GRAND VALLEY
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GVPD names Kourosh Khatir assistant director BY MEGAN WEBSTER MWEBSTER@LANTHORN.COM
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PORTRAIT: Kourosh Khatir, asst. director of GVPD. COURTESY | MLIVE.COM
he Grand Valley State University Police Department recognized the hard work and dedication of Kourosh Khatir on Tuesday, Nov. 7, by promoting him from security manager to captain and assistant director of the Department of Public Safety at GVSU. The promotion was a joint decision between GVPD Acting Director Brandon DeHaan and university leadership, specifically D. Scott Richardson, acting vice president for finance and administration at GVSU. Khatir was honored to receive
the promotion, stating that this milestone in his career provides a greater opportunity to serve the community. In light of his promotion, Khatir has plans to make some changes in the level of security currently present on GVSU’s downtown Pew Campus. This would allow the downtown campus to have greater safety measures than what are currently present. “One of my main areas of focus will be to facilitate the establishment of sworn officers working downtown at the Pew Campus,” Khatir said. “Currently, the Pew Campus has security staff. Our goal is to have sworn officers there working with security to provide
law enforcement services similar to what we have in Allendale.” Khatir’s passion for law enforcement began as early as he could remember. He said as far back as his memory goes, he’s always wanted to pursue a career as a police officer, an ambition evident in the childhood games he used to play growing up. After he graduated from high school, he joined the U.S. Air Force as a security policeman and was later employed at the Phoenix Police Department. “As long as I can remember, I have always had an interest in policing,” Khatir said. “I used to play cops and robbers as a little kid. SEE GVPD | A2
TRAFFIC STOP: GVPD checks a suspicious vehicle on Saturday, Oct. 28. GVPD named Kourosh Khatir, a two-year veteran of the department, as the assistant director of the Department of Public Safety at GVSU on Thursday, Nov. 9. Khatir also received a promotion to captain on the same date. GVL | EMILY FRYE
SPOTLIGHT
GV dean recognized as manufacturing ‘Talent Champion’ BY SARAH HOLLIS NEWS@LANTHORN.COM
More than 600,000 people in Michigan have jobs in manufacturing, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that number is growing. It’s nearly equal to the number of people in Michigan with jobs in government, education or health care. The Michigan Manufacturing Association (MMA) is recognizing those who work hard to attract the next generation of the workforce to careers in manufacturing. On Thursday, Nov. 9, Paul Plotkowski, dean of Grand Valley State University’s Seymour and Esther Padnos College of Engineering and Computing, won the MFG Talent Champion award from the MMA at the MFG Excellence Awards Gala in Lansing, Michigan. Plotkowski thoroughly enjoyed the experience and credited much of this recognition to GVSU and the surrounding community. “It was a wonderful experience,” Plotkowski said. “I view it more as a recognition of what the university and the community are doing together than it is of my personal actions. There is a wonderful partnership between the university and industry and the community that helps us provide just a really great education for students in our college. “A big part of that is through cooperative education and internships they all do, and that only works if everybody is working together on it.” Plotkowski was nominated for this award by Charlie Standridge, associate dean and professor of product design and manufacturing engineering at GVSU. Standridge has known Plotkowski for 19 years. Standridge nominated Plotkowski for his work in building relationships between the College of Engineering and Computing and the local community, as well as helping to decide which industries SEE DEAN | A2
INVOLVEMENT
Giving back BY KARINA LLOYD NEWS@LANTHORN.COM
For 10 years now, the Grand Valley State University Office of Sustainability Practices has had ties to the local non-profit organization Seeds of Promise. The office’s involvement has sparked interest around campus in different areas, such as education, nursing and communication, allowing the GVSU community and the people of Grand Rapids to form a strong bond. The office’s most recent initiative is donating GVSU’s “Lost and Found” items to Seeds of Promise, which works to empower urban residents to direct their own strategies and create a self-sustaining, self-transforming neighborhood and community. Seeds of Promise does not place all of its energy in just one area. The group has been working to tackle a series of problems facing Grand Rapids’ impoverished communities, including youth education, affordable housing, overall health and wellness, and more. After receiving a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 2009 for the work the organization had done in the community, Seeds of Promise changed its format. Though they once worked through a board of directors, the program now works based on a “self-sustaining solution” in which the urban residents dictate the improvements the organization works on, creating an empowering atmosphere of self-dependence and improvement. “This is an organization that is very unique and powerful from the bottom up, not the top down,” said Norman Christopher, executive di-
GV faculty, staff members donate to Seeds of Promise
rector of the Office of Sustainability Practices. “This is resident voices determining their areas of interest for improvement to increase their overall well-being and quality of life.” Once a problem is identified, residents form “impact teams” to tackle priority issues such as health and wellness, housing, education, public safety and business. “That’s the role GVSU (has played), through faculty, is in these individual impact team areas,” Christopher said. The issues that Seeds of Promise supports have inspired many faculty and staff from various GVSU departments to get involved, including the nursing, environmental studies and honors departments, among others. GVSU’s nursing department helped build Seeds of Promise’s “nurse-managed health care” program. When Seeds of Promise needed input on urban agriculture, Kelly Parker, director of the environmental studies program at GVSU, lent the organization a helping hand. Linda Chamberlain, GVSU honors college professor, recently held a class with a connection to Seeds of Promise discussing design thinking and affordable housing. And shortly after the organization’s creation, Christopher had a hand in working toward Seed of Promise’s mission. He has worked on the board and within the impact teams, and he currently resides as a Seeds of Promise adviser. “You can see how the different colleges and departments align with the different impact teams,” Christopher SEE SEEDS | A2
ENGAGEMENT: A Seeds of Promise table during the 2015 Civic Engagement event at GVSU. Several GVSU offices, including the Office of Sustainability Practices, are invlolved with Seeds of Promise by donating needed items. COURTESY | GVSU.EDU