Over the summer, CLA major and sophomore Harrison Hutton interned with the John Locke Foundation and freelanced for the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. An article he wrote for the Martin Center, titled “Let the Left Copy Hillsdale: Explicitly progressive colleges should learn to make do without federal funding,” was highlighted in the National Review’s article by George Leef, “Colleges Can’t Survive Without Government Money — Can They?”
Leef quotes an excerpt of Harrison’s article, “One solution to the dilemma posed by this deterioration is a higher-education sector fully independent of federal aid, as exemplified by schools such as Hillsdale College and Patrick Henry College, which have rejected government funding to offer an alternative to ideologically captured institutions.”
This captures the essence of Harrison’s article, highlighting that many American colleges and universities have grown progressively dependent on federal funding, less efficient, and more expensive. Harrison’s example of non-subsidized independent schools (such as PHC) supplies the model for private colleges and universities to compete without federal funding.Harrison wasn’t aware of the mention in the National Review until friends began texting him congratulations. Pleasantly surprised, he attributes a large part of this success to PHC.
"As a student at PHC, my experience was definitely informed by their stance on federal funding, and the excellence and the standard of education at PHC definitely gave me the ammunition to write that article and to state that the way that I did," he said.
Patrick Henry College exists to glorify God by challenging the status quo in higher education, lifting high both faith and reason within a rigorous academic environment; thereby preserving for posterity the ideals behind the "noble experiment in ordered liberty" that is the foundation of America.