Tuesday, April 14, 2020 — 3
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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ESSENTIAL
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COVID-19
From Page 1
Some are our dining hall staff, making sure
students who remain in the residence halls
can still depend on takeout meals. And some
are our bus drivers, ensuring no matter how
disorienting the world may get, you can still
miss the bus to North Campus.
Here are some of the many University
essential employees, as they share how COVID-
19 has affected their lives, and what they want
University students to know.
Custodial Services
According to an email to The Daily from
Lukeland Gentles, custodial and grounds
services director, the department is currently
operating at approximately 30 percent capacity.
Gentles wrote that staff have upped cleaning
and disinfection of high-touch services, such as
doorknobs and handles, light switches, elevator
buttons, handrails and drinking fountains.
When a positive case is reported on campus,
Gentles wrote the team works with the
Environment, Health and Safety Department
to provide quick-response cleaning. Though
the team regularly checks the majority of
campus buildings, which Gentles wrote still
have some level of activity, the team prioritizes
areas critical to the University’s mission such as
those which support essential research, animal
care and remote learning.
To protect custodians on the job, Gentles
wrote the department provides personal
protective equipment such as masks and
gloves as well as training on how to use this
equipment. According to Gentles, anyone who
is sick is encouraged to stay home.
“Our custodians play an essential role in
slowing the spread of COVID-19 on campus,”
Gentles wrote. “They are motivated about
supporting the university. There is some
anxiety, and like all of us, they worry about
contracting the virus. We do as much as we
can to mitigate the risk. We really appreciate
their dedication to keeping this university
operational.”
Contrell Cooper, University custodian
As of April 1, Contrell Cooper has been
working at the University for exactly 20 years.
He spent his first 17 years at the Michigan
Union and when it closed for renovations, his
move to East Quad was supposed to only be
temporary. But Cooper decided to stay.
“And what motivated me to stay where I’m
at and why I like it so much, my birthday had
came up,” Cooper said. “It was December 12.
So, you know, I get to work and whatnot. And
I see this birthday card on my custodial door…
And all my students, they gave me some lovely
birthday cards, cards that they made and stuff
like that. It really, really made me feel good.”
Starting March 20, Cooper decided to take
two weeks off from the 80-hours paid time
bank. When asked if he ever felt nervous going
to work in light of the pandemic, Cooper said he
both was and wasn’t.
“I will say this, in a way I was, but in a way
I wasn’t,” Cooper said. “And the reason why
I said in a way I was because I just wanted to
make sure that students knew exactly what was
going on. And the other part of that question,
we were pretty prepared for everything that
was coming our way.”
Cooper said he feels protected while working,
as he never takes off his gloves. When asked if
he has felt there’s been more work required of
him and other custodial staff now that keeping
the campus clean is a health priority, Cooper
said he thinks additional work is necessary.
“I think it’s good that we have to put in extra
work because we try to keep everybody safe,”
Cooper said. “And I thought it was a good idea
for them to tell us to basically step our game
up.”
During the school year, Cooper said he
bonded with all the students who lived on the
floor he was responsible for.
“I’m so used to everybody, every time I
came to work, somebody said ‘How you doing
Cooper?’” Cooper said. “I call everybody on my
floor my little brothers and my little sisters.”
When students began to move out of the
residence halls, Cooper said it upset him to see
his students leave, even though he knew it was
for the best. However, he said he hopes to see
students moving in once again in the fall.
“I wish I could have videotaped, I mean,
people was crying, giving me hugs, like they
didn’t want to leave,” Cooper said. “And I
didn’t want to see them leave… And I know I’m
jumping the gun when I say this, but I can’t
wait until everybody get back… That’s my hope,
that we could start on time and have everybody
moved back and new students moving in.
Because like I said, we can overcome this. We
just got to stick together and just deal with
what’s coming in.”
Ann Washington, Student Publications
Building custodian
Production of The Daily, like most everything
in the University, has moved entirely online.
Once filled five days a week with dozens of
staffers until late into the night, the newsroom
is now empty and inaccessible to most of
the staff. Other publications in the Student
Publications
Building
—
Michiganensian
Yearbook, SHEI Magazine and Gargoyle —
have vacated it temporarily as well.
Yet, twice a week, Ann Washington, a
custodian with A&G Cleaning and Janitorial
Services, still comes to clean the building. She
comes to take out the trash, sweep down the
steps, vacuum and mop the floors.
When asked if she thinks the building
should be kept open, Washington said she will
continue to come to work until her manager
tells her to stop.
“It wasn’t a whole lot of work,” Washington
said. “It’ll really be up to them. If they feel like
it should be closed, then they can close it. But
with me, I don’t have no say. So how long it can
stay open or anything like that, I just know as
long as it’s running, I have to go to work. I know
that, that’s all I know.”
However, Washington said she isn’t afraid of
contracting COVID-19 by cleaning the Student
Publications Building because she knows not
many people frequent the building anymore. To
protect herself, she sprays Lysol as she enters
the building and wears gloves and a mask.
If she were to have to clean a building
frequented by a lot of people, Washington
said she would not go to work. Until then,
Washington said she wants students who
usually use the Student Publications Building
to know she is ensuring the building is safe and
healthy for students when they return.
“I’m going to make sure that when you
guys do come back in that building, I’ve
been disinfecting that building real good,”
Washington said. “I’ve been disinfecting
everything in there for just in case. I’m trying to
keep everything safe and healthy for all of us… I
have to look out for you guys, I have to look out
for me, I have to look out for everybody in that
building, and I don’t mind.”
Transit Services
Lisa Solomon, communications manager for
Logistics, Transportation & Parking, said, in an
email to The Dail, that about one-third of the
department’s staff are still reporting to work on
campus.
“Like other units within Facilities &
Operations,
Logistics,
Transportation
&
Parking continues to perform critical and
essential university functions and in support
of operations at Michigan Medicine during the
COVID-19 pandemic,” Solomon wrote.
Solomon wrote essential services provided
by transit employees include transporting
front-line employees such as those at
Michigan
Medicine,
moving
materials
and
equipment
to
Michigan
Medicine
and providing waste management for the
campus.
Also stated in the email were factors that could
have contributed to the disparities in data, such
as structural and environmental racism, access
to health care and societal and economic factors.
The county also shared that the COVID-19 cases
are concentrated in Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti
Township.
Ringler-Cerniglia told The Daily that the
Washtenaw County Health Department has
been working on eliminating these disparities
before COVID-19 occurred and is continuing to
listen to the concerns of affected communities
throughout the pandemic.
“This isn’t something that we see only with
Coronavirus. So it’s part of what we, as a public
health department, are striving to do and
improve all the time,” Ringler-Cerniglia said.
“We have long standing efforts to work with
community members and with organizations
to identify where we see these types of impacts
and work to approve that to improve them.”
African Americans are more at risk to die
from COVID-19 due to underlying health
conditions that stem from systematic racism.
Conditions such as diabetes, asthma and high
blood pressure are more prevalent among
African Americans, making them more likely to
die from the virus.
One initiative Washtenaw County has put
together is a Community Voices for Health
Equity Team. Alex Thomas lives in Ypsilanti
Township and is a member of this team as
a representative for West Willow. He has
been working as a community advocate since
2016 and has worked with the University of
Michigan to address the needs of the West
Willow neighborhood.
Thomas told The Daily that many factors
impact the social determinants of health
that make the African American population
in Ypsilanti more vulnerable to COVID-19.
Conditions such as poverty contribute to
childhood trauma and housing stability as
prevalent conditions in Washtenaw County.
“Housing instability. If you don’t have a
place to live, you’re kind of going to be more
susceptible,” Thomas said. “And so we have a
huge houseless population on the streets or …
instability, that causes a lot of stress. And that’s
an immunosuppressant that compromises the
immune system stress and anxiety. And it’s very
stressful anxiety if you don’t have a place to live…
But if you spend 50 percent of your income on
housing, you’re not going to have discretionary
income and these needs are going to be unmet.
And you’re going to have those impacts of stress
and anxiety.”
A K-12 teacher in Washtenaw County spoke
to The Daily about her students. Due to fear
of retaliation at her place of work, she will be
referred to as Jane for the rest of the article. Jane
is a teacher in Washtenaw County and notes
that many of her students are essential workers
in grocery stores. Many essential workers have
been diagnosed with COVID-19, which makes
them susceptible to fatal causes. She said she
sees how COVID-19 is impacting students in her
community through circumstances that harm
their safety at home.
“A lot of our students experience an
overwhelming amount of trauma just within
high school. Even going out for essential items,
I see a lot of my students just outside,” Jane said.
“I have to remember to not be the person to be
like, ‘hey you need to go home’ because they
are dealing with so much. So I think trauma at
home makes them vulnerable. I definitely think
a lot of them have asthma, and that makes them
vulnerable. And I think there’s been a lot of the
essential workforce in the community and their
parents makes them vulnerable to it.”
Yodit Mesfin Johnson, president and CEO
of Nonprofit Enterprises at Work, told The
Daily about the income disparity in Washtenaw
County and how the division of wealth in
Washtenaw has contributed to underlying
factors that make communities vulnerable to
COVID-19.
“Washtenaw County is the third wealthiest
county in the state of Michigan, yet 40 percent
of the people who live in this community live
at what we call ALICE levels, Asset limited
income constrained,” Johnson said. “So these
are people who are living check to check or
in poverty. Forty percent of our communities
are living at or below poverty. And of that 40
percent, 60 percent of those people are African
American and reside on the east side of the
county in Ypsilanti, Willow Run, and Ypsi City.
I think that’s also important because this is a
story of ‘A Tale of Two Cities.’ People perceive
us as this progressive liberal, wealthy bedroom
community of Detroit, but we have people
literally barely making ends meet in the third
wealthiest county.”
Alfred Young Jr., professor of sociology at the
University, conducts research on low-income,
urban-based African Americans. Young told
The Daily many African Americans are not able
to stay inside as they must continue working in
order to survive this crisis.
“Many African Americans, particularly of
low-income circumstances, do not have the
luxury of thinking about staying at home as
the best means of surviving the crisis,” Young
said. “They have little to no financial reserve.
Therefore, as much as many Americans think
that staying home ensures survival, struggling
African Americans, if employed, feel that they
must go to work in order to survive. Delivering
food and groceries, stocking store shelves and
any other kind of service work that they do —
which actually enables more privileged people
to remain comfortably at home and survive
during the crisis — is precisely what African
Americans who are in the working poor have to
do in order to survive.”
Catherine Lee, an Ann Arbor resident,
is a mother of three. One of her sons is
immunocompromised and her family has
a history of diabetes. She said her family is
working to manage these health conditions
by incorporating a plant-based diet, but Lee
acknowledged many families are not able to
find better alternatives to manage these health
concerns.
“(Underlying health conditions are) mostly
due to systematic racism. (African Americans)
are sicker as a whole due to lack of education and
resources when it comes to health. I know for
our family, we started practicing a plant-based
diet about three years ago and for a lot of people
who look like us, that’s foreign,” Lee said.
Racial bias in the medical field has also
contributed to African Americans becoming
more susceptible to COVID-19. Studies show
doctors are less likely to test African Americans
for COVID-19, which forces them to go through
multiple visits before they can get a test.
Engineering
freshman
Temi
Akinbola
lives in Ypsilanti and touched on how African
Americans are not treated equally by doctors
due to a misconception that they are stronger.
She said this misconception is preventing
African Americans from getting tested for
COVID-19.
“There’s also the fact that African Americans,
just in the healthcare system, even if they have
money, still aren’t treated the way they’re
supposed to be treated,” Akinbola said. “There’s
no reason that I’m three to four times more likely
to die in childbirth than my equal counterpart.
There’s a stigma that doctors have like, ‘African
Americans are stronger, and stuff like that.’
But that’s not a reason to not pay attention to
like whatever their patients may be saying and
stuff like that. So there’s also the fact that some
doctors just won’t test them based on race.”
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