Hillsdale College may bring a politics master’s program to professionals at the heart of the American political scene, just a few minutes walk from the U.S. Capitol and Union Station.
College administrators are still discussing plans and gauging interest in a master’s program at the Allan P. Kirby Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Statesmanship in Washington, D.C., Provost David Whalen said. He noted that administrators kicked off the conversation about the program even before the Kirby Center was established in 2010.
“It’s in the planning stages, not launched,” said Matthew Spalding, associate vice president and dean of educational programs for the Kirby Center. “It’s part of a broader plan that has to do with how Hillsdale continues to radiate its teaching.”
No definite plan for the program has been set in motion, Spalding and Whalen emphasized. The college has made no commitments and set no timeline for establishing it.
But the sooner it happens, the better, Whalen said.
Describing the desired program as a “Constitution-based study of statecraft,” Whalen said it would meet a need in D.C. for an understanding of the historical and philosophical underpinnings of politics.
“It’s knowledge that is desperately needed, especially in Washington, D.C.,” Whalen said. “Washington, D.C. is filled with people who are attracted to power in order to try to manipulate power for their own particular purposes. Wouldn’t it be preferable if at least some of those people had a deep understanding of the principles involved in a sound political order for a free, self-governing republic?”
College President Larry Arnn said in an email that the program would be similar to the college’s Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship, bearing “less philosophy, more American politics, but much of both.”
Spalding said the program would allow the Kirby Center to better fulfill Hillsdale’s educational mission.
“If you think of expanding the teaching mission of Hillsdale, given the college’s emphasis on how to think about constitutionalism in the American system, it’s very natural that we would do this,” Spalding said.
Arnn affirmed the college’s desire to educate people about the U.S. Constitution.
“The college likes to teach, and it is its job,” he said. “It likes to teach the Constitution. Though that document is not well-understood in the government, interest is keen, especially among the young. What a benefit if knowledge of how it is supposed to work were widespread in the government.”
There’s a “substantial market” among professionals in D.C. for a Hillsdale education in politics, Spalding said.
“The main intention is to draw smart people who are in D.C. trying to do good work who didn’t get — and would really like to have — training in how Hillsdale thinks about politics,” he said.
Arnn said the program might draw about 30 to 50 students at a time, noting that he is “unsure” whether the college would have to expand beyond the Kirby Center.
The program would have a meaningful effect on the city, Whalen said.
“We need steady hands and clear thought in D.C.,” he said, “and the Kirby Center can go a long way — it has already gone a long way — in supplying some of these things.”
