The KBEI AI/AGI Grant. A grant of up to $4500 awarded to a faculty member to help increase expertise on AI and AGI-related issues. Research into ethical implications, copyright questions, privacy matters, pedagogical and professional uses, and/or existential threats would all be welcome. Faculty member would be expected to report out on findings through writing or through internal and external presentations. Grant may be used for conferences, materials, and other avenues proposed by the applicant.

For inquiries and formal criteria contact Michael DeWilde at  dewildem@gvsu.edu or in Rm 1113 SCB.  Applications will be due June 1, 2024, and one grant will be awarded by a panel of judges on July 15, 2024. The grant will be in effect for one year.

The Social Capital in Grand Rapids Grant. A grant of up to $4500 for research into social capital in Grand Rapids, particularly in zip code 49507. The KBEI has a history of investigating social capital in GR, and has ongoing interests in extending that research. The successful applicant would be able to gather and analyze demographic and economic data, show comparisons both within neighborhoods in GR and across neighborhoods and zip codes. The grantee would work with Prof. DeWilde on an article as well as presentations.

For inquiries and formal criteria contact Michael DeWilde at  dewildem@gvsu.edu or in Rm 1113 SCB.  Applications will be due June 1, 2024, and one grant will be awarded by a panel of judges on July 15, 2024. The grant will be in effect for one year.

Social psychologist and best-selling author Jonathan Haidt argues that a university can have only one "telos," or purpose, and that we find ourselves in an age where the traditional purpose of a university - the pursuit of truth - is being eclipsed by another "sacred value," that of social justice. While of course not opposed to social justice, he does conclude that in the end making that the central value of a university is proving to be more harmful than helpful to the integrity of the university. He implicates that pursuit in a number of ills, among them plummeting trust in universities and the erosion of academic freedom. 

In this series, two of which are now available, we at the KBEI take up Haidt's points with GVSU professors and administrators, as well as with noted national scholars, in wide-ranging discussions. Part One features Grand Valley State University professors and administrators Alisha Davis, Michael DeWilde, Andrew Spear and Dwayne Tunstall. Part Two features former Yale Law School Dean and author Anthony Kronman. His book The Assault on American Excellence argues, among other things, that colleges are places where, in the service of democracy, merit and aristocracy matter more than equality and egalitarianism. 

March 21, 2024 - FLC Luncheon
KBEI is sponsoring an FLC luncheon for faculty members on Artificial Intelligence. The luncheon features patent and copyright attorney Lynn Lehnert. 

12:00-1:00pm
SCB 1013

L. William Seidman Center
50 Front Ave SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49504

Digging In, Displacement, and Dreaming: Capital and Social Capital in the Grandville Corridor – A KBEI Luncheon Event

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

12:00-2:00pm 
SCB 1008 - Charles A. Loosemore Forum

L. William Seidman Center
50 Front Ave SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49504

For over a hundred years the Grandville Corridor/Cesar Chavez Area has been home to generations of Latinos and Latinas from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba and a host of other Latin American countries. They have built neighborhoods, businesses, churches, schools and other institutions that have allowed their community to survive and occasionally thrive in the face of challenges that have included discriminatory practices, exclusion, and exploitation. It is an area of Grand Rapids beginning to feel the pressures of gentrification, on one hand, while continuing to grapple with all of the issues of an immigrant community on the other. It is also an area of the city many Grand Rapidians are unfamiliar with, despite its long history here.

Please join us for a luncheon in May, when the KBEI and local Grandville Corridor leaders will present on its current state: Who lives in the GC? How do they see their relationship to downtown? What investments are being made? What are the demographics and how are they changing? How do residents describe the quality of their lives and what are their aspirations for their children? What role is immigration playing currently? And so on. 

Please contact Michael DeWilde, dewildem@gvsu.edu, for more information.