GRAND VALLEY
TUCKER, BARNETT LOOK TO PACE GV WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
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 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
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NEWS
Student award now accepting candidates Nominations for the ‘I Am Grand Valley’ student leadership award have been open since Nov. 2 and will remain so until Nov. 20 SEE A3
LAKER LIFE
GVSU Beekeepers aim to educate community Through different research and hands-on events, the student club looks to show Lakers that bees are more than what meets the eye SEE A6
SPORTS
GV men’s basketball preps for 2015-16 The Lakers, who finished 13-15 last year, open their season Saturday afternoon, will look to seniors Ricardo Carbajal and Chaz Rollins SEE A7
ONLINE
Follow @GVLSports to track GV athletics Hop on Twitter and toss a follow to @GVLSports for in-game tweets and live look-ins to Laker athletics throughout the BOV weekend SEE LANTHORN.COM
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12
‘IT’S
Lakers celebrate the National Week of Action
ON US’ BY HANNAH LENTZ NEWS@LANTHORN.COM
ccording to the 2011 Campus Climate survey at Grand Valley State University, one in four women and one in ten men reported having been sexually assaulted while at the university in the 12 months prior to the survey. The new Campus Climate survey will be released during the winter 2016 semester, and activists at GVSU are hoping to see a change in these reported statistics. This week, as part of the National Week of Action, the collaborative work between Eyes Wide Open, the Title IX office and the Women’s Center has launched the “It’s On Us” campaign, encouraging students to pledge to become active bystanders from Nov. 10 to Nov. 12. The goal of the event is to work toward preventing sexual violence on campus, instead of only focusing on what happens when to a victim or victim survivor. An active bystander is someone who steps in during acts of oppression, sexism or racism. GVSU’s Victim Advocate Ashley Schulte said this is something that can be done in many ways. “Hopefully, we’ll see a big increase in students not only knowing what the ‘It’s On Us’ campaign
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is, but actually taking the pledge,” Schulte said. “We want everyone to feel as though they have a big role in addressing gender-based violence on campus and in their lives/communities.” On a national level, the “It’s On Us” campaign was created by Vice President Joe Biden in response to the fact that in the last 20 years since the Violence Against Women Act has been put in place, statistics have gone in the right direction for every demographic except for the 18-to-24-year-old range, where reports have stayed the same. “It’s On Us” is only a year old, with this year being only the second Week of Action that the campaign has held since it first began in September 2014. “Statistics for college-age students do not look good, and this is a very real issue at GVSU,” said Giselle Gomez, a member of the National Student Advisory Committee for “It’s On Us.” ”‘It’s On Us’ is about taking a stand finally to those numbers and saying that it’s not right. Things need to change. “It’s time for everyone to stop turning a blind eye to the problem and start facing it,” Gomez said. ”‘It’s On Us’ is about doing just that and agreeing that you will not be a bystander to SEE IT’S ON US | A2
MILITARY
Student veterans celebrated at GV
University named ‘best for vets’ second year in a row BY DREW HOWARD ASSISTANTNEWS@LANTHORN.COM
ecently, Grand Valley State University was named a “best for vets” college by Military Times for the second year in a row. The university maintains a strong community of veteran students, faculty and staff, though many of them often go unnoticed by the general campus public. In an effort to recognize these individuals for their military service, the Student Veterans of America (SVA) at GVSU hosted several special events this Veterans Day on Nov. 11. Matthew Oudbier, president of the SVA at GVSU, said the “U.S. Veteran” informational event was created to inform the public on common misconceptions held about veterans. “We want to bring the idea home to the campus that there are veterans in the community around you that you may not be aware of, and we want to open peoples’ ideas to who veterans are,” Oudbier said. “We have a number of different issues just like everyone else, and we can’t be necessarily categorized in a box. We want to break the mold and let people know that you can’t define a veteran by their race, ethnicity, gender or whatever else.” The five speakers chosen to present at the event included veteran students, alumni, staff and faculty at GVSU. Oudbier said the event was also purposed with teaching the public about issues affecting both the individual speakers as well as much of the veteran community. “I would say, [because of] the fact that the country we live in sends people off to war, that there’s a responsibility for people to understand who these people are,” he said. “People need to understand who the veterans are, and how that involvement with conflicts and just having a military presence affects the people in service.”
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In addition to the “U.S. Veteran” informational session, the SVA hosted a “Veteran Tile Wall Painting” activity from noon to 5 p.m. at the Central Utilities Building, located on GVSU’s Allendale Campus. The SVA will host this activity again at the same time on Nov. 18. During the event, anyone on campus was allowed to stop by the Central Utilities Building to paint a 6-by-6 inch tile that would serve as tribute to the veteran of their choice. The full wall is expected to include 650 individual tiles and will be unveiled to the public on Veterans Day in 2016. Jeff Marcinkowski, maintenance supervisor for Facilities Services at GVSU, said there will be plenty of opportunities in the future for individuals to paint a tile. “Throughout the rest of the year, I’ll probably have this (activity) open a lot more often where anybody can come in at any time,” Marcinkowski said. “I’ll
have a table set up all the time so that people can come in at any time of the day or night. We’re open 24/7.” It costs $12 to paint a tile yourself, $15 to have basic information painted by a proxy artist and $20 for a custom-designed tile painted by a proxy artist. Proceeds from this event will go directly toward the veteran relief fund for student veterans at GVSU. Veterans were also recognized at a Veterans Appreciation Breakfast hosted by GVSU President Thomas Haas. Haas thanked students, faculty and staff in the GVSU community for their service while Steven Lipnicki, assistant dean of students at GVSU, gave updates on new initiatives for military students. GO TO: www.gvsu.edu/veterans FOR MORE INFORMATION
RECOGNITION: Cadets Brett Smith, Darrien Twomley and Henry Allison pose. GV celebrated Veterans Day this year by hosting several special events across campus. GVL | ARCHIVE
ACTION: Students who have taken the pledge to be an active bystanders pose. COURTESY | GVSU.EDU
SCRIBE ACADEMY
New program offers Lakers emergency clinical experience GV students can receive free tuition through independent scribe services BY ASHLYN KORIENEK AKORIENEK@LANTHORN.COM
tudents pursuing a career in healthcare are often faced with years of formal education and high tuition rates. Grand Valley State University is currently providing a more affordable alternative for those interested in gaining clinical experience. In 2015, the GVSU Scribe Academy was designed in partnership with the Office of the Vice Provost for Health to train individuals to assist healthcare providers in local emergency departments (ED). The program offers free tuition, while students complete 65 pre-clinical hours in classrooms and 40 hours of clinical training in the ED with full-time senior scribes. Students work through emergency care services in Spectrum Health hospitals, including Butterworth Hospital, Blodgett Hospital and soon, the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. The academy began its first cohort on May 1, with graduation in June, as five full-time scribes were originally hired. For the winter of 2015 cohort, 25 applicants will be accepted, starting Dec. 18. Jeffery Trytko, program director of the Scribe Academy, said the benefit to the university is helping students gain valuable clinical hours working in the ED. Trytko said even-
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tually, students are able to obtain potential part-time positions working independently as scribes. “Not only do students get clinical hours,” he said, “but they also get a part-time job that is flexible with school schedules. The emergency room is open 24 hours. That allows for more flexibility. Scribes are usually given, on average, two eight-hour shifts a week.” Elena Ongaro, senior scribe, works in the ED about 35 to 40 hours per week, also training students during the clinical portion of the program. Ongaro said she works with a team of senior scribes collaborating with GVSU, Emergency Care Services and Spectrum Hospitals to optimize the program. “Working in the emergency department is extremely educational,” she said. “I have found that my medical knowledge has grown tenfold by exposure to the physician’s decisionmaking process.” Acquiring a paid healthcare experience, Ongaro said, is the largest benefit as scribe certification can be expensive. In addition, she said scribes assist the physician in documenting patient care in real-time, therefore providing exposure to a variety of illnesses and educational experiences. “A large variety of illnesses walk through the ED doors,” Ongaro said. “As a SEE SCRIBE | A2