September 12, 2014

T H E O F F I C I A L S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R O F C A LV I N CO L L EG E S I N C E 1907

September 12, 2014Volume 109 - Issue 3

CALVIN.EDU/CHIMES

COMMUNITY GARDEN PAGE 3 CHAOS PAGE 6BILL MURRAY PAGE 5 ISIS PAGE 9

BY ALDEN HARTOPOOnline Editor

A major effort to establish a campus master plan is in prog-ress under the guidance of the Facilities Task Force (FTF) as par t of the Master Planning Steering Committee, a subcom-mittee of Calvin’s Planning and Priority Committee (PPC).

Phil Beezhold, director of the physical plant and co-chair of the FTF along with engineer-ing professor David Wunder, explains the aim of the pro-cess is to examine and evaluate Calvin’s buildings and facilities going forward.

“The master plan is a look at the future to say, ‘Here is where we are today.’ What are we going to need to change, do better and improve for the future?’” said Beezhold. “It basically is taking a look at the circulation, pathways and entrances on campus, as well as the landscaping on cam-pus and student housing. It also will be asking lots of questions, such as what do you like about campus? What don’t you like about campus?”

The process of creating a mas-ter plan began in late May when Calvin sent out a request for proposal to 19 different archi-

tectural consulting groups. This group was narrowed down to four before the task force ap-pointed Ayers Saint Gross in late June.

In July and August, the college provided the firm with relevant documents with information on

the site. The consulting team will meet with the board of trustees during their October 24 meeting before bringing back ideas to the college on potential improve-

ments. According to Beezhold, the goal is to have a finalized plan by May 2015. During the week of September 22, a team from Ayers Saint Gross, a leading national campus planning firm, will come to campus to meet with differ-ent groups of students, staff and

faculty. Student senate will be the first of the focus groups to be meeting with the team.

“Student senate will then name other students that would be

important to be part of process. What we are trying to do is get as much feedback as possible from faculty, staff, students and alumni,” said Beezhold.

An important outcome of the master plan aims to tackle ques-tions that could seek to revamp

the campus as a whole.“My hope is that we

get answers to questions like the effective use of existing space, what kind of things can we do to en-hance our classroom and teaching spaces, do we need a student union and if so where will it go and what will it look like?” said Beezhold. “We also need to look at the vari-ous departments on cam-pus and more suitable spaces for the Calvin

Center for Innovation in Business.”

Among the questions the master plan aims to answer: the future of the Hekman Library. Beezhold says some people have raised ques-tions about whether the

library is an effective use of space with a high percentage of books going unused.

“The new concept today for libraries is called information

BY BETHANY COKOn-Call Writer

C a lv i n h a s b e e n r e c o g -nized by the U.S. News and World Report as a top liberal arts college and an institution with top-notch undergraduate research programs.

In this year’s rankings, Calvin is one of 32 colleges and universi-ties nationwide receiving special recognition under the category of undergraduate research and creative projects.

This past spring, college presi-dents, chief academic officers, deans of students and deans of admissions from across the country were encouraged to nominate institutions they felt had stellar examples of research programs, among other catego-ries. Other institutions recog-nized for their undergraduate research include Yale, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“The recognition from U.S. News and World Report is a tremendous affirmation of the strong undergraduate research programs at Calvin and the sup-port of the Calvin administration to sustain these programs,” said

chemistry professor Eric Arnoys, who worked with several students this summer in research involving membrane proteins.

Calvin offers research oppor-tunities, both during the summer and year-round, to students in a diverse range of f ields includ-ing biology, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, speech pathology and the social sciences.

Kelsey Veldkamp, a senior chemistry major, had the opportunity to do research in her depart-ment for two summers. A longs ide Professor DeJong, she s t ud ied the bacteria and viruses found in the digestive sys-tems of snails, with the po-tential that those findings could be translated into better understanding of human digestion.

She s a id t h a t t he chance to work closely with a professor was “invaluable,” and that the in-dependent aspects of the re-search helped to build skills and gain confidence.

“It forces you to take learning into your own hands,” she said.

Senior Monica Langeland ex-pressed similar feelings about the research program, emphasizing the importance of hands-on work outside of the classroom. When

studying the effects of pollution on Michigan waterbirds with other Calvin students, she says, “I was able to explore a field of science that wasn’t covered in any classes I’d taken.”

Not only is research a valuable learning experience for students, but it often provides students with a chance to take their findings beyond Calvin, making presenta-

tions about their research in other academic settings.

“Students work as collabora-tors with faculty, pushing the boundaries of science in proj-ects that will be useful to schol-

ars outside of Calvin,” ex-plained Arnoys, also citing the fact that some students co-author as many as five aca-demic papers during their time

at Calvin.Arnoys points out that

the quality of the research programs at Calvin has also been recognized by agen-cies that provide funding for research, such as the National Institutes of Health, American Chemical Society and the Dreyfus Foundation. “In a highly competitive en-vironment when funding is rare, my colleagues continue to secure grant funding--nearly $5 million in the last five years--to support undergraduate research.”

Veldkamp agreed, saying, “For Calvin’s being the size that it is, we have incredible research opportunities.”

She added that the open-ended nature of research was one of her favorite aspects of the experience. “You don’t k now what

t he a n s we r ’s go n n a b e , and your professor doesn’t k now what t he answer ’s gonna be,” she said. “That’s what’s exciting.”

Master plan addresses future of Calvin facilitiescenters,” said Beezhold. “A lot of people use computers or technology more than paper books. So the question is, ‘what is the future of Calvin’s library and how will students use the library?”

As part of the process, the consulting group will receive base information on library data, including most recent library volume statistics, total number of volumes by type, the number of study stations and projections for how many book volumes will be added per year.

In a letter to be sent to stu-dents, President Michael Le Roy explains “a thorough master plan does not start from scratch, or happen in a vacuum; rather, it should flow from the historical development of the Knollcrest campus and from the mission, which we as a community reaffirmed in the strategic plan.”

The planning process for the master plan finds its roots in the Calvin 2019 Strategic Plan, which includes an ob-jective to “develop and imple-ment a strategically aligned campus master plan that pre-pares fully for key college needs and their long-term sustainability requirements.”

The plan will examine ways to revamp Calvin’s campus as a whole.PHOTO COURTESY CALVIN.EDU

Calvin recognized as top school for undergraduate research

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Campus NewsChimes

Editor in ChiefLauren DeHaan

Online EditorAlden Hartopo

Print EditorJohn Muyskens

Head Copy EditorGrace Ruiter

Arts & EntertainmentChristian Becker

CampusKate Parsons

Laura Sheppard

FeaturesEricka Buitenhuis

Hayley Cox

LocalSierra Savela

Science & TechnologyNatasha Strydhorst

Opinion & EditorialNathan Slauer

ReligionKatelyn Bosch

SportsBrian Exner

Photo Essay CreditJames Li

AdvisorsLynn Rosendale

Donald Hettinga

The official Student Newspaper of Calvin College Since 1907

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[email protected]@calvin.eduPhone: (616) 526-6578

2014-2015

Beets-Veenstra dominates 45th Annual Chaos DayBY ALDEN HARTOPO

Online Editor

In a major comeback after

coming in sixth at last year’s

Chaos Day, Beets-Veenstra (BV)

emerged victorious in this year’s

event. Trailing behind the Harry

Potter-themed dorm was

last year’s victor, Rooks-

VanDellen (RVD), and

Schultze-Eldersveld (SE).

The winner of the cup

of participation this year

was Boer-Bennink (BB)

with 82 percent of the

dorm present.

A new trophy named

“the cup of decorations”

was awarded to the best

costumes and best dorm

w i ndow decora t ion s .

This year’s winner was

Kalsbeek-Huizenga-van

Reken (KHvR), which had

a Mario Kart theme.

L a s t - p l a c e w i n n e r

Noordewier-VanderWerp

(NVW) was the recipi-

ent of th i s year ’s c up

of perspective.

For BV resident assis-

tant Joey Hulst, winning

th is year’s Chaos Day

brought immeasurable

pride and joy.

“It was beyond amazing to

bring home a victory for BV this

year. It helped to have the unbeat-

able theme of Harry Potter, which

allowed our RD to summon vic-

tory using the ‘accio’ spell,” said

Hulst. “I couldn’t be more proud

of my dorm, and even if the cold

I have came from screaming my

head off on Chaos Night, I’d do it

again without hesitation.”

As part of the 45th annual

celebration, this year’s Chaos

Day was held at night, earning

it the nickname “Chaos Night”

among underclassmen.

T he ch a nge i n s chedu le

emerged after Grand Rapids’ an-

nual Celebration on the Grand

was moved to the Fourth of July

weekend. As a result, weekend

programming approached resi-

dence life to fill the then-vacant

Friday night activity slot for the

first week of classes.

“It’s always a risk to change

tradition,” said John Witte, dean

of residence life. “We had talk-

ed about having a Friday night

Chaos Day in the past, and the

precedent of the last two years

was indoors because the weather

was sketchy, so we said, ‘Let’s

try it!’”

The new date and time also

aimed to get more students

to participate.

“It’s a good option for stu-

dents who had conflicts Saturday

morning with work, or just didn’t

want to get up early. We can al-

ways change it back if needed,”

said Witte.

However, one downside of the

change, to the dismay of free-

loading upperclassmen, was the

elimination of the annual Chaos

Day cookout.

“Each hall went back to do its

own social event [instead],” said

Witte.

For sophomore Caroline Ray,

some unique aspects of hold-

ing Chaos Day in the morning

were missing.

“I liked last year when they

woke us up; it was chaotic,”

said Ray.

The new time yielded some

changes to the structure of the

games itself. For instance, events

now featured glow-in-the-dark

objects as part of the competition

with all the lights in the venue

turned off.

In the end, Witte believed the

event to be a success.

“The energy was great, and

each hall had the right perspec-

tive on the fun and frivolity of the

event,” said Witte. “There’s not

a whole lot of deeper meaning to

Chaos Day, but as a way to bring

together our community in a fun

tradition, it was fantastic.”

The Calvin Moses also failed

to make an entrance in this year’s

Chaos Day following an alter-

cation with students.

P r io r to t he e ve n t ,

Moses reached out to

the Chimes Facebook

page citing Exodus 3:4,

indicating it was plan-

ning to arrive.

JD Rocha, a junior

who was among those

involved in the pursuit

explained that several

upperclassmen had been

awaiting the arrival of

the statue of Moses.

“We gathered four

of our trusted friends

and headed out, in two

cars, to the gym parking

lot,” said Rocha. “While

waiting for the van that

Moses was in, we de-

vised our plan to trap

it in the middle of the

road. But that plan did

not come to fruition as

Moses was inside the van

instead of above it.”

According to Rocha,

the van was successfully trapped

for 10 minutes with both students

and vehicles after the van backed

up to the loading bay area and

opened its trunk.

“All this time we were trying

to pry open their hood to cut off

their power and hopefully unlock

their doors,” explained Rocha.

However the attempt proved

futile as Campus Safety inter-

vened, telling Moses’s vehicle

to leave. A response from the

Calvin Moses twitter page quoted

Exodus 18:13 “…and the people

stood about Moses f rom the

morning until the evening.”

BY AUDREY ENTERSOn-Call Writer

Team Kappa-Delta-Gamma

emerged victorious from the

annual Mudbowl, a competi-

tion between the residents of the

Knollcrest East apartments. The

apartment residents

donned old sh i r t s

and face paint for the

event, which was held

in a plot of land next

to parking lot 17 that

had been ploughed up

and filled shin-deep

with water.

Five apa r t me nt

teams competed in

a list of events that

included hula racing,

tug-of-war, limbo and

a relay race. All of

the events were de-

signed to cause spec-

tacular falls into the

mud. Students who

showed reluctance

over get t ing di r ty

were encouraged with

muddy hugs or even

outright tackles into

the “water.”

“You’re not meant

to stay clean,” said

Ana Ruttenberg, one

of the event coordina-

tors. “Yes, there was

a lot of mud flinging

and tackles, but that’s

part of what makes it fun!”

Ruttenberg enjoyed the amount

of participation she saw from all

the competitors. She noted that

“It’s a lot less overwhelming

than Chaos Day, so it makes for a

better atmosphere.”

Senior Kelvyn Koning agreed,

saying he enjoyed Mudbowl more

than Chaos Day, and mentioned

that there was even more partici-

pation from Alpha this year.

“It makes it so much more fun

when everyone’s excited,” he said.

Students expressed their ex-

citement from the sidelines by

chanting team cheers and yell-

ing support to their friends. A

couple of teams were too excited

to hear all the instructions to the

to the hula race and failed to pass

KE students start the year with a muddy splash

Schultze-Eldersveld emerged victorious in this year’s Chaos Day tug-of-war event. PHOTO BY HAYLEY COX

the hoop back down the line of

people, sacrificing their chance

at victory.

While students enjoyed all the

activities, many felt that the most

impressive event was the limbo.

Four students from each team

formed a line and attempted to get

themselves under a constantly-

lowering bar by leaning further

and further backwards.

“It was really a workout!” said

Leira Joy, one of the competitors.

“After getting under the bar you

had to go all the way back around

through a foot of mud. My legs

were killing me by the end of it.

It was still a lot of fun, though.

It was amazing seeing how far

people could go!”

Teams went w i ld a s t he

participants dwindled and re-

maining competitors st rug-

gled to get under a bar that

came up barely

past their knees.

Team Kappa-

Delta-Gamma

came out on top

of the games af-

ter a tie-breaking

game of tug-o-

war with Alpha-

Zeta-Lambda.

Participants

reconvened an

hour a f te r t he

M u d b o w l f o r

pizza and drinks.

They congratu-

lated each other

and recounted

highlights from

the games earlier

in the morning.

According to

KE resident as-

sistant Kathryn

Knox, the fantas-

tic attitude that

everyone had was

the best part of

the event.

“I loved seeing

all the team sup-

port,” she said.

“Teams cheered each other on,

but by the end they were cheering

for everyone else as well. People

had as much fun competing as

they did just playing around in

the mud.”

Knollcrest East students battled it out in a foot of mud to kick off the 2014-2015 school year.PHOTO COURTESY CALVIN ANNUAL FUND

Campus News 3CHIMESSeptember 12, 2014

Work Study offers student opportunities

BY LAURA SHEPPARDCampus News Co-Editor

Approximately 1600 Calvin students are eligible for a pro-gram that few know exist: the Federal Work Study program, which provides funds to colleges and universities to help students fund their education by receiving minimum wage pay.

Karen Hollebeek, student em-ployment manager in the career center, works with students to partner them with local nonprofit organizations through the Work Study program.

The money Calvin receives from the government for Work Study can be used to pay eli-gible students to work on or off campus, but at least 7-per-cent of the funds must be allo-cated to support students doing community service work as tutors or at nonprofit organizations.

About 25 organizations cur-rently partner with Calvin to hire students in the Work Study program, and Hollebeek says she is always looking for more partners. Students can work as administrative assistants, ac-countants, interns, reading tu-tors or publicity writers, among other positions.

According to Hollebeek, the

Work Study program is beneficial for all those involved.

“Calvin students not only gain work experience but earn money for it. The agency gets students to help administer their program, and the com-munity benefits, too. I call it a win-win-win.”

For Hollebeek, the best benefit of the program is the chance for students to be exposed to the world of nonprofits. This is a good fit for Calvin students, she says, because “Calvin’s mission is for students to be God’s hands and feet in God’s world.” In this way, students who work with nonprof its are engaging that world and being a “support to the community.”

She cites Degage Ministries, a Work Study par tner with Calv in, as an organizat ion where students can live out this goal in helping provide shelter and assistance to homeless and disadvantaged individuals in Grand Rapids.

Other organizations that part-ner with Calvin for the Work Study program include Habitat for Humanity, the Boys & Girls Club, Bethany Christian Services, World Renew, and Lutheran Social Services.

Students become eligible for the Work Study program by fill-

BY EMILY COLEOn-Call Writer

Following the approval of the new Calvin community garden last spring, the plot, located be-yond the Spoelhof Fieldhouse on Hampshire Street, has experi-enced a flurry of growth.

The new garden had some hurdles to jump over in its first season, including a late start due to the cold winter, late approval of the project as well as the time, energy and construction neces-sary to turn a grassy backyard into a fenced-in garden.

Biolog y professor Dav id Dornbos has been instrumental in the current and future garden expansion. He and a core group of volunteers “spent hours build-ing beds, finding rocks, building fences, cutting tons of non-native invasive shrubs and trees with a chainsaw.”

Despite the dif f icult ies in its f irst growing season, the garden has produced a wide var iety of produce, some of which is used in the dining hall and catering services. The garden has also received a lot of positive feedback from the Calvin community.

Sunshine Cahill, one of the student garden managers, ex-plained that “people are really ex-cited about the garden, especially the new connection with the dining hall and getting students connected with where their food is coming from.”

Currently, the dining hall is only receiving handfuls of salad greens and other produce, but the vision for next year is to create a more regular stream of garden contributions.

“Once we start bigger pro-duction next year we’ll be able to supply the dining hall with a sizable quantity of what they

can use,” said Sunshine. The possibilities on the horizon for garden development are ambi-tious, but “we are only utiliz-ing half of the space we have so far and are hoping to expand next year, including planting a variety of fruit trees and expand-ing our giving to organizations like Supper House and Degage,” he added.

Looking forward to future developments, Dornbos said, “I am excited about such sec-o nd a nd t h i rd ge ne r a t io n ideas a s sus ta i nable wate r management using water cap-tured from a roof and trickle ir-

rigation systems and in successive years an operational geo-thermal-ly heated and cooled hoop-house producing healthful leafy greens year around.”

Students in Dornbos’ biology 123 and 364 classes will closely observe the garden this semes-ter, investigating and evaluat-ing soil content and food pro-duction processes focused on ecosystem health.

Those involved with the garden stress involvement in the garden on all levels. Jon Gorter, a sopho-more who volunteered at the garden often this summer, said:

“I think it’s really important to

connect to where your food comes from. You gain a respect for the earth and what you’re eating. You know how much work goes in it.”

Over the summer, a number of students took part in garden care, but garden leaders hope to see greater student involvement this semester.

“Spend at least a little bit of time in the garden. It’s really cool that it was started by students and that something that big can come out of a little bit of investment and dedication,” said Gorter.

Students interested in the garden are welcome to meet at the garden at 3:00 p.m. every Friday,

Campus garden expands in first season

BY KATE PARSONSCampus News Co-Editor

This summer, after six years of heart problems, Calvin alum and friend Stephen Okeyo passed away at the age of 26. Okeyo, who graduated from Calvin last May, survived seven major surgeries, includ-ing a heart transplant, dur-ing his time at Calvin. But despite the frequent hospital visits, his friends and family do not remember Stephen for being sick, but for his quiet, passionate faith in God.

“At his funeral everyone said they would remember him for his smile. It’s not something you’d think of for someone who’s had as many cardiac arrests as he had, and a heart transplant, and how many other relapses he had with his health. That’s crazy because for some of us who don’t face health challeng-es, we find it hard to smile,” said Jona Eigege, a fr iend of Okeyo.

When Stephen came to Calvin College as an interna-tional student from Kenya in 2008, Eigege said, his biggest worries were whether he would like the food, understand the culture, or fit in with his dorm.

No one predicted his weak heart would see him airlifted to Cleveland for major heart surgery during his second semester. After a traumatic procedure, during which he went into cardiac arrest and had to have his heart restarted, he faced months of rehabilita-tion. His improvement, many believed, was a miracle. In 2010 he returned to Calvin, supported by many friends and church members.

It was during his first hos-pitalization that Calvin asso-ciate chaplain Nate Bradford met Stephen. As he coordi-nated groups of students to visit Okeyo, Bradford was impressed by the soft-spoken student. “He’s the kind of guy you fell in love with right

away,” Bradford said. “He had a big old smile.”

“As a f r iend, Stephen had a very calm demeanor, a really gentle spirit,” said Ebuka Mefor, a close friend of Stephen’s. “Something was different about him.”

“He always struck me as someone who was always liv-ing with a foot in Heaven and a foot on this earth,” said Bradford. “He was living in the presence of God in ways that I just don’t see, that I don’t even experience myself. I always thought that Stephen was a wonderful encouragement in the way that I live my life.”

Others, too, noticed this difference in Stephen. “He was one of those people that when I think of, I think of as larger than life,” said Eigege. “And not in the sense that he was the most outgoing or the most boisterous or the most out-there person, because he wasn’t. But he was one of those people who, in his

quietness, was able to influence so many people.”

“With Steve just by looking at him, you could tell that his faith was genuine,” added Eigege. “It just flowed out of him. There was no on and off switch.”

When Okeyo came back to campus in 2010, he came with a renewed purpose. This was a sig-nificant point in my life,” he said in an interview with Calvin News and Stories. “All of this caused me to seek God in a deeper way.”

According to Mefor, Stephen came to him after the surgery and said, “God has given me a new life. I have a new heart, and I have a new perspective.” After this experience, Stephen began reconsidering his plans for a busi-ness-economics career towards ministry, eventually applying to Asbury Theological Seminary, where he was to begin this fall.

Much of this new focus came from something that happened to him during the moments dur-ing his first surgery in which he was clinically dead. Okeyo spoke sparingly about his experience, afraid it would sound “too crazy” to others, but Bradford is con-vinced he would want his story to be shared.

In the moments before being shocked back to life, Bradford said, “He spoke of being in front of the Lord. I remember Stephen telling that story and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.”

“He spoke about two things,” Bradford continued. “First, the amazing power of God and being confronted with the utter shame of what he’s done wrong, but then a split second later, being envel-oped by the overwhelming love of God. This was a place of the deepest, purest rest and comfort that Stephen had ever felt before. In some ways, I think Stephen never fully left this embrace.”

Q uie t a nd u nassum i ng, Stephen shared this experience with f r iends, but witnessed to t he campus most i n h i s quiet intercession.

“I know that Stephen prayed a lot for Calvin College,” said Eigege. “When ReigKnight start-ed, he was heavily involved on the

prayer time, and he would stay up for hours and for nights just pray-ing for revival to happen here on campus. He would take charge and intercede on behalf of the people who were more up front.”

Friends noticed him slip out once a week to pray through the night, usually in the nature preserve. Said his friend Ebuka, “If there was ever a God ambas-sador on earth, it would have been Stephen.”

“I think his story can con-tinue even if he is not here,” said Bradford, “The story of Stephen that should be told is that God is real, that this hope is real.”

“There’s a lot of ‘why?’” said Bradford. “Not just with Stephen, but why in the world. The why of Stephen was, for me, in a sense, he lived halfway in Heaven halfway on earth. For him to be gone is for him to just be where he always was anyway, right there at the feet of the Lord, in the presence of God. Though that doesn’t make it any easier for us to not have him.”

Stephen Okeyo remembered

ing out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and qualifying for a certain lev-el of government assistance. According to Hollebeek, about 1600 students at Calvin are eli-gible, but many don’t know it.

However, eligible students can expect emails from Hollebeek to arrive in their inbox, featuring a number of different available positions every week.

Off icial ly, Calvin College e mploy s Wo rk S t u dy s t u -dents, who receive their pay-r o l l t h r o u g h t h e C a l v i n system. However, 75-percent of their wages comes from the government Work Study grant, and 25-percent is provided by the organization.

“It’s an awesome program,” said senior Jess Koranda, a Work-Study student who in-t e r n s a t R o o s e v e l t P a r k Ministries,“because the organiza-tion doesn’t have to pay as much.”

She added, “I don’t know why you wouldn’t do it if you have the chance.”

Hollebeek stresses her pas-sion for the program, saying that organizat ions are a lw-ays looking for students to join in their work.

“Many organizations are look-ing for the passion and enthusi-asm that college students have.”

Okeyo planned to attend Asbury Theological Seminary this fall.

Much of the produce grown in the community garden is given to the dining hall to be used for meals.

PHOTO BY JAMES LI

PHOTO COURTESY CALVIN.EDU

local news4 “

”I’m not begging or knocking on people’s doors... You choose to help me or you don’t and that’s fine

Gene, “Panhandling”

BY SIERRA SAVELALocal News Editor

On the corner of East Paris and 28th Street in Grand Rapids is a woman named Gene. She holds up a long sign explaining that she is a mother of two boys and homeless, while working a part time job. But her goal is having a full time job, which she can’t get because she lost her ID and birth certificate when her truck was stolen.

At the end of her message she writes: “We apologize for resort-ing to this.”

Every big American city has its panhandlers — people who beg for money on the street. They stand on street corners and on me-dians with their cardboard signs that explain their situation in hopes you will spare them a few dollars. There has been a recent push to get rid of this practice in west Michigan.

In 2008, Michigan passed a law criminalizing peaceful panhan-dling. The state was concerned about safety, traffic and fraud.

Gene is aware of panhan-d l i ng pol i t ic s goi ng on i n Grand Rapids.

“I think people should have freedom of speech,” she says. “I don’t think everybody does it for the right reasons but you’re going to find that with anything.”

She explains how difficult it is to go out and ask for money.

BY SIERRA SAVELALocal News Editor

This Saturday, the Eastown Community Association (ECA) will be hosting its 41st annual edition of the Eastown Streetfair, a day ful l of local food, ar t and music.

The free, family-friendly event is a chance for the community to celebrate the arts, say farewell to summer and hello to fall.

The fair has expanded this year and the ECA has added another block to accommodate. The event now stretches across Wealthy Street in between Lake Drive and Gideon Ave., with more than 100 booths set to line the street. The vendors are the arts, crafts and food portion of the fair. They include local businesses, boutiques, restaurants, nonprofits and artists.

Many local Grand Rapids stores will have booths as well. A full map of vendor locations can be found on the ECA’s website.

As the streetfair has grown in popularity, the ECA has added more and more to the event. Last year it brought in about 15,000 people.

ECA director Lindsey Ruffin explained why this year’s fair will be different.

“You know, even though this event has been going on for 41 years, this year is going to be the biggest we’ve ever had,” said Ruffin.

This edition will have more food than ever and 16 musical performances on two separate stages. The outdoor and main stages will be located on Hub Lot on Wealthy Street, while the indoor stage will be inside

Billy’s Lounge, a local Eastown hot spot that has live music on a nightly basis. Some of the per-formers include Jesse Ray and the Carolina Catfish and Eastown Jazz Ensemble.

There will also be many chil-dren’s activities and samples from many local restaurants, such as TerraGR, Eastown Café, Chez Olga and many more. Grand Rapid’s Sandmann’s is returning because of its success and popu-larity at the fair in years past.

“It should be fun,” said Ruffin. “We revamped it this year to center the stage. It’s better for the street performers and makes it feel like a real fair.”

Ruffin hopes it won’t rain on Saturday but invites everyone to come out. The Eastown Streetfair is this Saturday from 9am-8pm.

Annual Eastown street fair

Fair brings arts, crafts, food and more

“I don’t enjoy getting up and doing this,” Gene explained. “If I didn’t, we would literally be outside.”

Many panhandlers were ar-rested while the law was in effect

from January 2008 to May 2011. Among those arrested were James Speet and Ernest Sims. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, Speet and Sims

sued the city of Grand Rapids and won on the grounds that it violated the first amendment.

But the ruling was appealed. The city and state stressed its concerns about safety and fraud.

The appellate court upheld the original ruling.

Boyce Martin Jr. explained his reasoning in a 17-page ruling.

“Because it prohibits a sub-

stantial amount of solicitation, an activity that the first amend-ment protects, but allows other solicitation based on content,” Martin wrote.

This past May, the issue arose

again. Grand Rapids city officials proposed to restrict panhandling by making it illegal to ask for money from motorists, along with other restrictions that included

minimum distances from ATMs and bus stops.

But the ban failed when city commissioners came to a tie vote in June and no restrictions were made.

Since then, the residents of west Michigan have been push-ing to put an end to panhan-dling in the state. A Facebook group called “West Michigan Hardly Homeless Panhandlers” formed and currently has over 4,000 members.

The group’s mission statement is written in their Facebook page.

“Quit giving to the corner and donate at your local mission to help the real homeless,” the page reads. “Time, money and supplies are needed at all home-less shelters. Do your research and make an educated decision to donate your dollar to an or-ganization that gives back to the community!”

Others argue an anti-panhan-dling law criminalizes people for being poor and inhibit their right to free speech.

In response to the Facebook group, Gene explains that shelters aren’t a place she wants to take her family because of all the drug and alcohol usage.

“There are a lot of worse things I could be doing,” Gene said. “I’m not stealing from anybody. I’m not robbing people. I’m not begging or knocking on people’s doors... You choose to help me or you don’t and that’s fine.”

Grand Rapids faces problems with panhandling

Both city and citizens voice their opinions on potential anti-panhandling laws in Grand Rapids

Panhandler stands on the corner of 28th Street and East Paris. Her sign explains she is a

mother of two, homeless with a part-time job but looking for a full-time job.

PHOTO BY SIERRA SAVELA

PHOTO BY BRITTANY BEEZHOLD

Do you love living in the beautiful city of Grand Rapids?

Do you love hard hitting journalism?

Do you want to write for Chimes?

You should write for local!

Local is a place where Grand Rapids and journalim intersect.

Explore the city by reporting on Grand Rapids news and events

We could use your talent and passion.

Email sns6 for more information.

Upcoming Local Events

ECA hosts events to better

Grand Rapids commmunity.

9/13

Mari J Meyer Pancreatic Trail Run for

Hope 5k run to raise money for

pancreatic research at the Van

Andle Institute.

ArtPrize beginsThe art competition starts its

19 day run through out Grand

Rapids.

9/24

11th Annual Mayors’ Grand River Clean up

Help clean up the river area with

volunteers and local mayors.

9/20

9/13

Eastown StreetfairEastown Community Associa-

tion hosts street fair with local

arts, crafts and food.

9/13

GRCC Community PicnicGrand Rapids

Community College celebrates its

100th birthday with a

community picnic.

9/15

Swing DancingSwing Dancing at Rosa Park’s

Circle happens every Tuesday.

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

5“”

The festival screened a marathon of Murray’s most iconic films, including “Stripes”, “Groundhog Day” and “Ghostbusters”

Christian Becker, “Bill Murray Day”

BY CHRISTIAN BECKERArts & Entertainment Editor

Fall is an exciting time of the year for fans of television because it’s the season with the most show premieres. A giant batch of new shows is set to premiere every year in September and October, but not all can survive. A new show needs to go above and be-yond in the ratings to assure its chances of making it past its first season. For every show that is dead on arrival, there are several promising freshman shows worth tuning in for.

Networks are trying hard to push their comedies this season. One of NBC’s biggest players is new couples comedy “Marry Me.” Put together by the tal-ent behind the cult hit “Happy Endings,” Ken Marino and for-mer SNL star Casey Wilson star in this new comedy as a couple who seem perfect on the surface, yet can’t seem to make it to the next step of their relationship (you guessed it: engagement). It sounds average, but the tal-ent in front of, and behind the camera should be enough to help the simple sounding comedy stay afloat.

Another show that sounds av-erage, yet has a lot going for it is “Mulaney.” Fox’s newest sitcom from stand-up comedian and for-mer SNL writer, John Mulaney. The show seems to be going for

a “Seinfeld” vibe, focusing on the everyday struggles of living in New York City and infusing it with wacky characters and comedy routines.

Perhaps the most anticipated dramedy of the season is NBC’s

“A to Z,” a romantic comedy that chronicles a relationship from beginning to end between Andrew and Zelda (“How I Met Your Mother”’s Cristin Milioti). This series is being compared to a TV version of the hit indie film “(500) Days of Summer,.” If it

follows that format correctly; it should be a huge win for viewers and the network.

On the dramatic end of the spectrum, all eyes seem to be on the superheroes. Fox is com-ing right out of the gate with

“Gotham,” a Batman-based pre-quel that follows the charac-ter of Commissioner Gordon (Ben McKenzie) as a young man trying to protect the streets of Gotham City from iconic villains, such as Poison Ivy and Penguin, before the caped crusader came

to be. The CW is getting into the

superhero game as well with their new series “The Flash.” This show can thank Arrow and its devoted following for even being created, as it opened DC

comics up to the idea of having a live-action superhero universe on the small screen. Not many people are aware of The Flash’s origins, or the characters in his world, but the CW is hoping to change that.

Going along with the comic

book theme, NBC is hoping to bring the character of Constantine to life. Based on the DC comic, “Hellblazer,” “Constantine” fol-lows a seasoned demon hunter who struggles to find the balance between good and evil as he tries to fend off the evil creatures he once campaigned for. Reactions at San Diego Comic Con were solid, and it sounds like it’s full of enough content to keep every episode fresh.

But why only focus on the new shows of the season when so many fan favorites are re-turning? The newly-awarded Golden Globe series “Brooklyn Ni ne - Ni ne” i s b a c k fo r a second season, “The Blacklist” is high up on everyone’s ra-d a r a nd “S a t u r d ay Ni g h t Live” fans eagerly await the news of who will be hosting and performing the for t ieth season opener.

S h o w s l i k e “ Pa r k s a n d Recreation” are entering into their final season, which will hopefully give fans of Leslie Knope and company something to cheer about. It is still unclear when the last season will air, but keep fingers crossed for an early date.

Television has an exciting season coming up, whether it’s a new show you are looking to f ind or the anticipation of an already loved one, there will be something for everybody to watch this fall.

BY CHRISTIAN BECKER Arts & Entertainment Editor

T he I nte r ne t ca n t a ke away a lot of enjoyment from different media platforms. Because of the Internet, fans know when to expect new sing les and a lbums f rom their favorite artists sometimes a year in advance and the ele-ment of surprise is basi-cally gone.

U2 broke that trend this Tuesday by releas-ing their newest album, “Songs of Innocence”, exclusively on iTunes for free. Much like the move Beyonce pulled back in December with the release of her sur-prise record, the band gave no warning of the drop of these new songs. There had been talk of a new album ever since the band released their single “Invisible (Red)” back in February, but an official date had never been set.

In addition to unveil-ing the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch, Apple got exclusive first rights to U2’s surprise album, which sent fans rushing to download it.

T h e b a n d p e r f o r m e d d u r i n g Tu e s d a y ’ s l i v e s t r e a m e d A p p l e p r e s s conference with a new sin-gle, “The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone),” as an ode to the R a mo ne s f r o n t m a n . U2 cites the Ramones as one of their greatest inf luences and one of the first concerts t h e b a n d m a t e s e v e r saw together.

Within seconds of the song’s

ending, Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage alongside U2 lead-er Bono as he shared the unique release strategy.

“The question is now how do we get it to as many people as possible” stated Bono, “because that is what our band is all about. I do believe you have over half a bil-lion subscribers to iTunes, so could you get it to them?”

Within moments, the album

we nt l ive on Apple’s d ig i t a l music store.

“Songs of Innocence” now makes 13 full-length albums for the band, an impressive feat for any musical group. It consists of 11 songs that range from upbeat to slow and steady, the a l b u m c l e a r l y s h o w s t h e i n f lue nce of noted p roduce r Danger Mouse.

According to Bono, the album is far from subtle, “we wanted to have the discipline of the Beatles or the Stones in the Sixties, when you had real songs.” Even after one

listen through, you can tell what the gifted musician is talking about.

From the acoustic melody “Songs for Someone,” to the fast-paced “Volcano,” the band has created a string of songs more reminiscent of previous albums of theirs, such as “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” and “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.”

Whi le “Songs of Innocence” is only available in a digital format now, the physi-cal album will be in stores on October 13 as a deluxe edition full of additional content not included on the iTunes version.

Critics are already weighing in on the band’s latest efforts, calling it a step up from 2009’s subpar “No Line on the Horizon.”

“It’s easy to split the album roughly into halves, with the first half-dozen or so songs feeling like Classic U2 in the give-the-people-what-they-want mold. T h e s e c o n d h a l f sounds like a looser, a little more expan-

sive...and a lot more Danger Mouse,” wrote Yahoo music critic Chris Williams.

Bono and company clear-ly compiled a set of songs with the intention of reach-ing as “many people as pos-sible.” Only t ime wil l tel l the success of this strategy, b u t t he a c c e s s i b i l i t y o f “Songs of Innocence” will no doubt result in wide listen-ing by both lifelong fans of U2’s work and f i r s t- t ime listeners alike.

BY CHRISTIAN BECKERArts & Entertainment Editor

T h i s y e a r ’ s T o r o n t o Internat ional Fi lm Fest iva l (TIFF) is currently underway, with a fun new addition to its schedule. TIFF officially declared September 5 “Bill Murray Day”

at the festival, and fans of the lege nd a r y ac tor cou ld not be happier.

The festival screened a mara-thon of Murray’s most iconic films, including “Stripes”, “Groundhog Day” and “Ghostbusters”, which was followed by a Q&A with Murray himself.

“I get to park anywhere I want” Murray stated.

All of this lead up to the pre-miere of Murray’s newest film, “St. Vincent,” a comedy in which Murray plays a rude, yet caring old war veteran who befriends a young boy moving in next door. “St. Vincent” has been met with mass critical and fan praise and even put Murray in the best actor Oscar race. But that one film couldn’t take all the news away from “Bill Murray Day”

as a whole. Fa n t u r ne d o u t i n c o s -

tumes that showcased charac-ters from Murray’s f ilmogra-phy that weren’t even featured at the fes t iva l , such as the b e a r d e d o c e a n e x p l o r e r , Steve Zissou. There was even a baby dressed as the Stay P u f f M a r s h m a l l o w M a n

from Ghostbusters. When asked about his in-

volvement about his own day, he gave perhaps the most “Bill Murray answer” anyone could think of:

“People kept coming up and saying things like, ‘it’s real humid out there. And it’s going to get more humid.’ That’s what my day’s been like. It’s mostly been a weather report.”

A f t e r t h e s c r e e n i n g o f “ S t . V i n c e n t ” c o n c l u d -ed the day, Murray came up on stage one last time to receive a crown and red sash as every-one in the room gave him a standing ovation.

If people needed anymore confirmation that Bill Murray is a one-of-a-kind legend, this just about seals the deal.

2014 Fall TV has plenty to offer in comedy and drama

U2 drops surprise album Bill Murray honored

“Songs of Innocence” is U2’s 13th album.

Bill Murray is a well known comedic actor with iconic roles.FILE PHOTO

Batman prequel “Gotham” is one of the fall season’s most anticipated shows.

“Gotham”, “Mulaney” and “A to Z” among most anticipated shows for fall

Festival hosts “Bill Murray Day”Apple releases band’s new album for free on iTunes store

features6

45 YEARS OF CHAOSA Brief History of Calvin’s Largest Dorm Competition

BY HAYLEY COXAND ERICKA BUITENHUIS

Features Editors

During a pivotal scene in the f ilm “Dead Poets Society,” a teacher takes his English class of boys to the school’s trophy room and asks them to look at the photos of their previous class-mates, making the point that no matter how old the photos are, they all show young men full of hope, potential and dreams — not that different from the boys themselves. “Carpe diem,” he says, pretending to be the voices of the faces in the photographs. “Seize the day boys; make your lives extraordinary.”

Looking through old Chaos Day ar t icles in the Chimes archives, the situat ion isn’t that much different. Current Calvin students may stay away from feathered bangs, mullets and scrunchies, but the looks of tr iumph captured on f i lm are timeless.

Chaos Day originated in 1969 after a meeting of staff advisors and the dean of men. Calvin alum Andy De Jong (‘61) was a student staff advisor in Noordewier-VanderWerp (when Noordewier was sti l l a men’s dorm). De Jong explains that Chaos Day came about not from a need for “any more chaos given the so-cial and political upheavals that marked the 60s,” but rather as a source of college comradery.

“It was determined,” he said, “that having some f r iendly competition among the dorms play ing c lassic games such as th ree-legged g unny-sack racing, running while carry-ing an egg on a spoon in one’s mout h and, of cou rse, t he proverbia l t ug- of-war rope completion would help build dorm community.”

Chaos Day at its inception looked significantly different than it does today. Instead of trophies, the winning dorm was “award-ed special ice cream treats,” a c c o r d i n g t o D e J o n g . Noordewier-VanderWerp prevailed that first Chaos Day.

Universal themes and pag-eantry didn’t enter the equation either during that first year.

“It was not until the second and subsequent years that dorms began to generate themes and special [t-shirts] and team songs [and] cheers and did the dress-up stuff,” recalled De Jong, “I do remember a few guys doing some body paint.”

The name “Chaos Day” was initially intended as a temporary title for the games, but it stuck.

“Maybe it reflected the general mood of the broader society,” reflected De Jong, “but [it] also described the ethos of incom-ing freshmen who felt life had suddenly become a bit chaotic over against the more routine and predictable days of high school. Given its long legacy, it appears that Chaos Day continues to generate some excitement and dorm-spi r it , especia l ly among freshmen.”

Indeed, Chaos Day is now one of the most celebrated traditions shared by the Calvin student body, though it has undergone some signif icant changes throughout the years. John Witte, dean of residence life, related how “the games used to

be announced ahead of time and the dorms were able to practice. But then it became high pressure and unless you were athletic you really couldn’t participate.” So they began to add random events.

“It went so well that in two or three years, no one knew what games would be played, except for the tug of war,” Witte said.

In fact, tug-of-war is the only event on which students can depend any given Chaos Day. When asked about this, Witte laughed and responded, “We paid a lot of money for the rope.” He

then added, “it also gives good breaks in between events. It gives time to set up and tally points. It’s a tradition within a tradition.”

Many of the changes made to Chaos Day come from trial and error. Witte ref lected fondly on the many escapades and injuries inherent in the enthusiasm of several hundred 18-20-year-olds in one place. “I’ve seen plenty of injuries,” said Witte, “from blisters to concussions. One year we played a game where we drew a big circle and 25 students from every hall stood around it and had an area where there had to get to. Seven times 25 equals mass collisions, especially when some halls decided, ‘let’s tackle other teams so they can’t get across. It turned out badly, and we didn’t do it again.”

In 2004, student Miram Maring questioned in a Chimes article: “Who came up with the idea to stick four people in an inner tube and make them run down the field with a volleyball between them?” We haven’t seen that game in a couple years.

While the events of Chaos Day differ from year to year, the attitude of dorm pride is always as strong as the cheers that rung out over the din last Friday night.

“Ultimately, the fun for Chaos Day is the love for your hall that drowns out everything else. It’s the only time students feel that proud about the name of their hall (and see everyone else as the enemy),” Witte joked.

“One year,” he added, “the president of RVD, Ben Ardec, arrived by helicopter. Their theme was ‘the A team.’ It was very dramatic.”

After that, it almost didn’t matter who won.

But beyond dorm pride, Chaos Day has been the springboard for connections that last far beyond September and even beyond graduation.

“I could lengthen my list of re-lationships that still exist because of dorm camaraderie,” said alum Rachel Cooper-Aupperlee, ’92. “[Chaos Day] certainly started that sticking process.”

Aupperlee didn’t remember the exact events she competed in, but after trooping across the soccer fields to the land now occupied

VICTORIES PER DORM SINCE 1998

SE - 8

BV - 5

RVD - 2

BB - 1

KH (pre-vR) - 1

NVW - 0

BHT - 0

by the Prince Conference Center and nature preserve, it was all fun and excitement.

“ We s c r e a me d u nt i l we were hoarse and came back around lunch time completely exhausted,” she reminisced. “The f i r s t weeks at Ca lv in were the most exhilarating [at] that point in my life.”

While alumni and current students alike can attest to the e x c i t e m e n t a n d t h r i l l o f competing in Chaos Day, one might think back to that thought- provoking scene f rom “The Dead Poets Society.” Perhaps, at the bottom of it all, behind t he cheer s, t he games, t he f un. Something larger is at work. Something grander.

Chaos Day is more than a tradition; it unites us as a Calvin Community. It’s an event link-ing the generations together in an unlikely way. For the last 45 years, students have been d e c l a r i n g d o r m p r i d e — students who come from all sorts of backgrounds nationalities and skill sets. But, they all had one th ing in common. Dreams. Goals. Aspirations.

Seize the day, Knights, make your lives extraordinary.

DOMINATING

DATAPHOTOS FROM CHIMES ARCHIVES

sports7“

”Every year we start a whole new team with the incoming

freshman which develops a unique personality for the year.

Stacey Kamp, “Volleyball”

BY BRIAN EXNERSports Editor

Calvin Knight’s Volleyball, which was ranked number one in the nation in a preseason poll, won 20 straight sets from August 29 to September 6; six of those wins occurred this past weekend in Illinois.

The ranking came after win-ning a national championship, but the team is not allowing last year’s victories to make

them complacent.“What happened last year was

so incredible, but it’s in the past, and it’s a new year with new goals to accomplish. We have a new team so were discovering what

BY BRIAN EXNERSports Editor

Twenty-one cross country teams will be competing this Saturday at the Gainey Athletic Complex in the first official meet of the season for the Calvin Knights. Last year,

the Calvin men took third place behind two top-of-the-line NAIA programs, while the women took first by 61 points.

For best team results, the Calvin

runners all push one another to do their personal best.

“Our program puts an emphasis on the power of pack running,” said senior captain of the women’s team Paige McGahan. “When you are hurting, there are two or three other people who you know might be hurting just as much as you are

running alongside them. It is the motivation you need to keep going.”

Several other runners agreed with her sentiments, especially sophomore Cassie Vince, who took

Friday September 12Volleyball at Wittenberg at Wittenberg Fall Classic 3:30 PM

Volleyball vs. Washington (Mo.) at Wittenberg Fall Classic 8:00 PM

Saturday September 13Women’s Cross Country at Knight Invite 10:00 AM Men’s Cross Country at Knight Invite 10:45 AM

Volleyball vs. Ohio Northern at Wittenberg Fall Classic 12:00 PM

Men’s Golf at MIAA Tournament at Adrian (Lenawee CC) 1:00 PM

Men’s Soccer at Cleary 2:00 PM

Women’s Soccer at Wheaton (Ill.) 2:30 PM

Volleyball vs. Otterbein at Wittenberg Fall Classic 8:00 PM

Tuesday September 16Women’s Soccer at St. Mary’s (Ind.) 4:00 PM

Wednesday Sepember 17Women’s Golf at Aquinas Invitational (Scott Lake GC)

10:00 AMMen’s Soccer at Alma 4:00 PM

Thursday September 18Men’s Golf at MIAA Tournament at Albion (Medalist

GC) 1:00 PMworks best for us, one point at a time,” said junior Magge Kamp.

With a new year comes new teammates. Among them is first-year setter Jenna Lodewyk who has provided her teammates with 293 assists in 24 sets so far this season.

Maggie Kamp was “pleasantly surprised” with how quickly the team was able to “gel” with their new setter. Maggie Kamp cur-rently leads the Knights with 114 kills.

“A lot of practice and com-

munication went into connecting with new hitters. Taking reps, learning the hitters’ tendencies and adjusting accordingly has made everyone more comfort-able,” said Lodewyk.

Sophomore Cassie Vince seperates herself from the pack.

Volleyball wins 20 straight sets and remains undefeated

Cross Country to host 21 teams at Knight Invite

She acknowledged the encour-agement of Calvin fans, coaches and players as having an impact on the transition.

Senior Stacey Kamp has expe-rienced four years’ worth of differ-ent teammates now and can sense the team is successfully building good chemistry.

“Every year we start a whole new team with the incoming f reshman which develops a unique personality for the year. That is what makes each year fun, special and memorable,” she added.

Stacey Kamp credits the first tournament of the season and spending time together off the court for creating the chemis-try within the team. The first day of the Clarkson Classic on August 29th was the last time the Knights tasted defeat. They were forced to the full five with host team Clarkson. Stacey Kamp reflected:

“It is always good to... get rid of nerves and also to start seeing what we can work on to excel as a team. We went to five sets with Clarkson which was a great experience to not only play a really good team, but also to get our first five set match out of the way and lea r n to s tay m e n t a l l y a n d p hy s i c a l l y t h o u g h t h r o u g h o u t t h e whole match.”

The Knights were back in action Wednesday against Kalamazoo and wil l head to Wittenberg for the Wittenberg Fall Classic Sept. 12. Their next home game is September 19 against Adrian.

Junior Jamie Kooiman celebrates a hard earned point.PHOTO COURTESY CALVIN COLLEGE

S P O RT S T H I S W E E K

Follow us on Twitter! @Chimes_Sports

first last year in the women’s 5k with a time of 17:40.7.

“You need a bigger purpose and goal. I know that in the race all my teammates will be pushing them-selves, and so it’s my job to push myself just as hard,” stated Vince.

Senior captain of the men’s team, Josh Ferguson, said it is the basic

level of hard work and training that excites him about the sport. Ferguson finished second among the Calvin men and 37th over-all in the men’s 8k with a time of 25:58.8.

For the men, sopho-more Zach Nowicki fin-ished with the best time of the team at 25:15.3 and placed seventh overall. His motivation is to be the best for his team: “it helps drive me in races and even workouts.”

“The most excit ing thing overall is watching the team come together and grow more unif ied throughout a season,” added Ferguson.

This weekend’s meet is especially exciting for many of the runners, since it is on Calvin’s campus. They also noted that the course is very specta-

tor-friendly. The team is looking forward to having the support of the Calvin student body behind them Saturday. The meet begins at 10:00 a.m.

PHOTO COURTESY OLIVET SPORTS INFORMATION

Men’s soccer prepares for conference

BY BRIAN EXNERSports Editor

Calvin men’s soccer split two non-conference games, facing two non-conference op-ponents this past weekend in Wheaton, Illinois as they pre-pare for conference play. They

have one more non-conference game before playing Alma on the road September 17.

Travis Veg ter, a senior forward who was named to last year’s socccer.com All-America first team for scoring 27 goals and providing six assists, scored his first goal of the season which proved to be a winning goal in the second game of the weekend against Elmhurst.

H e a d c o a c h R y a n Souders was pleased with the performance:

“If we play like we played against Elmhurst from here on out, it could be a really fun fall.”

He ment ioned that the

number of shots isn’t always indicative of dangerous chanc-es, but the Knights did man-age to put 8 of their 17 shots on target in the game as well as maintain possession more than their opponent.

A losing effort against tenth-ranked Wheaton College wasn’t all bad for the Knights. Wheaton

had control of the game early on, scoring two goals and not a l low-ing a shot until the 36th minute. Calvin showed re-silience by scoring in the 41st minute and then again i n t he 50 t h to level the scores. Wheaton pushed a l a t e goa l i n t o t a k e h o m e the win.

“We let them dictate the f irst thir ty minutes, a nd t he y o u t -played us. From

that point on, we outscored them, we created great opportunities.” said Coach Souders. “Obviously it was a disappointing loss, but hopefully one where we can reaf-firm what we are good at and are able to move on.”

The K nights defense has only given up multiple goals to Wheaton and was able to main-tain a shutout of Elmhurst. With new players in new positions, Coach Souders mentioned that there is some cleaning up to do:

“ I t w a s g o o d [ t o s h u t -out Elmhurst] but we want to be great.”

The f irst conference home game will be Saturday, September 20 at 2:30 p.m. against the Kalamazoo Hornets.

PHOTO COURTESY CALVIN COLLEGE

Junior Taylor Pruis looks to create space.

Notable Athletic Team Results From the Past Week

September 6Calvin Men’s Golf: 3rd Place - MIAA Tournament at Alma (Pine River CC)Calvin Women’s Golf: 9th place - Olivet College Invite (Medalist GC)

September 8Women’s Soccer vs. Alma: Calvin 1 Alma 2

September 9Calvin Women’s Golf: 8th place - North Central Invite (Springbrook GC)

September 10Volleyball at Kalamazoo: Calvin 3 Kalamazoo 1

science andtechnology

“ ”ALS is a debilitating condition; patients in its advanced stages struggle with motor tasks as seemingly simple as opening a paper or even scrolling through a web page.

Natasha Strydhorst, “ALS has been challenging researchers”

8

BY HAYLEY COXFeatures Co-Editor

This summer Calvin’s informa-tion technology department (CIT) introduced a new printing system, uniFLOW, which offers benefits and frustration for students and faculty alike.

A c c o r d i n g t o M i c h a e l Mandevil le, head of student technology services, the complete overhaul of Calvin’s printing system was a process almost two years in the making.

“With WebPrint,” he said, “the first year it was hardly used. Then the second year it was the most used [service]. By the third year, we had outgrown WebPrint’s capacity.”

There were many annoy-ances with WebPrint, which most students encountered at one point or another. Sometimes students would submit a print job and only discover af terward that the printer was out of toner. Some students never picked up their papers, which led to pa-per waste. Or most often, if a student was queued far behind, they might send it to multiple printers, thus backlogging the sys-tem and contributing to further paper waste.

“We had outgrown the in-frastructure,” said Mandeville. “uniFLOW is not a one-to-one relationship. There is less paper waste. It’s easier.”

The philosophy behind the new system is called “follow me printing” or as Mandeville explained, “print to anywhere from anywhere.”

“This will be the biggest mind-

set change,” said Mandeville. “If there’s a long line at one

printer, you can just go upstairs to another.” Students can even print from department printers without charging the department because students have to swipe their ids

and the charge will go to their printing quota.

This was the other mindset change Mandeville recognized. The print budget, when it is released, will look 40-percent smaller. This reflects the lowered cost of overall printing. The number of print jobs allotted to students will be no fewer than in previous years.

Mandeville also explained the students will be “charged” based on sheets, not pieces of paper. Thus, students who use double-sided printing will not see their quota decreased any faster than those who print one-sided.

Another perk of uniFLOW is that students can print from their phones, since the system is integrated into Google Cloud. From whenever a job is sent, the system will hold it for up to 24 hours, but it must be sent to the “uniFLOW” option from the Calvin student Gmail account.

Calvin introduces uniFLOW to increase ease, reduce waste

“The philosophy behind the new system is called ‘follow me printing’ or

as Mandeville explained, ‘print to anywhere from anywhere.”

ALS has been challenging researchers for decades

I’m not clear about is how we’re going to be billed for printing, whether or not students have a print quota and which printers I’m allowed to use.”

Mandeville urged students to visit the “Students” section of the CIT homepage for a fuller expla-

nation of the uniFLOW system. He added:

“If there is a question, issue, or concern, it should always be reported to the HelpDesk.”

“The main issues we’ve been having,” continued Mandeville, “is when there are issues either with Cloud Print or something else that may or may not be re-

lated to the uniFLOW system. None of it has been being reported to us consistently and has caused some frustration, on both our end and the user’s end.”

Despite some student frus-tration with the new system, Mandeville noted:

We have not yet seen a case [at CIT] of a student printing via Google Cloud Print or uni-FLOW where the system has not been working.”

For those seeking answers or assistance uniFLOW questions or issues, the HelpDesk can be contacted at x6-8555 or [email protected].

as the disease progresses, though the ability to speak is compro-mised. The ALS Association repor ts that l i fe expectancy ranges from two to five years following diag-nosis.

T he c au s e o r c au se s o f A L S r e m a i n unknown, but t he Nat iona l I n s t i t u t e o f Neurological Disorders a n d S t r o k e ( N I N DS) re -ports that over a dozen genetic mutations have been linked to the d isorder, a nd a ny one of these might p o i n t t o a possible cause.

W h a t r e -search has un-covered is that ALS, though rare (affecting 3.9 indiv idu-als per 100,000 U.S. popu la-tion, according t o N I N D S ) , i s one of the most common neuromuscu-l a r d i s e a s e s a r o u n d t h e world. There h a v e b e e n cases in every race and ethnic group, but ALS i s m o s t c o m -

BY NATASHA STRYDHORSTSci-Tech Editor

The viral “ice bucket chal-lenge,” pervasive on social media for the past few months represents only a fraction of time compared to the decades-long research of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) conducted to date. Even so, t he cond i t ion re ma i n s poorly understood.

Commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS is a de-generative motor neuron disease and is grouped with such neu-rodege ne ra t ive cond i t ion s as Park inson’s d isease and Alzheimer’s disease. ALS is a debilitating condition; patients in its advanced stages struggle with motor tasks as seemingly simple as opening a paper or e ve n s c r o l l i n g t h r o u g h a web page.

ALS patients experience a progressive loss of voluntary muscle movement due to the weakening and death of motor nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Lacking the communica-tion from the nervous system, voluntary muscle cells atrophy (waste away) and progressively lose functionality.

In the latest stages of the dis-ease, a patient’s brain is un-able to initiate or control muscle movement, and he or she is de-pendent on ventilator support to breathe. ALS patients maintain the ability to see, hear, taste, smell and sense physical touch, and the mobility of eye muscles is unaffected. A patient’s intel-ligence is likewise unimpaired

monly experienced by individu-als between the ages of 60 and 69, non-Hispanics and white males. It is more common in men than women.

The vast majority of ALS di-agnoses are non-heritable and are referred to as sporadic cases. Only about 5 to 10 percent of di-agnoses are familial, according to

PHOTO COURTESY ANTHONY QUINTANO

The ice bucket challenge of this summer raised funds for continued Amyotrop

-hic Lateral Sclerosis research.

PHOTO BY HAYLEY COX

UniFLOW enables students and faculty to print from any device to

any Calvin College printer via Google Cloud Print.

NINDS. Of these, about a third have been linked to a defect in the gene C9orf72 (or chromosome 9 open reading frame 72) whose function remains unidentified.

As far as a cure or even treat-ment for ALS goes, scientists are still largely in the dark. The pri-mary avenue of research is build-ing an understanding of what causes the initial degeneration of motor neurons at the onset of the disease. Facets of this research include investigation of possible genetic links and the develop-ment of stem cells from patients’ skin cells.

Potential therapies are an-other component of ALS re-search; investigations currently focus on drugs, gene therapies, and cell-based treatments. The most significant development in drug therapy, according to NINDS, was the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approv-al of the f irst drug treatment for ALS specif ically in 1995. Riluzole, or Rilutek, is suggested to decrease neuron damage, and clinical trials of the drug have shown it may increase a pa-tient’s life expectancy by up to a few months.

Grand Rapids’ Van Andel Inst itute (VAI), establ ished in 1996, has had a Center for Neuro-degenerat ive Science since 2011. That same year, ac-cording to Verge magazine, Allison Schepers (then a Calvin College senior) worked in the VA I as an i nte r n s t udy i ng ALS. The VAI expanded this past March with the hire of two specialists in the field of neuro- degenerative disorders.

WebPrint’s replacement prompts questions and excitement from students and faculty

The popular challenge is just a drop in the bucket to decades of ALS research

After that, students need only swipe their cards — magnetic strip facing self — and the printer will print every stored document then and there.

One of the potential draw-backs of uniFLOW affects pro-fessors, who now have to carry around their ids to print, “though professors can choose to set a pin,” Mandeville explained.

A l so, bec au se t he pr int ing system is so personalized, depar t-m e n t s w i l l n o w b e able to see who prints the most.

“I do think it saves pa-per,” said junior Kayla Scholten, “but I don’t think it’s any easier.”

S c hol t e n we n t o n to ex pla i n t hat u n i -FLOW has never con-nected with her student Gmail, no matter what she has tried, so she can only print directly to spe-cif ic printers from her personal Gmail.

Junior student Sara Saps ford had m i xed f e e l i n g s a b o u t uniFLOW, commenting:

“It ’s a good t h i ng there’s instructions.”

Fi f t h -yea r s t udent Lauren Cremean likes the new system overall.

“Being able to get a print job anywhere on campus is cool,” she commented, “and so far I’ve seen few problems with it . Actually, uploading the print job seems to take longer, but I’m no longer worried that a printer will be out of paper or ink. What

religion

9“”

It is essential for Christians to pay attention to this because ISIS is inflicting a lot of pain and suffering on people’s lives.

Professor Westra, “Calvin Professors”

Ali Abunima, a renowned activist and author, spoke in the chapel undercroft about Gaza’s plea for help on Monday, Sept. 8.

Abunima is author of “One Country” and “Battle for Justice in Palestine” and co-founder and executive director of The Electronic Interfada, an online publication that serves to advo-cate for Palestine.

Among the event sponsors were the Middle East Club, the Calvin history depar tment, Peace Means GVSU and Healing Children of Conflict. Abunima walked up to the podium in the front of the chapel and paused. He thanked everyone for coming with visible sincerity.

“You all here shows that people are asking questions,” he said. “And that is encouraging to me.”

Abunima began by showing pictures and videos of the destruc-tion that has occurred in Gaza since the bombings first started.

History professor Douglas Howard is a board member of

Healing Children conf lict and the faculty mentor for the Middle East club at Calvin. He served as MC for the event.

Howard said that the pictures

were quite powerful:“(Abu n i ma) i s a n e f fec -

t ive spea ke r, t he mate r ia l was very sad.”

Abunima spoke with remorse for the lives lost and the destruc-tion that has occurred since the

siege in 2007 and the more recent bombings. One in 1,000 people

were killed in span of 51 days. The bombings of Gaza from

Israel have recently drawn signifi-cant attention to the issue, how-ever, Abunima also spoke about

the injustices that Gaza has been fac-ing since the siege in 2007.

This has only gotten worse with the bombings as factories and fields have been target-ed, and no food is coming in. This means food and other essentials are scarce.

According to Howard, I srael i s a h o t i s s u e f o r d e b a t e i n the U.S.

“ W h e n y o u br ing Israel up people start yell-ing at each other. You c a n ge t a caricature view,” he said.

But for Abunima, the issue is clear. Israel put a siege on Gaza

and bombed civilians. A condi-tion of the ceasefire was that Israel would open the siege, but they have not.

“This ceasefire agreement will not hold if Israel does not open crossroads, and right now there is no pressure I see,” he said.

Abunima emphasized the pain of the people. They have faced uncertainty everyday and severe displacement as many homes were destroyed.

“It is a prison. A physical pris-on, but also a mental and psycho-logical prison,” he said.

Abunima ended his speech with an appeal to boycott services and products that are enabling Israel, including Caterpil lar and Motorola.

Howard encouraged anyone who wants to learn more to look up Abunima’s site at http://elec-tronicintifada.net/.

Additionally, there will be a showing of the film “We all Live in Gaza” by Maurice Jacobson on Thursday, Sept. 18 in the Covenant Fine Arts Center. The film will be shown in prepara-tion for a corresponding exhibit in ArtPrize.

Ali Abunima speaks at Calvin on injustice in Gaza BY KATELYN BOSCH

Religion Editor

Calvin professors describe ISIS and implications

Abunima mourns death and destruction in Gaza following Israel bombings and calls for action

The Islamic State of I raq and Syria, or ISIS, has recent-ly received at tention follow-ing a series of violent acts, in-cluding the beheading of an American journalist.

“ISIS is a transnational net-work of radical Sunni Muslims that is attempting to establish a Caliphate,” political science pro-fessor Joel Westra said.

ISIS is an offshoot of Al-Qaeda, which was responsible for the 9-11 attacks. And Al-Qaeda is an off-shoot of the Islamic Brotherhood, said Westra. They are a type of political group in Iraq. The three groups differ primarily on tactics.

Westra said ISIS holds the view that Islam has been cor-rupted through the ages, and they want to return it back to their fundamentalist roots.

“[ISIS’s] stated goal is to rees-tablish a Caliphate: state ruled un-der Islamic law,” he said. “They believe that previous attempts have been flawed, or corrupted.”

History professor Douglas Howard stressed the militant nature of the group. He said they may claim to be a fundamentalist group, but really they are just “a pirate movement.”

“They give fundamentalists a bad name,” he said. “I don’t be-lieve these people know the first thing about Islam. They are an

opportunistic militant movement trying to feed the people they re-cruit...despite what they say their motives are.”

Westra said it is undeniable that current ISIS actions are getting lots of coverage. He at-tributed this to a series of military victories and violent actions.

“They are certainly getting at-tention,” Westra said. “Filming b ehe a d i n g s o f jou r n a l i s t s gets attention.”

Howe ve r, We s t r a q u e s -tioned whether this attention is warranted.

“All the things they have done has forced people around the world to pay attention. Now whether that attention is appro-priately directed is another ques-tion,” Westra said.

Professor Howard stressed the necessity of viewing ISIS in terms of the “long picture.” ISIS is one group that stems from the origi-nal weakening of the Iraqi gov-ernment in 1991 and the second Iraq war beginning in 2003 that led to the complete overthrow of the Iraqi government.

“To me, it’s easy to get lost in the details of this episode when it is part of the longer war in Iraq,” Howard said.

Both Howard and Westra say it is important to be well informed about ISIS.

“[We] need to understand what the goal is in order to assess more clearly what sort of response is appropriate.... much of the news

coverage has just been focused on the violence,” Westra said

Howard thinks a long pic-ture is necessary to understand the conflict.

“This conflict is a consequence of the U.S. overthrowing the Iraqi government,” he said. “It is our responsibility.”

Westra believes that with the

violent coverage on the media, additional U.S. involvement is a “forgone conclusion.”

According to Howard, ISIS has caused much suffering and vio-lence in effort to reach their goals.

“That man who lost his life, its so sad,” he said in reference to American Journalist James Foley being beheaded.

Westra agreed the political goals of ISIS have caused suffer-ing and even persecution.

“It certainly is the case that religious groups are being per-secuted,” he said. “It is essential for Christians to pay attention to this because ISIS is inflicting a lot of pain and suffering on people’s lives.”

BY KATELYN BOSCHReligion Editor

PHOTO BY NIDAL KANNAN

Ali Abunima used many pictures in his speech to crowd in Calvin chapel.

A member of the U.S. Mt. Sinjar Assessment Team being greeted by locals in Iraq as he evaluates whether they need extra supplies.

PHOTO BY USAID U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

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Campus safety took a report of the larceny of a iPhone 5C from the main office of the biology department. The phone, which had originally been turned in as found property, was subsequently stolen from the office. The victim was encour-aged to also file a report with the Grand Rapids Police Department.

2/25/2014

Campus safety took a report of damage to property where unknown persons shoved a candy bar in the gas tank of a vehicle belonging to a student. The incident occurred in the East Beltline parking lot (lot 13) sometime between Feb. 18 and Feb. 26.

2/27/2014

Campus safety took a report of retail fraud from the campus store. An unknown white male suspect in his twenties with a blue jacket, jeans and tattoos on his neck was observed acting suspicious in the textbook section. A review of video footage by store employees showed that the suspect placed at least two books under his coat before walking out of the store. A report was filed with the Grand Rapids Police and other schools were notified of the incident.

2/28/2014

Campus Safety Report From Dialogue

opinion and

editorial

11“”

We are told to be true to this calling and authentic in what we believe and how we live out our lives.

Lauren DeHaan, From the Editor

Thir teen years ago this week ou r cou nt r y ex pe -rienced the tragedy of 9/11 when four planes were hi-jacked on American soil. Two hit the World Trade Center in New York City, a third the Pentagon and the fourth a field in Pennsylvania (after the passengers aboard hero-ically attempted to take back the cockpit).

I had the opportunity to visit the 9/11 memorial in New York City a few weeks ago. It was stunning. Sad. Humbling. The site of the two towers is now home to two vastly deep and dark memorial pools. Surrounding the pools are many young and healthy trees. There are benches for people to sit, quiet and serene, reflecting on the tragedy as the pools reflect the names of those lost.

Underneath the pools is a museum with a timeline of events and a thorough ex-planation of what occurred: The history of Al-Qaeda, the mobilization of the city and the country, the news reports from that day.

I cried.In my English capstone

class we are talking about vocation. We do this a lot at Calvin. Starting in First Year Seminar (or Prelude, if you are as old as I am), we are told that we have a calling. We are told to be true to this calling and authentic in what we believe and how we live out our lives.

In one of our most recent discussions, my professor told us about one class period she taught in the capstone class. She had asked her students to read articles about finding your calling as an English ma-jor. You know, embracing the fact that you love Jane Austen and can probably dedicate your life to the study of her many works. The students had read those pieces in prepara-tion for a riveting discussion. The discussion never hap-pened. That morning, those four planes crashed. Many Americans died. Many more panicked, and those readings seemed different.

Now, I am not saying that dedicating your life to the study of Jane Austen is nec-essarily a bad thing. What I am saying is some things are different in light of trag-edy. It wasn’t that wanting to study Jane Austen didn’t make sense; the world as a whole

From the Editor

WRITING FOR OP-ED is open to all Calvin students! Send your articles to Nathan [email protected].

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the writer’s name and class. Letters received without a name will not be printed. The editors reserve the right to edit any letters. The length of the letter should be no longer than 250 words; longer letters may be shortened at the editor’s discretion. The deadline for all letters is 5 p.m. on Tuesday for print on the following Friday. Send letters to [email protected] with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line, or send your comments through our website: www.calvin.edu/chimes

ANNOUNCEMENTS can be submitted by Calvin students,

faculty and staff to be printed in Chimes at no cost. An-

nouncements can be sent via e-mail to [email protected]

or dropped off at the Chimes�RI¿FH�GXULQJ�WKH�ZHHN��$Q-

nouncements must be received by 5 p.m. Tuesday to run in

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BY KATE PARSONSCampus News Co-editor

I’ll admit: I rolled my eyes when the barrage of videos hit my Facebook feed. It seemed like so-called ‘slacktivism’ at its finest: something to be ‘liked’ and ‘shared’ and forgotten almost instantly. But as the movement flooded social media — Facebook has recorded over 1.2 million separate videos — people began to take notice.

The Ice Bucket Challenge, which started as any other viral stunt and somehow became a fundraising powerhouse for ALS, could be dismissed, like one commenter said, as “the Harlem Shake of this summer.”

But unlike other f lash-in-the-pan movements, the Ice Bucke t Cha l lenge i s doing something. Since June, the New York Times reports, the ALS Association has seen an astronomical surge of donations totaling over $100 million — q u a d r upl i n g t he i r a n nu a l o p e r a t i n g b u d g e t i n j u s t t w o m o n t h s . I n t h e s a m e t i m e , W i k i p e d i a repor ted a spike of 400,000 new searches for “Amyotriphic lateral sclerosis.”

A p p a r e n t l y p e o p l e a r e doing more than scrolling. And that is the genius of the Ice Bucket Cha l lenge: t he way t hat i t taps into a new realm of viral altruism.Say what you want a b o u t t h e q u a l i t y o f t h e videos — the marketing strategy is effective.

People have come dow n hard against the chal lenge.

Ice Bucket Challenge Prompts Giving

BY NATHAN SLAUEROp-Ed Editor

If you’ve watched YouTube in the last three months, you’ve heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge, a viral fundraising campaign for the ALS Association. The Ice Bucket Challenge deserves praise for raising a lot of money for, and uniting interest around, a great cause. People participating in the Challenge have raised $100 million for ALS research since July, an incredible amount for any nonprofit. On an average day of the challenge, the ALS Association raised approximately $2 million, the equivalent of their annual earnings last year.

Nonprofits struggle to per-suade people to make charitable donations during the best of eco-nomic times. But with the Ice Bucket Challenge, 184,812 new donors contributed to the ALS Association, and 17 million Ice Bucket Challenge videos have been posted on Facebook — that’s amazing! Even North Korea, one of the poorest and most politically oppressed countries in the world, recently jumped on the Ice Bucket bandwagon. The only big ques-tion left is which holdout is next: Vladimir Putin or the Pope?

W hi le i t ’s g reat that the c a mpa ig n wa s so s uccess -ful, it’s time to take the next step. Nonprofits like the ALS Association need to move from social campaigns like the Ice Bucket Challenge to strategies that raise more in-depth aware-ness and commitment about issues than dumping a bucket of ice on your head can.

The Ice Bucket Challenge did not do enough to inform the general public about ALS. The Ice Bucket campaign focused

more on its central gimmick and the celebrities involved than the cause itself. For at least some participants, that meant that the challenge was more about join-ing a hip, new movement than about being genuinely charitable. Magazine author Arielle Pardes put it well when she said, “there are a lot of things wrong with the Ice Bucket Challenge, but the most annoying is that it’s basically narcissism masked as altruism.”

While more people have tech-nically heard of ALS than before the challenge, almost none of the videos for the challenge actually discuss what ALS is, what the ALS Association does, or how people can continue advocating on behalf of ALS research.

Building real awareness in-volves more than just saying that a problem exists. It means educat-ing people on what that problem is, why their participation in ending the problem matters, and, most importantly, showing people how they can get involved with the cause in a more consis-tent, meaningful manner than one-time donation. That kind of education doesn’t happen when campaigns don’t move beyond the gimmicks and celebrities to deeper content, such as personal invitations to volunteer for and consistently donate to the ALS Association, as well as in-depth informational videos explaining the ALS research process.

The biggest problem with the Ice Bucket Challenge is that it pushed towards a culture shift towards generosity, but did not push far enough. American pop culture, which glorif ies indi-vidualism, buying stuff and Kim Kardashian, could use more campaigns like the Ice Bucket Challenge to remind people of

the importance of giving. That said, trends like the Ice Bucket Challenge risk sending the cul-tural message that you should participate in charity, but only when it’s trendy.

Participants in the Ice Bucket Challenge deserve praise for donating, but so much more can be done. Each year, Americans manage to spend $1.2 trillion on luxury items such as gambling, booze, video games, candy and yachts. It is disheartening to think that temporary bouts of do-good-ing could just be a way of making people feel good about themselves for a short time instead of helping other people in more significant ways.

In the future, nonprofits should seek ways to engage individuals beyond momentary, hashtag ac-tivism. Social campaigns, such as Livestrong, Kony 2012, #Haiti, and, of course, the Ice Bucket Challenge, may grab headlines and even some donations but rarely result in lasting social change. People should be dis-tubed, even angry, to think that longafter people have forgotten these campaigns, a cure to cancer is nowhere in sight, Joseph Kony remains at large, and 150,000 Haitians still live in plywood shel-ters following Hurricane Sandy.

Altruism is too important to remain a fad, a game, or some-thing one pursues in order to receive their five minutes of fame. The lives of real people suffering from terrible diseases, poverty, and oppression are at stake. These people deserve far more attention than is usually allotted by the average social campaign.

The Ice Bucket Challenge did a lot of good. Let’s just hope that nonprofits can inspire people to change their lifestyle, not just their Facebook profile.

Challenge raises concerns

Social campaigns must spur lifestyle change

It can be self-congratulatory, c r i t i c s s a y, i t s p a r t i c i -p a n t s m o r e i n t e r e s t e d i n jo i n i n g a move me nt t h a n raising awareness. Who hasn’t seen someone call the disease ASL, or neglect even to mention it? And as the declining numbers of videos already shows, this spike in giving is unsustainable.

Bu t I d o n’ t t h i n k t he s e c r it ic isms det rac t f rom the intent of the movement. In the carefully-curated, self-focused world of social media, I think the Ice Bucket Chal lenge is ref reshing (f igurat ively and literally). Friends of mine have used t he plat for m to ra i se awareness about ALS or other causes close to their heart. This brief philanthropic moment in the spotlight isn’t one that comes around often.

As a culture, I think we have an unhealthy relationship with giving. We don’t talk about it. For every university hall named after an illustrious family, there are a thousand donations sent in sealed envelopes, taking to heart Jesus’ command to “not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

I’m not saying that discretion in giving is wrong, but I do think over-conscientiousness puts us out of touch with both the giving and the needs of our community. Who of us knows what charities our friends support, or if they donate to any at all?

I think of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians in which giving was a natural part of a broader conversation about caring for each other. Paul commends the giving habits of one church and

openly seeks donations for an-other congregation.

This spike in ALS donations may be a one-time thing, but I don’t buy the criticisms that the challenge is stealing from other worthy causes. Giving engen-ders giving. Charity is not a zero-sum game.

So is the Ice Bucket Challenge a good model? I s t h i s t he giving of the future? As someone involved in nonprofits, I hope that people are motivated to donate by results and not by flashy stunts. I h o p e t h a t g i v i n g i s a long-term commitment,not a one-time challenge.

But I still think this is a step in the right direction.

In Philippians 1:15 and 18 Paul writes again, “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of good-will…. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in ev-ery way, whether from false mo-tives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.”

In the same way, some are dumping ice water over their heads for the right reasons and some for pride or vanity or bore-dom. But what does it matter? Money and awareness are being raised. Charitable donations cap-tured the media’s frenetic atten-tion and held it for a brief second.

We should be discerning with our gifts, but we should also be generous. Why not challenge each other to learn about a con-dition our neighbors live with daily? Why not call on each other to give?

There may be more effective ways to give, but at least this starts the conversation.

didn’t make sense. We are living in a time of

great tragedy. People all over the world are hurting and suf-fering and dying. Journalists are beheaded by ISIS. Gaza is bombed. Ukraine is invaded. Young men are shot to death for stealing.

We are at Calvin. We are safe. We are worrying about Jane Austen texts and trying to find our crushes in the din-ing halls. We are participating in Mudbowl and Chaos day. We are thinking about our vocations.

Does it make sense to do this in a world of tragedy? A world where planes hit buildings?

If you are a senior right now, you are most likely struggling with the question of what hap-pens after you graduate. I am. What happens when we leave the place we have called home the past four years? What hap-pens when all our friends are dispersed across the country and the world? What happens when another global crisis occurs or when we are faced with personal tragedy? What happens when nothing seems to make sense?

To be honest, I don’t quite know. I have been asking for a lot of advice lately from people I love and respect. I would like to share some of this advice with you now. First, bad things will happen. Tragedy will oc-cur. Vocation or calling is not about having an “easy life” but rather facing the world with courage and sharing hope with those who have none. To have a vocation is to live and work in the reality and brokenness of the world.

Second, it is okay to not have a plan. We are in our early 20s and have years to learn and make mistakes and grow. Just because you don’t know what to “do with your life” doesn’t mean you don’t have a calling. You may have many. Last, but certainly not least, surround yourself with those you love and those who love you. When all seems lost, they are the people who will be there. The people you will call, the people to cry with.

As we move past this week of memorial, my hope is that we will remember the tragedies of the past and present. In do-ing so, let us not give up the hope we have for the role we will play in our world.

~lmd

12 Photo essay September 12, 2014

Calvin Community

GardenPhotos by James Li