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
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ACADEMICS
Graduate Showcase displays GV students’ research work BY DREW SCHERTZER DSCHERTZER@LANTHORN.COM
Grand Valley State University graduate students have been working on a number of research projects over the last year. Several gathered at the DeVos Center Loosemore Auditorium on Tuesday, April 10, to showcase poster presentations of their research during the university’s eighth annual Graduate Showcase. “Research studies to clinical experience, we are so happy that you have joined us tonight for these accomplishments,” said Maria Cimitile, GVSU provost and executive vice president for academic and student affairs. “Faculty members make this possible from their mentorship and advising, which played a significant role in helping students.” Some research was focused on the internships that students had experienced. For example, Christina Rinvelt, in the biostatistics graduate program, a professional science master’s degree program, detailed her work with a law enforcement agency. While there, Rinvelt analyzed surveys from the agency’s previous year. She used surveys to find out if supervisors and graduates were using the most efficient means of training at the agency. The data collected allowed Rinvelt to see which areas were weaker and which were stronger, allowing the agency to learn where they could make improvements. Other research was centered on experimentation. Spencer Pageau, who is pursuing his master’s degree in health sciences/biomedical sciences, looked at the effects of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) on mouse endothelial cell health. The study looked at the way that fatty acids, like EPA, can reduce people’s chances of developing a cardiovascular disease. Pageau tested to see how EPA would affect different pathways that could influence cardiovascular disease. Ultimately, his research was able to narrow in on how EPA functions and the future of using fatty acids to reduce cardiovascular disease. Other students presented research on environmental issues. Angela Kujawa, another GVSU graduate student, researched a small animal in Michigan, the American
Fight for lights
SEE SHOWCASE | A2
SEE LIGHTS | A2
FLASHING LIGHTS: Officer Seth Beelen places an individual in the police car on Oct. 28, 2017. Recently, a GVSU student created an online petition for GVSU to install emergency blue lights on campus to increase campus safety. The petition has garnered more than 600 signatures from GVSU students. GVL | EMILY FRYE
Student behind petition for emergency lights to speak in front of senate BY RACHEL MATUSZEWSKI RMATUSZEWSKI@LANTHORN.COM
R
ecently, Grand Valley State University student Renee Vredenburg created a petition to install emergency blue lights on campus, citing the chance to make the campus more safe. Now, Vredenburg is preparing to propose the installation of emergency blue lights to student senate on Thursday, April 12. The idea came from a group project in her sexuality, justice and advocacy class. The students began researching why GVSU hadn’t installed these devices years ago. Dozens of college campuses across Michigan have installed their own emergency lights, no matter the size of the campus. According to the Holland Sentinel, the question has been brought up over the last 20 to
30 years, but the GVSU Police Department does not see a need for it on campus given the availability of the Rave Guardian app and the safewalk program. Vredenburg disagrees. “Grand Valley has a lot of safety built into the way they use GVPD and (even) the way they lay out the campus,” Vredenburg said. “But I think this is an extra thing that should be on our campus. I don’t think the other ways we provide safety are accessible to everyone. Not everyone has a smartphone. That’s saying dangerous things only happen to specific people. “It doesn’t seem right to me. Having something that is physically everywhere on campus makes things safer. I think when there is the allusion of safety not as much crime tends to happen.” She imagined that if a student were away from the group
Grand Valley has a lot of safety built into the way they use GVPD and (even) the way they lay out the campus. But I think this is an extra thing that should be on our campus. I don’t think the other ways we provide safety are accessible to everyone.” RENEE VREDENBURG GVSU STUDENT PETITIONING FOR EMERGENCY LIGHTS on a tour and felt unsafe, they wouldn’t know GVPD’s website. Plus, in her opinion, actually going to the website, finding the number and calling it would waste precious time. With the proposal, Vredenburg is not only referring to sexual assault, but general campus danger as well. “Not only are they emer-
gency phones, but they are actual lights, so putting them in a place like by the bridge where it is dark would not only (illuminate) that area, but it would provide an emergency phone in that area,” Vredenburg said. Vredenburg understands student senate’s concerns about the
CIVICS
Study finds more Americans protesting BY DEVIN DELY DDELY@LANTHORN.COM
ASSEMBLY: Marchers participate in the ‘March for Our Lives’ in Grand Rapids on Saturday, March 24. According to a recent Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll, one in five Americans has joined a protest since 2016. GVL | EMILY FRYE
Since 2016, numerous protests and marches have taken place across the country, many of them dealing with issues viewed as being related to President Donald Trump. But just how many Americans are actually protesting, and what do these modern movements look like compared with the protests of 50 years ago? Recently, The Washington Post put out an article detailing a study on this topic. According to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll, since 2016, 20 percent of Americans have joined a political rally or protest, 19 percent of which have never done so before. Paul Murphy, professor of history at Grand Valley State University, believes this is an accurate trend. “I do think probably in the last 10 years or so we’re seeing a sort of uptick,” Murphy said. “But I would say that’s in the tradition of American civic activism. I think Americans have been eager to into the streets and demonstrate and get their voices heard
from the colonial period onward. “I think the revolutionary era saw a lot of street protests in a much smaller country, but the tradition of politics in the street was a tradition that had been taken over from Great Britain.” The article also mentions that during the Vietnam War era, college students were “the face of public protest,” but that demographic has shifted. At GVSU, protests are still taking place, with the causes seemingly shifting to a modern focus. The recent Slut Walk by It’s On Us as Lakers is an example of that; chapters of the Black Lives Matter movement have also held events on campus, and following President Trump’s election in 2016, groups of students held protest marches around campus. Murphy thinks that as a nation, we are seeing an increase in this more committed type of activism. “You have groups like BLM going in to the street and blocking off traffic in order to raise attention,” he said. “That’s an extra level of commitment.” SEE STUDY | A2