It is only the love of others, not our own merit or worth, that allows us to live and learn here at Hillsdale for four years.
Please understand that I do not intend to demean the hard work that many students put in to pay for this education. Working for a paycheck that you will immediately give away isn’t ideal, but we do it each week nevertheless. And we do it because we know that it’s worth it.
For those of us graduating in May 2015, the total cost of our Hillsdale education is approximately $75,950,000, or $245,000 per student, according to Vice President of Institutional Advancement John Cervini. However, none of us has paid anywhere near that amount. At the most, a few of us may have paid a price akin to $130,000 in four years. But most won’t.
Rather, our average cost remains around $30,000 each year. The average aid package totals $16,700. Even after our sticker price has been halved, most of us still receive considerable financial aid.
Where does all this aid come from? To be sure, Hillsdale College has several benefactors with the means to provide extraordinary gifts. Others leave their estates to the trust of the college, with specific intentions guiding the monies’ uses. You need only to check the nameplate under the nearest portrait in Lane or Kendall to find such a person.
But they are in the minority. Hillsdale donors are more often associated with cheeseburgers and minivans than caviar and helipads. Around 80 percent of all the donations to the college consist of gifts $100 or less. Our dorm lights are kept on and our water keeps running because of the simple love of thousands of people across the country, often without direct connection to this place.
That is perhaps the most absurd thing about it: The vast majority of these benefactors will never set foot on Hillsdale’s campus. Their children or grandchildren may never attend and their association with the school will only ever consist of radio ads and Imprimis. It is unlikely that they will ever see directly the fruits of their generosity, yet they give a portion of their hard-earned money to a small liberal arts college in the middle of Michigan.
And this generosity is the only reason why many of us are able to attend our college. Strangers, people we will never meet, have made it possible for us to meet our best friends, learn the greatest things, and spend four years of our lives in a place with people that have changed us forever. And they have done this, not because we have earned it through our grades, our scores, or our resumes, but because they love this place and what we do here.
If they can give, if strangers without cause can become true friends of our college, I believe that we can give too. And not out of obligation, but out of love. Out of love for this place, the people, the experiences we had and those we never had to have. And for the education we received, participated in, and helped make.
For the love of what we’ve been given, and what we hope many will be given long after we are gone.
