24 | JUNE 4 • 2020
O
akland County Clerk/
Register of Deeds Lisa
Brown opened her
office by appointment only on
May 26.
Brown, a member of
Adat Shalom Synagogue in
Farmington Hills, has served
as Oakland County’
s Clerk/
Register of Deeds since 2013.
She continues to encourage the
community to take advantage of
the online and mail-in services
still available but understands
that some business needs to be
conducted in person.
“The reason why we’
re open-
ing by appointment only and
not just completely reopening is
to make sure we are practicing
social distancing,
” Brown told
the Jewish News. “We’
re just
trying to ensure my staff’
s safe-
ty and the safety of people we
serve by spacing out appoint-
ments.
”
Brown also
wants to make sure
the people in the
community who
might not have
internet or who
aren’
t comfortable
using the online services can use
the services of their office and
make them more accessible.
The Oakland County Clerk/
Register of Deeds office is
responsible for vital records/
life events and services, legal/
court records and register of
deeds/property and land. Some
services, including obtaining a
new concealed pistol license and
passports, are not available since
the governmental agencies that
help with those services are not
open or taking applications.
“We rely or partner with these
other departments or govern-
ments to provide those services,
”
Brown said. “If they aren’
t open,
then it doesn’
t make sense for us
to do our part because then that
person is just in limbo.
”
The clerk’
s office is enforcing
the proper safety measures by
taking everyone’
s temperature
when they walk into the build-
ing, asking them preliminary
questions, marking the floor
to provide 6 feet of distance
between everyone, enforcing
everyone to wear a mask when
they walk in and also having
plexiglass separate the employ-
ees from the customers.
Residents of Oakland County
who wish to make an in-person
appointment must head to the
Oakland County Clerk’
s website
to find the correct phone num-
ber for each division. The web-
site will also inform residents on
what services are available for
in-person appointments.
O
akland University plans
to freeze tuition costs for
the upcoming Fall 2020
semester due to the coronavirus
pandemic, President Ora Hirsch
Pescovitz announced May 22.
This plan advocates for a
zero percent tuition
increase and will
be presented to the
Board of Trustees at
its June 15 meeting,
where it will vote on
whether it will be
implemented.
“We are thinking about our
students and their families. Pretty
much everybody is in the middle
of some kind of economic hard-
ship or experiencing some sort of
budget shortfall,
” Pescovitz told
the Jewish News.
For the 2019-2020 school
year, according to its website, the
total cost of attending Oakland
University was around $27,370
for freshmen and sophomores
who were in-state residents who
lived on campus.
Oakland University’
s tuition
includes a no-fee tuition pricing,
meaning that there are no park-
ing fees, no technology fees, no
athletic fees, no online course
fees and no lab fees. This no-fee
tuition policy allows for students
to know right away what their
tuition cost will be and not be
surprised by hidden fees.
“Tuition is one of those
things that is obviously a major
financial burden. Every year, in
Oakland’
s history, we’
ve always
had a tuition increase,
” Pescovitz
said. “We’
re thinking about our
students’
budgets and our fam-
ilies’
budgets. Most of our stu-
dents work. Over 85% of our stu-
dents are employed, but many of
them have lost their jobs, just like
many other families may have
lost their jobs. We want to do
whatever we can to help them.
”
Oakland University has also
been focusing on trying to get
students the best possible finan-
cial aid packages. Pescovitz told
the JN that, on average, about a
third of students’
total tuition is
covered by grants, awards and
scholarships.
“This year, I expect it to be
significantly more than that,
and part of that is because we
were fortunate enough to receive
funding from the CARES Act,
the stimulus package which
provides funding to higher edu-
cation institutions to provide
financial aid grants to qualifying
students,
” Pescovitz said. “We’
re
also distributing funds from the
Oakland University COVID-19
Relief Fund to students to help
with support.
”
The university is working on a
reopening plan for students, fac-
ulty and staff to safely return to
campus this fall. The plan entails
personal health assessments
for students, enforcing social
distancing, wearing of masks
throughout campus, and all cafe-
terias and eating facilities will be
a grab-and-go style.
“For me, the health and safety
of our campus, students, faculty
and staff is even more important
than education,
” Pescovitz said.
“Simply because we can’
t educate
our students if our campus is
not safe. Safety is of the utmost
importance.
”
County Clerk
Office Reopens
Residents can take care of business
by appointment only.
CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER
VIA FACEBOOK
Lisa Brown
Jews in the D
Oakland University
Plans to Freeze Tuition
for Fall Semester
The university also says it will reopen
campus this fall.
CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER
Ora Hirsch
Pescovitz
OU
Oakland
University