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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
NO. 52
MONDAY, MARCH 28
SHARING STORIES Lakers collect books for local children
BY MADDIE FORSHEE NEWS@LANTHORN.COM
arch is national reading month, and though the month is almost over, the Grand Valley State University community can still get involved with the celebration by taking part in the Read n’ Give book drive initiative. Started over nine years ago through Crowe Horwath, an accounting firm, and nonprofit The LEAGUE Michigan, the Read n’ Give book drive is a statewide effort that aims to collect old books from community members, then partner up with nonprofit organizations to distribute the books to local schools. GVSU student Karl Lubinski is responsible for bringing the effort to GVSU’s campus as his honors senior project for the Frederik Meijer Honors College. “I love the idea of raising books for at-risk kids,” Lubinski said. “I viewed Grand Valley as a potential resource to raise books and raise money. I saw it was an opportunity to give back to Grand Valley.” Lubinski brought the book drive to campus in early March and plans on keeping the drive going until the third week of April. There are three dropoff locations: the faculty office areas in each of the Honors College, the College of Education and the Seidman College
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of Business buildings. Thus far, Lubinski estimates that he’s collected a few hundred books. In the Grand Rapids area, Lubinski said there is an estimated need for around 3,000 books. Megan Lendman, a GVSU alumna and service learning coordinator for AmeriCorps in Grand Rapids, is also
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hosting a Read n’ Give book drive to raise books in downtown Grand Rapids. “Last year, this campaign raised and distributed over 10,000 books throughout Grand Rapids,” she said. After receiving and counting the books, they will be sorted by age group. SEE BOOKS | A2
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GV focuses on religious inclusivity As a result of the Division of Inclusion and Equity’s Campus Climate Survey results, the Kaufman Interfaith Institute teamed up with GVSU to evaluate students’ experiences SEE A3
SPORTS
Lacrosse wins both GLIAC contests The Grand Valley State lacrosse team opened its conference slate of games in Allendale over the weekend, dominating GLIAC opponents McKendree and Indianapolis SEE A9
A&E
Concert memorializes GV student Alex Aninos, a music education major who was killed in a car accident in 2014, was honored by the music and dance department during a scholarship concert on March 25 BOOKWORMS: Students at Lincoln Elementary School in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan show off some of their new 3,191 books, provided by Read n’ Give. COURTESY | READ N’ GIVE
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GOVERNANCE INNOVATION
Marty Moore talks design thinking at GV Google designer focuses on failing faster
MOVING FORWARD: Google designer Marty Moore (right) spoke alongside GVSU student and former Google intern Jonathan Cook (left) about design thinking and their time working at Google. The Design Thinking Initiative event was held on March 24 in the DeVos Center. GVL | LUKE HOLMES BY JESS HODGE JHODGE@LANTHORN.COM
tudents, faculty, staff and members of the Grand Rapids community filled the seats and lined the walkways of the Loosemore Auditorium on March 24 to hear Marty Moore talk about design thinking. Moore is a design manager and lead product designer at Google. His talk is the seventh in the Design Thinking Initiative series put on by GVSU. He focused on Google design and about a new process of design thinking called design sprints. Moore explained the design process goes through a series of six steps: understand, define, diverge, decide, prototype and validate. That process used to happen anywhere in a six-month to a year-long period. However, design sprints shorten that process to only five days. “At Google, we largely use (design sprints) for creating the experience for the new app or product,” he said. “You can also take an existing product and try to figure out where we want it to go.”
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Design sprints were created to help create empathy for users and to provide great user experience and to create a deep understanding into the problems users were having. There is a team made up of five to eight people all with very diverse backgrounds to bring in different perspectives and insights. Then, a sprint master coordinates and leads the sprint. Packing the process into five days might seem counterproductive, but it has actually helped generate high-quality ideas in a shorter period of time. “An intentional side effect of this is helping teams fail fast,” Moore said. “One of the big problems in design thinking is knowing if you’re hitting the right target. It’s not just about being creative and making sure you have the right process, it’s also making sure you’ve got something good.” With design sprints, if the product or the idea fails, the team will know in five days, instead of putting in a lot of hard work for six months only for something to fail. “Sprints sum up what I think about as design thinking,” Moore said. “It’s really a process to help you be creative in a really structured way. So it takes out the barriers that you usually
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have — meetings, distractions, a lot of projects you are juggling and it focuses it down to one week and it’s super effective.” Moore noted that while sprints are “ultraexhausting,” they are also a lot of fun and are a great way to generate ideas. Jonathan Cook, a GVSU student who interned at Google last semester, joined Moore on stage to talk about his experience at Google. “Everyone in the office was proactive in helping the interns get up to speed with the work they were doing,” he said. “It’s a culture where everyone wants to solve problems, and instead of just going out to solve problems first, they are actually looking at each other. Strong foundation really helps build a momentum to move outwards with new products.” Google is always looking for people with diverse backgrounds who have passion and the willingness to help others, Moore said. “Google has a top-level embrace for design thinking.” GO TO:
Student senate discusses creating a uniform DSR testing center BY DREW HOWARD ASSISTANTNEWS@LANTHORN.COM
aking a test causes stress for most students, and even more so for those living with a disability. During a general assembly on March 24, the Grand Valley State University student senate discussed a resolution to create a uniform testing center in coordination with the Disability Support Resources (DSR) office that would meet the needs of all students on campus. While the DSR already provides testing accommodations for all students, it doesn’t have one uniform center that’s designed specifically for such purposes. If created, the center would be designed for both students with disabilities as well as those looking to make up a test outside of the classroom. Statistics from the DSR reveal that there are currently 700 students registered with disabilities at the center, which equates to about 2.8 percent of the student population. The resolution, which recognizes that one center would greatly simplify the test-taking process, is sponsored by senators Jonathan Bowman of the campus affairs committee and Madison Rhoades of the diversity affairs committee. At the meeting, student senate President Maddie Cleghorn opened up the floor for discussion about the possible benefits of the center. Rhoades said the creation of a testing center would help get rid of the stigma attached to individuals with learning disabilities. “The center would not only help unify things and take the load off of the (DSR), but it also helps erase a bit of the stigma off of the people who need to go to the center for testing accommodations, so they don’t get singled out,” Rhoades said. According to the Campus Climate Survey preliminary results, 88 percent of those with disabilities said they were either “very comfortable” or “comfortable” with the campus climate. However, 24 percent of those with disabilities also reported having a negative experience on campus. Senator Noelle Milad expressed support for the reso-
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