Thursday, May 14, 2020
INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 113
© 2020 The Michigan Daily
NEWS ....................................
OPINION ...............................
ARTS/NEWS..........................
MiC.........................................
SPORTS................................
MICHIGAN IN COLOR
Outdated America
Aakash Ray analyzes the
failed institution that has
created the American
system
>> SEE PAGE 8
NEWS
GEO petition
GEO demands more
support for graduate
students during pandemic
>> SEE PAGE 3
OPINION
Standing her ground
Whitmer’s strong stance in
the face of protesters
>> SEE PAGE 5
ARTS
Boyfriend Country
Country music’s next
trend is bland, sugary
and generic
>> SEE PAGE 6
SPORTS
Leadership
Through tragedy, Ambry
Thomas became the leader
his team needed
>> SEE PAGE 12
inside
2
4
6
8
10
For the last two months,
Business senior Ben Lindau has
not seen anyone except his two
brothers and parents.
He
was
studying
abroad
in Stockholm, Sweden, when
the University of Michigan
canceled
all
study
abroad
programs and President Donald
Trump declared a suspension
of all travel from Europe to
the United States, except for
Americans who had “undergone
appropriate
screenings.”
According to Lindau, he feared
he would be stuck abroad, so he
flew home the next day.
Back in his hometown of
Chicago which, like many areas
of the country, was under a stay-
at-home order, Lindau’s life
was confined to the compact
apartment that his family had
recently moved into. Over the
past two months, Lindau said
he has only left his family’s
apartment five times, to “go
stand outside for 30 minutes.”
But he acknowledged that even
doing so posed a risk to his
health.
“We do have a park we can
go to, but in walking there,
everything’s so congested that
you’re passing a ton of people,”
Lindau said. “You’re definitely
in close proximity with a lot of
people, so it’s difficult to keep
the social distance.”
Chicago’s Lakefront Trail,
which borders Lindau’s home,
has been closed since late
March. From his living room
window, Lindau said he can see
the unoccupied patches of green
grass that face a crystal blue
Lake Michigan. He said the lake
is a sad reminder that he is stuck
inside.
“That took away pretty much
all of the green space I could
use,” Lindau said. “Because
they closed down that whole
lakefront, I feel like there’s
simply nowhere to go.”
Dr. Srijan Sen, an associate
professor of psychiatry and
molecular
and
behavioral
neuroscience at the University,
studies the connections between
genes, environment and stress.
He commented on the strain
that a global pandemic and
quarantine can have on one’s
mental health.
“It’s a really unusual time for
mental health,” Sen said. “We’re
still gathering data, but clearly
we see a big increase in anxiety
and depression, and depending
on the situations, loneliness and
social isolation.”
Where someone lives, who
they live with and how they
approach stressful situations
all inform their mental health
during
the
pandemic
and
quarantine, according to Sen.
He noted that it’s a largely
individualized response.
“It’s a difficult time broadly
across all of us in the world at
this point,” Sen said. “But it’s
definitely going to hit different
people differently based on their
own situations and personal
histories and predispositions.”
Sen said a student stuck
inside in a city can be equally as
stressed as a student living in an
area with lots of nature, but with
a strained family relationship.
“What your family life is
like — for some people it’s a
source of comfort, others it’s a
source of stress — that really is
going to affect the experience
of unexpectedly being back
home,”
Sen
said.
“There’s
socioeconomic components to
‘U’ students
start petition
demanding
new Title IX
regulations
University community
calls for written statement
of agreement by June 1
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Read more at michigandaily.com
CLAIRE HAO
Daily News Editor
SARAH PAYNE AND
MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA
Summer News Editor and
For The Daily
Read more at michigandaily.com
michigandaily.com
City or suburb, mental health
impacted by lengthy quarantine
Design by Maggie Wiebe
More
than
300
University
of
Michigan
community
members
have signed a petition regarding the
University’s sexual misconduct policy
following last week’s newly released
Department of Education Title IX
regulations. The petition has seven
specific demands about investigation
time limits, evidentiary standards,
processes to resolve off-campus assault
and more.
The petition was created by LSA
senior
Morgan
McCaul,
a
sister
survivor and sexual violence prevention
advocate,
alongside
student-run
non-profit Roe v. Rape, a survivor
empowerment organization. They are
asking University administration to
agree to commit to their demands in a
written statement before June 1.
In a previous Daily article, University
spokesman Rick Fitzgerald wrote it will
take time to understand how these new
regulations will affect University policy.
Fitzgerald reiterated this sentiment
when
asked
whether
University
administration plans to consider the
petition’s demands.
“We are not able to share anything
further
until
we
have
a
clear
understanding of the impact of these
new regulations across several U-M
policies,” Fitzgerald wrote.
The new regulations, announced
last Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of
Education Betsy DeVos, come after
her department rescinded Obama-
era guidelines in 2017. According to