Grand Valley State University

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{{Infobox_University |name = Grand Valley State University |image = Image:GVSU sign.jpg |motto = Educating students to shape their lives, their professions, and their societies. |established = 1960 |type = Public university |endowment = $44,332,377 |faculty = 692 full-time |president = Mark Murray |students = 22,565 |undergrad = 18,903 |postgrad = 3,662 |city = Allendale |state = Michigan |country = United States |campus = 1,237 acres (5.01 km²) |free_label = Sports |free = Lakers. 8 men's varsity teams, 9 women's. |mascot = Louie the Laker |website = www.gvsu.edu }} Grand Valley State University, or GVSU, is a university in the U.S. state of Michigan with two main locations: one in Allendale, and one in Grand Rapids. The main campus in Allendale is situated on over 1,200 acres (5 km²) of land. It also has facilities in Muskegon, Holland, and Traverse City.

Grand Valley State University was founded as Grand Valley State College in 1960 and is primarily a four-year teaching institution. However, it does have graduate programs and performs some original research work. 22,565 students were enrolled in GVSU as of 2005.

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Colleges

In July 2004, GVSU re-organized the academic programs:

Except for the College of Community and Public Service and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the other colleges were labeled as schools (School of Education, etc.). These schools were formed during the 1982 re-organization. The College of University-wide Interdisciplinary Initiatives is new.

During the 1970s, Grand Valley used a multiple college concept: College of Arts and Sciences, Thomas Jefferson College, William James College, and "College IV".

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Presidents

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Campuses

Grand Valley has four campuses. The main campus in Allendale and three satellite campuses in surrounding areas

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Allendale campus

The Allendale Campus opened in 1963, and is the location of most of the university's programs. Michigan State Highway 45 links the campus in rural Allendale to U.S. Highway 31 to the west and Grand Rapids, Michigan to the east. The football stadium is located here.

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Pew Grand Rapids campus

The Pew Grand Rapids Campus is located in downtown Grand Rapids. It includes the Richard DeVos Center, L.V. Eberhard Center, Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences, The Depot (houses the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development headquarters), Keller Engineering Laboratories, Peter F. Secchia Hall (housing), and Winter Hall (housing).

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Muskegon campus

GVSU has three locations in Muskegon:

  • Stevenson Center for Higher Education at Muskegon Community College, which offers several graduate and undergraduate programs.
  • Lake Michigan Center, which houses the Annis Water Resources Institute.
  • Michigan Alternative Renewable Energy Center. Marec Webpage
    • The Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center (MAREC) is the first fully integrated demonstration facility for distributed generation of electricity using alternative and renewable energy technologies in the United States.

Lake Michigan Center and Michigan Alternative Renewal Energy Center are located along Shoreline Drive in downtown Muskegon.

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Holland Meijer campus

The Meijer Campus in Holland houses continuing education programs. The land was donated to the university by the Meijer family. A Meijer store is located nearby.

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Carillon

Grand Valley has two carillons.

  • Beckering Family Carillon (2000): Located in the Pew Campus, adjacent to the Steelcase Library.

Image:Beckering-Carillon.jpg

  • Cook Carillon (1994): Located in the Allendale Campus, near Kirkhof Center and Cook-DeWitt Center.

Image:Cook-Carillon.jpg

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Transportation

Interurban Transit Partnership operates several The Rapid bus routes under contract with the university. The public can ride these buses by paying the fare, but rides are free to Grand Valley students, faculty and staff while classes are in session on all Rapid routes.

The Rapid bus to the downtown (Grand Rapids) campus is numbered the "50," while another bus, the "37," takes students to off-campus apartment buildings. This bus was originally numbered the "36," which has led to a petition by several Grand Valley students to get the number changed back to its original "36."Rapid petition

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Athletics

Grand Valley supports varsity teams in the following sports: Baseball, men's and women's Basketball, men's and women's Cross Country, Football, men's and women's Golf, women's Soccer, Softball, men's and women's Swimming and Diving, men's and women's Tennis, men's and women's indoor and outdoor Track, and women's Volleyball. Grand Valley Athletics has recently enjoyed great success with three Division II national championships in 2005-06. GVSU's athletic program has also won the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Directors' Cup in 2004 and 2005, which is awarded to the top athletic program in each NCAA division based on team overall finishes.

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Football

Image:Grand Valley ath.png The GVSU American football team was Division II champions two years in a row (2002 and 2003) and added a third title in 2005, finishing 13-0 and tying the NCAA record for most wins in a 4-year period with 51 wins [2].




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Volleyball

The women's volleyball team won its first Division II National Championship in 2005 against host school Nebraska-Kearney. [3].


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Women's Basketball

The GVSU women's basketball team won their first NCAA Division II National Championship in 2006 with a 58-52 win over American International College. The Lady Lakers finished with a school best 33-3 overall record, which included a win streak of 22 games, also a school record.


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Hockey

GVSU has a top American Collegiate Hockey Association Ice Hockey Team, and beginning in the 2006-07 season, will participate in the Great Midwestern Hockey League [4]. Grand Valley previously was a member of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Hockey Association and was the GLIHA Tournament Champions in 2003 and placed second in 2005. The team is not affiliated with the athletic department, but is run by the office of student life as a non-varsity team, as there is no division II hockey sponsored by the NCAA. The team website is http://www.gvsuhockey.com.

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Crew

GVSU also supports a non-varsity coed crew team. Each year, the team travels around the nation and world to compete against other top collegiate crew teams. In addition to facing storied crew teams such as Michigan, Notre Dame, and many others. Each spring, GVSU hosts the Lubbers Cup Regatta on the Grand River on GVSU's Allendale campus. The cup is named for the former GVSU president, Arend Lubbers.


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Wrestling

GVSU has a wrestling club which has done well in National Collegiate Wrestling Associaton nationals the past few years. The 2006 NCWA national championships, which were held March 3-4, 2006 at the Deltaplex, were hosted by GVSU. GVSU won the team champsionship with 188 points.

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Community outreach

Special programs at Grand Valley include:

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Media

The university owns and operates a PBS station, WGVU, and AM and FM radio stations with the same call letters, which feature a mixture of jazz, blues, and news, including local and NPR programming.

GVBN is the newly created student-run television station. It is launching in March 2006 and provides students with television shows and magazine style news. The shows are written, performed, and produced by students.

The Grand Valley Lanthorn is the student newspaper, published on Mondays (as of Fall 2005) and Thursdays (http://www.lanthorn.com/). WCKS-AM is the student radio station (http://www.wcks.org/). GVBN is the student-run television station on channel 7 on the university cable system.

Grand Valley Comic Association is another outlet for creativity. Publishing twice a year and frequently on its website, the association produces a pulp comic of collective stories. All artwork, writing, editing, inking and lettering is collaberated by Grand Valley Students.

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Health professions

The university has a large health professions program that includes professions like nursing, physician's assistant, physical therapy and pre-med, which attracts many students. It recently added a new health professions building to its Grand Rapids campus.

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Food service

Aramark operates all food services in Allendale and Grand Rapids.

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Public safety

The Department of Public Safety is the police department for the Allendale Campus. While the department is self-empowered to enforce its jurisdiction, many officers are deputized by the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department. Because Allendale doesn't have its own police department, the Grand Valley State University Police handle cases anywhere in Ottawa County, mainly in Allendale and the area surrounding the campus.

The department handles other security issues, such as parking and driving violations, community policing, and lost and found.

Allendale's fire department serves the campus.

Pew Campus Security handles security issues and contacts Grand Rapids Police when necessary.

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Summer film project

The School of Communications started an annual Summer Film Project in 1995, and has been directed by John Harper Philbin since 1998 (except 2004). Notable participants include James Karen (Flickering Blue), Pauley Perrette (A Moment of Grace) and John Dufresne (writer, The Freezer Jesus). [5] The four most recent films are listed in the Internet Movie Database under the name Grand Valley Pictures.[6] The crew is composed of students, who are led by a professional director (Harper Philbin since 1998, Alba Francesca in 2004) and director of photography (Jack Anderson since 2002).[7] The films are shown in film festivals after premiering in November.

The School of Communications sponsors the College Film Competition at the Muskegon Film Festival. In addition, Grand Valley students are encouraged to enter the competition. Also, Flickering Blue and A Moment of Grace played at the 2005 festival, and The Gospel According to Roy played at the 2006 festival.

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Bookstore

University Bookstore [8] serves the Grand Valley State University community. University Bookstore is owned and operated by Grand Valley State University.

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Controversies

In 1969, the Grand Valley Lanthorn [9], the student-run newspaper on campus, printed an issue containing several vulgarities and obsenities. After complaints from some at Grand Valley State College and the surrounding communities, the Ottawa County, Michigan sheriff arrested the editor, and the prosecutor closed down the newspaper office. The university - then a college - sued the sheriff and prosecutor for closing the Lanthorn offices. Eventually, Michigan's Attorney General settled the case out of court, ruling in favor of Grand Valley State College.

In 1970, shortly after the shootings at Kent State University, Ohio, Vietnam War protests intensified on campus. In response, President Lubbers closed the college for three days to have discussions on what the college should do. A public forum was held in the college's fieldhouse, which was attended by a vast majority of the Grand Valley community. Everyone was granted five minutes to speak, but by the end of the day, only the most radical of students remained, who demanded that the college be shut down for the rest of the year in protest. President Lubbers refused to discuss that option, which brought chants of "Power to the People." The situation was ended by President Lubbers when he met with the leaders of the radical students, and explained to them that the power over the university does not rest with students, but with the administration and board, and both of those bodies refused to close the college for the rest of the year.

In 2001, the reversal of then-president Arend Lubbers' stated intention to offer benefits to same-sex partners of GVSU employees was met with protest from faculty and many students, and accusations of undue influence by major donors to the college.


In 2005, College Republicans group sponsored an affirmative action bake sale by charging different prices based on the person's race and gender (with lower prices for members of suspect classes). This prompted criticism and even accusations of racism from many students and faculty, and resulted in the Student Senate voting to cut off funding for the organization for the remainder of the semester, and the organization voting to remove from office their president and vice president, who were responsible for the activity.

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Famous alumni

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External links

Template:Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Template:Public universities in Michigan

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