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Hope College is a private Christian liberal college located in western Michigan. The campus is near an historic downtown. You know the ones. Old department store signs fading on exposed brick exteriors, hotels converted to assisted living facilities and one-off coffee shops meant to keep the collegiate youth buzzing from orientation to midterms to finals. It’s in the town of Holland and touts its Dutch heritage. In fact, it is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America and the athletic mascot has been the Dutchmen since the early 1900s, upgraded to the Flying Dutchmen in 1958 by a sports writer at the student newspaper.

It's quaint.

It’s idyllic.

And it has been lost to the woke mindvirus.

I am an alum of Hope College. My parents met there. My dad’s parents met there. I went to school before Turning Point’s time, but I was somewhat engaged in the political groups at Hope College. The school didn’t really come back on my radar until after I left California during the BLM riots. While the country was in turmoil, newly-appointed President Matthew Scogin only had euphemistic platitudes. This led me to a disturbing trend: while Hope College claimed a Christian worldview, while Hope College is a liberal arts college that purports to “educate students for lives of leadership and service,” Hope College’s Board of Trustees had found a president that would isolate the school from reality, ignore what was happening in the outside world and refuse to engage in the moral and spiritual battle that has been ravaging our country while pushing a social justice, DEI, Leftist agenda.

Matthew Scogin became president of Hope College in 2019. While he had big plans for the school, he was immediately challenged by something he would rather not deal with: the formation of a Turning Point chapter on Hope’s campus. It would seem like a shoo-in. Hope College’s list of alumni includes prominent pastors and politicians, including Pete Hoekstra, who served as a US Representative before being selected as President Trump’s Ambassador to the Netherlands in 2016 and Ambassador to Canada in 2025.

Student Maryn Setsuda went through the process, found a faculty advisor, and tried to get TPUSA on campus. Yet, Hope College denied her, claiming the organization did not meet the qualifications of “Christian Aspirations.” Brietbart.com covered the event at the time.

Setsuda, not one to give up, continued pushing. How were the Hope Democrats, advocates for abortion, meeting the Christian aspirations criteria? The school has seemingly gone all in on DEI. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion (still in operation, despite President Donald Trump’s executive order) sponsors the LGBTQ group, Prism, making that politically charged organization. The Hope Democrats advocated for abortion on campus. How did that live up to “Christian Aspirations?” Well, “Christian Aspirations” was a new concept. One that replaced Hope College’s previous Position Statement on Human Sexuality, a biblical worldview mission statement updated in 2011.

The Board of Trustees removed Hope’s Position Statement on Human Sexuality in the summer of 2019, around the same time they hired Matthew Scogin. Where Hope College once believed, “This biblical witness calls us to a life of chastity among the unmarried and the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman,” and “…Hope College will not recognize or support campus groups whose aim … is to promote a vision of human sexuality that is contrary to this understanding of biblical teaching.” Matthew Scogin made public remarks at an open discussion in January of 2020 regarding the removal of the position statement.

And, just like that, in a span of six short years, Hope College abandoned its Judeo-Christian heritage in the name of political correctness.

Inclusion.

Toxic empathy.

Critical theory.

Cultural Marxism.

Hope has fallen.

In June of 2020, the Center for Diversity and Inclusion pushed a message of systemic racism and social injustice in a town hall with Matthew Scogin participating. Scogin himself spoke on racial inequity and structural injustice. The video is unlisted on YouTube, but still available as of this posting.

At 07:39, Scogin says:

“...and I would say, I don’t think this is an exaggeration, I actually think these last three months have been one of the most devastating three month periods in our history as a country and, of course, Covid 19 has been a part of that. One thing that Covid 19 has revealed is that the disease has revealed some structural racial inequity.”

He went on to say at 08:25:

“There’s just been more overt things and continued overt acts of violence and racism, of course culminating with the murder of George Floyd last week. And so it’s just been this devastating, devastating period. I can’t pretend to know how you are feeling and experiencing this…I can’t pretend to know how our colleagues and our students of color are feeling and experiencing this.”

In 2021, the Office of the President mentioned George Floyd and offered campus resources to deal with his death.

His death? Or the violent riots that were carried out in his name?

A source at the Hope College office told me that another attempt was made to form a TPUSA chapter at Hope College in 2023 but was again denied. And, why not? Maryn Setsuda had put up enough of a fight that the administration now knew how and where to snuff it out before it even began.

Hope College sponsored a Black Lives Matter art installment. Right now, Hope College has a microagression toolkit through the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The same office provides “anti-racism” resources which is just a list of books that include authors such as Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robin Dianglo, and Ibram X. Kendi, authors who wear their anti-whiteness on their sleeves. The list also includes books on critical race theory and why American Christians need a new perspective on reparations. In fact, it is the church’s obligation to provide reparations because the church was responsible for the promotion and preservation of white supremacy.

(Ironically, Christianity is largely responsible for the ending of the slave trade to America and, the faith of the Founding Fathers compelled them to leave a path toward ending slavery in the United States’ Constitution.)

President Scogin even attended a BLM protest organized on campus. A protest that proceeded off campus into the Holland’s picture-perfect Midwestern downtown.

If there’s one message Hope College wants to send, it’s that they will cave to the Leftist narrative, follow the marching orders of Democrats and media personalities. The real world outside might not penetrate Hope College’s exterior, but the narrative certainly will.

When President Donald Trump was shot in July of 2024, Hope College’s social media accounts were silent. An assassin’s bullet tore through President Trump’s ear, and no one said a word. A college that prides itself in its Christian heritage had no thoughts or prayers. The closest Scogin ever got to addressing the election was calling it “heated.”

When Charlie Kirk was killed, I had enough. I wrote a letter to Scogin, Campus Ministries, Student Life, the Board of Trustees, any member of the faculty I could publicly shame. If you would like to read the letter, I have made it available here.

Hope College had no public response to the murder of Charlie Kirk. No thoughts. No prayers. Not one breath wasted on a man who dedicated his life to spreading the Christian message and trying to reveal the truth to children on the cusp of adulthood.

And maybe that’s the point, isn’t it? Hope College’s staff, led by President Scogin, has gone above and beyond to toe the line, to maintain the status quo, to limit the discourse in academia and Charlie Kirk did the opposite.

A few days later, seemingly under pressure from outside sources of which I hope that my letter was a part, President Scogin made a statement…to faculty and staff. A limp-wristed, milquetoast statement provided here.

Scogin begins by saying that he’s:

(Image Source: Hope.edu)

“...Made a practice of not reacting to current events by issuing a statement.”

While, as we can see from the examples above, Matthew Scogin is more than happy to make public statements on current events when it follows a Leftist narrative.

At 1:18 into his video to staff, he says:

“...that’s what Martin Luther King, Jr. meant when he said the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Matthew Scogin and Leftist president Barack Obama like to cherry pick the same quotes to justify their responses to current events.

At 2:27, Scogin says:

“I’m thinking of letting go of things like social media. Social media can be a powerful tool for creating community. I use social media and I will continue to do so, but what social media is not built for is having serious conversations. Serious conversations about politics or ideology or theology. If you want to have that kind of conversation, my advice would be to do it on a human level where you can look someone in the eye and really hear them and really listen and really talk.”

Like what Steven Crowder does with Change my Mind? Or like what Charlie Kirk was doing at the very moment he was assassinated?

At 4:32, Scogin says:

“See, here’s the thing, I, I hear a lot of people talk today about spiritual warfare and spiritual warfare is real. But what troubles me about the way I hear a lot of people talking about it is that we’re directing spiritual warfare not to, uh-uh, spiritual forces of evil, but we’re directing those conversations to other human beings who hold different ideologies than we do. Spiritual warfare and culture wars are not the same thing.”

Well, I hope that means he read my letter, as I wrote:

“Americans have been fighting a spiritual war for the soul of this nation for decades. Poison has been dripping into ears for generations, as, year after year, church attendance drops lower and lower. Year after year, more and more people identify as atheists. Year after year, faith in Jesus Christ is replaced by the religion of politics and pseudo-science.”

I’m not sure how to make this clear to President Matthew Scogin. The battlefield of spiritual warfare is culture and ideology. Evil is an ideology. Turning Point. Louder with Crowder. Charlie Kirk. Steven Crowder have been engaged against that ideology for years.

Why the poor response from a (supposedly) Christian college in one of the most conservative counties in Michigan? Why the refusal to acknowledge Charlie Kirk’s impact on students like the ones attending Hope College?

How can Matthew Scogin set up a town hall to address Hope College’s black students one week after the death of George Floyd, but doesn’t talk about Charlie Kirk’s death?

Well, President Scogin is at war with Donald Trump. Scogin attacked President Trump’s education policies in April of 2025. He’s a contributor at Forbes.com and went after Trump’s education policy. He wants Trump out of the classroom. He doesn’t think that government should be involved in curriculum. Scogin says all the right words: it’s not indoctrination, it’s a free speech issue, government intervention should be resisted. And then comes the pitch for how he thinks tuition should be funded.

Even The Heritage Foundation refuses to consider Hope College a valid option in their study on choosing colleges with confidence.

Hope’s biggest rival, Calvin University, located in Grand Rapids gets a better rating.

Someone is fighting back. The Hope Republicans organized a prayer vigil for Charlie Kirk, an event that was attended by hundreds of students.

But that means that we have failed as alumni. We have sent children to fight our battles for us. Matthew Scogin is not fit to serve Hope College. He has caved to the Left-wing narrative, allowed himself to be swept up in Trump Derangement Syndrome, and ignores his duties as a leader so he can continue pushing his pay-it-forward payment plan on Forbes.com, conservatives be damned.

Hope College’s mission statement reads:

“The mission of Hope College is to educate students for lives of leadership and service in a global society through academic and co-curricular programs of recognized excellence in the liberal arts and in the context of the historic Christian faith.”

If you ignore the world, you are not interested in a global society. If you do not display leadership, you cannot teach it. Hope College cannot live up to its mission statement if it refuses to acknowledge where we are in the world.

Matthew Scogin does not want to fulfill Hope College’s mission statement. He wants to change it.

Matthew Scogin hides behind claims of open dialogues and academic conversations but prevents opposing viewpoints from having a seat at the table.

Matthew Scogin bemoans the decline of faith in higher education and yet represents everything that’s wrong with it.

And he’s not the only one.

The father of cultural Marxism, Antonio Gramsci, wrote of the “war of position.” He wanted to destroy Western culture by what was later called “the long march through the institutions.” If the institutions are worth saving, if Hope College is worth saving, it will be saved by alumni and donors refusing to fund it.

Every member of staff and faculty who denied Turning Point USA, every member of staff and faculty who remained silent as our country devolves into violence should be removed from their roles. They are not fit for college campuses.

The indoctrination must stop.

Hope College won’t see a dime from me until they turn themselves around.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

It’s time for a new dawn.

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Kate works in production at LwC and serves as both Cheese Correspondent and Person Who Reads What No One Else Wants To. She is the author of Live Like Legends. When she isn’t writing...who are we kidding? She’s always writing. You can find her here on X.

(Header image source: X/HopeCollege)