The 12th president of Hillsdale College, Dr. Larry P. Arnn saying something probably engaging and insightful. More information can be found at www.hillsdale.edu.

Evidently the phrase liberal education doesn’t mean ‘classes taught by left-wing nut balls’ after all. It doesn’t mean ‘learning many different things’ either, which seems to be the common understanding of the concept. The phrase is derived from Latin and means ‘education of the free people,’ or what Romans were taught in order to lead productive lives as free citizens. This much was made clear in an April 11 speech by Dr. Larry P. Arnn, the president of Hillsdale College.

Hillsdale is a small school of around 1300 students, but its message, spoken so eloquently by its president, is bigger than the message of all other great universities in America combined. The message is that we are a nation of free individuals and that proper education is necessary for this country to thrive.

It would seem, on the surface, that Hillsdale’s message is no different than any other educational institution out there. All colleges and universities acknowledge that we are free and that we should be educated properly. But Hillsdale is unique in that it actually upholds its mission.

As Dr. Arnn explained, Hillsdale does this in two ways. (1) It was the first chartered institution to accept students irrespective of race or sex, and has never based its admissions on either discrimination. Most other universities began with some sort of discriminatory admissions policies, whether it was not accepting women or Afro-inds, and almost all do so now in reverse under the mast of Affirmative Action.

(2) Hillsdale has never accepted subsidies in the form of federal grants. Understandably, this is a most striking fact since higher education is synonymous with government spending, but the separation of school and state was the norm before the 1950s. Federal money was never given to institutions of higher learning until the USSR’s Sputnik spurred the US government to encourage the study of science. After an initial hesitation, all major universities excepted the contract. All, except for Hillsdale.

They hesitated at first because they believed that money from the government would inevitably compromise the integrity of the school. The institution would no longer serve as a place where minds could grow freely; it would be a place where minds would be led in one particular direction. That direction is noticeable in the 650 pages of regulations that come with federal aid, pages that Hillsdale does not have to abide by.

With the restraint Hillsdale has shown from accepting federal grants, money that would amount to very beneficial financial assistance, it has gained the kind of freedom that this nation intended its liberal colleges to have in the first place. That independence, evident in the founding fathers’ writings, is crucial to the pursuit of justice in any aspect of life and especially in one that encompasses so many of those aspects—education. It is by means of their independence that Hillsdale can focus on, as the school’s mission statement says, “such moral and social instruction as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of its pupils,” a doctrine that all schools champion, but so few can actually back up.

It is clear after attending Hillsdale’s San Diego gathering that we need these kinds of institutions to thrive and multiply. And fortunately, according to Dr. Arnn, thriving is exactly what is happening with the college. Enrollment maxes out yearly, class sizes are balanced, community is strong, and school financials are healthy. It is a sign of the revitalized demand for the Hillsdale ethos that a school refusing government subsidies and relying solely on its donors and patrons for funding, is thriving like it is. It is up to the creative youth in our nation to figure out how to multiply it.