Third-year
Medical
student
Paris Rollins was in the middle
of clinical rotations at Henry
Ford Hospital, working 9-hour
shifts in the Emergency Medicine
Department, when she found out
that the University of Michigan’s
Medical School would be pulling
all students out of rotations.
“I felt this dread in the pit
of my stomach,” Rollins said.
“(The
announcement)
felt
unprecedented
in
what
could
happen next.”
Two
days
after
the
announcement,
Rollins’
classmates were already looking
for ways to get involved with the
response to fight COVID-19. She
received an email detailing that
the Detroit Health Department
would be rolling out massive
numbers of tests through a drive-
thru at the State Fairgrounds and
would need volunteers to call
patients with their test results.
“Medical students don’t like
to be idle for very long,” Rollins
joked. “It seemed like an awesome
opportunity to speak with people
when they are getting this big
relief,
or
potentially
stressful
news and I thought that is how I
want to be able to help people.”
Though Rollins had learned
how to deliver bad news to patients
in medical school, giving people
their results was a difficult task.
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
U-M medical students help
hospitals with COVID-19 crisis
‘U’ projects $400 million to $1 billion in losses
IULIA DOBRIN
Daily Staff Reporter
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INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 110
©2020 The Michigan Daily
N E W S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O P I N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
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Despite transitioning to online learning, campus
organizations carry on with end-of-year projects
Virtual platforms provide space for members to hold groups meetings, plan events, execute goals
“Was supposed to” seems to have
become one of the most commonly
used phrases of this semester.
The
Prison
Creative
Arts
Project was supposed to put on
an exhibition of prisoner art from
mid-March to early April. Shift,
a creator space for University of
Michigan students, was supposed
to have a project showcase. The
Michigan Journal of International
Affairs was supposed to print and
distribute their journal.
Yet in spite of a global pandemic
and unprecedented changes to
daily life, all three of these student
organizations, along with other
groups across campus, found ways
to modify their plans to finish out
the semester.
PCAP Interim Director Nora
Krinitsky oversees all of PCAP’s
programs, which include weekly
creative
art
workshops
inside
prisons and the final performances
put on by those workshops, which
range from theater performances
to literary reviews.
In early March, the Michigan
Department
of
Corrections
suspended all in-person volunteer
programs. This meant the end of
weekly workshops and forced the
cancellation of PCAP’s annual art
exhibition. According to Krinitsky,
this exhibition is the largest
curated show of prisoner art in the
world.
Until they are able to host the
live exhibition, PCAP created an
online preview of the art show,
where people can view some of the
art slated to be in the exhibition
and leave feedback for the artists.
“We felt that creating an online
preview
would
enable
us
to
fulfill our mission of community
outreach and prisoner support and
engagement, even though we can’t
do our normal programming right
now,” Krinitsky said.
Many students contribute as volunteers at testing, health facilities
University freezes
faculty salary, hiring
See COVID-19, Page 3
See FINANCE, Page 3
Mark
Schlissel,
president
of the University of Michigan,
released a statement regarding
the
University’s
financial
situation. According to Schlissel,
the University is expected to
lose between $400 million and
$1 billion due to the COVID-19
pandemic.
The
University
is
taking
immediate action to this expected
loss in revenue by restricting pay in
nonessential University business.
These financial restrictions apply
to all three University campuses
and Michigan Medicine.
“We must work to preserve
financial resources wherever we
can,” Schlissel said. “Some of the
actions below are amplifications
of previously announced plans, or
they draw a clearer line for how
we will proceed in the coming
months. These actions apply to
all three campuses and Michigan
Medicine.”
In response to the expected
loss of revenue, the University is
freezing new hires, faculty and
staff salaries and reducing hours.
The University is also going to
begin
implementing
voluntary
furlough programs for “regular
staff in non-critical operations.”
Research and employment critical
to COVID-19 relief will continue
to be funded by the University.
University
leaders
are
also
cutting their own salaries, with
Schlissel, U-M Flint Chancellor
Debasish
Dutta
and
U-M
Dearborn Chancellor Domenico
Grasso to receive a 10 percent pay
cut to their monthly income. Other
members of University leadership
are cutting their salary by 5
percent.
Campus construction projects
will
also
be
discontinued.
According to Schlissel, financial
changes
will
determine
the
continuation of these projects in
the future.
University
spokesman
Rick
Fitgerald told The Daily in an email
they had no additional information
and urged those interested to look
at the University’s FAQ section
about COVID-19 for more details
on the University’s response.
Schlissel said the University
may
have
to
take
additional
measures in the future to secure
the safety of its students, faculty
and staff, but nothing is confirmed
as of Monday.
JASMIN LEE
Daily Staff Reporter
DESIGN BY TAYLOR SCHOTT
VARSHA VEDAPUDI
Daily Staff Reporter
DESIGN BY MICHELLE FAN
See ORGANIZATION, Page 3