Tuesday, April 14, 2020 — 3
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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ESSENTIAL
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MichiganDaily.com

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.”

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

