“At the end of the day, the patients’ 

safety has to come first, and we can’t 

risk exposing them to COVID-19 when 

there’s no actual screening process 

for the students,” Hubscher said. 

“Unfortunately, we’re going to have 

to finish up our clinical experiences 

online, but it’s what’s best in a situation 

like this which is unprecedented.”

In a separate notice directed to 

juniors sent out on the same day, Hurn 

said their on-site clinicals would also 

be suspended as of 7 p.m. Juniors will 

now have virtual clinical experiences 

for the remainder of the term and are 

expected to hold the last two and a half 

weeks in August for boot camp and 

deferred clinical experiences. 

In an email to The Daily, University 

spokesman Rick Fitzgerald noted 

students’ safety is of the utmost 

importance to the University, adding 

that alternative options are being 

developed to prepare students for new 

challenges they may face in clinical 

settings.

Previously, 
sophomore 
clinical 

rotations were canceled on Sunday 

in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Nursing juniors and seniors were sent 

a separate email on Sunday from Dana 

Tschannen, incoming associate dean 

for undergraduate studies at the School 

of Nursing, explaining why sophomore 

clinical rotations were canceled as well 

as offering future plans for junior and 

senior clinicals.

The email said the School of Nursing 

believed sophomores would be able to 

meet requirements set by the Michigan 

Board of Nursing and accredited bodies 

though a virtual format.

Nursing 
sophomore 
Samantha 

Toomey said she does not believe 

having online clinical rotations will put 

her behind.

“We’re still going to have the 

clinicals next year and the year after,” 

Toomey said. “This semester, we’re 

kind of just getting started, and we 

didn’t have a ton of responsibilities. 

Since we’re sophomores, we still have a 

lot of time to catch up and we have a lot 

more hours ahead of us.”

Toomey said she recognized the 

current situation is not ideal, however, 

she said she believes this change 

was essential to limit COVID-19 

transmissions.

“I think it’s a better learning 

experience to be in-person, but given 

the current situation, there are other 

things that are more important than 

getting our curriculum fulfilled,” 

Toomey said. “I feel like the health 

of the patient and student are more 

important than sticking to curriculum 

hours.”

At the time of the Sunday email, 

juniors had recently had their first 

clinical rotations of the year, and the 

email strongly encouraged them to 

keep attending current rotations. 

Seniors 
in 
nursing 
have 
two 

tracks they can choose to complete: 

Leadership 
and 
Management/

Community 
or 
Complex 
Care. 

Regarding 
the 
Leadership 
and 

Management/Community track, the 

email noted some community clinicals 

had already closed. For those that had 

not, the email said to continue going. 

For seniors in Complex Care, the email 

urged seniors to add an extra shift 

while they were looking at alternative 

options. 

Hubscher said a lot of students were 

trying to fit in as many hours as they 

could to finish their requirements as 

soon as possible. 

“One of my cohort (members) had 

considered doing 16-hour shifts at 

the hospital to get her hours done,” 

Hubscher said. “In the past, the most 

we’ve done is 12 hours.”

Nursing senior Joanna Yeh is on 

the Leadership and Management/

Community track and said her clinical 

instructor canceled her community 

clinical before the announcement 

today.

“My community clinicals were 

supposed to be at a retirement home,” 

Yeh said. “That’s probably not the 

best idea for us. A lot of us work at the 

hospital, and we’re going in and out of 

the hospital. It’s not a good idea for us 

to go into a retirement home for people 

who are literally the most vulnerable 

population.”

Yeh said she was not worried about 

graduating because she believed her 

instructor was doing everything in her 

power to provide support to students.

“My clinical instructor has made 

it very clear that she’s going to make 

sure we will graduate no matter 

what happens,” Yeh said. “She’s gone 

through all these different modules 

in order to make up for the hours that 

we’re missing from being in person.”

Many Nursing students told The 

Daily they felt stressed and confused 

as they were not certain what would 

happen to clinical rotations and 

classes moving forward as the 

COVID-19 situation develops.

Yeh 
said 
she 
was 
anxious 

when the University first began 

responding to COVID-19 because 

of the uncertainty. However, she 

said she understands this is a 

developing situation and is grateful 

to the School of Nursing for 

providing frequent updates. 

“The 
School 
of 
Nursing 
is 

honestly doing a pretty good job 

with keeping us updated,” Yeh said. 

“Things are changing every second, 

they’ve been sending us so many 

different emails with the changes. 

They’re keeping us updated to the 

best of their ability and I can’t be 

mad at that. I know it must be hard 

to be on both sides.”

Reporter Francesca Duong can be 

reached at fduong@umich.edu.

In 
the 
press 
conference, 

Whitmer said the state is making 

decisions based on the best science 

to slow the spread of the virus.

“Our administration and our 

partners and state government are 

working around the clock, working 

to slow the spread of coronavirus,” 

Whitmer said. “Michiganders are 

some of the most resilient people 

in the nation, and we have faced 

and overcome serious challenges 

before … We’ve gotten through 

these times together, and we will 

get through this as well.”

On Thursday, Whitmer ordered 

a shutdown of all K-12 schools in 

the state until April 5 and banned 

all events with more than 250 

attendees on Friday. The governor 

also issued an executive order on 

Monday to close all restaurants, 

bars and entertainment venues in 

Michigan to attempt to slow the 

spread of the virus. 

Whitmer 
emphasized 
the 

actions she has taken within the 

past week in response to COVID-

19 are temporary. She said all 

Michigan citizens have a role to 

play to mitigate spreading the virus 

and its impact on our economy.

“These are tough and necessary 

steps that we are taking to ensure 

that we reduce the spread of this 

virus,” Whitmer said. “We know 

that by taking aggressive action, 

we are saving lives.”

Whitmer 
encouraged 

Michigan 
citizens 
to 
practice 

social distancing and to take 

precautionary measures to reduce 

the spread of the virus. The Centers 

for Disease Control and Prevention 

recommend people wash their 

hands often with soap and water 

for 20 seconds, avoid close contact 

with other people and stay home if 

they feel sick.

Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical 

executive of Michigan Department 

of Health and Human Services 

(MDHHS), emphasized protecting 

those most at risk, including the 

elderly and immunocompromised. 

She said state labs in Michigan 

have a goal of testing 200 patients 

for COVID-19 a day, which they 

plan to be able to accommodate for 

by the end of the week.

“This is a very serious situation,” 

Khaldun said. “As the situation 

continues to develop, we expect 

more cases, and unfortunately, we 

expect more fatalities.”

Khaldun said the MDHHS sent 

500 tests to medical providers 

across the state throughout the 

past week. She said the state is 

working on getting comprehensive 

data from hospitals on resources.

As of Wednesday, there have 

been 80 confirmed COVID-19 

cases in Michigan with seven of 

the cases in Washtenaw County. 

Two cases of the virus have been 

confirmed in student apartment 

buildings Vic Village-North and 

ArborBLU.

The University of Michigan 

began the shift to online classes on 

Monday for the remainder of the 

semester in response to COVID-

19. The University also canceled 

commencement 
and 
all 
study 

abroad programs scheduled for the 

Spring and Summer semesters.

Daily 
News 
Editor 
Barbara 

Collins can be reached at bcolli@

umich.edu. 

Morgan recognized Cowan and 

addressed her worries. He said 

declaring a state of emergency would 

help the board respond to the needs of 

the community. 

“As we heard from Keta today, what 

we are talking about are the ancillary 

impacts beyond just the public health 

aspect of things — the residents who 

are food insecure or homeless, our 

economy or local businesses and all 

these other aspects that I truly believe 

are reaching a point of a state of 

emergency now and looking forward,” 

Morgan said. “Everything we do now 

to mitigate the impacts on our local 

businesses and our residents will help 

us in the long term.”

District 2 Commissioner Sue Shink 

said she and her colleagues have been 

working to respond to the pandemic 

and mitigate its impact on the county.

“We have been talking about 

vulnerable populations,” Shink said. 

“We know that there have been efforts 

made … We really care and are taking 

this seriously.” 

Morgan also laid out plans for 

additional efforts that would serve 

other parts of the community.

“The county has enacted their 

contingency 
plan, 
and 
although 

buildings are closed to the public until 

April 6, 2020, several departments 

continue to provide essential services,” 

Morgan said. “Other efforts include 

the extension of grace periods on fees, 

fines and costs, as well as working 

to support school districts who are 

providing much-needed meals to their 

students.”

Morgan 
also 
discussed 
the 

utilization 
of 
the 
Emergency 

Operations Center, which coordinates 

the reaction to large-scale emergencies 

in Washtenaw County. However, 

Morgan noted that the center may only 

be reached remotely.

“We’re 
going 
to 
activate 
the 

Emergency 
Operations 
Center, 

remotely or virtually,” Morgan said. 

“There are a lot of those aspects that 

we still need to work through, as this is 

pretty unprecedented.”

Daily 
Staff 
Reporter 
Gabriel 

Boudagh can be reached at gboudagh@

Thursday, March 19, 2020 — 3A
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

NURSES
From Page 1A

COMMISSION
From Page 1A

COVID-19
From Page 1

The Senate Assembly elected 

three faculty members to the Senate 

Advisory Committee on University 

Affairs on March 16 and 17 via 

electronic voting. 

The 
Assembly 
intended 
the 

vote to be conducted in person, 

but due to the University of 

Michigan’s guidelines to prevent 

the spread of COVID-19, the Senate 

Assembly voted through the newly-

implemented Simply Voting online 

platform. 

Speaking 
to 
the 
University 

Record, MaryJo Banasik, director 

of the Faculty Senate Office, said 

she thought allowing voting to take 

place online was an important way 

to promote participation.

“We feel that because people were 

able to vote remotely, particularly 

in this kind of situation when 

people are working remotely, we 

got a lot more participation than we 

normally would have had,” Banasik 

said. 

From a field of nine candidates, 

the Senate Assembly chose J. Caitlin 

Finlayson, 
associate 
professor 

of 
English 
at 
U-M 
Dearborn; 

Allen P. Liu, associate professor 

of 
mechanical 
engineering, 

biomedical 
engineering 
and 

biophysics; and Kentaro Toyama, 

W. 
K. 
Kellogg 
Professor 
of 

community information, professor 

of information and chair of the 

Academic Advisory Committee to 

succeed Joy Beatty, Sami Malek and 

Neil Marsh respectively, who are 

term-limited. 

In 
her 
candidate 
statement, 

Finlayson said she seeks to expand 

SACUA’s awareness and inclusion of 

voices from across the University’s 

three campuses. 

“There is strength and value in 

faculty governance when diverse 

voices across the three campuses 

are heard and we act collectively to 

promote the interests of the faculty 

as a whole,” Finlayson said in her 

statement.

Liu 
said 
sharing 
governing 

responsibility between faculty and 

administration is the key to make 

institutionally beneficial decisions. 

“As 
a 
SACUA 
member 

working with our colleagues and 

administration, I will work to build 

shared vision, shared engagement, 

shared 
mutual 
respect, 
shared 

information and shared risk,” Liu 

said in his candidate statement. 

Toyama said in his candidate 

statement that his experience on 

multiple faculty governing bodies 

and committees has given him an 

understanding of the workings of 

faculty governance. 

Finlayson, Liu and Toyama will 

begin their three-year terms on May 

1. 

Reporter Julia Rubin can be 

reached at julrubin@umich.edu.

JULIA RUBIN

Daily Staff Reporter

Three faculty members appointed to 
SACUA in body’s first electronic vote

Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs holds election digitally out of concern over virus 

