GVSUAlert! test to take place Oct. 4

The Grand Valley Police Department will test the GVSUAlert! systems this Friday, Oct. 4 at noon. The test includes messaging through text, voice and email, as well as on-campus alerts through desktop notifications, social media and an outdoor alert system. 

The use of text, voice and email alerts is dependent on the user’s preference, which can be changed at www.gvsu.edu/gvsualert. 

With desktop notifications and outdoor alerts, the test aims to reach people across campus whether they are in class or outdoors. Text messages are also a quicker way to alert students of potential dangerous situations. Alerts will only be sent out in emergencies.

No action is required for students after receiving the alerts.

GV professor’s, students’ work cited in Capitol Hill hearing

Following a USA Today reverse mortgaging investigation co-authored by Grand Valley Student University professor Jeff Kelly Lowenstein and three of his students, a Capitol Hill hearing was held Sept. 25 to address issues in the system. The hearing called on Kelly Lowenstein’s findings and the work of students Allison Donahue, Jamie Fleury and Shirley Keys.

“It’s always a wonderful experience when our work as journalists makes a difference for people who have been negatively impacted by a policy or law,” Kelly Lowenstein said. “That this has happened on a project that I worked on with three students and our colleagues on USA Today’s national investigative team only makes it more so.”

The investigation started in 2017 and was published June 2019.

Students selected for study abroad scholarship

After a competitive application process, 18 GVSU students received the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship to study abroad. Out of 5,600 applicants, only 1,424 were awarded the scholarship, which includes $8,000 toward the cost of the program. 

The scholarship aims to increase students’ proficiency in other languages and cultures, which is crucial to their careers and development.

In GVSU’s history, 190 students have received the Gilman Scholarship, which is intended to diversify both the students and the regions that students study in. The GVSU students will be traveling to countries including Japan, Germany, Chile and nine others. A full list of recipients and selected countries is available on the GVSU website.

The deadline for the next Gilman Scholarship is Tuesday, Oct. 1, with another in March 2020.