Tucked in the hills of Michigan stands tall a small liberal arts college unlike any other American higher education institution. Hillsdale College teaches the history, philosophy and principles of individual liberty and limited government, the principles which gave rise to American independence. Under the guidance of George Roche, president of Hillsdale College for the past 26 years, the school’s teachings are expanding into every corner of America, promising to carry on the American legacy for generations to come.

WH: Hillsdale College has blazed a path of educational independence by refusing to accept any federal funding. Why is this financial independence so important to Hillsdale College?

GR: We found that without our financial independence, we would be beholden to, and therefore regulated by, the federal government as most American Colleges and Universities now are. We think that independence allows us to offer a traditional quality education emphasizing the values which built this country.

WH: How many colleges in the United States today refuse to accept the federal government’s funding?

GR: Almost none. There are a few very small denominational schools who do so on first amendment religious grounds, but the majority of American higher educational institutions are in the Government’s pocket, and because they are, they find themselves beholden to their government and, therefore, increasingly politically correct and increasingly unable to stand for traditional American values.

WH: When a college accepts the federal government’s money, they have to institute the programs that the federal government expects, is that correct?

GR: Yes, there are all sorts of ways in which this shows up. Part of it is through affirmative action. Once you are a recipient of federal funds, there are quotas attached to who can be hired as a professor, who can be admitted as a student, and who will receive scholarship aid. If you’re controlling who is doing the learning and who is doing the teaching then you have an awful lot to say about what happens on a college campus.

WH: Hillsdale has fought to keep this independence for the past 150 years at great expense. Why do you continue to take this stand?

GR: We are determined to continue to take this stand because we believe in a traditional liberal arts education, which means a variety of things. It means the Greeks, the Romans, the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Magna Charta, and the British liberties of the individual subject. It means the whole body of history and philosophy and literature and politics and economics based on personal responsibility and obligation, based upon limited government, based upon institutions which give maximum freedom for people to determine the conditions of their own lives. It means the American application of the entire body of ideas in the founding of this country and in the formation of the experiment in liberty which we achieved here as the American people. That whole heritage we feel should be passed on to the next generation. No matter how a person intends to earn his or her living, we think it’s important that they also have a basic idea of citizenship and their responsibilities and their entire heritage, which together makes their lives possible. We think the broad liberal arts tradition is what the heart of education ought to be about, and we feel it is exactly that tradition which is so heavily under attack in most American colleges and universities today.

WH: Critics of your stand say that your policies must discriminate against different groups because you refuse to fill federal quotas. Do you agree?

GR: No, to say that we should judge people by racial groups or gender groups and grant privileges on that basis, is what is truly discriminatory. Here we simply judge our people one at a time. We’ve done so for over 150 years. The second woman in the United States and the first woman in Michigan ever to receive a bachelors degree received it here on the Hillsdale campus. We were the first school in the country to include equal opportunity for women in our charter. We had blacks and women as members of our student body and our faculty before the Civil War. We were in the anti-discrimination business for over 100 years before the government figured out there was a problem.

WH: How is the Hillsdale College curriculum different from other colleges, and what is the educational goal you want to achieve with each student?

GR: We think that the entire body of self responsibility, limited government, personal integrity, and free markets, is basic to any proper education and we think that is the heart of what we do here at the college. Our mission statement refers specifically to that core curriculum. It also refers specifically to the fact that we can’t carry out that task if we are beholden to political funding. When Hillsdale’s original decision was undertaken to stay private, money was being thrown at higher education, and so for the first time, many schools had an opportunity to receive political funding. Most of them took it, but the trustees knew even then, 35 years ago, that to accept such funds sooner or later would make us beholden to that political process. It was a very courageous decision for them to refuse that money. The local pharmacist downtown (one of the trustees of the college at the time) more than once helped to pay the balance of the faculty salaries. Payday came out of the drug store till. Yet, they didn’t take federal money when most private schools were doing so. And of course, that was the basis of everything we’ve been able to do since.

WH: What does Hillsdale look for in the students and those who apply to attend?

GR: In the first place, we want people who can compete in a difficult academic environment. It’s a hard school and I hope we make it harder every year. That’s what we ought to be doing. However, in addition to that, we have so many people applying from around the country that we can look for other things as well. We’re looking not only for academic ability but also for character. Real leaders, we find, come from all different walks of life and parts of the country, all different backgrounds. The people of real quality and real character, as well as leadership ability, are what we want in our students here at the College.

WH: The Hillsdale library has one of the best collections of texts and manuscripts published on our founding fathers and constitutional ideas. Why is this library important to the College?

GR: Our heritage collection here at Hillsdale College is one of the finest collections in the country. We believe strongly in individual liberty and in the whole body of the classical tradition, the western tradition and of course the American Founders. We think it is absolutely the fundamental premise to be passed on to the next generation.

WH: You have an aggressive conference lecture series and in the past have brought in guest speakers such as Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister, and Steve Forbes of Forbes Magazine. What do these conferences add to a student’s education?

WH: So, many of the speakers and faculty as well as other people associated with these programs, have helped turn collectivism around in the country?

GR: Yes, I think we’re not at the stage yet where we’ve turned it around because right now it looks as though the collectivist mentality is still way ahead. But, we don’t really have to destroy the collectivist myth, it will destroy itself. Elementary and secondary public education in this country is in a terrible mess! Most of higher education with it’s political correctness departing from its tradition and purpose, is in a terrible mess. Politics is a bad joke. We don’t feel well represented or well governed. The economic damage which grows from regulatory activities, the whole process of what is happening in our present social order, make it clear that collectivism is in serious trouble. What we are providing is a series of alternative ideas that offer freedom in place of collective control, and I think many of the American people are ready to hear that message, and as the debate grows, as the existing collectivism fails, we will act upon it.

WH: These are the same ideas and principles that influenced the American Constitution, is that correct?

GR: Absolutely, the whole story of the American Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, the founding of the country and the formation of the United States Constitution. That entire formative period in the late eighteenth century, was not only the model for the American experience, but finally it has become the model for the entire world. We have more freedom, more opportunities and more success in doing something about it here in America than any other country that ever existed. That’s why we’re the ideal place to stand up and take back that independence.

WH: How was the college started?

GR: We were founded in 1844. Like most small, mid-western colleges we were founded privately, but with a religious denomination, in our case, the Free Will Baptists. We have not been denominational for a hundred years. There’s still a strong body of Christian belief here on the campus and is reflected in the basic ideas which we offer. But it is not denominational in character, it is what C.S. Lewis called "mere Christianity," that body of belief which, in fact, unites us all. On that basis we have pursued these ideas, but it grew from a founding of some very independent people with a deep faith in God, a deep faith in their country and a deep belief in the necessity for responsible individual citizenship.

WH: What did you do prior to coming to Hillsdale?

GR: In the five years immediately preceding my coming to Hillsdale, I was director of the seminars at the Foundation for Economic Education in New York, a free market, limited government, freedom oriented foundation specializing in political and economic matters. Before that I had grown up on a ranch in the mountains in Colorado. I had gone off to the Marines and had enlisted in 1952, and came back to teach school. I went back to graduate school at the University in Colorado in Boulder and later taught at the University of Colorado and the Colorado School of Mines. Then I went to New York to be director of seminars for Leonard Read and his Foundation for Economic Education. I was there five years, wrote four books, one of which was specifically directed toward the damage that the government was doing in American Education. When the Chancellor of some 20 years was retiring from Hillsdale in 1971, a number of people suggested to the trustees that I was the right person to come here as President. I’ve been here for over 26 years now.

WH: What do you see in the years ahead for Hillsdale College?

GR: I think the years immediately ahead of us are going to be very, very exciting. We live in a moment in time when some very challenging things are going to occur. We already, for twenty-five years plus, have built a strong national reputation of being a first rate College that teaches the right things, that is well known to a very wide national audience with the Shavano conference series and Imprimis and we are at the stage where I believe collectivism is crumbling and as it crumbles the alternatives which we offer can make a big difference in producing the third American century. Hillsdale has always been an exciting place for me to be and I think the years ahead are going to be even more challenging and even more exciting.

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