Hillsdale College in Michigan used to be known as a symbol of private property, quality private education, and the best of civil society in America. Along with Grove City College, it was long admired by conservatives and libertarians for refusing to accept any government funds. It is now being transformed into an institution devoted to worshipping the state and global central planning.
About four years ago Hillsdale hired a new president, Straussian neocon Larry Arnn, who had previously been president of the Claremont Institute for fifteen years. One of his first orders of business, apparently, was to divert funds from education to begin erecting two large statues -- of Lincoln and Churchill -- on the campus.
Think about this: Hillsdale has been transformed from a model of libertarian education to state worship with statues of two politicians dominating the campus landscape. Not statues of Einstein, Aristotle, Locke, or even Mises, but of two warmongering politicians who have in common the policy of bombing cities populated by civilians, among other things.
A former Hillsdale faculty member told me that Arnn is trying to turn the institution into a training academy for neocon foreign policy interventionism, i.e., perpetual global warfare in the name of saving the world. Even the names of courses are being changed to signify this change (i.e. "America's Role in the World," etc.). The latest issue if Imprimis, the college's newsletter, contains a long, rambling bit of Lincoln idolatry and mythology by Straussian high priest Harry Jaffa. Students are apprently being taught that "statesmanship" means bombing, invading, conquering and occupying any country on earth that does not adhere to neocon ideology, with the Iraq War being Case Study #1.
I now recommend only Grove City College to friends, family and neighbors who are seeking a high quality and genuinely private education for their college-age children.
