Since the late 20th century, in order to opt out of government mandates tied to funding, Hillsdale has declined both state and federal financial support. Instead, Hillsdale depends entirely on private donations to supplement students' tuition.[4][11][12]
Members of theFree Will Baptist Church founded their denomination's first collegiate institution, Michigan Central College inSpring Arbor, Michigan,[9]: 6 in 1844.[9]: 4 The state of Michigan incorporated the college the following year, during which the college enrolled 25 undergraduates.[13]: 12 [14][9]: 11 The college was officially non-sectarian.[15] Its first president wasDaniel McBride Graham, who held the office from 1844 to 1848.
Edmund Burke Fairfield assumed the school's presidency in 1848, and in 1850, the college was chartered to confer degrees.[13]: 12–14 [9]: 116 Black students were admitted immediately after the college's founding,[16] and the college became the second school in the nation to grant four-year liberal artsdegrees to women.[17][13]: 12–14
Outgrowing its space by 1853, the school moved to Hillsdale, Michigan, in part to have access to the railroad that served the city. It received financial support from residents who wanted to develop the 20-year-old town.[13]: 30 [18][9]: 24 Construction was completed and the school reopened as Hillsdale College in 1855.
Fairfield led Hillsdale for 25 years, from 1848 to 1869.[14][19] In 1854, he attended thefirst convention of the newRepublican Party withRansom Dunn in neighboringJackson, Michigan.[20] Fairfield served in the Michigan Senate from 1857 to 1859, and was elected that year asLieutenant Governor of Michigan. Hillsdale's early anti-slavery stance and its pivotal role in founding the Republican Party led to the invitation of several notable speakers on the campus, includingFrederick Douglass (who visited the school on two occasions) andEdward Everett, the orator who precededAbraham Lincoln atGettysburg.[13]: xxv, 49 On August 8, 1860, Hillsdale conferred its first degrees. On March 20, 1863, the Michigan legislature formally legalized Hillsdale's change of name and location.[9]: 33
In 1861, many Hillsdale students joined the ranks of theUnion Army during theAmerican Civil War. A higher percentage of Hillsdale students enlisted than from any other Michigan college.[9]: 60 [21][22]: 1
In 1869,James Calder succeeded Fairfield as president. Calder served through 1871. During his administration, the commercial school opened, a theological department was established, and the college enrolled around 750 students.[9]: 73, 292, 411 He resigned to become president ofPennsylvania State University.[14]
Hillsdale in the nineteenth century
Hillsdale's first president, Daniel McBride Graham, returned for a brief second term in 1871, notably rebuilding the campus after the catastrophic "Great Fire" of March 6, 1874.[13]: 139–66 [9]: 77 DeWitt Clinton Durgin, aUnion College alumnus, was president from 1874 to 1884.[14] In 1878, theHillsdale Herald was launched, becoming the second oldest college newspaper in Michigan, behindKalamazoo College'sThe Index (1877). In 1896, this paper merged withThe Collegian (founded in 1893) to becomeThe Herald-Collegian, soon simplified toThe Collegian.[9]: page needed In 1884,Spencer O. Fisher became the first Hillsdale alumnus elected to Congress.[9]: 119
George F. Mosher served as president of Hillsdale from 1886 to 1901.[14][23][24][9]: 116, 125 During this time, the college grew in size and in 1891, theChicago Herald wrote, "Hillsdale has a college second in standing to no denominational college in the country."
In 1900, Hillsdale ceased grazing livestock and removed the agrarian fence circling the campus.[25]: xxiii [9]: 135 It began an era of institutional growth and professionalization. In 1902, Joseph William Mauck became the college's sixth president, the first Hillsdale graduate to return as president of his alma mater.[14] Beloved by the college community and an early and outspoken advocate forwomen's suffrage, Mauck served for two decades.[26][27] One of the women's dormitories is named after Mauck. In 1907, the college amended its Articles of Association, no longer requiring the president and trustees to beFree Will Baptists. This led to a decline in the theological department's prestige but an increase in the number of Christian denominations represented on campus.[9]: 166 [25]: xxiii
William Gear Spencer succeeded Mauck as president, serving from 1922 to 1932, when he departed to leadFranklin College.[14][28] Under Spencer, Hillsdale acquired its 14-acre (5.7 ha) Slayton Arboretum, built new dormitories, constructed a new field house for its developing athletic programs, and, in 1924, chartered its chapter ofChi Omega.[25]: 60–69
Central Hall was rebuilt after a fire in 1874.
During theGreat Depression, Willfred Otto Mauck, Joseph Mauck's son and also an alumnus, was selected as the eighth president, serving from 1933 to 1942.[14] Throughout this era, the college struggled financially, was forced to cancel its new construction projects, and cut the pay of its faculty and staff by nearly 20%.[25]: 72–83 [9]: 210 Succeeding Mauck, Harvey L. Turner became Hillsdale's ninth president, serving from 1942 to 1952.[14] Despite its financial difficulties, the college built a new library, had an undefeated and untied football team in 1938, and celebrated its centennial in 1944, when more than 1,000 alumni returned to campus for the commencement ceremony.[25]: 113 [9]: 267
J. Donald Phillips next assumed the presidency, holding the position from 1952 to 1971.[14] During his administration, Hillsdale constructed the Simpson and McIntyre Student Residences in 1966.[29]
In these years, Hillsdale began to resist federal civil rights regulations, particularlyTitle IV of theCivil Rights Act of 1964, concerningaffirmative action.[25]: 167, 212 [30][31][32] In 1962, the college's trustees adopted its own "Declaration of Independence". It affirmed Hillsdale's stance against what it called governmental control.[25]: 191
George Roche III became the 11th president of Hillsdale College in 1971. During the Roche years, Hillsdale became nationally known, in part because of its withdrawal from federal and state-assisted loan programs and grants. Colleges that receive federal funding are required by law to report data on racial integration as part of the US affirmative action student loan program. Hillsdale announced that it refused to do so, and the college's trustees instead stated that the institution would follow its own non-discrimination policy and "with the help of God, resist, by all legal means, any encroachments on its independence."[25]: 237–39
During Roche's presidency, the college dramatically increased its endowment, established the Center for Constructive Alternatives, and hosted prominent national speakers, includingRonald Reagan. It also began publishingImprimis, a monthly speech digest.[14][25]: 222–23
Roche resigned his position at Hillsdale in late 1999, following a scandal surrounding the death by suicide of his son's wife, Lissa Jackson Roche, in theSlayton Arboretum on October 17, 1999. Hours prior to her suicide, Roche stated that she and her father-in-law had engaged in an on-and-off[34] 19-year sexual affair.[35] Married to Roche's son, Hillsdale Professor of History George Roche IV, Jackson Roche had been employed as managing editor of Hillsdale College Press for 14 years.[36] President Roche denied the alleged affair, but was suspended by the College on November 1 and resigned his post on November 10th.[35][37] Due to Jackson Roche's suicide and the ensuing scandal, the college's reputation suffered.[11]
Larry P. Arnn has served as president of the college since 2000.[38] Hillsdale's K–12 Initiative developed a full liberal arts K–12 curriculum for use in the charter schools and its private school in Michigan, Hillsdale Academy. In 2021, Hillsdale K–12 released a Civics "1776 Curriculum."[39] In 2022, Hillsdale had schools following its K–12 liberal arts curriculum across 19 states and Barney Charter Schools in 9 states.[40]
After several decades of maintaining a semester program inWashington D.C., Hillsdale established a permanent presence with the establishment of the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Massachusetts Avenue. The facility was dedicated on Constitution Day 2010.[41][better source needed]Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court JusticeClarence Thomas, ran the Washington center's speaker series at this time.[42] In 2015, the Boyle Radio Studio at the Kirby Center was dedicated.[43]
In 2012, Hillsdale founded the Van Andel Graduate School for Statesmanship on its Michigan campus offering both an M.A. and PhD in Politics. Its first M.A. students graduated in 2014, and its first PhD students graduated in 2018.[44][better source needed] In 2020, Hillsdale founded the Van Andel Graduate School of Government on its DC campus offering an M.A. in government.[45] In 2022, Hillsdale founded its Graduate School of Classical Education offering an M.A. in Classical Education.[46]
In 2013, Arnn was criticized for remarks about ethnic minorities he made while testifying before the Michigan legislature, against theCommon Core curriculum standards. Expressing concern about government interference with educational institutions, he noted having received a letter from the state Department of Education early in his presidency that said his college "violated the standards for diversity." He added, "because we didn't have enough dark ones, I guess, is what they meant." After being criticized for calling minorities "dark ones," Arnn explained that he was referring to "dark faces". He stated: "The State of Michigan sent a group of people down to my campus, with clipboards ... to look at the colors of people's faces and write down what they saw. We don't keep records of that information. What were they looking for besides dark ones?"[47][48] Michigan House Democratic LeaderTim Greimel condemned Arnn's comments, calling them "offensive", "inflammatory and bigoted", and asked for an apology.[49] In response, the college issued a statement apologizing for Arnn's remark, while reiterating his concern about "state-endorsed racism", as Arnn called affirmative action.[50]
In 2019,S. Prestley Blake donated his former home, an exact replica of Thomas Jefferson'sMonticello, inSomers, Connecticut to Hillsdale College. In May 2021, Hillsdale dedicated the property as the Blake Center for Faith and Freedom.[51] In November 2021, Hillsdale purchased land inPlacer County, California for nearly $6M with plans for a new educational center.[52][53][54]
The college is at the center of a national political and cultural debate about K–12 curriculum, since it regards "history as politics by other means".[55]
In 2023, Hillsdale College accepted 20.6% of undergraduate applicants, the 79th lowest rate in the US.[58] Admitted applicants had an average 3.93GPA (over 60% had 4.0 GPAs) and, on average, scored 1430 on theSAT or 31 on theACT.[58]
In 2025, Hillsdale was ranked 50th (tied) out of 211 ranked "National Liberal Arts Colleges" byU.S. News & World Report.[60] ThePrinceton Review'sThe Best 384 Colleges 2023 ranked Hillsdale as first for "most engaged in community service," seventh for "students love these colleges," eighth for "professors get high marks," and thirteenth for "students study the most."[61]
As of 2022, the college offers three graduate programs: the Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship, offering both an M.A. and a Ph.D. program in Politics;[63] the Steve and Amy Van Andel Graduate School of Government, based in Washington, D.C., and offering an M.A. in government;[64] and the Graduate School of Classical Education, offering an M.A. in classical education.[65]
Christ ChapelDelp Hall and the Liberty Walk, facing Central Hall
Hillsdale's 200-acre (81 ha) campus contains multiple instructional and office buildings, 13 residence halls, sevenfraternity and sorority houses, an athletic complex, a library, a music hall, an arts center, a conference center, a hotel, and a preschool.[66] Hillsdale College also operatesHillsdale Academy, a private K–12 liberal arts school.[67] The college opened theclassical-styleChrist Chapel in 2019, in a dedication ceremony led by Supreme Court justiceClarence Thomas.[68]
The Richardson Heritage Room, housed in Mossey Library
In the early 1980s, a controversy over the school's admissions practices threatened federal student loans to 200 Hillsdale students.Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or other education program that receives federal money. The federal government required colleges where students received federal funding to document their compliance with Title IX, but Hillsdale refused, arguing that the government could not deny federal funds to its students because the college received no direct federal funding and there was no allegation of actual sex discrimination.[70][71][72] When theDepartment of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) sought to terminate federal financial assistance to Hillsdale's students in 1978, anAdministrative Law Judge denied HEW's request; both HEW and Hillsdale appealed to HEW's Civil Rights Reviewing Authority.[citation needed]
In October 1979, the Reviewing Authority rejected Hillsdale's arguments and the ALJ's decision, ruling that HEW could require Hillsdale to sign the Assurance of Compliance as a condition of its students receiving federal financial assistance. The college appealed to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; in 1982, the Sixth Circuit ruled that government aid to individual students could be terminated without a finding that a college actually discriminated, but nevertheless upheld Hillsdale's refusal to sign the compliance forms because only its student loan and grant program is subject to Title IX regulation, not the entire college.[70]
In the related 1984 caseGrove City College v. Bell, theSupreme Court required every college or university to fulfill federal requirements – past and future requirements – if its students received federal aid.[73] As a result of this decision, Hillsdale withdrew from all federal assistance beginning with the 1984–85 academic year;Grove City College, the plaintiff in that case, followed Hillsdale's lead four years later.[74] Beginning in the 2007–08 academic year, Hillsdale stopped accepting Michigan state assistance, instead matching with its own aid any funds that a student would have received from the state.[75] Since 2007, Hillsdale's entire operating budget, including scholarships, has come from private funding and endowments.[76] Conservative billionaireTimothy Mellon is among the supporters of Hillsdale College; in 2016, readers who downloaded his autobiography could choose to make donations to the Military Scholarship Fund for veterans attending Hillsdale.[77]
Hillsdale College's Blake Center for Faith and Freedom inSomers, Connecticut. Built in 2014 as a home by Friendly's founder S. Prestley Blake, the replica of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello was donated to Hillsdale in 2019.
In December 2021, Hillsdale launched the Academy for Science and Freedom in response to theCOVID-19 pandemic. The academy's stated goal is to "educate the American people about the free exchange of scientific ideas and the proper relationship between freedom and science in the pursuit of truth".[81] The academy called theUnited States' response to the COVID-19 pandemic "the worst public health fiasco in history" that "has unveiled serious issues with how science is administered".Scott Atlas,Jay Bhattacharya, andMartin Kulldorff, who helped found the academy, have ties to theGreat Barrington Declaration.[82]
Hillsdale College hosts the Churchill Project, dedicated to the study ofWinston Churchill. The Project promotes scholarship and “propagates a right understanding of [Churchill's] record” according to its website. The Churchill Project’s website has published 816 articles and other pieces as of 2024. Hillsdale College published and keeps in print Churchill's official biography byRandolph Churchill andMartin Gilbert, of eight volumes, with 23 companion volumes called "The Churchill Documents". College President Larry Arnn worked with Gilbert on this project, and edited the last six volumes after Gilbert's death. He also published "Churchill’s Trial: Winston Churchill and the Salvation of Free Government" (2015). A sculpture of Churchill by Heather Tritchka, and a number of artworks by, about, or related to Churchill decorate many places on campus. The library holds a number of books by or about Churchill, some history classes include study of his work and legacy, and (as of 2024) there were twelve undergraduate ChurchillFellows.[83]
Through the Barney Charter School Initiative, Hillsdale provides curriculum materials, teacher training, and administrative support to a network ofcharter schools that utilize aclassical education model.[84] As of 2024, the network includes over 70 affiliated schools in more than 25 states.[85]
The initiative was established in 2010 with funding from the Barney Family Foundation.[86]The initiative assists local founding groups in establishing charter schools. Hillsdale College does not own or manage these schools directly. Instead, it enters into a formal "Member School" or "Curriculum School" agreement.[87] Under these agreements, Hillsdale provides itsK–12 classical curriculum and provides training for teachers and administrators at no cost to the schools, provided they adhere to specific pedagogical requirements.[88]
State governments have engaged with Hillsdale's model through legislative and executive actions.
In January 2022,Tennessee GovernorBill Lee announced a proposal to partner with Hillsdale College to establish up to 100 charter schools.[90] Following public debate, some local school boards denied applications for these charters.[91] TheFlorida Department of Education has utilized Hillsdale's civics materials in its teacherprofessional development programs.[92]
In March 2023, the principal of Tallahassee Classical School, an affiliated school at the time, was requested to resign by the school board following a parental complaint regarding a lesson that included an image ofMichelangelo'sDavid.[93] Following the event, Hillsdale College terminated the school's license to use its curriculum and removed its "Member School" status, stating the school’s actions did not align with the college’s classical education philosophy.[94]
In 2018, Hillsdale College was named one of the best schools in the U.S. for student-athletes byNext College Student Athlete's 2018 NCSA Power Rankings.[95] Hillsdale was the fourth ranked school among all NCAA Division II colleges and universities in the U.S.[96] The NCSA Power Rankings, which recognize the best colleges and universities in the U.S. for student-athletes, ranked Hillsdale within the top 10 among all Division II schools for several sports including football, baseball, softball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track and field, women's swimming and women's volleyball. Hillsdale men's track and field also ranked 97th overall (among all divisions).[97]
Clinton B. Fisk (c. 1844), Civil War soldier and statesman, namesake ofFisk University andProhibition Party candidate for president in1888; first inductee into the Hillsdale County, Michigan Veteran's Hall of Fame in 2001[109]
^abcdefghijklmnopqMoore, Vivian Elsie Lyon (1944).The First Hundred Years of Hillsdale College. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The Ann Arbor Press.OCLC4819396. 588 pp.
^Gilbert, Arlan K. (1994).Hillsdale Honor: The Civil War Experience. Hillsdale, Michigan: Hillsdale College Press.ISBN978-0916308728.OCLC29816536. 88 pp.
^abcdefghiGilbert, Arlan K. (1998).The Permanent Things: Hillsdale College 1900–1994. Hillsdale, Michigan: Hillsdale College Press.ISBN978-0916308629.OCLC39113606. 320 pp.
^Higgins, Lori; Jesse, David (August 1, 2013)."Hillsdale president get heat over racial remark".Detroit Free Press.Archived from the original on September 5, 2013. RetrievedSeptember 26, 2013.No offense was intended by the use of that term except to the offending bureaucrats, and Dr. Arnn is sorry if such offense was honestly taken. But the greater concern, he believes, is the state-endorsed racism the story illustrates.
^"See drone video of proposed Hillsdale College site in Placer County".Sacramento Bee. January 23, 2022.Archived from the original on January 26, 2022. RetrievedOctober 30, 2022.Drone video from January 2022 shows the planned site west of Roseville for a college campus built by Michigan's conservative Hillsdale College on land once owned by the family of Sacramento developer Angelo Tsakopoulos.
^ab"HIllsdale College".CollegeSimply.com. Peterson's Data. RetrievedAugust 29, 2024.Public domain college data is sourced from the U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics survey for academic years 2023–2024.
^"School of Government Overview".dc.hillsdale.edu. The Steve and Amy Van Andel Graduate School of Government, Hillsdale College.Archived from the original on September 28, 2022. RetrievedMay 1, 2025.
^Maeroff, Gene I. (September 6, 1977)."Colleges in Conflict over Federal Role".The New York Times.Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 12, 2021.Hillsdale College in Michigan has steadfastly refused to agree to indicate it will comply with a 1972 education law that denies Federal funding to any college or university that discriminates by sex.
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