electric, and improving energy 

efficiency in homes, businesses, 

schools, places of worship, recreational 

sites and government facilities.

Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher 

Taylor said the plan will be disruptive, 

but will create a community that 

better incorporates its values of 

sustainability and equity. 

“Ann 
Arbor 
2030 
will 
be 

materially different than Ann Arbor 

2020,” Taylor said. “It’ll be a denser 

community, 
a 
more 
electrified 

community, 
a 
community 
that 

emphasizes renewable energy.”

The plan will dedicate $900 million 

to reduce miles traveled in vehicles 

by at least 50 percent, which will 

eliminate 8 percent of community-

wide emissions. 

Missy 
Stults, 
Ann 
Arbor’s 

sustainability 
and 
innovations 

manager, said some of the costs can be 

offset by outside sources of funding, 

but A2Zero’s billion-dollar price tag is 

necessary. 

“It is expensive, but inaction is 

far more expensive, as we’re coming 

to find out,” Stults said. “Whether 

or not we do this, the climate is still 

changing. This is just an imperative 

to help mitigate the impacts of what’s 

coming.” 

Though 
City 
Council 
passed 

Resolution 19-2103: “A Resolution in 

Support of Creating a Plan to Achieve 

Ann Arbor Community-Wide Climate 

Neutrality by 2030” long before 

COVID-19’s 
disruption, 
leaders 

designed A2Zero as a “living plan” 

prepared to adjust to obstacles. 

Taylor said the COVID-19 crisis 

will hurt and hinder the community’s 

ability to achieve carbon neutrality, 

but the scope of the crisis can be 

viewed as an opportunity. 

“All lines of work, all manners 

of 
doing 
things, 
are 
open 
to 

interrogation,” Taylor said. “The old 

way of running an economy, the old 

way of doing business, the old way 

of operating civil society is subject 

to change, subject to reexamination, 

subject to improvement. As we figure 

out where we go next, reconstituting 

as a functioning society with the goal 

of carbon neutrality will be a part of 

our recovery.” 

Stults said the current COVID-19 

pandemic is an opportunity to double 

down on the plan’s resilience efforts 

intended to strengthen community 

responses to a changing climate. 

She said while most of our lives have 

paused because of the pandemic, 

natural and manmade disasters will 

continue.

“From a resilience standpoint, I’m 

terrified thinking about what’s going 

to happen during a pandemic when 

we’re socially isolated and the storm 

takes power out,” Stults said. “What 

do we do then? What does it look 

like when our food supply chain gets 

disrupted? The pandemic isn’t related 

to climate change, but the pandemic is 

laying bare the vulnerabilities that we 

have regardless.”

Stults said the community needs to 

accept a degree of failure as part of the 

process to achieve the ultimate goal of 

carbon neutrality. 

“This idea of being okay with failure, 

or failure positive as we call it, is a total 

paradigm shift in most situations, but 

so is climate change,” Stults said. “So, 

we have to be comfortable with trying 

something and being okay coming 

back and saying, ‘You know, that was 

not as successful as we thought it was 

going to be.’ The ultimate objective is 

a safe climate, it’s a high quality of life. 

Basically, a bunch of things can fail for 

different reasons, and we have to be 

okay with that.”

Rackham 
student 
Matthew 

Sehrsweeney, 
an 
organizer 
in 

Michigan’s Climate Action Movement, 

said 
environmental 
activists 
on 

campus have been grappling with 

how to continue their work amid 

social distancing measures. He said 

activists have worked to understand 

how to maintain low-carbon lifestyles 

after social distancing measures 

are lifted, demonstrate solidarity 

with movements fighting for racial, 

economic and carceral justice and 

highlight 
the 
danger 
posed 
by 

environmental injustices such as poor 

air quality.

Sehrsweeney pointed to ways the 

University could reduce its carbon 

emissions.

“Universities are always flying 

people in and hosting big conferences 

where people are flying across the 

country,” said Sehrsweeney. “Now 

we’re demonstrating all these online 

tools that we can use to bring people 

in virtually and you don’t have to be 

flying them across the country.”

Sehrsweeney 
said 
there 
are 

significant 
barriers 
to 
achieving 

carbon neutrality, pointing to state 

laws and COVID-19, but that the 

community’s plan is essential. 

“It’s 
absolutely 
necessary,” 

Sehrsweeney said. “Especially for a 

city like Ann Arbor that has pretty 

concentrated wealth. If Ann Arbor 

can’t do it, then how are any poor 

cities going to do it?”

Taylor said the community will 

accomplish carbon neutrality by 

2030. 

“The bottom line is, we have a 

carbon neutrality goal,” Taylor 

said. “That is a commitment from 

the city government, and we’re 

going to do everything we can to 

achieve that goal.”

Daily Staff Reporter Julia Rubin 

can be reached at julrubin@umich.

edu.

 

Durham said the University 

sent the mass email cautioning 

students receiving financial aid 

about the risk of dropping below 

full time prior to President 

Trump signing the Coronavirus 

Aid, 
Relief 
and 
Economic 

Security (CARES) Act into law 

on March 27. The act outlines a 

monetary relief package which 

in part provides the University 

with funds to support students 

reliant on financial aid. 

“We did intentionally send 

that email to help students plan 

in case federal relief was not 

made available to colleges and 

universities,” 
Durham 
said. 

“Thankfully, since that email, 

the CARES Act has provided 

flexibility for those students 

impacted by Covid 19.” 

During any particular school 

year, students receiving need 

and merit based scholarships 

are required to meet federal as 

well as University set guidelines 

specific to their scholarship, 

known as Satisfactory Academic 

Requirements. These guidelines 

can include volunteer hours, 

academic grade point average 

and minimum credit hours. 

The CARES Act now ensures 

that throughout the COVID-19 

pandemic, students receiving 

financial 
aid 
will 
not 
be 

penalized for not fulfilling these 

requirements. 

In Section 3509, the act states 

that in determining whether a 

student maintains satisfactory 

academic 
progress, 
“an 

institution of higher education 

may, as a result of a qualifying 

emergency, exclude from the 

quantitative 
component 
of 

the calculation any attempted 

credits that were not completed 

by 
such 
student 
without 

requiring an appeal by such 

student.”

Angela 
Morabito, 
U.S. 

Department 
of 
Education 

press secretary, reiterated the 

purpose of this act in an email to 

The Daily.

“We know that this national 

public health emergency has 

created challenges for students 

and we are continually working 

to 
provide 
institutions 
and 

students with the flexibility they 

need as they make the transition 

to distance education,” Morabito 

wrote.

Students who assumed they 

could not drop below full-time 

credit status due to the initial 

email sent on March 24 can still 

withdraw from a class due to 

the University-wide add/drop 

policy extension. 

Macleod said the University’s 

lack 
of 
clarity 
regarding 

required credit hours is placing 

a further burden on students 

with financial aid. 

“I 
think 
it’s 
incredibly 

misleading,” 
Macleod 
said. 

“I think they are concealing 

some opportunities for people, 

that they don’t have to stay full 

time necessarily to keep their 

scholarships. But by sending a 

mass email to everyone saying 

that you have to stay full time, 

that just kind of closes some 

doors for people.” 

LSA junior Amytess Girgis 

is 
another 
student 
who 

misinterpreted the email by the 

University. Girgis is a recipient 

of the Penelope W. and E. Roe 

Stamps Scholarship merit-based 

scholarship. 
Under 
federal 

guidelines 
during 
a 
typical 

school year, students receiving 

this scholarship are required to 

maintain full-time status.

Girgis felt this message was 

particularly damaging due to 

the uncertainty many students 

with financial aid feel due to 

job losses, moving and a quick 

transition to online classes.

“The impression to me was just 

that a lot of students, including 

myself, who are thrown into this 

confusing COVID situation, who 

are suddenly spending a lot more 

time than they normally would 

taking care of family members, 

taking 
care 
of 
themselves, 

moving, working, are scared 

because they read this email and 

think that there is absolutely no 

way they can cut back on their 

course load,” Girgis said. 

Girgis 
attributed 
the 

misunderstanding 
to 
poor 

communication 
by 
the 

University. 

“This is a communications 

issue,” Girgis said. “I wish that 

the University had been smarter 

about how they relate these 

messages and had done it with 

a bit more caution in how they 

word their emails.” 

Reporter Callie Teitelbaum can 

be reached at cteitelb@umich.

edu. Reporter Jenna Siteman can 

be reached at jsiteman@umich.

edu.

Martin said he should not have 

to pay full tuition with the loss of 

on-campus resources and facilities.

“I’m not able to utilize things like 

the buildings for my classes,” Martin 

said. “I’m not sure exactly how much 

building maintenance and upkeep 

costs each student, but whatever 

it is I’d like to keep my portion of 

that since I literally cannot use the 

buildings… Obviously the (University) 

could not have foreseen this and they 

can’t just not clean buildings, but they 

can reduce the services they apply to 

buildings.”

For Martin, tuition is not just 

about credits, but the opportunities 

available on campus. 

“I’m not just paying for the 

credits,” Martin said. “I’m paying 

for the ability to network with 

other 
students, 
have 
research 

opportunities, engage in the student 

clubs and experience college life in 

Ann Arbor. The actual exchange of 

goods from the University to me is, 

yes, a degree, but that’s not the only 

reason I and many others attend 

college. Some things simply can’t be 

replaced online.”

Though Martin is in favor of tuition 

reduction, he recognizes that faculty 

and staff must be paid to continue 

teaching classes and provide some 

services remotely. Martin said this 

only further complicates the issue of 

tuition costs and financial resources 

available to the University. 

A FAQ page from the Office of 

the Registrar addresses winter term 

tuition and fees and this approach 

also will apply to spring/summer 

term as well, according to Fitzgerald. 

The page explains that tuition will 

continue to pay faculty and staff as 

well as additional expenses.

“Tuition and fees will continue 

to pay for our faculty teaching 

courses as well as all the associated 

costs of delivering our educational 

experience in this COVID-related 

remote 
environment,” 
the 
page 

reads. “Instructors will be available 

and delivering content, albeit in an 

alternative format, and students 

will be completing their classes, 

receiving credit and grades, and 

continuing to work toward their 

degree requirements at a world-class 

institution.”

Unlike 
Martin, 
Engineering 

freshman Kashaf Usman said she has 

canceled her previous plans to take 

summer courses. With a difficult 

transition to remote learning, Usman 

said in an email to The Daily that 

being charged full tuition for online 

classes was not ideal for her.

“I had planned on taking a few 

courses before everything started 

bandwagoning, but staying home 

and taking classes via Zoom has 

hindered 
my 
learning 
greatly,” 

Usman wrote. “I have always had 

trouble focusing in general, and this 

situation isn’t helping. Since this was 

my first semester at Michigan and 

I experienced this semester with 

such hardship, I decided not to take 

courses over the summer.”

Usman also noted the types of 

classes taken online might affect how 

they occur online.

“Many people don’t have the 

option to take summer off and paying 

full tuition for online classes is a little 

absurd,” Usman wrote. “People who 

have interactive labs are at a greater 

disadvantage than students like me 

that are mostly taking EECS courses, 

which are I guess doable online.”

Biology lecturer Cindee Giffen 

teaches Biology 173 lab over the 

spring/summer term and said though 

students may feel they are getting less 

out of interactive labs, courses like 

these are needed in order for students 

to graduate on time.

“Nobody that’s teaching in spring 

and summer is doing it because we 

get a lot of money or because we’re 

enjoying this,” Giffen said. “The 

reason why I’m doing it in spring and 

summer is because I teach a course 

that’s a prerequisite for a lot of other 

courses and if we didn’t offer it this 

spring then a lot of students would 

be behind in their education. From 

a lecturer’s perspective, we’re just 

trying to offer the courses so that 

students can progress in their degree 

requirements. Our concern primarily 

is to make sure that students can 

actually finish.”

She said if tuition were to be 

lowered, as a lecturer she would make 

even less money during the spring/

summer term.

“For lecturers, the vast majority 

of our appointments are dedicated to 

teaching,” Giffen said. “The people 

that are doing a lot of the teaching and 

in spring and summer are lecturers. 

When you look at the faculty salaries 

for people who are teaching in spring 

and summer, we’re not the people 

who make the big money. If I don’t 

teach in spring and summer, I make 

no money — zero dollars — for four 

months. For my spring class that I’m 

teaching, by the time benefits and 

everything are covered, I’ll probably 

make around $7,500 for the whole 

summer.”

Giffen said the faculty and staff 

would be most affected by tuition 

lowering compared to administrators, 

who make significantly more money.

“Not that I would tell students who 

they should be complaining to, but I 

don’t think that it’s the faculty that 

have the really deep pockets here, 

especially given that most of us are 

lecturers and do make less money,” 

Giffen said. “I think the place where 

there is extra money would be among 

our administrators.”

Daily Staff Reporter Angelina Brede 

can be reached at angbrede@umich.

edu.

Friday, April 10, 2020 — 3
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

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