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GV student dies on way to classes Friday

Grand Valley State University freshman Danielle Clouse was killed in a car accident Friday morning after dropping her sisters off at school.

Clouse was driving to the Allendale Campus for classes when a pickup truck driver ran a stop sign and crashed into the driver’s side door of Clouse’s Chevrolet Cavalier at 8:23 a.m., police said. It was unclear what caused the driver, Jerome Hitsman, 73, to drive past the stop sign, located at the intersection of New Holland Street and 96th Avenue in Zeeland, but Ottawa County police said Hitsman may face charges.

“This crash remains under investigation by the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Austin. “Upon completion of the report, a copy will be forwarded to the Ottawa County prosecutor.”

Clouse was taken to Spectrum-Zeeland Community Hospital, where she died shortly after arrival. Hitsman and his passenger, an unnamed 10-year-old, were treated for non-life threatening injuries.

A 2011 graduate of Black River High School in Holland, Mich., Clouse had yet to decide on her major, but family told the Grand Rapids Press she was a talented student whose interests included writing and art.

Visitation for Clouse will be Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Chappell Funeral Home in Fennville. The funeral is set for 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Construction, alumni giving primary focuses for university

University officials gathered officers from student organizations together Tuesday night for the What Every Student Leader Needs to Know About Grand Valley reception. A panel of speakers addressed student questions about state appropriations, fundraising and the university’s financial future.

The panel included Jim Bachmeier, vice president for finance and administration; Maribeth Wardrop, vice president for university development; and Matt McLogan, vice president for university relations.

As state appropriations have been cut back, the university had made up for the difference with private donations. In the past 15 years, Wardrop’s office has raised $200 million through private donations.

“All of the money that Maribeth has raised has either gone into facilities or student scholarship programs or financial aid,” McLogan said. “We do not use private money to pay the light bill, or pay anybody’s salaries.”

GVSU receives $58.3 million in state appropriations, or about $2,365 per student, the lowest of Michigan’s 15 public universities. State appropriations make up 17.2 percent of the univerity’s $309.7 million budget.

The state budget has been cut $4 billion since 2000, with the single largest cut going to higher education appropriations.

“State funding at Grand Valley is low,” Bachmeier said. “It’s very low, perhaps the lowest it’s been since it’s inception. We’re in the bottom five percent in the country, and I’d even venture to say we’re in the bottom two percent.”

The university hopes to transition the donor base from community members to GVSU alumni, Wardrop said. Currently, 6.3 percent of alumni give back to the university, a “pretty embarassing” statistic Wardrop attributes both to the youth of the university — the majority of GVSU alumni graduated in the 1990s — and the youth of the University Development office, which was created 15 years ago.

Read the full story at http://www.lanthorn.com/.

Allendale firefighters face increased calls, demands as township grows

Billowing black smoke clouded the dreary Allendale sky as sirens wailed and fire trucks zipped down Lake Michigan Drive on Oct. 14.

A team from the Allendale Fire Department unloaded into the field, unwinding their hoses as they combated the flames that threatened to devour stalks of corn. After several hours of effort, the fire was out.

The incident was one of the more than 800 fires that the AFD respond to each year. The number of incidents that the department responds to has grown in recent years as the township’s population increases. Calls to the department are up from about 700 incidents two years ago.

“As a fire department, it’s going to get busier,” said Mike Keefe, AFD fire chief. “We’re already seeing increases and it’s going to be a challenge to meet those needs in future years and make sure we’re still operating the way we are. That’s what the challenges are, and we’re going to have fun doing it.”

Chris Holmes, a firefighter and paramedic with the AFD, said calls such as Thursday’s create a rewarding but hectic lifestyle for Allendale’s 14 paid on-call firefighters.

“We live our lives the best we can normally, and when the fire pager goes off, we drop what we’re doing and go to whatever call we got, whether it be a structural fire, a medical emergency or a car accident,” Holmes said.

Keefe had one word for his firefighters’ dedication: “Awesome."

“They’re really good,” he said. “We probably have one of the best groups of guys and gals that are in the area to be firefighters. They’re well-trained, they do an awesome job when they’re on-scene and they’re great people.”

Holmes, who has worked with the AFD for four years, works for Allendale Township in addition to his full-time job as a paramedic in Grand Rapids. The job not only helps Holmes fulfill his life-long aspirations of helping others, it also allows him to follow in the footsteps of his mother, who worked as a firefighter for the AFD for five years.

The family tradition is a common thread throughout the department. Keefe said he was drawn to the profession because of his father, also a firefighter.

“You just follow in the footsteps,” he said. “When I became of age to be a firefighter, that’s when I started.”

Firefighters in the AFD go through extensive training to be able to respond to a variety of calls, which range from car accidents to medical emergencies to outdoor fires. Between training and the calls that come in, Holmes said the commitment can be difficult on his family. Holmes and his wife are expecting their first child in May.

“I’ve missed holidays because of calls, and now with us expecting, she knows I’m going to be missing things with our baby when that happens,” Holmes said. “… She’s proud of what I do, but on a personal aspect, she misses the fact that the time we’re supposed to have together gets taken away.”

Keefe balances work with family by coaching football, which gives him a chance to play with his two kids: Joey, 9, and Matty, 4.

“My family loves [my job],” he said. “They probably wouldn’t want me doing anything else.”

For more information on the AFD, visit www.allendalefirerescue.com.

GV student dies in I-75 crash

Oakland University officials confirmed Sunday that Grand Valley State University sophomore Rachel Ring, 19, died Saturday afternoon in a car accident on southbound I-75.

Police said a 60 something-year-old driver was at fault, but the cause of the accident was unclear. Alcohol is not believed to be a factor.

According to a report from Michigan state police, the accident involved four vehicles and 10 people.

Ring, who had recently transferred to GVSU, had previously attended Oakland. She and an Oakland student were riding in the back of a compact car when the accident occurred at about 2:58 p.m. Both of the passengers died; the car’s driver, a second Oakland University student, was removed from the vehicle with the jaws of life and sent to the hospital with injuries.

No one else was injured.

The girls were on their way to the John K. King Bookstore in Detroit when the multi-vehicle crash occurred.

“Any death among the Oakland University family diminishes us all, and the sudden death of two young, vibrant students is a particularly devastating blow,” wrote Oakland President Gary Russi in a campus-wide letter. “It is almost beyond our ability to comprehend such a tragedy.”

GVSU officials were unavailable for comment.

Voters to decide fate of The Grove in February election

GVL / Eric Coulter

The decision is the final step in a two-year battle over development of The Grove, a $20 million construction project funded by Campus Crest Communities that would add 648 beds in 248 units to the northwest corner of Lake Michigan Drive and 48th Avenue.

Greg DeJong, a real estate agent working with Grove landowner Stuart Becker, estimated that the deal would generate $500,000 in property taxes for Allendale public schools; however, vocal opponents of the deal, including Township Trustee David Morren and owners of other apartment complexes near Grand Valley State University, say the density calculations used to approve The Grove give the complex unfair competitive advantage.

The density calculations used for The Grove were different than those used in the development of Allendale’s most recent housing additions, such as Meadows Crossing and The Village at 48west.

Glen Turek, property owner of Meadows Crossing apartments, said the housing market in Allendale is already “saturated,” with significant vacancies in most complexes.

In June, a survey showed that Campus West occupancy was at 30 percent, and other units have faced similar struggles as the growth of the student body at GVSU has leveled out in recent years.

“The existing housing complexes all have fixed costs that need to be supported,” Turek said. “If the market is too saturated with beds, this will create more vacancy and will make it difficult for the fixed costs to be supported. …Some owners will not be able to pay property taxes. Some landlords could even end up defaulting on loan payments.”

Construction for The Grove won approval from the board of trustees 4-3 in July, but has been held in limbo by a lawsuit challenging the lot’s zoning. The suit, brought forth by Duane Thomas and several housing development owners, seeks to return the land from mixed-used commercial to light industrial, its pre-2010 zoning.

Read the full story at www.lanthorn.com.

Students unknowingly excluded from grant due to first-year limitations

GVL Archives

Unclear language that left number of seniors unknowingly ineligible for the Grand Finish grant during its promotion created confusion on campus, but Grand Valley State University officials said the grant is now available to all students who earn 90 credits within their first three years in school.

Fine print on the scholarship qualifications states that the first class of recipients must earn their 90th credit in the winter semester of their junior year. Students who had already surpassed 90 credits, including students who had taken a significant number of spring/summer classes at GVSU or tested out of courses through AP or IB exams, were not eligible since they had earned their 90th credits prior to the winter semester.

That stipulation is not a part of the qualifications for students who reached or will reach 90 credits after Winter 2011.

According to information posted last year on the Grand Finish website, “Currently enrolled students who earn 90 credit hours by August 2011 and are within three years of their first enrollment at Grand Valley are eligible.” A press released published through GVSU News and Information contained similar language.

For students who did not receive the Grand Finish, the exclusion came as a shock, as the limitations in place for the first year of the grant were not widely disclosed.

Andrea Blanchard, a senior English and social studies for secondary education major, learned of the Grand Finish during a discussion with a roommate who had received it. Blanchard, who carries a 3.99 GPA and is a member of the Honors College, assumed her exemption was the result of an oversight at first.

“I initially assumed a mistake had been made and called the Financial Aid Office to figure it out only to find out that I had attained my 90th credit too soon to be considered for the award,” she said. “In other words, I was too well prepared to be recognized by the Grand Finish.”

Lynn “Chick” Blue, vice provost and dean of Academic Services and Information Technology, said it was necessary to leave some students behind in order to begin giving out Grand Finish awards to earlier classes.

“There’s always a risk in starting a scholarship program mid-stride, for the very reasons that we’re talking today,” Blue said. “Somebody gets it and somebody doesn’t, so we typically start with an incoming class, and that was going to be Fall ’10. Then there was quite a bit of pressure put on the idea guy, and that was the president, and he decided through a lot of wrangling that they could scare up enough money to start in Fall ’11 and include students who would have matriculated in Fall ’08.”

Read the full article at www.lanthorn.com.

MAREC to collaborate with U of M, MSU in Lake Michigan Research

As part of a unique collaboration between Grand Valley State University’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center and researchers at the Annis Water Resources Institute (AWRI), Michigan State University and the University of Michigan, a new research platform intended for Lake Michigan is on schedule to arrive in Muskegon tonight.

The 17-by-17-foot buoy will help researchers collect real-time data on a number of factors, including information on wind, water quality and the flight paths of birds and bats over the Great Lakes. The platform, which will spend a week in Muskegon Lake for trials before moving into Lake Michigan for data collection, will help determine whether off-shore wind farms are a viable energy source.

“There’s significant interest in off-shore wind energy for the future, but the question is, is that viable?” said Arn Boezaart, director of MAREC. “We have a lot of statistical data from satellite modelling, but little real time data. What we’ll be doing is real scientific research.”

The research platform will employ LiDAR, a new laser technology that works by aiming a beam of infrared light vertically, to measure the direction, speed, temperature and strength of the wind at multiple heights simultaneously. The platform is also unique in its mobility, a significant benefit compared to stationary wind towers, which Boezaart said tend to be expensive, politically unpopular and technically-difficult “eyesores.”

“This is very innovative,” Boezaart said.

The $3.3 million research platform was funded through a number of grants: $1.3 million from the Michigan Public Service Commission, $1.4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, $260,000 from the Phoenix Energy Institute at the University of Michigan, $250,000 from Wisconsin Energy and $30,000 from the Sierra Club.

Read the full story at www.lanthorn.com.

A sad night for the justice system

Courtesy / amnestyusa.org

I did not grow up with strong convictions about the death penalty.


To me, the whole messy topic seemed unpleasant and difficult, and I never fully formed an opinion. If I had to pick a side, I would have said that I vaguely supported it, but Troy Davis’s case, which came to an end tonight, helped plant me firmly into my newly-found anti-death penalty stance.


Tonight, the state of Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court and the justice system as a whole made an egregious error by letting a potentially innocent man be put to death.


After 20 years of legal appeals, three stays of execution and a four-hour deliberation by the Supreme Court, death row inmate Davis was executed via lethal injection and pronounced dead at 11:08 p.m. despite significant doubt of his guilt.


What happened tonight was a disgusting example of how fatally flawed our justice system can be. I was stunned and appalled tonight as, after hours of tense consideration, the Supreme Court announced that they would not grant Davis a stay of execution. I was physically ill when his time of death was announced. Listening to the stunned silence of the crowds, my heart broke as I considered Davis’s family and Davis himself, who has maintained his innocence throughout the entire botched ordeal.


Davis was convicted in 1991 of the 1989 shooting of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail based on the testimony of nine eyewitnesses, one of whom was inebriated at the time. Since the verdict, seven of those witnesses have signed affidavits recanting their testimonies, claiming that the Savannah police pressured them into providing testimony or that they did not remember the night well enough to say that Davis was without a doubt the killer. There was no forensic evidence tying Davis to the crime scene, and no murder weapon was ever discovered.


The amount of doubt present in Davis’s case was staggering, and when it comes to cases of capital punishment, any doubt is too much. When you strip the process of the legalese and the emotionless terminology such as “lethal injection” and “capital punishment,” it breaks down to murder for murder, “an eye for an eye,” and the process is just as barbaric now as it was thousands of years ago.


Read the full article at www.lanthorn.com.

Evangelist preacher on campus creates controversy

A New Decade

Courtesy Photo

Today marks a new age in the American consciousness.

It marks the end of a decade of fractured unity and the beginning of a new age. In the years following 9/11, we collectively banded together in solidarity and cast out those who didn’t fit our idea of a “real” American. Our panic and fear created divisions in our society that hadn’t existed before, and our hyped-up security measures created an us-and-them mentality. Those distinctions have relaxed as time has gone on, but they’ve never gone away.

However, on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, those divisions dissolved for a time. Americans from all races, religions and credos banded together in remembrance. We stood side-by-side in churches, synagogues and mosques; in community centers and town squares; in schools and businesses and government buildings. Yesterday, everyone from sports fans to art enthusiasts paused to remember the 2,752 people who died in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the field in Shanksville, Penn. As a country, we came together for one single day to mourn our collective loss.

Yesterday’s unity, which existed regardless of labels, is a unity that needs to carry over into the next 10 years.

But please remember, the fight against terrorism is not over. Just because we made it through the 10th anniversary devoid of a successful al Qaeda attack does not mean that there aren’t other plans in the works. Terrorists will not attack us when our defenses are at their peak (as they were yesterday) — they want to hit us when we least expect it. In the past decade, several attempted attacks – including the so-called “underwear bomber” and the Times Square car bomb – have been foiled, but only due to our country’s security diligence.

It is important that we learn from our mistakes and take all threats seriously as we begin the next 10 years. Because while national unity and patriotism were wonderful, it still took a massive loss of life on American soil to spark it.

GVSU VP of Development to retire in December

Courtesy Photo / gvsu.edu

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- After 12 years and $200 million in raised funds for the university, Maribeth Wardrop, vice president of Development at Grand Valley State University, will leave her position at the end of the December.

“It’s been a joy,” Wardrop said. “It’s been an honor and a privilege to work with the donors that I’ve worked with.”

Before retiring, Wardrop will work as a consultant to the new vice president to help ease the transition for two or three years. No replacement has been found yet.

GVSU President Thomas J. Haas praised Wardrop’s contributions to the university.

“When you look around our campuses, you certainly see the generosity of our supporters, but you also see the results of Maribeth’s hard work,” Haas said in a press release. “She assembled an incredible team, and all of us will enjoy the results for many years to come.”

Under Wardrop, faculty and alumni giving has increased dramatically, reaching a gold standard. Currently, more than 51 percent of faculty and staff donate to the university, a level Wardrop described as “unheard of.”

Read the full article at  www.lanthorn.com.

GVBoxCity to give students perspective on homelessness

Courtesy photo / Molly Barnard

ALLENDALE, Mich. -- Grand Valley State University’s service and advocacy groups are starting the year off with a bang with GVBoxCity, which will raise awareness of Grand Rapids’ homeless community while also raising funds.

The overnight event, which will be held Sept. 9 and 10, will give students the experience of a night spent without a roof over their heads. BoxCity will kick off at 6 p.m. in the Pere Marquette room with a meal and panel of speakers, which will include a woman who received a house from Habitat for Humanity and a representative from the Grand Rapids Area Coalition to End Homelessness.

Participants will move outside to the field located between the Performing Arts Center and the Murray-VanSteeland Living Centers for the night at 9 p.m.

Throughout the night, participants will be able to make donations, which will benefit Grand Rapids-area homeless shelters. In addition to monetary donations, students can bring cans that organizations can redeem for deposits or non-perishable food items.

“Experiences like this don’t happen very often at Grand Valley,” said Molly Barnard, president of the GVSU chapter of Amnesty International. “This opportunity will give students the chance to actually experience sleeping outside in a cardboard box for a night, which is better than what some of our community’s homeless has to sleep in.”

Read the full article at www.lanthorn.com.

Student debt on the rise, GV scholarships increase

GVL / Rane Martin

ALLENDALE, Mich. -- For Grand Valley State University junior Jon Garcia, money is a constant source of concern.

Garcia, an English and secondary education major, currently carries $30,000 in student loan debt with at least two years left before he graduates. Each year, he takes out the maximum amount in Stafford loans while his parents help him pay for the remainder. 

“I am poor,” Garcia said of the impact of his student loans. “I’ve never been rolling in money or anything, but now I have negative money. … I’m pretty bad.”

Even paying rent poses a monthly challenge for Garcia, 20, who sometimes gets assistance from his family when funds run low.

Garcia is just one of many students who face significant financial barriers when paying for school. The cost of college has skyrocketed across the state in recent years, leaving today’s college students struggling to make their educational ends meet.

According to data from the Project on Student Debt, Grand Valley State University graduates in 2009 left school with an average debt of more than $24,000, slightly below the state-wide average of $25,458. That year, 70 percent of GVSU graduates carried some student loan debt with them into their professional lives.

Read the full article at www.lanthorn.com.