Hillsdale College editor finds carcasses on porch following publication's critical editorial on baseball team

[caption id="attachment_384" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="This photo provided by The Collegian shows Hillsdale College senior Rob Ogden peering out of his off-campus house to see his front porch littered with dead animal carcasses Monday, April 6, 2009 in Hillsdale, Mich. (AP Photo/Andrew Dodson, The Collegian)"][/caption]

By RJ WALTERS / Hillsdale Daily News Sports Editor

As published in the Hillsdale Daily News on April 9, 2009


Animal carcasses were found on the porch of an editor of the Hillsdale College newspaper several days after the publication ran an editorial critical of the college baseball team.

In its April 2 edition, The Collegian ran an editorial titled “We like baseball, but not this kind,” which strongly criticized a Charger team that had lost nine of its last 10 games prior to publication. The piece even hinted that it would be best if the college just got rid of the program altogether.

The editorial also took direct shots at the players, stating: “Most of you walk around campus with this chip-on-my-shoulder, badass tempo. How is this possible? It’s not enough for you to simply lumber around like the other disappointing athletes? Lose the stride boys.”

Collegian editor-in-chief Joy Pavelski said the staff couldn’t come to agreement on what topic to editorialize on with deadline approaching early Thursday morning. So the newspaper just “ran with it.” Pavelski said the staff did not think it would cause such an uproar at the time, but they strongly regret the decision and are “not really surprised people would be angry about a personal attack.”

She said she encountered an onslaught of phone calls and e-mails by noon Thursday. At the same time, people were posting comments about the articles online and a Facebook group was created to support the baseball team and lash out against the newspaper.

Nearly 100 comments were posted beneath the online version of the piece, including some so profane and derogatory Pavelski said The Collegian decided to pull them off the Web site Wendesday afternoon. Many of the harsh remarks were posted by what appeared to be Charger baseball players according to the user names, but their actual identity could not be confirmed.

On April 3, the paper’s editorial staff published an apology on its Web site, stating: “Maybe the right sentiment was there in the beginning, but what we published was poorly written, reported and edited. We kicked a guy when he was down; published an opinion rooted in gossip rather than reported fact. Especially, we never should have attacked the character of the baseball team or the coaching staff.”

Then the saga took a grisly turn when the carcasses were placed on the front porch of
Collegian section editor John Krudy’s residence at 244 N. West St., around 1:30 a.m. Monday morning according to eyewitness Nathanael Rea, according to The Collegian’s report.

Rea, a senior who lives at 242 N. West St., peered through his window and saw several people with shovels.

“I thought they were shoveling snow,” Rea said. “But they were using a shovel to carry the small dead animals.”

Rea said he saw figures dragging the carcasses across the street from 243 N. West St., a residence commonly referred to as “The Baseball House” by students.

The carcasses included one-and-a-half deer, several large rodents and a black goat with alleged gunshot wounds. A copy of the April 2 edition of The Collegian was found beneath the goat.

City police and Dean of Men Aaron Petersen arrived on the scene early Monday evening, according to Hillsdale College Associate Vice President Chris Bachelder. But Pavelski said no charges were pressed.

Hillsdale Public Safety Director Chris Gutowksi said his department responded to the incident, but the investigation was being handled by campus security. He said his department would continue its investigation in conjunction with the college only to close out its own complaint file.

“It appears to be road kill,” Gutowksi said. “There is certainly enough of that in this county.”

Bachelder called the incident a “regrettable, immature and ill-advised prank”. He also said while the college would not release in-depth details on the matter, “the persons responsible have apologized, the residents of the house where this occurred have accepted the apology and we’re going to continue doing some internal things.”

He also declined to say whether any members of the baseball team were being punished, or whether any action will be taken against members of the newspaper staff.

In the meantime healing has begun to take place between the newspaper and the baseball team, after both parties met with advisers and administrators Wednesday.

“I can’t really say that (the baseball team) as a group are planning an apology because that’s something that they’re thinking about right now as far as I can tell, but I know that the team captain and I are going to meet and mutually apologize sometime soon, and maybe even the entire team, that just hasn’t happened yet,” Pavelski said.

Baseball players were not available to comment on Wednesday, but a message from sophomore infielder Adam Connell was posted on Facebook in the group “We like baseball, especially this kind” started by Kirsten Elizabeth, a student at the college.

In the post, Connell admitted to posting several messages on The Collegian Web site under the pseudonym “Tommy Tough Guy” and he also had this to say to group members: “I would like to thank everyone in this group but also apologize for the way I’ve been acting. It’s just really hard not to be full of myself while playing for a team that has lost 11 of our last 12 games.”

Calls were made to head baseball coach Paul Noce, and athletic director Don Brubacher, but they were re-directed to Bachelder.

Pavelski said the events have created a stir at the college, but six students were asked about the incident while on campus Wednesday, and five declined to comment.

Skylar Walker, a senior political science and classical studies double major from Houston, Texas, who is a member of the school’s swim team had plenty to say though. She was directly targeted by comments on the newspaper’s Web site, despite the fact she no longer writes for the publication, after freelancing five articles for them last year.

She said she actually supported the editorial based on what she knows about the baseball team.

“Coming from my point of view they’re not trying hard enough and I can see them give up and I mentioned that in my first comment (on the Web site),” said Walker, a self-proclaimed baseball fanatic. “I can see them give up in a one-run game in the sixth inning, and for a fan to watch that, it’s disheartening.”

Hillsdale city mayor Michael Sessions, who is also a student at the college, said it is an “unfortunate situation” that local law enforcement officials have handled well.

“I think we’re going to do our best to prevent this in the future and hopefully it doesn’t happen, and quite frankly it is disturbing, but we hope it doesn’t happen again,” he said. “I think it was more or less between two parties at the college and it seems to have a gone a bit too far unfortunately.”

An e-mail to Rea and phone call to Kevin King, who also lives at 244 N. West St. were not returned.

HDN News Editor Thomas Marcetti contributed to this report.