Artificial Intelligence and Oral Exams

SPEAKER_1 (0:04)

Every week, Hillsdale College president Larry Arnn joins Hugh Hewitt to discuss great books, great men, and great ideas. This is Hillsdale Dialogues, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More episodes at podcast.hillsdale.edu or wherever you find your audio.

Hugh Hewitt (0:32)

Morning, glory, and evening, grace, America, I'm Hugh Hewitt. That music means it's the last broadcast hour of the week, and that means it's the Hillsdale Dialogues. Time for Dr. Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, to be back. I don't know if the leaves are turning in Hillsdale yet. It's October, Dr. Arnn.

Are we having a good fall? Is it a good start? Are you winning football games at Hillsdale?

Larry Arnn (0:55)

We're three and one and we lost to a top 10 team on the last play of the game when they blocked a field goal. So we're pretty good, I think. And that-

Hugh Hewitt (1:05)

Have you got one of those big offensive linemen that you send to the NFL every four or five years?

Larry Arnn (1:10)

We've got several of them. And you know, we have a new coach.

This is his third year and he's a really great guy. He's a Hillsdale graduate. He was an offensive lineman, which we all know, scored the highest on the NFL intelligence team. They give them all.

We offensive linemen are smart. And it's just that I was not very good, so I'm not that smart either. But he's a brilliant guy and we're sort of creative and we're faster. And the football team has the same academic standards as the rest of the college. So I'm proud of all that.

Hugh Hewitt (1:48)

Well, I wish the Chargers, well, they're a very good program up there, as is. Their athletic department, their cross country team. A Hillsdale cross country runner, your friend and mine, Jack Butler, became sort of a star of stage and screen this week when he made a video.

He wrote a piece on cross country for the journal, but he made a video about not having eaten sugar since he was 14, but he had to eat his wedding cake. That's a little odd, don't you think?

Larry Arnn (2:14)

Well, I hope he had a good honeymoon despite his unpreparedness.

Hugh Hewitt (2:19)

I mean, no sugar.

Larry Arnn (2:20)

Oh, our women's pistol team just won the national championship. Two of our shotgun shooters, a girl and a boy, just made the US national team, which means they're poised to compete to get on the Olympic team.

Hugh Hewitt (2:34)

Once you're that good at shooting, do you even have to recruit or do the shooters find you?

Larry Arnn (2:40)

Well, they find us. We have a really, it's very odd thing.

A man left us a farm in Minnesota. We never met the man, and this is 20 years ago.

And we sold the farm for 1.4 million, which is too much to give back and not enough to do it. And it was for shooting sports, and we didn't have any. And so we started working away at the fringes. I don't believe in spending money till you get it. But people, a lot of people have been very generous with us, and we have a world-class facility now. I'm not exaggerating. The International Paralympic Indoor Shooting is going to be at Hillsdale College next year. And the US. Olympic teams use us as a home, where they're official home. So it's just gotten completely out of hand.

Hugh Hewitt (3:28)

One more question in that regard. My brother-in-law, before he got old, used to teach people how to do the biathlon, where you would ski and lie down and shoot. Does Hillsdale do the biathlon? Because you get enough snow.

Larry Arnn (3:40)

No, we don't get enough snow. We're in the tropics of the Upper Midwest. And I'm tempted by the idea this year, apparently you can do this for like $100,000, which is a lot of money.

But I'm tempted by the idea of getting a used cooler and building a skating rink in the front campus so we can skate in the winter.

Hugh Hewitt (4:03)

Oh, that would be...

Well, you should do that. That would be fun. Yeah, somebody out there, send Dr. Arnn $100,000 and tell him to build a skating rink so that they can have a Christmas tree on it. Dr. Arnn, I've got to ask you about two things unrelated to... First of all, the last two weeks we've had Professor Stephen Smith talking about his video course on the Iliad. He is a five-star guest, teacher, lecturer, expert on the Iliad. Has that course gone through the roof or do they all go through the roof?