generation, carry the ideals and the values that you’ve learned at Notre Dame into your lives and into your careers,” he said. “Be leaders in your families, in your communities, and in every field of endeavor, for the values you learned here at Notre Dame, and in these divided times, I urge you to take one more aspect of the culture of this historic institution into the mainstream of American life.”
Prior to President Donald Trump selecting Pence as his running mate in July 2016, the 48th vice president of the United States served as the 50th governor of Indiana from 2013-2017. He implemented the largest tax cuts in the state’s history and advocated for more funding of preschools, voucher programs, and charter schools.
Before that, Pence was in the U.S. House of Representatives beginning in 2001. By 2008, Esquire magazine named him in the top 10 best members of Congress because his “unalloyed traditional conservatism ha[d] repeatedly pitted him against his party elders.”
Although Pence has made his way in Washington, D.C., he is a Midwest native, born and raised in Columbus, Indiana. Additionally, he attended Indiana’s Hanover College, a private, liberal arts institution like Hillsdale.
After briefly serving as an admissions counselor at Hanover, Pence attended the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis and earned his juris doctor. He practiced law and then ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1988 and 1990. He later worked as president of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, a state think tank, and had his own syndicated radio talk show and weekly televised public affairs program.
Pence grew up as a Roman Catholic and was a Democrat early in life. During college, however, he became an evangelical Christian and found himself being swayed by the “common-sense conservatism of Ronald Reagan.”
After Pence spoke at Hillsdale in 2010, the college published his speech in the following month’s issue of Imprimis. In it, he discussed his view of statesmanship and argues for a limited government and a strong military.
“Power is an instrument of fatal consequence,” Pence said in the speech. “It is confined no more readily than quicksilver, and escapes good intentions as easily as air flows through mesh. Therefore, those who are entrusted with it must educate themselves in self-restraint. A republic is about limitation, and for good reason, because we are mortal and our actions are imperfect.”
Lane said the senior class officers spoke with many of their peers, discussing with them what they would like to see in a commencement speaker. For him, Pence is a personal hero, and he said he is proud and honored that Pence will address his senior class with the help of Arnn and his office.
“His track record is one of principles and reasonable conservatism,” Lane said. “Chiefly, I admire him for his civility and respect in every issue he engages. He is extremely respectful and cordial. There’s a careful balance, and he hits it right on.”
Tickets to the commencement ceremony will be available only for graduates and their families, Hillsdale employees, and friends of the college. Attendance to the ceremony by underclassmen and any opportunities to meet Pence still are being discussed, said Emily Davis, media relations and communications manager.
As students have waited with anticipation to learn who will be the last to address the class of 2018, Lane said he hopes students will be thankful and eager to share the stage with Pence next month.
“My prayer has been the speaker we get is worth the wait,” Lane said. “From my perspective, the selection of Vice President Pence has been absolutely worth the wait.”
