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ROWING CLUB LOOKS TO CONTINUE LAST YEAR’S SUCCESS
DD service is ‘just responsible enough’
Bar goers offered safe ride BY MARY MATTINGLY LAKERLIFE@LANTHORN.COM
Nathan Kalinowski | GVL
Hands on: Junior Kevin Newell and senior Tyler Dawson of Alpha Tau Omega helped freshmen move into Kistler Living Center last week. They joined other volunteers from several organizations to ease the move-in process for the newest Lakers.
GV lends a helping hand BY ALYSSA RETTELLE ARETTELLE@LANTHORN.COM
President Thomas J. Haas worked alongside Helping Hands—a group of administrators, faculty, students and alumni at Grand Valley State University—to direct traffic, help students check-in, carry items from cars to rooms, and welcome nearly 5,000 students and their families to campus during move-in week. “This is an organization that really makes a difference,” said Andy Beachnau, director of Housing at GVSU. The university’s housing page indicates that the first six weeks at college are critical to retention and to student satisfaction, and for first-year
students, the first few days are the most important. The purpose of Helping Hands is not only to help students move, but to also get acclimated to the university quicker by making new students’ first hours on campus a positive and inclusive experience. The program was founded in 1994 and then only consisted of a handful of volunteers. Nearly 20 years later, hundreds of volunteers offered help during move-in week. Haas and his wife, Marcia, have also been involved with move-in week for the last eight years. The Haas family made an appearance on campus Aug. 21 as it served ice cream to students and their families in
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Your Chauffeur is cool because people get home safely but still have their car home the next day. shawn blonk
Nathan Kalinowski | GVL
Tasty treat: President Thomas Haas hands out ice cream.
front of Kleiner Commons. Colleen Bailey, associate director for Housing and Residence Life, said this year there were 400 hours worth of faculty and staff volunteering and more than 2,000 hours worth of help from students.
“The volunteers with Helping Hands made movein a lot easier,” said freshman Abbey Rickelmann of the Seidman Living Center. “It helped so much having them, and I wasn’t as stressed because of their help.”
Phishing problems persist at GV IT warns of false email requests for personal information BY LIZZY BALBOA EDITORIAL@LANTHORN.COM
Internet users with Grand Valley State University email accounts have recently been targeted in a series of phishing incidents wherein recipients are requested to divulge personal information to unknown senders. What Director of Information Technology Sue Korzinek called a “constant battle” has been going on since the summer semesters. Korzinek said the IT department
has responded to many phishing incidents, with 15 of them having occurred since July 22. The scammers create misleading GVSU email accounts to deceive recipients into thinking that they are university officials, and then they ask recipients to follow a link to a different website to supply personal data. Korzinek said the people behind the fake emails try to collect personal information to gain access to other accounts.
Planning a night out in Beer City, USA, almost always leads to the inevitable question: who is going to drive home? Your Chauffeur, an on-call designated driving service, proposes a possible answer. “These kinds of businesses have been around for a while in places like Europe and Korea,” said Chad Becker, the owner and founder of Your Chauffeur. “I got the idea while visiting a friend in the Carolinas. It was floating around in my head for awhile, (until) finally I started up (Your Chauffeur) in Grand Rapids.” Operating out of downtown Grand Rapids alongside HopCat on Ionia Street, Your Chauffeur’s licensed drivers are on-call Thursday through Saturday from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. By using mopeds designed to fold up and fit into a car’s backseat, drivers are able to drive the patron home in his or her own car, then jet back to Grand Rapids. Patrons can make a reservation by calling or texting 616-803-9247, or make reservations online at the business’ website. When a driver has been reached, the driver hops on a moped and meets the patron at this or her location. The first five miles are charged a flat rate of $20, and any mile beyond that is an extra $3. On weekend nights, the business chauffeurs within a 12 mile radius from
“The more you answer, the more data they (have to) use against you for fraud or getting into your accounts,” she said. The phishing emails first began hitting faculty and staff accounts but were soon also sent to students. Korzinek said she hasn’t heard of any email recipients who have actually opened the link and fallen victim to a scam—although some have started the process before realizing the
emails were not authentic. Korzinek said GVSU has implemented a few protective measures against phishers, including limiting the use of the online directory so that scammers cannot obtain a comprehensive list of people to email, but instead can only view a certain number at a time. IT has been combatting the
grand rapids brewing company general manager
downtown Grand Rapids, which includes Allendale. “With the hours that we operate, we’ve garnered some messed up responses,” Becker said. “People say, ‘I can’t fit on that moped!’ But once they understand what we’re doing, their responses have been good.” The business got its start this summer after winning the “Public Selection” from local investment fund Start Garden in June. “Once we got off the ground, we went to an arena district meeting,” Becker said. “I gave a presentation, told the businesses ‘if you have any interest in working with us, please let us know.’ Bars like HopCat were definitely the people we wanted to work with and they were interested in the idea.” Your Chauffeur is sponsored by HopCat, Stella’s Lounge, McFadden’s and the Grand Rapids Brewing Company. All four bars are owned by local company Barfly Ventures, LLC. “It’s (an idea) we were definitely geeked about,” Shawn Blonk, the general manager of Grand Rapids Brewing Company said. The Grand Rapids Brewing Company helps out with Your Chauffeur’s business, often directing patrons toward its services. “At the end of the night, we’ll try to call cabs for our guests and make sure they get home safely,” Blonk said.
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SEE CHAUFFEUR ON A5
GV social events shift hands BY LIZZY BALBOA EDITORIAL@LANTHORN.COM
Grand Valley State University’s Office of Student Life has put student events back into student hands with the development of a new Traditions Team to coordinate all major events this year. “(The OSL) decided to have a more uniform way to get events and Grand Valley’s traditions out to students and have a team of event coordinators working on it as a whole,” said senior Alyssa Smith, chair of the group. Smith leads the team of 13 regular staff, two event assistants and multiple volunteers to coordinate nine events: Presidents’ Ball, Homecoming, Battle of the Valleys, Sibs and Kids Weekend, the Laker for Lifetime kickoff, Laker Remembrance, Family Weekend, the intercultural festival and a Spring Fling. “It was all to ensure the alignment of these events (and) that they’re all set up similarly and have the same level of
success,” said sophomore Tyler Ziola, the team’s social media coordinator. “That’s why they did it—so there’s this concrete team year to year doing this.”
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It was all to ensure the alignment of these events.
tyler ziola Traditions team social media coordinator
Director of Student Life Michelle Burke said the development of the team is not in response to last year’s Battle of the Valleys results, which saw Saginaw Valley State University conquer GVSU in the fundraising battle. “The formation of the team actually had more to do with Homecoming,” Burke said. “Student Life had tried with limited success for the last
several years to form a student Homecoming Committee to plan and coordinate all of the events related to that week. In addition, we also wanted more student involvement in the traditions of Family Weekend, Sibs and Kids, and Intercultural Festival. All of these events were consuming staff time for event planning rather than allowing us to advise students to plan the events.” With the exception of the new Laker Remembrance and Spring Fling, the events were previously run by the OSL and Student Senate, who will still remain involved to some extent. Members of the OSL advise the team leaders on all events, while the Student Senate retains an active role in planning Presidents’ Ball and Battle of the Valleys. Emma Moulton, a senator on the Traditions Team, said the shift in event coordination from Student Senate to the SEE TRADITIONS ON A2
Robert Mathews | GVL
A new reign: Student Senate President Ricardo Benavidez is preparing to lead the 2012-13 senators into a new year after spending last year as a cabinet member.
Senate gears up for 2013 BY SARAH HILLENBRAND ASSOCIATE@LANTHORN.COM
Grand Valley State University’s Student Senate has a new cabinet with fresh plans for the upcoming year, including increasing involvement from the student body. “There are a lot of ‘new’ senators on this year’s body, but their fresh minds and new ideas
will help to look at issues with a fresh light,” Student Senate President Ricardo Benavidez said. Benavidez added that the senate is already looking to address a few concerns, including a lack of space in the Recreation Center. “I also look forward to our work with the Student Association of Michigan,” he
said. “This is a body made up of the Student Body Presidents from all Public Universities in the state. We work with each other and our VPs for Political Affairs to tackle student issues at the state level. These issues include items such as student loan rate increases. SEE SENATE ON A3