What amenity should Hillsdale add to campus?

Jordan Wales, theology: “A pub, interiorly decorated in English style by a classical architect, open between noon and 7 p.m., with a ‘bring your own lunch’ policy (to keep costs down) and containing a faculty-only room in which professors might converse amongst themselves to deepen friendships and nourish minds as did Lewis, Tolkien, and the Inklings of yore at Oxford’s ‘Eagle and Child.’ This would foster greater inter-professor socialization and pay dividends for general well-being as well as imaginative teaching—not because of the drinks, particularly, but because of the regular conviviality and intellectual/personal exchange among professors. Iron sharpens iron.”

Kelly Franklin, English: “I would love to see a campus pub that sold Michigan beers.”

Dwight Lindley, English: “My proposed amenity: a pub on campus where faculty, staff, and students of age could have a drink at the close of the school day”

Darryl Hart, history: “I’d love to see the creation of a Faculty Club – a place faculty could go for coffee, pastries, light meals, adult beverages (after 5), and read newspapers and popular news magazines.  Trinity College Dublin has one of the most pleasant I have experienced.  It might seem exclusive and cut faculty off from students. But it could actually bring faculty social life to campus (right now it is mainly off campus), and could become a fascinating or mysterious part of Hillsdale since it would be restricted”

Charles Yost, history: “I think we should have a pub where we can have a subsidized beer and you can smoke inside.”

Brad Birzer, history: “​​One of my favorite things from my undergraduate days (at Notre Dame) was our ‘senior bar.’  It was a great pub for anyone over 21.  Actually, I’d love a place where faculty and students (of age, of course) could share a beer.”

Anna Vincenzi, history: “An ice skating rink! It would make the long Hillsdale winters so much more enjoyable. And, with public skating hours, it would also be such a valuable contribution to the wider Hillsdale community. We took our kids ice skating a few days ago and they loved it, but you need to drive to Jackson or Ann Arbor for it.”

Jason Gehrke, history: “A drop-in daycare staffed by students for Hillsdale moms. The former make a little cash, while the latter get some great on-demand support.”

Amanda Stechshulte, Spanish: “I would love to see an outdoor prayer space like the University of Notre Dame’s Grotto. It would give students a quiet, reverent place to pray surrounded by nature, and, perhaps, we could even incorporate memorial tiles to remember our beloved Hillsdale dead. The Arb might be a good place for it, but it should be a quiet place where students know they can find peace.”

Jason Peters, English: “A big hen house with a hundred laying hens and, near it, a vegetable garden mainly for late summer and fall crops. Both would provide meaningful work and good inexpensive food for students. I would also erect an attractive conspicuous sign elegantly inscribed with this quotation from Aldo Leopold: ‘There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.'”