GRAND VALLEY
A L L E N D A L E & G R A N D R A P I DS , M I C H I G A N ST U D E N T- R U N P U B L I C A T I O N S // P R I N T · O N L I N E · M O B I L E // L A N T H O R N . C O M
M O N D A Y, O C TO B E R 2 3 , 2 0 1 7 // VO L . 52 N O. 1 8
INITIATIVES
GV’s Campus Links program recognized for support of ASD community BY SARAH HOLLIS NEWS@LANTHORN.COM
Online College Plan, a website that ranks the top online college degree programs in the country, recognized Grand Valley State University’s Campus Links program as one of the top 10 programs in the country for students with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The Campus Links program received this recognition for its success in helping students with ASD adjust to life at college and in preparing them to acclimate to their professional lives. The ranking was calculated based half on the freshman retention rate and half on the graduation rate for students with ASD at GVSU. These were calculated to be 84 percent and 66 percent, respectively. “The Campus Links program connects students who have Autism spectrum disorder with students who have been trained as coaches and mentors,” said Jason Osborne, senior program adviser at Disability Support Resources. “Campus Links mentors help students adjust to new environments and routines more quickly in the hopes mentees will have more fulfilling and enriched lives. “The program is unique among similar programs because the participants and mentors, and those diagnosed with ASD, live together in ... campus housing and provide daily support. We also have another sector of it that is not residential where a student still wants to live on campus or at home, and they can still be involved with the program and have a mentor, but they don’t have to live in the residential building.” The program began in the fall of 2012, and it has undergone many improvements to get where it is today. “When it first started, it was strictly residential; people lived in the South E Living Center, and then we added the Blue program, which is non-residential because we were finding that students didn’t always like to live in a specific housing unit or they wanted to live at home but they still needed the support of the program,” Osborne explained. There are several benefits for students who take part in the Campus Links program. “The benefits would be that they have support to help, with this particular disability, transition into a new environment, which is what they typically have the biggest trouble with,” Osborne said. “Plus, this provides social support.” Since the release of Online College Plan’s ranking, Campus Links has already experienced SEE LINKS | A2
ENVIRONMENT: GVSU green team member Sam Green educates students in Kleiner Commons. The green team, a campus dining program with volunteers from the Student Environmental Coalition, sponsors numerous events and initiatives at GVSU to promote sustainable living and habits. COURTESY | GVSU GREEN TEAM
Going ‘green’ BY KARINA LLOYD NEWS@LANTHORN.COM
As part of a campus-wide sustainability initiative, Grand Valley State University’s Student Environmental Coalition (SEC) is promoting sustainability on campus by teaming up with campus dining’s “green team” for their waste bin monitoring project to educate students on recycling and composting on campus. SEC is a student-run organization that helps promote sustainability on campus through service projects like a campus cleanup and “adopt a highway,” as well as fun enrichment activities like watching environmentbased movies once a month. GVSU prides itself on being a sustainable school. The university works to support the causes SEC holds dear by offering compostable cups and plates in the campus dining areas as well as creating “sort stations” throughout campus where trash can be sorted between recycling, composting and landfill items.
However, it was recently brought to the attention of campus dining that many students were disposing of their trash in the wrong bins. The goal on campus is to have at least 70 percent of the waste properly disposed of, but data found by the green team shows that students are currently not meeting this standard. This discrepancy prompted current green team intern Mara Spears to bring back the waste bin monitoring, a project on campus that ensures sustainable practices in campus dining areas. The project runs on the hard work of the green team as well as the volunteers brought in by SEC. The green team project has been in existence since the sort bins were first placed on GVSU’s campus years ago, though the waste bin monitoring has not been done every year. To help coordinate environment-focused events and incentives, campus dining assigned the role of green team intern to Spears. Along with this job, Spears’ responsibilities include coordinating
SUSTAINABILITY: The Student Environmental Coalition’s goal is to make sure that 70 percent of waste is correctly disposed of. COURTESY | GVSU GREEN TEAM
GV students educate peers on waste disposal at campus dining locations
green team volunteers, conduct- include all food and liquids as well ing bin motoring, helping run the as all campus dining eco-products adopt-a-highway initiative and like plates and containers. much more. According to Spears, When it comes to landfill items, about 90 percent of the green team Spears says, “when in doubt, throw it volunteers come directly from SEC. out” to avoid contaminating the com“We stand by the post or recycling bin. bins, and we inform There are other items students on what that can be found “The purpose of campus dining bins on GVSU’s campus the green team is to use and explain to where the rules are students what can be slightly different, such to educate Grand recycled, composted as wax paper plates, Valley students on and what has to be but these tips are a the availability of put in (the) landfill good rule of thumb to composting that (bin),” said Katelyn keep in mind. we have.” Tomaszewski, SEC GVSU freshman co-president and Caroline Adams was KYLE HART GVSU junior. first intimidated by CO-PRESIDENT, GVSU Tomaszewski and STUDENT ENVIRONMENTAL the numerous ways senior Kyle Hart to dispose of trash work together as cowhen she arrived at presidents of SEC and continue campus, simply because her high to help keep this initiative run- school did not offer such extenning along with many other pro- sive options. Now, with the help grams going on in SEC. of the green team, Adams has a “The purpose of the green team is better understanding of the systo educate Grand Valley students on tem, and she hopes it will help the availability of composting that we other students as well. have, and campus dining and Grand “I think having the students Valley as a whole put forth great ef- stand there and help other students fort to make things more sustain- learn what belongs in what trash able,” Hart said. “Every material cam- bin is a good idea because it can be pus dining puts forward ... is either confusing to some students,” Adams recyclable or compostable, but we see said. “I’ve seen other students on a disconnect in how well the students campus throw recycling items into are aware of that and how well they the (landfill bin). I think it will help put those items in the correct bins.” students in the future and help our Spears explained the general school become a better place.” rules of properly disposing of waste Spears, along with those on SEC, in a few simple steps: Recyclable check the waste bins once a month to items need the “chasing arrow” see how well students are sorting masymbol with a number from one terials on their own as a kind of audit to seven inside. These items have to see how the education of waste to be about 70 percent clean from food or water. Compostable items SEE GREEN | A2
REMEMBRANCE
GV community mourns the death of Helen DeVos BY ARPAN LOBO NEWS@LANTHORN.COM
Longtime supporter of Grand Valley State University Helen DeVos passed away Wednesday, Oct. 18, at the age of 90. The wife of Amway co-founder Richard DeVos, Helen DeVos was born in Grand Rapids in 1927. She married Richard DeVos in 1953, and together, the pair had a longstanding impact on GVSU. The DeVos couple played a pivotal role in the expansion of GVSU’s Pew Campus in Grand Rapids in the 1990s. The Richard M. DeVos Center was named in recognition of the family’s efforts to secure both land and funding for the project, according to a GVNow article. As well as the DeVos Center, the DeVos family also played a key role in fundraising for the Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences in Grand Rapids, as well as making the lead gift
toward the creation of the L. William Seidman Center on the Pew Campus. The Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, also located in Grand Rapids, bears her name after her four children, Dick, Dan, Cheri and Doug, combined to donate $50 million in their mother’s name. The facility opened in 2011 and treats thousands of children per year. Helen DeVos also served as a member of the advisory cabinet for the Grand Valley University Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides scholarships and grants for students, as well as other financial needs for the university to develop academic programs. The university gave her an honorary Doctor of Arts degree in 2010, and she was honored by GVSU with the naming of the Helen DeVos Presidential Scholarship in 2011. In that same year, GVSU recognized her as grand steward of the university. In 2014, she was inducted into GVSU’s Hall
of Fame and received an enrichment award from the university. GVSU President Thomas Haas sent out a university-wide email Thursday, Oct. 19, to remember DeVos. “Throughout her lifetime, Helen provided exceptional leadership and service to Grand Valley,” Haas said in the email. “She was passionate about education and a lifelong learner herself. Her leadership and support played a major role in the creation of the Richard M. DeVos Center, the Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences and the L. William Seidman Building, as well as many other campaigns and projects.” To pay tribute to DeVos, both carillon towers on the Allendale and Pew campuses will be lit with a blue “Laker Light.” The light is intended for students, faculty and staff to remember DeVos and her contributions to GVSU. SEE DEVOS | A2
A LIFE WELL-LIVED: Helen DeVos played a key role in the expansion of GVSU. DeVos passed away at the age of 90 Wednesday, Oct. 18. COURTESY | WZZM 13