A Modified Rant on CCAs ("We're Schizophrenic in Multiple Directions up Here!")

I'm keeping the last entry up, mostly because I want to keep a record of my thinking (however reactionary) at that particular moment. But this is my slightly more reasoned analysis of the issue.

First off -- this is mostly an ideological objection to the current status of the CCAs. I've only attended two actual lectures, so I can't speak from personal experience to any great extent. I'm hoping Medved and Decatur are not representative of the general tenor of CCA lectures, but I'm not exactly encouraged.

Second -- before my fellow students crucify me for complaining -- yes, I chose to come to this college, knowing its political stance, and knowing, for the most part, what I was getting into. But in choosing to come here, one cannot assume that I was happily accepting every principle and philosophy of this institution. Hillsdale College is...unique, to say the least. Composed of a schizophrenic hodgepodge of ideals and visions. I've run into the "enculturator of conservative thought" ideal, the "broad, liberally-oriented education" ideal, the "good business school" ideal, and the "good general education" ideal. We have our mission statement, of course -- and we have radically different ideas about which implications and phrases of it are the most important.

I'm not sure what to call these conflicting visions. Facets? Factions? I'm leaning toward the less amicable term "faction," mainly because there exist active attempts by various individuals to shape Hillsdale toward their particular vision.

And I'm not saying that such action is a bad thing. I'm perfectly willing to grant the political and the business people the right to shape Hillsdale's mission in the direction they prefer. Provided I'm also extended the same right to shape Hillsdale toward the quite different ideals that attracted me.

Now -- CCAs. Their trouble is that they end up being a crux point of controversy in this issue. In themselves, CCAs are not intolerable. Just 2-3 hours of extra lectures per day, and a paper due at the end. But the extra work is really not the point. The point is their philosophical and symbolic significance. Drawing a rather provocative analogy, it's rather like the British tax on tea in the 1760s. A tax that was 1/16 of a cent (more or less) was nothing worth fighting a war over. But they ideas that lay behind it sure were.

In a somewhat similar matter, CCAs represent to a sector of students much more that a week of required lectures, a paper, and usually a good bit of political propagandizing. They represent an attempt to impose a specific vision of Hillsdale on Hillsdale. (Namely, the "political thinktank" vision). This, I believe, is also why there was such a hullabaloo over the "Constitution Class" becoming a part of the core curriculum.

Again, I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Some vision is going to end up being imposed. Whether it's political or business of liberal arts or "why can't we all just get along." However, I can still be a bit upset about the current direction things are going. I can still try to change it. And I can still try to make the vision that I came to Hillsdale for a bit more prominent.

In regard to a final solution to the CCA dilemma...I'd suggest that the administration make them voluntary. In my perfect world, they wouldn't exist at all, or they'd actually be lecture series, and not a series of political diatribes (the CS Lewis and Tolkien one next semester looks promising in this regard). But CCAs (and their political bent) are going to keep existing as long as the "enculturator of conservative thought" and "political thinktank" visions exist here at Hillsdale. Lots of students come here for those reasons and visions. So keep the CCAs. Let any kid who wants to attend them and take them for credit do so. But let us people who could care less about politics ignore them.