Since the University of Michigan
moved classes online March 11, both
students and professors have had to adjust.
For professors with families, teaching
classes
virtually
and
maintaining
research projects has created unique
and unprecedented situations when
combined with childcare.
Meghan Duffy, a professor in the
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology who has three children under
the age of 10, explained that the COVID-
19 outbreak and stay-at-home orders
will affect all individuals and families
uniquely. She said having children at
home is one factor that impacts the
experience immensely.
“One thing that will be a huge factor
in terms of how people experience this
is whether they had kids at home, and
there’s certainly a lot of variation within
that,” Duffy said.
Duffy elaborated on the variety in the
work and home lives of professionals with
families, which are now overlapping. She
said in her current working and living
situation distinct work hours are hard to
come by.
“There are people who are home with
kids who are functioning more or less as
they normally would in terms of their
ability to get work done,” Duffy said.
“There are some people who are getting
nothing done and there’s a lot of variation.
I do think having young kids at home, it
just really limits the number of work
hours I have in a day.”
Allison Riccardi, professor of Spanish,
is teaching her classes from home with
three young children also at home all
day since daycare services and primary
schools have closed as of March 12. She
said the initial transition period to online
classes was strenuous, noting how taking
care of her family while maintaining a
full curriculum online can add stress.
“It was challenging getting everything
set up in just the two days that we had,
and then having the kids at home is just
an extra challenge,” Riccardi said. “It’s
hard for them to understand that now I’m
working and I can’t take care of you right
now.”
Riccardi said this unique situation has
both pros and cons.
“Just like anything, there are benefits
and drawbacks,” Riccardi said. “So the
benefit is, of course, more family time.
The drawback would be sometimes when
I’m in class they’ll just barge in and that’s
a big interruption.”
For some people, social distancing and
working from home with a family has
revealed the importance of downtime.
Duffy highlighted her own experience
with this, saying she finds herself with
reduced working hours.
“We’ve now worked out a system
where if I’m ultra-focused during all of
the child-free hours I have in a day, it’s
five hours, so I have to be ultra-focused
in that but also there’s no other down
time,” Duffy said. “I didn’t realize how
much biking to campus was really useful
for getting the little time mentally to be
thinking of nothing.”
On April 1 and 2, LSA students
voted between two tickets for LSA
Student Government president and
vice president: one with juniors Jordan
Schuler and Sai Pamidighantam and
the other with juniors Selena Bazzi and
Josiah Walker. Two weeks later, the
results of the election have not been
certified and a winning ticket has not
been announced.
Bazzi and Walker won the election
with 437 votes, 132 more than Schuler
and Pamidighantam, according to a
copy of the uncertified results shared
with
The
Daily
by
co-Elections
Director Tyler Ziel, an LSA senior. But
a Central Student Judiciary appeal filed
by Schuler over messages Bazzi sent in
two GroupMe chats could lead to her
ticket’s disqualification.
LSA SG bylaws forbid campaigning
during the voting period. Schuler and
Pamidighantam have accused Bazzi of
doing so on social media and demand
her ticket’s disqualification. Bazzi and
Walker say the social media posts in
question were intended to increase
voter turnout and cannot be considered
campaigning. They add that Schuler
and Pamidighantam made social media
posts during the voting period that
could be considered campaigning, but
Bazzi and Walker didn’t report them
because they did not want demerits to
impact the outcome of the election.
Demerits are issued to candidates
when they are found to have violated
the Elections Code. A single demerit
knocks 3 percent off a ticket’s votes,
and four or more demerits disqualify a
candidate from the election.
Election rules, specifically those
related to online campaigning, are
unclear and election directors have
broad discretion to interpret them,
co-Elections Director Natalie Suh, an
LSA sophomore, said. The elections
directors ruled that Bazzi’s posts
constitute implicit rather than explicit
campaigning
and
thus
reduced
her ticket’s votes by 6 percent, 3
percent for each demerit, instead of
disqualifying her and Walker. Schuler
and Pamidighantam argued this is an
unfair application of the rules based on
precedent and that Bazzi and Walker
should be disqualified.
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Monday, April 20, 2020
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Weeks after polls close, dispute over campaign
violations halts certification of LSA SG election
Messages sent in group
chat break rules, might
disqualify candidates
from victorious ticket
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INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 109
©2020 The Michigan Daily
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A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
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CAMPUS LIFE
In light of the coronavirus
outbreak, University of Michigan
summer
student
orientation,
which is mandatory for all first-
year and transfer students, is
moving online.
As orientation is a chance to visit
campus and meet other students
before classes start, the switch
to online orientation will affect
the ability of students to do so.
Incoming freshman Anagha Kodur
said she was already concerned her
introverted nature would make
the transition difficult. With an
online orientation, she’s worried
it’ll be even more challenging.
Freshmen, transfers will go
through process remotely
Faculty with kids struggle with balance
Working from home, professors try to juggle looking after children with academic demands
DESIGN BY LIZZY RUEPPEL
New student
orientation
to be online
JULIA RUBIN
Daily Staff Reporter
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
SAINI KETHIREDDY
Daily Staff Reporter
HANNAH MACKAY
Daily Staff Reporter
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
DESIGN BY ERIN RUARK
See LSA, Page 3