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
M O N D A Y, A P R I L 1 0 // VO L . 5 1 N O. 5 6
SERVICE PROJECT
DOWNTOWN
GV to honor deceased community members with ‘Laker Remembrance’
Johnson Center survey finds community cohesion to be important to GR residents
BY CELIA HARMELINK CHARMELINK@LANTHORN.COM
BY JENNA FRACASSI JFRACASSI@LANTHORN.COM
Grand Valley State University is honoring students, faculty, staff and alumni who have died in the past year at the fifth annual Laker Remembrance. All Lakers are welcome to attend this event, which will be held Wednesday, April 12, on the Allendale Campus. There will be a service event held at the Sustainable Agriculture Project (SAP) at 2 p.m. Members of the community can volunteer for as long or as short as they would like. There will be a shuttle running from the Kirkhof Center to the SAP during this time. Abbi Mikaelian, the student coordinator for Laker Remembrance, said this service project is particularly meaningful because Dave Feenstra, a beloved member of the SAP, passed away in December 2015. He
According to findings released by Grand Valley State University’s Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy, residents of the greater Grand Rapids area find community cohesion to be an important issue in their neighborhoods. “Community cohesion is like, ‘Do I feel like I belong in this neighborhood, do I feel welcome, do I feel like we are all one group of people versus a bunch of people who don’t know each other but all live in the same area?’” said Jodi Petersen, director of the Community Research Institute (CRI) at the Johnson Center. The VoiceGR 2016 survey, conducted by the CRI at the Johnson Center between June 2016 and December 2016, included a variety of open-ended questions. Among these questions, the following two were asked: What do you think the biggest strength is in your neighborhood, and what do you think the biggest problem or issue is in your neighborhood? The results of these questions showed community cohesion on both sides. While community cohesion was identified as a neighborhood strength, a lack of community cohesion was also identified as a reason for feeling unsafe in a neighborhood. “When something shows up both as a strength and a weakness, what that usually tells us is that it’s something that is really important to people,” Petersen said. “So, when you have a neighborhood that has the cohesion, people say, ‘OK, yeah, this is a strength, this is really great, this is why I like living here.’ When you have a neighborhood that doesn’t have that, residents realize that they’re missing that as the problem.” Additionally, the percentage of people who found their neighborhood to be “very unsafe” or “somewhat unsafe” has increased by eight percent from 2013. “Community cohesion included responses referring to being familiar with neighbors, having commonalities or similarities amongst neighbors, feeling community pride and having an overall sense of community,” said Melyssa Tsai-O’Brien, a research manager at the CRI. “Lack of community cohesion included responses referring to not knowing neighbors, feeling fearful or discriminated against, not having community pride and turnover in residents and renters.” The survey is intentionally designed to be broad so that it is as applicable as possible to as many organizations as possible. Some of the topics covered in the survey include education, employment, poverty, housing,
BELOVED: Steve Hecht, GVSU associate professor of biomedical sciences. COURTESY | GVSU.EDU
Remembering Steve Hecht Laker community mourns the death of professor BY HANNAH LENTZ EDITORIAL@LANTHORN.COM
FAMILY: Students participate in a candlelight vigil. GVL | KEVIN SIELAFF
worked for Facilities Services for 18 years and was the adjunct manager for the SAP since 2014. Mikaelian said the only thing volunteers should bring to the SAP is a desire to help out. “Just bring yourself and motivation and enthusiasm to help out as much as possible, especially with the service project,” she said. “We don’t want it to be a super sad event. We want to celebrate the lives of the people who gave back to Grand Valley by giving back to Grand Valley as well.” At 6 p.m., there will be a memorial service at Zumberge Pond. During this time, there will be poems read, music and a moment of silence for those who have passed. Floating candles will be lit in the pond for every Laker who died in the past year, and there will be a silent candle march through campus. There will be roughly 100 Lakers remembered at this event. Hailey Merritt, the Laker Traditions membership coordinator, is going to be performing at the memorial
T
he Laker community lost one of its own Wednesday, April 5, after Steve Hecht, associate professor at Grand Valley State University, collapsed walking near the Cook-DeWitt Center. Hecht came to GVSU as an assistant professor in the biomedical sciences (BMS) department in 1999 and was promoted to associate professor in 2004. Remembered by colleagues as passionate and knowledgeable, Hecht will be missed after years at the university. “Steve was a wonderful colleague—bright, witty, knowledgeable about a rich spectrum of things, an aficionado of Robert Frost,” said Frederick Antczak, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). “Far more importantly, Steve was a gifted teacher-scholar. He was dedicated to his students, advising many who aspired to study nursing or the health professions.” In addition to his generos-
ity with his students, Hecht could help these pollinators also served several terms on that humans rely so heavily the CLAS Personnel Commit- upon for our agriculture. tee and provided great service In a statement released by to colleagues across the col- Antczak and David Kurjiaka, lege, Antczak said. acting chair of biomedical “Already, the tributes are sciences, the two talked of pouring in from people who Hecht’s scholarly expertise. At are saying different variations GVSU, Hecht taught 15 differof ‘I wouldn’t ent courses. be a doctor/ In addition nurse/any proto his teaching, “Steve was fessional health Hecht was a role without Dr. thoughtful and a wonderful Hecht,’” Antcdevoted faculty colleague— zak said. adviser who bright, witty, Before his helped many death, Hecht BMS students knowledgeable was working who aspired to about a rich on viral ways enter programs of lessening the spectrum of things.” in microbiolenvironmenogy and other tal pressure on health-related FREDERICK ANTCZAK bees, another sciences, the DEAN OF CLAS example of his statement read. contributions “I liked and to the community, Antczak admired him very much,” said. Through this work, Antczak said. “His is a perHecht was collaborating with sonal loss for everyone whom undergraduate students and he touched and a professional biomedical sciences profes- loss for the department of sor Tony Nieuwkoop to see biomedical sciences and all of if they could develop phage Grand Valley State University.” therapy for bees. Hecht had Hecht is survived by his hoped to find viruses to target bacteria and benefit bees that SEE HECHT | A2
SEE REMEMBER | A2
SEE VOICEGR | A2
EXHIBIT
Presenting research, creativity outside the classroom 21st annual Student Scholars Day to be held at GV BY JENNA FRACASSI JFRACASSI@LANTHORN.COM
Student Scholars Day (SSD), an event held annually at Grand Valley State University, is purposed to display and celebrate the scholarly research and creative work achieved by GVSU students. The Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (OURS) is presenting and hosting the 21st annual SSD, which will showcase more than 400 presentations by more than 600 presenters. The event will take place Wednesday, April 12, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Henry Hall Atrium, Mary Idema Pew Library Learning and Information Commons and the Kirkhof Center. “It’s a day of events to give students the opportunity to present their research work, excitement and experiences with the university community and visitors,” said Feryal Alayont, associate professor of mathematics and SSD committee faculty member. For attendees, she said it is an opportunity to learn about interesting research in a variety of
disciplines, as well as how the research process works. Though only students will be presenting, the event encourages the participation of guests, volunteers, sponsors and committee members. Presentations will be shared verbally and through performances, posters, panel and discussion sessions, and more. “The kind of works that they’ll be presenting could range anywhere from scientific, literary or historical research, or it could be something like a fine arts exhibit or a dance or music performance,” said Andrew Lantz, associate professor of chemistry at GVSU and SSD committee faculty member. Student projects can be done independently or in conjunction with a faculty member as a mentor for research, depending on what type of work and scholarship they are doing. However, all student work must be signed off by a faculty member to be showcased at the event. Lantz said one reason SSD is important is because students who participate are creating something new that hasn’t been done before. “It’s really the first time they get
an experience where they’re creating something where they can’t just look up the answer in a textbook or ask a faculty member what the answer is,” he said. “They’re really finding it out for themselves and relying on their own knowledge and creativity to either find those results or create that project.” Alayont believes that participating in SSD is particularly beneficial for students planning on going to graduate school because it gives them practice in both research and presenting. Kaitlyn Denney, OURS student ambassador, presented at SSD in 2016 as a junior at GVSU. She found her experience to be very rewarding and will be presenting again this year. “I think it’s a really good opportunity for students to see all the hard work that’s happening on campus, like all of the research,” she said. “It’s a really great opportunity for students to get experience on presenting in a free conference because sometimes those things can be really expensive. It’s a really cool opportunity to collaborate, get feedback from your work and SEE SCHOLARS | A2
TEACHING: Logan Knoper presents his work during Student Scholars Day inside Kirkhof Center’s Grand River Room Wednesday, April 8, 2015. GVL | KEVIN SIELAFF