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 GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know. 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 michigandaily.com For more stories and coverage, visit Follow The Daily on Instagram, @michigandaily 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