SEE INSIDE: WINTER 2017-18 HOUSING GUIDE 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
GRAND VALLEY
VARSITY SPORTS RECAPS M O N D A Y, N OV E M B E R 1 3 , 2 0 1 7
SEE A7–A10
VO L . 52 N O. 24
RECOGNITION
Celebrating student leaders
Nominations open for annual ‘I Am Grand Valley’ campaign BY ANNE MARIE SMIT NEWS@LANTHORN.COM
T
he Grand Valley State University Office of Student Life recently launched its annual “I Am Grand Valley” campaign where, up through Thursday, Nov. 30, students, faculty and staff can nominate GVSU students with outstanding leadership skills to be formally recognized. The nomination process is fairly simple and only takes a couple of minutes. To nominate a student, GVSU community members can visit www.gvsu.edu/iamgv to fill out a short form, providing the nominator’s name, the nominee’s name and the reason why the nominated person is an excellent leader. The I Am Grand Valley campaign is non-competitive, meaning that its goal isn’t to single out a select number of students for their leadership. Any student can be nominated by another individual of the GVSU community. “Essentially, this is a non-selective recognition,” said Amber Gerrits, leadership staff assistant in the Office of Student Life and facilitator of the campaign. “This really strives to recognize all student leadership. Last year, we had 1,400 nominations.” Gerrits said students in the GVSU community can be leaders in different ways, and the I Am Grand Valley campaign strives to acknowledge all students who go above and beyond what is expected of them, either in their student organizations or in the classroom. “It’s to recognize a vast amount of student leadership across the board in a lot of different capacities,” Gerrits said. “I see it as a really great opportunity to recognize either people who are really hardworking in their student (organizations) and don’t get that recognition or freshman and emerging leaders that, maybe, this is the first time they’ve been recognized as a leader on campus, and then we try to connect them with other leadership opportunities.” Eric Stevens, assistant director of student organizations, views the campaign as a way for students to feel a sense of belonging within the GVSU community. “There aren’t a ton of opportu-
nities to give really good, positive messages to students or honor their leadership capabilities,” Stevens said. “I think it makes you feel like you belong more to Grand Valley when you win this award, and the thought process of I Am Grand Valley and what that means.” Both Gerrits and Stevens want to point out that the I Am Grand Valley campaign is not only about students recognizing other students, but it’s also a chance for faculty and staff members to ac-
knowledge student achievement. “I also like that it can come from students, so peers are encouraging each other, but (it’s) also an opportunity for faculty and staff to say, ‘Hey, you’re a rock star; this is what I appreciate about you,’” Stevens said. “Back when I was in college, I can remember very clearly the two or three times where faculty encouraged me and (spoke) into my life in a positive manner, and those are really important pieces that you take with you. That’s why we want to encourage
faculty and staff to be part of this because it means so much to students.” Students nominated for the I Am Grand Valley campaign will be contacted by Gerrits and invited to attend a reception. Here, students will receive a certificate for each nomination they received, containing the message the student, faculty or staff member wrote about them. Other gifts will also be dispersed. SEE LEADERS | A2
HONORING LAKERS: GVSU students gather in Lubbers Stadium on Thursday, Aug. 31. The “I Am Grand Valley” program is designed to give the GVSU community the opportunity to honor student leaders on campus. GVL | SPENCER SCARBER
DISABILITY PERSPECTIVES
‘Deaf World’ to show difficulty of living with a language barrier BY DREW SCHERTZER DSCHERTZER@LANTHORN.COM
Editor’s note: To clarify, “deaf” is being used to mean the inability to hear, whereas “Deaf” refers to a member of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community who uses American Sign Language as their primary language. Negotiating the price of flowers seems like a simple task for most people. However, the playing field is changed when there is a communication barrier. Members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community are faced with challenges in communicating in their everyday lives. To give perspective on this, the “Deaf World” event is being held at Grand Valley State University. Through this event, students will be given an opportunity to experience what members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community go through. “The goal is to expose hearing people to the Deaf culture,” said Rowan O’Dougherty, American Sign Language (ASL) professor at GVSU. “We want to show students how we experience the world.” Deaf World will take place Tuesday, Nov. 14, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Kirkhof Center Grand River Room. Fourteen tables will be set up around the room with interactive stations for students. Each station will be led by members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, who will instruct participants on different tasks they must accomplish, like ordering flowers from a florist. “We want to relay information and experiences in a non-threatening way to see what it feels like to struggle to get your point across,” said Misti Ryefield, assistant professor of allied health sciences and ASL. “Hopefully that will have some impact on their thinking.” People often don’t think about the struggles that members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community face, Ryefield said. O’Dougherty added that it can be a challenge to go into a restaurant to order a meal. Gesturing is good on a basic level but can only convey a small amount of information. Ryefield explained the need for SEE BARRIER | A2
GOVERNANCE
Student senate continues to push fall break proposal BY MEGAN WEBSTER MWEBSTER@LANTHORN.COM
LISTENING UP: GVSU student senate meets Thursday, Sep. 28. At the general assembly Thursday, Nov. 9, senate continued to discuss the standing of a fall break proposal that would add a break into GVSU’s academic calendar. GVL | HANNAH HILL
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The Grand Valley State University student senate continued to discuss the progress of the fall break proposal at its general assembly Thursday, Nov. 9. At its previous meeting Thursday, Nov. 2, student senate voted in favor of the mid-semester break, and the proposal was presented to the University Academic Senate Executive Board on Friday, Nov. 3. At the most recent senate meeting, Jonathan Bowman, GVSU student senate president, said the conversation at the Executive Board meeting was split roughly 50/50 in favor of and opposed to the fall break. “There were some mixed feelings about it,” Bowman said. “There were two separate thought processes going on. One was that we want to decide whether or not this is a good idea. There were the people in the room that just wanted to vote or decide whether or not fall is something that could work, and if it was,
we could figure out how it could work. I would say the other half of the room, they wanted to know exactly how it would affect students before they voted ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on it.” Bowman said the conversation lasted for about another hour with both sides of the room chiming in with their thoughts on the proposal. At the end of the meeting, it was decided that the issue would be tabled until the individuals in the room could talk with their respective departments. That way, the individuals who are representatives on the Executive Board could get a feel for what other faculty members think about a fall break. Bowman did return to a meeting with the University Academic Senate on Friday, Nov. 10, to hear what the members of the Executive Board had to say about the tabled proposal from the previous week. Bowman suspects that the proposal will move to a task force for a decision. “That was mentioned last Friday, SEE SENATE | A2