Schlissel said all schools and 

colleges at the University should 

work to ensure that students 

are able to meet graduation 

requirements despite classes 

being 
moved 
to 
an 
online 

format. 
He 
noted 
certain 

programs cannot be delivered 

adequately online and may have 

to be canceled for the spring and 

summer terms. 

“This decision aligns with 

our ongoing efforts to respond 

to the pandemic, by maintaining 

this critical part of our mission 

while 
encouraging 
social 

distancing,” Schlissel wrote. “In 

conjunction with our provost’s 

offices, I ask schools and 

colleges to prioritize offering 

programs and coursework that 

allows current students to keep 

working toward their degrees 

and not fall behind.”

Schlissel said the University 

will 
continue 
to 
provide 

services like dining hall take-

out meals to those who remain 

on-campus 
or 
in 
residence 

halls. 

The decision to cancel spring 

and summer term classes comes 

after the University ordered all 

research laboratories to “ramp 

down” research projects that 

are not related to COVID-19. 

With the “Stay Home, Stay 

Safe” 
order, 
all 
University 

employees 
are 
required 
to 

work from home unless their 

on-campus work is considered 

essential to the University’s 

mission to slow the spread of 

the virus. 

At 
a 
press 
conference 

Monday, Whitmer said the 

order was enacted to promote 

responsible social distancing as 

confirmed cases of COVID-19 

continue to grow. The executive 

order, which asks that Michigan 

residents not leave their homes 

unless absolutely necessary, is 

planned to remain in place for 

at least three weeks. 

“Please know that even with 

today’s action, the number 

of cases will go up yet today, 

tomorrow and the days ahead. 

It will take some time for 

us to impact this,” Whitmer 

said. “We will be continually 

evaluating the science, the data, 

the impact on your health. It is 

going to take greater testing. 

We made strides, but we must 

do more so we can understand 

the challenges that we are 

confronting. So we can draw 

based on data.”

Currently, there are over 

1,000 
diagnosed 
cases 
of 

COVID-19 in Michigan and 15 

confirmed deaths. On Sunday, 

the first death in Washtenaw 

County 
was 
recorded 
at 

Michigan Medicine.

Symptoms of the coronavirus 

include 
fever, 
cough 
and 

shortness of breath. People who 

believe they have been exposed 

to coronavirus should call their 

health care providers or the 

nearest hospital. Individuals 

can also contact their local 

health department, which in 

Washtenaw County can be 

reached at 734-544-6700.

Daily 
News 
Editor 
Liat 

Weinstein can be reached at 

weinsl@umich.edu.

Tuesday, March 24, 2020 — 3
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

RESEARCH,
From Page 1

ONLINE
From Page 1

HOUSING
From Page 2

“The order will not significantly 

alter 
the 
university’s 
research 

operations, as we moved last Friday to 

ramp down all noncritical laboratory 

research activities,” Schlissel wrote. 

LSA 
junior 
Chayton 
Fivecoat 

works in a neurobiology lab and is 

planning on pursuing an honors 

thesis in Molecular, Cellular and 

Developmental 
Biology. 
Fivecoat, 

who works with mice in what he 

described as a “hands-on” lab, said 

his work for this year is completed 

because his research cannot be done 

remotely. 

“Before classes kind of went to the 

wayside, I was in there about 10 hours 

a week,” Fivecoat said. “(Now) for me, 

it was completely shut down. I know 

a lot of my other friends, they can do 

some stuff remotely, but a lot of my 

stuff was ... doing benchwork. So my 

portion of the lab, I can’t do anything. 

I’m almost powerless to do anything.”

Much of Fivecoat’s work was 

done in preparation for his honors 

thesis, which most students begin 

in junior year and finish a month 

before their graduation date. Fivecoat 

said he is still planning on being able 

to complete his thesis on time but 

worries the shutdown of research 

may slow the process down. 

“I think it will slow down my 

ability to write a thesis just because a 

lot of the data collection was going to 

be happening this semester,” Fivecoat 

said. “But in terms of my projection as 

a(n) (MCDB) major and as a student, 

I think I’d be still pretty much on 

track.”

LSA 
freshman 
Saad 
Shami 

also worked in a lab as part of 

the 
Undergraduate 
Research 

Opportunity Program this year. 

Shami worked with Qiong Yang, 

assistant professor of biophysics, on 

a project relating to the cell cycle 

and the mechanisms behind it in an 

effort to create a biosensor. Shami 

said because he worked in a wet 

lab, meaning he handled different 

chemicals or substances, he cannot do 

any work remotely.

“Not being able to work in a lab 

until next semester in sophomore 

year, it’s not the greatest and I feel like 

I’m not getting the full experience of 

UROP,” Shami said. “Shutting down a 

lot of research projects, it’s definitely 

the right thing, especially if they 

want to enforce social distancing. 

But for the projects themselves, it 

impacts them because we were still 

in the early stages of our project. We 

were trying to spend as much time 

as possible in the lab, trying to figure 

out what protein was best to make the 

biosensor. So it limits us.”

Shami said after classes moved 

online, the whole lab received an email 

from Yang asking if supplies could be 

donated to Michigan Medicine to help 

protect healthcare workers treating 

COVID-19 patients. On March 18, Teri 

Grieb, senior director for research 

at the Medical School, sent an email 

to all research faculty asking labs to 

donate unopened supplies including 

N95 masks, face shields and hand 

alcohol. 

On Friday, March 20, Michigan 

Medicine published a press release 

asking 
the 
greater 
community 

to 
donate 
protective 
gear 
and 

announcing the creation of a drop-off 

donation site at the North Campus 

Research Complex. Janet Abbruzzese, 

director of supply chain management 

for Michigan Medicine, expressed 

her gratitude for the community’s 

support in the press release. 

“It’s truly incredible what we 

have heard from local residents and 

businesses, and people all over the 

state, in recent days. We’ve received 

offers of supplies that they know 

are needed to care for COVID-19 

patients, and our team has ramped 

up quickly to be able to accept them,” 

Abbruzzese said. “We have already 

had an amazing outpouring of 

supplies from scientific laboratories 

across the university, and now we are 

turning to the broader community.” 

In an email to the Daily, Kara Gavin, 

spokesperson for Michigan Medicine, 

said the hospital has already received 

donations since opening on Saturday.

“In just the first day, less than 24 

hours after we announced the drive, 

we had 224 cars, plus two people on 

bikes and 5 walkers,” Gavin wrote. 

Daily News Editor Liat Weinstein 

can be reached at weinsl@umich.edu

First-year 
Law 
student 

Jessica 
Paduganan 
created 

a petition titled, “Petition 

for 
Clarification 
and 

Representation 
Regarding 

Plans 
for 
the 
Lawyers 

Club” Tuesday, because she 

was anxious and confused 

about the effect Tuesday’s 

University Housing email had 

on the Lawyers Club Graduate 

Residence. The petition had 

over 50 law student signatures 

as of Tuesday afternoon when 

Paduganan sent it to the Law 

School administration.

“We have asked the Lawyers 

Club administration to clarify 

the email, but to our surprise 

and dismay, they were also 

unaware of this email or 

what it could possibly mean 

for us,” Paduganan wrote. 

“We understand that these 

decisions are being made at 

another level, but the lack of 

clarifying information, which 

should be sent after these 

central 
University 
emails, 

leads us to think that there 

is no one from Law School 

Housing who is participating 

in, and advocating for us in 

these meetings.”

Paduganan said Tuesday’s 

University Housing email put 

graduate students in a hard 

position because many haven’t 

lived with their parents for 

years and don’t have a place to 

return to. 

“There’s a whole variety 

of reasons why ‘going home’ 

is not an option for people,” 

Paduganan said. “I don’t think 

that the University understood 

that saying ‘go home’ felt like 

we were being pushed out, 

that we were not welcome 

here and that the University of 

Michigan was not home to us.”

Paduganan 
has 
since 

spoken 
with 
the 
Lawyers 

Club administration, and she 

appreciated 
Wednesday’s 

follow-up email and University 

Housing’s $1,200 refund to 

all students who move out of 

residence halls and University 

apartments by March 25.

“I think some of the steps 

the University is taking is 

moving in the right direction, 

like starting to offer some 

refunds, 
clarifying 
the 

situation, apologizing for the 

tone and some of the anxiety 

they’ve caused,” Paduganan 

said. 

LSA 
freshman 
Lindsey 

Haughton, 
an 
out-of-state 

student, initially planned on 

staying 
in 
Mosher-Jordan 

Residence Hall long-term after 

the move to online classes. She 

said Tuesday’s housing email 

quickly changed those plans, 

and 
an 
exam 
Wednesday 

morning and a paper due 

Wednesday night added to her 

stress. 

“It 
was 
just 
really 

overwhelming 
and 
chaotic, 

especially because the days 

that they had given us off were 

last week when it seemed like 

people could stick around,” 

Haughton said. “And so, to 

have all those assignments 

looming 
during 
this 
time 

when we did actually have to 

move out of the dorms was 

really stressful.”

Haughton appreciated the 

effort by her professors to 

accommodate her move back 

home to New York Wednesday. 

“I reached out to my English 

teacher, for example, and had 

a paper deadline moved for 

that day. But teachers seemed 

to be primarily unaware that 

this was going on, which I 

think added to the stress,” 

Haughton said. “I was lucky 

that I had a relationship with 

mine and she trusted that this 

chaos was going on.”

Daily Staff Reporter Calder 

Lewis 
can 
be 
reached 
at 

calderll@umich.edu.

All 
parties 
have 
expressed 

support for the One University 

campaign, 
and 
Mobilize 
and 

Represent Michigan advocate for 

extending the Go Blue Guarantee 

to all three campuses. Mobilize 

and Change at Michigan have also 

both expressed support for the 

University to subsidize food costs 

via meal plans for food-insecure 

students. 

Mobilize:

• 
Pilot a winter coat drive 

and winter wear closet for 

students. 

• 
Work with the Office of 

Financial Aid to produce 

a 
resource 
guide 
that 

specifies 
campus-wide 

grants 
and 
scholarships 

available 
to 
need-based 

students throughout their 

tenure at the University.

• 
Create 
a 
plan 
to 
have 

MDining meal swipes roll 

over between semesters.

Change:

• 
Research 
implementation 

of a Free Course Guarantee 

program 
at 
U-M 
that 

creates 
degree 
maps 

that show students what 

courses they need to take 

to allow them to complete 

a bachelor’s degree within 

four academic years, and 

if students follow their 

mapped-out plan but are 

unable to enroll in a required 

course in a given semester, 

the University would be 

required to provide the 

course for free in a future 

semester unless they can 

provide the student with 

a revised degree map that 

still enables the student to 

graduate within four years.

• 
Reduce textbook costs for 

students by creating a CSG 

program 
that 
provides 

course pack replacement 

and 
direct 
textbook 

subsidies to students in 

need.

• 
Advocate for the University 

to subsidize meal plans for 

students who are not on 

financial aid but who are 

food insecure.

Represent:

• 
Expand 
transportation 

including Blue Buses on 

weekend nights between 

North and South campuses, 

fund 
transportation 
for 

Nursing 
students 
who 

have clinicals in Detroit/

Pickney, and compensate 

Nursing 
students 
for 

hospital parking.

• 
Expand food accessibility 

by 
requiring 
on-campus 

vendors 
to 
accept 
Blue 

Bucks, 
subsidize 
an 

on-campus grocery store 

and end charges for allergy 

substitutes 
like 
almond 

milk 
and 
gluten-free 

products 
for 
on-campus 

vendors. 

• 
Decrease 
school 
supply 

costs 
by 
Laptop 
Loan 

program to all University 

students, 
increase 

individual 
printing 

budgets and set individual 

department 
caps 
on 

textbook costs.

CSG,
From Page 1

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