Hillsdale College

Hillsdale College, private, nonsectarian liberal-arts institution of higher learning in Hillsdale, south-central Michigan, U.S. Hillsdale students are required to take a core curriculum of courses in humanities and natural and social sciences (including Western and American heritage), and they must attend at least two seminars in the school’s Center for Constructive Alternatives, which provides lectures in the sciences, humanities, and arts and on the free market. Hillsdale awards bachelor of arts and bachelor of sciences degrees. Academic programs emphasize Western—especially American, Judeo-Christian, and Greco-Roman—traditions and culture Total enrollment is about 1,500.

In 1844 at Spring Arbor, the Free Will Baptist denomination founded Michigan Central College, open to all ethnic groups and the first coeducational college in Michigan. When the college moved 20 miles (32 km) to Hillsdale in 1853, it became Hillsdale College. Most of the campus buildings were destroyed in an 1874 fire and later replaced by brick buildings. During World War I, when the U.S. government insisted that Hillsdale racially segregate students in its Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, the college convinced the War Department to allow continued integration. In 1975 the college refused to comply with a federal demand for an affirmative action plan, making its students ineligible for federal benefits including loans and G.I. Bill aid. Hillsdale College initiated its own programs of grants and loans, and maintaining its independence from federal and state taxpayer subsidies has remained a cornerstone of the college’s educational mission.