Swift’s music was played from the clock tower’s bells by musician Jerry Jelsema. The Swift-themed concert was part of a performance series celebrating the 30th anniversary of the clock tower.  GVSU University Development, Campus Activities Board (CAB), the Office of Student

Life, the Office of Student Support and Belonging and the University’s cheer team participated in holding the event.

Asides from the music, there were other Swiftie-themed attractions and activities at the event. There were free T-shirts, food trucks, friendship bracelet making and a make your own flower bouquet table. GVSU’s mascot, Louie the Laker, also made an appearance, taking pictures and offering fist bumps to students. 

Megan Wierenga, the director of student affairs marketing at GVSU, said she enjoyed working on the event. Wierenga said the Swift-themed concert helped to bring awareness to the instrumental piece. 

“Not many people realize that the carillon is an actual musical instrument at the top of the tower,” Wierenga said.

The Cook Carillon Tower was built in 1994, under former University President Arend Lubbers. According to Wierenga, installing the tower was part of Lubbers’ vision for the University. 

“During an address to staff back in 1994, (Lubbers) said, ‘I see the tower and the bells as a symbol of community. The ringing of the bells calls us together in a community of peace and common cause,’” Wieranga said. “I wanted to help bring awareness to the carillon and celebrate this GVSU landmark.” 

A carillonneur is the musician that rings a clock tower’s bells. Jelsema is a church musician, organist, choir master and carillonneur on the side. This is the second concert Jelsema has played for the University. Over Laker Family Weekend, he rang the bells of the clock tower.

Jelsema said he was inspired to become a carillonneur during his time at the University of Michigan. However, his dream had to be put on hold due to his busy schedule and coursework. He said he later got the opportunity to take lessons with Wiley Crawford, a carillonneur. This allowed Jelsema to chase his dream, 50 years later.

“When I graduated with my master’s, they were playing the carillon outside, and I thought, ‘Someday I want to do that,’” Jelsema said. “(Working with Crawford was) a dream finally come true.”

Jelsema said he enjoyed playing Swift’s music for the concert. Despite not being a frequent listener of her music, Jelsema said the more he played it, he began to really like it.

“I’d never really listened to (Taylor Swift’s) music because I am a classical musician, and I really don’t listen to pop,” Jelsema said. “She’s got a style, and so it’s kind of easy to translate from one piece to another. It’s been a good experience for me.” 

According to Wierenga, the reason Swift was chosen as the performance’s theme was because of the musician’s “popularity and her diverse fanbase.” 

“I wanted to create an event that would draw a crowd of all ages and provide the opportunity for them to experience the carillon in a fun and engaging way,” Wierenga said. “What better way to celebrate Grand Valley’s icon (the clock tower) than with a pop culture icon?”

GVSU student Sam Knight was excited for the concert’s theme. Knight said the concert was a unique way to relate GVSU’s history to students’ interests. 

“It’s cool that the school is relating their history to current topics,” Knight said. “I probably would’ve attended still if there wasn’t the Taylor Swift theme, but I was even more excited since there was.” 

Jelsema said he hopes the event helped students learn about carillonneurs and their work.

“When you hear real music (coming from the clock tower), someone’s actually in there playing it,” Jelsema said. “It’s a wonderful instrument, and if they (students) have a chance, they should try and go up to the tower (to) see how it works.” 

Throughout the school year, the Kutsche Office hosts events and invites guest speakers to educate students and staff on topics regarding West Michigan history.

This past week, they held their Local History Roundtable, an annual event that aims to create discussions about the history of different races, genders and communities. The focus of this year’s event was “Our West Michigan Histories.” Guest speakers discussed historic poor houses in Ottawa and Van Buren County and Civil Rights pursuits in Grand Rapids and Muskegon.

The keynote presentation included a discussion with Dr. Delia Fernández-Jones, a Michigan State University professor and Grand Valley State University graduate who recently released a book called “Making the MexiRican City: Migration, Placemaking and Activism in Grand Rapids, Michigan.”

Fernández-Jones discussed the history of Mexican and Puerto Rican identity in Grand Rapids, including their origins and the values placed in community. She addressed how traditions helped to shape the role “MexiRicans” play in West Michigan today. 

Fernández-Jones said she became acquainted with the Kutsche Office after her graduation from GVSU and was interested in helping contribute to their office’s mission of “trying to uncover the voices of people who are not typically showcased in our local history and the way we imagine local history.” 

“I feel like my work really aligns with their mission, and I am always looking for a platform to tell this story about Latinos/Latinx in this community, so it was an honor to talk at the Kutsche Office’s Annual Roundtable,” Fernández-Jones said.

During the presentation, Fernández-Jones talked about discrimination, imperialism and displacement as precursors to both Mexican and Puerto Rican migration north throughout the 20th century, seen as early as the 1920s. 

“Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are often referred to as ‘new,’ but there is evidence of us being here for the last one hundred years, at least,” Fernández-Jones said.

Additionally, Fernández-Jones distinguished the difference between Mexican and Puerto Rican history in West Michigan, two communities that are often lumped together without recognition for different traditions or cultures. 

“We think about Latino’s as an umbrella group, but it was not just like they got here and were automatically like ‘yes we are the same,’” Fernández-Jones said. “So it’s the experiences (discrimination and displacement) but also the shared cultural commonalities. It’s not the same Spanish, but it is Spanish in a place where not a lot of people speak it.”

Fernández-Jones said religion and community spaces play a role in creating the MexiRican identity seen in Grand Rapids today, and that interacting with neighbors and passing oral traditions is the strongest way to build community. 

“The parties that happen in living rooms are very important because that is really where communities form,” Fernández-Jones said. “Those are the ways we are really able to create these bonds and build community.”

Fernández-Jones also touched on the important role that women played in creating the MexiRican community in Grand Rapids. She said many women passed down the knowledge of cultural traditions and practices such as dances, recipes, songs and stories which help strengthen the MexiRican identity.

Fernández-Jones said it’s very important for people to understand the local environment and the history they live in in order to create a society where everyone has equal opportunities.

She encouraged GVSU students to become invested in what’s happening in the greater Grand Rapids community in order to create change. 

“You are in a more powerful position than you might think because you are a constituent of the university,” Fernández-Jones said. “So you have power in asking that this university do the right thing.” 

Kaur is a civil rights leader and lawyer, award-winning filmmaker, educator and best-selling author. During and after her keynote speech, she spoke about her best-selling memoir “See No Stranger,” which focuses on using love as a force for social justice and change throughout the world.

Kaur said she teaches strategies to practice love in a world “filled with hate” by using phrases like “breath and push” and inventing concepts like “revolutionary love compass.”

Kaur engaged with her audience by opening the lecture with a call for the audience to take a deep breath and engage in visualization practices. She then connected with the audience by sharing her personal experiences with loss, grief and forgiveness.

“Forgiveness is not forgetting, forgiveness is freedom from hate,” Kaur said.

Program Coordinator of the Kaufman Interfaith Institute, Liz English, helps to set up many events for the institute. Her first event as a full-time program coordinator was a concert by two international musical groups on campus. Since then, she has continued to have a major leadership role in these events, especially “behind the scenes of Kaufman.” 

“It is a little bit of just making sure the gears are running smoothly, from talking to our various speakers that we are going to have, to just making sure people are in the right place at the right time,” English said.

Kaur’s keynote is part of GVSU’s “Talking Together” initiative. This series of events are sponsored by the Padnos/Sarosik Center of Civil Discourse, Kaufman Interfaith Institute, the Howenstein Center of Presidential Studies and WGVU Public Media.

This was Kaur’s first time visiting GVSU and English said she was a great fit to be featured in the series.

“Valarie’s name just had come up within our circles as kind of a dream speaker to have come to campus because she is so engaging and she really does cross the line of our various institutions very well,” English said.

Megan Rydecki, the director of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, said the Ford Presidential Library and Museum is the connecting piece that brought Brower to GVSU. 

GVSU Student Body President Faith Kidd spoke about what her role has been like and how her ambitions have changed over time.

“If you would have met me two years ago when I first started at Grand Valley, I would have told you I was going to be a CEO, and I was going to be President of the United States, and I was going to run a think tank and all of these fabulous things,” Kidd said. “I’m still considering them but I don’t dream of being on top anymore.” 

Kidd said she appreciates and acknowledges the supporting roles that have allowed her to succeed in her position. She highlighted the importance of the vice president and other student body roles that help to bring about change in the university. 

Brower has worked as a member of the White House Press Corps and has had her work published in The New York Times and Bloomberg News. Brower opened her speech by telling stories of the Grand Rapids-raised President Gerald R. Ford. Many of the stories revolved around the friendly and laid-back attitude that the Ford family brought to the White House. 

“Milton Frame, the White House carpenter, was really impressed by Mrs. Ford’s approachable manner,” Brower said. “He talked about how she would invite him to have tea in the residence and just how different it was from Pat Nixon, who was so much more formal.”

Brower spoke about the strong relationships that many of the White House staff built with each president and their families, no matter what their political beliefs were. 

Brower said through her research, she found that each first lady had important roles and strengths. She said Betty Ford was her favorite first lady she researched. Brower felt Ford’s openness with her diagnosis of breast cancer helped to destigmatize mammograms and that her ability to speak about the health of women had a positive influence. 

Towards the end of the program, Brower delved into the relationships between the past presidents, how they worked together or when they criticized one another. 

She said Ralph Hauenstein, an intelligence aide to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the namesake of the GVSU Presidential Center, reminded her of something the former president had said. Eisenhower spoke of the presidency and country as being so much bigger than the people that take on the job as commander-in-chief.

“While the former presidents are very different in their philosophies, how they lived their lives and how they got to the pinnacle of power, they all strongly believe in the country, a peaceful transfer of power and the Constitution,” Brower said. “There’s a sense that they are bound together.”

The Hauenstein Center has many other events planned in the coming months that tackle a multitude of issues such as housing in the Grand Rapids and Kent County Communities. They hope to reach many more students and create a stronger community through conversations and events.

Gift of Life aims to cure blood cancer through cellular therapy.

The organization works with the public to get others involved in the fight to cure blood cancer. According to Gift of Life, getting swabbed can help the organization find a match for patients in need of stem cell and marrow donations and in turn, save a life. 

Recruitment Specialist at Gift of Life Marrow Registry, GVSU alumna Jocelyn Messer, said the work of Gift of Life can make a real impact. 

“Gift of Life is a nonprofit and international stem cell and marrow registry that works to recruit potential donors for patients battling blood cancers, sickle cell and other immune disorders,” Messer said. “Our mission is to find a matching donor for every patient in need.” 

According to Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, one person is diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma approximately every three minutes. 

Additionally, an estimated 1,519,907 people in the United States are living with, or in remission from, leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) or myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). 

For many people, bone marrow transplantation or peripheral blood stem cell transplant can lead to recovery. Gift of Life has made it possible for many people to match with strangers in order to receive transplants. 

“It’s not only important to join the registry and grow the registry, but also to diversify the registry as well, so running events on campus and in the community is very important for patients worldwide,” Messer said.

Messer said matching is incredibly difficult and many groups of people are not represented in the registry. Genetics have to match to a certain extent in order to be compatible.

Messer said Gift of Life has been running the Swab-A-Thon event for six years, which has led to further data collection in the registry and more matches for patients in need. She said the work of Swab-A-Thon is particularly impactful on college campuses. 

“This is a great way for students to get involved in a different way than they are used to, as you are able to see the immediate impact of how many people you have added to the registry, and also the matches and transplants that come from events on campus,” Messer said.

Gift of Life also has an organization at GVSU where students can get involved by volunteering, becoming a donor or helping raise financial support. 

Junior Caroline Carlson is treasurer of the Rotaract Volunteering Club at GVSU. She said she participated in the Swab-A-Thon her freshman year when the Gift of Life organization was reaching out to other organizations on campus.

“The process was very easy,” Carlson said. “They came to my club meeting during my freshman year and explained the process, then gave swabs to anyone who wanted to participate.” 

Getting swabbed doesn’t mean a person is required to donate, but it does put participants into a registry so if they match with someone in need, the organization can notify them. 

“Joining the registry is very simple; it’s just an online survey to get some contact information and some health history questions,” Messer said. “Then a simple cheek swab is how we see what your HLA typing is. Just because you join doesn’t mean that you will be called as a match or to donate, but if you are, Gift of Life will get ahold of you to walk you through next steps.” 

After getting a match, Gift of Life walks each interested person through the steps to donate.

“You will get a simple blood test done to make sure you are a match for the patient we are looking at and then a physical to make sure that you are healthy enough to donate,” Messer said.

Messer said students who are interested in getting involved can contact her via email at jmesser@giftoflife.org. Additionally, applications for the fall 2023 Gift of Life internship program opens later this spring.

Bliss engaged in a discussion with Mike Verhulst who has served as the executive vice president of strategic growth for Acrisure Benefits Group since April 2022. Previously, he served as Rockford Construction’s vice president and Wolverine Building Group’s vice president. 

Additionally, Verhulst serves on the board of Convention Arena Authority, Grand Valley Metro Council, Priority Health, YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids Symphony, Gerald R. Ford International Airport, Experience Grand Rapids, the Foundation Board of Grand Rapids and is an advisory committee member of ArtPrize Leadership on Canvas. 

Verhulst’s business journey began when he founded Summit Landscape Management. For nearly 16 years, he served as president and owner until he sold the business to pursue other passions. 

Verhulst said he overcame many challenges when starting Summit Landscape Management. He said it was difficult to obtain the money needed to purchase equipment for the business and he was shot down by many investors, leading to him working long hours to be able to pay his own way without the help of loans. 

Although it was a large undertaking at the time, he said the hard work benefited him in the long run as Summit Landscape Management is now one of the top 100 largest landscaping companies in the United States and is one of the top five minority-owned landscaping companies.  

Verhulst said many successes in his career have come from grit, hard work and risk-taking. 

“I think risk-taking is instrumental to personal growth,” Verhulst said. “It depends what you define as risk, it can be time, it can be monetary, it can be material, but when you take that risk, that’s when you start learning.” 

Prior to becoming a businessman, Verhulst served in the military as a petroleum supply specialist and a door gunner. He said during his service, he would sometimes find himself making suggestions for how to improve various aspects of his responsibilities, resulting in the process being more efficient. Verhulst said his suggestions always got him in trouble with his superiors, yet were implemented only days later. 

Verhulst has been able to apply his service to his current business practices, creating Rockford’s Veterans Committee, where he served as leader of Veterans Day activities. Verhulst has also used his position to advocate for other veterans in the community. These acts of service led to Crain’s Detroit Business recognizing Verhulst as the Notable Veteran of the Year in 2020. 

Verhulst said it’s important to recognize dreams versus goals. He said goals may not come easily or in the form one might think they will, but that people should work to achieve these goals and accept failure is part of the process. 

“If you haven’t failed, then you’re not trying,” Verhulst said. “I would highly encourage you to fail, I know it might sound weird, but if you don’t fail, it means you’re just complacent.” 

For the time being, Verhulst said he plans to continue to serve on his various boards and committees. However, he said he has his sights set on eventually serving on the boards of some of the largest companies, such as Google or Apple.

This particular event was held in collaboration between the Divisions of Academic Affairs and Information Technology, facilitated by Provost Fatma Mili. The panelists were from various departments across the university such as writing, digital studies and technology. The panelists discussed the technology of ChatGPT and how the program could shape the future.

“ChatGPT, we’ve probably all heard, is a language model,” said Professor of Communication Studies Corey Anton. “At its heart, it’s a deep learning model. With ChatGPT, you feed it a prompt, and it goes token by token, or word by word, in your prompt and generates another word.”

While text-generated artificial intelligence has existed for the last forty years, Anton said the advancements for ChatGPT allow the model to invert context and create a web of predictions for language to create meaning. 

“(ChatGPT is) a deep-neuro network which is massive and is somewhat like a brain so to speak, but it’s connected by numbers that pass information around,” Anton said. 

Connections within the ChatGPT system make it possible for users to input a fairly long prompt and receive responses of around 2048 words in a row. 

“The self attention (ability to create a sequence), though, is probably the key part of ChatGPT that we’re all thinking about,” Anton said. “It allows it (ChatGPT) to offer context. So probably the biggest advance in ChatGPT compared to earlier models is the network itself now can infer and make guesses as to what ambiguous parts of language mean.” 

Director of the GVSU Writing Center, Patrick Johnson, is optimistic that ChatGPT can provide students with better tools to begin their writing and create rough drafts for a foundation to work from. He compared ChatGPT’s potential impact on education to other resources on the internet people were initially fearful of.  

“When Wikipedia first came out, I remember there being a lot of conversations in academic circles about it ending the research process,” Johnson said. “And what ended up happening was faculty developed better assignments, clearer expectations and developed the idea of saying Wikipedia’s a great place to start but a terrible place to end.”

Similarly, GVSU’s Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Digital Officer Miloš Topić is hopeful for the future of ChatGPT on campus. 

“I see it as a draft, I see it, and AI in general, as helping us with the initial thoughts, ideas and creativity and saving time,” Topić said. “I would love to have AI-capable solutions across the university to take away mundane tasks from people that are completely mind-numbing.”

Both Johnson and Topić believe ChatGPT and similar systems can provide students and faculty with better opportunities to express creativity, something that a computer cannot replace nor replicate. 

However, all panelists express concerns regarding the ethics of AI and ChatGPT.  Many panelists felt it’s important to remember that AI is a tool rather than a replacement for what humans can do. 

“It is impressive, but it’s not magic,” said Laurence José, associate professor of writing and director of the digital studies minor. “It’s based on probability, so we call it intelligence, but I think it also works well remembering it’s not the same as the human brain – it’s not cognition. So when we’re thinking about the data, it’s just worth remembering what these models are and what they are not.”

Associate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Ben Rapin, said bias and discrimination can be coded into these models. Additionally, there’s a moral dilemma when it comes to using AI-generated text in regard to sensitive issues or tragedies.

Vanderbilt University recently faced backlash for using ChatGPT to write an address to the VU community about the mass shooting that happened at Michigan State University on Feb. 13. Many people felt that the use of ChatGPT for a “sympathetic” statement was inappropriate and insensitive.  

“I agree there are a lot of ethical concerns that need to be taken into consideration with AI,” Topić said. “So I think it opens larger questions and larger things that we need to consider.”

Johnson ended the panel with a quote from a book called “Everything Bad is Good For You” by Stephen Johnson. The quote read, “Who’s better at chess, computers or humans? The answer is always ‘collaboration is strongest.’” Johnson used the quote to tie in his views on ChatGPT and technology.  

“Humans and computers have very different skill sets and abilities, so working together is always going to be superior to one or the other and that’s really how I look at this program,” Johnson said. 

Similar to the fall festival ArtPrize, World of Winter features many art installations from artists around the world. The festival includes over 20 outdoor art installations and more than 50 ice sculptures as well as events and activities. The exhibits are set up in different locations across the city, such as the Blue Bridge, Lyon Square and Calder Plaza.

The Singing Tree, located in front of the Grand Rapids Public Museum, is a night-specific exhibit created by Limbic Media of British Columbia, Canada. 

Limbic Media CEO Justin Love said the tree display lights up with any sound, such as singing, clapping or conversation.

“We developed a sound-responsive lighting platform in 2017,” Love said. “The nice thing about (interactive installations) is that they’re participatory. Not only on an individual level but it also encourages groups of people to come up and interact with it.”

The Singing Tree is back for its second year in Grand Rapids. Similar exhibits from Limbic Media exist around the world.

“We’ve done about 250 installations around the world,” Love said. “My favorite is in Chomutov in (the Czech Republic) and there’s footage of the village coming down and singing in front of a tree.”

Another interactive exhibit is “Sounds of Spring Under Sheets of Snow” by Craig Merchant.

Found in Sixth Street Park, the piece features a visual and auditory array of native Michigan animals.

“I just tried to pick animals that bring you back to the warmer months of Michigan,” Merchant said.

When the city of Grand Rapids put out proposals for World of Winter, Merchant drafted his idea and sent it in. Having previous experience with World of Winter, Merchant was a priority choice artist.

“I think this piece – or really all of World of Winter – encourages you to get outside, which I know can be hard in the winter months,” Merchant said.

Though still relatively new, World of Winter is regaining traction since the COVID-19 pandemic.

With plenty of picturesque attractions and family-friendly events, World of Winter provides outdoor entertainment before the summer months.

World of Winter allows visitors to kick the post-holiday blues, celebrating the rest of the winter ahead. The activities, art exhibits and fun are a family-friendly outlet for the Grand Rapids community. World of Winter art installations are free and open to the public from Jan 6 until Mar 5. Additional event times, dates and locations can be found at the World of Winter Grand Rapids website.

In partnership with the University of Michigan Health-West, Frederik Meijer Gardens put together an event showcasing 46 unique displays of holiday traditions from all over the world. 

Running from Nov. 22 to Jan. 8, the festive collection is exclusive to the holiday season.

Holidays such as Ramadan, Diwali, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah were celebrated throughout the exhibit, spanning across 158 acres of botanical gardens. At the exhibit, visitors could enjoy the holidays while also learning more about how cultures from around the world celebrate the season.

Vice President of Horticulture Steve LaWarre said the displays were placed on the grounds along with 350,000 lights. He said the staff was meticulous in their decorative process. 

“We wanted to make sure that we were representative of the whole community,” LaWarre said. “We based our selections on the diversity that each brings to the exhibit.”

Giving exposure to unique traditions was important for Frederick Meijer Gardens, as they hoped to represent not only the diversity of the cultural traditions around the world, but the diversity of the many communities within Grand Rapids.

“One of the things I love to do is listen to people as they walk through the exhibit and hear them call back to their past after being reminded by some of our art,” LaWarre said. “I love the feeling of giving people a sense of comfort when they are away from their usual settings.”

This event was correlated with the Meijer Gardens’ Seasonal Light Experience, which showcased the ways in which diverse cultures use light to uplift hope, remembrance, gratitude and prosperity during the time of the year when it gets darker earlier in the day.

The head curator for the Christmas & Holiday Traditions exhibit was Suzanne Ramljak. Along with others, she made sure that the trees, art and sculptures were up to par with the theme of the event. 

“The holidays bring people together in distinct and memorable ways that are difficult to capture in a display, so we wanted to make sure that our displays really captured the essence of togetherness and the joy that the holidays bring,” Ramljak said.

Diwali, also known as the festival of lights, was one of the many featured traditions. It is a significant celebration among Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists between mid-October and mid-November.

Diwali is celebrated through festive fireworks, lights and other vibrant decorations with special worship known as “puja.” The meaning behind Diwali is to “rejoice the inner light,” symbolized by lighting a “diya,” a small brass lamp.

The main priority for the gardens was to capture the nuance and significance of each winter holiday tradition.

Frederik Meijer Gardens and the University of Michigan Health-West also received help with the project through one of their sponsored partnerships with Warner.

Grand Valley State University’s sports management students from the SPM 376 course are hosting the annual Rally with the Rapids basketball fundraiser this week.

Organized by Directors Ally Bayes and Kenleigh West-Wing, the event is an effort to provide the opportunity for two Special Olympic teams from both Grand Rapids and Big Rapids to participate in a professional sports atmosphere.

The GVSU dance team, members of the university’s pep band and cheerleaders will also be in attendance as any and all GVSU community members are welcome to come and support free of cost.

Giveaways and raffle opportunities will also be included for attendees as all proceeds collected through donations, raffles and sponsorships will help to reach the overall goal of $3,000 that will be distributed between both teams.

The basketball game will be held at the GVSU Fieldhouse on Nov. 30 at 7 p.m.

A look ahead at the remaining 2022 calendar events

With weekly sports coverage coming to a close for the semester, here’s a glimpse at what teams will continue their action with the winter break around the corner:

Both women’s and men’s basketball teams begin GLIAC action in a two-game road trip against Ferris State University (Dec. 1) and Lake Superior State (Dec. 3) while hosting their crosstown rival Davenport University on Dec. 11 with tip-off at 1 p.m. (women’s) and 3 p.m. (men’s).

The swimming and diving program will also participate in the Calvin Invitational for their final meet of 2022 that begins Dec. 1-3 as the men’s and women’s teams have an overall record of 4-2. GVSU were dominant in their previous invite at Calvin (Oct. 14) as the final scores tallied 192-50 (women’s) and 165-75 (men’s).

Track and field will commence its 2022-23 indoor season in the GVSU Holiday Open at home on Dec. 9 starting at 1 p.m., followed by another home stand in the GVSU Multi Field Event on Dec. 16-17.

Last but not least, the cross country teams will compete in the NCAA National Championships in their quest to complete the hat-trick of GLIAC Champions, Midwest Regional Champions and national champs. The men’s team is the reigning national champion as the women’s team will hope to redeem themselves from last season’s second-place finish.

Information related to GVSU athletics can be found at gvsulakers.com.