Lakers lose two straight
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HISPANIC HERITAGE
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T H E S T U D E N T - R U N N E W S PA P E R S AT G R A N D VA L L E Y M O N D AY, S E P T E M B E R 19, 2011
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EXCHANGE RATE STALLS
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Campus preacher
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Volleyball
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Soccer
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Fun in the sun: International students play in the surf at the Grand Haven State Beach after orientation. International students at GVSU remained nearly unchanged from last year, with 317.
Chasing the Sky Blog Lanthorn columnist Kevin VanAntwerpen discusses life as a lyricist for a moderately successful indie rock band.
Recruitment holds steady for exchange, international students on campus By Anya Zentmeyer GVL News Editor
Though being a new student in any case can be tough, for the international and exchange students at Grand Valley State University this fall, it’s been pretty easy so far. “It’s a really enthusiastic group of students,” said Kate Stoetzner, direc-
tor of international student and scholar services. “They bonded really well to each other quite early on. There’s a new student whose birthday fell on orientation, and the students must have spent 45 minutes singing happy birthday in every language. That was kind of a surprising bonding event.” Though this years’ crop of 317 total exchange and international students does not boast any increase
from last year’s total of 322, Mark Schaub, director of Padnos International Center, said the university has a strategic goal to raise the number of international students on campus to 3 percent of the total student population from where it rests currently at 1 percent. “The university’s goals are to increase it almost three-fold as part of the target to help the learning en-
vironment for all students,” Shaub said. Chris Hendree, associate director of international recruitment, said though the recruitment process has remained largely the same in the past few years, Admissions is working hard to spread the message. Hendree and his team have been traveling internationally to meet with
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Frequent frustrations: Seniors Jessica Seeley and Karl Jeger use the wireless internet in Kirkhof. Changes to GVSU’s wireless have caused long connection times and frequent time-outs for students, faculty and staff.
GVL / Anya Zentmeyer
Free speech : Zealous evangelist Jed Smock (pictured) inspired a silent protest from members of the Center for Inquiry GVSU during his visit to campus on Friday.
Evangelist preacher sparks controversy By Samantha Butcher and Anya Zentmeyer GVL Staff
Please Recycle
Fridays are often full of distractions for college students eager for the weekend, but students crossing by the Transitional Links on Grand Valley State University’s Allendale Campus on Friday got an additional diversion in the form of evangelical preacher Jed Smock. Smock, who has spent the past 37 years travelling to college campuses across the country to spread his mission, arrived on campus around 11 a.m. and stayed for several hours. Armed with a crucifix and signs with slogans such as “You deserve Hell” and “Fear God — repent — turn or burn,” Smock and his companions
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Web of despair
Campus Internet connection leaves students frustrated By Derek Wolff GVL Senior Reporter
Long waiting periods to get connected to the campus Internet and frequent disconnects have left Grand Valley State University students frustrated and confused with a new system that was supposed to make life easier. Junior Bridgette McGuire, an resident assistant in South C apartments on campus, is responsible for 30 students on her floor, including several freshmen. About half of those students have come to her in the last few weeks reporting problems connecting, she said.
“It was especially bad right after move-in,” McGuire said. “We had to spend a lot of our move-in process helping the freshmen learn how to sign on.” The number of IP addresses being used up on campus by handheld devices like iPhones, Androids and tablets was initially believed to be part of the problem, but the issue is larger than just too many students trying to connect at the same time. GVSU has 850 access points on campus, with 350 better-quality access points in reserve, designed to handle the higher capacity of students trying to log on. Bill Fisher, associate director of technical services for GVSU’s Computing and
Technology Support, said CTS was not aware of the magnitude of the problem until last week. “We didn’t understand the scope of the problem until last Tuesday [Sept. 13],” he said. “We ran trials on our test machines over the summer and had IT interns provide feedback, which came back positive. Once school started, we would see thousands of people on wireless and thought that everything was fine, but then last week we started getting a lot of feedback saying that it was taking a long time to connect. Since then we’ve been working like crazy because we want this fixed so bad. This is like our grade, and
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