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
T H U R S D A Y, J A N U A RY 1 1 , 2 0 1 8 // VO L . 52 N O. 3 3
GOVERNANCE
GV appoints new VP of finance Gregory Sanial to assume role in February BY DEVIN DELY NEWS@LANTHORN.COM
After an extensive search, Grand Valley State University has selected a new vice president of finance. GVSU President Thomas Haas announced Tuesday, Jan. 2, that Gregory Sanial will assume the role starting in February. “We started the process in the summer,” Haas said. “We looked ahead in terms of what we needed for the VP of finance and created a search and screen committee. I wanted to make sure that we attracted the best person that we could because this particular position is critically important. We had interviews, and we had some very good candidates. All three finalists were quite talented, and Sanial was more than able to meet the requirements.” Sanial currently serves as the chief of staff for the U.S. Coast Guard Fifth District in Virginia, and before that, he held the position of budget director. As part of the new job, he will join the President’s Cabinet and Budget Committee and oversee all financial operations at GVSU. When he assumes his new job role, he will assist in the development of GVSU’s annual budget. “There was a number of things that stood out (about Sanial),” Haas said. “His breadth of experiences is pretty remarkable. He’s coming from the Coast Guard, where he was the budget officer for an $11 billion budget. He’s the individual who created the budget and submitted it to the Department of Homeland Security and to Congress.” Haas was also drawn to Sanial’s educational background, which he says made him even more desirable as a candidate. Sanial’s degrees include a doctorate in business administration and organizational leadership from Northcentral University, a master’s deSEE VP | A2
INITIATIVES: ‘It’s on Us: Champions of Change Kickoff’ was held in the Kirkhof Center on Oct. 7, 2016. The grant given to GVSU by the Michigan State Police will give programs like It’s on Us and the ReACT! performance group more opportunities to hold bystander intervention events. GVL | LUKE HOLMES
GV receives grant to combat sexual assault Funds to promote bystander intervention programming BY KARINA LLOYD ASSISTANTNEWS@LANTHORN.COM
For the second consecutive year, Grand Valley State University has received a grant offered through the governor’s office and awarded by the Michigan State Police to help fund campus sexual assault programming. The $39,472 grant will help to continue the university’s use of the national “Bringing in the By-
stander” model on campus. This will be accomplished through the bystander intervention program Peer Education and Prevention (P.E.P.) Talks, in which trained GVSU students educate their peers about sexual assault prevention. The main focus of the organization is teaching students what it means to be a good bystander. According to Jessica Jennrich, director of the Gayle R. Davis Center for Women and Gender
Equity, students learn how to support those who are survivors and also how to prevent sexual violence by interrupting a potentially harmful situation. This program has been on GVSU’s campus for a year now and has been able to reach all different sectors of student life. The program’s widespread reach is thanks to the nine students who were trained as peer educators. In the past year, the group has provided training
for 244 students in classes, fraternities/sororities, living centers and student organizations. “Based on a request you put in, the crew would ... come out and do a bystander intervention presentation,” Jennrich said. Jennrich explained that a likely reason the university was selected for the grant was GVSU’s continued SEE GRANT | A2
EDUCATION
Registration advising sessions to be offered for first-year, transfer students BY ARPAN LOBO NEWS@LANTHORN.COM
Despite the winter 2018 semester having only just began, Grand Valley
State University officials insist that it is never too early to start thinking about 2018-19 academic registration, which begins the week of March 19. With March approaching, the
ADVICE: A list of advising sessions for first-year and transfer students. Each session will be in the Holton-Hooker Learning and Living Center. GVL | ARPAN LOBO
GVSU Dean of Students Office is collaborating with the Student Academic Success Center, GVSU Housing and Residence Life, and advisers from the different GVSU colleges to encourage students to begin to think about registration. During the months of January and February, advising sessions will be held in the Holton-Hooker Learning and Living Center Multipurpose Room for first-year and transfer students on registration basics, understanding myPath and other general advising information. Liz Chase, special projects coordinator for student success and retention at the Dean of Students Office, believes that the advising sessions will be beneficial for any student who chooses to attend. She also added that the sessions are meant to be relaxed for anyone wishing to learn more about registration.
“They’re going to be really informal,” Chase said. “Students can just drop in whenever. We have times on (schedule), but really we’re going to be running our presentation on loop.” Chase noted that the purpose behind the sessions is to have students start focusing on registration as well as their future. “Typically, students don’t think about what classes they’re going to take until registration opens,” she said. “That whole time (during registration week), they’re going to see their academic adviser, when in reality, they should be seeing their adviser now and talking about and thinking about that—those classes—now so they’re prepared when it opens. “This is sort of a way for us to encourage students to go see their adviser early and get those registration basics down so when they go to registration there’s no confusion.”
Each advising session will feature an adviser from a different GVSU college. An email containing the full schedule of dates and advisers will be sent out to GVSU students on Friday, Jan. 12. Chase encourages GVSU students to keep in touch with their personal advisers in addition to staying on top of registration. “It’s very important,” she said. “Class sequences change, students change their mind about majors, so it’s always important to keep in touch with their academic adviser.” Because of the volatility of graduation requirements, students are often left uninformed of impactful changes to their major. Staying in touch with an academic adviser can serve to counter that. “Even if it’s just once a semester, SEE ADVISING | A2