GRAND VALLEY
SEE A6
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
FOOTBALL PREVIEW EDUCATION
Honors College to delay filling director position Writing professor Roger Gilles to hold post temporarily BY DYLAN GROSSER ASSISTANTNEWS@LANTHORN.COM
The Frederik Meijer Honors College at Grand Valley State University has chosen not to start a search committee for replacement of the former director of the honors college, Jeff Chamberlain, for the fall of 2017. Instead, the Honors College has decided to name Roger Gilles, a writing professor at GVSU with experience in administration, interim director for two years, until a number of “internal affairs” are dealt with. Some of those internal affairs include reorganizing the structure of the Honors College, eliminating redundant committees and committing to feedback to add more honors courses for third- and fourth-year students. “The interim period is a time to regroup and articulate the values of the program and to look inward a little and get ready to hire a permanent director,” Gilles said. Chamberlain expressed his desire to leave GVSU for the Hicks Honors College at the University of North Florida in April 2017. Because of Chamberlain’s late departure, Gilles said there was not enough time to form a search committee and begin finding a replacement for this semester. A new director is likely to begin in the fall of 2019. Gilles said the year will be informative for the faculty and staff at GVSU and will serve as a self-reflection for the Honors College as well. “This year is really about talking with the whole university and solidifying what the Honors College is all about and preparing for that search,” Gilles said. Gilles said his goal is to get more people introduced to the Honors College program, and to help them understand it, for the benefit of the new director. He said he knew Chamberlain personally and assured him he would try to maintain the progress Chamberlain had made during his time as director. “I think he did a fantastic job for SEE HONORS | A2
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, A U G U ST 3 1 , 2 0 1 7 // VO L . 52 N O. 4
Stirring the pot GV students react to controversial preacher on campus BY DYLAN GROSSER ASSISTANTNEWS@LANTHORN.COM
G
rand Valley State University was visited by a traveling preacher known as Gary Birdsong on Tuesday, Aug. 29. Birdsong is known for preaching controversially on college campuses and has preached at GVSU for the last 14 years, allegedly. Some views he expressed were his opposition to homosexuality, biracial unions, Islam, feminism, other religions besides Christianity and more. His visit was met with a strong reaction from the student body.
GVSU students voiced their disagreements both online and in person. Some students debated with the preacher, some took video, some made fun of him and some simply walked by. The preacher was located in front of the Transformational Link sculpture on the Allendale Campus carrying a sign that said “Fear God” on one side and “Stop Sinning” on the other. Many instances of students and Birdsong interacting were captured on various social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram. In addition, many GVSU faculty and staff walked past the preacher without engaging at all.
Birdsong spoke on his Facebook page of drawing crowds of more than 200 students and said that his sign was taken from him by students on multiple occasions. Sydney Watson, a junior at GVSU and an interfaith intern at the Kaufman Interfaith Institute, was a bystander listening in on what Birdsong was preaching. Watson said everyone is entitled to their views but that when a demonstrator’s views make others uncomfortable, they have crossed a line and need to take a step back. “I think about the Muslim students that are hijabi-wearing that walk past this area, and he’s talking about how only Christians are good,” Watson said. “That makes
me very uncomfortable, so I can’t imagine how that would make someone else feel.” She said she believes in respectful disagreements rather than yelling and screaming. “I think his goal is to make people mad, so I think the worst thing to do is to go up to him and yell at him,” Watson said. Alex Childs, a sophomore at GVSU, is another student who listened to Birdsong’s preaching. Childs said he has been a Christian for three or four years and that the way Birdsong is presenting the Gospel is false and misSEE PROTESTS | A2
CREATING CONTROVERSY: Preacher Gary Birdsong visits GVSU’s Allendale Campus Tuesday, Aug. 29, and interacts with students passing by. Birdsong has been a frequent vistor of GVSU’s campus, where his vocal demonstrations have a history of upsetting students and causing conflict. GVL | SPENCER SCARBER
RESTORATION
Cook Carillon Tower renovation complete Construction project addresses brick deterioration BY JOSHUA VISSERS NEWS@LANTHORN.COM
The renovation of the Cook Carillon Tower on Grand Valley State University’s Allendale Cam-
pus has been successfully completed, including the finishing touches on the surrounding landscape. The renovation was done within a $500,000 budget, which didn’t require approval from GVSU’s Board of
Trustees. The work was completed by Pioneer Construction, with Burggrabe Masonry doing the masonry. “I ran the summer series right through all the construction, and they were very helpful with getting me in
FINISHING TOUCHES: Students walk by the newly renovated Cook Carillon Tower on GVSU’s Allendale Campus. The tower’s renovation, which was done within a $500,000 budget, was completed to resolve masonry issues. GVL | JOSHUA VISSERS
and out of the tower,” said Julianne Vanden Wyngaard, pianist and resident carillonist at GVSU. The concert series ended Sunday, Aug. 20. The masonry issue started with moisture and the cold Michigan winters interacting with the masonry. The tower, built in 1994, was originally designed after a Dutch tradition. “They operate cold towers, no heat,” said James Moyer, associate vice president for facilities planning at GVSU. However, with carillon bells waiting to be played from a room inside, a cold tower during Michigan winters wasn’t satisfactory. “We had to have heat immediately,” Vanden Wyngaard said. “If you’re going to sit there and play the instrument, you really need to be comfortable.” To solve this issue, a radiator was installed to facilitate year-round play, but the addition of heat caused the deterioration of the tower’s brick over the next 20 years in a process called “spalling” by masons. “We had faces of brick coming off the tower,” Moyer said. However, the connection between a radiator inside the tower and brick on the very outside of the tower takes experts to explain. “All masonry materials are meant to breathe,” said Grace Smith, project manager and historic preservation consultant for Designsmiths, who specializes in old masonry. “When it’s baked in the oven, the outer shell of
brick gets this natural crispy coating.” That coating is important because it is more difficult for moisture to penetrate than the rest of the brick and the interior walls of the tower, which are made of concrete block. “When you put heat inside, moisture that’s borne by the heat now begins to migrate to the exterior,” Moyer said. “When it gets to the exterior of the tower, it freezes just behind the face of the brick.” Even small amounts of water in the brick is a problem if it freezes. “If that keeps happening, that crispy coating will pop off,” Smith said. Other than replacing nearly all the exterior brick on the tower, two changes were made to keep this spalling from happening again. “If you go into the tower now, the interior face of the concrete block has been sealed so that the moisture doesn’t migrate through the interior block to the brick,” Moyer said. In addition, a layer of insulation with a vapor-barrier backing was placed between the concrete block and brick, which is typically done in heated towers, according to Smith. “That, we have been told, will solve the problem,” said Matt McLogan, vice president for university relations at GVSU, who also debunked any rumors of a tilt developing in the tower. “I don’t believe that’s true,” he said. “Had it been, we would’ve found it necessary to do foundation work and not just cosmetic work.”