Next fall, Hillsdale College will enter the major leagues of academia when the first group of graduate students begins taking classes.
Hillsdale College’s Graduate School of Statesmanship will host its first graduate class of about five doctoral students and 10 master’s students [this fall], said Ronald Pestritto, associate professor of politics and dean of the graduate program. Pestritto said he does not expect the size of future groups to increase.
“Offers of admission to both the doctoral program and the master’s program were extended in early February,” Pestritto said. “Those offered admission have until April to let us know if they will be coming. By the end of April we should have a firm commitment for our first class.”
Pestritto said he received about 40 applications and extended some 15 offers of admission.
He said one Hillsdale senior has been admitted to the master’s program. Both programs have waiting lists.
“We were very pleased with both the number and quality of the applications we received, especially for a program just starting up.”
Applicants submitted an online application, three letters of recommendation, a writing sample, a statement of interest, and their GRE scores.
The graduate school’s faculty includes Pestritto, college President Larry Arnn, professors of politics Mickey Craig, Robert Eden, Thomas West, and Will Morrisey, assistant professors of politics John Grant and Kevin Portteus, and Professor of History Paul Rahe.
Pestritto said all of the politics faculty will teach graduate courses on a regular rotation. Faculty members from other disciplines will teach interdisciplinary doctoral humanities seminars every year. Eight such sessions will be taught next academic year.
In addition, language faculty will work with doctoral students, since doctoral students have to qualify in one ancient and one modern language prior to writing their dissertation, he said.
“[Graduate classes] will be offered mostly at off-peak times in order to avoid problems with classroom usage,” Pestritto said. “The graduate students will live exclusively off-campus, though they will be integrated into many areas of campus life, and of course we will see them using common facilities like the library [and] gym.”
Rahe will teach a course on Italian statesman Niccolò Machiavelli next spring.
“I am technically a historian,” he said, “and what I bring to bear on the study of political philosophy that makes my perspective unusual is a focus on the historical context in which the works are written and on the immediate audience and the manner in which the argument is presented to that audience. We will be looking at Machiavelli as a political agent in Florence, at the crises of the time, and at the manner in which he addresses these.”
Rahe said while this topic is similar to undergraduate seminars he has taught in the past, the class will be more rigorous and demanding.
Rahe, in the course of his career, has already taught courses in which both graduate and undergraduate students were enrolled.
“I have found the mix of the two great fun,” he said.
Morrisey will teach Studies in Statesmanship — a course on the political thought of World War II statesmen Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle.
Like Rahe, Morrisey said his graduate courses will center more around discussion since they are smaller seminars.
“I hope they come away from my class with a better understanding of how eminent statesmen think about the problems they face,” Morrisey said.
Morrisey said he expects his interactions with graduate students to differ from those with undergraduate students because they will be older students with specific career goals in mind.
Rahe thinks teaching graduate students will be similar to teaching undergraduates.
“Students are students,” Rahe said. “They are eager to learn. I am looking forward to the intellectual challenge.”
The graduate school was unconditionally accredited, Pestritto said.
“I think we are in very good shape in terms of being prepared for the fall,” he said. “I hope that the program will enhance the academic life of the campus and help reinforce the great academic community that we have here. We see the program as a new way of pursuing the same mission that the college has had since its founding.”
The most rewarding part of working as the dean of the graduate program has been talking with prospective graduate students, he said.
“When someone is considering graduate school, you really need to get to know them and what interests them.”