What a relief to be graduating this spring.
These past four years have been among the best. I received a wonderful education, competed on a talented swim team, grew tremendously in my faith, and met the people that I expect to be my best friends for life.
I am not happy to leave. I am just happy that I did not have to meet the new core requirements that will be taking effect this coming fall.
The addition of several new classes to the core requirements will make it much harder for students at Hillsdale College to meet their academic requirements and take advantage of the numerous extracurricular activities that Hillsdale has to offer. Not to mention that double majoring will be nearly impossible.
I am graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy and a minor in German. I will also graduate as a member of the Dow Journalism Program. I studied abroad this past summer in Germany. And the summer before that I spent in Washington, D.C., as an intern. In addition, I have been a member of the Hillsdale College varsity swim team for four years and have been involved in Hillsdale’s Christian Fellowship.
I didn’t slack off in the classroom either. I took an average of 16 hours a semester. I even took two summer courses after my freshman year just so I could finish the core requirements, major and minor requirements, and journalism requirements on time to graduate in four years.
The core curriculum at Hillsdale is a rare and good thing, worth preserving. But it seems as though its expansion serves as an argument against its existence, forcing students to do too much. The core curriculum for me was 43 hours. It is now 52 hours with the addition of a rhetoric class, both a religion and psychology class, and splitting up the sciences into three separate classes rather than just two. And that’s not including the language requirement for a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Finishing the core will take close to two full years. That only leaves four semesters for whatever major and minor studies Hillsdale students wish to pursue. For many, minors serve as an important area of edification that enrich a student’s principal focus.
With the addition of those nine hours to the core, it’s likely that I would have stopped taking German after 201 — the B.A. requirement — or I would have dropped the journalism program. That means I would have never studied for a month in Würzburg, Germany or spent the summer in Washington, D.C.
I am not the only student on Hillsdale’s campus who is interested in pursuing more than just one discipline. I will never forget when the 2010 Valedictorian and Outstanding Senior Woman Betsy Howard (Peters) walked across the stage with a triple major in English, Religion, and Spanish.
Hillsdale students enjoy being involved, too. Not many students on Hillsdale’s campus just “do school.” When you come in as a freshman, you’re coming in with many others who were the class presidents, captains of their sports teams, and section leaders of band or choir in high school. That doesn’t stop when they come to Hillsdale.
If students want to pursue a double major, they will not be deterred by the new core requirements, but it will come at the cost of their involvement in other areas on campus. Hillsdale promotes the formation of well-rounded individuals, and student involvement on campus is a large part of that.
Being over-committed and spread thin is part of being at Hillsdale. But increasing the core forces students to shift more of their time toward academics and takes away from other opportunities on campus.
Involvement in extracurricular activities is what made my time at Hillsdale unique. And for everything I learned in the classroom, I also learned something in the pool, in the Collegian office, and in Saga.
Don’t take those learning opportunities away from us just for a few more core classes.
