Thursday, May 7, 2020
INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 112
© 2020 The Michigan Daily
NEWS ....................................
OPINION ...............................
ARTS/NEWS..........................
MiC.........................................
SPORTS................................
MICHIGAN IN COLOR
Enriching education
Four Michigan men
and their work to
bridge educational and
professional disparities
>> SEE PAGE 8
NEWS
Online courses
Students discuss the
impact of long waitlists for
online spring classes
>> SEE PAGE 3
OPINION
Emotional ending
Michigan lecturer speaks
on her experience conclud-
ing a tumultuous semester
>> SEE PAGE 4
ARTS
‘Midnight Gospel’
Netflix’s new show reveals
the tension between having
philosophical discussions and
living those discussions out
>> SEE PAGE 6
SPORTS
Self improvement
Adrien Nunez leaves no
stone unturned in his quest
for improvement
>> SEE PAGE 10
inside
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4
6
8
10
Every year in May, thousands
of families pour into Ann Arbor
to
celebrate
the
University
of Michigan’s yearly spring
commencement. Although this
year’s spring commencement
was
virtual,
there
are
plans to have an in-person
commencement
next
spring.
For
Ann
Arbor
businesses,
spring commencement is just as
important for their livelihood as
it is for the graduating class.
Popular restaurants tend to
be fully booked months out from
spring commencement, hotels
are packed with the arriving
families and the streets become
full with visitors, who stop into
local businesses to browse, eat
or drink.
Andy Labarre, the executive
vice
president
and
director
of government relations for
the
Ann
Arbor/Ypsilanti
Regional
Chamber
of
Commerce, remarked on spring
commencement’s
impact
on
local businesses.
“It’s a big weekend,” Labarre
said. “You tend to have big
parties, you tend to have all
your spots filled and folks tend
to be celebratory — so, frankly,
they’re buying and drinking a
lot more.”
Slurping
Turtle,
an
Ann
Arbor
restaurant
on
East
Liberty Street, usually books
its
first
tables
for
spring
commencement as early as the
start of the school year, with a
more constant stream of calls
starting in January. Michael
Persa, Slurping Turtle’s director
of operations, commented on
the
early
preparation
most
families make.
“We’re fairly new, we’re only
five or six years here,” Persa
said. “But last year, I think by
March, we were 90 percent
booked.”
2020
Public
Policy
graduate Ethan Ramer is from
Livingston, New Jersey, and
made reservations for his twelve
expected guests well before the
University’s announcement that
spring commencement would
be canceled. He said making
reservations
was
difficult
even a year in advance due to
the high demand with spring
commencement.
“My family and I booked six
hotel rooms one year in advance
(in May 2019) and had five
restaurant reservations booked
when restaurants started taking
reservations,”
Ramer
said.
“When we called a lot of the
restaurants were already full.”
His family was planning on
staying for multiple days, so
they booked tables or got on
the waitlist at popular spots
like
Zingerman’s
Roadhouse
and The Gandy Dancer, among
others, most of which took
deposits or noted their credit
card information. Ramer said
the restaurants refunded all
deposits made.
Spring
commencement
weekend is crucial for most
businesses. For some, it may even
dictate whether they stay open
or not – even without a global
pandemic. Labarre compared
what this weekend means to the
summer time, when large labor
conventions in the area draw a
significant amount of revenue
for Ann Arbor restaurants.
“There are some restaurants
on Main Street in Ann Arbor
where, if they have a bad week
during convention season … that
can be make-or-break for the
year,” Labarre said. “You look
at it like the equivalent of half
a week gone, and not just any
standard half-week, but rather
one in which they’re going to
make a significant amount of
their budget.”
Interest in
pet adoptions
spikes amid
coronavirus
Animals become
quarantine companions to
many across the nation
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Read more at michigandaily.com
LEAH GRAHAM & SAYALI AMIN
Managing News Editors
MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA
For The Daily
Read more at michigandaily.com
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor businesses hit hard by
no in-person spring commencement
Design by Maggie Wiebe
When LSA junior Cat Groenke
returned home to California after cam-
pus shut down, she came home to a new
dog.
After their previous two dogs passed
away, Groenke said her family was look-
ing for a new pet. A friend referred them
to a Facebook post about Arya, a mutt
rescued from Mexico.
“My mom had put our family on a
list with a bunch of humane societies
for a pet adoption or a pet foster, but
because of COVID there weren’t really
any available because everyone and
their mother is getting pets,” Groenke
said. “So the way we got Arya, she was
on the streets of Mexico … There’s a fos-
ter organization that one of my mom’s
friends follows on Facebook … (She)
saw the post and said that looks exactly
like the kind of dog the Groenke family
needs. Within a day of her being posted,
my mom was like ‘OK, yeah’ and went
down and got her.”
Groenke’s family was already in the
market for a new dog, but the COVID-
19 outbreak has sparked an interest
in adopting pets across the country,
as stay-at-home orders keep people at
home with an abundance of free time.
Nationally, there has been increased
interest in pet adoptions and fostering.
The Humane Society of Huron
Valley has served Washtenaw County
for more than a century. HSHV
altered its operations in response to
the pandemic, though adoptions are
still taking place. Tanya Hilgendorf,
president and CEO of HSHV, clarified