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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
VOL . 5 1
N O. 1 8
ACCOLADES
MONDAY, OCTOBER 24
Walking a thin blue line
GV panel examines impact of police brutality BY EMILY DORAN EDORAN@LANTHORN.COM
I SUSTAINABLE: Fall colors across GVSU’s campus. GVL | KEVIN SIELAFF
Going green Princeton Review names GV as a ‘green college’ BY DYLAN GROSSER DGROSSER@LANTHORN.COM
Grand Valley State University has been named a “green college” by the Princeton Review for the seventh year in a row. The Princeton Review looked at colleges in the U.S., Canada and Egypt and chose 361 to be “green colleges.” They examined colleges in many different ways, scoring them on their application in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), which gives detailed reports on college’s sustainability practices and gives them a score and rating. GVSU received a score of 66.05, which translates to a gold rating. Norman Christopher, executive director of the Office of Sustainability Practices, said the office is grateful to be included in the list once again. “I feel very good about (making the list) because of the consistency of (our) performance,” Christopher said. “I’m very pleased to be with GVSU as part of their list of the top colleges.” The report the office sent to the Princeton Review tracked the different ways GVSU is a sustainable or “green” college by looking at how sustainable GVSU was in academics, operations, engagement, planning and administration. The Office of Sustainability Practices collected the data with cooperation from many other departments at GVSU. Campus sustainability coordinator Yumiko Jakobcic described the report as about 1,000 questions long and “very thorough.” “When you see the report, it’s like how many kilowatts of electricity did you use, how many square feet of buildings do you have,” Jakobcic said. “Of that square feet, how many are labs? We have to look at every single item of food that we purchase on campus and figure out how much of it is local.” Despite the effort, Jakobcic said it was worth it. “I think it puts us on the map and I think that it’s appreciated,” Jakobcic said. “I think it’s important for people to know that we are committed to sustainability, so it’s one way for us to show that.” The office is involved in a number of sustainable projects on campus, including the Sustainable Agriculture Project. Sustainability Week is being put on by the office starting Saturday, Oct. 22 and ending Sunday, Oct. 30. Kris Spaulding from Brewery Vivant will be speaking Wednesday, Oct. 26, along with other planned activities celebrating SEE GREEN | A2
n order to discuss the issue of police brutality and its impact on the Grand Valley State University community and beyond, GVSU’s student senate hosted a panel discussion with police officers and civilians Thursday, Oct. 20. The panel consisted of representatives from the GVSU police department, the Ottawa County sheriff ’s department, the Grand Rapids police department and the GVSU student body and faculty. “I wanted this to be an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to get together and discuss the issue and see what we can do specifically in our communities to make a change,” said Brandon Fitzgerald, student senate vice president for diversity affairs. “I really hope this was the first step.” The panelists talked about a number of factors which could contribute to police brutality, particularly implicit bias and a lack of healthy communica-
tion between police and civilians, and what is being done to address these issues. “The pathway for communication is so narrow,” said Brianna Pannell, a member of GVSU’s Black Student Union. “I think if we have healthy communication, (a) lot of issues that happen with police brutality (will be solved).” GVPD Chief Renee Freeman described the different efforts the GVPD is making to train its staff to combat implicit bias and to connect personally with the GVSU community. “(We) participate in training (for) cultural diversity, cultural competence, the implicit bias,” Freeman said. “We have community police officers that I expect (to) spend time in the student life areas (interacting) with people, letting them have a voice in what we’re doing and how we’re interacting with them. “I do tell our community that we are about enforcement, but not just enforcement. We’re about building relationships and creating a great experience here. We want to fit into the
educational blueprint.” Louis Moore, a GVSU history professor and the coordinator for African/African-American studies, said it will take time to counteract centuries of racial policing. “You could have a lot of training, but you’re also going up against history, American history,” Moore said. “It’s going to take more than a couple years. (We’re) off to a good start right now, given the fact that this has been going on for hundreds of years. (I) think that’s going to be the hardest thing that we combat—it’s the idea that black people aren’t inherent criminals.” Relando ThompkinsJones, the social justice educator of the GVSU Division of Inclusion and Equity, said the conversation about police brutality is too frequently centered on what people of color can do to prevent violence against themselves. He likened this reasoning to telling women their clothing choices could attract assault. SEE BLUE | A2
DAY OF SERVICE
Serving the community More than 200 Lakers volunteer during Make a Difference Day
BY SANDA VAZGEC ASSISTANTNEWS@LANTHORN.COM
Helping rebuild communities, teaching children and cleaning up the environment are just a few things students from Grand Valley State University do during Make a Difference Day. This year, more than 200 GVSU students participated in community service volunteering Saturday, Oct. 22. Make a Difference Day is an annual, national day of service in the U.S. where people are encouraged to volunteer in any capacity in their communities for the day. At GVSU, the Community Service Learning Center (CSLC) hosts the event. “Students can learn about cultures and backgrounds that are different than theirs,” said Rachael Zaborowski, graduate assistant for CSLC. “Also learning how to be an actively engaged citizen and learning about the different organizations in the community is really important.” Partnering with 14 different
community associations, organizations and non-profits in the Greater Grand Rapids and Holland areas, GVSU students woke up bright and early to start their day giving back to the community. GVSU has participated in Make a Difference Day for 15 years. Students volunteered at community organizations like the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Habitat for Humanity and the GVSU Sustainability Project. In order to participate as a volunteer, the CSLC holds a preregistration process online to get a rough estimate of how many students will participate. On the actual day of the event, they also accept walk-in registration. The day began at 8 a.m. as site leaders gathered to discuss their plans and expectations for the day. Each site leader then met with their volunteers to discuss the agenda and educate them about the site they volunteered at. During this time, volunteers packed their lunches provided by the university, put on their volunteer T-shirts and learned
about the rules, expectations and mission of the day. After the orientation, volunteers were lead to their service locations by their site leader. All transportation to and from the sites was provided by Dean Transportation. Site leaders Michaela Degrande said Make a Difference Day is an opportunity for students to get connected with the community through avenues they may not have known were available before. “I think it’s a great day to not only give back to the community,” Degrande said. “But also to take advantage of an opportunity that is laid out for you, you just sign up and go.” After their service project is completed for the day, the site leaders then lead the group in a reflection to talk about what they experienced and their take-ways from the day. Students can participate as volunteers alone or with their student organizations to log hours on their service tracker on OrgSync, complete community service requirements or earn credit for LIB 100/201 classes.
STUDENT SENATE
Asian Student Union receives $5,610 for RICE conference BY MEGHAN MCBRADY MMCBRADY@LANTHORN.COM
To expand on the forum of intercultural learning, Grand Valley State University’s Asian Student Union (ASU) met with GVSU’s student senate Thursday, Oct. 20 for a budget request hearing. ASU requested $16,000 for its “Realizing and addressing Issues in our Culture and Education” (RICE) conference in the winter semester. Kathy Bui, the co-event coordinator for the ASU, said the organization’s funding request stems from covering the costs of several keynote speakers and food at the event. “The purpose of RICE is to spread knowledge and raise awareness of current issues on Asians and AsianAmerican communities,” she said. Emphasizing the Asian values and traditions ASU tries to uphold, Bui said the group’s goal is trying to become an active voice on campus and inspire leadership among other Asian-American students. Kaitlin Chauv, the co-event coordinator for ASU, emphasized how the theme for the RICE conference focuses on overcoming racial injustice. “Our topics that we will address at the conference are going to relate to race and our socio-economic statuses,” she said. “We are also trying to do something new by including the LGBTQ community into our conference as well.” Stressing how the topics relate to current issues in society, Chauv said ASU decided to have two keynote speakers at the conference so they could fill the entire Loosemore Auditorium for the conference. One of the speakers, David So, a comedian and speaker, has been invited to the conference in order to share current issues within the Asian-American community in a comedic format and connect with a younger audience. The other speaker, Fong Tran, uses poetry to convey his experience of being a nontraditional student of color and his relentless support for
GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY: Youssef Darwich (far left) works with several Grand Valley State University student volunteers keep the Sustainability Farm clean, organized and healthy Friday, Sept. 30. GVL | EMILY FRYE
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