collegian round-up, sept. 20

Mike Wertz, Hillsdale College’s security director, is one of my favorite interview subjects on this campus. He’s an ex-marine, a straight talker, tough but laid-back. I interviewed him extensively for this hard news piece on security measures for homecoming, which took place this past weekend.

Come to think of it, I varied the sources pretty widely on this one. The the college’s VP of administration was serving alcohol as a fundraiser for his daughter’s school [Hillsdale Academy], so lent an unusual perspective to the situation. I also talked to the city’s fire chief and an undersheriff.

And here’s a cool little feature about the scooters we’ve been spotting around campus. I learned a lot about Vespa culture this past week. Enlightening.

collegian round-up, sept. 13

My longest piece this week is a hard news story about the shortage of lifeguards at Hillsdale’s swimming pool. Last semester I wrote a feature on the lifeguards’ adventures with community visitors and student swimmers–saving lives, being hit on by seedy-looking teenagers and what have you. The lifeguards are a pleasant, if quiet, group of students.

And since this coming weekend is Hillsdale’s homecoming, we ran an entire homecoming section in today’s paper. Mitch Ryder is performing, so I previewed the event. [No interview with Mitch, unfortunately.]

And finally, here’s a brief about tomorrow’s executive luncheon, which will feature two alumni speakers.

collegian round-up, sept. 6

First full issue of the school year. I contributed four articles:

A report on the recent bat encounters on campus, front-page…

A hard news piece on the college’s new website redesign…

A feature on a mysterious ‘revival center’ just outside of campus–akin to something in a Flannery O’Connor story…

And a music column explaining my preference for vinyl over digital music formats…