GVSUOFFCAMPUSHOUSING.

COM
Find what youre looking for.
Pitchers stays hot with
six straight wins.
For many Grand Valley
State University students,
playing hookey and slack-
ing on assignments can be-
come a frequent problems.
Class is a chore an unde-
sirable albeit necessary step
to receiving the long-await-
ed diploma.
But GVSU Junior Nick
Macksood has a differ-
ent mentality. The French
and Classics major attends
every Theories of Com-
munication class, does
the assigned readings and
participates in discussion
for absolutely no aca-
demic credit.
Macksood opted to au-
dit the course and learn for
learnings sake, not to receive
a mark on the transcript to
satisfy future employers.
A couple friends had the
class, and I heard the profes-
sor, Corey Anton, was fantas-
tic, he said of his decision to
set aside time for the course.
Had the option to audit not
been available, Macksood
said he wouldnt have been
able to schedule it in.
Betty Schaner, direc-
tor of the CLAS Academic
Advising Center, said any
student can audit a course
after expressing their in-
terest to the GVSU Regis-
trars Office.
Schaner said the rules
about audit-
ing courses
are similar
to those of
c r e d i t / n o
credit cours-
es; students
can decide
within the
rst ve
days of a course whether
theyd like to audit the class
and cannot take more than
10 credit hours of credit/no
credit or audited courses
per semester.
e main dierence be-
tween the two course types
is that students dont receive
credit for audited courses
like they do with credit/no
credit classes.
Furthermore, auditing
students arent held respon-
sible to complete exams
or assignments like they
would be with other regis-
MONDAY, MARCH 18
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LANTHORN.COM/MULTIMEDIA LIB 100 CLASS SPREADS ON-CAMPUS LOVE
Tuition assistance pro-
grams provided by the mili-
tary for active-duty service
members have been tem-
porarily suspended for the
2013 federal scal year as a
result of sequestration.
e U.S.
Air Force,
whose sus-
pension went
into eect
at 5 p.m. on
March 11, is
the latest of
four military
branches to suspend tuition
assistance. e decision fol-
lowed behind similar pro-
grams put in place by the
Marine Corps, Army and
Coast Guard. e Navy has
not yet made an announce-
ment regarding its plans.
Active-duty service
members who are enrolled
in courses will be able to
nish their current semes-
ter, but cannot sign up for
tuition assistance from the
military for future courses.
e tuition assistance
program is an additional
benet provided by the
Department of Defense for
reservists actively drilling
or soldiers on active duty,
said Sherril Soman, profes-
sor of chemistry and co-
coordinator of the Veterans
Network at Grand Valley
State University.
Tuition assistance sus-
pensions will aect active-
duty service members, but
will not aect their G.I.
Bill benets, which will
still be available for most
individuals.
e G.I. Bill is a pro-
gram administered by the
Department of Veterans
Aairs that provides edu-
cation benets for veterans
depending on their type
and length of service, So-
man said.
However, for those sol-
diers that most recently
joined the service, the G.I.
Bill is not an option.
Dan Bell, president of
the Student Veterans Orga-
nization at GVSU, said one
ocer within the organiza-
tion is ineligible for the G.I.
Bill benets and has been
using tuition assistance to
pay for her education.
As of now, she is not
sure how she will pay for
school in the fall, Bell said.
Bell served eight years
in the Army before he came
back to school to study polit-
ical science, and he is expect-
ing to graduate this summer.
People are choosing to
work instead of going to
school, which I understand,
but in this world its hard to
get a decent job without an
education, he said.
Steven Lipnicki, assistant
dean of students and co-
coordinator of the Veterans
Network at GVSU, received
a message on March 8 noti-
fying him of the Army and
Marine Corps decisions.
Its going to greatly im-
pact the limited number of
Grand Valley students who
are using military assis-
tance, Lipnicki said. Our
Active-duty
soldiers lose
tuition aid
BY RYAN JARVI
GVL SENIOR REPORTER
Most people who pass
by Grand Valley State
Universitys Transforma-
tional Link have heard
the condemning man-
tras of crowd-drawing
preachers and religious
activists, whose message
of justice seems to incite
more jeers than repen-
tance. And though most
people hear it, even fewer
take the time to combat
that message with one of
earnest love and mercy.
But one of GVSUs LIB
100 sections organized a
demonstration of accep-
tance during their Friday
class to take a stand.
Weve been discuss-
ing issues related to ethi-
cal reasoning lately and
are reading a couple of
pieces by Martin Luther
King, said professor Jus-
tin Pettibone. In class on
Wednesday, we discussed
Kings injunction against
the white moderates of
his time who opposed
segregation, but did
nothing to stop it. Several
of the students brought
up the point, rightly, that
we still face forces of divi-
sion and exclusion in our
country today, and noted
that there are oen peo-
ple who spread such mes-
sages at the Trans Link
sculpture on campus.
To complement their
course material and con-
tribute to the campus cul-
ture, the students unani-
mously proposed a sort
SEE TUITION, A2
SEE DEBATE, A2
SEE LEARNING, A2 SEE LOVE, A2
LIPNICKI
Learning for learnings sake
Students, professors audit classes for no credits
SCHANER
BY KARA HAIGHT
GVL STAFF WRITER
BY LIZZY BALBOA
GVL NEWS EDITOR
TAYLOR ROBIDA | GVL
Good vibrations: Students from a Just Pettibones LIB 100 class stand outside on
the Allendale Campus to spread some positivity last Friday during their class.
T
he issue of abortion can
be very controversial
and dicult for people
to decide where they stand.
A March 14 debate between
Grand Valley State University
and Michigan State Univer-
sity students brought about
several dierent arguments in
both support for and against
abortion.
Brad Varner from MSU
said that R.J. McVeigh from
GVSU got in touch with Var-
ner through Facebook.
R.J. and I got in touch
through a friend of a friend
on Facebook about a year
ago, Varner said. He mes-
saged me on Facebook and
we have had debates on sev-
eral issues. Recently I posted
a status about abortion, and
R.J. was interested in having a
debate on stage.
Panel A was the anti-abor-
tion group from GVSU, con-
sisting of McVeigh and Bai-
ley Wright from the Student
for Life organization. Panel
B had Varner and Mitchell
Pawlak arguing in support of
abortion.
Wright started out the de-
bate with an opening state-
ment touching on several rea-
sons as to why abortion isnt
morally permissible.
is is not about choice,
reproductive rights, womens
rights or religion, Wright
said. is debate is about
what denes the unborn.
roughout her statement,
she said there are a few crite-
ria for dening the unborn.
ese criteria can be memo-
rized with the acronym SLED;
size, level of development, en-
vironment and degree of de-
pendency.
Wright said the small-
er size of an unborn baby
doesnt decrease the value of
him or her and that the level
of development of an unborn
baby doesnt decrease their
value either.
An 18-year-old has a
more developed brain, repro-
ductive system, and life expe-
riences, but this doesnt nec-
essarily mean that an unborn
baby has less value, Wright
said. For degree of depen-
dency, all of us depend on
each other in equal amounts,
with an unborn child its just
higher because their younger,
which again doesnt decrease
its value.
Varner argued that an un-
born baby and a human being
are intrinsically dierent.
In order for an organism
or a person to be relevant to
morality the person must
have a functioning brain and
have actual desires, Varner
said.
Varner added that a vast
majority of people have abor-
tions at 20 weeks, which is
when the unborn child doesnt
have a fully developed brain.
is doesnt mean that
having an abortion aer 20
weeks is morally impermis-
sible, he said. We must con-
sider individual concerns on
a case to case basis.
To combat Varners argu-
ABORTION
DEBATE
GETS HEATED
GVSU, MSU
offer different
perspectives on
controversial issue
BY RACHEL CROSS
GVL ASSISTANT NEWS
ROBERT MATHEWS | GVL
Just to clarify: MSU student Mitchell Pawlak speaks to GVSU freshman Bailey
Vright ouring th clarincaticn sssicn btwn panls ouring th abcrticn obat.
KEY ARGUMENTS
The size, level of
development, environment,
and degree of dependency
doesnt decrease an unborn
babys value
All human beings are equal in
human nature
People and things have
varying degrees of
functionality, but that
doesnt make them less
valuable
An unborn baby and a person
are intrinsically different
In order for an organism or
person to be morally relevant,
they must have a functioning
brain and desires
All people should have access
to human rights and individual
choice
GVSU (Pro-Life) MSU (Pro-Choice)
As kids we were taught
what colors, in combination,
to love and to hate; whether
that was blue and maize,
green and white, or red and
grey. Whatever sport our
parents loved, we oen in-
herit that love unintention-
ally. Maybe it was from all
of the time and eort put
into cheering along with the
rest of the family that made
such a strong bond last well
into adulthood.
e same goes for colleg-
es: our mothers and fathers
inadvertently, although
sometimes quite bluntly,
favored one over the other.
Paired with their love for
the colors, the teams, and
the place, any child would
grow up knowing they
wanted to be a Spartan, a
Wolverine, or some other
random thing, person, or
animal.
My rst love was Univer-
sity of Michigan, believing
that the school was the only
one for me simply because
yellow and blue look pretty
darn good together (I mean,
complimentary colors will
do that, ya know). A few
short years later I dumped
the idea, hoping that I
would nd another more
sophisticated love. Duke:
the decision was sparked by
a random conversation, and
aer hearing the name, my
heart had already attached
itself. $55,000 a year? Of
what, again? I had plenty
of Monopoly money saved,
and I doubted that, even if
handed swily and smooth-
ly enough, no one could tell
the dierence.
By the age of 14, I
laughed at the short, nave
romances that I had previ-
ously become entangled
with. I was now in love, re-
ally in love, with green and
white. Sure, the colors did
not look wonderful on me,
but people who went to U
of M were snobs, and peo-
ple who went to Duke ew
to have tea with the queen.
I like modesty and I dislike
tea. At the time, that was all
that I needed to know not
to want to go to either won-
derfully accredited school.
Looking back, I can nev-
er remember wanting to be
a Laker. What is a Laker? I
mean, I get sea-sick, and
God love Louie, but theres
something dierent about
his face. I think the rea-
son that I chose to come to
Grand Valley was precisely
because I didnt hear things
about it. ere was no ste-
reotyped, I would not be
labeled, and I could seek
an education without much
reaction from anyone ask-
ing so where do you go to
school?
ere are so many
schools in Michigan, let
alone the U.S., so why is it
that when we hear Stanford
or Harvard, we go crazy? I
had a friend that went to
Samford, a private Southern
Baptist institution located
in Homewood, a suburb of
Birmingham, Alabama. Af-
ter asking where she would
attend college, her answer
was oen met with wide
eyes and an enthusiastic
oh! But aer so many of
her corrections, the initial
pronunciation grew louder
and louder as she got tired
of the lessening of enthusi-
asm. Aer all, going to col-
lege is a feat itself.
A name is always associ-
ated with something. e
brain reaches back into its
memories and pulls past
experience up to the front
of the class to declare what
happened. It is why picking
names can be such a chal-
lenge: anyone named Ash-
ton is good looking and stu-
pid, and if you name a child
Katniss, you can bet that
shell be independent and
tough. Aer experiencing
this place, what comes to
mind when you hear Grand
Valley? It diers from per-
son to person. It might be
homework, piles of snow
or the people. Or maybe its
even e Lanthorn.
sschoch@lanthorn.com
OPINION
A4
MARCH 18, 2013
GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN
Reputation, or lack thereof, is everything
WOULD YOU CONSIDER AUDITING
A CLASS AT GVSU?
I wouldnt consider auditing a
course. If my grades were at the
level that I would need to drop
one, I would focus on my remain-
ing classes.
DAN MCGRAIL
Sophomore
Mechanical Engineering
West Branch, Mich.
No, I wouldnt consider audit-
ing a course because I dont see
why you would take a class for no
credit.
SAMANTHA ROLES
Freshman
Writing
Port Huron, Mich.
I would consider taking an auditing
course at GVSU because it would
help expand my knowledge. Also,
I find it to be an interesting idea,
to sit in a class to get no credit,
although itd have to be a class that I
am interested in.
CARLY DOLINSKI
Freshman
Biology
Port Huron, Mich.
I think I would consider auditing a
course at GVSU. Being an education
major I believe it is important to
keep learning as much as possible. If
it was information I could use in the
future, I would definitely try it out.
SARA TIESENGA
Senior
Integrated Science/Elementary Ed.
Belding, Mich.
I would love the opportunity to
learn without having to pay for it.
Credit or no credit itd be worth it!
KAYLEE GROENWOLD
Sophomore
Advertising/Public Relations
Otsego, Mich.
QUESTION OF THE ISSUE
GVL OPINION POLICY
e goal of the Grand Valley
Lanthorns opinion page is to act
as a forum for public discussion,
comment and criticism in the Grand
Valley State University community.
Student opinions published here do
not necessarily reect those of the
paper as an entity.
e Grand Valley Lanthorn aims
to be a safe vehicle for community
discussion. e Lanthorn will
not publish or entertain any
forms of hate speech, but will not
discriminate against any other
views, opinions or beliefs. e
content, information and views
expressed are not approved by nor
necessarily represent those of the
university, its Board of Trustees,
ocers, faculty or sta.
Reader submissions on the
opinion page appear as space
permits, and are reserved for letters
to the editor only, all other reader-
generated content can be submitted
to the Grand Valley Lanthorns
YourSpace page by emailing
community@lanthorn.com.
Letters to the editor should
include the authors full name and
relevant title along with a valid email
and phone number for conrming
the identity of the author. Letters
should be approximately 500-650
words in length, and are not edited by
the sta of the Grand Valley Lanthorn
outside of technical errors for clarity.
To make a submission, email
at editorial@lanthorn.com or by
dropping o your submission in
person at:
0051 KIRKHOF CENTER
GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY
ALLENDALE, MI 49401
616-826-8276
Got something to say?
Well listen.
editorial@lanthorn.com
A
t Grand Valley State Univer-
sity and beyond, there are
many different kinds of stu-
dents with many different kinds of
relationships with their academic
courses. While some students rue
the hour and fifteen-minute blocks
of institutionalized learning, some
dont mind it. And if youre like
Junior Nick Mackstood, and other
GVSU students and professors, you
not only dont mind class, you like
it; In fact, Mackstood likes class
enough to do the assigned read-
ings, and attend and participate in
the lecture for no academic credit.
Its called auditing classes sitting
in on a lecture or course on campus
but with no formally awarded grades
or academic credits, audited classes
leave no mark on your academic
transcript. Some people use them
to brush up on entry-level courses
theyve become unfamiliar with,
and some like Mackstood audit
classes simply because they like to
learn.
We cannot speak for the majority
of GVSU, but we can speak for the
majority of the Lanthorn sta; and
the average student here already
struggling to balance 15 credits
worth of in-class time and even more
hours of homework and test prep,
with internships, part-time jobs and
social demands take the less is
more approach to course loads. We
love learning, but maybe not always
in the classroom.
Its one of a handful of classes
(Ive taken) that has meant some-
thing to me, Mackstood said in a
story featured in todays issue on
A1. Whether it be grad school, or
something else, its opened me up to
an entire new world of academia.
Suce to say, students like
Mackstood have caught on to a
trend that reinvigorates the spirit of
higher education as it was originally
intended to be not one that strives
toward a perfect G.P.A., or puts
high-earning degrees on a pedestal,
but one that values knowledge for
knowledges sake. One that seeks to
explode our world into one million
little pieces, and reconnect the dots
into something that makes the world
a brighter and more dynamic place
to be.
is perspective is not only com-
mendable, but also admirable. is is
a perspective that students across all
majors, in all levels of their educa-
tion should appreciate and seek to
emulate. Not everyone has the time,
nor the work ethic to take on course
work that doesnt move them toward
graduation, but our world is chang-
ing, and students are going to need
to arm yourself with more than just
your academic transcript to make
their way post-graduation.
A love of learning, for learnings
sake would, perhaps, be a good start.
EDITORIAL
FOR LEARNINGS SAKE
In an academic climate where students pride ends over means, the practice of academic
auditing by GVSU students signals a triumphant return to the heart of higher education
COURTESY CARTOON I KING FEATURES
ARE LETTER GRADES THE BEST WAY
TO MEASURE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT?
YES: 67% NO: 33%
LAST ISSUES VALLEY VOTE:
Read the blog:
Read the column
Youre from where?
by NATE SMITH
WEB EXCLUSIVE
WEB EXCLUSIVE
BY STEPHANIE SCHOCH
GVL COLUMNIST
VALLEY VOTE
IS TAKING A CLASS STILL WORTH THE WORK FOR
NONE OF THE ACADEMIC CREDIT?

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by GARRICK SEE