GRAND VALLEY
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STUDENT LIFE
FINANCE
Evacuate the dance floor GV cancels President’s Ball amid severe weather conditions
GV leaders set sights on Lansing for additional funding BY JAMES KILBORN JKILBORN@LANTHORN.COM
know if the dance will be rescheduled, especially because this President’s Ball was to be GVSU President Thomas Haas’ last. “Extreme weather?” one student tweeted. “The weather on Friday was near the same as it was a couple weeks ago. Same temperature. People spent hundreds on this night and are now out that money.”
With a new congress sworn in this past January, members from Grand Valley State University will travel to Lansing to make a case for receiving additional state funding. GVSU President Thomas Haas and Student Senate President Rachel Jenkin plan to testify before the Michigan House of Representatives’ Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee on Thursday, Feb. 14. Funding for state institutions is contingent on a number of factors, such as graduation rates, research and development expenditures, undergraduate degrees in certain fields and percentage of students receiving Pell Grants. Vice President for University Relations Matt McLogan states that while GVSU is often at the top of these ratings, the amount of state funding is often non-proportional. “For the past seven years, the Snyder administration used a process by which selected performance data — such as retention, graduation rates and administrative efficiency — play a small part in the process, and Grand Valley has ranked first or second in each of those enactments,” McLogan said. “Unfortunately, the highperformance ranking hasn’t come with much new money. We don’t know yet if Governor (Gretchen) Whitmer will retain or change that model.”
SEE BALL | A2
SEE FUNDS | A2
BLUE BROTHER: Dawning his fedora and sunglasses, GVSU President Thomas Haas performes a number from “The Blues Brothers” during President’s Ball in 2016. What would have been Haas’ final President’s Ball on Feb. 1 was canceled due to severe weather conditions. The event is not intended to be rescheduled. GVL | ARCHIVE BY OLIVIA FELLOWS OFELLOWS@LANTHORN.COM
On Thursday, Jan. 31, the decision was made by Grand Valley State University’s Office of Student Life to cancel this year’s President’s Ball. The decision followed five consecutive snow days — a campus record. According to Associate Director of Student Life LeaAnn Tibbe, it was a difficult but necessary decision.
“I hope students understand that this was a tough decision and everyone at Student Life is disappointed,” Tibbe said. “However, due to campus being closed and classes canceled, we were forced to cancel the President’s Ball for students’ safety. Our view of the cancellation was that it was better to be safe than sorry with such bad weather and roads.” The President’s Ball is the second most student attended event
at GVSU outside of football games, and many students took to Twitter to express their disappointment in the canceling of the dance. With many expressing that they believed the dance still could have taken place despite the weather conditions and some students expressing frustration over purchasing appropriate clothing for the dance that they won’t get money back for. Others were desperate to
SNOW
GV cancels week of classes due to Polar Vortex, sets school record BY ALEXANDRA LOYD ALOYD@LANTHORN.COM
In the last week, Michigan has faced its coldest days since 1996, rightly claiming the week’s weather forecast title of Polar Vortex 2019. The temperatures hit record lows for the last two decades, with highs below zero and wind chills hitting 50 below zero in some parts of the state, making conditions dangerous for anyone that spends more than five minutes outside. This and the nearly two feet of snow were enough to close Grand Valley State University for the entire school week, breaking all kinds of records. “To my knowledge, this is unprecedented at GVSU — but then again, so is this weather,” said Associate Vice President for Facilities Services Tim Thimmesch. “The last time campus closed for two days in a row was back in the 1978 blizzard. (Closing for) five is a record.” When the university is closed, all classes are canceled and all buildings are closed except for those where essential staff work. Essential staff include the Department of Public Safety Services, Facilities Services, Food Service, Housing, Information Technology and
Fieldhouse Management. On Monday, Jan. 28, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency in order to address threats to public health and safety related to forecast. “It’s challenging because we’re looking at 25,000 students, and it’s hard to identify a solution that’s going to be the best for everybody,” said Assistant Director of Public Safety and Grand Valley Police Department Capt. Jeff Stoll. “A lot of it is looking at safety on the roads, because we don’t want to expose anyone to unnecessary danger. Walking to class in bad snow isn’t hazardous — it can be frustrating, but it isn’t hazardous. Commuters, though, are put more at risk in this weather.” Monday, Jan. 28 was the first snow day of the week for GVSU students and was declared on Sunday night before the predicted 11 inches of snow began to fall. Stoll said that closing the night before is rare, but that it speaks to the university’s desire to be proactive in making sure that all students are safe. Monday morning commuters may have been put at risk if they had waited until the morning to cancel classes, as the university
CABIN FEVER: Students pass the time indoors following a school day. Due to the Polar Vortex, GVSU canceled five days of school, setting a school record. The last time more than one consecutive school day was canceled was during the blizzard of 1978. GVL | KATHERINE VASILE
usually does. “It is certainly unusual to make the decision to close the night before, so I can’t remember when the last time that occurred, but the goal is always safety,” said Vice President for Administrative Services Scott Richardson. “We don’t want students, faculty or staff to take undue risks getting to campus.” Richardson said that the decision to close GVSU campuses is overall determined by his position, but that the decision
is a big discussion consisting of people from campus housing, facilities, public safety, GVPD and the president’s cabinet. “The two biggest players in the decision are (public safety) and facilities,” Stoll said. “Facilities services of course, is responsible for all of the maintenance staff, the custodial staff and most importantly for (bad weather), the grounds staff — those that are out plowing and cleaning up the snow.” Stoll said that GVPD and
public safety are responsible for not only focusing on the information related to GVSU’s campus, but the weather information for all surrounding cities, as students commute from all over the place. “When we’re looking at closing, it’s impacting all of west Michigan, not just our little spot in Allendale, so we’re pretty plugged into all the surrounding sheriff ’s offices and road commissions around,” Stoll said. “We see what information they’re pro-
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viding for us through the national weather service — we use a lot of open source media that we have available, that we condense and present to the president’s cabinet, where they make the final decision.” Most if not all K-12 schools and various universities in the Lower Peninsula closed for at least Wednesday and Thursday during the record low temperatures, but many universities in the Upper Peninsula remained open all week.
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